This week we have been meeting two individuals that we
usually do not talk about on Easter Sunday. Yet, it is these two individuals
that actually make it possible to tell the Easter story. These two characters and
the role that they played in the events of Easter allow us to be able to stand
here some 2,000 years later and confidently say that Easter is about an event
that happened in history that radically and forever changed how human beings
would relate to God.
John, the writer of this account
of Jesus life, brought us into this event from history by introducing us to a
man named Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. The Pharisees
were a leading group of Jewish religious leaders during Jesus life on earth. Nicodemus was also a
part of the Sanhedrin, which was the Senate and Supreme court of the Jewish
nation. John tells us that Nicodemus came as a representative of the Jewish
religious leaders one evening in order to have a conversation with Jesus.
However, before Nicodemus could even ask what that
message from God was, Jesus took control of the conversation by telling Nicodemus that, in order to be a part of this kingdom
with the Messiah, one must be born again. This little phase, born again, in the
language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to be born
from above.
Jesus statement, if communicated
in the language we use today would have sounded something like this: “No
Nicodemus, you cannot enter into the womb again, you cannot be born from above
because of something you do. To be born from above is something that the Spirit
of God does to you. In the same way that you have been brought into the world
physically in a way that resulted in you entering into a relationship with your
earthly parents, you also have to be brought into a relationship with God by
the Spirit of God. Nicodemus, you should not be surprised at what I am telling
you. It’s like the wind. The wind moves throughout the world every day. And no
one has any control over the wind. The wind does whatever it desires. The wind
starts when it wants to start; the wind goes where it wants to go; the wind
ends when it wants to end. Just as no one can control the wind, no one can
control the activity of the Holy Spirit and what He does in bringing people to
the place where they are brought into a relationship with God.”
After blowing up all of the categories that Nicodemus had
when it came to God, Jesus answered the question that drove the religious
leaders to send Nicodemus to Jesus in the first place. That question was this:
Who did Jesus think He was and what authority did He think He had to say and do
what He was doing. We see Jesus answer that question in John 3:13-15:
"No one
has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
Jesus explained to Nicodemus that He alone can speak
authoritatively on how one is able to be brought into a relationship with God,
because He alone is the Son of Man. Jesus pointed Nicodemus back to a section
of a letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles called the book of Daniel. In
Daniel 7:13-14, the prophet Daniel predicted and proclaimed that the Messiah
would come from Heaven to usher in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus then reminded Nicodemus of an event from history
that is recorded for us in a letter in our Bibles called the book of Numbers.
In Numbers 21:9, we read of an occasion where the Jewish people selfishly
rebelled against Moses and God. God responded to their rebellion by sending
poisonous snakes to kill those who were involved in the rebellion.
The Lord commanded Moses to make an image of a bronze
serpent and lift it on a standard so that it would be visible to all. Moses
then explained to the people that God would heal them if they looked at the
serpent. All those who trusted in God and looked at the serpent that was lifted
on the pole were healed, while the rest of the Jewish people who failed to
trust God but continued in their selfishness and rebellion died.
Jesus then took this Old Testament story and explained
that this story was a foreshadowing of what would happen to Him. Jesus explained
to Nicodemus that just like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, He would be
lifted up on a pole and that everyone who placed their confident trust in Him
would be brought into a relationship with God. Jesus then made a statement that
is probably the most familiar verse in the entire Bible. And it is in this
single verse that we see the core message of the good news of the message of
the gospel.
If you are here and you are not sure you buy the Jesus,
Bible, church, thing; if you are here and you have had Christians share “the
gospel” with you but found yourself walking away confused or found the message
filled with big 50 cent theological words that you did not understand, I just
want to let you know that I am glad you are reading this, because, in this
verse, we see the gospel most clearly and simply put.
I am glad you are reading this because while you have
every right to reject and walk away from the message of the gospel, I want to
make sure that you walk away clearly understanding what you are rejecting. And
this may be the first time that you have had the opportunity to clearly hear
the good news of God’s message of rescue through the message of the gospel. So
let’s look at this verse together, in verse 16:
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
In this verse, we see Jesus reveal for us we need to
know and what we need to do in order to enter into a relationship with God.
First, Jesus stated for God so loved the world. God sent His Son Jesus to earth
not because He was mad at the world; God is in love with the world. Jesus then
tells us that God did what people, who are in love, do. God gave. God sent His
Son Jesus because He loved the world.
You see, while God created humanity to experience a
relationship with Him and a relationship with one another, all of humanity
selfishly rebelled and rejected that relationship, instead choosing to love
ourselves over others and do things out of that selfish love that hurt God and
others. That selfish love and rebellion is what the Bible calls sin. God
responded to that selfish love and rebellion by giving what was closest to
Himself to rescue what was furthest away.
God’s love and interest in us was made known and shown
in the most powerful way when He sent His unique, one and only Son to earth,
who allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful
lives through His death on the cross, so that God the Father could treat us as
though we lived Jesus perfect life.
Jesus
then explained that God loved and God gave so that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish. Now this little phrase believes in, in the language that this
letter is written in, literally means to entrust oneself entrust to someone with complete confidence.
While I can say that I believe that a stool can hold my weight, it is only when
I sit on the stool that I demonstrate that I trust the stool to hold my weight.
And for the person who believes, trusts, and follows Jesus, Jesus explains that
they shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Now
eternal life is not simply living forever. You see, everyone lives forever; we
are created as eternal beings. The question is not whether or not you are going
to live forever, the question is where are you going to live? When Jesus uses
this phrase, He is revealing to Nicodemus that the person who places their
confident trust in Jesus life, death, and resurrection will not be separated
from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, but will experience forgiveness of sin and the relationship with
God that we were created for.
