40 For 40 - Born Again

Now, let me tell you, we're going to launch into a couple of talks on Commit to Jesus. I'm going to share a little bit about my story and a little bit about the story of someone else. It was probably closer to 15 years ago now than 10. I was a real 10, but it's going to be close to 15.

I was new on staff here at Men and Hills and I was trying to figure out why God had given me this opportunity. What he had called me here for? I mean, some of you know my story. I never wanted to be a pastor.

I kind of still don't really want to be a pastor. I just kind of got as a real sense of humor in these things. I'm not really a religious guy. I didn't grow up in the church.

I did what I thought most normal people did. They went to church on Christmas and Easter. That might have actually been the only religious thing I did, religiously. I went to church on Christmas and Easter and not much else.

Now, to make a really long story short, I became a follower of Jesus at the age of 18, right after my freshman year of college. I met Jesus through a process my wife had initiated. We now have two daughters, so neither of us would recommend this process, but it's referred to sometimes as missionary dating. And so here's how it works.

My wife was the missionary and I was the unreached people group to which she brought the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure it usually works, but somehow it took hold of me. And so if you're here this morning following the cute girl you met in Maristown last night, consider yourself warned. The next thing you know, you're up in front of people.

So some years later, providentially through the hand of God, I wind up on staff at a church. That's a story for another day. I tell it at lunch with a pastor. If you remember, if you were here a week or two ago, I spoke to you about it.

Maybe last week about how God had used the gentle voice of his conviction to help me realize that I did not care about the poor. And he did that through interaction with a man, almost a man on the streets of New York City. When I say that, remember, if you remember the story, it's not that I don't care. I feel bad that people are poor.

But if you kind of looked at the way I lived my life prior to that interaction that one time, if you looked at how I spent my time or my money or what I thought about, my heart really wasn't for what the scriptures would refer to as the least of these. And I remember when I came home from the city that time and the Lord convicted me of this and I started thinking, you know, we've got to start to actually start doing some of the things Jesus talked about instead of just studying the things Jesus talked about. I got some friends together in a room and I shared with them that God had convicted me that I didn't really care about the poor. And I remember one of my friends looked at me and said, no, no, no, that's not true.

That can't be true. And I said, well, what do you mean? That can't be true. And they said, no, you have to care about the poor.

You're the pastor. I said, well, thank you. I feel convicted enough already. But thank you for the overwhelming, you know, the double take on that conviction.

And so some of you know that that's set in motion a lot of stuff. I mean, we are a Christian and missionary line at the church. It's part of our name. We had never really been on a mission strip.

Now we go on lots of mission strips. In fact, right after this service, some of you are going to our Guatemalan training session, we have three weeks of trips, 150 people sold out all summer. We're going to go on the garbage dump in Guatemala. Mission should have been on our core.

And it's wrong. We're doing a better job actually doing what Jesus said. But then came a second revelation, yet another conviction from the hand of God. It was this, if mission is at our core, shouldn't we be doing what Jesus said to do as part of this process?

I mean, it's nice to go on mission strips and it's nice to post on Instagram about our mission strips. But Jesus didn't say anything about go there for an alternations and post something on social media. Matthew, a follower of Jesus, records what his post-Eastern warning, post-resurrection, pre-essential words were. His final words is parting marching waters.

He gathered those remaining disciples together. And he looked at them and he goes, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. In other words, listen up. Go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them, everything I commanded you. And surely I am with you always even to the very end of this age. And so what we had going was the, we had the go process down. We were getting better at going.

It's this whole annoying baptizing part. Now I've been part of this wonderful church for many years. But the truth was apart from hearing kind of, you know, the scriptures say that in the end of the time you'll hear rumors and rumors of wars, I had heard of baptisms and rumors of baptisms. But I never actually seen anybody baptize.

I heard that some people every once in a while had been baptized as part of our church, at somebody's pool, but it wasn't something anybody celebrated. So I heard that voice in my head saying, John, it's not just enough to go. You're supposed to go and make disciples and baptize them. And so at first I thought, well, this is a very cool thing.

This will be wonderful. We can make videos about this. I'm playing every year asking people to go public in their identification process of Jesus. And that's what baptism is.

