Life from above

This transcript has been automatically generated

So John chapter 2, verse 23 onwards. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when he— when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is the flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. 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. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, How can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Let me begin by taking you back to the moment when I first turned up in London as a student, I guess 25 years ago or so.

My took the train into London and I arrived somehow at Elephant and Castle. And for the first and last time in my life, I took an unlicensed minicab from Elephant and Castle station to my hall of residence in Great David Street. And then in the next day or two, I met a man called John. And not this John, you’ll understand, but my friend John. And John was not a Christian, and so far as I know, he still isn’t.

And he wasn’t attempting to live a particularly Christian life, but very quickly I was, and I think I probably still am, grateful for John. He wasn’t a Christian, but he was kind and he positioned himself as something of an ally. He had grown up around Christians. I think his mum went to church. His girlfriend, I think, was from a Christian home.

And so, he was positive about Christianity. And you know what, for my first few months, perhaps my first year at university, I really appreciated that because some of my new friends when I arrived were actively very hostile to my Christian faith, used to deride me whenever I talked to them. But John would kind of stand up for me. And truth be told, he’s not alone. Over the years, the last 20 years or so, I can think of a number of times when I’ve been very grateful for friends of mine who aren’t Christian but who are similarly sympathetic.

And not just friends. That’s why, over the last few years, lots of us, I guess, have been quite grateful for public intellectuals like perhaps Jordan Peterson, or certainly Tom Holland, or maybe Paul Kingsnorth, perhaps Douglas Murray, who, although most of those wouldn’t say that they were Christian themselves, have spoken out in favour of our Christian heritage. And culture and produced a whole wave of people who are maybe Christo-curious and who want to find out more. And here’s the question: is that enough?

Perhaps you might imagine another student arriving in London. I’ll call her Jasmine, and she’s grown up going to church and she’s attended the youth group And she’s committed to the idea of being a Christian whilst she’s here. But she’s equally committed to the idea that being a Christian is just one compartment of her life alongside school and jobs and CCAs, friends, travelling, perhaps finding a boy. One of my sister’s friends growing up, I remember she used to have her status, her religious status on Facebook as, I like Jesus, but I couldn’t eat a whole one, which is probably blasphemous. But I think we know what she means.

I’m pro-Jesus. I’m Christian-ish. But the thing that she and John and Jasmine have in common is that it’s on their terms, coming to Jesus as an ally or with a compartment that you can give over to him, or perhaps with a smile, as his friends. And is that enough? Does that take the risen Lord Jesus Christ seriously enough?

Well, this morning, and actually for the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be working our way through John chapter 3, which is a chapter all about a would-be ally of the Lord Jesus. Actually, it’s one of 6 or 7 very significant private conversations that take place between Jesus and a potential disciple, over the course of John’s Gospel. And the context here is where we were last week. Jesus has just made it abundantly clear that the arrival of his kingdom will come with a major tear down and rebuild. He’s going to break some eggs.

And one of the leaders of the people comes to talk to him. And he comes to him as an ally. And he comes with the hope that perhaps Jesus might just calm down a little bit. And the thing that Jesus says to him, the first thing this morning, is, you must be born again. Let’s pick it up from verse 23.

Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them. He didn’t believe that faith, I guess, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and 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. I think it’s very important that we characterise Nicodemus rightly here, because I do think it’s possible for us to be a bit hard on him.

Now, it’s true that he is a representative of the type of people whose faith in Jesus because of the signs Jesus suspects. And it’s true that Nicodemus is very sure of himself. We know. And it’s true that his initial response to the Lord Jesus in this chapter is far from adequate. But I think we’re sometimes so quick to notice all the things that Nicodemus gets wrong that we fail to notice that actually he gets quite a lot right.

I mean, to begin with, he is right to pay attention to the signs. That is what they’re for. And more than that, he’s right to have reached the conclusion he’s reached. It’s inadequate but correct. Jesus is a teacher come from God, and the signs do show that he’s from God.

And actually, more than that, he’s brave. He is one of the rulers, one of the Sanhedrin, who’ve already started to dig in, in their rejection of Jesus that will ultimately prove to be murderous. And we know, don’t we, in our day and age, how hard it is to speak up in a polarised and vitriolic public square. But 3 times in John’s Gospel, Nicodemus, starting here in a quiet way, does just that. And that takes guts, doesn’t it?

