John 3:1-8, 16&17

Before I met and married Richard, I lived in an apartment in Glendale. My apartment was on the ground floor, facing an extremely busy main street. So I came to the habit of not answering the door after a certain hour at night, unless I had been called ahead of time. So when a knock came one night after 11:00, of course I looked through the door’s peep hole. I did not recognize whoever stood on the other side of the door. He did not look like Ed McMahon holding a sweepstake check. Perhaps my visitor knew why he was there. But I had no idea why he had came to my door, late at night. The feelings that were racing through me ranged from anxiousness, suspicion to fear. I did not open my door! Now Jesus had a visitor - one who came late at night. His visitor did not know why he was there. However, Jesus knew exactly why Nic had come at night!

As we heard from John’s gospel, Nicodemus and Jesus then had a conversation. But before we can talk about their conversation, we need to know a little about Nicodemus and what was driving him.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. This was the group that later became mortal enemies of Jesus who set him up for death. The Pharisees were highly educated and politically conservative. They also took the Law of God very seriously. They sought to apply the Ten Commandments in every area of life. Those commandments, of course, speak about worshiping the one true God and avoiding idols, honoring parents, and refraining from lying, adultery, and various other sins. They were written in a rather general way. The Pharisees, however, made up many definitions and liked to have everything defined in very specific terms.

At this point in time, the Pharisees didn’t know that Jesus is not going to keep those laws and definitions. As a group, the Pharisees are seeking to form an alliance with this rabbi, Jesus. Our night-time friend actually feels sent by the other Pharisees.

Another point for us to understand in trying to make sense of the Pharisees and to get to know Nic a little better, is that fundamental to this group, is a much larger quest than their technical worries over the observance of these commandments and definitions. These people were serious about knowing the will of God. They really cared about the truth and doing it right!

However, they became proud and self-righteous, like anyone who develops a degree of expertise in such a quest. The result...they became hypocritical toward ordinary people. They showed little mercy toward "sinners" and enemies.

Something else about Nic is that he was a ruler of the Jews. This means that he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He would have been one of 70 men who made up the combined court of the Jewish nation - similar to our senate and supreme courts.

Further, if this was the same Nicodemus that John tells about later in his gospel, he must have been wealthy. When Jesus died, we are told in chapter 19 that a person named Nicodemus brought for Jesus’ burial, about a hundred pound weight of a mixture of myrrh and aloes (John 19:39). Only a very rich man could have brought that.

Now, if you and I had lived in Christ’s day and perhaps been forced to choose a person to represent us - a person who would "embody the best of our culture, education, ethics and piety" ol’ Nic would have been just such a choice. Many rulers of Rome were corrupt....some things have not changed in over 2000 years....so that would not have been our choice. We certainly would not have chosen a common, ignorant person to represent us. We would no doubt have chosen Nic. He really would have made a pretty good representative for humanity. After all he had everything. Yes, Nic had everything - everything that is except spiritual success. In many ways Nic did represent those of his day and ours,,,who seek the meaning of life in religion, but do not find it! He belonged to the church, but he knew nothing of that personal, life-transforming relationship with God.

As I said, being a good Pharisee, Nic was serious about knowing the will of God. He really did care about the truth. So his search took him to Jesus by night. Now we don’t know, but Jesus might have been tired at the end of a very long day. We are not told in John’s gospel. Nonetheless, he was not too tired to know the real issues going on. Jesus does not hesitate. Jesus goes for the spiritual jugular. No holds barred! He says, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." As I said, according to everything Nic had been taught, being accepted by God depended entirely upon closely following an exhaustive body of rules and regulations. Now this miracle-working itinerant preacher-teacher whom Nic approached for just a bit of wisdom, sliced through all the layers of rules and legalistic attitudes that had accumulated around Nic’s mind and heart. Jesus claimed instead that to be accepted by God, one must be "born again." This was like a sword piercing this Pharisee’s heart. And then, what followed was Nicodemus and Jesus doing an intellectual/spiritual dance. A dance that in so many ways, for so many, has continued for centuries.

Even right up to and including this century. A little closer to home, after a public repentance and spiritual awakening following the Watergate scandal, Charles Colson wrote a book. This was the first of many books he would someday write about living the Christian faith in the rough, scary real world. His first book became a best-seller and launched a new ministry for that former Nixon White House "hatchet man." His book about the ministry of prison reform and prison evangelism was titled, "Born Again."