Just so you're all aware, baptism doesn't have any salvation power in its own right. It's merely an outward demonstration of an internal truth. You see, in going down in the waters as you witness, we're uniting with Jesus in his death. We die to our old selves and in emerging from the waters, we publicly ceremonially identify with the new lives we have in Jesus.

I'm thinking this is brilliant, right? The people are going to eat this up. It was just one problem. I hadn't been baptized either.

What kind of pastor doesn't care about the poor and hasn't been baptized? This was a very embarrassing revelation. It's what I called my little group back together. I said, the Lord who spoke to me again, not only do I not care about the poor but I haven't been baptized.

I remember one of my friends saying, you have to have been baptized. You're the pastor. To which I said, well, I was christened as like a six month old child. And I honor my parents in trying to keep with that faith tradition.

But all the baptism in scripture that I was aware of and to this day still, I'm aware of were made of believers who had made a conscious decision to follow Jesus. So I had to out myself again. And that's what baptism really is. It's kind of a giant outing coming out party.

That's what we're hosting at the end of this month. And there's your pastor over these next few weeks to encourage you to get in the water. Because I did. I got up here one Sunday many years ago now and said, I'm your pastor and I haven't been obedient to Jesus in this.

And it's kind of embarrassing for me, but I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it in front of every one of you. So I'm going to encourage you to think about doing that in the next couple of weeks, maybe for the first time, crossing the line of faith. Some of you come here. You started coming here this year.

Every year we do this in June. Every year there's a bunch of folks who have been coming here for a few weeks, a few months, maybe up to a year. You've been learning about Jesus and you've been experiencing God and you hear his voice and see his presence here. You haven't made a decision about Jesus.

I'm going to encourage you over the next couple of weeks to make one. Maybe you made a decision at one point for Jesus, but look, you took a long and winding road and there's been a little time away. Maybe this is the Sunday that you need to get back in the water publicly and just kind of say, you know what I did this a while ago, but it didn't take. I want to publicly confess my faith in Christ again.

I want to start over. Now, as part of trying to convince you to do that and part of our 40 for 40 series, I want to share with you not just my journey to a public faith, but the story of a man named Nicodemus and his journey to a public faith. It's found in John's recounting of Jesus's life. It's in what we call chapter three, John didn't write his stuff in chapters, but it is in what we now refer to as chapter three and it's probably the most famous book in the Bible.

And so we're going to go over the 40 biggest topics in the scripture. There's no way I can not touch on John chapter three. And so let's jump in. Now, there was a Pharisee, John says, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

So Nicodemus is not just a Pharisee, but he's a member of the Jewish ruling council. He is a religious leader. He is the best of the best of the best. And the reason that the Pharisees were considered the best, their claim to their righteousness was this.

They kept the law. They were chief keepers of the rules. In fact, they weren't just the keepers of the rules. They were the overseers of the rules.

In Hebrew, the word Pharisee actually means separated. And that's what they kept themselves separated from the people because they were better than the people. They kept all of the laws. And by that, I don't mean just like the big 10, like, well, I think I can keep seven or eight of them.

I mean, we killed everybody lately. But they kept all of the oral traditions from the rabbis, all of the 600 plus laws that were in the Torah. They had them all memorized. And so this is a pretty religious group of people.

Now, if you know anything about the ministry of Jesus, you know that there is no crowd that he has a harder time with than this crowd. In fact, almost all of Jesus' tough words, his condemning words, were to these guys, not to the sinners, but actually to these hourly righteous folks. These are the hypocrites that we talked about last week, the ones he railed against. Yeah, hard time with them because their righteousness was all external.

It was all for appearances. There had been no internal transformation in them at all. To be fair to the Pharisees. And we often aren't.

To be fair to the Pharisees. You know, it's kind of hard to be a fan of a guy that keeps calling you a hypocrite. It's kind of hard to have compassion on somebody that begins to refer to you often as a brood of vipers. And so there are no real fans of Jesus's either.

He didn't seem nearly as passionate as they were for keeping the laws. The people love Jesus and they're beginning to call into the question the rule of the Pharisees. And so there's some real animosity building up here. There's not a love of a lot of love lost.

But what's interesting, what you learn from the story is there's something going on in the background of the Pharisees. There's that ruling sect of religious elite. Apparently there were a couple. We know of two.

There might have been more. That started to wonder about Jesus and his teaching. And maybe if he was different than all of the other would-be messiahs. Maybe his teaching was out of the ordinary.

