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Well, good morning.
My name is Chad Fry, and this is my wife, Robin, and our children, Trace and Kari and Marley Fry.
And today's reading will be from Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25, the birth of Jesus Christ.
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to the public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
As he lay awake, considering this, he fell into a dream and saw an angel standing beside him.
Joseph, son of David, the angel said, don't hesitate to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.
And she will have a son, and you shall name him Jesus, meaning Savior, for he will save his people from their sins.
As this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took Mary home as his wife.
But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.
Well, good morning.
I want to thank the Fries for being willing to read a passage of Scripture for us this morning.
I also want to thank all of our kids and all of our children's ministry workers who give of their time every single week to lead our kids.
And I think what we got to experience is the fruit of all that this morning, amen, where they got to share with us so much of what they've been working on,
but more importantly, so much of what they've been teaching them and directing them and guiding their hearts toward the truth of Christ.
So I say this often, but probably not often enough for all of us.
We need to continue to remind ourselves to encourage our children's ministry workers, our student ministry workers.
And this has kind of been a soapbox of mine since my youth pastor days, who they are not leading the next church.
Like we kind of think of that sometimes as, well, that's the future.
No, it's not.
It's the right now, you know.
And they're part of the body of Christ with us.
We need to encourage them for what they do.
If you've got your Bibles with you, I want to ask you to open up to John chapter 3.
As you turn there, I've got some things, maybe reminders, emphasize a couple things that we shared in the video.
And then also just one little quick little announcement for me to make, and then we'll dive into Scripture.
First, I want to continue to remind you our Christmas Eve, Christmas Day service.
Christmas Eve's going to be at 5 p.m.
Christmas Day, Christmas morning service is going to be at 10 a.m.
For the most part, there's a little bit of changes with some of the music that we're doing.
But for the most part, we're doing identical services, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
We'd love to have you, we'd love to have your family, we'd love to have your visitors come and join us on those days as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And then also, we're really excited about our New Year's Day service as well.
What we've decided to do, it's a little different day, right?
It's the beginning of the new year, and so we've decided to do something a little different.
And so we're going to be having breakfast here together that morning as a church at 9.30 a.m.
is when we're going to start serving, and then sometime a little after 10, we're going to start our prayer service.
And we're just going to spend time together a little bit in worship, a little bit in God's Word.
But the bulk majority of that time, we're going to spend together in prayer and kind of start our year off on that.
Amen?
And I think sometimes we commit to a lot of wonderful things, right, that never really happen, you know, like gyms, you know, and diets.
And so we've decided, hey, let's start off with what we know we need to commit our lives to in the Lord is prayer to Him.
And so let's model that, and let's do that together as a church.
If prayer is something for you that's an intimidating thing, and I know it is for a lot of people, that's okay.
We want you to join us.
We've got a guide that we're going to use that just helps us all walk through prayer together in interactive time with us together and us with the Lord that morning.
Now, we are asking a favor if you could help us.
So we've got a wonderful Brian Smith is taking care of us and getting this breakfast taken care of through Lizard's Thicket.
But what's going to help us if we know how many to plan for so these cards are there and available and you can scan that QR code or there's a place on our website that you can go and that you can register to let us know that you'll be there.
So I say this, though, all right, if you do not register and you want to be there, we want you to come anyways, all right?
If you have neighbors and friends that you're at your Christmas Eve party together and they say, you know, we're thinking about going to church, but we don't know anywhere to go.
We want you to bring them with you, okay?
Do not look at not RSVPing as a reason to not be here.
This just kind of helps us give a ballpark number of what we can expect.
And so if you can, please do.
But if not, that is okay and would love to see all of you here that morning, all right?
I don't think we can, but let's set the goal to run out of food because there's so many people here, right?
So we'll do that.
Also, and so here's the announcement.
I share this.
Mark and Jennifer Babb for the last seven years have led in a very wonderful and powerful, and I'll be honest with you, behind the scenes in a lot of aspects are Celebrate Recovery Ministry.
And for seven years, they've come alongside men, women, and families as they've walked through their hurts, habits, and hangups.
And we've seen God work in some miraculous ways.
We've seen marriages restored.
We've seen people walk away from addiction.
We've seen people who have been hurt tremendously by others, not only overcome through the power of Christ what happened in their life, but have grown in their relationship with the Lord so that they forgive those who have hurt them.
But earlier, almost a little bit over a year ago, Mark and Jennifer came, and we began a prayer of what was next for CR.
