The Fathers Love
Theological Proposition/Focus: God loves each and every one of us.
Homiletical Proposition/Application:
Introduction:
Image: The Grand Unifying Principle: God loves you.
Image: The search for a Grand Unifying Theory, Lie groups and Physics.
Deeply embedded into physics there is one question that sort of rules them all. Is there a way to merge the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces into a single force? Work in this area is part of something called Grand Unification Theory and is very mathematical drawing on a field of mathematics called Lie groups. The work is thought to be a stepping stone toward what is called the "Theory of Everything." Embedded in this work is the fact that we cannot explain how the electric charges of protons and electrons cancel each other out using the Standard Model of particle physics. In short, our basic model of how things work on a small scale does not explain how we know things work on a big scale. Many physicists and mathematicians are searching for a way to explain how things work in a way that handles both the small and large scale.
Need: We need to understand what it means to say that God loves us.
Preview: Today we are going to look at salvation again as a solution to our biggest conundrum, our Grant Unifying Theory.
Text: Read John 3:1-16 before setting the stage
Setting the Stage:
Image: Deep conversations with a true expert.
The Context of John 3 matters.
=====In John 2:13-25, Jesus cleared the Temple of money changers and challenged the Jewish religious system.=====]
Now In John 3, a particular religious leader comes to Jesus to better understand.
The description of Nicodemus gives us three insights into who exactly this is.
Nicodemus's religion-political affiliation was as a Pharisee.
Pharisees were strict adherents to the law, loyal to the traditions of the elders, popular among the people.
In general being a Pharisee did not automatically make someone politically connected nor an aristocrat.
Nicodemus had the status a ruling official.
While, in general, being a Pharisee did not make one politically connected, Nicodemus was.
Josephus said that some Pharisees were distinguished me, Nicodemus was likely one of these.
Nicodemus had the name Nicodemus.
The name Nicodemus was a common Greek name, but not a common Jewish name.
In fact, between 330 BC and AD 200 (a 500 year span) only 4 Palestinian Jews are known to have had the name Nicodemus and they all seem to come from the same familky.
Historically, the family that named their Children Nicodemus was a very wealthy and powerful family.
Nicodemus was likely a wealthy, powerful, popular, conservative, a Jew Par Excellence
In John 3, verse 2 shows us that this ideal representative of humanity (rich, powerful, wise,...) has come to meet with the ideal representative of God (Jesus).
Nicodemus is careful to offer great respect to Jesus as he seeks to understand.
The title Rabbi recognizes Jesus as a professional teacher.
The perfect ἐλήλυθας (has come) recognizes that Jesus has the abiding presence of God
Yet, while granting respect, Nicodemus has serious questions about the legitimacy of the message Jesus is preaching.
The entire dialogue seems to have a tone of questioning and combatting.
The Jews have put one of their greatest up against God's greatest to test this idea.
Body
What we all need is a second chance (3-4).
Our fallenness is beyond repair and so we must be born again from above.
The greek word ἄνωθεν (again) also means from above.
It seems like John often writes about instances where Jesus used a double entandre and this seems to be no different. The greek word ἄνωθεν (again) also means from above. Contextually it is actually impossible to know which Jesus intended but based on what follows it seems that maybe he intended both. If this is the case then we have a beautiful picture of one of our most important needs, a second chance. Moreover, the picture is a reminder that the second chance is not a second chance to do everything exactly the same but rather a second chance that comes from above.
We need a second chance because we are each born as sinners.
Image: In an airplane remember, you can always go around, if you set-up wrong don't even try take a second chance.
About a year ago my brother and I had just bought a used airplane down in Texas and we were flying it back to Lincoln. I had flown the airplane for about 45 minutes prior and my brother had never flown the airplane. We were somewhere over the middle of Oklahoma at night and a storm set in. It was dark and snow started falling so we decided we better get the airplane landed. We found a small airport nearby and I turned for the airport while my brother contacted air traffic control and let them know our plan. By the time we got to the airport the wind was really pushing us and I completely misjudged my speed and altitude. As I fought to get the airplane down on the ground I finally told my brother "I'm going around and going to try this a second time." As I climbed back up to altitude my brother looked over at me and said "I'm sorry, I should have told you to go around earlier, your approach was all messed up and you were not stable." I started out all wrong and so it was impossible for me to get it right! Once I came back around and took a stable approach I was able to land the airplane. I needed a second chance!
In life, we start out with everything all wrong! We are born sinner!
Many of you have memorized Romans 3:23 "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
Some of you may have memorized Isaiah 53:6 "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
A little lesser known is Psalm 51:5 "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
Image: How deep the Father's Love for us verse 1 concludes "That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure."
The word wretch means "a base, despicable, or vile person" and that is what we are before Christ.
I told you earlier that everything about my approach to land in Oklahoma was wrong. Here is the thing, if you were in the back of the airplane, you wouldn't know!
My brother and I both knew that we were all wrong on this approach because my brother and I both had the right view of the airport and the instruments. We denied the problem for 800 feet of descent, but then finally we were forced to come to grips with the reality. We could not land this airplane safely because we had started out wrong. It was only once we admitted that we needed a second chance, a chance to set up correctly that we could proceed to have a successful landing.
The problem with being born again is that it makes no sense!
Image: Choosing to go around might be embarrassing but it is not an outrageous thing, being born again is.
There is actually a folk song whose lyrics feature the phrase "you can always go around." The problem we all face in life is that there does not seem to be any obvious way in which someone can be born again.
