“Alive?  Alive!”

John 3:1-21, Ezekiel 36:25-27 

Preached by Rev. Jane Moschenrose

Today we begin a sermon series in which we will explore a variety of 2 Word Stories.  You may have seen the 2WordStory billboards on the side of the highway or buses this week.  They are also in malls and movie theaters, on hot-cup sleeves in coffee shops, on the lawns of churches and maybe your own front yard.  Our prayer is that as people see these different 2 word combinations with 2WordStory.com on them, Holy Spirit will cause them to think about their own lives and peak a curiosity that draws them to the website.  Once on the site, there are 21 video testimonials of people sharing their 2WordStory, and they can explore the site and discover who Jesus is and learn about Christianity.  Please be in prayer that many people will commit their lives to Christ in the next 33 days of the E.A.C.H. Campaign, and that you and I will be a vital part of this revival in the Metro Detroit Region.

It’s a challenge for many of us to openly share our faith, particularly with strangers.  I wore my 2WordStory shirt to my chiropractor’s office this week and he said in front of everyone there, “Oh, you got your 2WordStory shirt! I’ve got to get mine!” So naturally everyone turned and looked at me, and I suddenly felt very self-conscious.  Thankfully I was able to quickly remind myself that this conversation is not about me, but about what God is up to in this time and place, and I no more than finished that thought when a young woman said, “OK, tell me the story about this word “Trust.”  I said, “well, before I was a Christian I had a real issue with trust, including trusting God; and since I’ve been a Christian I’ve grown more and more able to trust God on a deep level.”  That’s all I said, but this was enough to spark conversation with the others in the room.  The woman who raised the question shared where she is on her faith journey, and the room-full of people were fully engaged in the conversation.

What I learned from this is that people want to talk about their faith, when the context is non-judgmental.  Faith is a core issue for people, and they want to grow in their spiritual journeys.  I think the fear and hesitancy so many of us have toward sharing our faith with others is a huge self-inflicted limitation, one that originates inside ourselves, not with the other person.  If we want to be faithful to God, we need to figure out what is keeping us from sharing the good news of Christ, and resolve those issues.  And if we don’t care enough about our neighbors and others to even take the time to pray for them, then we’ve really got a problem to which we need attend! 

Today’s Scripture lesson is about a man whose 2WordStory was “Alive?  Alive.”  Let’s read the story of Nicodemus, as recorded in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, beginning with verse 1: (READ)

Before Nicodemus was alive in Christ, he was already a greatly respected, high-ranking Jewish rabbi.  He was a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the national body in charge of Jewish affairs.  This was the same group that ended up being the driving force in the plot against Jesus; however, Nicodemus wasn’t like his colleagues, in that he recognized Jesus as being from God, and wanted to talk with him and understand him better.  Nicodemus realized that though he had done everything he knew to do to be fully alive, Jesus had something – a quality, a depth to his soul – a focus to his life - that Nicodemus was missing.  So he met with Jesus one night after the crowds had dispersed, for a serious one-on-one conversation, with the hope that he would come to understand what exactly Jesus had that he was missing.  

Has anyone ever done that with you?  Has anyone ever recognized that there was something about the essence of your being that was obviously from God, and they wanted to know more about that?  Are you alive like Jesus was alive?  Do others see God in you and ask you about that relationship?  

That’s what Nicodemus was doing with Jesus.  He opened the conversation with a complement – “I recognize that you come from God.”  Notice Jesus’ response.  He doesn’t get caught up in flattery; he doesn’t become focused on self. Nor does he jabber back and forth with Nicodemus about orthodox doctrine, which was what Nicodemus was all about.  Jesus knew that a greater understanding of orthodox doctrine was not the missing piece in Nicodemus.  Rather, Nicodemus was missing the essence of what God wants for us, and that is complete transformation.  Jesus came to bring life, to give us abundant life.  And abundant life is not comprised of more things or more doctrinal knowledge or more political or religious power.  Abundant life is decisive inner transformation.  It’s total renewal.  It’s a complete turnaround from being centered and focused on self and living your life around self-interest to one that is centered and focused on God, and living your life around participating in the Kingdom of God. That is, being part of what God is doing in the world, out of love for God and others.  I’m not talking about what you know but who you are:  Transformative results from relationship with God.  Have you been born again?  Are you alive in Christ?  That’s what Jesus had that Nicodemus was lacking, as religious as he was.  Jesus was fully alive, as one totally focused on God’s mission and purpose.

Unfortunately Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was talking about, and understood His response from a superficial, literal perspective.  “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  There really is no excuse for Nicodemus having dismissed Jesus in this way.  As a Rabbi, a teacher of the Holy Scripture, he knew that this concept of a new beginning and a decisive inner transformation had been prophesized in the Hebrew Testament.  The prophet Ezekiel had written something similar in chapter 36 verse 25: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”  And yet Nicodemus acts perplexed by what Jesus says, as though it makes no sense at all to him.

I shudder to think how often you and I have responded in like fashion – how often have you and I turned Jesus’ teaching into something trite and laughable?  Are we fully alive in Christ?  Or do we choose to hear Jesus’ teaching in an off-the-cuff manner, dismissing the depth of his message?

Be careful about doing that with teaching Jesus has prefaced with the words, “Very truly, I tell you…”  When he says that, he is absolutely serious – what he’s about to say is of the utmost importance.  We need to listen, to work hard to understand what he is teaching, not be flip or trite in order to brush aside that which we do not want to hear.  Very truly, we cannot be part of God’s kingdom without being born of water and Spirit.  We need to receive new life from above, from God.  Truly.  Jesus notes that there are other things we accept though we cannot understand them fully.  Such as the wind.  The word for “wind” and “Spirt” was the same both in Hebrew and Greek.  The Hebrew Testament and Jewish literature have many references to the mystery of the wind’s origin.  Jesus says that though both wind and spiritual birth are mysterious in origin, and yet they are real, and the effects of both can be observed. 

When Nicodemus continues to challenge Jesus, by saying in verse 9, “how can these things be”, Jesus brings him down a notch.  Here you are a teacher of Israel, and yet you don’t understand these things?  And for the third time in the same conversation he starts a statement with “Very truly, I tell you.”  Listen, people, Jesus is serious here.  Jesus comes from God, and what he says is true. If you don’t believe that basic fact, then you won’t be able to understand anything that comes from God.  Jesus is uniquely from God – he is the only one who has descended from heaven, and only if you believe in him will you have eternal life.  God loves you. Oh, God loves you so much that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  How do you respond?  Do you believe?  Are you alive in Christ?  Can you proclaim to the world, “Alive?  Alive!”  I pray that the answer for everyone in this room is a resounding “YES!” 

Let’s pray about these things. 

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