The Offer We Dare Not Refuse

Rev. Earl E. Dunbar

February 20, 2005

Last Friday night on ABC was a special about different myths that we believe especially with regards to health. For example, they were saying that most wrinkle creams do not do anything about wrinkles. Only the very low-level kinds. Most of the hair products that say that they are natural aren't. Just a dollop of fruits or whatever it is that's in there. Chocolate, if it's the right chocolate, and if it is the right dosage, the right amount actually can be good for you. That led me to think about urban legends, and I looked up on a web site this week the top 25 urban legends as it is right now. Know the number one urban legend is? It actually surprised me. And that is, did you know that many all the photographs that report to be of the tsunami, aren't? There are two pictures in particular that they highlighted. I'm not sure that I've seen them yet some all I can only counted generally described them. There is a picture of supposedly weird animals washed up on the beach. That one has been doctored. There is also a picture, it looks like a wave about ready to go over a building. That one has been doctored. There are a few of them that are accurate. Many of them are not. Here's another urban legend, Glade plug-ins cause a fire hazard. Here is one that I received. I don't know if you received this, but I laughed as I remember receiving this. That Bill Gates is ready to give away free money. If you were to send the e-mail to your friends. He's tracking e-mails and so for every person you send e-mail to, he'll give you $1000. Or its others. Disney will give you money. Or you get a gift certificate to the Gap or other things like that. You see, it's easy to believe myths. One person starts it, another bunch of people repeat it. Pretty soon the myth seems to be reality. Take some other examples. At this Friday show the last myth, interestingly enough, was revenge is sweet. Pretty good for ABC or any of these other shows. How about this one? If I don't do it nobody else will. This world is all there is. To thine own self be true. Busy people are the best people. What's happening now is going to happen forever. Fight for your rights. How about these church myths? Every new church is big and big is always beautiful. Worship is something I observe. Serving is optional. You see, there are myths that surround us. We live in a society filled with myths. And because all of us fall short, each one of us in this room have bought into at least one myth. Not only bought into it, but are living it. It's part of our lives. How do I know? Because it shapes our decisions. It shapes our attitudes about what we think about ourselves. And what we think about the world. And dare I say, what we think about Christ. What we think about God. Most of our lives is spent either living a myth or trying to get rid one. We are trying to figure out ways to, once we have seen that the myth is a myth, trying to fix it. The problem is that I want to fix it my way. I want to try to fix things in my own way in my own time, and what that creates is a the deep longing and an emptiness because all myths end with me being incomplete. All myths end at the precipice, where I realize that in myself, I am incomplete. And when I feel incomplete, I am like a man named Nicodemus. We see today.

Nicodemus has an encounter with Christ, and you can have an encounter with Christ right now. To put before Him and at his feet, the myths that you live by. My prayer for you in the next few minutes is for the Lord to expose a myth in your life. I can't possibly name them all. And do what Nicodemus is going to do, to submit that myth to the one who loves you. The good news this morning is this. Only Jesus offers a new world of complete life. Only Jesus offers a new world of complete life. Jesus has just come from a wedding recently. At the wedding, they were serving wine. That was the drink of choice for the reception. The wine ran out. Mom says, "Jesus do something up about it." Jesus sees over there, there are six big jugs, each of water, each about 20 to 30 gallons. I really don't know how many people are at this party. There better have been a lot. That's an awful lot. He turns all the water into wine. The first miracle. After that, he goes to the temple and he does want he is going to do late in his ministry. He does it also at the beginning. He goes in and sees people in the courts of the Gentiles in other parts of the temple selling animals for sacrifices. So what he does he just takes names. He goes and turns the tables over. Everything is scattering. You hear the animals squalking as they go running out. And that doesn't win him many friends. Now it is nighttime and a man is approaching Jesus. The first question is this, what do you want from me? Verse one to three. What you want from me? We see this Nicodemus first as a pharisee. They were the separated ones. They were separated so that they could follow all the law and thereby be an example to others. They felt that the law was perfect, and therefore there needed to be rules that went along for living out the law and they also were perfect. The application and the Scripture were side-by-side. About 6000 of these folks. Second, he was part of the Jewish ruling council. It was a lifetime position. It was like the Supreme Court of the Jews. He was in fact reported to be one of the three richest men in Jerusalem. This was a mover and a shaker. This was a teacher of Israel, perhaps even the teacher of Israel. And now he's coming at night. Why would you come to Jesus at night? Part was because he did not want his friends to know. It's a little safer at night. But it's more than that. A good scholar of the law would do their studying at night. And so he was coming when Jesus was not going to have a lot of people around in effect to study the law with him asking questions to sit at his feet. To put the needs out there for him and see what he was going to do with it. He is intrigued. So he says, "Rabbi." The best he could think of as my teacher. Rabbi, you must come from God, because I am seeing all the things that you do, and you couldn’t possibly come from anywhere else, but from God. There is some connection here. You see, he knows there is something there that he is with God, there is something special. This is a sincere request. You see there is something underlying this. Nicodemus is asking, who are you? And what do you want from me? All of these things are happening, and he's drawn to Jesus. And he knows Jesus is different than anybody he'd never seen before. And yet, so what? What is it about him? We know that to be true because of Jesus's response which it first seems like he’s not paying attention. He said, if you really want the kingdom of God, be born from above. By the way, that is the real word, "born from above." In English we have colloquialized that to "born again". And now it's become almost a political statement. The real thing is, "born from above." Jesus says, "you need to be born from above. He says, "what's going on? Jesus could see that Nicodemus was asking a deeper question. What you want from me? I want you to be born, Nicodemus. To be born means, "to enter into world." To be born means you have a new identity. You have a new family. You're starting over. You have all sorts of new things to learn. You have a new inheritance that is coming. To be born means to be so transformed that you're going in a different direction. That it seems like you have started over. It seems like from a moment in time that you say yes, you are starting over, it is like page-one again. You may look the same. You may do many of the same things. But there palpable difference in how you react and behave and speak. That difference is out of joy. That difference is not out of law. There is the kicker. You Nicodemus, need to be born from above. You see, you need to release the control over the myth that you're living by. You need to release the control over that myth that you can earn God's salvation. You can earn God's love. That somehow he or she who does the most wins. You need to let go of that. And you need to be born from above. You know, when you move, you have new people to talk to, you have new kinds of friends. You have a new identity. Sometimes the people in your new place don't see the same way as the people in your old place did. To come to Christ, to have birth from above is to be in a new place. A new worldview. But you see it is not just that we want to look at this, those of us who are born from above, want to look at this passage already and say, done it once, that's it, I'm done. Jesus is speaking to all the myths we live by. You need to be completely transformed. Transformed from your emptiness. To repent and to trust, and to turn. To admit that myth and release it so that I may deal with that myth. You see, the question of society to Jesus is, who are you and what you want from me? Because if I buy into you, you're going to make me do something I don't want to do or you're going to make me not do something I do want to do. Jesus simply says, "Come with me." Drop the myth. Let me work with you. Let me daily work with you.