Especially after what Jesus has just done in the temple. Let’s not be too hard on Nicodemus. He comes as an ally. But that’s not enough. Verse 3: Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now again, I think it’s really important that we characterise Jesus rightly at this point too. And again, it’s possible to read verse 3 as a total bolt out of the blue. And so Nicodemus comes and makes a perfectly reasonable opening statement about who Jesus is, and then Jesus drops some sort of Zen truth bomb: unless you’re born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And it might be true, but it’s not relevant. Well, that’s not right.

I mean, for one thing, we’ve already been told that Jesus knows what is in a person. And so he can see past Nicodemus’s opening statement and cut straight to the deeper issue. And he knows that what Nicodemus needs to hear is what he says just here. But in any case, Jesus does take what Nicodemus says very seriously in this conversation. And I’ve put a little table on your handouts, I’m not going to go through it, but the purpose of that table is to show you that actually what Nicodemus says to Jesus in verse 2 sets the agenda for the entire conversation all the way through to verse 21.

In other words, Jesus takes Nicodemus very seriously and he answers him point by point. But he begins with the thing that Nicodemus really needs to understand. And Nicodemus comes with his idea of where Jesus fits into his box. You’re like Moses, you’re like Elijah or Ezra, perhaps you’re a bit like me, a teacher come from God. And Jesus says to him, no, listen, Nicodemus, it’s more radical than that.

And we’re going to need to break some boxes. If you want to see the kingdom of God, you’re going to need to be born again. Nicodemus misunderstands him, verse 4. How can a man be born when he’s old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?

Mary van der Steen, one of the women’s workers here, has made this lovely little children’s book on John chapters 2 to 4 for her nieces and nephews, and she’s got a great illustration of this. If you’ve got particularly sharp eyes, you might be able to see it. There’s Nicodemus, And here he is imagining himself back in his mummy’s tummy. And it’s ridiculous, it’s silly. But the point that Jesus is making is really important.

And so he tries again. Verse 5, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, what is needed is precisely not that you crawl back into the womb and go through natural birth all over again. What is needed is a whole new kind of birth, birth from above, birth by the Holy Spirit. And it really matters.

Never mind how I’m able to do my signs, and forget about entry into the womb. I’m talking about entry into the kingdom. And if you’re not a whole new kind of a person, made once again by the Spirit, you will not be able to enter the kingdom of God. You must be born again.

And that need for spiritual rebirth, it explodes all of Nicodemus’s confidence. Verse 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh. No need for that kind of birth again. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The Spirit blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. And so it is with everyone who’s born of the Spirit. And Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?

Think back to where Nicodemus began. We know that you are a teacher come from God. And actually, Jesus says to him, you don’t know. You don’t know where the Spirit comes from. You don’t know where the Spirit’s going.

You don’t know where those born of the Spirit come from or where they’re going. And of course, you don’t know me. And that’s the point. Nicodemus comes to Jesus as an ally, sympathetic, positive, willing to give Jesus a hearing, but trying to fit him into all of his pre-existing categories. I’ve already mentioned one children’s Bible this morning, and here’s a reference to another.

David Helm, in his Big Picture Storey Bible, suggests that actually it was what Jesus did in the temple last week that provokes this whole conversation. I think that’s right. It’s not just that Nicodemus wants to box Jesus off as another Moses or an Ezra, a teacher come from God. It’s that Nicodemus wants to hang on to all of his boxes: Jerusalem and the temple and purification and all that it stands for. Jesus, do you really need to be so disruptive?

Listen, I’m here as a friend. I’m here as an interested observer who wants to help you with your PR. Couldn’t we have the kingdom with a little less chaos?

Perhaps you imagine— might imagine it like this. I’ve got here a wonderful thing. This is an iPhone box. I don’t remember the first time I saw one of these, but they are extraordinary things, aren’t they? I mean, isn’t that pleasing?

Controlled friction, little air pockets where you can hear the whoosh as it opens. This is apparently just cardboard, but it feels like it’s made from wood or plastic or something else. It’s an extraordinary thing, an iPhone box. And imagine that somebody gave you one of these as a sort of a promissory note that one day they would give you the real thing, the iPhone itself. And you might really enjoy this box, actually.

