John 3

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0:00 So it's the second Sunday of Lent, it's like 40 days season of preparation for the celebration of the resurrection. And we kicked that off a week and a half ago with Ask Wednesday where we commemorated Ask Wednesday together. And we said that for the season we want to find ways to anchor ourselves in the practice of repentance. And so we, if we're asked to extend, we gain together the physical option prayer where we put answers on the edge of Mark that from death became successful in return.

0:32 And then lastly, we talked about that period of time where bread after Jesus is baptism, he goes into the desert and falls. And the question that we're presenting is why did Jesus of all people find us? And the idea that we are not merely blessed, neither are we only spirit or soul, but we are a whole spiritual being that involves body and soul.

1:02 And so that what you do with your body matter is where you put your body matter and we can have access prayer that involves our body. So that Jesus, when he's fast in the desert, he's aligning his whole spiritual self to the reality that he depends fully on the God. And we consider that maybe we might in this season find ways to align our whole spiritual self, body and soul with the idea that we depend fully on the God. Just like Jesus before me.

1:34 And today the gospel reading, it's the one I want to look at the gospel reading, look at that last week, we looked at it again, but the gospel reading that they assigned for us is in John, the gospel of John chapter three. They gave us verses one through seventeen. And I was looking at that and often I say when we go into the gospel, just a reminder that the gospel writers are writing a type of narrative that was common in first century, what they called a Bios, short for like a bio or the story about a person, a Bios.

2:16 And the deal with the written, left the community chronological fact in order, but to communicate something that was true about the character nature impact contribution of the person. You might have a Bios about an emperor or a merchant might pay someone to write a Bios about them. The gospel is in this tradition. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he's faced through stories about the life of Jesus and arranged them in order, left concerned about chronology and more concerned about what they communicate, what the order communicates about the person.

3:00 And Jesus overall. The reason I bring this up now is because if you look at John chapter three and jump just before it, John chapter two, Jesus is in Jerusalem cleansing the temple. He has a wedding at Kana and first miracle in the gospel of John where he makes this wine, all the ridiculous and out of line for people who have been drinking and drunk all the other wine and makes more of the wedding with Kana. And then right after that he cleanses the temple in John's account of the gospel.

3:35 In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the other places that the story occurred is towards the end because he only goes to Jerusalem once and John is like he's there maybe three times in the court. And we might learn or think about why he's down for that at the front of Jesus's ministry. And one of the things that's unique about victory telling is Jesus tells them also that he'll destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. And if you pick up the John one, one, one, one, one, John is talking about that the word of God dwelt among us.

4:09 You realize that John's time to really drive home. Who the purpose is now the location of the manifest presence of God moved out of the holy of holy and in full incarnation in person of Jesus. That when you start down the nation doing something different, he's empowering the Pharisees and reorganizing people. She had his relationship to the God of creation, Elijah, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all the temple into the person of Jesus. It's not going to be done long enough in this time.

4:40 And then it's doubled down here with the story that we have with the convenience. So let's look at that in John chapter three, study at verse one. I'm just going to pull up a nice note here. John chapter three, verse one. Now, the man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews. I looked that up to make sure I wasn't making it up.

5:10 It's not like he was Herod or something. We're pretty certain Nicodemus was on the Sanhedrin. He comes up later in John chapter one and get a couple more clues. That's probably the truth. Nicodemus was part of the same. The group that oversaw the rule. Remember that the temple was actually overseen by the Sadducees, a different set of the Jew approach that I controlled the temple. The Pharisees did not control of the temple, but they realized the laurels of the Jewish community.

5:42 So they imposed all the rules. Sadducees were in temple, Pharisees. They asked them to take their sins and won't go into here. But they should say that the Sanhedrin is pretty powerful because all these synagogues and stuff kind of work under their total purgues. And so they made a lot of it. And they had to make some tips with the Roman occupation and things. And so now there's a man in the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jews and followed life and said to him, Rabbi, you know that you are a teacher to come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless you're listening.

6:15 It's all depends about why would you come to something at night or in secret, right? And of course Nicodemus comes to demons at night because we're pretty sure because he doesn't want maybe the rest of the Sanhedrin. But the most cynical do would be like a sense Nicodemus to those toxic demons at night that they could get into coolers. You know, like him in. He just like turned over all over the table and we had a system here for the money that worked out and the Rome leaves us alone.

