1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. The message from
God’s Word this Ash Wednesday is taken from John 3:1-21 and 19:39. It’s the beginning of our sermon series
during this Lenten season called, “Truly,
This is The Son of God,” the message is entitled, “Nicodemus: Doubted, Then
Believed,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
In St. John’s account of our Lord’s
Passion, Nicodemus is identified in an unusual way: “the man who earlier had visited Jesus at
night” (Jn 19:39). Going back to that earlier meeting, though, we learn
who Nicodemus is: “Now there was a
man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He
came to Jesus at night” (Jn 3:1–2). Nicodemus
was a Pharisee. In many ways, the most moral people in all Israel were the
Pharisees. The Pharisees had frequent debates with Jesus, because they were
concerned about the letter of the Law, while Jesus was concerned with the
intentions of the Law. Jesus healed the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed on
the Sabbath (e.g., Jn 5:1–10). For this reason, the Pharisees tried to kill
Jesus (Jn 5:18). It’s amazing that Nicodemus, a Pharisee, would even want to
talk to Jesus. Nicodemus was also a
member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. Made up of 70 members, the
Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jews. It had religious authority over
every Jew in the world, and one of its duties was to examine and deal with
anyone suspected of being a false prophet.
3.
It was by night that Nicodemus came
to Jesus, which was, most likely, a sign of caution. Nicodemus
may not have wanted to commit himself by coming to Jesus in the daytime. We
must not condemn Nicodemus for being careful. It’s a miracle of grace that
Nicodemus overcame his prejudices to come to Jesus at all. Nicodemus was a confused
man, a man with respectability, position in society, and power, and yet with
something still lacking. On this point, many of us relate to him. But, there’s one more thing we know about
Nicodemus: he must’ve been wealthy. In our text, when Jesus died, Nicodemus
brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about seventy-five pounds.
Only a wealthy man could’ve brought that.
Nicodemus’s behavior tells us that Jesus is truly the Son of God, for Nicodemus’s Story Leads from Tragic Doubt to
Glorious Belief in the Son of God.
4.
There is tragedy. Nicodemus was a
member of the Sanhedrin that tried Jesus. Maybe Nicodemus hadn’t been
informed of the meeting, or maybe he spoke against the court hearing and was
ignored. But more likely Nicodemus had either excused himself, or remained
silent through it. It seems that Nicodemus’s faith on that Thursday night wasn’t
what it would become by Friday afternoon. Not that Nicodemus could have
changed anything, nor would we have wanted him to. The tragedy is that, on
this night, uncertainty silenced the voice of a witness that could have said, “Truly, this is the Son of God” (see Mk
15:39).
5.
The tragedy of that silence is
understandable. We’re often silent when we’re uncertain in our faith.
That was Nicodemus’s problem. He was uncertain, because he was undecided about
Jesus. Why are we uncertain? We believe.
We want eternal life and all that God promises, but to accept that God
came into the flesh as an ordinary human being is too much. Nicodemus was curious
about Jesus. But, he was still uncertain. We see this in his first meeting
by night. Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we
know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the
miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him” (Jn 3:2). Jesus
answered him, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless
he is born again” (v 3). Nicodemus asked further, “How can a man be born when
he is old? . . . Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to
be born!” (v 4). And then Jesus delivered the eyeopener: “I tell you the truth,
no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (vv 5–6).
6.
The eternal Son of God, Jesus, gives the
power to become children of God to all who believe in his name (1:12). But
what is believing? It is more than seeing signs and miracles. Jesus knows
the human heart and knows that the stance of the spectator isn’t faith. This attitude
of a spectator lacks the certainty of saving faith. It says, “There is something here, but I don’t know
what. I’ll just wait and see what comes of this.” Nicodemus left the first meeting with Jesus
without the certainty of faith. Later, when the temple guards failed to
arrest Jesus, the Pharisees shout, “Has
any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No!” (7:48–49).
Nicodemus doesn’t speak out for Jesus. He only says, “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what
he is doing?” (7:51). He’s a curious, spectator, not the certain believer
who says, “Truly, this is the Son of God.” Believing is more than a good man’s religious
interest in Jesus as a teacher come from God.