And in that dialogue of prayer with the Lord and conversations with each other, Mark and Jennifer felt led for our CR for right now to take what we're calling an extended break during 2023.
And during that extended break, we're going to pray and see what God has for us.
We know, and if anything within this COVID season has brought out, is that there's more and more people with more and more hurts.
There's more and more people with more and more isolation.
And what they need is encouragement and the power of the gospel.
And so we're having conversations about how we can go to them and minister to them and share the love of Christ and share the truth of the gospel with them as well.
So we're taking the time to kind of process through and see that.
I know Mark and Jennifer are in here somewhere.
I saw them earlier today.
And everybody's pointing at them because they would never stand up and wave from where they are.
But I want to say from behalf of us as a church family, but also on behalf of your pastor, thank you so much for what you've been doing for the last seven years.
And so in a wonderful, fitting way, this Thursday night we'll gather together with CR to celebrate what God's done.
We'll talk about stories and we'll hear how men and women have impacted and held each other accountable and spoken truth and done all the wonderful things.
But the story that we'll celebrate on Thursday night will not be the story of the Babs.
It will not be the story of individuals.
It will be the story of Jesus because that's our heart and that's the heart of CR and that's the heart of our ministry.
And so pray for this wonderful leadership team that they've constructed and they've built around who are excited to see what's next as well.
And it's really one of those pieces where just, we don't know what's next yet, but we're excited to see what God has in store.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we look at our scripture this morning.
God, I come to you this morning and I just thank you for those kids that gathered up on this stage.
Lord, I thank you for the truth of what they sang about.
Lord, I thank you for the teachers that worked with them every single week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
And Lord, and what we are seeing is the fruit of that.
And so, Lord, I pray that as we, as they go to gather, Lord, that you'd be glorified in what they do.
Lord, I thank you for our student ministry and the workers and the leaders who work with them Sunday morning and Sunday night, Lord.
And as they gather tonight to have their Christmas party, their time together in here, Lord, that it would be a wonderful time of fellowship.
But, Lord, that you're glorified in that as well.
Lord, I thank you for the ministry of CR.
I thank you for the Babs.
I thank you for the many individuals who have come, whether it's for seven years or for a season, Lord.
And what they've experienced is the powerful work of Jesus Christ, Lord, who saves them and sets them free, who redeems them, Lord, and who creates the new in them so that they no longer walk in who they were,
but they walk in who they are in Christ.
They are no longer the old, but they are the victor in Christ and in Christ alone.
Lord, as we dive into your word this morning, Lord, I pray that you would give me your words to say.
Lord, I pray that you would be glorified in what we do.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
I want to be honest with you.
I got to move fast this morning, okay?
And I'm going to do my best to do that in kindness to our children's ministry workers who may be not so much for me in the past few weeks, all right?
So we're going to be in John 3, but I want to read a verse that the Fry's read this morning.
In fact, standing back here, Trace, I believe you read this verse.
It's Matthew 1, 23.
It's the song that our team led us in as we gathered in here to worship.
That the reason why there's so much different in Christmas than in any other spiritual holiday that people want to celebrate is that what we're celebrating in this season of time is not how do we get to God, but we celebrate that God came to us.
Every other religion says this, here's how you get to God.
Here's how you work to God.
Here's how you earn your way to God.
But Christianity says, no, no, no, no, no, no, that's not it at all.
Here's the story is that God comes to us.
That God steps out of heaven and takes on flesh, and he's born of a virgin, and he walks on the earth, and he experiences pain and hurt and hunger and sickness.
And rejection, and through it all lives a perfect life, and doesn't call us to go pay for our sins, but he says, I will pay for all of your sins.
And he does so by the death of the cross.
But it doesn't end there for the story that just as he came to us, he comes to us again through resurrection, the power of God.
So that when our faith and hope and trust are put in Christ, the payment for our sins is imparted to us.
And what we're assured of is the power of resurrection for all of eternity.
Emmanuel, God with us.
In John chapter 3, in verse 16 and 17, Jesus talks about this, of what does it mean that God is with us.
So look at these two verses.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only 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 in order that the world might be saved through him.
So Jesus gives this explanation of what it means that God is with us.
And he does so by starting out by saying, for God so loved the world.
It's not that God so hated the world.
It's not that God so rejected the world.
It's not so that God was so displeased with the world, but that God so loved the world.
And so for us, as we look at all the different aspects of this, what we're going to look at this morning is answer this question.
What is the love of God?
God manifests what we see in Jesus.
And so just from these two verses, right, the first thing that we can gather from this is that God gave.
God gave his Son.