Now we don't know how many there were. The scripture only tells us of two. One's name is Nicodemus and the other is Joseph. And so this little group is likely meeting and talking about this Jesus and going, you know, we can't let anyone know about this.

We lose a lot. But what do you guys think about what he's teaching and saying? You think there's anything to it? Well one point, one of them is commissioned to go out and speak to Jesus.

And so John recounts that meeting. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night.

Well of course he came to Jesus at night. If Nicodemus is seen cavorting with the enemy, there is literally going to be held for him, right? I mean he's going to lose his job. He's going to lose his prestige, his power, his money, likely his family.

I mean what does mama think? I mean she's really proud of him. Nicodemus, that's my boy. My son is a Pharisee.

See this doesn't sound as impressive now after a couple of thousand years. But back in the day, my boy is a Pharisee. What about his dad? You don't like to be selected to be a Pharisee?

That was like you were the best of the best of the best. Imagine Nicodemus's dad, like down with the other guys at the plant. You know who I saw? You met my son Nicodemus?

You think about Nicodemus as co-workers, right? What's going to happen if this gets out? People find out. And so when he comes, he comes exactly when you and I would come.

He comes at night by way of darkness. No need to go public yet. Now there's a little risk. Right?

Somebody could have seen him. He was worried. People had opinions. That's what he comes at night.

And here's what he said. He said, Rabbi, which means teacher. We, okay, so it's not just me. Or maybe he's doing the old I have a question for a friend.

I don't know. We, a group of us, know that you're a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you're doing if God were not with him. And so this is big for Nicodemus, right?

Now it's not public, right? He's not going public anyway. It's at night. No one knows he's there.

There's not a lot to lose yet. But still think about what he's doing. He's demons. He's demons.

He's not public anyway. It's at night. No one knows he's there. There's not a lot to lose yet.

But still think about what he's doing. He's dealing with Jesus and acknowledging, maybe as some of you do this morning, right? He's, we all do it one little another. But he's at this point merely acknowledging that Jesus is a really good teacher.

Like Jesus, you teach like nobody else. You seem to be able to do some things that other people haven't been able to do. You seem to have a connection with God. Now he's not a disciple of Jesus.

He's not following Jesus. He's not defending what Jesus is doing. But he's open to questions. He's seeking.

So he wants to ask Jesus a question. He's willing to take a little risk. He's doing not a lot, but a little. And so on behalf of this little septum, wayward Pharisees, Nicodemus gets ready to ask Jesus his first question.

And there's two really funny things about this question that Nicodemus asked. The first thing that's kind of interesting about the question is, it is the universal question of man. If you go to every tribe that has ever lived in any tongue, the number one question for any teacher that they believe would have been sent from God, it is the same question that you would ask. If you only had one question to ask God, I some of you might be thinking, well I think I might ask God, why does evil exist?

Or why is world peace escaped us? Those are good questions. But the reality is very few people come into my office asking those questions. They're good questions, they're worth asking, but they're not.

Listen, they're not eternal questions. So Nicodemus is coming up at half of these renegade Pharisees and he's bringing the question, the big, the eternal question, the universal, but yet excruciatingly personal, private question. So that's the funny thing about the question, the second funny thing is universal is this. He never asks Jesus a question.

Some of you know this story. You realize Nicodemus never asks him a question. Rabbi, we know you're a teacher who's come from God. No one could perform the signs you're doing if God were not with him.

Jesus replied, replied to what? Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. See, Jesus, he has this annoying tendency to answer questions before they're asked. How does he do that?

Well, he's pretty good about knowing people's hearts and their mood and that's one reason. But I think that the second is simple. Jesus knows if somebody is coming to me with one question, I'm pretty sure I know what it is. It's the universal question.

I'm not going to put in any other way. The question I get asked more than any other question, especially when stuff starts to hit the fan in people's lives, is this? How do I know I'm okay with God? How do I get to heaven?

What's going to happen to me when I die? How do I know if I've been good enough? And Jesus knows the question. So he answers the question as he usually does before it's asked and with a very frustrating answer.

Here's what Jesus says, yeah, here's the deal. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. Now, if you live long enough, you know there's lots of cultural stuff built up around that term born again. I have a friend.

This term's taken on a lot of baggage. I mean if I'm honest, sometimes I don't want to be associated with the term because it comes with so much baggage. I have a friend that he says of his wife, oh, she's born again. I have friends that have just smelled.

