This sermon was given at St Denys Evington on 5th March 2023. An audio recording will be linked to when it is available.
I know that we have a number of keen photographers in the congregation. When we take a photo, we can take a wider-view picture, or we can zoom in to capture the detail, perhaps of a flower, or an animal or of something else that we want to be able to see more closely. Up until Genesis 12, Genesis has given us wider-view pictures, and we speed through them very quickly – 21 generations in 11 chapters. The rest of Genesis, and the Old Testament, zooms in on the family of Abram – his son, grandson, great grandsons and their descendants.
To start, we are told about Abram’s first recorded meeting with the LORD. In this meeting, we discover the promises the LORD makes to Abram, and the
invitation to Him to be part of extending God’s blessing to others. It’s a prequel to the story of Abram, and the story of God’s reconciliation plan for the whole world. God has chosen a family through which His reconciliation plan will be carried out – the family of Abram. Later, in Genesis 17, God will give Abram a new name, Abraham, to drum home to him the promise that was first made in Genesis 12 – that Abram would become a ‘great nation’ – a father to many. For now though, his name simply means ‘exalted father’ – not a bad name, by any means, except for one problem – his wife was unable to conceive, so he didn’t have any children, and so, no heir. This promise would only happen through the power of God.
Let’s now fast-forward in the story of God’s reconciliation plan, to our gospel passage, from John 3. Nicodemus, as a good Jew, a Pharisee and teacher of the law, knew that what family you were part of was important. The LORD had blessed Abraham, and set apart the descendants of Jacob, so you needed to be a child of Abraham – that was the Jewish teaching. In his visit to Jesus at night, Nicodemus hears something radical. Being part of God’s family, the kingdom of God is completely different. It doesn’t matter who you are physically a child of, being a part of God’s family is open to everyone who believes in God’s Son – Jesus Christ.
So, how does someone become a part of this family? In the church, we often talk about ‘believing in Jesus’ as if it’s obvious why we need to, or what it means or looks like. For many, it’s far from obvious. In fact, it wasn’t obvious or clear even to Nicodemus – a religious teacher of Israel!
Jesus uses a couple of different images to explain what he means – one from nature, and one from Israel’s history.
To explain why we need to believe in Him, Jesus looks back to Israel’s history, to a story Nicodemus would have known. In the wilderness, before the
Israelites arrived in the promised land, the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses, and so God sent venomous snakes amongst them – a consequence of their sin. Then God told Moses to build a bronze snake and lift it up on a pole, so that when the people were bitten, they could look at the snake and live. Jesus likens himself to the bronze snake. Humanity has a deadly disease – sin. Jesus took all our sin upon himself, despite being without sin, and was lifted up onto a cross. The only cure for our deadly disease is to look at the Son of Man dying on the cross, and find life through believing in Him – that is by looking at Jesus and trusting that we will live because Jesus has died in our place.
The gospel passage draws to a close with perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse doesn’t just tell us that God loves the world so very much, it tells us what God did to show us that love. The Greek phrase translated “God so loved the world” is perhaps more accurately translated “In this way God loved the world”. I can’t imagine a greater love than that shown by God giving his only Son. God did not do this to condemn the world, but to save the world. The sending of His Son is the climax of God’s reconciliation story, the moment
where the great plan to restore our relationship was fulfilled.
To become part of God’s kingdom family, we need to be baptised in water and the Spirit. Some think that water simply refers here to our physical birth. I’m more convinced, though, that the water refers to the water of baptism, because of the context in the passages around it – such as, John the Baptist baptising with water to reveal Jesus to Israel, and saying that Jesus baptises with the Spirit.
Jesus explains the work of the Spirit by pointing to the wind. Even today, with a more scientific understanding of what wind is, we cannot completely control natural wind. Whilst we can have an idea of the direction it comes from, we only have that from the effect of the wind – how it blows on weather instruments, weather vanes and objects around us. Whilst we can perhaps harness the power of the wind, for windmills, turbines and so on, we are yet to actually control the wind and get it to blow, or not blow, when and where we want – that, of course, is the challenge with “wind power” that we hear so much about. Only God can control the wind, Jesus says, and so it is with everyone born of the Spirit – only God can direct where His Spirit moves.
To be born in water and Spirit is a double baptism, first in water, bringing us into the kingdom-movement, and secondly in the Spirit, the new life that Jesus offers, bubbling up within us. This new life changes everything. Through it, we, like Abram, are invited to be a blessing to others, introducing them to the One who can bring them new life as He was lifted up on the cross.
Many of you here will have been baptised with water, and know that you have God’s Spirit living in you. If that’s the case, I invite you to spend some time thinking about those who you could invite to look at Jesus and receive the new life He brings.
If you haven’t been baptised with water, or aren’t sure if you have the new life brought by the Spirit, I invite you, today, to look at the cross, and look at Jesus lifted up. The cross is a sign for us, a sign to believe, and live. Please do come and talk to one of the staff team after the service. If you know that you have looked to Jesus on the cross, but haven’t yet been baptised, and would like to explore this, please do speak with Anthony or Mark after the service.
This new life changes everything. Jesus is lifted onto the cross as a sign to each of us, a sign to believe, and live. Amen.
repairerofwalls 