6:48 Cooler. The most positive do is Nicodemus is on the Sanhedrin. And he's like hearing what they're talking about and the Sanhedrin is bustling with who the Jews have never cared. Because he's making claims that are uncomfortable and he's stirring up what is kind of a copentine situation between Israel and Rome. So they're complicit because the strong point to his entrance says he is, but they rather than he works. And so Nicodemus is hearing his sound faces and surreptitiously at night.

7:18 He goes to demons to go, you know, we recognize that you must be some kind of teacher from God because how often do these things get done? That's the way I read it, that Nicodemus is a genuinely inquiring of Jesus. And it's interesting that he goes to Jesus and doesn't ask him a question, isn't that interesting? It's almost like Nicodemus wants some credit, you know, like,

7:51 once his Jesus will be flattered that a number of the Sanhedrin thinks he's a teacher sent from God. Like, this one you know, man, I'm with you, you know. And I get it. I'm not over here during the day I'm looking for Sanhedrin holding that position down because why not it's a position of power. But just so you know, I get it, man. Yeah.

8:21 It didn't about the knock him down. And I can relate to this in Nicodemus. I have tried to wrestle with this idea that my goal in life is to win the respect of Jesus. Like, I live as though what gets me value is getting stuff done. And I really like getting stuff done so I get a lot of stuff done.

8:52 And it's part of me that's like pretty sure if I get enough stuff done, I'll impress Jesus. You know, and when we meet him, I'll get it answered. Like, God, well done. You know, like, like, together we were working on this, running on God saying, boy, you held it down, man. Thank you, Jesus. Glad he could work together. I can resonate with this in Nicodemus.

9:22 He comes in purposely at night. As a just so you know, man, we recognize that you're a teacher sent from God. And doesn't ask him a question. Of course, the appropriate thing would be them to ask him a question like, like, what do I do now? I'm sitting on the stand. Even how do I handle my life or might I come following you? Or, you know, like, there's a good young ruler and he says, what do I have to do to hear in certain ways Nicodemus is inherently himself and proud and he sees something

9:54 about Jesus. And kind of it seems like almost assumes the demons will be impressed. And so if he recognizes that Jesus is equal sent from God, what more does he need? Right? Okay, look. If you're going to Jesus by night and sitting in Rabbi, you know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him, and he's just answered him, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again,

10:26 he cannot see the kingdom or the reign of God. Nicodemus, this is not what he was expecting of an answer. When he was expecting one, wow, he used to be impressed that he had a number of believers who said that he recognized he was good, you know, a teacher sent from God. And Jesus comes back with it, that's nice man, but unless you're born again, born again, you cannot inherit or see, visualize, recognize, acknowledge the

10:58 reign of God, and Nicodemus says to him, not that a man be born when he is old. Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus is like, that's really, truly, I say to you, unless one is born with water and spirit, he cannot enter the reign of God. So first thing, Nicodemus comes, it's like, dude, I just want you now, we recognize you're a teacher sent from God because you're a good, good, good, cool thing. Jesus is like, cool, cool man, unless you're born again, you're never going to ask

11:30 for a seat of any of God. Like, you may be recognizing that cool things are done, but you don't observe after a hand, acknowledge what's actually going on, that the reign of God is breaking into your reality, right? And Nicodemus says, what? And Jesus says, again, you're not even, not only will you not see it, but you won't be able to enter into it, you won't be able to participate and deceive the benefit of the reign of God unless the corners of water and other spirits, he cannot enter

12:01 into the kingdom of God. That which is born flat, is flat, and that which is born as a spirit, spirit. You're not marveled, and I said, you must be born again. The wind blows where it reaches. When it's tricky, they don't know because it's the same word and Greek, whether it be translated into the wind or the spirit, but you can see how both are applied. The spirit blows where it reaches, the wind blows where it reaches, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it isn't everyone who is born in the spirit. A couple things to point out here, one, we don't all the way know what Jesus is talking about.

