If you've ever been to Florence, you might have seen my favorite sculpture when you were there,
!
This is a sculpture that depicts the moment that Jesus was taken down from the cross.
! And there are four figures in the sculpture.
! There's Mary Magdalene, Jesus's legs are kind of draped over her.
There's Mary, the mother of Jesus, supporting Jesus's body, Jesus himself.
And then Nicodemus standing behind the other three figures, kind of like this.
It's a huge statue.
And I had the privilege of spending a morning with this statue 20-something years ago now.
And it's one of those experiences that I just remember sitting there and being just gutted by it.
And there were two things that really stood out to me as I just spent time staring at it.
One is that there are chisel marks all over, particularly all over Nicodemus.
And we know that Michelangelo was 70, around 70, when he started work on this statue.
And so he was really old to be doing this kind of physical labor.
We also know this was a statue that he didn't receive a commission for.
This was something he wanted to use for his own tomb.
So that's one thing.
But then the other thing that is really striking is that Nicodemus' face is Michelangelo's face.
And we know that Michelangelo was a man who wrestled deeply with his faith from his writings.
And so it seems fitting that he would have felt a connection to Nicodemus,
who we'll learn more about this morning in this conversation we just read about with Jesus.
And this conversation is relevant for us too.
It's really pivotal to our understanding of the gospel.
And it's gonna help us answer three questions.
What do we want?
How are we missing the big picture?
And what's our true hope for transformation?
Would you pray with me?
Oh, Lord, soften our hearts to hear from you this morning.
If there are places where we aren't able to hear from you,
places where you are not Lord of our lives,
we want to lay ourselves before you, Lord.
Would you lighten our darkness?
Would you be the teacher?
Not my words, but yours, Lord.
Thank you for this space to gather.
Would your spirit fall on us?
In the name of Jesus, amen.
I'd encourage you all to pull out your Bibles if you brought them this morning,
just because we're gonna be going through the text pretty closely, verse by verse,
so it might just help you follow along.
So when we read a passage like this in the Bible,
there are a couple things that we wanna keep in mind,
just as we're sitting with it and marinating in it.
So one of those things is we wanna think about how the people actually in this scene
would have understood what was going on.
So how would Nicodemus have been able to receive and hear the words that Jesus was saying?
The second thing is how would those reading this or hearing John's gospel,
John's readers, how would they have understood this passage?
And then after we've answered those first two,
then we can think about what does it look like for us today to study this passage.
But we can't get to that third person, that third question,
without locating ourselves within the first two.
So we'll be pressing into those a little bit this morning.
And we see in so many of Jesus' dialogues with people,
and especially this one,
that they come expressing one desire,
but he redirects them,
and he speaks to a deeper, unexpressed need.
He knows what they really need.
He corrects their misunderstandings,
and he reveals himself.
And in this conversation,
what we're gonna see
is that Jesus expands Nicodemus' understanding of the kingdom of God
and his mission
far beyond what Nicodemus thought it meant.
So let's set the scene a little bit with Nicodemus.
He comes to Jesus at night.
They're probably sitting up on the rooftop
because that would have been the coolest part of the house
where Jesus was staying.
They may have each had a few disciples with them.
We're not sure.
Nicodemus was both a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin.
So not every Pharisee was a member of the Sanhedrin.
Pharisees were really the moral exemplars at the time.
And if you've read the Gospels,
you know that they were typically opposing Jesus.
The Sanhedrin was a governing body
of priests, elders, and scribes.
And they had the final to say in disputes over Jewish law.
They decided cases of blasphemy.
They were the ones that actually wanted to get Jesus crucified.
And so men were appointed to serve on this body
based on their learning and their knowledge.
So the fact that Nicodemus had both these credentials,
Pharisee and Sanhedrin,
meant that he was really the cream of the crop intellectually.
So why did he come at night?
That's a question we have to ask.
It could have been purely logistical.
You know, Jesus was getting pretty famous at this point.
It was at the point in his ministry
where he was being followed by large crowds.
It would have been really hard
to have an extended one-on-one conversation with him.
He was probably really exhausted.
And yet he took this time with Nicodemus
having this extended conversation.
And whatever the practical logistics may have been,
I think there's also a strong chance
that Nicodemus didn't want anyone to know
that this meeting was happening.
He probably wanted it to be undercover.
He had a reputation to uphold.
But there's something deeper going on here too.
In the larger context of John's gospel and his letters,
night and darkness are associated with spiritual blindness.
