Second Sunday in Lent

Trinity Lutheran Church - Wyandotte, MI
March 1st, 2026
2nd Sunday in Lent
Sermon Text: John 3:1-17

Born from Above

“ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ” (John 3:17)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and from our guide and comforter the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, we have Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish leading council), a teacher of the Law, and a Pharisee. Now the Pharisees were a religious movement that saw themselves as set apart from the rest of Jewish society and held to a common view of Scripture, resurrection, and angelic beings, and organized themselves around Torah‑study, teaching, and strict ritual‑legal practice. Often, the Pharisees were in opposition to Jesus and challenged his teachings, his interpretation of the law, and his authority, especially over matters of the Sabbath, purity, and religious tradition.

One day, under the darkness of night, Nicodemus sneaks his way to meet and speak with Jesus. What drove this Pharisee, this teacher of the Law? Maybe it was out of curiosity or understanding of questions he had no answer to. Maybe he was looking for the very same thing that has brought us to Church this morning, salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting through the Messiah, Christ Jesus.

Whatever the reason, Nicodemus respects Jesus as a teacher and a man from God ("Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."), But he does not yet see Him as the Savior. And so, Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Take special note of the adverb for again, anothen. In Koine Greek, in which the New Testament was written, the adverb anothen (ἄνωθεν) can be translated as anew, again, or from above, pointing to the origin of this birth, God.

Nicodemus is an educated man, and Jesus tells him something utterly impossible: "You must be born again." Confused Nicodemus replies in the same way you or I would have: "How can this be? Can a man enter his mother's womb again?" He takes Jesus literally, as though Jesus is asking for something physically impossible.

And that's the point. Jesus is giving an impossible command — because the kingdom of God is not something we obtain by our own reason, merit, or effort. It's a pure gift from God. Just as you did nothing to be physically born, so you can do nothing to be spiritually reborn.

In that moment, Nicodemus comes face-to-face with the law. The law that always exposes our sins and our inability. "Unless one is born again" or "Unless one is born from above", this sounds like a condition, but it's really a statement of fact. On our own, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, incapable of bringing ourselves into God's kingdom. It's not about moral self-improvement. It's not about being "nicer" or "more spiritual." It's about being brought to life from death. It's about being created anew.

Jesus clarifies what he means when he said, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Christ gives Nicodemus and all of us the means by which this new birth happens. "Water and the Spirit." This is baptism, not a mere symbol, but a means of grace. Luther put it so beautifully in the Small Catechism when he said, "It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this." Jesus isn't giving Nicodemus a new law; no, Christ is revealing the Gospel promise hidden in plain sight that God Himself will do the work.

In baptism, God does what we cannot. Take plain ordinary water, and the Holy Spirit joins it with the Word of God to bring about a miracle. A sinner, dead in trespasses, is reborn from above (God) into life with Christ. The old has gone. The new has come. It's not something we have done or achieved; it is not our work but His work; it's the grace of God.

That's what Jesus means when He says, "The wind blows where it wishes." You can't control the Spirit any more than you can catch the wind in your hands. When the Spirit moves, so does Faith stir, eyes open, and a dead heart of man becomes alive in Christ.

Nicodemus struggles: "How can these things be?" It's a cry of confusion, but also of yearning. And Jesus gently rebukes him, saying, "You are Israel's teacher, and you do not understand these things?" The prophets of old spoke of this rebirth. Ezekiel declared, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean … I will give you a new heart … And I will put my Spirit within you." (Ezekiel 36:25-27) The promise was always there. The new covenant God promised is now fulfilled in Christ.

But Jesus doesn't linger on Nicodemus' confusion. He lifts his eyes to the cross. "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." Here, the conversation turns from mystery to mercy, from rebirth to redemption.

Remember the story from Numbers 21. The people of Israel sinned against God, complaining against Him and against Moses. So, God sent fiery serpents among them, and many were bitten and died. When the people cried out in repentance, the Lord told Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. Anyone who looked at the serpent would live.

Now Jesus says, "So must the Son of Man be lifted up." Sin has bitten us all; our souls are poisoned by rebellion, pride, and unbelief. The cure lies not in ourselves, not in moral reform, not in religious achievement, but in looking to the One lifted up on the cross, Jesus Christ. He becomes the source of our salvation, the cure for our souls. He bears our poison, our sins on that cross, and whoever looks to Him in faith will live.

The Israelites didn't heal themselves through effort; they were healed by faith, by simply looking up at the serpent. So too, you and I are saved not by what we do, but by what Christ has done for us. We look up to the cross, and there we see the depth of God's love for us.

And then Jesus speaks what may be the most beloved verse in all of Scripture, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

God so loved the world, not just the righteous, not just the deserving, but the whole broken world, including Nicodemus, including you and me. The Gospel doesn't begin with our faith but with God's love. It's not "for God so pitied the world," but "for God so loved the world." This love is active, self-giving, and sacrificial. God's love takes on flesh and hangs on a cross.

And what's the purpose of that love? "That whoever believes in Him should not perish." God's will is not condemnation but salvation. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him."

The Gospel is good news precisely because it tells us what God has done, not what we must do. Salvation is not our work, but Christ's gift, received through faith, created by the Spirit, sustained by the means of grace.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark. But by the end of John's Gospel, we find Jesus again, this time at the cross. He's no longer hiding. Along with Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus helps bury Jesus' body. The man who came in secret now steps into the light. The Spirit has done His work. The one who once asked, "How can this be?" has looked upon the one lifted up and believed.

Perhaps that's your story, too, coming to Jesus with questions, doubts, or simply a longing you can't name. The good news is this: Jesus doesn't turn away the seeker. He doesn't scold the one in darkness. He invites you to be reborn by water and the Spirit, to look to the cross and live.

Being "born again/from above" isn't just a one-time spiritual event; it's our daily, ongoing reality in Christ. Luther reminds us that baptism means that every day we die to sin and rise to new life. Every morning is a resurrection morning. Every confession of our sins is a return to the font of baptism. Every forgiveness spoken in Jesus' name is a renewal of that baptismal gift.

To be born from above is to live no longer for ourselves, but for Him who was lifted up for us. It's to walk as children of light in a world still covered in darkness, proclaiming in word and deed that God so loves the world.

Today, the Word of God calls us again to behold Christ lifted up, the Son given, the Savior crucified, the Lord risen. In His wounds, we are healed. In His water and Spirit, we are made anew. Whether you come to Him at night like Nicodemus or in the full light of day, His promise holds: "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

So let the Spirit blow where He wills. Let Him carry you again to the waters of baptism, to the table of His feast, to the cross of our salvation. For there your new birth begins — and there it never ends.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you always.

Amen.