12:35 You know what I mean? He's talking about being born again. We can piece it together with the benefit of the time type because we know that like Paul said whoever in Christ is an inspiration, the oldest gone, and you would come. Later we see Paul interpreting Jesus as a second atom, so we know that there's something that happens where you have a new creation that is born in you at some point. But the interesting thing for me, the most interesting thing here, Jesus is talking about being born with water and spirit, and a lot of people think that maybe he's talking about

13:08 being born of the two ideas, one, water, not for birth, spirit, born with spirit of the God. The other is talking about water and spirit talking about the second birth of the autism. Here I'm saying there's no consensus about this, it's confusing. What there is consensus on is in this medical order, you have to be born again. I've seen birth, I have met you together and I'm a three children.

13:38 They have no score, it didn't be in the morning. They seem to actually kind of passed about it. Right? This is not what I had, I'll go back. Jesus tells the gazebes, a little bit questioning, hey you've got to be born again, and in order to see, I'll pretend, acknowledge the reign of God, even to enter into the reign of God,

14:09 you have to go through this birth that comes from the spirit, and the spirit man goes where it wants. It's almost like Jesus is telling the gazebes completely out of your control, whether he's seeing the reign of God and entering into it, completely out of your control. It happens at the prerogative of the spirit. I don't know, like if it's the way to around? This is interesting to think about, that your relationship to God,

14:42 your ability to see what God is doing in the world, and to enter into it, to reap the benefits of the reign of God, and to participate, to live as the reign of God reveal, your ability to see and enter the reign of God depends on your prerogative, not yours, but in confounding and sometimes kind of frustrating. But it seems like also Jesus is saying in the game, because it's the closest I can get to understanding it, because it brings the soul and metaphor of being born again.

15:16 People that are born, not according to the prerogative, but that is their thing, right? Sort of, and not really a tantrum. This is my thing. And so, the agreement, you might guess, does not understand. Right? He doesn't even have the benefit. We barely understand. And we have the benefit of hindsight and Paul's interpretation. Late at night, the agreement has some thought it was flattering to exist.

15:46 If he was given the business about being born again, and he doesn't get it. That was his born and blessed flesh, do not, verse 7, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again, the wind blows okay, verse 9. The redeemer said, hop in the agreement, and Jesus answered him, I'll use a teacher of Israel, and we do not understand these things. And I say to you, we think of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen,

16:19 that we do not fool our testimony. If I told you heard these things, and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you how they're mistaken? I thought he was a thing here. Look, I'm giving you this metaphor of the wind and the burn, because I can't try and explain to you what's happening outside of space and time, in the mind and paragatid of God, where he's a calling, life, inter-existent,

16:50 and just talking eternity. If I try and tell you the mechanics of how you are, quote, born again, according to the paragatid of God, you can't even understand the metaphor, how could you understand the ontological reality of being born again? It seems like there is a Bible, right? If you do this, it's like I understand this, it's because I don't quote, man. You can't even get the metaphor. I'm not going to tell you the reality. You couldn't handle it, okay? And then you look at 13, and if I told you it's verse 13,

17:24 no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, and that's out of man, verse 14. And as Moses lifted up, he gave us another metaphor. But this is based on a story that nicotine is often known. So Jesus is like, give you're never going to get it. So then he goes and steps further to try and give nicotine as something that he will get. And Moses, so no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven,

17:55 the son of man, that ends. As Moses lifted up his fervent, so Jesus is the perfect. Jesus says, you won't understand if I described you and all from let me tell you it's born. As Moses lifted up his fervent in the wilderness, so much the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Remember this story? I'm just curious if you've heard the story about the circuits in the desert. Yeah, yeah. It's like a weird little story where they're wandering in the desert.

18:28 They've been particularly obstinate. So some surfers are set loose among the people in the desert, and they start biting them, and when they get bit they down, and so they get mad at God, why is looking so good to put someone along us and kill us? And so God tells Moses to make a brown purpose, stand it on the hand of a pole, put it in the middle of the can. If someone gets bit by a snippet and looks at the brown circuit, they will be good.

19:04 And it worked in the story tells us, which means they also know that it didn't work for some, this is interesting. The Toba on the story, that might take a little parag on the end of the story, is that later, when King D D'Ris And it worked in the story tells us, which means they also know that it didn't work for some, this is interesting. The Toba on the story, that might take a little parag on the end of the story, and it just means and made at the end, burning, all.