It’s more than accepting the facts about Jesus. Jesus’ reply to
Nicodemus when he came at night makes that clear: “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (3:3).
7.
Let me explain to you the difference
between believing Jesus is a good man from God and saving faith: Most of
us have known some friend who’s a real daredevil. He’s always out trying
something new. Now, let’s suppose that this daredevil boasts, “Next Saturday at 2pm, I’m going to stretch
a tightrope across Niagara Falls, and I’m going to push a wheelbarrow across
that tightrope.” The kind of faith Nicodemus had says, “I know this guy, and I believe he can do
it. I really think he’s crazy enough to make it.” But the certainty of
saving faith is to get into that wheelbarrow and let your friend push you
across. Because now he better make it, or guess who’s going to end up on the
rocks? That’s the difference. One says,
“God is able. Maybe he can do great things.” But the question is, “Does God do what he’s promised, and, has
he kept those promises to you?” That’s the certainty of saving faith.
It says, “I’ll ride in the wheelbarrow.”
Faith is dependence on God for all our life. When we say, “I believe,” our whole trust, confidence, and life depend on God
doing what he promises us, particularly saving us eternally.
8.
Faith will never be solid if it stands back
and asks with Nicodemus, “How can this be?”
That question is of the sinful flesh. The Holy Spirit is another dimension
beyond the questions of the flesh. We can find an analogy for the mystery of
the Holy Spirit’s working in the ways of God’s creation, in the wind whose
sound we hear and whose reality we feel without being able to explain its
coming and going. We can find a record of the reality of the Spirit in the
Holy Scriptures. The Spirit comes to us in the Word of God spoken by the
prophets and confirmed by miracles that are written in God’s Word. It’s those
miracles that Nicodemus saw Jesus perform. Those signs were done so that we
and Nicodemus could believe the greater miracle that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. The Spirit works this faith so that you and I, like Nicodemus,
“may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in his name”
(20:31). The Spirit works through Jesus’ words and works so that we may believe
in the love of God for the world—the love that brought salvation and eternal
life for all. After we’ve heard the Word of God, we can’t walk away and say, “That was interesting, but I don’t know.”
The Spirit calls through the Word to move the believer from a spectator to a
participant acting on the truth in deeds that have God’s mark on them. The
tragedy is that Nicodemus walked away from a personal encounter with Jesus and
remained a spectator. The tragedy is that it often happens to us also.
9.
Yet there’s glory here too. The death
of Jesus had done for Nicodemus what not even the life of Jesus could do.
Jesus’ death was his greatest miracle. In death, Nicodemus saw what we see:
Jesus the Servant King, God’s Suffering Servant. We see Jesus take up our
infirmities and carry our sorrows, and we see Jesus “stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted” for us as the
prophet Isaiah foretold (53:4). No sooner had Jesus died on the cross than
Nicodemus was a different person. He brought an offering that all people could
see. The lack of certainty and the spectator attitude were gone. The fear, the hiding,
and the silence were gone. Jesus hadn’t been dead on the cross an hour when
his own prophecy came true. “But I,
when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn
12:32). Maybe his doubt about Jesus had kept Nicodemus silent. But now, the
power of the cross had begun to work. The cross was drawing people to Jesus. The
power of the cross was even turning doubt into certainty and a spectator into a
participant. Nicodemus made a confession of Jesus as the Christ. It may be
strange that a man who was silent about Jesus during Jesus’ life should lead us
to God. But in the confession of faith at Jesus’ burial, we see the clear
witness to all of Jesus’ life and death. That witness says, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
10.
You and I have the privilege of a
personal encounter with Jesus Christ as he comes to us in, with, and under the
bread and wine. Jesus
comes to us not only to assure us of the forgiveness of sins and to strengthen
us in faith, but also to enable us to love one another. Through his
death, Jesus saved us from our sins. As our resurrected, ascended Lord, he
comes to us as he has promised. We come and receive Jesus as we eat this
bread and drink this cup. And we proclaim the Lord’s death until he
returns. This is our confession of faith in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection,
and living presence. We are the witnesses who stand with Nicodemus and say, “Truly, this is the Son of God.”
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