So while this conversation likely did take place
physically at night,
John's leading us somewhere deeper.
This teacher of the law,
this moral exemplar,
this member of the Sanhedrin
is sitting in deep spiritual darkness.
Darkness that is deeper than he knows.
And Nicodemus' opening statement reveals his purpose,
his reason for talking to Jesus.
What he thinks he wants.
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher
who has come from God.
For no one could do these signs you are doing
without God.
And I think there are a few things we want to note here.
First of all,
Nicodemus addresses Jesus respectfully.
He says,
Rabbi.
So even though he was probably much older than Jesus
to have the status that he had,
he recognizes that Jesus is someone worthy of respect.
But still,
he's mainly trying to figure out
how do you do these things that you do?
How do you do exorcisms?
How do you do miracles?
All of these things that people are talking about.
Maybe he wants to go back
and report to his colleagues what he learns.
But instead,
Jesus redefines the conversation
with his statement in verse three.
Very truly,
I tell you,
no one can see the kingdom of God
unless they are born again.
He uses that phrase very truly,
I tell you,
three times in this passage,
meaning,
listen up and pay attention.
So immediately,
Nicodemus is probably thinking,
was I asking about the kingdom of God?
I didn't think I was asking about the kingdom of God.
But Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus
to answer,
to ask a better question.
Instead of,
I just wanna understand how you do miracles,
Jesus is right away from the get-go,
trying to lead him out of darkness
to salvation,
to speak to his true need.
And this phrase,
kingdom of God,
was a weighty one for the Jews at the time.
It would have made Nicodemus
kind of perk up and take notice.
Because throughout the Old Testament,
kingdom of God
implied both the presence of God,
who was king authoritatively,
and this domain to rule.
Now,
the prevailing Jewish teaching of the day
associated the kingdom of God
with the coming of the Messiah.
These two things were seen
as being in lockstep together.
And it was also seen as an eschatological,
that's a hard word to say,
end times event.
Meaning the present age
was gonna come to an end
and the new Jerusalem would come.
And you can imagine
how much the Jews longed for this event.
After multiple occupations,
after being in exile,
after they're in their current occupation,
Rome is occupying them.
I think we long for it too,
don't we?
I mean,
look at what's happening in Iran right now.
We long for the Lord to come
and make all things new,
the way we sang.
But here's the thing.
Jesus is gonna redefine
the way that the prevailing Jewish teaching
was interpreting this at the time.
His ministry of preaching and healing
has made it clear
that the kingdom of God
isn't just imminent,
but that God's mission
is being fulfilled in him
right in that moment.
What did Jesus say?
The first time he got up to preach
in the book of Luke,
in Luke's gospel,
he quotes Isaiah,
words that everyone in that synagogue
would have been familiar with.
The spirit of the Lord is on me
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
And he preaches that,
and then he proceeds to live it out
through the healing ministry that he has,
through the preaching,
through exorcisms.
And so Nicodemus is sitting here,
you know,
he's hearing Jesus say this,
he's flipping through his mental Rolodex,
and he's thinking about
all the kingdom of God
and Messiah prophecies he knows,
which I'm sure are many
because he was so educated.
And yet,
can you picture Jesus
leaning forward towards him?
Like,
Nicodemus,
the messianic salvation
and fulfillment
of all the Old Testament prophecies
that you've heard
and learned your whole life
is sitting right here.
It's me.
That salvation you've been longing
and searching for
isn't just a future thing.
It's a thing that's happening now.
So Jesus is shifting this paradigm
to a two-part fulfillment.
His miracles,
his healings,
his exorcisms
testify to abundant life
in the present
and everlasting life
in the age to come,
the consummation of the kingdom.
This was a new revelation.
So let's just pause here.
Let's zoom out for just a minute
and think about
how this is sitting with us.
So,
does anybody here
identify with Nicodemus?
Is anybody educated?
Did anybody come to D.C.
because they have
a high-powered job?
I think that there's
probably some likelihood
that D.C.
is a city full of Nicodemuses,
intellectual,
top-of-the-class,
valedictorians,
used to setting agendas,
defining the terms of a meeting,
used to having power and authority.
And none of those
is a bad thing, right?
But let me just ask you
a few questions
from these verses.
If you go to meet with Jesus,
who sets the agenda?
And who's asking the questions?
You know,
I was talking to somebody
the other day about Lent,
and she said,
my Lenten discipline this year
is that I'm taking 10 minutes
three times a day,
morning,
around lunchtime,
and nighttime,
just to sit.