Question two. Can anyone truly change me? Can anyone really change me? Verses four through eight. Nicodemus asks, how can somebody who is physically born go back into his mother womb or her mother's womb? He is not a dufus. It's not that he misunderstood what Jesus said. He understands completely what Jesus said. He understands that this is complete transformation that Jesus is talking about, and furthermore, Jesus has put it eyeball to eyeball with Nicodemus. You see to the Jews, they had a covenant at birth. If you were born into the Jewish faith you were saved. Now this is the leader of the Jews was being told ideas as you must be born from above. Nicodemus no doubt being learned has heard about other pagan religions in which there was a phrase called twice born that I was reading about this week. He understands that there is something radical here. I'm an old man. I can't change. If it's hard enough physically for somebody to grow young again, how could anybody who is set in their ways possibly grow young again spiritually? Have you asked that? Haven't you thought that? Doesn't it seem like, you know, nobody can change me. I am who I am. Maybe it's only me that said that. Jesus says another answer, it seems to be over here when Nicodemus is here. Because you need to be born of water and spirit. It could mean physical birth and spiritual birth. But, I think that's incomplete. He is pointing Nicodemus do something that he has already observed. What has he observed? He would have been with the Pharisees. All of the Pharisees came to see John the Baptist. And when John the Baptist baptized, he baptized with water. And it was the baptism of repentance. What Jesus is saying is, yes, there is somebody who can change you, and it is God himself through the Holy Spirit as you repent, and as you turn. This is incomprehensible to human beings. In fact, the apostle Paul wrote that it was an offense. This new way, this new world. It is the spirit who moves as it will, as Jesus says. Jesus says, "Nicodemus, you have been operating the world of flesh. To operate out of a myth is to operate out of the world of the flesh because it seems logical. It seems logical that the person who is gooder, I use that term purposely. A person that is gooder has more love from God. It makes sense. All the myths that we live by makes sense to us. If they did not make sense to us we would not live by them. My myth may not make sense to you. You may look at me and say, "why are you believing that? I might say the same for you. To us it's real. Jesus is lifting up Nicodemus's eyes to say, "it's time to live by the spirit." " It's time to let the Holy Spirit lead." Yes, there are mysteries because you never going to figure God out consistently, but "trust me". Every part of this story screams out, "Trust me." In various ways both subtly and in his face. He says, "trust." So can anyone radically change me? Yes. It is the Holy Spirit.

Professional athletes, if we look around this very august assembly this morning. I would say, I think I could be pretty well sure, that not one of us will be a professional athlete. Speak for yourself. But anyway. (Chris is waiting for basketball coaches to call him. OK. We'll pray for Chris after the service today.) We can try as hard as we might. But if we're living by the myth in order to be somebody we need to be a professional athlete, we're going to be on a junk heap. Now we all laugh at, and I purposely use that example because my guess is also nobody here has that myth. Now, I want you to substitute the myth you live by. You might say, you know, nobody can change me. I'm not sure I want to be changed. It's too scary to be changed. The devil I know is better than the devil I don't know. And Jesus looks you right in the eye and says, "you need to be born of water and of the spirit." You need to repent and let the Holy Spirit work, to cling and trust and take that step and give over that myth to Him. Transformation comes through Christ and the spirit's leading. Society asks, who can make that radical change? Jesus says, "me."

