Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
The Holy Trinity (2009)
Inducted into the Army of God
John 3:1-17 (ESV)
Now
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] 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." [3] Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the
[9]
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" [10] Jesus answered him, "Are you the
teacher of
[16]
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] 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.
Today, by God’s grace alone, we are able “to
acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity by the confession of a true faith
and to worship the true Unity in the power of the Lord’s divine majesty.” It is
beyond the human mind to comprehend the mystery of God’s innermost nature. However,
I ask, do we gather today to offer prayers and praise to a mysterious, nearly
mystical God, trying to unveil His mystery? No! We gather today in the Spirit,
identifying ourselves as those who have been born of water and the Spirit; as
those who have been called by Jesus to this living faith which we are so
blessed to possess. Thus, it is most
fitting that we set aside one day of the Church year to give special honor and
recognition to the three persons of the heavenly Godhead, God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Moreover, honoring all three persons of the
Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is unique to Christian worship. Thus, our
worship of the Triune God sets us apart from all other religions on earth and
sometimes that presents challenges to our faith and our person. Challenges,
which can at times, be fatal to our existence on earth.
Truth is living in this world is dangerous because we
live in the midst of evil. Everyday the forces of evil, Satan and his demons
are doing everything they can to undo the victory that Jesus has won for us.
Everyday Satan sends out his terror teams to harm or destroy Christians, the
soldiers of Jesus’ army. Moreover, Satan’s has a host of weapons at his
disposal from which to launch his attacks. His first line weapon is a lustful
temptation for power, money, and sex, which he augments with the explosive
power of anger, hatred, pride, ego, and envy. If these weapons are ineffective
then he resorts to a second line of weapons; illness and accident, death and
injury, pain and suffering, drug and alcohol addiction to attack the foundation
of our faith through physical means. Then, if all else fails, he uses his weapon
of mass destruction, man’s reason!
Through the power of reason Satan entices man to
distort God’s Word. Satan’s goal is to turn God’s Word on its head; to change
what God has clearly revealed is His will for us into a distorted revelation of
what man wants it to mean. He leads us into believing that God’s clear truth is
a lie and that our lies are God’s clear truth. This tactic has worked ever
since the Garden of Eden when he asked Eve, “Did God actually say?” ( Gen. 3:1 ESV).
In those four words he placed that first seed of doubt into Eve’s mind so that
she could now use her reason to find
an answer to Satan’s question. Satan’s efforts of achieving his goal are
carried out everyday in heterodox and false churches. Everyday from the pulpits
of these churches we hear, “Did God really say?” Then there’s, “What the first
century people understood regarding morality is no longer applicable” or “The
Bible isn’t God’s revealed Word written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. No,
it’s nothing more than a collection of 1st century man’s attempts to
define ethical standards.” Moreover, we hear, “The doctrines of yesterday are
no longer applicable today. This is a new generation, thus a new doctrine is
needed, and a new church is needed.” Satan’s hope is that with these weapons at
his disposal he will be able to wage a successful war against the army of Jesus
bringing it to its knees by leading it to deny God’s Word, thus defeating God.
From the destruction we see in the morality of our own nation and the false
doctrine that is being taught in many of our churches it’s easy to conclude
that Satan is winning the war. But not so fast!
Yes, it’s true, Satan’s arsenal is vast and mighty,
but it is no match for God. Satan is a fourth-rate, despicable, despot whose
forces are feeble when compared to God’s army and His weapons: Jesus Christ and
His revealed Word of Holy Scripture. The apostle Paul reminds us of the armor
and weapons God puts at our disposal to battle Satan. He said to put on, “…the
belt of truth, …the breastplate of righteousness, …the readiness given by the
gospel of peace, …the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming darts of the evil one; …the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:14-17 (ESV)). These are God’s
armor and weapons with which He arms His soldiers. These are the weapons by
which we can not only ward off the attacks of Satan and his demons but by which
we can defeat him, leaving his army devastated and demoralized, knowing they
have no defense nor offense that can overcome this arsenal of God’s.
Knowing that Satan is committed to getting you into
hell is the first step in defending yourself from becoming a victim of his
attacks. However, this knowledge is not something we come by naturally. We
don’t simply wake up one morning and ask ourselves, “How can I join this mighty
army of God’s and be protected with His weapons. Can I volunteer to willingly
serve? I wonder where the nearest recruiting office for God’s army is located
so I can go there to enlist?” No, unfortunately, we are not so predisposed: We
are not so eager to do battle against the forces of evil. We are not so willing
to fight against what we ourselves are: sinful by nature. We are for the most part
quite content to simply go along, ignorantly being a slave to sin, death and
the devil. However, quite fortunately for us, Jesus comes to us and inducts us
into His army. Our Lord sends out His draft notice by calling us through His
means of grace to take up His armor and His weapons so we can defend ourselves
and the faithful against the onslaught of Satan. His call rescues us from being
imprisoned in hell and gives us the means through which the indwelling Holy
Spirit trains us to be proficient in the use of His weapons and armor. Through
these means we can become mighty warriors for Jesus, warriors that Satan and
his demons greatly fear.
