God Comes Down to Lift You Up :: John 3:1-17
[Jesus said,] Indeed, no one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down out of heaven, [namely] the Son of Man (v 13).
You couldn’t go to God on your own. So God came to you. You couldn’t ascend into heaven on your own. So God descended to you. You had no place with God. So God made his place with you. ... When you really get down to it, that’s what today’s Gospel reading from John 3 is about. God loved you in this way: He gave his only begotten Son, to be born without sin and to live without sin so that he could die for your sin, overcome death for you, ascend into heaven ahead of you, and prepare a place for you. Jesus has done all this for you. He descended so that you may ascend.
GOD COMES DOWN TO TAKE YOU UP
This is our theme for the Feast of the Holy Trinity.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this the Gospel given by God to you. As Jesus said, No one has gone up into heaven except the one who came down out of heaven, the Son of Man (v 13). This is Good News because even as sin continues to beat us down, God regenerates us from above through Word and sacraments so that you will arise into eternal life.
I. These are the main points that Jesus is revealing to Nicodemus in our reading.
Even though some of you are teachers of Israel on your own, we could not even think about God on our own (v 10). As Saint Paul reminded us today in his epistle to the Romans, for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor (Rm 11:34)? Unless one is begotten from above he cannot see the kingdom of God (v 5). We could not move toward God. We couldn’t remember God, or even what Jesus did or said. We couldn’t remember his commands. We couldn’t remember what he taught. The one born of flesh is flesh (v 6). Apart from God, we have no place in our hearts for God. Nor do we even give thought at all. And even then, as Paul concluded, who has given a gift to him, or even repaid him? (Rm 11:35).
The bottom line here is, not a single one of us.
There is a huge chasm between our Creator and us, and it exceeds our ability to describe it. Sin and iniquity is more than the bad things we do. Sin is not just a mistake you make. Sin is the utter darkness of life; it is the source of despair. God is the utter brilliance of light; He is true joy. Sin is corruption of mind and body. God is incorruptible, inerrant, and pure.
Sin manifests itself primarily in your fundamental desire to be in control, to manipulate emotions, to be captains of your soul, to determine for yourself what is good and right. Sin is the desire that ultimately leads us to distrust God and his inerrant Word. Sin convinces us to think we can go to God. Sin is so deeply rooted in us that ... we cannot even confess it properly.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you need to remember this. How can you live with yourselves?
As Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians: All too quickly we become callous and give ourselves over to sensuality. We become numb to all kinds of impurity (Eph 4:17-19). We tell ourselves it’s OK to live this way, to ignore sin. Worse, we allow ourselves to harbor all types of bitterness and wrath and anger. We allow slander to spew forth from our mouths (Eph 4:31).
Why? Because it makes us all feel better about ourselves when others are put down.
You see this pattern throughout the Scriptures that Nicodemus knew so well. To begin, Adam and Eve thought they could ascend to become gods, so they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:6) and fell to their death. And, boy, did they start knowing evil. The depths of our sin became so overwhelming they descended into the shadows, hiding from God, trying to cover their own actions ... talk about evil? ... blaming each other and even God, like the world does today when they say God made me this way (Gen 3:1-13).
Our sin soon overwhelmed us too. As you heard last week, it wasn’t long before Noah and his sons ignored God’s Word to disperse and populate the earth. We then gathered together and tried to ascend to heaven on our own time. So God came down and dispersed us and confused us (Gen 11:1-9). ... God’s people continued to find themselves in bondage to their man-made religions ... as they told themselves they didn’t need the Divine Service to worship God.
Our idolatry is killing us all!
But while all too often we hate each other, God loved us anyway.
II. He came down to us to give us new life (vv 7–12).
As Jesus says, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is begotten from above he is not able to see the kingdom of God (v 3).
To be begotten from above is like being born again, only better. To be begotten by God is to be chosen, to be made one of his own. When we are begotten from above, God enables us to open our eyes and ears to see and hear the Gospel that it is God who comes to you ... that he has reconciled himself to you ... and you therefore can be lifted up to him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, hear what God is telling you today. It is necessary that you all be begotten from above (v 5). And so you are ... thanks be to God.
As the psalmist says, the Lord, who made heaven and earth, came down to our rescue (Ps 121:2). He who chose us before the foundation of the world came down so that we could ascend. He has given you new birth from above, baptizing each one of you, uniting himself with you, so that you will be united with him and ascend through the gates of heaven.
So repent every one of you in the name of Jesus. That is, mourn your sin that beats you down, and recognize your savior who lifts you up ... first, through Word and sacraments, and ultimately, into eternal life.
III. We are begotten from above through means of grace that make this possible.
Being begotten from above moves us to live new lives in the worship of Our Triune God and in service to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ forgave us. Being begotten from above is being regenerated with a new heart through means of grace. These means of grace ... his word, his baptism, and his supper ... actually work, achieving the purpose for which God gave them ... reminding you of the source of your forgiveness. His means of grace remind you that he comes down to lift you up. As Jesus says, he did it like this: Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness: In this way, it [was] necessary that the Son of Man be lifted (on the cross), in order that all those believing in him may have eternal life (v 14-15).
You see, the wages of sin is indeed death ... the death of Jesus on a cross. And the free gift of God is eternal life ... life in Jesus in the resurrection. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his only begotten son in order that all who have faith in him may not perish but have eternal life (v 16). You have been saved by grace ... that is given new life from above ... through this faith (Eph 2:8).
God came down to wash you in the waters of the baptism that he poured out upon you. Our Lord Jesus came down and united himself with you in baptism to fulfill all righteousness for you. Now because of Jesus, you who are baptized, you have been united with Christ on the cross. Your sin went down into the grave with Christ in the tomb. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, you too can now arise to walk in the newness of life (Rm 6:3-4). God descended to raise you up .... to open your eyes and ears to the Gospel.
God did not send the Son into the world so that he may judge the world, but in order that the world through him may be saved (v 17).
Now you who come to his Divine Service every chance you can ... can hear and see the Gospel ... in means of grace. After he reminds you through the proclaimed Word that your sins are forgiven precisely because of the Word Made Flesh, who lived for you, died for you, and rose and ascended for you, he reminds you of his promises that as you pass through the waters ... and eat his body and drink his blood ... he will be with you always (Isa 43:1) delivering to you his peace ... which is the forgiveness of sins. Where there is forgiveness there is life and salvation.
And now you know why God came down. He does not have pleasure in seeing the death of a sinner. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all (Titus 2:11)/
He came down to create all things, forming man out of the dust. God came down and breathed life into us all, raising us. God came down and washed all of creation. God came down and gave us a picture of righteousness through the Law. God came down in the flesh in his obedience to his law, not only as a servant, but as the Son. God came down and clothed himself with your sin and clothed you with his righteousness. God came down and died for you ... he rested for you ... he rose for you ... he ascended ahead of you so that he can always be with you ... coming down in the Spirit giving you new life. And God comes down to feed and nourish you ... so that he can lift you up ... in Jesus’ name.