Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, not everything we say about God is Good News. “God is great!” That's NOT Good News. It just means He's God and you're not. In fact, “God is great” is what Muslims chant when they are blowing things up and killing innocent people. “God is Love.” That's also no Good news yet. If God is love, does He love you? Does He love sinners worse than you? Does He love you as much as those who are better than you? How do you know? “God is everywhere. He is all powerful. He is almighty. He knows all things. He can do all things.” Still no good news yet. God can make the heavens and earth. And He can wipe them out with a thought. He makes sure you can breathe another breath. Or He can take your life from you in an instant. Still no good news. Just because there is a God and He is almighty and all-powerful that doesn't mean He's going to do you any good! And so the world is full of religions that try to figure God out and try to get a hold of some of that “god power” so they can use it to their advantage in this life. But none of that is good news. I know, you're asking yourself, or rather me, “Well, pastor, then what IS the Good News?” The Good News is exactly what John 3:16 teaches us: “For God loved the world IN THIS WAY, that He sent His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.” THAT'S the Good News, dear Christians, that God loves us by sending His Son to rescue us from His wrath and condemnation.
The world is full of people trying to figure out God, get a handle on God, imagine who God is. The religions of this world (and don't forget, there's really only one kind of man-made religion, as we heard last week)--the religions of this world work very hard trying to figure God out and then figure out how to get on His good side. Some say God is like a big Santa-in-the sky, who's supposed to give you whatever you want. Others think of God as an impersonal Force that has to be learned and experienced and manipulated. It doesn't really matter who or what people suppose God is. The end result is the same: the religion of this world asks the question: What do I have to do to manipulate God so he or she or it will be nice to me and let me live forever. This is what Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to ask. The original “Nick at Night” thought that Jesus must have some secret knowledge, some special teaching, some hidden insight, some kind of “in” with God. And so Nicodemus wants to learn what that is. Nicodemus, like the rest of the world, wanted to know what sort of piety and religion he was supposed to practice in order to be acceptable to God. If there are any of you here today who think that's the purpose of your being in church—to figure out some trick to getting on God's good side—then I'm afraid you're going to be very disappointed! For Jesus tells Nicodemus that such a thing is impossible! “That which is born of flesh is flesh.” If you're born in this world like everyone else, Nick, you can't get near God. In fact, Nick, you're just wasting your time and mine if you think I'm going to give you some clever insight into God's mind so you can try to be religious and make Him happy with you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if THAT is all that your religion is, some attempt to spin yourself in a good way to the Lord, then repent! Repent and hear Jesus' words that rescue Nicodemus and us from such thinking and believing that will damn us.
“Unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot go into the kingdom of God.” Right here, with these words, Jesus has shut the door to all of our computing and calculating and striving and working. With these very words, the Lord also rescues us from such worthless religion as the world tries. With these words, Jesus saves Nicodemus and us by teaching us that it is God who saves us by giving us a NEW BIRTH, a birth from above which is through water and the Spirit. Water and the Spirit? That's Holy Baptism! Holy Baptism is our salvation from the judgment of God which no man can escape. Consider Isaiah: He saw the Lord on His throne and in all His glory! It terrified and wrecked him. He was doomed! See? God's glory is no good news. But the Lord sends a coal from the altar to touch Isaiah's lips. Now Isaiah is clean. Forgiven. Only the Lord can do that. So likewise Jesus tells Nicodemus and us: Your religion ends here. Now. With me. Your efforts and your boasting in your piety: it all stops right here. You cannot go to heaven with your sinful flesh. But you can go into the kingdom of God with a new birth. No, Nicodemus, not crawling back inside Mommy and giving her another 20 hour exhausting labor and delivery! Silly Nicodemus! No, you are born of water and the Spirit. That is Holy Baptism which My disciples administer in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is this Baptism that you have, dear children of God. It is this baptism by which the Holy Spirit is given to you. There, at the font! There by water and the Word, the Spirit gives you Jesus and you become a child of the heavenly Father. There, in the waters of salvation, the Triune God into Whose name you are baptized saves you from sin and death. By THAT water, you can be certain that the Father is YOUR Father, the Son is YOUR Savior and the Spirit is YOUR Comforter!
This is all true because the Son of Man is born from above. Conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, the Father's only-begotten Son becomes a man, coming down to take on human flesh. It is this Son of Man who is lifted up like the bronze serpent was lifted up by Moses. Jesus tells Nicodemus that the love of God is precisely IN THIS WAY: His Son gives up His life for sinners. Brothers and sisters in Christ, pay close attention to that! There is no big secret for man to figure out to have God. God comes to us and gives His life for our sins. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it through Him. But pay very close attention! The Lord WILL judge this world and the sin that its people do. But not in Jesus! Outside of Christ, there is no salvation. Where Christ is, sin has been wiped away. But where Christ is absent, the terrible and damning judgment of God remains. Learn this well, brothers and sisters and learn to confess it in a world that doesn't believe it: Jesus Christ is the only way in which we can talk about God's love. Apart from Christ, the world cannot know the Father. It cannot have the Spirit. It cannot be saved. It stands condemned. But you, on the other hand, learn and believe this: in Christ, to Whom you have been joined in Baptism, your sins cannot condemn you. The Spirit has given you Christ by Baptism and the Word of God. Christ has made you a child of the heavenly Father. Therefore no sin, no iniquity, no trespass can condemn you. Go away from Christ, leave Him behind, ignore His Word and the means of grace and you are back in the world of your flesh and sin and damnation. But rejoice that in Christ, you are safe from all sins and iniquities. He was lifted up on the cross to pay for your sins. He shed His blood so that you will not have to shed yours for your sins. He lays down His life for you and takes it up again so that you can now be born of water and the Spirit at the font. And you were, the day you were baptized!
And here's our weekly “love your neighbor” segment: Understand that Nicodemus and the rest of the world want to figure out God for themselves so they can save themselves and save their own lives. But you, dear Christian, having the new birth of water and the Spirit, are not born again to live for yourself. That's the fleshly way of living. Rather, the Lord has given you the new birth of water and the Spirit to be a useful blessing to your neighbor. See how the Holy Trinity does this! The Spirit doesn't work for Himself; He preaches Christ. Christ doesn't come to do His own will but the Father's. And the Father doesn't lounge around being a big, bad, God. He sends His Son to save sinners. So it is for us now, having been born from above as children of this Lord, to put others ahead of ourselves and to serve them regardless of what may come to us. The Son of Man was lifted up for you. Your salvation is set. Safe. Accomplished. Delivered. Secure. All yours. So now you lift up your neighbor in love and carry them in whatever needs they have for you to serve and take care of them. Then you will have no time to fool around with the religion of this world, trying to fake your way into God's good graces. Rather, anchored in Christ, you have been set free by your Baptism to be something good for the benefit of those around you.
That's what the Feast of the Holy Trinity is really all about. It's not about figuring out God. That's what the religious people in this world are all about: figuring out how God works. You, you make the good confession. If you want to know what is right and wrong to say about God, then just pay attention to the Creeds that we confess, like the Athanasian Creed we read a bit ago. That will keep you from saying something about God that isn't true. But recognize that faith we confess isn't just words but it expresses the very love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus. Baptized into that Triune Name, we are the Lord's. Rescued from sin and death by the Son who came in the flesh, we are no nighttime stalkers, trying to get some kind of “religion” from Jesus. Rather, we have been given, by water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism, the very salvation and forgiveness accomplished by Jesus for us. At the font, as much as from the pulpit and altar, know that the Triune God is FOR YOU. In Christ. And THAT'S the Good News about God on this Trinity Sunday. Amen.