Born Again

John 3:1-3

Born Again

Are you born again? It’s a common question in Christian evangelism and has been as far back as I can remember. It’s tied to the most popular verse the Bible than John 3:16. Why that one verse out of the tens of thousands? Why is John Chapter 3 so popular out of the almost 1200 chapters in the Bible? Who is Nicodemus. Helf is one the of more popular characters in the NT that is not Jesus or an Apostle.

In fact, and if I’m wrong on this I’m sure someone will correct me, Nicodemus is the only Pharisee whose name we learn in the Bible. Otherwise there just referred to as a group, and not specific individual names. Why is all that? Why is John 3:16 so popular? Why do know Nicodemus name? Why do pastors, teachers and evangelists compel us to be Born Again?  We will find these answers and more as we study John 3. In a message entitled “Born Again.”  

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “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.”

There’s been some time passed between the end of Chapter 2 and the beginning of Chapter 3. How much time? We don’t know. Let’s say a few weeks. After starting His public ministry in The Temple by cleaning house of all those that would had turned the temple of the Lord into a marketplace there would have been a lot of eyes on Him. Imagine how quickly that news spread!

During this time Jesus did not go hide in his house. He wasn’t locked down under quarantine. No, He was out and about amongst the people. He was teaching and preaching the Word of God. He was loving and serving the people He came across. He was also working many miracles. The fact is we don’t know everything that Jesus did while He was here. John himself tells us this towards the end of this gospel. We do know what was recorded was recorded so that we might believe in Jesus.

There was no shortage of discussion among the Pharisees & Sadducees. Jesus even had caught the attention of the Jewish Sanhedrin. Seventy men chosen from all, the religious leaders of Israel, Pharisees/Sadducees, and priests. To be among the Sanhedrin was to be considered the best of the best. They had money, power, status, and education. It was one of the highest honors you could achieve in ancient Israel.

Nicodemus is one such man. He’s heard the discussion about Jesus and he shows a great bit of wisdom concerning what to do about Jesus. He goes to talk to him personally.

Do you want to know what is going? What Jesus is doing? Who He really is? Talk to Him yourself! Study His Word! Talk to Him again! The Apostle Paul tells us to workout our own salvation with fear and trembling. The Apostle Peter tells us to cast all our cares and anxiety upon Him for He cares for us. Jesus Himself tells us “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”

Nicodemus wants to know more about Jesus, so He goes directly to Jesus. It is nighttime. Why is it nighttime? Maybe Nicodemus didn’t want to be seen talking to Jesus. Maybe He wanted to avoid the crowds. Books have been written about this. Do you know why it says he came at night? Because it wasn’t daytime. Anything else is conjecture. Do you know when the best time to come to Jesus is? Anytime! Anytime at all! We should focus less on when someone comes to Jesus and focus more and the fact that they did come to Jesus.

He starts the conversation as respectfully as He knows how. He refers to Jesus as rabbi, that is teacher. It’s a title of respect. The leaders loved to be called Rabbi.  He says Rabbi, we know you’re a teacher come from God. Do they really? Best we can see in the gospels no one in the Jewish Sanhedrin believed Jesus to be a teacher of anything other than heresy. They even accuse Him of being in line with Satan.

The Greek for We Know is oidamen. Its not talking about intimate personal knowledge. It’s talking about a general public knowledge. While Nicodemus may or may not agree with that personally he accepts that the general public does. Similar in concept to Tom Brady being the greatest QB of all time. You may love him, you may hate him, but the general consensus is that he’s a very talented QB and possibly a metahuman. Nicodemus says this is who the public thinks you are based on your teachings and your miracles. I’ve come to see for myself, so I can make my own decision.

 

³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born ^[a]again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

What kind of answer do you think he was expecting? Maybe He was expecting Jesus to say “No, it’s just a big misunderstanding. Those money changers have been ripping me and my family off for years and I just couldn’t take it anymore. Did you see how quickly they ran away? If it had been that big a deal the guards would have shown up. After I calmed down I apologized to everyone and it’s all good now.” Maybe He was expecting Insane ramblings. In his wildest dreams he probably pictured Jesus as a prophet breaking the 400 years of silence between God and His people Israel. He never once expected to hear what he heard.

“Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Now we know this concept. We’ve heard it all our Christian lives. It’s been more or less a staple of evangelical teaching since the John 3:16 movement that started in the 70’s.

