Hey, Family.
You might remember me mentioning that I'm scheduled to preach on 13 January.
I was planning on doing an involved study on how "Everything Old is New
Again", but after thinking about it I thought it might be better to do
something simple but unusual. To get back to basics in an unusual way since
it will be a jaded audience of all preachers. So I thought I'd do a little
one-man drama where I walk into the room (maybe dressed in a white robe) and
start speaking to the congregation as if it is one person. Let me know if
you think this can be pulled off or if it's too strange. Smile. So imagine
I walk into the room in my white robe, sit down at a table facing the
congregation and say...
"Hello, my friend! I'm glad you made it back from your trip before sunset
and could come to see me. Too bad you weren't here yesterday. What a time
you missed! I invited that young rabbi for a meal...You know, the one that
does all those amazing things but is so strange, so I planned to find out
the truth about him or put him in his place, once and for all.
So, he shows up at my door with a group of his friends including a woman of
all things. That woman that has the reputation for bringing a good time
with her, if you know what I mean. But who am I to turn them away? So I
invite them in and could they eat! They were eating me out of house and
home I tell you. And all the time the Rabbi is talking to me about his
father. Why I couldn't get a word in. ...His father this, his father that,
and that I could have his father for my father. That I could have GOD for
my father!!
Imagine the madness! Ha! He should have known MY father. Then he could
find out...But you know, in a strange way, it was as if he did. It was like
he did know...It was like he knew all about me...imagine...Imagine to really
have GOD as our father and to start all new...all new...
Ah, but it's madness! Madness. So I told him so, told him straight out to
take his sinner friends and go...
Nicodemus! Nicodemus, come back...It's dark, Nicodemus...Where are you
going? It's too late! It's too late!
(Reading from John 3:1 thru 18)
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You
have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do
unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus
answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be
amazed that I said to you, `You must be born again.' The wind blows where it
wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and
where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said
to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you
the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I
say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and
you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not
believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has
ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not
send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be
saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not
believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God."
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