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AFTER HOURS
"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3)
A person who makes the same impression on everyone he meets is disingenuous. His responses are contrived or forced. He conceals his mood swings and keeps his feeling under wraps in order to project a single image of himself everywhere he goes.
Children found Him gentle; but the Pharisees found Him rough. Zacchaeus found Him sociable; but Pilate found Him irritating. Peter found Him patient, but the money changers found Him impulsive. Mary, His mother, found Him considerate; but the mother of James and John, who wanted favors for her sons, found Him something less than sympathetic.
Today we look in on the meeting that took place between Jesus and Nicodemus. "There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night..." Why Nicodemus set it up this way generates considerable speculation. Those who see this VIP of Israel as pompous and insecure insist that he came to Jesus when the day was over in order to insure his privacy and protect his reputation. On the other hand, those who warm to Nicodemus would argue that, like all rabbis of his time, Nicodemus had an outside trade to practice along with his religious duties. Accordingly, he was kept so busy that his only free time was an odd evening now and then.
The point doesn't matter all that much. Jesus made nothing whatever of it. It is enough to borrow a line from Shakespeare and say that Nicodemus enjoyed "the good advantage of the night."
Jesus had a way of making people conscious of a lack in themselves. He made their hungers surface, and opened questions that they thought had been closed for good. Thus Nicodemus comes: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
Someone less secure than Jesus would have enjoyed this flattery, and even drawn it out a little further. "Do you really find my teaching convincing? Is my style alright? Do you think I'll be as effective in the country as I am in town? Which of my words impressed you most? Which of my signs did you find the hardest to resist?"
But Jesus, aware that He was there for Nicodemus and not Nicodemus for Him, moved with unsettling speed to the Pharisee's problem. I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." WOW! This was hardly what Nicodemus expected. The pace was quicker and the subject far more threatening than he had bargained for.
Rocked back on his heels this man whose role it was to provide ANSWERS for the faithful now becomes a man of QUESTIONS himself. "How can a man be born when he is old?" Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!
Nicodemus, I believe, had been genuinely attracted to Jesus. He probably sought Him out that night prepared to make some minor adjustments in his conduct and belief. He was ready to talk. He was prepared to enter into some give and take. He was hopeful of reaching an accommodation with this masterful teacher. How great then must have been his consternation when Jesus told him straight that nothing short of a new beginning would do. "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Unfortunately for our peace of mind, Jesus' words were not meant for Nicodemus' ears alone. He meant this truth for all people. Several times the word "you" in the narrative is in the plural suggesting that Jesus is talking to others through what he says to Nicodemus. Jesus' word on the new birth has a universal ring to it. It belongs to the very essence of the gospel. It lays down the terms for any who would participate in God's new order.
Jesus did not come to get people to ADD a few virtues to their lives, or SUBTRACT a few sins, or MULTIPLY their efforts towards a better world. He came with a message that was far more radical than that. Nothing less than a new beginning, a new birth, a total transformation would suffice!
We could understand Jesus talking thus to one whose sins were vile and flagrant: a cheating tax collector like Zacchaeus, a traitor like Judas, a wicked tyrant alike Herod, a women of questionable reputation like Mary Magdalene, an insurrectionist like Barabbas. That Jesus spoke thus to a man who was decent, devout, and learned serves to show how far we are AT BEST from the kingdom of God until the Spirit gives us life.
Why do we hear so little about the need and the promise of the second birth in our churches? What other part of our message makes any sense at all if this crucial central point remains unspoken and un-believed?
There is an unfortunate division in the church on this matter which has bothered me all my life. Let me suggest a model by which we might begin to sense the magnitude of the problem. Conservative bodies in the Christian family are, in a sense, THE NURSERIES OF THE KINGDOM. They produce more than their share of new life. Their willingness to evangelize, their insistence on conversion, have brought many of us to Christ. It is not without significance that the mega-churches, which specialize in bringing the gospel to those who were not brought up in any church, are among the fastest growing churches in the nation.