What does that mean?
When he gave his Son, he sacrificed his Son.
Jesus laid his life down.
God gave his Son.
The picture of his love for us is that he gave him, but also he sent his Son.
God gave and God sent.
Now this word, why gave, implies the sacrifice that is to be made.
Sent, here in this passage, Jesus gives it, the definition is one sent with a mission.
It's where we get the word apostle from when we read it in the New Testament.
And this is very important.
Oftentimes we think in the narrative of Christ, of who Jesus is, was that he came to die.
And that is true.
It's true.
But he didn't show up the day before the crucifixion.
He came as a baby.
And God the Father sent God the Son with a mission.
And here's why it's important.
He sent Jesus to live a life.
A life with a message.
A life with relationships.
A life with struggles.
But a life of complete obedience to the Father.
So that when we say that God gave and that God sent, it's this, that Jesus was sent to pay the price we could not pay.
But Jesus was also sent to live the life that we could not live.
And that's the love of God.
That's the love of God.
What we're incapable fully and completely of doing, God the Father sent God the Son to do on our behalf.
Now for me growing up, if you were to ask me what is the context of John 3.16, I would have answered you this.
The context of John 3.16 is a Sunday afternoon Braves baseball game and someone in right field holding up a poster board that said John 3.16.
Y'all remember this?
It feels like in my childhood, any time that you watched a sporting event, and if you grew up, for me, especially in the South, right, there was TBS.
And everybody became a Braves fan because that's the only team you could watch, right?
We didn't know that there were other teams until people from other places moved here and like, oh, no, no, no, no, you can watch them too, right?
We watched the Braves.
And it was bad watching Braves in the early 80s, but we watched the Braves anyway.
And there was always somebody in right field holding up the sign John 3.16.
And so a lot of people knew it, and that's the context.
But what I want to do for you this morning and what's going to take our time, and I want to work through this quickly, is what led Jesus to say these two verses?
What led Jesus to say John 3.16?
What led Jesus to say John 3.17?
What is happening in his life?
Is Jesus just walking alongside the road, and all of a sudden he goes, hey, by the way, let me tell you this.
No, as for so many things that happen in the life of Christ, there's an interaction that takes place with Jesus and someone.
And this is what we see if you look back in chapter 3, beginning in verse 1, Jesus has a conversation with a man named Nicodemus.
And that's the story I want us to see this morning.
Let's read verses 1 and 2.
Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
Now, this is a little bit different interaction if you're familiar with the Pharisees that Jesus typically has with Pharisees.
So let's kind of talk about a little bit about what's happening here.
So what does Scripture tell us, and what do we know from history as far as who is Nicodemus?
So Nicodemus is a Pharisee.
The Pharisees are the religious leaders of the day.
They were varied in their power and their authority that they would have.
And Pharisees, oftentimes, when we read through Scriptures, are the ones who are trying to get Jesus.
They're trying to catch Jesus.
They're the ones that are bringing the false allegations about Jesus, and this is typically what we see.
And Nicodemus belongs to this group of Jewish leaders.
Scripture also tells us that he's a ruler of the Jews, which calls us that he's a member of the Sanhedrin.
Now, not all Pharisees were promoted to this.
This is like the upper level.
This is the highest of the high.
And they were beyond religious leaders.
They were religious leaders who carried with them a sense of political leadership.
So kind of imagine it this way.
All right.
So imagine, like, I'm the pastor of this church, but I also become a U.S. senator.
Now, bad idea, right?
Bad idea.
And that's not a passive-aggressive lean to where I'm going, all right?
But let's just pretend.
So this is what we found, that they were these religious leaders who kind of had this political influence in leadership as well.
Because Nicodemus was a religious leader, because a Pharisee, because he was a part of the Sanhedrin,
he would have been a skilled theologian, which means this.
He would have known the Old Testament beyond the level of an expert.
So much of it he would have had memorized.
And he could have told you what it meant.
You could have come to him and said, hey, let me ask you about this.
And he would have had an answer to give you.
And so he's a skilled theologian, could argue Scripture.
But he was also, in all of these things, he, as well as the rest of the Pharisees and Sanhedrin,
was a strict follower of all of the law that we find in the Old Testament.
Right?
Remember, the New Testament isn't there.
So the Old Testament is their Scripture.
And was a strict follower of all of the law.
Now, there's over 600 plus laws found in the Torah.
And to be a Pharisee, to be a member of the Sanhedrin,
you didn't have to think or believe that you were getting close to obeying all of these laws.
Right?