He's one of those born again guys. I get it. I know what it's like to be dismissed because of this term. That's why I want to spend some time on it this morning.

I have a very good friend of mine. I've told a story of our friendship sometimes in church. John Allen, John was in the training class ahead of me. Remember, I wasn't a religious guy.

I wasn't always a pastor. I thought this isn't a real job. I had a good religious guy. I had a different job in a different world.

I started out in finance and I was part of the management training class and it was a guy ahead of me that was like the president of the class ahead of me. This guy was very smart, very well put together. He was getting selected for all this stuff. I want to model myself after John Allen because I wanted to get to the top of my class.

John Allen was a kind of funny man. He to this day, there's not one hair out of place. I mean it's like you could serve dinner on his hair. You could cut yourself on his part and I'm not exaggerating about this.

He would show up every day. He always had these incredible suits on suits I could afford. He was 21 years old. He had a Rolex watch and he had white cotton shirt, French cuffs and every cuff had his initials on him.

Every day he wore the same thing with different white shirt with different color initials. But otherwise, same thing, nuclear blow shoes, the whole deal. I'm going like I got my suit at clothing town and that's not an exaggeration. I want to be like John.

One day I'm over on the pleb side of the floor and somebody comes over and goes, hey, John Allen wants to talk to you. I guess he's recognized me. Head over wondering what this could possibly be about maybe he wants my help on understanding a cash flow statement or something. He looks at me and goes, I need you to explain something I heard about you.

I said, sure. He goes, I heard you're one of these born against. Oh dear God no. I said, well, yes, but there's, you know, it's on stammering like that because I know the cultural baggage and he goes, I don't understand what that means.

Tell me what that means. And so I gave him my best shot about two and a half hours later. He looked at me and goes, I have no idea what you're talking about. See you later.

And so I think he's worried that's weird and that was the end of our conversation. Now, what you have to understand is Nicodemus has no cultural baggage about the term born again. There are no strange people on street corners or t-shirts or bumper stickers that say anything about it. There is no reference point.

There is no context. Nicodemus is wondering, have I been good enough? Am I going to go to heaven when I die? Have I done enough?

Is God pleased with me? And Jesus says, here's the answer to the question, you've got to be born again. And so he responds like you and I would in a sense, what are you talking about? In fact, he responded just like John Allen did.

I have no idea. That's weird. Because here's what he said. How can someone be born when their old Nicodemus asked?

Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. This is, that's weird in first century language. And my guess is that Nicodemus is kind of almost being snarky. You can kind of sense the sarcasm.

Obviously, he knows Jesus doesn't mean you're climbing back into your mother's womb. And there's got to be a sense of, wait a minute, dude, I came all the way out here at night. Like, I took a little risk. I should be at home with my family.

If somebody finds out I'm here, this is going to be trouble for me. I'm trying to be serious with you. I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. And this is what you've got.

You want me to go back to my guys that sent me out here. You want me to go back and tell them you've got to be born again. And so Jesus answered very truly I tell you. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit.

Well, that makes it very clear. So he goes on flesh, it gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to the spirit. And don't you just hate it when Jesus goes and gets exclusive and exclusionary? I hate that.

I just wish all religions just led to the same place. But Jesus makes it so hard to believe that that's true. And I don't want to make this uncomfortable, but I guess that if Jesus was God, he has the right to do that. And so now I need you to stick with me on this because this is really important because this is what Jesus said.

He says that no one, no one, not anyone, not a few people, not a couple of people, not a select bunch. I need you to hear this. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they have been born again. Unless they have what Jesus is referring to as two births, one of water and one of the spirits.

So he explains this because it's important to Nicodemus. He goes, Nicodemus, look, you know this. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Your mom and your dad, they're human beings and they gave birth to a human being.

You have a sheep that you keep at home and guess what? When your sheep becomes pregnant, it does not give birth to a cow. You understand this concept. Flesh gives birth to flesh.

In other words, this is this is this is Instagrammable right here. Get your phone down. Who you are born from gives birth to what you become. In the very next chapter, Jesus is speaking a woman about God.

Here's what he says. He goes, God is spirit. In other words, God is not human. So if God is spirit, guess what God would give birth to?