Most mainline denominations, on the other hand, tend to be the FINISHING SCHOOLS OF THE KINGDOM. We like to think that we are adept at taking toddlers from the Nursery and giving them a little intellectual polish. We try to instruct them in a broader way of biblical interpretation, in the social relevance of their faith. We attempt to develop in those who come to us from the Nursery an appreciation for liturgy and church order.
There you have it: the NURSERY AND THE FINISHING SCHOOL. It would appear that in the Nursery it's "nothing but evangelism." While in the FINISHING SCHOOL, it's everything but evangelism."
That's the division that bothers me deeply. It isn't advantageous for the Nursery people. While we were in Deland, across the street from Stetson University, I can't tell you the number of students who had worshiped at First Presbyterian, I had in my office, raised as a staunch Southern Baptist, now having completed their first Bible 101 course at the University, and who said, "If I told my parents what I now believe, they would disown me." Nursery Christianity tends to remain rather narrowly pietistic. Its worship tends to be shallow. It seldom becomes a force for social righteousness in the world.
The division isn't beneficial for the FINISHING SCHOOL either. Because you can't shape a commitment that isn't there, or round out an experience that hasn't happened. They must IMPORT people who have had their initial experience of God somewhere else. NO PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST HAS THE RIGHT TO IGNORE THE NEED TO WIN PEOPLE TO CHRIST.
I TRULY CELEBRATE THAT AT WESTMINSTER, THERE IS A HEALTHY NURSERY AND A HEALTHY FINISHING SCHOOL.
The most valuable and exciting thing about this church, without a single exception, is the experience of God that each of us has had. Yet, this is what we talk about the least and seem least prepared to share. One of the most exciting meetings for me of the year is when the new elders and deacons tell of their faith journeys. Usually these stories include some initial dedication of ourselves to Jesus Christ. We seldom hear about these formative experiences. Most of our dependably reliable members are a part of this body because at some point in the past, they determined to live no longer to themselves but to Him who loved them and gave Himself for them.
It is Christ in the heart that makes us, US. It is our surrender to Christ that makes mission different, that keeps worship a wonderful experience, that justifies all our other programs, that keeps us continuous with the New Testament, and makes us one with the church above.
At one point in my early teens, our youth group was on a retreat, and we were addressed by a spirited, totally devoted missionary to Kuwait. He explained his experiences there, and did it with such energy that we were all glued to his presentation. We were all then given a few Bible passages to reflect on, which I did out in the woods under a tree. At that point my early years of Christian nurture crystallized and in one flash-point experience I was overwhelmed and captured by the claims of Jesus Christ upon my life. I remember kneeling on the ground and surrendering whatever of my life I could to Him. Since that time I have been stuck with Jesus, and Jesus has been stuck with me! Nothing in my life since that time has been without reference to that centering moment.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." He said that to him because Nicodemus COULD be born again. It was not a judgment but an invitation. It was not a condemnation but a message of hope. The spirit of God is able to make all things new.
All through the years, the matchless spell of Jesus Christ has gripped the hearts of kings and common people, of presidents and paupers, in every country, every race every climate, every tradition and every background. If this true of you? Do you now face God in your own life and accept the principle of not to self and yet to God. If you have once made that decision, perhaps it is time to re-make it. Tell Jesus you want to say yes to Him, to accept the new life He offers you, to receive His forgiveness, to become His disciple, to let Him be your Lord. He is a living person, alive in this world, alive in this church, alive in your heart; waiting to be more alive through your conscious decision and acceptance. To this He calls you. You will not be a perfect disciple, none of us are, but give Him your heart, your loyalty, your life, for this is where it all begins. And His Spirit, who gives the new birth, will take it all from there.
PRAYER
We thank you God, that by the action of Your spirit in our hearts the old can pass away and the new can come. Keep us from trifling with minor moral repairs when we might be totally transformed. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. All in the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.