The July issue of Christianity Today has a feature article celebrating Chuck Colson and his 26-year prison ministry. The article has excerpts from that first book. Chuck Colson’s conversion was dramatic. It was at night when a friend of his confronted Colson with the gospel message and a quote from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. The quote: "A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." His friend asked him if he wanted him to pray with Chuck. Chuck’s "Yes, fine" was halting and hesitant. But later that same night, Chuck said he "felt the inner movement of the Spirit but did not cough up the words of surrender." The Holy Spirit took hold and converted Chuck later that same night. Chuck was "born again."

As an aside, another interesting aspect of Chuck’s conversion and his journey with the Lord is that this same friend who was instrumental with the Holy Spirit tried to connect Chuck and Christian U.S. Senator for spiritual mentoring. After Senator Harold Hughes’ initial very negative response to spiritual mentoring Chuck Colson, he finally agreed, but only on the condition that they meet "out in the countryside" and "after 11:00 at night."

It is believed that because of the success of Colson’s book, "Born Again", the election of the "born again" President, Jimmy Carter, and the rise of tele-vangelism during the 1980’s, the term "born again" moved beyond the boundaries of evangelical and fundamentalist Christian circles. It moved into the language of secular society. With that move, in recent years, the different media have grasped the label "born again"and turn it into a term of scorn and ridicule. It actually became "unfashionable" to call oneself "born again," because that anti-Christian media had redefined the term. Yes there there has been much abuse and distortion of the phrase "born again." Despite this it remains a term filled with powerful spiritual significance and meaning. Chuck Colson said, "It is a beautiful picture that was coined by Jesus himself to describe a radical spiritual transformation that has taken place in my own life and in the lives of every person who has truly committed his or her total self to the lordship of Jesus Christ."

That negative and annoying referral of "being born again" is a negative reference to a Christian. Some people have been known to say, "I’m a Christian, but I’m not one of those born again types. The fact is that if you are a believing Christian, then you are born again. If you are not born again, then you are not a Christian. It is that simple and that radical.

This radical spiritual transformation is a new way to be born a second time - to be born from above, from God. This radical spiritual transformation is not something we do to ourselves. It is something that God does, through the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:1-11 the Apostle Paul tells us that when we become people of the Spirit, we then have a new operating center in our life. This is God’s radical, transforming work through the Holy Spirit.

Now Nicodemus was doing his level best to obey what he thought God wanted. Yet his empty and unsatisfied heart led him to seek out Jesus by night. Jesus wasted no time in telling Nic he was operating on a false premise, and that, bottom line, was that he would have to have a radical change made in his life. That would be made only by the Holy Spirit, not Nicodemus. Essentially Jesus said, "You are wasting your time if you think you can enter the kingdom of God the way you are heading. You can keep all the rules and regulations you want. However, that will not get you into the kingdom of God. The only way is to be born again. You need a new operating center."

John Wesley knew about that new operating center. John Wesley was the great Anglican evangelist and co-founder, with his brother Charles, of the Methodist movement, what we refer to the Methodist denomination. John Wesley used to travel throughout England, Wales and Scotland, preaching. That which he preached was, "You must be born again." Mr. Wesley knew the need and significance of that new operating center. Someone once asked him, "Why do you always preach on the words, ‘You must be born again’?" Wesley’s answer was, "Because . . . you must be born again!"

This means the starting point in the Christian life is conversion by way of rebirth. This is the radical spiritual transformation that we all need in our lives. No matter how hard we try and perhaps succeed at doing right things, and the things we think God wants us to do, we remain alienated - that is separated from God.

This separation continues until God comes to us to plant the saving faith, not religion, within our heart, through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians (2:8) that this gift of faith is a gift from God, not ourselves. God brings the words of Scripture to our attention. You and I might be used of God and be asked to assist the Holy Spirit. But it is the Holy Spirit that takes those words of Scripture and plants them in our hearts, which result in new life. That is when we can declare, along with Paul - and Nicodemus, and Chuck Colson and many who are here today, "If any one is in Christ, they are a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17). Granted, our old nature remains with us, but now we begin to see things differently as this new life within begins to grow. Our new operating center takes over.

Our new operating center can be compared to our computers. When we get an upgrade we get a new chip, the mother board. There is now a new operating system inside the computer. There is new power within the computer. However, the computer still looks the same. It just acts differently. It is the same with us. We continue to look the same on the outside. But with this new operating center, our new radical, life transforming center, makes our motivation new. We are made wholly different on the inside by the work of the Holy Spirit.