Sermons

Introduction: How does one become part of God's Kingdom? In this intriguing story between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus, Jesus describes that to understand and experience life as part of God's Kingdom one must first receive new life in Christ. This message was given as part of an Easter Service.



Easter is Jesus Christ
I think for me, sometimes the holidays just seem to merge together. The days can become weeks and months without noticing what holiday is coming and when. Recently, though, I couldn't avoid seeing the signs of Easter. Many of us will have some kind of holiday or day off related to Easter. When we go to a grocery store, we see the Easter Bunnies, chocolates, Lilies, etc.

A local Christian radio station relayed a poll about Easter. I can't remember the exact scope of the poll, but it asked this question: What do you identify Easter with?

When I heard that poll I did an unscientific poll of my own. I asked my 4.5 year old daughter Lydia what Easter meant to her. At first she just smiled. Then she said, "Bunny's? Eggs?" Then she said, "Jesus?" Her responses somewhat reflect the general population's understanding about Easter.

Some 55% said that Easter is primarily identified with Jesus Christ. I can't remember what the other 45% said, but I think the Easter Bunny was up there.

Many Christians who associate Easter with Jesus Christ also associate it with New Beginnings and Hope.

Hope defined by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: Verb, to cherish a desire with anticipation; to expect with confidence; Noun, desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment.

For Christians this future anticipation and desire is closely tied to Jesus Christ Himself.

Today, What is it you have hope in? What is the object of your Hope?

As I listened to the news this week, I remembered some people who have needed HOPE and answers to life's questions.

Current Events: OK City, Columbine High
Two events this week had anniversaries: the 5 Year Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing on the 19th, and the 1 Year Anniversary of the Columbine High School Shootings on the 20th. 

1. 5 Years Later: Oklahoma City--Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
I'm not sure if the government really has gotten to the bottom of this situation, but what is clear is that people were shocked that this could happen in a OK city of all places. On this anniversary, President Clinton dedicated a memorial building for the 168 dead, and some 500 injured. Picture of two people standing in the "Field of Chairs."

2. 1 Year Later: Columbine High School
Columbine Effects Still Felt One Year Later (from AP report)
Family and friends hugged and cried softly today during a graveside service for Columbine High victims as an angel windsock adorning a nearby cross moved in a gentle breeze. 
The service was one of several scheduled on the anniversary of the attack that left 13 plus the two student gunmen dead in the peaceful Denver suburban high school. 

Perhaps the best way to talk about this event is to read some of the quotations from those closest to the event--the students themselves.

Cherry Creek High School student Sam Mamtherne, 17, was friends with Rachel Scott. She was in tears. ``It's hard just remembering it, the good times and then remembering how it all ended,'' she said, tears falling from her eyes.

``You think about Oklahoma City and you are remorseful for them, but it's not in your back yard. This is in my back yard,'' said Branson, who wore a blue and silver ribbon - the Columbine school colors - on his shirt.

Nate Wooten, a freshman, said Wednesday there was little talk about the anniversary among Columbine students.` They care, I know that,'' said his friend Brad Bootsma, a sophomore. ``I guess they're just trying to go on with their lives. I know I am.'' 

These youth and the community of Littleton have had to deal with some of life's most difficult questions. 
What seemed to be right and secure--being in a suburban community with opportunities--became a place of pain, fear, and anxiety. They felt everything was fine, but now deep down the unpredictability of life will always weight heavily on them. And it might on us as well. We may say, "Not in my back yard," but we really never do know.

Those youth have had to face the fact of dying. Many times we live so much in today, that we forget or deny our future destiny. We will die at some time in the future. We don't know whether it is when we are 17, 37, 57 or 87. And perhaps we too have thought about dying and wondered about death. We may have wondered where we would go after death.

Littleton, CO can see like so far away from us. But something happened last week that hit a little closer to home for many of us. 

Currents: Stock Market
In Newsweek this week, the cover article was no surprise to me. It was about the Stock Market. The NASDAQ dropped 25.3 percent in just one week. During the week, 2.1 Trillion dollars of wealth were lost. Even if it has bounced back some this week, who knows what it will do tomorrow?

The bulls are jumping off of the cliff here in this picture. People may not jump off the cliff, but they may find themselves wondering what will satisfy them. Wealth, status, success, or some other ambition. There is always a mountain to climb and a river to cross-with obstacles along the way. 

Our world, no matter what our status, circumstances, situation in life can leave us littered with questions, fear, anxiety, and insecurity.