Spirit. A spiritual birth. So this is like a second birth. You're born once a flesh and then once you could be born of the spirit because that's what God gives birth to.

And then I picture him kind of looking at Nicodemus and going, you know, you really shouldn't be surprised at me saying you must be born again. Aren't you like a religious ruler? Don't you have all of the Old Testament memorized? Don't you know all the things that the Old Prophets talk about?

I mean, Nicodemus, remember when God told Jeremiah the day is coming when I'm going to put a law within them and I'll write it on their hearts. I'll be their God. They'll be my people. Nicodemus, do you remember when I told Ezekiel, I'll give them a new heart and a new spirit I'll put in them?

And Nicodemus wasn't confused or convicted enough. Here's what Jesus follows it up with. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going.

So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Well, that just clears it up. Right? Now it's less confusing.

It was probably less confusing than Nicodemus because there's a play on words here. The Greek word for wind and the Greek word for spirit are the same words. But here's what Jesus is saying. When I was a kid, I used to like to sit outside.

I still kind of do this. It's kind of fun. Have you ever looked at the wind? Which is interesting, you can't actually see the wind.

Right? I remember I was a kid, I would sit outside and I'd watch the wind and I'd think to myself, well, are the trees creating the wind? Or is the wind moving the trees? And it was a profound mystery for me for some time.

Frankly, it's still a little... Hey, I'm sure you can clear it up for me. Don't you know me. Anyway, so that concept of I can't see the wind, but I see it's effect.

I see what it's doing in the world around me. I don't know where it came from and I don't know where it's going, but I see what it's producing. So Nicodemus, you were born of the flesh by no will of your own, but by your father's will. So you too could be born of the spirit, not of your own desire, but of gods.

The spirit goes where it goes. As your father will, you'd be born of the flesh. So your heavenly father actually wills that you be born of the spirit. Now you have to imagine what this is doing to this guy because the only people that are approved by God are people that keep the law.

Or the Jewish background. Imagine the reaction he's spent his whole life, he's dedicated his life, he's given his best years of his life to law keeping. Not only the law keeping, but he's held it up and taught it everywhere. Not only has he held it up and taught it anywhere, he's persecuted and likely killed people who haven't kept it.

And now Jesus, you're telling me that what I give my life to, all what I thought mattered and was getting me ahead, doesn't matter. We get to God by the will of God by being reborn of God, and his reaction is pretty simple. It's funny, like what's he going to say to this? Here's how we wrap it up for words.

How could that be? Which one you think about it is a pretty profound question. How could that be? How could I have been so wrong?

How could I have missed this? And then Jesus goes on, he does that whole exclusionary thing which is so frustrating. No one has gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the son of man. And now Jesus is just pushing Nicodemus right because Nicodemus didn't show up thinking he was God or anything.

He just thought he was a good teacher and wanted to ask him a question. Maybe you've come this morning, maybe that's your background, maybe you think Jesus is a good teacher. He's got this exclusionary nature, I mean all are welcome, but he keeps trying to say I'm not like all those other guys. So Nicodemus just, he came believing Jesus was from God that he was a good moral leader, but Jesus didn't leave him the ability to go home comfortable in that.

Jesus goes look, I am the only one who has been in heaven. All we get from people that have had the near death experiences is there's a lot of light right and I felt warm. And Jesus is going look I'm the only one that's ever, I'm the only one. I'm the only one.

I'm the way, the truth in life. No one comes to the Father by me. And I know that sounds terribly exclusionary, but what Jesus is trying to say is I'm the only one that's coming for you. I'm the only one who's come from heaven.

You should probably listen to me. Many helps him with analogies. There's a story in the Old Testament that again Nicodemus would have memorized. The people of Israel were being attacked by poisonous snakes because of their disobedience to God and they were dying.

And the people went to Moses for help and Moses met with God and God said look here's what I want you to do Moses. Make an image of a snake and mount it on a pole and anybody who looks at the snake will be cured from their bite and they'll live. And so Jesus looks at Nicodemus who would know the story and goes just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. So the Son of God must be lifted up which we'll see in his crucifixion.

So that everyone who believes, not behaves, not who's a good person, not who keeps the law, not who is raised right, not who hasn't done bad in the past, not who's a good Jewish boy or a good Catholic boy or a good Protestant boy. Everyone who believes may have eternal life. And in my mind Nicodemus is sitting there and internally he's asking how can this be? And Jesus answers his question again for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

That whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Most of us know that story. But that's not the end of Nicodemus's story. I don't know if you're aware of it.

