​John 3  Nicodemus
 
It’s trendy these days to call yourself an atheist, to say you believe there is no god.  Still, lots of people want to believe in something, so beyond the idols of this world we profess to hope in a benevolent ‘higher power’ of some kind and this gives us comfort, especially in the face of illness, death or bereavement.
 
But how real is our ‘god’ and how close to ‘him’, or ‘her’ or ‘it’ do we want to be?
 
Listen to some words from C S Lewis:
 
‘An ‘impersonal God’ – well and good.  A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads – better still.  A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap – best of all.  But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband – that is quite another matter.  There comes a moment when the children who have been playing burglars hush suddenly; was that a real footstep in the hall?  There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘Man’s search for God’) suddenly draw back.  Supposing we really found Him?  We never meant it to come to that!  Worse still, supposing He had found us?’
 
Now let’s consider Nicodemus.  He came seeking a little enlightenment about God and got a lot more than he bargained for!
 
He would have professed without hesitation to believe in God the Maker and Ruler of all, the God of his forefathers, the God of the OT Scriptures.  He was already a religious man who lived by a strict moral code.  In fact he was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council.  But while all the other references to Pharisees in John’s Gospel are negative, recording their murderous opposition to Jesus Christ, Nicodemus seems to have been an exception.
 
Perhaps he was by nature a fairer man than most.  We later read of him as a minority of one, urging his fellow Sanhedrin members to caution, to not condemn someone without giving them a fair hearing.  That courage and decency are seen again later when he goes with Joseph of Arimathea to ask Pilate for Jesus’ body to give the Nazarene preacher as respectful a burial as possible.
 
But something else was stirring this man, and it was to do with this Jesus.  Nicodemus couldn’t help but be impressed by His preaching and the dramatic miracles he was performing.  He was uneasy.  Was the kind of faith he had practised up to now not enough?  He sensed that in this Jesus God was somehow closer and more real than ever before and he felt drawn to cautiously, discreetly explore further.
 
Jesus’ very first sentence is a devastatingly enlightening declaration of spiritual truth: ‘I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’  He repeats and develops this theme just two verses later, ‘No-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of the Spirit.’
 
Apparently God has a kingdom and to really perceive it or be part of it involves a new beginning for people, as fundamental as the day of our physical birth when we first came from darkness into the light of a new day.
 
Like Nicodemus, questions come flooding to our minds.  What is this ‘kingdom of God’ and why might anyone want to be part of it?  According to Jesus not everyone sees or enters this kingdom.  Is it that important, and, if it is, how can we make sure we’re ‘in’ and not ‘out’?
 
The Bible teaches God created a perfect world which has been compromised and spoiled by our human disobedience.  We live for now in a ‘fallen’ world, still beautiful but spoiled by greed, injustice, pollution to name just a few.  Worse, we are living under sentence of God’s righteous judgement.  A day is coming when all must answer before our Maker for our choices and accept the eternal consequences.
 
The ‘Kingdom of God’, put simply, is Almighty God reasserting His authority in His world, through His Son.  Three things we might say about this ‘kingdom’ from our reading in John 3:
 
God’s kingdom is Positive in Impact
Spiritual in Nature
Generous in Scope
 
The coming of God’s kingdom through Jesus has been and still is positive in impact.  It brings new life and heavenly light into this lost, gloomy world.  The Lord Jesus brings forgiveness and salvation, reconciliation and peace with God.  The effects of sin and evil are reversed as many are healed and delivered from harmful bondage and given assurance to overcome the dread of dying.  Realising God’s love for us has a positive impact on our other relationships, prompting us to live in love, practise justice and integrity and seek the wellbeing of the whole community.
 
But we must understand secondly that God’s Kingdom is spiritual in nature.  ‘My Kingdom is not of this world’ said Jesus on one occasion, and on another to His followers, ‘the Kingdom is within you.’
 
Christian faith can be demonstrated, modelled, taught and recommended but it cannot be artificially or mechanically imposed on people.  Not by religious ritual nor by political force.  A spiritual kingdom requires spiritual subjects who are renewed and motivated on the inside by the Spirit of God.
 
Jesus speaks here and later in this Gospel of the invisible work of the Holy Spirit in human hearts, convicting us that things need to change, persuading us of the better way that is trusting and following Christ, leading and equipping us in such a lifestyle.
 
Some people experience a dramatic, overnight change or memorable moment of decision, for others it is a more gradual but no less definite dawning of realisation, but the results are the same.  A sincere turning away from pride and wrongdoing, a grateful trust in Jesus as Son of God and Saviour, and a loving desire to serve Him, to identify ourselves publically as his followers and recommend Him to others.
 
Positive in impact, spiritual in nature, let’s note thirdly God’s Kingdom is wide in scope.  It’s not restricted to one group or type of person but open to all.  ‘For God so loved the world,’ says v16, ‘that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
 
‘Whoever’ is the widest possible invitation.  No matter our background or circumstances, the door of God’s kingdom is open to all who will submit to trust and obey His Son.
 