I set a timer,
and I just sit
in the Lord's presence.
I don't say anything.
I just come to be with God.
And sometimes it's really hard,
right?
Sometimes that's a long 10 minutes.
Sometimes it's really beautiful.
But what if we did that, y'all?
What if we set a timer?
What if we said,
I just wanna be with God?
And that's the point,
being with God,
being part of his life.
Let me ask you another question.
Are you coming to Jesus
in the dark
or in the light?
So coming back
to Michelangelo's story
for just a little bit,
we know that after he worked
on this statue for eight years,
he tried to destroy it.
Now, we don't know exactly why,
but I think a particularly compelling story,
one theory,
is that there was a sect going on
in Florence at that time.
A group actually called the Nicodemus.
And the Nicodemus were Catholic,
but they believed in Protestant views
of salvation.
So they believed in salvation
by grace,
coming in faith,
but they didn't wanna separate
from the Catholic church.
Well, so the Pope at that time,
Paul IV,
found out about this group,
and he launched an inquisition against them.
And while we don't know
if Michelangelo was formally
part of this group,
we do know that he went into hiding.
He felt like he had to live in secrecy.
And so he did destroy this statue
or tried to,
but his face is the face of Nicodemus,
remains intact.
So ultimately,
he was identified with it.
And he was identified
with the suffering Christ.
So most of us face
far lesser penalties
for publicly professing our faith.
And yet many of us remain silent.
When people ask you,
what are you doing this weekend?
Maybe you say something like,
well, I'm having brunch on Saturday,
and Sunday afternoon,
I have a soccer game.
Sunday morning,
I'm seeing some friends somewhere
in an undisclosed location.
I mean, my neighbors see me
rolling out all the time
in my collar.
But if they believed
that I thought
that Jesus was the way,
the truth,
and the life,
and that no one comes
to the Father
except through him,
if I actually just
sat them down
and publicly professed that to them,
I don't know how that would go.
But what if we're the instrument,
what if I'm the instrument
for these neighbors
to come to know Jesus,
to come out of the darkness
into the light of his kingdom?
We need to think about this, y'all.
So as this conversation develops,
let's talk about how Nicodemus
and how we lose sight
of the big picture.
Let's go back to verse three again.
No one can see the kingdom of God
unless they're born again.
Nicodemus would have thought,
like all observant Jews,
that in addition to the kingdom
kind of being some future thing,
that he was in good shape
for the kingdom of God.
And for that matter,
John's readers
and probably a lot of us
would have thought the same thing.
Entry into the kingdom of God
was based on personal righteousness
and on being Jewish,
one of God's chosen people.
But Jesus throws him a curveball
or whatever the first century
equivalent of a curveball is
with this second part of this statement,
unless they're born again.
Nicodemus' immediate response to this
is probably some light sarcasm,
laughter,
maybe a little bit of fear.
How can someone be born when they're old?
Surely they cannot enter a second time
into their mother's womb.
Jesus responds by saying,
someone must be born of water and the spirit.
And this is so beautiful
because he's speaking so specifically
to Nicodemus and his vocation
as a teacher of the law,
as someone who knew the scriptures.
He's really trying to lead Nicodemus here
because this combination of water
and the spirit is from a passage
that he would have known really well
from Ezekiel,
where the Lord says,
I will sprinkle clean water on you
and you shall be clean
from all your uncleannesses
and from all your idols.
I will cleanse you
and I will give you a new heart
and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes
and be careful to obey my rules.
So Jesus is reminding Nicodemus,
hey, remember this prophecy?
Remember Ezekiel?
He's reminding him
that the spirit is the one
causing the obedience and righteousness.
It's not something we initiate.
Now in the Old Testament,
ritual cleansing with water
was done to rid yourself of impurity.
And the spirit,
or ruach,
is the Hebrew word,
affects the transformation of the heart.
Ruach is the same word used
when Genesis talks about the spirit of God
hovering over the waters.
It's the creative implement of God's nature.
Again, like most Pharisees,
Nicodemus was probably so convinced
of his own righteousness
that he was like,
I'm good.
I don't need this cleansing and renewal.
He's not talking about me.
But born of water in the spirit
means an impartation of God's very nature.
And this isn't something
we can force or manufacture.
Some of you who were here last week
heard Pastor Thomas' sermon on Psalm 51.
And if you haven't had a chance to listen to it,
please do go back and listen
about how Lent
is about the restoration and recovery of joy.