And that is the good news of the gospel: God loved, God
gave, so that those who believe and place their confident trust in Jesus would
receive life in relationship with Him. Now you might be thinking “I am still
having a hard time buying that God is like this. I still see God as being like
a cosmic cop around the corner waiting to bust me. The idea that Easter is
about God’s love for me and desire for relationship with me is hard to accept”.
If that is where you are at this morning, just look at what Jesus says next in
verse 17-21:
"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but
that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not
judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment,
that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than
the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates
the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be
exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his
deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
If Jesus was communicating this in the language that we
use in our culture today, these verses would sound like this: Nicodemus, God
did not send Me as the Messiah to the earth in order to judge all of humanity,
but that all of humanity would have the opportunity to be rescued from their
selfishness and rebellion. The person who places their confident trust in Me is
not condemned. However, the person who refuses to place their confident trust
in Me is already condemned because of their selfishness and rebellion. Everyone
is condemned and the reason that they are condemned is because I have revealed
Myself throughout human history and all of humanity has responded by rebelling
and rejecting Me. They want nothing to do with Me because I expose the
selfishness and rebellion that is in the center and core of their being.
Everyone is already condemned because of their rebellion and I have come to
rescue those who trust in Me from condemnation. And everyone who places their
confident trust in Me and live in relationship with Me reveal the reality of My
transformational intervention and activity that has brought them into
relationship with Me.”
Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that all of
humanity stands condemned to an eternity apart from God as a result of our
selfishness and rebellion. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that
rescue from selfishness and rebellion was not based on what we did for God, but
in trusting in what God was doing through Jesus, who entered humanity as the
culmination of God’s Divine plan to provide an opportunity for forgiveness and
restoration.
And with that, Jesus conversation with Nicodemus was
over. A little less than two and a half years later, Jesus fulfilled the
prediction and promise that He made. Nicodemus cautiously objected and was
ridiculed by his fellow religious leaders as they planned to kill Jesus.
Nicodemus watched as Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted, and handed over to
the Romans, who lifted Jesus up on a pole, a cross in order to be crucified.
Now crucifixion was the most humiliating
form of punishment ever devised. Death on the cross was usually reserved for
condemned slaves, who were considered the lowest form of humanity. This was a
death that was reserved for the worst criminals and for enemies of the Roman
Empire. The Roman Empire used crucifixion to send a simple yet powerful message-
don’t mess with the Roman Empire.
And the
message was delivered not simply by the humiliation and suffering of the
crucifixion. The message was communicated after death by crucifixion as well.
Family members and friends were not allowed to have the bodies of those who
were crucified for treason or revolt. Instead, the Roman government allowed the
dead and decaying bodies to remain on the crosses, where they would be ravaged
by wild animals and the forces of nature. As a matter of fact the phrase “food
for the crows’ derives its origin from what would occur after a crucifixion.
This was the ultimate humiliation.
After
being ravaged by animals; after decaying for days or weeks, the bodies would
then be cast into a common grave, or worse yet, in a garbage dump, never to be
claimed or have a proper burial. So what should have happened to Jesus was
that, like so many other false Messiahs and political insurrectionists, his
body should have been left to rot and then be thrown away into a garbage dump
or common grave, where He would have vanished into obscurity. But that is not
what happened to the body of Jesus. We discover what happened to the body of
Jesus after His crucifixion in John 19:38-42:
After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a
secret one for fear of the
Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate
granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first
come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a
hundred pounds weight. So they
took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is
the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there
was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby,
they laid Jesus there.
John introduces us to a man named Joseph of Arimathea. In
another account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible, we learn
that Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin who had not
consented to the decision to hand Jesus over to be crucified. John tells us
that Joseph, like Nicodemus, had demonstrated a timidity and caution when it
came to following Jesus.
However, after Jesus death Joseph of Arimathea did what
would have been considered almost unthinkable. Joseph approached the most
powerful man in the Roman government in Israel, the man who had personally
condemned Jesus to death as an enemy of the Roman Empire, and asked for his body,
a request that was almost never granted. Can you imagine the courage it must
have taken to enter into the presence of Pilate and then ask for the body of a
person whom he had just sentenced to death as an enemy of the state?
Pilate, who had previously questioned the motives behind
the religious leaders desire to kill Jesus, but was too much of a people
pleaser to do what was right, responded to the courage of Joseph of Arimathea
by granting his request. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus then went and retrieved
Jesus body from the cross and prepared the body for burial. Joseph, being very
wealthy, had already acquired a tomb in preparation for his own death that was
located in a prime and popular area. Joseph of Arimathea decided to take the
tomb that he had purchased for himself and instead use it to bury Jesus, which
is exactly what he and Nicodemus did.
And because Joseph of Arimathea had the courage to ask
the most powerful person in the Roman government in Israel for the body of
Jesus; because Nicodemus and Joseph had the courage to take the body from the
Roman government instead of allowing it to be discarded in the trash or a
common grave to vanish into obscurity and give Jesus a proper burial in a tomb
located in a prominent place, we have the evidence of an event
that happened in history that radically and forever changed how human beings
would relate to God.
Because
of Joseph and Nicodemus, other women helped prepare and bury the body of Jesus.
Because of Joseph and Nicodemus, there had to be a guard sent to guard the tomb
where Jesus was laid. Because of Joseph and Nicodemus, there was a tomb to be
empty on that first Easter Sunday witnessed by many. Because of Joseph and Nicodemus, we know for certain
that Jesus died on the cross, was buried dead as a doornail in a tomb, and was
raised from the dead.
And because of Joseph and Nicodemus, we can have
certainty today that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper, and that all
humanity has the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship
with God that they were created for as a result of Jesus life, death, and
resurrection…
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