For Nicodemus though, not only was this a foreign concept. It cut directly to his core. You see Nicodemus was a pharisee, not only that he had made it all the way on to the Sanhedrin. He was considered one of the best teachers in all of Israel. Yet it wasn’t enough for Him. He had accurate theology. He believed in God, divine sovereignty, human responsibility, angels, demons, heaven, hell and the resurrection. He had access to the OT scrolls which the general public did not. He had the highest education one could obtain.

Yet, here he is confounded by a carpenter from Nazareth of all places. He was brought up his entire life to believe in his heritage and his good works. The fact he was born to Hebrew parents was what placed him in the kingdom of God. His good works kept him there. Here Jesus it turning that world view upside down. all his religion, all his ritual, all his ceremony, all his external righteous acts, , all of that had not gotten him into the kingdom. The same applies to us. God doesn’t have any grandchildren, just sons & daughters.

We understand the word born but what about again? It could be translated born from above just as easily as born again. The point is the same. We make no contribution to our salvation. You made no contribution to your birth physically you make no contribution to your birth spiritually. That birth is not achieved by man, salvation is not of us but of the Lord. Nicodemus didn’t need more laws, rules, and sacrifices.  he needed to become a new creation; only God can do that. That is what we all need. That is the hope we have in Jesus.

 

 

Signs

Signs

So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

Last time we talked about Spring Cleaning. Jesus went into the temple and saw the money changers, and the people selling sacrificial animals taking advantage of everyone. These people had come to worship the Lord and instead they were getting ripped off like trying to buy Toilet Paper on eBay right now. Jesus has had enough of this! He makes a whip and starts flipping over tables and running everyone off. He then rebukes them saying “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.”

Those in charge, likely the Pharisees/Sadducees look at Him and are like who are you? No one knew who Jesus was at this moment. This is the start to his public ministry. He shakes everything up.

March & April are usually the two busiest months of our year. Lucas and Sam have baseball. Report cards. Family birthdays & anniversaries. Then of course glorious Easter with all it’s many activities. Out of all our of normal Easter traditions I think I will miss the kids Easter celebration that would normally be this coming Saturday the most. It’s so much fun and full of energy. Every year for the message we have a no rehearsal Easter skit. I am the narrator and I pick several kids at random to play parts. Then they have to act out the scene as I read it to them. I change the scenes around each year and it never fails to amuse. More importantly though, it also gets the message across. Each year I have parents come up and talk to me about something they learned or realized from the skit. Faith like a child.

Yet, that’s not part of the plan for Easter 2020. While I will miss all these things that is not how God has chosen to move this year. We can get so caught up in tradition that we miss the purpose for the tradition. We get so attached to doing something a certain way that one that changes we lose all sense of purpose. Who knows how long the money changers had been there running their little side business? It’s safe to say that it was long established by this point.

I’m sure people had complained before. I imagine there was even a rookie Pharisee/Sadducee or two that tried to get it changed. Either they fell to the wayside, lost their job or started getting a cut of the profits. Yet, no one had once tried, much less successfully, put everything to a halt so suddenly.

Here was a nobody, a complete stranger, and now He has everyone’s attention. What sign do You show to us, since You do these things? This wasn’t necessarily a bad question. Anyone who drove the merchants out from the temple courts claimed the authority to do it. The Jews wanted to know if Jesus really had this authority. They ask for a sign, the word here is semeion. It can be translated as Sign, Miracle, Wonder or Token depending on the context.

They want something that authenticates His authority. After all you can’t have just anyone running up in the temple flipping everything over and yelling. Also, this man said something that peaked there interest He didn’t say “Do not make God’s House a House for merchants.” He said “Do not make My Father’s House a House for merchants.”  He’s already claimed His authority, right then, as the Son of God. They want a sign. If you’re acting for God, if you’re protecting God, and God is Your Father and You’re the Son of God, well give us a sign, some sign to indicate that you are who you say you are.

As always, Jesus never answers the way we want Him to answer.

¹⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Jesus could have easily performed all manner of miracles if He so willed. We also know that they would not have believed a single on of them. After all later when they witnessed all the miracles they couldn’t refute they attributed them to Satan not God. Jesus then tells them the future. Only God knows the future. Jesus tells them exactly what is going to happen. He says you guys are going to kill me and when you do I will rise from the grave in three days. His private ministry started with provision for His friends and family. His public ministry starts with the glory of the resurrection. Do our lives look like this? Both public and private for God’s glory?