You had to believe that you were crushing them.
Day in and day out.
And so this man comes to Jesus.
Now, usually with Pharisees, they've got some sketchy motives.
So what are his motives?
And this kind of gets debated from time to time.
But I believe that Nicodemus had sincere motives for two reasons.
Number one, he comes to Jesus at night.
He comes to Jesus at night.
And what I believe that points to is Nicodemus is in a curiosity.
And he doesn't want to be an outcast from the group that he's a part of.
He knows that he probably shouldn't go and do this.
So instead of it being a middle of the day outside where people would come to Jesus or come to Nicodemus and say,
Hey, what was that conversation all about?
Nicodemus comes during the night to Jesus.
And then from his own words, here's how he addresses Jesus.
He calls Jesus a rabbi and a teacher.
So the expert says, you're the teacher, you're the rabbi.
He acknowledges that Jesus is from God.
He acknowledges the signs of Jesus.
And fourthly, in his greeting, he says that he acknowledges and that he sees that God is with Jesus.
Now, he doesn't say that Jesus is God, which is what we know.
But he says that I know that God is with you.
Which is why I believe that he's genuinely curious about who Jesus is.
Let's look at verses 3 through 8.
So Jesus answered 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?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
And Jesus answered,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
So Jesus and Nicodemus begin to have this interaction, and Jesus asks him this question.
Are you born again?
He responds by saying, are you born again?
Now, Nicodemus is confused when Jesus says this.
Two reasons why Nicodemus is confused.
Go back later and read verse 2.
Nicodemus didn't ask a question.
He didn't.
But it says that Jesus answered.
And Jesus answered with something different than what Nicodemus was expecting, but Jesus is getting to the heart of Nicodemus.
Second is this.
He's an expert in Scripture, and what this rabbi Jesus is telling him is foreign.
So he asked now a question, and I'm going to call it a sincerely sarcastic question.
You ever ask one of those?
He's sincere, but it has a tone of sarcasm.
It's like, I'm confused, so let me phrase what you said in the crazy way that you said it, is what Nicodemus does.
Look back at verse 4.
He says, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus, this doesn't make sense.
I'm confused.
Explain this to me.
And so Jesus does.
And Jesus says, here's what it means to be born again.
Here's what it means to be in Christ.
Here's what it means to be set.
Here's what it means to be set apart.
Here's what it means to be holy.
Here's what it means to be saved.
Here's what it means to be born again.
The first thing Jesus says is that you must be born of water.
You must be born of water.
And Jesus is going to be speaking in literal truth, but in a figurative manner.
He says, you must be born of water.
Now, earlier we had seen Jesus has been baptized.
The call to repentance is what's there.
And John has baptized Jesus.
And so the call of baptism is there.
And the call of baptism is marking those who are spiritually clean because they have received forgiveness.
They've been washed.
They've been made new.
They have been forgiven in Christ.
And so Jesus says to be born again where we begin with is you must be born of water.
You must be washed.
You must be made clean.
Jesus doesn't say you must go and clean yourself.
Because we can't.
But Jesus says you must be born, right, in water, of water.
You must be made clean.
The second thing that Jesus says, not only are you born of the water, but you're born of the spirit.
So you're born of the water, you're forgiven, but then you're born of the spirit, the indwelling spirit of God that rests into all who are born again.
That you're spiritually indwelt and that what is in you now is a new person.
The old has gone.
The new has come.
The dead has passed away and the newness of life which is found in Christ and Christ alone.
So you must be born of water.
You must be forgiven.
You must be born of the spirit and dwell in a new person.
And then Jesus says to him, he describes the wind.
And he's describing the spirit of God.
You ever try to control the wind?
You ever try to tell the wind what to do?
You ever been setting up an umbrella on the beach, right, and thought, no, no, no, no, not here today.
There, right?
You can't.
And so Jesus describes this as this is the work of the spirit.
And what he means is that, Nicodemus, this isn't your work.
This is the work of God.
It's the direct act of God which you can't control.
But you feel and you respond to as the spirit of God begins to work and as the spirit of God begins to draw and as the spirit of God begins to move.
Think about this.
What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus is, Nicodemus, I know you have all of your works.
You're the Pharisee.
You're the Sanhedrin.
You do all the things that you think you are supposed to do.
You're spiritual in action, but you're spiritually dead.
Nicodemus, you've got to be born again.
As we gather in here today, and I shared this with our staff, I love this Sunday.
I love this Sunday.
Because this Sunday was more people that we've had.
This is probably Easter.
More people.
