Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Trinity - Jn 3:1-15

 

Trinity

                                                                                                 Jn 3:1-15

                                                                                                 5/26/24

 

          Nicodemus had no idea what he was walking into.  You almost have to feel sorry for him.  He was not someone who was used to being out of his depth.  He was not used to situations where he was not in charge, and didn’t have a good understanding of what was going on.

          Nicodemus certainly was a person who was serious about faith in the God of Israel.  We learn that he was a Pharisee.  While we often have negative associations about the Pharisees, it is important to note that they were people who were committed to living according to God’s will.  They wanted to be faithful to God and they were willing to go beyond the way others lived in order to do so.

          Nicodemus was not just a Pharisee. We learn that he was “a ruler of the Jews.”  He was a person of importance and authority.  Others recognized his learning and wisdom.  In fact in our text Jesus describes him as “the teacher of Israel.”

It is clear that he had the very best intentions.  Our text tells us: “This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’”  Nicodemus sought Jesus out.  Now to be sure, he did so at night. He did it in secrecy.  But nevertheless, he came to Jesus in order to talk with him.

Nicodemus could not have been more respectful.  He said that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God.  He declared that the miracles – the signs – that Jesus was performing showed that God was with him.  Clearly, he wanted to know more about Jesus and what God was doing through him.

So Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Jesus had begun, and now Nicodemus was just along for the ride, trying to comprehend what our Lord was saying.  Nicodemus could not understand what Jesus meant by “being born again.” He asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Our Lord had spoken about being born again in order to enter the kingdom of God.  Now he added to this by saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  Jesus explained that this being born again occurred by being born of water and the Spirit.

Then our Lord stated why this was necessary.  He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  Jesus said that only the Spirit of God could produce that which is spiritual – that which has life with God.

Jesus stated that this work of the Spirit should not seem surprising.  He told Nicodemus, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

However, Nicodemus did marvel.  He was completely confused.  He had come to Jesus seeking to learn more about how God was at work in him, and instead he was completely befuddled by what Jesus had said.  He responded to our Lord, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”  Then he added, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

          Nicodemus had come to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  He said that Jesus was a teacher come from God and that God was with him.  He was right.  He also didn’t realize how incredibly short he was of the truth. And so our Lord takes Nicodemus for a deep dive into the problem that faces all people and God’s answer for it.  On this Trinity Sunday we reflect upon the manner in which God’s saving action has revealed him as the triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

          Jesus says that a person must be born again to see the kingdom of God.  This means it is not enough to be born.  Human life as it comes into the world is not capable of seeing God’s reign.  It cannot enter the kingdom of God.

          Our Lord tells us the reason for this when he says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  When Scripture sets flesh and Spirit in opposition to one another, it is not referring to flesh as our created, bodily nature.  Instead, when used in this way, “flesh” means our sinful, fallen nature. 

          Flesh describes the impact of sin on every person since the Fall of Adam.  We are conceived and enter the world as people who do not know God as he wants to be known.  We are not able to live perfectly according to his will.  Instead, we love ourselves more than God or our neighbor.  The result is that we deserve nothing except God’s wrath and eternal judgment.

          This was the situation from the moment that Adam sinned.  Yet in his love, God did not leave things there.  He promised a Savior as he said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  And then he worked through the course of the Old Testament to fulfill this promise.  He identified this descendant as coming from Abraham, and from the nation of Israel, and from the tribe of Judah, and from the house of David.

          In the Old Testament, God had revealed he is the only true God – the creator of heaven and earth. He told Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”  Yet in acting to save us God revealed more about himself. His saving act of love was also one of self-revelation.

          In our text Jesus refers to ascending and descending into heaven.  He describes himself as the One who has descended from heaven.  We learn in John’s Gospel that Jesus is the Son of God sent into the world.  Just after our text we hear: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

          By sending the Son, God revealed himself as the Father. Yet we learn that the Son who was sent is also God.  Referring to the Son, John says at the beginning of the Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Later John adds, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”

          The Father sent the Son into the world. The Son entered the world as he became man without ceasing to be God.  John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  And we learn that the Son became man through the work of the Spirit of God. The angel Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God.”

          The Son of God became man for a purpose.  He became man to be nailed to a cross.  We hear in our text, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  By his death Jesus freed us from sin and from the devil’s power.  Jesus said during Holy Week, “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

          The Son of God became flesh to die for us.  But he also became flesh to restore our flesh to life.  On the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead through the work of the Spirit.  He raised Jesus with a body that can never die again – flesh that can never experience death.  This resurrection and transformation is what awaits us when Jesus returns on the Last Day.  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we will be too.

          The Son of God descended from heaven in the incarnation.  However, on the evening of Maundy Thursday Jesus told the disciples, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”  Jesus said that he would ascend to the Father.  But also promised that he would send the Spirit who proceeds from the Father – the Spirit who is also the Spirit of Christ.

Earlier this month we celebrated the ascension of our Lord.  Jesus withdrew his visible presence as he was seated at God’s right hand.  Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost.  As he promised, the ascended Lord sent the Spirit upon his Church. 

The Spirit is the One who makes Jesus known to us.  Jesus said, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”  The Spirit calls us to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  And through faith in Jesus we are brought to the Father.  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

          There is only one God.  This has not changed.  God is one.  But by acting to save us, God has revealed that he is not just one.  He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is three in one – the Holy Trinity.  Scripture teaches us that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.  Each person of Trinity is God, and yet there is only one God.

          This is not something that reason can understand.  It is what God has revealed about himself.  And guess what? You are not capable of wrapping your mind around God.  We can describe what Scripture teaches us about the Trinity, even if we can’t explain how it works.  But it is essential that we confess this truth because every willful denial of the Trinity is a denial and rejection of the God who has saved us.

          You know the Trinity because you know Jesus Christ – the Son of God sent by the Father and incarnate through the work of the Spirit.  As our Lord commanded, you have been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Through the water of baptism your sins have been washed away.  In Holy Baptism you were born again of water and the Spirit, just as our Lord says this morning.  You are God’s children who will enter the kingdom of God – life with the Triune God that will have no end.