And you know what, you can buy them. They cost £8 on eBay, but I didn’t really want to do that, so I just nicked one from Dingwen anyway. And they give you as a promissory note that one day they’ll give you the iPhone, and then perhaps Apple goes through some more iPhone revolutions, and when it actually arrives, it won’t fit in the box. And you’re left with this incredible dilemma. What do I do?

Do I keep the phone or do I keep the box? I mean, which one? It’s just hard to decide. Well, this is the problem that Nicodemus is facing. What do you want, the box or the Lord Jesus Christ?

And Jesus is gently saying to him, Listen, if you want to know how radical I am going to be, it’s as radical as this: you must be born again. And none of this should have been news to Nicodemus. We might not realise it, but, well, look at what Jesus asks him in verse 10: Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you don’t understand these things? Now, so far as Jesus is concerned, they’ve just been having a conversation about Nicodemus’s favourite book, the Old Testament. If Nicodemus had really read Ezekiel a bit more carefully, he would know that the only way that the kingdom of God could ever come would require something at least as radical as national death and resurrection, at least as radical as a renovation of the human heart so that, like statues coming to life, Israelite hearts of stone would turn to flesh and begin to beat anew.

If only Nicodemus had paid attention in Sunday school, he would have known that the coming of the kingdom would require something at least as radical as heaven opened and the Holy Spirit poured out from above. He should have known all of this. But we need to understand it too. You know, this chapter has been a very precious chapter in the history of this country. There’s always been a temptation to adopt a form of attachment to Jesus that is less radical than this, and to begin to substitute in a cultural affiliation to Christian truth, or perhaps a national identity in God We Trust.

Or perhaps just a vague set of religious habits. And we might even begin to think that the idea of a born-again Christian is kind of somehow distasteful, you know, one of those happy-clappy, overzealous, in-your-face American ones. And it’s so easy for whole churches and whole denominations to go cold and to freeze over and to become the hopeless mix of empty tradition and on-trend philosophy, the spirit of the age preached in ancient pulpits that we see see so often around us. And for 250 years, John chapter 3 has ripped through all of that like a cannonball. Wind back the clock 250 years, you would have heard it preached from this pulpit.

You must be born again. Forget about cultural affiliation. Forget about your national identity. Forget about your vague religious habits. You must be born again.

And we need to understand this. I don’t think that Jesus is treating Nicodemus like an idiot. And I guess if Jesus were to meet Tom Holland or Jordan Peterson or anyone else who might identify as an ally or as Christo-curious here this morning, well, I don’t think he’d treat you like an idiot or dismiss you. But we do need to understand this. Jesus is not looking for affiliates.

If we’re hoping that we might somehow be able to slot Jesus into the edge of our lives, give him a little bit of available space in one of our available calendar windows, if I’m hoping that I can meet Jesus as a teacher, someone to help me to make the most of the life I’m already living, or as an equal, someone who might benefit from my advice. It’s not true.

I might come to him asking the right questions, but I haven’t got Jesus straight and I haven’t got myself straight until I understand that I need to be a whole new man. And do you know, this is such good news. Now, some of us in the room know that we’re a mess. Some of us would love to imagine that we’re not. But when the Lord Jesus bursts into a life, he isn’t content to do a little bit of tidying up.

He came to make it all right. And so the first thing that we must understand is that we need to be born from above. We need to be born again. And this much Nicodemus should have understood. But actually, there’s more.

Secondly, this morning, the Son of Man must be lifted up. Verse 11, truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now this marks a significant shift in the conversation. Up to verse 10, Jesus has been responding to Nicodemus’s confident assertion, we know, by showing him what he should have known from the Old Testament.

Things that had already been revealed on the earth. But this is a new moment where Jesus turns to talk about what he knows, the things that he has now brought from heaven. And the central content is there in verse 13: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Now, these are astonishing verses. From one perspective, they just follow on from everything that they’ve already been talking about so far. The whole conversation has been about the need to bring above and below together. And so, what we need is birth from above. What we need is the Holy Spirit to come down from above.

What we need is entry from below into the kingdom of God. And so, of course, we’re talking about ascending and descending. What else have verses 1 to 10 been about? But what’s new is the Son of Man, verse 13. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And the scope of that verse is dizzying. He has come down from heaven. He has been made man, the Son of Man. He’s ascended to God’s right hand. It’s dizzying.

But the point is that if we’re talking about bridging above and below, well, I’m not a teacher, Jesus says. I am the bridge between what’s ascended and what’s descended. I’m the key to birth from above. I’m the key to entry from below. That’s me.

