Sunday Link – God Loves First – John 3:1-17 | SL20260301

• Today is the Second Sunday in Lent.
• The theme for today is God Loves First.
• The selected passages that support the theme are Psalm 121:1–8; Genesis 12:1–4a; Romans 4:1–5,13–17 and John 3:1–17.
• The way that God loves first is at the heart of the story Scripture tells as we move through the season of Lent.  Each of these passages reveals a God who not only loves but moves in love, drawing people into deeper trust and new beginnings.
  • Our call to worship, Psalm 121:1–8, reminds us that this journey of faith is sustained by divine care.  The psalmist looks to the hills and finds assurance that the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, never slumbers or abandons.  Love does not merely call us; it keeps and protects us along the way.  
  • In Genesis 12:1–4a, God calls Abram to leave behind all that is familiar and step into the unknown.  It is love that calls him, a love that promises to bless not only him but “all the families of the earth.”  God’s love transforms Abram’s life into a channel of blessing for others.  
  • In Romans 4:1–5, 13–17, Paul reflects on that same faith, showing that the righteousness Abraham received came not through law or works but through trusting in God’s gracious promise. Love awakens faith, and faith opens the door for God’s transforming grace to flow through us.
  • Finally, in John 3:1–17, Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that transformation begins with being “born of the Spirit”.   This new birth is the ultimate act of love where God’s love transforms not just hearts but destinies, inviting all people into new life.  God’s love is not static sentiment but living power that calls, sustains, renews, and ultimately transforms all who receive it.  

 

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TRANSITION SONG

 

 

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SERMON   

God Loves First  

John 3:1–17 (NRSVue)  

One spring afternoon, a boy was flying a kite with his father in an open field. T he wind pressed against the fabric, and the string pulled tight as the kite rose higher and higher into the blue sky.  Before long, it was only a speck.  Then clouds rolled in, thick and heavy, until the kite disappeared from sight completely.  

A man walking by laughed and said, “Why are you still holding that string?  The kite is gone.  You can’t even see it anymore.”  

The boy smiled and said, “It’s still there.  I can’t see it, but I can feel it tugging.”  

Have you ever felt a tug?  Faith can feel like a tug.  You can’t explain it, but you know what you feel, that tug inside your soul.  That tug is not something you create, just like the little boy didn’t cause the tug on the kite string.  You do not decide to feel it.  You simply notice it is already there, pulling gently, steadily, insisting on a reality you don’t see but cannot deny.  

God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit, is the one tugging you toward hope, toward love, toward life.  Because God loves first.  

That is where our story begins.  

Not with human effort.  
Not with striving.  
But with a quiet tug already at work.  

And that tug — the one Nicodemus feels, the one many of us have felt — is not the reach of human faith toward God.  It is the movement of God toward us.  

Let’s read about Nicodemus in John 3:1–17. 

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”

³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 

⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’  ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony.  ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  

¹⁶ “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.

¹⁷ “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.

 

A Man in the Dark     

John tells us there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader and teacher of the Jewish people.  He was educated, respected, and religiously knowledgeable.  He knew the Scriptures.  He knew the traditions.  He knew how faith was supposed to work.  

And yet, he comes to Jesus at night.  

The writer, John, does not tell us exactly why.  John is silent on the reason.  And that silence is important.  Because it allows us space.  

Maybe Nicodemus comes at night because he is afraid of what others would think — especially the religious establishment. 

Maybe because questions are easier to admit in the dark. 

Maybe because nighttime is when certainty loosens its grip and honest questions finally surface.

Have you been there?  Awake at 2:00 a.m., staring at the ceiling, wondering, “Does anyone see me?  Am I all alone?  Is there anyone who can love me?”  Or maybe you have wondered, “Is God real?”  Perhaps you believe in God, but you’re struggling: “God, are you still with me?  God, am I still yours?  God, can you give me a new beginning?”  