19:34 That the creative thing is made of it for the creator. But Jesus, it says, in the Kedina, he clues him into a story, and isn't this interesting because what we know about the story, like they just said, is people got bit by sense. They stand bit, they're poisoned, they're ready for death. All they gotta do is turn and look at the surface. And when they look at the surface, the brown circuit, they will be healed, and they'll be delivered, and they'll continue living on. If they go look at the purpose, they don't. And so Jesus has just given us a metaphor on the birth of the reign of God,

20:08 and entered into its benefits, and is completely at the problem of God outside of it. Nicky, he can't understand it. So then Jesus gives him another letter to him, and said, it's Jesus, he said, me, the son of men, is just like the serpent, this is it. Which means you recognize that you are headed for death, and in your state of dimension, you look to do that for salvation. Your own soul.

20:39 In one conversation, Nicky, the demons have said, your relationship to God did long to God. And he's also said, your relationship to God belongs to you in your choice. In the problem of God and in your choice. Which means Jesus is a man, hard time telling you wouldn't get it. The God understands the God's, the God's, the best way of understanding God, the best of them, are built on systems and paradoxes.

21:10 Two things that can't be put in same time, and strip all, because it's got a deeper, broader, older, newer, smarter, fuller lookroom than you. And in one conversation, he says, your relationship to him is based fully on him and makes his choices mean, makes him choices. Look at Nicky Dines, who's on the same region,

21:43 coming to Nicky, thinking that he's going to slaughter Jesus with his intellectual alignment with Jesus' teachings. And Jesus says, make some choices, man, you are done. You need salvation. Look to the son or man. Okay, look out, then this, this, so right after that, I'm going to say that, so, and as Moses lifted up the circle in the wilderness,

22:14 so much the son and man, he lifted up that whoever believes in may have eternal life, then comes the same in John 3 16. Except for him with the heading, which it couldn't do, that's why we have reached our text, that's just some published, so we decided, and if you need to separate it there, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only time. That whoever believes into that peril, that have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,

22:44 but in order that the world might be saved through him. Try and imagine the time in the gospel where Jesus tells somebody they're wrong. Jesus, the only people he ever tells come close to telling us they're wrong,

23:21 are the church folks who think that Jesus will be impressed with their whole body. Jesus says, God sent him into the world not to condemn the world, but to save us. We talked about how the fatal flaws we married talked about a couple of weeks ago, the fatal flaws we married make it so that we feel like we can be God, and in trying to be God, we are crushed under the weight of the responsibility that we can't handle.

23:54 When we feel like we should control the future, we find anxiety and fear. When we feel like we are responsible for the past, or can rightly understand that nothing, we're overwhelmed by guilt and shame. We feel like we can ordain the presence and put life in argument, and rest, we are we run through escapement and self-saciation and greed.

24:25 The problem of humanity isn't one we need God to plan, it's one we find ourselves in all the time. Jesus said, God did not come into the world, send the son of the world, ill and poor and figure into them, but to a condemned world, to offer a solution, a snake raised in the wilderness to those who are already naked. He said, make a choice man, you are dying on your own. In faith, one thing, Jesus said.

25:12 God, commitment to you, three days of the founding since the morning, before the founding since the morning, who knew you? God, a world is the existence in order that you might have an effect in it. And fallen and broken and failed your goal that you have born. Your commitment for you endures.

25:44 Right? You have new freedom according to the problem of God. God, commitment to you, three days of the founding since the morning, and all from you, and put with you, won't leave you by knowing. Give you opportunity of your own religion and choice to turn for him, over and over again, recognize the death, truth, and death in you. And in desperation or hope,

26:15 turn for him and be spared. Patrick, I mentioned that repentance is a great opportunity to be delivered. I hope that today and this week, you might offer yourself in where is death growing in me, where is my place to be?

26:46 How can I repent and return? Look upon Jesus in those spaces. What do you do? You get delivered like Nick again, and the ones in the desert before us. Let's try. Oh Lord, thank you for the gift of your son Jesus, for your faithfulness to us and persistence towards us.

27:18 Often our hearts humble us appropriately, but also our equipment. For the work of humble repentance and faith today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.