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“After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to speak with Jesus…” John 3.1-2.
“The earth was empty, formless mass cloaked in darkness…” – Genesis 1.2
“In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God and He was God.” John 1.1
John chapter three opens in the darkness. Nicodemus is looking for Jesus because he has some questions for Jesus. So he will not be seen, Nic looks for Jesus in the darkness. It reminds me of the creation of the world. When the world was first created, scripture tells us, it was made in darkness. Darkness implies chaos, non-order, and without structure. It seems amazing to me that John began his Gospel in the creation act (before really) and that this chapter seems to have a similar element. Darkness covered the earth and everything was in chaos. There was no light, nothing to show us reality; just darkness, emptiness, and aloneness.
Interestingly, John starts out his Gospel by talking about Jesus as the “Word”. That Greek word is Logos. It means structure and (correct) order. Already we have seen that John’s purpose in writing his Gospel is to encourage our beliefs in Jesus. So it is not surprising that he begins talking about Jesus. However, it is surprising where he puts Jesus and how John casts Jesus. Jesus is living with God before the beginning of time and creation. Jesus created all things that exist for God’s glory. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is God. Jesus is order and light and hope for all. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus will be God’s Man of Action, creating a way for us to return to Him.
Nic’s life at the moment must have looked a lot like the environment of creation: chaotic, without structure, dark, and alone. Nicodemus saw a spark of light and hope because of Jesus. If light had entered the world at the moment of creation all one would have seen was swirling masses colliding, smoking, and spinning. But when illumination comes into our lives we see things as God sees them, as God originally intended for us to be. God did not intend for there to be a chasm between us and Him. He did not want the darkness, we chose that. God created us to be his children, princes and princesses of the King of Kings. God designed us to be in constant community with Him, just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We rejected that life and went out on our own to make our way in the world. We have failed miserably and now hide in darkness to try to cover our shame. So God became a man and entered our darkness to shine a light, to provide hope, and create a way for us to escape the darkness and live in the light. God sent Jesus, a Savior. Nicodemus met Jesus in the Temple that day, heard the truth about the reality of God, and hungered for more. He went to Jesus and followed Him. He moved from the chaos of his religion, tradition, and his life to the light of Jesus. He longed for a firm foundation that would help him order his life, his world. Jesus provided that and so much more.
Darkness is a place we find ourselves with regularity. We live in the darkness of limited knowledge, a limited point of view, and hopelessness. Life brings about darkness; a husband leaves his family, a loved one gets cancer, someone we love dies. Life seems to be filled with darkness and finally end in dismal circumstances. How can anyone have hope? How can God be good when bad is all I can see? Darkness surrounds us and engulfs us. We try but cannot seem to pull ourselves out of the darkness. We need help. We need to be saved, saved from the world’s darkness, saved from our participation in the darkness. We need a Savior.
It is at this very point that we meet Nic and his search for the truth. Nic chooses Jesus and follows Him to light, to life, and to salvation from the darkness. It is the way. Let me be clear: it is NOT one way but the ONLY way to return to the order of our original creation, our originally designed purpose. We cannot create a way to the light, our lives have proven this point beyond any question or doubt. When we choose our way we always end up back in the darkness. It does not make any difference how good our intentions are, we always end up back in the darkness. We cannot make a way into the light. That is something only God can do. We must follow His way, His path out of the darkness if we are ever going to live in the light again. God chose Jesus to come into our darkness and show us the path. He provides the Holy Spirit to help us walk the path and get where we are going. All that is left is for us to follow the path, depending only on Him for directions, and we will find our way home again.
“After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, came to speak with Jesus…” John 3.1-2.
The opening scene of John chapter three has Jesus and His disciples gathered in Jerusalem for a religious festival. A religious festival that all Jews were required to attend at least once in their lives. Jesus made a scene in the Temple, the most holy site in their religion, and the center of the festival. Everyone knew He was in town. Everyone saw Jesus drive out the merchants, demanding a pure worship of God and not commercial opportunities. Everyone heard His claim of being God’s son. Nicodemus (we’ll call him Nic) took this opportunity to come to Jesus and ask Him an important question.
