Trinity

1  You can’t find God’s Heaven by looking

There was a powerful man, well-respected.

He disagreed with many of his colleagues.

They had thought Jesus should die by any means necessary. They had accused and sentenced Him illegally,

and guaranteed His death by crucifixion.

But this powerful man had not been part of it.

Perhaps they knew he was too honorable for that,

and never asked him to participate.

Then, when it was all over,

this ruler in the Jewish Council came personally.

He did not send anyone else. He did not bring servants to do the work for him.

He came with Joseph of Arimathea and took Jesus’ body,

wrapped it carefully by hand in strips of cloth, and placed it in his own tomb.

That is, the tomb he deserved to occupy.

This man was Nicodemus, from the sect of the Pharisees.

Why did he do something so humiliating as this:

caring for the body of a convicted criminal, showing public respect for one who had been so despised?

It was because in Jesus’ death,

Nicodemus had found God’s heaven.

Today’s Gospel lesson tells us when he first learned about it.

At first, he was thinking of worldly and physical things:

almost the way people think now about science and truth.

But Jesus taught that truth is greater than what we can see.

So you can make many discoveries,
and explore strange, new worlds.

But you can’t find God’s heaven by looking.

Because the way is the Son of Man who was lifted up. Because to get there, you need water and the Spirit.

2  John 3:1–15

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

2.1  Because the way is the Son of Man who was lifted up.

From the beginning of our text, Jesus was teaching.

His ultimate goal was not to teach Nicodemus about baptism,

though He did that too.

Nor about the nature of faith,

though He did that too.

Nor about the Holy Trinity,

though on this day especially, we see He did that too.

Jesus’s ultimate purpose with Nicodemus was to teach him

the way to God’s heaven.

The way to heaven includes those other things, but the way itself is what Jesus said at the end:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Son of Man is the way to heaven,

because he was lifted up upon a pole,

like the bronze serpent in the wilderness

from Numbers chapter 21.

But Nicodemus had much to learn,

and so does everyone who would enter God’s heaven.

Our flesh and our experience tell us

that the material world we see and feel is all there is.

Therefore many people think that death is the end of us. Therefore a man assumes that his outward acts

are what make him good or evil.

But there is much more to life than the material world.

It would not surprise many people

if the way to heaven and God’s favor depends upon us.

We naturally think that way,

because it’s drilled into us to think that everything has an earthly, material explanation.

So if God sees us favorably,

reason tells us it must be because we have done well.

That’s how many apply human knowledge to spiritual matters. It’s also how the Pharisees were trained to think.

Do a good turn daily. Do your duty to God and country,

help other people at all times, be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,

courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Do this, and you will be a good person. Do this, and you will have God’s favor.

Do this, and you will live.

Nicodemus and the Pharisees had been trained

to keep all the rules so carefully.

It was a kind of respect toward the Holy Scriptures,

which is more than could be said for the Sadducees.

(They knew better than Holy Scripture.)

But the training of the Pharisees meant

that Nicodemus did not know the way to God’s heaven.

The goodness of our works does not impress God,

because all that we do remains imperfect.

The change from a religion of works to a religion of faith

is profound.

Jesus called it a new birth.

A new birth means a new life:

a life based not upon our works,

but upon what God has said.

The reason faith saves where works do not

is not the faith itself, but the Word of God that we believe.

Will you trust in the things you do to earn you God’s Heaven?

I hope not, because that is not the way.

How do you know the way?

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

He should know.

Listen to what He says.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Thus, at the beginning of His ministry,

Jesus described the manner of His death.

When you believe and trust in the crucified Son of Man,

then — and only then — you have eternal life.

He is the way for us to God’s heaven.

2.2  Because to get there, you need water and the Spirit.

Nicodemus had as much going for him as any Pharisee.

But he also recognized that the works of Jesus came from God:

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.

All he lacked was to be born again,

to believe and trust in the Son of Man.

Lacking that, he couldn’t enter God’s heaven.

Jesus told him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

A lot of people call themselves Christians,

but only some believe and trust in the Son of Man.

Some others are like Nicodemus was:

pious, and trusting in the rules and commandments of God,

but not in His forgiveness through the crucified Son of Man.

Some others are like the Sadducees:

thinking they know better than what Holy Scripture says.

But Jesus said, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nobody likes to hear that some Christians are not saved.

Churches that say such things may seem snobbish

or too involved in doctrine and dogma

instead of the real world.

But Jesus said it first:

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Just as many Christians are shocked and offended to hear

that the Christian title or a Christian lifestyle

is not enough to get them to heaven,

so the Pharisees were shocked and offended

to hear the same about them.

But Nicodemus stayed and learned more.

He wanted to know what it means to be born again. He was beginning to learn about faith.

Jesus explained: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

To this point,

We’ve heard about God and His heaven, and we’ve heard about the Son of Man, the Way to heaven.

Now, we hear about the Spirit,

who gives us a new birth through water.

The flesh is part of the material world around us,

but the new birth that we need is a spiritual birth.

Try as we might, our flesh can’t do what is spiritual.

So a good and moral life doesn’t help us reach heaven. What we need is a spiritual life.

We need to be spiritual children of God.

This was all news to Nicodemus,

and it may well be news to us as well.

We can’t take our nature of flesh and make it spiritual.

True children of God are born, not made.

That was true for Nicodemus, and also for us.

Not only do we need the Son of Man who was lifted up,

we also need the Spirit who works faith.

That’s how we obtain faith: by the Spirit’s new birth.

Nicodemus was amazed. His religious world was turned around.

No longer could he trust in his careful life. Now he knew about the invisible, spiritual reality,

which can only be discerned by faith, but is also the only true way to eternal life.

It’s a sad commentary

that Nicodemus was a great teacher in Israel, the Church.

But now he knew better, and in time,

he put his hidden faith into action when he buried Jesus.

Just think of it.

Nicodemus must have remembered this lesson

as he climbed a ladder to unfasten Jesus’ dead body.

…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

And so He was lifted up,

giving His life to give Nicodemus eternal life.

Nicodemus believed that promise,

and so he was born again through Baptism.

You will also see Nicodemus, because the same promise is for you.

…that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Titus 3:5–7: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And good works? A moral life? Do we need that too?

Not in the same way. St. Paul also wrote,

This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

The hymn says:

Faith to the cross of Christ doth cling And rests in Him securely; And forth from it good works must spring As fruits and tokens surely; Still faith doth justify alone, Works serve thy neighbor and make known The faith that lives within thee.

Now, you have the Father’s forgiveness

and the Way to His heaven is yours through baptism.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!