²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

²¹ But He was speaking of the temple of His body. ²² Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this ^[d]to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Just a little bit of background--it’s not the Solomonic Temple; that was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians. When the Israelites came back came back after 70 years of captivity, Haggai and Zechariah the prophets told the people who had come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, they completed it in 519. It had been around a long time. It was pretty much in disarray. There was not much to it when Herod shows up 500 years later wanting to make a name for himself.  He then decides to start a huge government reconstruction project, that’s been going on for 46 years by this point.  Very pricey, lots of labor, way over budget. Which sounds exactly like a government construction project. In fact, it still wasn’t completed when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Roman army.

Those opposed to Jesus intentionally twisted his words, mad fun of Him. This is going to be running theme in John and in the lives of those of us that proclaim the Hope of Easter to a lost and dying world. The disciples would not understand Jesus words either, at least not fully, until the very first Easter.

²³ Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. ²⁴ But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, ²⁵ and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Jesus knows our hearts. Jesus also knew not to place His faith in man specifically because of what is in our sinful hearts. Right now our hearts are fully of fear and anxiety. We are being forced to live our days one day at a time and some days 1 hour at a time. We are getting new and conflicting information every day. Don’t go to work but pay all your bills. Money is coming soon, maybe, unless it doesn’t. Wear a mask, just don’t buy any of them, while also supporting local businesses, which should be closed.

JD Greer ““While this situation is new, our calling has not changed. The gospel is still the most important message in the world, and we are still called upon to tell it. It is a gospel of love and faith, precisely what we need when society is filled with fear and uncertainty.””

For most of us there has not been a more unified worldwide hopeless time like there is right now. We are to celebrate Easter in just a few days. Just as Jesus started His public ministry with the Hope of Easter we too need to spend our time also sharing the Hope of Easter! Tell people that even though the foundations of the world are crumbling, there is a rock solid foundation to be found in Jesus Christ! Happy Easter everyone. 

Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning

John 2:13-17

The new phrase in the Newsome household presently is “we’ve got the time”. We suddenly have an abundance of time on our hands. We also want to make the best use of this time that God has given us. We are watching movies, playing board games and taking walks to the creek. We are also spending a decent amount of time cleaning! This is the best my garage has looked since we moved in almost 7 years ago! In tonight’s message we see Jesus do a bit of spring cleaning.

¹³ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers ^[b]doing business. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” ¹⁷ Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house ^[c]has eaten Me up.”

Last week we talked about the first recorded miracle of Jesus. He turned water into a wine at a wedding in the small town of cana.  It wasn’t a public miracle in view of thousands of people as we will see later. It was a private miracle. It’s also telling that his first miracle to kick off his ministry wasn’t on some grand stage. It was done at a local family wedding. This is a reminder to all of us that our first and most important ministry will always be our family.

What happening now? Sometime after the wedding Jesus and his disciples head down to Jerusalem for Passover. Passover was instituted in Exodus 12. Most of you are familiar with Moses and the 10 Plagues against Egypt. The 10^th plague was the death of the first born on all the house of Egypt. To avoid being struck by the Angel of Death the Israelites had to sacrifice a lamb and then smear its blood over there doorway. Then death, seeing the lamb’s blood, would Passover that house. In Exodus 23 God mandates that it be kept ever year. This was to serve as an ever lasting reminder of how God delivered them from Egypt and to point to the perfect Passover lamb, Jesus.

Jesus, being the perfect fulfillment of the law, would have never missed a Passover in his entire life. He’s been here every year, observing this Passover, of His entire life. We caught a glimpse of this in Luke when he was younger and found asking questions of those in authority there at the temple. Now He’s here with a completely different focus. He’s not upholding a mere tradition. He’s here for the public start of His ministry. He’s here about His Father’s business at His Father’s house.

Passover was the biggest holiday that they celebrated. Everyone came home for Passover. It’s estimated that over 1-2 million people would be in Jerusalem for Passover at this time. Almost 4 times the normal population. This is a completely different audience from the hundred or so at the wedding in Cana. When you have 4x the people you also have 4x the chance to make a profit. People need somewhere to stay, to eat, and to be entertained. A decent number of these people would not only be from out of town, but also out of country.