We have seen two questions what you want for me? Can anybody radically change me? And finally, how can this be mine? Nine to 17. Nicodemus says,

"how can this be?" Nicodemus understands that what Jesus has, he does not. Been there? Are you there now? I want to suggest to you, that every Sunday worship we ought to come to that point. What Jesus has, I don't. Where do I need to change? and What do I need to alter in the week ahead? Jesus is taking Nicodemus's eyes now from the uniqueness of the message to the uniqueness of the messenger. And in the second half of this, take a look at all the times that Jesus is subtly pointing himself. I’m just going to highlight a couple here. First, he says, the Son of man. Over eighty times in the Gospels Jesus calls himself the son of man, no one else does. It comes from Daniel. When at the end of time there will be the son of man who will come in authority and power and glory and honor and majesty. Jesus calls himself the son of man. That is scary to Nicodemus. That is scary for all us. Because when Jesus says that he is the son of man, it is a bright neon light over his head blinking Messiah. The problem with this Jesus, in our society and in our own hearts is, we gotta do some about that. We either need to believe that or we don't believe that. Because if Jesus is saying that he is the son of man, that is either true or the biggest blasphemy in the history of humanity. And he is saying it to a Jewish leader, who could have him executed on the spot. You see that's the radical nature of Jesus identifying himself as Messiah. When Nicodemus asks, "how can this be mine?" Jesus says, " with me." He illustrates this with a story. A story that Nicodemus would have memorized because the Jewish leaders and especially teachers would have memorized huge portions of the Old Testament. Sometimes the entire Old Testament. The people of Israel are walking through wilderness and they had just defeated a country and they are proud. They are stoked. They are excited. And now they're waiting. They want Edom. They have wanted Edom for years. They have little bumper stickers, I want to beat Edom. Give me Edom. They are ready. Moses understands they're not ready yet. And he marches them around Edom. Can and you imagine, you just won a victory and are ready for Edom. Moses is walking them farther into the wilderness? No Moses, you're going the wrong way, I want these people over here. And now they get in the middle of the desert they start screaming out at Moses. You murderer, you have taken us out in the middle of the desert and you're going to murder us. You're taking away our water. You know what you can do with your manna? I hate manna. We hate it. At that point, they were saying no, to everything God had provided. So God decided to thin the herd. And He sent snakes. They were both fierce and hungry. They came and they started biting. The people of Israel began to die. They cry out and ask for forgiveness. God in His mercy says, "absolutely, I forgive you." He asked Moses to form a bronze serpent, to lift him up on a pole. Impaled this serpent on a pole and put the pole up. Anyone who trusts God enough with their life to look at that serpent will be healed. Parenthetically isn't an irony? It is the serpent in the garden that causes death. And now in the wilderness God tells him to make at serpent. Think about that. Jesus is now talking to Nicodemus. The people are going to die. Death is from their own making. They seek forgiveness. God has made a way. If they will look to the one who is impaled on the stick, who was lifted up, they will have life. And here's the bomb shell. Jesus said, "that serpent is me." I'm the one who will be lifted up. I am the one who will be impaled. Look upon me. Believe me. Look up from where you are going. No wonder that it comes to a crescendo in John 3:16, where we see that God's love is the vehicle as he gave the gift of Jesus Christ. So that none may perish. I love this definition of one author for perish. He says the word perishing means "on the one hand, you are alienated and don't believe in God and on the other hand, you're trying to work hard to get somebody like God to love you. And you are going at cross purposes and that crossed purpose will never ever straighten out, except in Christ. That hit me between the eyes. Jesus says to the question, how can this be mine? He says, " look to me." In order to look to me, being Jesus, I have to look away from the myth. I have to disengage myself from the myth and trust that Jesus has a better way. And sometimes that way is going to be harder. And sometimes that way is going to feel, not very comfortable. And sometimes that way is going to be exhilarating. It is disengaging from the myth and walking with the one who defeated the myth. Did Nicodemus take the offer? We only see him two more times in the Scriptures. One is defending Jesus at the Sanhedrin. And secondly, when Jesus's body is being put into the tomb. There is Joseph of Arimathaea and one more person. Nicodemus. More than likely, he had said, "yes." The question is, what do I say? What do you say? When something is really important to somebody else, what's one thing you do? Look at my face. When you want to get a kid's attention. Look at me. When a child is scared. What do you say? "Look at me. When your loved one is not listening and you're eeeerr with them, look at me. Jesus says look at me. Follow.

Erasers are one of the best inventions to a perfectionist like me. An all-time recovering perfectionist. An eraser is a beautiful thing. What would it be like if we lived our life without benefit of eraser? If the actions of our lives were like this big dry erase board, but there was no eraser. Just a bunch of scribbles. You see, we have the opportunity to write a myth on that board and then erase it. For some of us that erasing can be quick. For others of us that erasing is going to be two steps forward and one step back. I don't know how it will look like in your life. But the time is now to drop that myth. To follow the one who loves you. Come and follow him. Amen. Let's pray.