He shows up a couple of other times once just a couple chapters later. See when we first see it Nicodemus is a seeker and he's got questions. He's wondering about God. He shows up like I did my first time wondering has he been good enough or done enough.

And then maybe like God has with you God just rocks his world he gives him a truth and sends him home to think about it. A couple chapters later Jesus is still out doing what he's doing. Nicodemus is a seeker he was willing to put a little at risk but that's not the end of the story. John records another meeting with the ruling council and Nicodemus was there.

Jesus is healing and teaching and claiming to be the Messiah and he's becoming a real stumbling block for the leaders. And so they send guards out to bring him into the Pharisees because they're going to put him into the whole thing. But the guards come back without Jesus. What's interesting is the council gets all fired up.

They yell at the guards. We told you to bring him in. Where is he? And the reply is hilarious.

That's exactly what they said. They went to get him but no one ever spoke to him the way the man does. Now the Pharisees are fired up. And things are getting dangerous for followers of Jesus.

Quote, you mean he's deceived you also. Have any, I love this question. This is the question. And Nick and even Sissippi there.

Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? No. Oh, maybe. This mob knows nothing of the law.

There's a curse on them. And then John records this moment. Nicodemus who had gone to Jesus earlier and was one of their own number asked what does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he's been doing? And so they replied.

Are you from Galilee too? Look into it. And you'll find that a prophet doesn't come out of Galilee. And so I love this because Nicodemus has now moved from kind of seeker to defender.

Now he doesn't say, no, Jesus is the sort of God and you better be careful. But he's made a slight movement here. I kind of like it into our political debates. Maybe you have friends.

Maybe you've said this yourself. Well, I don't believe that or I wouldn't say that. But I defend your right to believe it or say it. And I think that's what Nicodemus is doing here.

Now this is making no mistake about it. A big and dangerous step. And so the meeting concludes with the challenge. Give it to Nicodemus the Pharisee.

You know what? Go look into it, Nicodemus. And John records this. They all went home.

Now Nicodemus has made some movement here. He came seeking and a couple chapters later. Remember, Jesus asked him some questions. So he went home to think about it.

Now he finds himself defending. There was another step on the journey for him. I remember when I was at school, like after the missionary project that I was was complete. I wasn't ready to come.

I'm trying to maintain my cool at Rutgers. I went back on campus. You know, and I didn't want to walk in thinking born again. Oh, sweet Jesus, do the born again.

So I remember I'm like, okay, how am I going to do this? How am I going to just kind of gill the lily right here? So my sophomore year, my go-to line at everything was moderation in all things. I was when you used to be like a big part of your, what's going on?

I see a party a little, but you're not partying as much. How come? Moderation in all things. Which for me also meant moderation in the ways of following Jesus too.

Because I moved from being a seeker to being kind of a defender of Jesus. You know what we mean, Nicodemus one more time. I don't know if you know this is in the story of Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. If you know the story, you know the Pharisees had a critical part in all of it, and Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

Think this through with me. Nicodemus, he likely sat in on the plot to have Jesus betrayed by Judas. He was part of the arresting and having Jesus crucified. Now maybe, maybe he just sat silent, right?

He knew that he had already stepped out on the line a little bit and he didn't want to lose everything. Maybe he called in sick for those meetings. Do you ever do that? Well, you know, I know if I do this, it's going to compromise my integrity.

So I'm not really going to help myself. I'm just going to call in sick. I mean, he didn't want to be part of it, but he probably didn't have the courage yet to do anything about it. But then something happened.

Jesus is right, or John writes of Jesus' final moments. Here's what he says, because the Jewish leaders, aka the Pharisees, didn't want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath. They asked Pilate to have the legs broken, the bodies taken down, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, who was next to Jesus. And those of the others, but when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

John then writes this. Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now, Joseph was a disciple, a student, a follower of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jewish leaders. So he was probably part of the we.

With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away, and he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus born a mixture of marinaleurs about 75 pounds. I love how John records it, who earlier visited Jesus at night. It wasn't night for Nicodemus anymore.

Now, I don't know what happened to him. There is no more about Nicodemus' story. I don't know if it was maybe when Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He went back to that process about what Jesus had said about Moses.

