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This Week's Sermon THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT 17 February 2008 "Born From Above" John 3:1-17 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Preaching on very familiar texts presents unique challenges to the preacher because most hearers know the words and probably jump to conclusions about the text without really hearing the sermon. This might be one of those texts because most of you know John 3.16 by heart. You probably know the story of Nicodemus, too, and therein lies part of the difficulty. You might even know that this text is about Holy Baptism.

Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee. No doubt he had been listening to Jesus and was curious about what Jesus said and did. Evidently he witnessed one of Jesus' miracles, or signs, maybe the one Jesus did at Cana turning water into wine. He was curious but that seems to be about it at this point. Pastors run into people like him all the time. They are curious about Christianity, about religion in general, but never really get to the heart of the matter. They deal with things on the periphery and not the substance. Jesus tried to pull Nicodemus into the substance of things.

Nicodemus said:

"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." (John 3:2, ESV)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3, ESV)

"Unless" is a pretty strong word. It excludes everything else. "Unless one is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." One cannot come to God without facing up to what he is. Nicodemus couldn't do that because he had refused the baptism of John. John called people to repentance but the Pharisees and other religious leaders refused. During Holy Week, when tensions between the Jewish leaders and Jesus reached their peak, Jesus challenged them:

"The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?" And they discussed it among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'" (Matthew 21:25, ESV)

How ironic that Nicodemus had the kingdom of heaven standing directly in front of him in the person of Jesus and he couldn't see it. He couldn't see it because he didn't understand his sinful condition. Remember, he refused baptism from John for the remission of sins. I can tell you that in most cases when I have spoken with people who have "intellectual questions" about the Christian faith, they aren't really intellectual problems that keep them from confessing Christ; it's their sin. They don't want to confront their sin, their being in the fatal condition of sin. They would much rather approach things like Nicodemus with his intellectual objections. This keeps Jesus at arm's length.

Jesus won't allow Nicodemus to continue the discussion on the intellectual level. He tells him that he can't see the kingdom of God unless he has a heavenly rebirth, being "Born From Above." God will have to change his heart and his mind. In other words, he needs Holy Baptism. Without this birth from heaven, the birth that God gives, Christianity stays nothing more than another philosophy or moral system for such persons.

Jesus was talking about something that God does but Nicodemus, and all those who follow him, thought it was something that man does. Let me put it to you this way. Did you ever had your teenager say to you in a moment of frustration at not being able to do what he or she wanted, "Well, I never asked to be born"? "Ah, yes," you say, "you didn't ask to be born! You simply were!" Being born has nothing to do with the choice of the person being born, does it? It happens by the will of God.

So it is with being "Born From Above!" One doesn't make a decision for Christ! One doesn't answer an altar call to be born again. That isn't how it works! Again, here's where knowledge of the Greek text would be helpful. There probably is not a single English translation that gets v. 8 right. It says,

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8, ESV)

There is the objection that this doesn't happen by magic. We agree with that. We Lutherans do not confess an ex opere operato, that is, by the mere doing of it, it happens. Faith must be involved in Holy Baptism, but even faith is not a personal decision. That's why some denominations won't baptize babies, because they confuse faith with a deliberate decision. It is no more deliberate than you deciding to be born of your mother. You weren't consulted, I'm sure! It has everything to do with the will of your heavenly Father, however! "Born From Above!" not from below. Faith is the instrumentality by which you get Christ, not the cause. So, too, is the womb from which you were born, the baptismal font. The font is the Church's womb by which all her children are born of water and the Word. I believe it was Cyprian, one of the ancient Church fathers who said, "He who does not have the Church for his mother does not have God as his father."

Man continues to believe that one must do something in order to see the kingdom of God, yet Jesus dispels that wrong thinking with Nicodemus and with his example of Moses lifting up the snake on the pole. The Israelites did nothing but look up at the snake on the pole. God saved them by his grace, not by what they did. They could not claim that their act of looking at the snake saved them. So, too, it is with Christ on the cross. The Son of Man is lifted up on the cross and man gets life by looking at him in faith. "For God so loved the world, that he gave. . . ." "He gave." We're talking about God's initiative and gift, not of anything that you do.

The kingdom of God comes even now. It doesn't wait until we die. God brings it right here in this place right now through Word and Sacrament. Especially in Holy Baptism he brings it in order to bring you into his kingdom. He gives you the new birth of water and the Spirit. He baptizes the person in the font even though you see and hear a human pastor. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, gives life from above as the pastor speaks and pours water over the baptized. It's not an act of the will of the baptized-it's the will and act of God himself. It all happens "From Above."

"You must be born from above," Jesus emphasized. You must have a new life and not the death with which you were born from your mother's womb. It is confessing your sins, not getting information. This Second Sunday in Lent has been known historically as Reminiscere Sunday, from the first Latin word of the Introit, "Remember." God remembers his covenant. He has remembered to be merciful and to grant the new birth necessary to see Christ's kingdom. It comes from God, from above.

God has his own schedule to do what he will do, even converting sinners like Nicodemus because at the end of the Holy Gospel we encounter Nicodemus again, not as an unbelieving skeptic but as a disciple who helped remove Jesus' body from the cross and place it in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea.

Perhaps there is no better summation than that which you learned from Luther:

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.