How many of you have ever travelled out of country? Once you were there one of the first thing you do is exchange your money. I remember our first trip to Asia. We are already jetlagged from our 12-hour flight and I’m standing at this non English ATM guessing at the buttons and then it spits out what looks like monopoly money! Then they charged a nice fee for the “convenience” of exchanging my money. These fees can run anywhere from 1-20% depending on where you are at and whom you choose to do business with. There’s nothing new about this.

In the temple there were people who sold sacrificial animals and there were people who exchanged money. To be in a good Israelite you had to pay your temple tax. You had to pay your temple tax with the official temple coin. The money changers would happily exchange your foreign money for temple coin, for a fee. Historians believe this exchange fee to easily be anywhere from 10% or higher. Without this you could not enter, you could not offer your sacrifice, you could not worship!

When the first set of restrictions came down from the governor your staff discussed various options for service. I joked we should have a velvet rope and a bouncer that only let a certain number of people in. This was the reality for these Jews, many of whom traveled for weeks if not months to get here. Once they arrived, they had to pay the fee, or they couldn’t get in.

Then there’s the matter of making the sacrifice itself. You would need a sacrificial animal. If you didn’t want to bring one with you on the long journey you could just buy one there. You know how you go to a theme park or a sporting event and after a bit you get hungry and thirsty? Then you go to the food stand and for $35 you get a hot dog, and a bottle of water? When the exact same thing cost $3 at the gas station right before the entrance? Don’t you just hate that? Everyone hates that. Except the people making money off it. Nothing new about that either folks.  The same animals would be marked up significantly in price than they were just a few weeks before.

Let’s say you did bring your own animal for the sacrifice there’s a catch! Your animal has to pass inspection. Guess what a conversation with the inspector went like.  Did you buy it from the temple shop? No? Oh well this animal doesn’t pass inspection. You can buy a high quality one though from my cousin’s temple shop! You had to buy the temple animal anyway. That’s how they did business, and business was booming.

What should have been a place for reverence, repentance and worship had become a corrupted marketplace. The leadership was taking advantage of the very people they were supposed to be serving.

Matthew 15:8 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Now we see a different side of Jesus. A Jesus we aren’t used to seeing and frankly don’t like to think about. We like the compassionate, patient, forgiving Jesus. This guy here, that takes a whip and starts chasing people off. We don’t know what to make of Him.

Jesus finds some lose cords, or ropes, lying around and makes a braided whip out of it. He then runs out all the businesses there in the temple. He flips over the money table, runs off all the animals, and miraculously, they all leave. I know we are used to miracles involving supernatural type things but this is one of those as well. You see there would have been 250-300 temple police there in the temple and they don’t ever get involved in this as far as the record goes. Equally, a full Roman garrison would have been in viewing distance of all of this from Fort Antonia just up the hill from the temple. Also, we have no record of anyone getting hurt. I’m sure there were some bumped elbows and bruised knees but nothing really of note. No one tried to stop Him, no one called the police, no crowd picked up rocks to stone Him. Everyone that didn’t need to be there, suddenly was gone.  As it says in the Psalms, Zeal for His Father’s house consumes Him.

Zeal, a great sense of enthusiasm and energy. As talked about last time that everything Jesus does is for God’s glory. God is not glorified when our places of worship become about people, politics, or power. God is not glorified when our lives before about ourselves instead of Him. If Jesus were to show up today what would be removed from our churches? From our own personal lives? I’m willing to bet you already thought of something.

For whatever reasons, God has put almost all of us on pause. Its time to pray, reflect, and remove those things that don’t belong. Let’s close in prayer.

Father, again we come before You fearing that our familiarity with these things keeps us from a genuine examination of heart. Show us anything that’s wrong in our lives and help us to confess and yield to everything that displeases You. Forgive us, cleanse us, wash us. May we be honest in that self-examination, honest as we repent so that we might not be in a position to be disciplined. We want Your favor and we want the joy of obedience. And You’ve put this table in the life of the church as the point at which that judgment takes place—that self-judgment, that honesty of heart that protects us from Your divine discipline. Open our hearts, show us what we need to give to You, let go of, confess that we might honor You even as we partake. Amen.