The Son of Man. In fact, we can be more specific, verse 14, and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. If verse 13 is dizzying, verses 14 and 15 is shocking. Just think of the ideas that are held together there. The Son of Man who has swooped down from heaven to earth and back again, Lifting up, this great Old Testament word that again and again in the Old Testament means lift high, exalt, raise up.

And then that discord, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

It’s a storey from Numbers 21, and you might want to read it in the week. It’s a death and life storey, but the key point here is that the key to life is the moment that Moses attaches a snake to a pole. A snake lifted up on a pole is the means of salvation.

And I guess you’ve got to ask the question, what would it mean for the Son of Man, for Jesus, to be lifted up like a snake on a pole, like a snake nailed to a stick? And of course, if you know where John’s Gospel is going, you do know the answer to that. It turns out that the heavenly Word has come amongst us as the Son of Man so that he might be lifted up on a cross, so that he might ascend via the cross once again, and the kingdom might be thrown up through the cross, and the Spirit poured out through the cross. And a whole new family born again through the cross, just like a snake nailed to a stick.

Incarnation, crucifixion, death, humiliation, exaltation— it’s all here. But the crunch of gears is that God’s glory and the reunion of heaven and earth will come as the Son of Man is lifted on a pole. And here’s the thing, I don’t really care who we are this morning, how imaginative, how flexible, and how subtle or how expansive our minds are. It doesn’t really matter how big your box is. Once you understand these verses, it’s going to break it.

Verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him might have eternal life. I mean, just think, last week the people in the temple choked on the thought that the arrival of the kingdom of God might sweep aside the temple. And this morning, in the first half of the conversation, Nicodemus has choked on the thought that he might need to be born from above to be born again. But truth be told, those are small fry.

Here is what every Christo-curious would-be ally of the Lord Jesus needs to grasp, what Tom Holland and Jordan Peterson and my friends and every one of us ultimately needs to get hold of. What we are reckoning with as we come to Jesus is nothing less than the eternal God, light himself, come amongst us weaving heaven and earth back together again as he ascends and descends. And the sharp point of it all is the moment when he is lifted up in his sacrificial death. And if you look at Jesus’ signs, or his teaching and see anything else, a teacher or someone from God or a good idea for a cultural history or an activist or an icon or a radical or a moralist, you just haven’t seen him. But if you look at Jesus and you actually see, see the Son of Man stitching heaven and earth back together again as he is lifted high, we see that and believe.

And new birth and baptism by water and the Spirit and a renewed heart and entry into the kingdom and eternal life. They’re all yours.

But it’s going to burst a few of our boxes.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again.

But the truth is that that’s just the thin end of the wedge.

What Jesus has actually come to do is to remake the whole world. And if you’re going to haul heaven and earth back together again, it’s no surprises if you turn over a few tables in the process.

And of course, it’s very confronting.

When, if you’re choosing whether you’re going to choose between a box and an iPhone, and that’s not a particularly difficult decision, is it? But if you’re choosing between your history and your whole pattern of life and the glories of the temple and your self-confidence and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a hard choice. And it may be that this morning it’s a choice that we don’t want to make. I like Jesus, but do I need the whole one?

I like Jesus, but could he maybe just slot in here? And John has recorded this conversation with Nicodemus for us. To help every one of us here to see. No, Jesus’ project is much better than that. It’s much more radical.

We must be born again. And actually, Jesus says, I’ve come to tell you that heaven and earth must be born again, made new through my death and resurrection. And in the end, this man Nicodemus, he gets this. And in the end, he comes to Jesus with real confidence, transformed, all in. And John has written this down so that we might too.

Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you so much that you took Nicodemus so seriously and addressed him so fully as he came to you. We thank you so much that you don’t need us to tell you about ourselves or about you, that you know what is in us.

We thank you that you know what we need and what this world needs, and we thank you so much that you have come to bring it. Lord Jesus, we praise you so much that you offer to each one of us here new birth, and not just a bit of tidying up but whole restoration, are remade from within by your Spirit from above. And we praise you that you have come to bring new birth to the whole of creation, heaven and earth put together again through your death on the cross. And we pray that you would help us not to write you off as something that belongs on the edge of our lives, But we pray that you would help us to come wholeheartedly into the light, and that you would make us see and make us believe and make us new. And we ask it in your name.

Amen.