Outer Rim Territories

Sermon: John 3:1-15 "Nicodemus & Baptism"

I've done two sermons for Baptism class... The first needs a lot of revision and so I won't post it (average grade tells me so) The second is was well received by the professor, so I will post it here for your edification. ------------------------------ Nicodemus & Baptism Sermon John 3:1-15  Christopher Gillespie Theologia I : Baptism Dr. Arthur Just 21.03.2006 I. Nicodemus The man Nicodemus is not the expected recipient of Jesus’ preaching. Nicodemus was typical of Pharisaic Judaism. He was of the old guard, standing watch over the cult of the Pharisees. And yet, true to form, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus without a word of rebuke. In his encounter with Jesus we learn that Nicodemus recognizes that his cultic law pales in the redemptive power as witnessed in Jesus. His motivation is founded in the simple reality of miracles indicating the presence of God.  We know that Nicodemus is aware that Jesus is sent by God by his actions yet we also know he does not know of the true reality of Jesus and his mission. Like the masses, he has only the smallest portion or sliver of the reality of Christ’s identity. He greets Jesus as “Rabbi”... not as God or Lord but “a teacher who has come from God.” Regardless, Jesus has quite the message for this unsuspecting man. II. The Message Jesus demands that Nicodemus and his countrymen to be “born again” or “born from above.” In this simple statement, Jesus himself does away with the works of the Law. This includes the nightmarish Pharisaical web of legality that Nicodemus lived under. With simple words “I tell you the truth” Jesus wipes away all that Nicodemus believed was accomplished by his works. Not surprisingly, Nicodemus doesn’t get it. “He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” Jesus must repeat himself, explaining what it means to be “born again.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This Water is death and destruction and this water is birth. The ability to enter the kingdom of God cannot come from a birth of the flesh but rather a birth of the Spirit, working with the water. This new birth is an apocalyptic, cataclysmic event, forcing radical change, a complete reform of our lives in the face of God. God works through paradox “how can one be born again?” Implicitly if you need to be born again, then you must be dead! Consequently, these words exclude the your ability to contribute or your deeds to have merit. The Gospel writer John appeals to the Greek ideals of a corrupted flesh. Christ makes explicit that of your flesh you can only bring forth the things of the flesh. You know these things to be sin, death and damnation. The things of Christ's Spirit can only be born of that Spirit. You know these things to be the faith which we receive in our baptism... This faith is in the promises of God... Through Christ's death and resurrection, you are saved from things of our flesh. You join with this act of intervention, your redemption ... in your baptism. Christ indicates the necessity of this rebirth. “You must be born again.” Those who deny the Spirit given deny the faith that is given. You that deny faith, deny God and his means of salvation. The consequence is death. The consequence is hell.  Christ anticipates your confusion. How can the Spirit join with water to provide this rebirth, you ask? The Spirit’s work is mysterious, like the wind, blowing where it would. We can’t understand the mysterious work of the Spirit.. we can't understand how and where in terms of our rational being. We cannot know where the Spirit is working apart from that which we have been told. III. The Cure Jesus knows that in his appointed humility, of being raised like the snake in the wilderness, he will be the cure for all. In his ascent on the tree, the giving of his Spirit will draw us from our descent to death to ascend to heaven. In like manner we descend into the waters of our Baptism and are ascended as new creatures, born of water and Spirit. Our descent is one like Christ's, for the death to sin. Our ascent out of this death is only made possible through the presence of the Spirit through the Word in the waters. We have eternal life in him, as a result of his lifting up. The cross is the apex... it is the place where Christ died to sin so we would be free of it... As a consequence you, the baptized, are anointed as God's children, blameless in the eyes of the Father. The sin that once barred you from entering heaven, the sin that condemned you to eternal death in hell is washed way by the earthly water transformed by the Word. Your flesh will continue to torment you on this earth. Yet you know that the Spirit blows where he wills, to the life of the Christian and has chosen you, the tax collector, the pharisee, the adulteress, the thief, and the murderer. In the eyes of God this blackened flesh is made the brilliance of Christ as a result of the death of our Lord... the death on the cross. Know that Christ promised his Spirit to you by baptism of water and that you are forgiven! Every believer whose life is hid in Christ possesses eternal life. Baptism is the end, the eschaton. It is the death of the old and the birth of the new. This is not your doing, but is a free gift, given by the Spirit.