And one of the big takeaways
was that true joy isn't something
that we manufacture.
It's something that when we come
in repentance and in humility,
the spirit works that in us
as we confess.
It's the same thing here.
This impartation of God's nature
isn't something we manufacture ourselves.
Think about the beginning of the college
we prayed this morning.
Almighty God,
God,
you know that we have no power
within ourselves
to help ourselves.
We can't just sit here
and we can't just say like,
be more like God.
It doesn't work that way.
It'd be like trying to make
the wind blow a certain way.
But it blows where it pleases,
as Jesus says in verse eight.
So at this point,
I think Nicodemus is probably
starting to get a little nervous
because he says,
how can this be?
He's not trying to be funny.
He's not trying to kind of
deflect anything.
He's just like,
oh my goodness.
And I think you can sense
his anxiety
because think about it.
He's devoted his whole life
going one way
towards a certain paradigm.
He had it all figured out, right?
Check the boxes,
righteousness,
all of this.
What if I've been wrong
this whole time?
He might be thinking.
And Jesus once more
asks him another question.
Jesus asks the best questions.
Designed to cut to the heart.
You are Israel's teacher.
And do you not understand
these things?
He goes on to say,
you people do not
accept our testimony.
I have spoken to you
of earthly things
and you do not believe.
How then will you believe
if I speak of heavenly things?
So what Jesus is saying here
is Nicodemus,
you bear some responsibility
for this blindness.
You are a teacher of Israel.
You are fully equipped
to recognize
that the Messiah
is sitting right in front of you
but you're ignorant.
You're focused on signs
but not on the big picture
of the kingdom
that they point to.
What Jesus is really saying
is that Nicodemus' failure
of understanding
was not a failure
of intellect or knowledge.
It was a failure of belief.
Belief in Jesus' witness
and testimony.
And again,
it's like
you can almost hear
the gears
in Nicodemus' mind.
I've been searching
for this my whole life.
What would this mean
for me if he's right?
This isn't how
I thought this would go.
I think we have to grapple
with these same questions, church.
There's a reason
that a lot of us
spend our whole lives
in church
with no real transformation,
with no real effect
on our daily lives.
And Jesus has harsh words
for people like that.
He says,
this people honors me
with their lips
but their hearts
are far from me.
And that's because
there's a failure
of belief happening,
a failure to believe
Jesus' testimony
about who he says he is,
and a failure to believe
how deeply we need
cleansing and heart transformation.
So we have to ask ourselves,
where are we looking?
Where are we looking
for that transformation?
Like Pastor Thomas
said last week,
are there areas
of our lives
that we keep
kind of plugging up
that we're not willing
to bring to the Lord
because we're afraid
of what it might mean?
Because we're afraid
of what we'd have to change.
But y'all,
Lent is a time
to lay ourselves bare.
It's a holy invitation
to let the Spirit
come in
and transform us
to submit to that.
And that is a blessed relief.
This brings us
to our last point,
our true hope
for transformation.
Again,
we see the way
that Jesus dignifies Nicodemus,
that he really meets him
where he is
by drawing this parallel
between himself
and the true story
and the story
of the Israelites
in the wilderness
from this book of Numbers.
Let me read it quickly.
They traveled
from Mount Hor
along the route
to the Red Sea
to go around Edom.
But the people
grew impatient
on the way.
They spoke against God
and against Moses
and said,
why have you brought us
out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?
There is no bread,
there is no water,
and we detest
this miserable food.
Then the Lord
sent venomous snakes
among them.
They bit people
and many Israelites died.
The people came to Moses
and said,
we sinned
when we spoke
against the Lord
and against you.
Pray that the Lord
will take the snakes
away from us.
So Moses prayed
for the people.
The Lord said to Moses,
make a snake
and put it on a pole
and anyone who is bitten
can look at it
and live.
And so Moses
made a bronze snake
and put it up
on a pole.
And then when anyone
was bitten by a snake
and looked at the bronze snake,
they lived.
And we know
if we continue on
in the story
of the Israelites,
this was a temporary salvation.
In fact,
in the book of Kings,
there's a part
where King Hezekiah
actually has to destroy
the snake
because people believe
that it had magical powers
instead of recognizing it
as for what it was,
an instrument of grace
from God.
And the people fell back
into cycles of sin
again and again.
And Nicodemus knows this story
just like he knows
the prophet Ezekiel.
And he wouldn't have
understand the context
of the cross yet
like we do,
like John's readers
would have.
