Accepted as Saved

Below is my sermon manuscript for my sermon from Trinity Sunday, May 27, 2018. An audio recording of the message from Redeemer is downloadable here. The lessons were: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17. I focused mainly on John 3, with a reference to Romans, and a teaching moment from Isaiah to begin.

Grace, peace and mercy to you, from God, our Creator, and Jesus Christ, God’s Son and our Savior.  AMEN.

I want to first take a moment to use our first reading to explain something I do when presiding over Holy Communion. In the reading from Isaiah, the prophet is taken into heaven, and is in the presence of God. The seraphs, which are angels, are there proclaiming, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.” While doing so, they are covering their faces. The “Holy, Holy, Holy” that we sing during Holy Communion is taken from this passage. While singing this in the presence of God, they cover their faces. So, while this is being sung, and I am in the presence of God, in the form of the bread and wine, I bow, hiding my face and closing my eyes. This is a practice that I learned from one of my seminary professors, and that I have adopted as one of my own practices.

Onto John, and these 17 verses full of HUGE theological concepts.

Nicodemus comes to see Jesus because in the second chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus caused a commotion and cleared out the Temple, as well as doing other signs. Signs are John’s word for miracles. These signs cause Nicodemus to visit to come visit Jesus.

Now Nicodemus is not just a Pharisee, but also a leader of the Jews; he is a member of Sanhedrin, the ruling council of for the people of Israel. Jesus also calls him a teacher of Israel, which means he is a leading scholar.

Nicodemus comes in dark of night to better understand of who is this Jesus. But remember, in John’s Gospel, darkness means evil or ignorance.

His greeting, where he says that he knows Jesus comes from God is dismissed. Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”[1]

I want to unpack all of what Jesus tells Nicodemus. When the Bible says Very truly, the original Greek says Amen, Amen. What I’m about to say is God’s honest truth. LISTEN UP!

I believe the word kingdom is better translated as reign – not a place, but an event. It isn’t heaven, but it is the act of God being in charge and God being given glory. God’s reign is God’s love, grace, and mercy flowing everywhere, and from everyone.

When Jesus says Born from above He creates a theological dilemma. The word in Greek (ἄνωθεν / anothen) means both above and again. This is the concept of being born again that our Baptist and Evangelical friends use.

It is clear that Nicodemus understands the word as AGAIN – How can I be born again? He doesn’t reject the concept; he is trying to figure out HOW.

Jesus again responds: Amen and Amen. No one can enter the kingdom (think reign) of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.[2]

We understand this as Baptism – we are washed clean of our sins, joined with Jesus and given the Holy Spirit in our baptism. In our baptism, we are born anew. We are born again when we are accepted into God’s family, claimed as a child of God in our baptism.

Jesus says, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.[3]” Jesus is referring to his becoming human. Jesus compares himself to a bronze serpent Moses lifted in desert when snakes had bitten many Israelites. God told Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole and lift it up. Those who looked at what was lifted up would be healed and saved from death.

Jesus says it will be like that for the Son. He must be lifted up and all who look to him will be saved for all eternity. Jesus says by his crucifixion and ascension, those who believe in him will be saved.

The key point is that no one has ascended TO heaven except the one who descended FROM heaven and who will again be lifted up, or re-ascend. Think of it this way. There is water at the bottom of the well. The only way it can come to the surface is something draws it up. That is what the Son does; He has come down to draw us to him and to draw us up to the Father.

Finally we get to the most famous Bible verse: “For God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.[4]” But the next verse is just as important, but way too often ignored: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.[5]”

God gave the Son, in life and in death, to give eternal life to us. Give. The Son did not come to judge, condemn, cause to perish or destroy. The Son came to the world so that world would be saved through him, and be given eternal life.

Remember, God sends the Son into the world – the world that He, the Son, created by speaking it into creation. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, in the Prologue, the Word of God created the world, but world did not know him. God sent the Son into a world that rejected and turns away from him.

These two verses, John 3:16-17, in my opinion should always be read as a pair. “For God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.[6]”

God loves the world and God sent God’s Son into that world, not to destroy it or to make it, or any part of it perish, not to condemn it, but rather to give it life eternal, to save the world; to save everyone.

Unfortunately, this passage, which has a lot of ideas and knowledge about God & Christ’s mission, has been used to attack by those who want to define God’s mission in their terms. People say if you aren’t born again, if you haven’t made the decision to accept that Jesus Christ is your Savior, you are condemned. That is the height of arrogance.

As I quoted from Luther’s Small Catechism’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed last Sunday, I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me.[7]

We don’t come to Christ. Christ came to us.

Unfortunately, some people and some traditions want to make us responsible, and give a list of their things that we must do and must not do in order to be saved. They make a list to blame and shame, to divide and deny, to hold down and hold back.

They want you to accept the gift given by God, to make it your responsibility. But you are saved and forgiven whether you accept it or not. God loves us too much to let us mess up our own eternal fate.

Our Lutheran understanding is that the God of grace and God of mercy “so loved the world he gave his only Son, so everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.[8]”

I give thanks that Jesus has accepted me to be personally saved by Him. AMEN.

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[1] John 3:3

[2] John 3:5-6

[3] John 3:13

[4] John 3:16

[5] John 3:17

[6] John 3:16-17

[7] Luther’s Small Catechism, The Creed, The Third Article

[8] John 3:16-17

Fixed. 

+pBRC