Today is the second Sunday of Lent. This past Wednesday night, as Pam and I were driving our students home in the snow, we came across a sign that captures the essence of what I believe Lent is all about. The sign read, “Lent – Spring Training for Christians.” As we speak, baseball players are heading to Florida and Arizona for Spring Training. Most of the players have been off since early October. They gather there in February and March to condition their bodies for the upcoming baseball season. They even play exhibition games. These are practice games. Can you imagine the level of play for the first couple of weeks, if they didn’t report for spring training? The level of play just would be what we expected for professional baseball players.
Just as Spring Training conditions the bodies of the ball players, Lent conditions not only our bodies, but our souls and minds to (for lack of a better word) “play” the Christian life. The life that we live is so much more important than baseball, football, basketball or even NASCAR and yet many Christians do not condition their spiritual lives. I believe that it is important for us to examine and condition our lives to live the life that Christ has called us to live. I like that the Wesleyan Church refers to this season as SpringLife. Spring is the time when the earth comes from dormancy to life. That is what I hope that we accomplish during this season. If your Christian life is laying dormant, it is my prayer that through this series that we may awaken something inside of you and that your Christian life may blossom into full bloom.
But I get ahead of myself. To assume that every person in this building this morning is a Christian would be fooling us. As was read in the scriptures this morning, a leading teacher of the Jewish people comes to Jesus. Now, he doesn’t come during the heat of the day, but comes to Jesus under the cover of night. Maybe he feared reprisal from the other Jewish leaders. I am thankful that this man came to Jesus. He was seeking Jesus out. He must have known that there was something different about Jesus. I believe that Nicodemus was a seeker in the truest sense of the word. He wanted to find out who this rabbi was – he wanted to see what made him tick. He seeks Jesus out so he can talk and have a conversation.
Now, we look at this conversation and at least pretend to understand it. This is new terminology to the Jewish people. Most of us, growing up here in the Bible Belt have heard the term “born again” over and over again and we know what it means. Can you imagine hearing this concept for the first time? No wonder Nicodemus asks such a strange question – “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” This is his response to Jesus statement, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” I’m sure that was a strange concept. But what I like about Jesus is that He goes on and explains this concept to Nicodemus. He does not leave him in the dark. Jesus is not talking about a physical rebirth, but a spiritual rebirth. Humans give birth to the physical, but the Holy Spirit gives life to the spiritual. It’s still a little confusing to Nicodemus, so Jesus continues to explain. One of the things that I discovered that even though Jesus uses some complicated thought throughout this passage, He brings it down to the level that Nicodemus could understand it. Now, some would call that watering down the gospel. But what good is preaching and teaching the gospel in a way that people don’t understand it. We must make the gospel understandable to each generation. Some of you may ask why I use a contemporary translation to preach and teach. You may ask why we use newer worship music and even why we are using the screen in worship. These are ways to make the gospel understandable to all generation. Jesus uses Nicodemus’ knowledge of Moses. He says that, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.” Nicodemus would have understood the reference to Moses since he was a Jewish leader and teacher.
Jesus goes on to quote arguably the most famous passage in the Bible, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world but to save it through him.” God sent his Son into the world because he loved us. Jesus came into the world because he loved us. I really believe this passage when it says that Christ came for all people – not just a select few. It says that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. Another thing that is important from this passage is that if God didn’t send Jesus, his only Son to judge the world, why must we Christians constantly judge or condemn the world. Jesus came to save us, not to judge us. One of the things that we Christians are really good at is cursing the darkness. If we are to do what Jesus did we must – instead of cursing (or constantly dreading) the darkness – we must light a candle in the darkness.
We are never told if Nicodemus really ever believes, which leaves us kind of empty. I’d like to think that Jesus’ conversation led to Nicodemus’ belief. We do have an indication that Nicodemus was one who believed in Jesus. John 19:38-42 tells us:

38Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

So it appears that Nicodemus took Jesus at his word. Is that really all it takes to be a believer? It almost seems so easy. That’s in part what makes Christianity so different than all the other religions. Christianity (or being little Christ’s) is about a relationship with Christ and following the things that he commanded us to do.
Paul expands this thought about how we become believers. “What did [Abraham] discover about being made right with God?” If his good deed had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.”
Paul is clear here, there is nothing that we can do to earn our righteousness (our rightness with God.) The only way Abraham was counted right with God is because Abraham believed in God. Paul goes on to make the argument that Abraham believed in God before he was circumcised, thus making him not only the spiritual father of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. So again anyone can be made right in the sight of God if they have faith in him and in his Son, Jesus. God’s promise is not dependent on whether we follow the Jewish law or not, but on our faith in God. Paul writes, “ 16 So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. 17 That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.”
So there is nothing we can do to make us right with God, except for believe in him and his son Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Paul writes that “The wages of sin is death (see when we try to earn something we only come up with death) but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is a huge gap between us sinners and that’s what we are and God’s righteousness. We try to come up with all kinds of ways to bridge the gap. What are some of those ways? Religion (we attend church as often as possible, we sing the songs, we say the prayers – these things cannot save us) Philosophy – we try to come up with ways to bridge the gap, but that doesn’t work either. We give and we help the poor, needy, widows and orphans (not that there’s anything wrong with that, matter of fact I encourage it with all of my heart and James tells us that is pure and lasting religion that the Father will accept including keeping ourselves from being polluted by the world), but that alone will not save us. Only the cross will save us – it is the only thing that can bridge the gap between sinful man and righteous God. The cross of Jesus. Jesus is the only way. We must believe in him if we are to be counted right in the sight of God. That in turn leads to repentance of sins and leading a new life – God brings back the dead to life and creates new things out of nothing. Christ will transform us into the people that he wants us to be. All we need to do is surrender to him. It is that important!