Going to visit Jesus wasn’t an easy thing because Nic was a leader of Israel in the Sanhedrin, part of the leaders that would later put Jesus to death (Luke 24.20). The Sanhedrin was a council of religious leaders that made up the “court of justice” enforcing laws concerning the practices of Judaism, civil laws, as well as criminal laws. The council had broad powers to press charges, bring to trial, and execute justice; even unto death (ISBE: “Sanhedrin”). Also, Nic was a teacher of the Law. He knew his religion/beliefs with absolute certainty. He was known by the people for his strict adherence to the Law. Because of his faithfulness to the Law he had risen to be a leader of the people. He was rock-solid in his understanding of how God worked and how He interacted with His people. That is until now, until Jesus.
Nicodemus knew of Jesus. He knew of the miracles that occurred everywhere Jesus went. Nic also heard Jesus’s claim, made right in the Temple, of being God’s son (John 2.16)! This raised questions, hard ones about the nature of everything he had believed up until he met Jesus. How can God have a son? How can God appear to abandon His people in favor of a small town teacher? How does this effect God’s promises? How can what Jesus is saying be true? Is there really a life after death? You get the idea. Nic represents everyman in this story. He is like all of us. We think we understand things. We have had certain experiences in life and have resolved some understanding of God and how he interacts with us. Some have determined that God does not exist at all, such is their experience so far. But then we are confronted by Jesus and His claims. This raises questions in us. Am I sure of my understanding? Do I need to assimilate this new information or completely rebuild my understanding? How am I going to live my life in light of this new engagement by God? Is there life after physical death? Is there hope for me?
Nicodemus took his questions to Jesus. I suggest that is the place these questions need to go. We must take them to Jesus and engage Him, even as He is engaging us. We have a limited point of view on which we have based our understanding. If our understanding is challenged then we need to take our questions about how it all fits back together again to a higher authority. Just as Nicodemus was enlightened, that is brought out of his darkness and into the light, so we too will be enlightened. Nic went to Jesus at night to avoid being seen by the people and the other leaders. You do not have to make a great scene about going to Jesus. Just as Jesus knew what Nicodemus’ real question was (Jesus did not even let Nic get his question out before Jesus answered it), He knows what questions you have. Better still for you, Jesus has the answers you seek.
If you look at the top of your page you will see our new Pray4Me Tab. We have felt God calling us to be an outpost of prayer, a beacon for hope in a sea of hopeless situations. God told us that our group is about healing; healing from disease, hurt emotions, financial needs, and damaged relationships. Our response is to pray. Only God can provide the healing we need.
We want to include you in our prayers so we have given you a link to us. If you need prayer then you are personally invited to send that request to us so that we can believe with you that God is moving on your behalf. We have seen cancers healed, marriages restored, and hope appear in hopeless situations when we pray. God is alive and active in our lives…in your life. He wants to be the first place you go when you need help or need encouragement.
Clink on Pray4Me today and let us know how we can pray for you.
-The Church at Arkadelphia
The book of John has always intrigued me. It is different than the other Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all try to tell specific parts of Jesus’ life story generally in chronological order. That is why these Gospels are called Synoptic Gospels. But John is of an entirely different category. John has a purpose, it just isn’t biography. John states his purpose in John 20.31 as “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life.”. He does not set out to tell the history of Jesus but the reason for His coming. He hopes that you and I will gain an insight in the grander scale of Jesus’ incarnation. And that this insight would spark the initial flame of belief or encourage and strengthen our belief in Jesus. So John looks at the same situation the other writers did and tries to show us the divine nature of Jesus and how we benefit because of Jesus. The whole book is written with this in mind.
John chapter three is particularly appealing. It contains the only verse in the Bible that has been to every Superbowl and appeared at many other athletic event. Chapter three begins before time began and ends after time ends; with a rescue in the middle! It contains instruction about the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ purpose, ministry, following Jesus, and the end of the story. Now that is what I call all of life. And John does it all in thirty-six verses.
These are few of the things I propose to discuss in the coming posts. So take five minutes out of your very busy day and read all of John chapter three in its entirety. See if you can find how Jesus deals with us and how we should imitate Him when we talk with people (hint: it is not in verse 16). That way you will be up to speed when I get rolling here in a few days, a week tops.
