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ADVENT 3

It is really hard to believe that there is only one more Sunday until Christmas. The time goes so fast. Most people in the western world KNOW that Christmas is about Jesus, yet do they believe? That is the big question we all have to answer for ourselves. God did all that He is going to do up to this point in time. He has a lot more to do in His timing, but when Jesus died on the cross He said “It is finished”. What is ‘IT’? That is the big question we all have to ask ourselves.

While we are thinking about this, let’s take a look at a man named Nicodemus. We first see him in John 3 as he comes to Jesus one night to ask Him some questions. Now Nicodemus is an educated, wealth, religious man. One of the Temple leaders. He was ‘brought up in Church’, yet there is much he doesn’t know and Jesus intrigues him. Why do you think he came to Jesus at night? I thought of some reasons: he had a position to maintain, he didn’t want anyone else to know, he wanted to protect his ‘good name’, he was curious. Jesus told him what many people learn early in life: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whoever BELIEVES IN HIM may have eternal life”. The next verse, John 3:17, is just as important: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through Him”. Jesus came to be a Savior. Something I need on a daily basis. He didn’t come to judge, condemn, punish human beings, but to save them. In order to be saved we have to consent to that fact. We are all eligible, but some of us have rejected this wonderful gift of God and, because we have free will, God will not make us accept His Son into our lives.

Nicodemus did not accept Jesus as His Savior. Look at the record. Nicodemus is found only in the book of John. There is no other gospel story written about him, no New Testament book bears his name. John alone mentions his name and he does it 3 times. In the 3rd chapter, again in the 7th chapter and then in the 19th chapter. In chapter 7:51, Nicodemus speaks up in the midst of a discussion by his colleagues, but he defends the Law – not Jesus. In chapter 19, he agrees to help his friend and colleague Joseph of Arimathea, who was also coming to Jesus secretly, bury the body of Jesus. That is the last we read about Nicodemus in God’s Word.

What Jesus told Nicodemus in 3:18 was that the one who believes in Him (Jesus) is not judged or condemned; but the one who does NOT believe in Him has been judged or condemned already. Did Nicodemus really believe? Only God knows that. He expressed his faith in the night time, when no one was looking or hearing and only God knows his heart. The same is true with us. Only God knows our hearts. Only He can judge. Do you believe that Jesus was God Who came in the flesh to save us and give us eternal life? Or are you a closet Christian, like Nicodemus? Have you given your life over to the One Who came to save you and give you life eternal? Jesus makes it all really clear in Matthew 10:32 when He says, “If you confess Me before people, I will confess you before My Father in heaven, but if you deny Me before people, I will deny you before My Father in heaven.” Look into your heart, what is your relationship with this wonderful Savior?

Rev. Joyce Kaplan, M.Div. Retired United Church of Christ Pastor.