Well, have we got it?  Can we see it?  Do we want to be part of it?  Are we willing to be led by the Spirit from our darkness into the light of the truth of Jesus?
 
Sad are those who hear this truth but determine to try and hide in the semi-darkness!  Why stay entrenched in night longer than we have to?  Better surely to come confessing our need and look to Him Who was lifted up on a cross for our sake!  Look to Jesus and welcome this bright new life that is dawning worldwide to eternal day!
 
 

The Magi’
Matthew 2 v 1-12
 
I was wondering if many highly qualified people still revered Jesus today so I Googled ‘scientists who are Christian’ and discovered a long and prestigious list!  Below are just three examples. 
 
I’m persuaded that we should not fear academic study or learning for the more we understand the working of the universe the more reverence we can gain for its Creator.  More, we should be sceptical of those who say science has somehow disproved the Bible and faith.  The professors here would disagree!
 
We can’t all be scientists.  We don’t have to be.  Testimony like this should make Christians unashamed of our faith, and the Saviour worshipped in Bethlehem by scholars like these.
 
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.’
 
So wrote Albert Einstein, widely regarded as a great genius from the 20th century.  Einstein was not a conventionally religious man, but he was too wise to be an atheist.
 
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, puffing us up with pride in ourselves.  Wisdom brings us back to humility and a willingness to acknowledge those higher and greater than ourselves.
 
Wise men bowed down and worshipped the infant Jesus.
 
Nowadays the world is flooded with information.  It’s quite easy to be knowledgeable about many things.  Your average ten year old can Google the distance to the stars with one swipe of their phone or tablet, but as a race are we humans any more wise?  Are we any better as people than those in past ages?
 
We can send a spaceship to Mars and dream of finding life there but refuse to acknowledge or protect a clearly living child in the womb.  We knowingly kill unborn children.  We enslave young people in the sex industry.  We ridicule our Maker and change His laws.  We profess ourselves to be wise but frequently behave as immoral fools!
 
I say again, wise men bowed down and worshipped Jesus.
 
‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ wrote Solomon in the introduction to his collection of Proverbs.  We are beginners on the path of wisdom when we humble ourselves before God and put our trust in the Saviour he has given.
 
Like the ‘wise men’ in Matthew 2.
 
But who were these ‘magi’?
It makes sense for a king or queen, a president or prime minister to employ trained and qualified people to give advice for governing.  As early as in the book of Genesis we read that Egypt’s Pharaoah called for his ‘magicians and wise men’ to help him interpret a disturbing dream.  Magi would often specialise in astrology and understanding omens.
 
Six centuries BC we read that Jerusalem was overrun by the Babylonians and many of her young people taken captive and made to serve their king Nebuchadnezzar.  The king invested significantly in their education and training so that he would have top notch advisors.  These were the scientists and experts, the ‘select committee’ of their time.  They studied to learn all there was to know. 
 
Daniel, a young exile from Jerusalem so excelled among his peers that he was made the leader of the magi in this huge ancient empire.  It was a pagan culture, yet such was Daniel’s godly influence and legacy there that all these generations later magi in the east (that’s where Babylon is) looked to the heavens and perceived Daniel’s God was moving, and came to Jerusalem seeking.
 
These highly qualified and high-ranking royal advisors bowed down and worshipped Jesus.
 
Let’s consider three things about this.
 
Firstly here was a fitting tribute.
 
Consider the gifts they presented.  There was gold fit for a king, and Jesus is later described as ‘king of kings and lord of lords’.  Daniel predicted his kingdom would never end and neither it has.  Even as some in western countries try to renounce their Christian foundation, faith in Jesus continues to spread globally despite harsh persecution.  He promised, ‘This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations’ before the end comes.
 
The magi brought frankincense.  Incense is burned in various religions, the sweet smelling smoke taken to symbolise prayer rising to God.  How fitting a gift for the One in Whose name we offer our prayers and requests to God!  The wise and learned bow before the Fount of all Knowledge, the creatures before their Creator, limited human beings before the infinite God!
 
They also brought myrrh, a spice used in embalming the dead.  With uncanny insight, they bring a gift suggestive of how this divine King will establish His eternal kingdom.  As Priest, Jesus would bring God to people and people to God.  He would do so through the sacrifice of His own life on the cross.  Wise people bow in penitent faith before the One on Whom our life and salvation depend!
 
The magi brought fitting tribute to Jesus, but let’s observe here secondly a bitter irony.  The royal advisors in Jerusalem knew these prophecies of Daniel and others.  They were able to tell the king where the Christ would be born.  Yet we don’t find any of them coming seeking or bending their knee to their Saviour King.  For now they ignored Him, later they would contrive to have Him silenced.  King Herod sunk to multiple infanticide to try and eliminate Him!
 
Those who should know best, sometimes behave the worst, a bitter irony.
 
Thirdly let’s consider our current challenge.  Wise people bowed and worshipped Jesus then and have done through the ages.  What will we do?
 