We read earlier about a man who had many questions about life. He also lived on this earth, like you and I. He was a person who was knowledgeable about religion. He had great tradition and cultural heritage, and he garnered status and power. Yet he had questions about life himself.
His name is Nicodemus. He went to a source where he thought he could find some answers, to Jesus Christ. By following his story, we may find some of the answers to our questions as well.



Nicodemus: A man with many questions

Who is Nicodemus?
In the first paragraph, the first couple of verses, we get catch a glimpse of who this Nicodemus is.

Represents Religion (A Pharisee)
First, we find out he is a man of the Pharisees. What were the Pharisees? They were people who were very religious. Their main concern was how to keep to the writings of the Old Testament, to their sacred writings. They kept to the ceremonies of their religion.
We may be like him in that we are religious or grew up in a religious setting. Perhaps we grew up where religious rules and regulations were to be kept at all cost. But we found at that going to Mass, or Church, or Temple was not the answer to our questions about life. In fact, we found that rules only bring a burden, and don't help at all.

Represents Tradition (Jewish/Pharisee)
We also find out that Nicodemus is one who has great Tradition. The Pharisees prided themselves on the traditions and ceremonies that had been passed on for generations. He had a Jewish heritage to be proud of.

We may also be like him in that we have come from a great tradition--perhaps it is from our cultural background, our family, or our achievements in school or industry. Yet traditions alone could not meet his deepest needs. 

Represents those with Status, Power, and Influence (the ruling council)
Nicodemus was also a person who held great status, power and influence. He was a Teacher of a nation. He was a standing member of the ruling council, called the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had religious, civic, and criminal jurisdiction over Israel. And he was a key member of it.
There was something he was seeking in Jesus that he didn't have himself. He was the congressman and professor looking to Jesus for teaching.

Despite his Religion, Tradition, Status and Influence, he felt he needed to be taught by Jesus. At this point in Jesus' ministry, the religious establishment looked down on the seemingly rebellious nature of Jesus. But Nicodemus came to him anyway.

The Bible tells us that he came by night. There are a couple of theories as to why he met Jesus at night.

Afraid? Long Talk?
One is that he was afraid. Being who he was in society, he might have felt ashamed of his need to ask questions in public. He may have desired to avoid ridicule and a question of his character, that he would call this upstart teacher, Rabbi.

Another reason he came by night could be that he wanted a long uninterrupted time with Jesus to talk. I think both are plausible. Either way, he was searching for some answers, and he found a way to get at them.

For some of us, it may be a long time since we have discussed matters of life, and hope, and meaning. We may be afraid to show others we don't have all the answers or what others might think. And we may even want to talk about some of those issues with someone who will listen and be real.

This is Nicodemus' situation. He heard Jesus' teaching. He saw Jesus' good works and miracles, and believed that God was with him. He wanted to learn from Jesus.

Jesus' reply to Nicodemus' statement is startling. He replies to Nicodemus that no one can see or experience a new way of life that brings HOPE and New Beginning without being BORN AGAIN.

On the surface it may seem like he is asking about the possibility of physically entering into the womb again? He is old and cannot go back. But there is more to his statement that meets the eye. His way is a way of asking, how can a person who is a bundle of doubts, uncertainties, wishes, hopes, fears--a person who is the sum of his yesterdays, mistakes and triumphs--have a new start? We all have past failures and hurts that scar us. How can they be made as new again?

My Dad's Story
That was a question my father had about 17 years ago. Some of us may be old enough to remember the economic recession we had during Ronald Reagan's first term in the early 1980's. My father is a civil engineer who works primarily in the oil refinery industry as a consultant. During that time, the pressure of the economy and the possibility of losing his job were overwhelming. He felt a deep responsibility to provide for his family--and found himself in a situation where he emotionally could not.

My memories of him at that time are painful. My dad stayed home on a leave of absence for some 6 months. My whole family tried to support and rally my father during that time.

He looked for security in the economy, but found none. He looked for relief in Chinese medicines and acupuncture. He even looked to a wide-eyed 12 year-old for a shoulder to cry on and for advice. 
If there was anyone who needed HOPE, it was my father. If there was anyone who needed to be born again and have a fresh new beginning, it was he.

My father was confronted with the same confounded question that Nicodemus was--

How does one have this new beginning? 

God's Judgment of the Serpents
Jesus tells Nicodemus in verses 14-15 a story found in the OT in a book called Numbers, the fourth book of the Bible. In the OT, the Israelites had been wandering in the desert looking for the Promised Land. In their wandering, they began to complain about God and his provisions. To discipline them, God sent snakes that bit and killed many of the Israelites.