But something happened because Nicodemus was not a seeker anymore. Nicodemus was no longer merely a defender. In fact, I would argue he wasn't simply a believer. Nicodemus, along with Joseph, were now followers of Jesus.

Public followers of Jesus. It wasn't night anymore. It was daytime, and they came out. What did it cost him?

Did he wind up on a cross, too? I mean, certainly, he would imagine he lost his authority and rule and power and prestige and position. I'm sure his mama wasn't happy. Maybe he lost his life.

I don't know, but you know what? It was daytime now. And he didn't care what it cost him or what people thought. You know, Andy Stanley makes a really good observation about this story, which I had never thought about before.

These two components, Nicodemus and Joseph, they outed themselves in this process. Well, Nicodemus, he comes with 75 pounds of Murr and Allos, and so he used this. Nicodemus was the embomer of Jesus. You with me on this?

You must be born again, that guy? He embossed the dead body of Jesus with 75 pounds of stuff plus the linens and all the rest. It would have had to have been over 100 pounds. What they said was, if you weren't dead before Nicodemus and bombed you, you were dead after.

And so then Joseph of Aramathia, he comes and he gives Jesus a grave with a giant rock that would go before it, that a Roman guard could sit outside of it. Because if this doesn't happen, Jesus' body is tossed into the valley of Gehenna, just like all the other crucifixion victims. And it's John's recounting of what he had done to embalm the body of Jesus. It's the recounting of the story of the open grave that Joseph had provided that provides some of the best proof of the resurrection of Jesus we have.

It's really interesting that the man to whom Jesus said he must be born again provides the greatest proof of his divinity and a model for a journey of faith. Nicodemus goes from seeker to defender to believer to disciple. That's my journey. It didn't all happen at once.

It took me a long time to get into the waters of baptism, but it's time to celebrate. Is there a cost? Of course there's a cost. Your mom and I get mad.

You know like Kristen, when you were a young child. I know my mom, I love you and I honor that. Your girlfriend might think you're weird. Your friend might call you over and think you're a born-againner.

That's okay. How can this be? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life as the band comes up. There is such power in this in going public with your faith.

I hope you cross the line of faith long before I get in the waters of baptism three weeks. But I just have to share this last story with you. I told you about my friend John Allen, right? Born again.

What are you? One of those born-again is what is that? That makes no sense. That's just weird.

I told the story a couple years ago, John called me and I didn't know where I'm talking to some time. I could sense fear in his voice. I played the voicemail here one day. He said I got to talk to you.

My dad's got cancer and he's scared to death. So, you know, John, what is dad out here one Sunday? I met with him next door at Grace House and I told him about the story of Jesus. I shared who Jesus was and that he too could be born again.

I'm not really, I know that it's got a bad rep out there, but I don't care. I'm too old to care anymore. It's too valuable. So I shared the story with John's dad and I saw his eyes light up.

And I didn't call him to the sinner's prayer on the spot. I said, you need to check into these things. I gave him a Bible and sent him home with the Bible. And a month or two would by him, John called me again and said, my dad wants to see you.

It's at the end. So I went to the bed. He died and it was maybe two or three days before he died. They brought his dad back into the room and his dad looked at me and I was trying to make a conversation thinking he hadn't thought much of what I had shared.

I said, Mr. Allen, you must be so proud of your sons. They're all so successful. And he looked over at me and with what's lengthy, I left.

He said, my sons are great. But that's not what I'm proud of. What I'm proud of is that message that you told me. I can't get it out of my head.

All I do is read my Bible and pray. And so John's dad died a couple days later. A few weeks ago, John called John and I and he said, you can ask John. I mean, sometimes these stories are crazy, right?

But this is what happens when you go public with your faith. Not in an obnoxious way, okay? Don't be a jerk. There's not permission to be an idiot, right?

But John called John and I up and took us. We went out to dinner. And when it was time for the check to come, I took my credit card. I was a payman I have for the bill.

And the guy goes, Mr. Allen already paid your bill. And I looked at John. I said, why did you do that?

And he said, you know what John? He goes, you, whatever you said to my dad. My dad died completely without fear, knowing God. And so I'll be eternally grateful to you for that.

Less than man be born again. He cannot enter. No one can enter the kingdom of heaven. It's time for a coming out party.

You should be baptized.