A Breath of Fresh Air

John 3:1-17

February 17, 2008 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

Death is all around us. A deadly attack in Afghanistan killed 80 people today. Yesterday, a car bomb killed 37 in Pakistan at an election rally. Last week a young man killed 6 students and wounded 15 others, then shot himself, in a classroom at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Innocent people killed too soon.

When professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33, he had just won a PGA champion-ship and had ten tournament victories to his credit. He wrote, “A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or some-thing else. It’s just a question of when.” Suddenly everything he had accomplished in golf became meaning-less to him. All he wanted to do was live.

Then he remembered what a Bible study teacher on the tour had said to him. “Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.” [PreachingToday.com, “The Answer to Death.” From Robert Russell, “Resurrection Promises,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 151].

Breathe and Live

Nicodemus thought he was in the land of the living. After all, he was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, a teacher of the Law. He was more righteous than most people. Others saw him as a man of God who kept the Law and showed others how to live godly lives.

Yet, Nicodemus came to Jesus because he saw in Jesus someone who knew God personally. He had heard Jesus teach and knew he spoke with an authority that could only come from God. Nicodemus came at night, probably afraid to be seen by other Pharisees who wouldn’t accept Jesus’ teaching. He wanted answers to his questions and he wanted to know Jesus. So he came seeking.

Jesus knew what was on Nicodemus’ mind. He knew that Nicodemus needed to be stretched to see beyond his comfortable understanding of God. But what Jesus told him was hard for him to grasp. Nicodemus knew he’d been born because he was alive, but what did Jesus mean that he had to be “born again.” What did Jesus mean that he must be “born of the Spirit?”

People still struggle to understand what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. We know that to be physically alive we must be born physically. Every baby comes alive when they take their first breath of fresh air.

A mother doesn’t have to pay extra for the air the baby will inhale when it is born. They don’t have to do anything special to earn the right to let this baby take its first breath. No extra planning goes into the taking of a breath.

To be alive is to continue to breathe. Yet, from the moment we are born, one thing is certain – we will die. We will all die – this body has a limited warrantee. Doctors can replace a few body parts, and do some maintenance to keep it running for awhile. But in the end, we all die. Physical life has a limit.

Jesus told Nicodemus that life beyond this physical realm was possible for those who were reborn – not physically, but spiritually. “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” [Jn.3:6].

Breathe or Die

The problem is that people focus on the physical realm of life and ignore or rebel against the spiritual realm. What we can’t see we think doesn’t really exist. We can’t see the wind, but we see the effect it has on the world around us. We don’t really know where wind comes from or where it is going, yet we can feel its power, especially if we are trying to walk against a gale-force wind.

So we think that because we can’t see the spiritual realm, the realm of God beyond this earth, it doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter to us. We go through life thinking that this is the “land of the living” and nothing else matters.

And I suppose many people go through life ignoring the spiritual realm – at least until they come face to face with the reality of death. Then suddenly their interest turns to the spiritual realm. They want to know if there is life or something beyond the grave.

When the people of Israel wandered in the desert, after leaving slavery in Egypt, they often complained about how much better it was in Egypt. Why did God bring them out in the desert to die? So God sent poisonous serpents to bite them and many died. Then Moses prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him to make an image of the serpent from bronze and put it on a pole. Then everyone who was bitten could look up at it and live. [Num.21:4-9].

We are like the people of Israel, wandering through the deserts of this life, not yet in the Promised Land. We often complain about how our lives were better before we trusted in God. God hasn’t provided for our needs like we expected him to. We rebel against God and choose to do things our way, rather than God’s way. We don’t want to follow God’s rules. We don’t want God telling us how to live this life. If this is all there is, we think we have a right to enjoy life our way.

So, because we all rebel against God, we all sin, we have no hope of eternal life with God. We all have been bitten by that poisonous serpent called sin, which is rebellion against God. And God has provided for us also a way to be saved from death. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” [Jn.3:14-15].

Jesus, the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross to take our sins on his body, so that we might not die, but live.

Those who look up to Jesus to save them and believe in him, breathe in that breath of fresh air that gives eternal life. When we believe in Jesus Christ we receive the Spirit, that breath of fresh air that saves us and are born of the Spirit.

Fresh Air For All

It is possible that Nicodemus thought that he already had this spiritual life because he was a good man, a righteous man, a God-fearing man who kept the Law. His good deeds must have surely made him one of God’s elect.

However, the reality for Nicodemus, for the Israelites wandering in the desert, and for us, is that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

God gave the Israelites a bronze snake to look up to and be saved. God gave Nicodemus and us a Savior to look up to on the cross and be saved. God made it possible for all people to choose life rather than death. We don’t have to perish or die; we can live.

As Paul Azinger learned, “we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living.” We don’t have to stay stuck in the land of the dying.

· We get to the land of the living by being born again of the Spirit and taking that breath of fresh air.

· We get to the land of the living by believing that Jesus died for our sins so we can live forever with him.

· We get to the land of the living by believing that God loves each of us and wants everyone to be with him.

A newborn baby doesn’t decide what family he or she will be born into or who their brothers and sisters will be. We don’t choose our family members in God’s family either. God doesn’t give us a choice of who will receive eternal life and who won’t. We don’t get to vote on who enters the kingdom of God.

John 3:15-17 tells us whom God wants in his family. The Son of Man was lifted up so “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

God breathes life into “whoever believes;” into “everyone who believes;” “in order that [everyone in] the world might be saved through him.” God invites everyone who wants to live forever with him to be born anew.

Conclusion

God wants everyone to be in his family. When we breathe in that breath of fresh air that gives us eternal life, we become a part of God’s family. We are born again and transformed. Our perspective changes and now we see other people as brothers and sisters.

Henry Nouwen wrote this about this transforming breath of fresh air: “The man who lives from God’s breath can recognize with joy that the same breath sinks into the lungs of his fellowman, and that they are both drawing from the same source. At this mutual realization, the fear of another disappears, a smile comes to the lips, the weapons fall, and one hand reaches out for the other. He who recognizes the breath of God in another can truly let another enter his life, too, and can receive the gifts which are given to him.” [Henry Nouwen, With Open Hands (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1972), 66].

This breath of fresh air from God’s Spirit is the same for every person. Jesus does not deny life, his gift of love, to anyone who desires it. Therefore, we cannot deny the gift of love to anyone who is a brother or sister in Christ.

· Jesus has given a breath of fresh air to each of us.

· Jesus’ love has saved each of us from death.

· Jesus’ death makes it possible for each of us to get to the land of the living.

So each breath we take should remind us of the One who loves us and has given us life – eternal life.

Each breath of fresh air we take reminds us that we are in the land of the dying, but we are headed for the land of the living.

Today as you receive the bread and the cup, remember that Jesus died for all people so that all people can live.

As you come forward or as you return to your seat look around you and see those whom God loves. See those who are with you on this journey to the land of the living. Amen.

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This sermon is copyright ©2008 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.