We don’t need to be afraid of our darkness.  In those dark times and those feelings, God is not absent.  In fact, because of the Incarnation, when God took on flesh in Jesus, God has stepped into all our darkness and brokenness and stands there with us.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God.  

The Gospel story does not shame Nicodemus for going to Jesus in the night.  It simply tells us that Jesus meets him there.  

This is already good news.  

Because it means that darkness is not a barrier to God.  Doubt is not a disqualification.  Questions are not a failure of faith.  The night is not the absence of God; it can be the place where we hear God speak.  

So, Nicodemus finds Jesus in the dark of night.  He acknowledges that he sees something is happening in Jesus that cannot be explained away.  

Jesus answers, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  

Some might read this as conditional.  A condition of being able to see God, is that I must first do something to get myself born from above.  

Jesus does not tell Nicodemus what steps he needs to take to be born from above.  Jesus announces what God does.  

It’s not a command but a promise.  Jesus isn’t telling us what we need to do; he’s telling us what God does.

“No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  

Nicodemus is understandably confused.  “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” he asks. “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”   

Nicodemus is thinking logically.  Literally.  Practically.  Jesus is speaking about something else.  

Nicodemus has already told Jesus he “sees the kingdom.”  He sees the rule, the actions of God.   He knows that Jesus’ miracles, signs, and the beautiful, restorative, healing things happening can only be from God.  The fact that Nicodemus can see or recognize God is a gift!  God is giving him new life — it’s a heavenly birth, from above, that allows him to recognize God. 

To be born from above is the new life from God.  It is not an achievement.  It is not a decision.  It is a gift.  Jesus names a reality. He describes what God does.

It is about God acting where humans cannot — doing what we cannot do for ourselves. Because God loves first.

 

By Water and Spirit    

Jesus says this new birth comes by “water and Spirit.”  Not water alone. Not Spirit alone. Both.

• Water washes.  Spirit breathes.   
  • Water cleanses what cannot clean itself.   
  • Spirit animates what cannot give itself life.  

This is new creation language.  God speaks life where there was none.  In the beginning, God created us.  Now through his Son, God is recreating, renewing, and restoring all things.  Jesus has ushered in the new creation.  

This matters because it means new birth is not conditional.  It does not depend on human openness, willingness, readiness, action, or courage. 

• It does not happen because we “let love in.”  
• It happens because God loves first.  

 

The Wind that Does Not Ask Permission    

Jesus then uses an image that Nicodemus — and we — cannot control.

“The wind blows where it chooses,” Jesus says.  “You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”   

• • Wind does not ask for approval.  
  • Wind does not follow schedules.  
  • Wind does not respond to human effort.  

You do not make the wind blow. You only discover it already moving.  

So it is, Jesus says, with everyone born of the Spirit.  

This is not a description of human faithfulness.  This is a proclamation of divine freedom.  

• • The Spirit does not wait for us to raise our sails correctly.  
  • The Spirit does not hold back until we are brave enough.  
  • The Spirit is not summoned by sincerity.  

The Spirit moves because God is alive.  Because God loves first.   

That may unsettle us.  It certainly unsettled Nicodemus.  But it is also deeply comforting.  Because it means new life does not rest on us.  

At this point in the conversation, Jesus shifts from imagery to history. From metaphor to promise.  

“No one has ascended into heaven,” he says, “except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”    

New life, new birth does not happen because humans ascend to or reach God.  It happens because God comes to us.  

And then Jesus reaches back into Israel’s story.  

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”   

Moses is an important person in the Old Testament.  He led the Israelites when God brought them out of slavery in Egypt.  This is not a random reference.  In that story, the people are dying.  Snakes have bitten them.  They are helpless.  They do not cure themselves.  They are saved, “cured” because a bronze snake was “lifted up” by Moses (Numbers 21).  

This is a bizarre story.  But all this imagery points to Jesus saving us through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  Jesus brings new birth by being lifted up on the cross.  