The Gospel Reading for today narrates the drafting of
one such unsuspecting, defenseless, potential victim of Satan’s attacks. Without
his knowledge, Nicodemus was called to faith and drafted into Jesus’ army. Although,
he knew that Jesus was special, the miracles Jesus performed were testimony to
the fact that God had exceedingly blessed Him, Nicodemus didn’t know how he
knew. Nicodemus was convinced from His miraculous works, Jesus must have been
sent from God, but was He the Christ, the Messiah? Or, was He a man like Moses,
or David or even the Baptist who certainly were blessed with God’s Spirit to do
mighty works, but they weren’t the One who was to come? Nicodemus had to find
out for himself. Therefore, drawn by the power of Christ, he goes, during the
night, to ask Jesus personally, was He the One?
Nicodemus selects the darkness of the night because he
is a Pharisee, a scribe of the people, a teacher of God’s Word and it would be
risky for him to be seen talking with this man Jesus during the daylight hours.
Jesus had been teaching and preaching doctrine that was contrary to what the
Pharisee and the Sanhedrin taught. This placed Him on the outs with most
religious leaders for they perceived Him to be a threat to their secure
positions within the community. Thus Nicodemus thought he was being prudent
going to Jesus at night. Yet, his fear of reprisal was not enough to keep him
from Jesus. He was compelled to talk with Him, to ask Him questions regarding
His ministry, to find out if this Jesus was indeed the Messiah. This is the
power of the call to faith. This is the power of Jesus.
Our Lord’s response to Nicodemus’ opening statement
wasn’t quite what Nicodemus expected. When Nicodemus tells Jesus, “Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher come from God” (v. 2), Jesus responds, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the
This conversation must have seemed
really strange to Nicodemus, because, you see; he already believed that he was
a full-fledged member of God’s kingdom. However, Jesus tells him if you are
truly a member of God’s kingdom, you are one who has been born again. Hearing
this, Nicodemus asks how this can be. Can a man be born again by reentering his
mother’s womb? Nicodemus was puzzled and asked Jesus to explain, in more
detail, how this could happen. He wasn’t saying that he didn’t believe, he was
simply saying that he didn’t know how this could happen. Jesus responds to Nicodemus, and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the
This must have sounded very strange to this Pharisee
whose eternal life was solely depended on his works. How in the world could
something such as, “water and the Spirit” (v. 5), do what
he had been taught could only be done by works? This was a new way of thinking
for Nicodemus. He was being called to live and lead a different type of life:
one that was spiritual. One that was led by the Spirit of faith; one that came
by the washing of regeneration: Baptism. This new way of thinking was drafting
Nicodemus into God’s army and his induction was to be completed through Baptism,
a process of which he was familiar. He was aware that Baptism was the work of
John the Baptizer and that thousands flocked to him to be baptized, to be
cleansed, in the waters of the river
Nicodemus is not alone in his unbelief.
Matter-of-fact, he is in the company of most of mankind. Nicodemus is unable to
understand this mystery of God, therefore Jesus asks him, “Are
you the teacher of
The miracle of rebirth during baptism is solely the
work of the Spirit of God. Moreover, even though God had given John the
Baptizer this baptism work to perform, the effectiveness of this work comes
only through the Spirit, the same Spirit who leads people to repentance. For
through baptism our sins are not only washed away by the Spirit, but this same
Spirit takes up residence in our hearts sanctifying our faith; giving us the
courage to be faithful soldiers in God’s army, leading us to true repentance,
true sorrow for our sins; granting us faith to believe that for Jesus’ sake God
forgives us our sinfulness.
Jesus now answers Nicodemus’ opening remarks, “If I have told you earthly things and you
do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”(v. 12). In other words Jesus is saying to
Nicodemus, How could you know that I came from God? How could you know that God
is with me? You have yet to be born again. The
Like
Nicodemus,
you, too, are vulnerable to the attacks from Satan. You cannot defend yourself
by your own means against this most powerful foe. However, the wonderful news
is God the Father, has made it possible to equip you with His righteous armor so
that you can be protected against the onslaught of Satan and his demons. How is
this possible? It is possible because, “. . . God so loved the world, that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life” (v. 16). This valuable truth and defense against Satan and his
forces is given to you through the indwelling Holy Spirit who gives you power
through the gift of faith to take up the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ and
defeat Satan. Through the waters of Baptism you became a child of God and a
member of His mighty army. This was your draft notice. You have been called to
serve. Put on the armor of God and serve faithfully. Faithfully
praying, “Gracious God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, answer our pleas for mercy
and continue to fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit equipping us for battle
against the old evil for, Satan and his demons.” Amen.
May
the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.