But he's clearly
inviting Nicodemus
into new birth
and healing with himself
as a means of grace
for that,
as the grace.
And so just as
the Israelites
can look at the snake
and be saved
from the poison
infecting them,
so Nicodemus and we
can look at Jesus
and be saved
from the poison
of sin.
So we come to it
at last.
John 3, 16.
Probably the most famous
verse in the Bible.
For God so loved
the world
that he gave
his only begotten son
that whoever
believes in him
shall not perish
but shall have
eternal life.
We see this verse
by the highway.
We see it at sports
games on posters.
We see it on drink cups
at In-N-Out Burger.
As a matter of fact,
FYI,
if you're ever traveling
in the West.
But like Nicodemus,
so many of us
have a limited understanding
of this verse.
Maybe we're thinking
that this eternal life
business is just
for the future.
We're like,
well,
I do believe
and I'm really glad
that I'll be in heaven
with Jesus
and have eternal life
someday.
Or we might think,
what's the point?
All this eternal life
stuff sounds suspect
anyway.
The present world
is what we get
and then we're done.
But that phrase,
whoever believes in him,
is really key here
because the word belief
harkens back
to John's prologue
in chapter one
where he talks about
to those who believed
in him,
to those who believed
in his name,
he gave the right
to become children
of God.
And so we're not
just reborn.
We're born into something.
We're born into
the life of Christ.
We're born into
a family of believers.
And that starts now.
It starts now.
And this is for the world.
So again,
Jesus is massively
expanding this
from just being
for the Jews
to being for the whole world.
And that includes you,
it includes me,
it includes everybody
throughout time and space.
That is why Jesus came.
And so no matter
what you've done,
who you are,
Jesus wants to give you
eternal life.
And that life starts now.
This conversation
isn't the end
of Nicodemus' story.
John writes about him
in two more key scenes.
In one scene,
the Sanhedrin's
trying to arrest Jesus.
And Nicodemus says,
does our law condemn a man
without first hearing him
to find out
what he's been doing?
And he gets ridiculed
by the whole group,
like, oh,
do you support him too?
And then we see him
a second time.
We see him
after Jesus' crucifixion.
And so this scene
that Michelangelo carved
out of a block of marble,
in some fashion,
it really happened.
And Nicodemus
was really there.
Because under Roman law,
a person's body
could be claimed
from the cross
by next of kin.
But in a case of sedition,
which is what
the charges were
against Jesus,
in a case of sedition,
often the bodies
were left
for the vultures,
left to rot.
They could be up
on the cross for weeks.
So Nicodemus
and Joseph of Arimathea,
who John says
was a disciple
but in secret
for fear of the Jews,
they go and they ask Pilate
for Jesus' body.
And Pilate says yes.
So they actually
took Jesus' body
down from the cross.
So think about
the tenderness
and the intimacy of this.
Jesus' body
was covered in blood
and sweat
and bruises.
He was broken.
He was limp.
Dead.
They would have
washed his scarred,
washed all the blood
off his scarred body.
And then it says
Nicodemus brought
75 pounds of spices.
And they wrapped him
in linen cloth.
Spices meant for a king.
And y'all remember
all of Jesus' disciples
had fled
at this point.
And while his mother
and some of the other women
had stayed,
they didn't have the money
or the power
or the influence
to do this
but Joseph of Arimathea
and Nicodemus did.
And although they
had been unwilling
until this moment
to publicly affiliate
themselves with Jesus,
they stepped forward.
They risked their lives
and their position.
Why would they do this?
Because they were reborn.
They were given new hearts.
Because their encounters
with the love of Christ
gave them courage
to step out of the darkness
into the day.
And y'all,
you have to remember
they didn't know
the resurrection was coming.
This was Saturday.
As far as they knew,
they had nothing to gain
and everything to lose.
they didn't know
what was coming.
But we do.
We do.
So the questions
for you this morning
are,
will you let him
lead you out of darkness
into life in him?
And will you look at him
and let him transform you
and give you a new heart?
Let's pray.
Lord,
we are in desperate need of you
and in your transformation.
I pray
that we would be open
and willing
to step out of the darkness
into the light.
Lord,
we thank you
for your spirit
that works in us.
We long for new hearts.
We long for your work
of transformation.
And thank you
that we get to do this
with you,
Jesus.
Thank you
that eternal life
means life in you.
So would you give us courage
when there are places
of unbelief in us,
Lord,
would you help
our unbelief
that we may come
to you in faith
and be transformed.
In the name of the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.