Here is the heart of the proclamation: God saves the world by giving his only Son.  

 

“For God so Loved the World”    

We arrive now at the verse that appears on bumper stickers, T-shirts, and football signs.  This may be the first time you have heard it.  For others, you may know it so well that you need to slow down and hear it as if for the first time. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.”  

Notice what comes first.  Love.

And notice who is loved.  The world.

God’s action flows from God’s love.  Always.

God does not send the Son because God really hoped the world would be faithful.  God sends the Son because God is faithful.  

And the giving of the Son is not symbolic.  It is costly.  It is vicarious.  

Jesus is lifted up for us.  
Jesus enters death for us.  
Jesus bears what we cannot bear.  

This is what “eternal life” means in John’s Gospel.  Not merely life after death or life that lasts forever, but life that begins now because death has been confronted and overcome.  

And Jesus is explicit:

“God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”    

If condemnation is what people hear from the Church, then we have missed the heart of the gospel.  

God’s movement toward the world is not accusation. It is rescue. 

 

The Work of the Triune God     

This story is shaped by the life of the triune God.  

• The Father loves the world and sends the Son.  
• The Son descends, is lifted up, and gives himself for the life of the world.  
• The Spirit gives new birth, breathes life, and sustains what God has begun.  

New birth is not something we achieve through our effort.  
It is the shared work of Father, Son, and Spirit.  

From beginning to end, this is God’s faithfulness.  

 

Nicodemus     

We only hear Nicodemus’ name three times in the Gospel of John, yet each moment adds depth to his story.

1. The first time is here in John 3, where he comes timidly to Jesus at night with questions. (John 3:1,4,9)  
2. Later in John’s Gospel, Nicodemus speaks up quietly for justice when the religious leaders are scheming against Jesus. (John 7:45-51)  
3. Later still, he will come to help bury Jesus’ body after he dies on the cross.  Nicodemus shows up openly. (John 19:38-40)  

New birth is not always instant.  Sometimes it unfolds slowly.  Sometimes it takes root in the dark.  Sometimes it appears hidden to others.  But God is faithful over time.   

 

Mission    

When God gives new life from above, our vision changes.  Mission is simply what happens when God’s love has already reached us.  We begin to see the world differently.  We recognize God’s kingdom; we see that God is already at work in the world, restoring, healing, and drawing people toward life.  We do not bring God with us; we discover where God is already present and we join in.  

• Sometimes that looks like simple acts of care. 
• Sometimes it looks like standing with those who are ignored or pushed aside.
• Sometimes it looks like telling the truth about hope in the middle of uncertainty.

Whatever it looks like, mission flows from love already given.  God gives new life from above, and that life quietly, steadily spills outward for the sake of the world God loves.  

We began with the story of the boy flying his kite.  Remember how the clouds came and the kite could no longer be seen?  Yet the boy insisted it was still there because he could feel the tug.  

Even when all we feel is darkness or clouds, the tug you feel is God’s love.  

God is faithful.  
God is active.  
God gives new life.  

“For God so loved the world …”  It is a promise.  And that love is wider than your doubt, deeper than your fear, and stronger than death itself.  

God loves first.  

Amen.   

 

 

SONG OF RESPONSE

 

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Discussion Session    

 

John 3:1-17 (NKJV)	John 3:1-17 (NRSVue)
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “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.”	Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”	3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above [anew].”    4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water  and  the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”	5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water  and  Spirit.  6  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You[plural] must be born from above[anew].’  8 The wind[or spirit] blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”	9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?    11 Most assuredly, I say to you[singular], We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you[plural] do not receive Our witness.  12 If I have told you[plural] earthly things and you[plural] do not believe, how will you[plural] believe if I tell you[plural] heavenly things?	10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?   11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you[plural] do not receive our testimony.  12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.	13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.	14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.	16 “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.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.	17 “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.