These Israelites had a relationship with God. But that relationship had been broken over and over again by their mistrust and what we call sin. Sin is a word that means missing the mark of God's standard.
We too, each one of us, have all fallen away from our relationship with our Creator, God. The Apostle Paul really sums up the Bible's commentary on humanity in telling us in Romans 3:23 that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." We have mistrusted Him and trusted in this world and in ourselves. Each one of us has fallen short of God's standard. John tells us in verse 19 that "men loved darkness rather than light; for their deeds were evil."

The Bronze Serpent Raised
In that OT story, God told Moses to place a bronze serpent on a pole so that anyone who believes that God would save them would only have to look up. To look at a snake seems ludicrous. But that was God's way of seeing if the Israelites would come back to God through believing.

Jesus, like that snake, was lifted up. Christians celebrate Easter because on Good Friday Jesus was lifted up on a wooden Cross to take the punishment of their wrongdoing. The next verse 16, tells us why Jesus came. It is because of God's love for each one of us that He sent His only Son to die for us. When we ourselves could not save ourselves, God sent His son to save us.

We only need to believe, and we will have this New Life with God, the eternal life.

Jesus: the man with answers
Jesus replied to Nicodemus that the way to enter this New Beginning is Spiritual. That is why it takes faith. We can't find it in a store, online, or in ourselves. Nicodemus couldn't see it, because he was still thinking from his own perspectives. He needed to see the perspective that Jesus was coming from.

3-D Glasses and Spiritual Discernment
Have you ever been to Disneyland to watch the Honey I Shrunk the Audience show? When you walk into the theater, they give you special glasses. They are 3-D glasses that allow you to see the images on the screen in three dimensions. When a hand comes out of the screen, it really looks like a hand is about to grab your nose and squeeze it.

I am a bit of a rebel. I took my glasses off during the movie to see what it would look like. The image wasn't 3-D anymore. In fact, it was difficult to make out the 2-D image, because it had been encoded for those glasses.

Nicodemus was trying to view a spiritual truth with 2-D glasses. And all he got was a blurry image--he couldn't understand.

Jesus says that there must be a Spiritual Renewal, a spiritual rebirth. It is like the Wind he says.

The Wind and Spiritual Power
The wind can be a very powerful force. Anyone who has seen a Tornado or a Hurricane can attest to the fact. I love the movie Twister for its special effects. At times it seems unrealistic, but I can appreciate the force of 250mph winds on a cow, or a car, or a fence.

This spiritual rebirth is likened to the wind. It is powerful and mysterious. Ancients did not have the scientific models telling us about pressure. They saw the mystery of the wind--and so do we. We don't really know where it comes or where it goes. The Spiritual is like this. Being born of Spirit takes a powerful force, even to give us a new birth, but can't see it. Those with this new life--you can see the effects of it. We see the effect of the wind and have faith it is there.

Conclusion:

My Father's Conclusion
My father began a new life some 17 years ago. Even though it seemed that he was too old to remake his life, there was still hope for him.
He started going to church and began to understand what Jesus meant about experiencing God's Kingdom. He entrusted his wrongdoing, his fears, his life and death to God. He looked up at the Cross of Jesus and realized Jesus gave Him a new beginning. One that put his Hope not in this world, but in the life to come.

I told the story about my Father because he was instrumental in seeing that I too needed answers to life. For me, I felt as a teenager both the fear of going through what my father went through and the unsatisfied longings that the world could never meet.

14 years ago, I admitted to God that I was empty inside, and needed Him to fill me up. I admitted to God that I could not change my wrongdoings and my evil mind, and I needed him to give me new life. 14 years ago on Easter I embarked on a journey that Nicodemus started. I began to seek Jesus for the answers.

Nicodemus himself continued his search for the answers. We find him again in the story of Jesus' life in chapter 7. There, in front of others in his ruling council, he pleas that the religious establishment hear this Jesus out. In Chapter 19, we find him for the last time helping a man named Joseph place Jesus in the tomb wrapped with linen and spices.

What will our response to Jesus be?

EASTER Hope
Christians have HOPE in spite of the uncertainties of the Columbines and OK city's, in spite of the stock market, in spite of the power of death and the anxieties that nag us. Their HOPE is that the Christ who died is now alive! The HOPE is in his deliverance from our wrongdoing, and a NEW BEGINNING found in the living Jesus Christ.
 

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