The times are no less challenging, the needs of the world no less great.  Yet still there remains no greater Saviour or Governor of human hearts and society than the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God.
 
What will we do?  Make excuses based on our limited knowledge and perspective?  Or humbly trust the One Who knows all and gave all that we might joyfully share it all with Him?
 
I think we know what advice the Magi would give.
 

I met a new member of staff in work this week, a young Lithuanian woman.  I’m quite a friendly person, I usually speak to everyone so I said, ‘O hello, and who are you?’  To which she replied, ‘I am no-one.’
 
It was probably just a moment of shyness, modesty, lack of confidence in a new situation, but her words have been in my mind ever since.
 
‘I am no one.’
 
Are we ever inclined to think of ourselves like that?  I’m nobody, I’m not important, you don’t need to know my name or worry about me.  I don’t matter.
 
Do other people sometimes make us feel like this?  By the way they speak to us or take us for granted?  Think for a moment of refugees or those trafficked and enslaved in the sex industry.  How many people are there in the world today feeling used, abused, wounded, unvalued, unloved?
 
Christmas is God saying to the world, ‘You are loved.  You are more than just important.  You matter deeply to me.
 
That is part of what the angels’ invitation to the shepherds is all about.  Now the shepherds are relevant in a number of ways.  As so often there is an important link here with what has been before in the Old Testament.
 
Israel’s most famous and idealised king David had begun as a young shepherd.  The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah had often criticised selfish, corrupt human leaders.  They likened God Himself to a gentle, protective shepherd and predicted that He would send another godly leader like David to guide His people.
 
Yet ironically with this background, by the 1st century shepherds were looked down on in Israel.  In the uber-judgemental world of the Pharisees they were considered technically ‘unclean’ and actually barred from entering the Temple.  They were considered as ‘no one’ by polite society but not by the Lord.  They were the first on the guest list, invited by angelic messengers no less.
 
Hey guys, come and see your new shepherd.  God is fulfilling His promises from generations ago.  Come and join the celebration!

​Actually the first thing the angel says to the shepherds outside Bethlehem is, ‘Don’t be afraid.’  We are not usually given to see these mighty heavenly warriors and messengers from God but their appearance seems to be on occasions intimidating.  As is the ‘glory of the Lord’.
 
Skeptics sometimes say, ‘If God would show Himself we would believe in him.  How can we believe in something we can’t see?
 
Yet those who are granted a glimpse of God’s glory and holiness in the Bible are absolutely blown away by the experience, really quite terrified and the first words they need to hear are words of reassurance, ‘Don’t be afraid.  It’s good news.’
 
This good news brings with it great joy, greater than all other delights in this life.  Best of all it’s for everyone.  No one needs to be shut outside.  All are welcome.
 
So we have dazzling glory, we might expect that from a divine being, but here’s the surprise.  The Saviour Whom God has sent has been born into His own creation in the most humble of circumstances.  Not the palace with a 22 page supplement in Hello magazine, but a stableyard with a manger for His first cradle.
 
This is somewhere shepherds would feel comfortable and at home, somewhere they wouldn’t be too embarrassed visiting.  What a lovely thought, that the world’s Saviour wasn’t too snobby or embarrassed to come down into our place and share our flesh, our heat and cold, our food, our straw, our joy and our suffering, even our death.  That those who turn, who trust and follow Him might one day not be ashamed but welcomed into His place, the ‘Father’s house’ of heaven.
 
This was heaven showing the utmost goodwill to earth and its population, an offer of peace to those who time and again choose to live as enemies of their Maker.
 
So what would the shepherds do?  They accepted the invitation, met their Saviour and returned ‘glorifying and praising God’.  I guess that was some of that joy that was promised by the angel!
 
These shepherds, we don’t even know their names.  The Bible names many of its characters, Mary, Joseph, Peter, James and John, but many it doesn’t.  We’re not told the names of the Eastern visitors either, even though they were highly educated and apparently wealthy, possibly even aristocratic or of royal blood. 
 
Does this mean they were ‘no ones’?  I don’t think so.
 
Does it not rather mean that everyone is a ‘someone’ to our Father in heaven?  Every shepherd, every magi, every anonymous face in the crowd, every lonely statistic in the queue, known unto God and precious to Him.  So much so He gave His own Son that we all might become His beloved children.
 
Many of our problems as human beings arise from being too simplistic, too one-dimensional.  People either get conceited, imagining they are perfect and above criticism, or they get depressed thinking they are hopeless failures beyond redemption.
 
The Bible teaches we are all seriously flawed but also incredibly precious to God Who wants to help us so He sent us His Son Jesus, the King of Kings laid in a manger.  Welcome Him in your heart and life today and savour the joy that knowing Him brings.
 
And by the way, my new work colleague?
 
Her name is Gretta.  She is not ‘no one’ but ‘someone’.  We all are.
 
So says Almighty God in the stable in Bethlehem.