It's the beauty of, right, what cute kids will get people to come to, you know?
And there might be some of you who are here for the first time today, but let's be honest.
There might be some of you who are in here every Sunday, and you find yourself right where Nicodemus is.
You've got a spiritual resume of things you've done, of things you've lined up, and if you stood before Jesus right now and said, am I good?
And Jesus would say, no, you've got to be born again.
So I'm going to ask you the same question that Jesus asked Nicodemus.
Are you born again?
Well, look how Nicodemus reacts to Jesus in verse 9.
Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
And Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen.
But you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
So Nicodemus is still confused.
He's been told his works are not enough.
He's been told his obedience is not sufficient and that what he needs is new birth.
He needs to be born again, but he's still not getting it.
Now what's wrestling within Nicodemus is not what he's hearing, it's what he's processing.
It's his mental outlook.
It's intellectually Nicodemus is trying to rack through this and process through this.
And Nicodemus is like, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
I know the law.
I know the poetry.
I know the history.
I know the prophets.
I know it, Jesus.
I know it.
But this doesn't register with this.
And I want to say this.
You can know the Bible and not know Jesus.
You can know the Bible.
You can have it memorized and not know Jesus.
And so what Jesus says to Nicodemus is listen to me, believe me, stop listening to you, stop believing you.
You, Nicodemus, you have to trust me.
There's a difference in that.
And Jesus is pleading with him, believe me, believe me, believe me.
Look at verse 13.
And so in this culmination of Nicodemus, as he wrestles with his works, with Nicodemus, as he wrestles with his intelligence, with his understanding of Scripture.
Jesus says in verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
And 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's what Jesus does in this moment.
Jesus looks at Nicodemus and points to himself.
You've got to look at me, Jesus says.
Jesus points at himself.
For Nicodemus and for us and for every other person, what Jesus is pointing to is there's no salvation that can be found outside of or at.
It's not connected to Jesus.
It can't be your works.
It's Jesus.
It can't be your works plus Jesus.
It's just Jesus.
It can't be your intellect.
It's Jesus.
It can't be your intellect plus.
It's Jesus.
Does this mean we stop obeying?
No.
Does this mean we stop learning?
No.
What it means, though, is we obey and we learn because we believe, we trust, we put our hope in Jesus.
And so Jesus points to something, a story that Nicodemus would have got, that he would have understood.
In verse 14, Jesus directs Nicodemus back to an event found in Scripture in Numbers chapter 21.
Now, when he said those words about Moses and the serpent, Nicodemus would have been like, uh-huh, uh-huh, I know exactly what you're talking about, right?
Exactly.
But he didn't.
So here's what happens in Numbers chapter 21.
And I'm wrapping this up.
There's so much more to this.
But in Numbers 21, this is the point in time where God had delivered his people from Egypt and God was providing for them.
But they still complained about God and Moses.
And so this was the rebellion that the people had against the Lord.
They were rebelling against his provision and they were rebelling against the servant that God had sent to lead them.
So what God decided to do is God sent a plague to his people.
And this plague that he sent was an infestation of poisonous snakes, right?
Like, you look at some of the ones that happened in Egypt and if you're like me and you're not really a snake guy, this one kind of gets you.
You know what I mean?
And this is what we see.
And this is what God sends.
And they would bite the people.
And in that, many of them would die.
And God's chastisement of them in this was not to punish them, but was to get them to repent.
And people did.
And then they came to Moses and said, look, we know we've messed up.
We know that we've sinned against the Lord.
Will you, Moses, pray to the Lord that he will take these snakes away from us?
And Moses is like, man, that's probably a pretty good idea.
Like, I don't like seeing any more than you do, so I'm going to go and I'm going to do this.
And so that's what Moses does.
And then here's what God does.
God doesn't remove the snakes, but instead tells Moses to make a bronze snake, put it on a pole.
And if someone is bitten, when he looks up at the snake on the pole, that person will live.
And this is what Moses does.
Now, here's the thing.
Some people do that.
Some people don't.
And the ones that do, they live.
So look back at Jesus' words.
But just as the snake was lifted up in the wilderness, so too Jesus is telling Nicodemus, the son of man will be lifted up as well, but onto a cross.
And just as the snake on the pole would take away the sure-coming sting of death that they faced,
so too Jesus would take away the poison of the sin.
And whoever looks up, whoever believes in him, would have eternal life.
And so in the wilderness to survive, you had to look up to the means that was sent by God.
And Jesus says to Nicodemus, so too for eternal life you have to look up, not to a snake on a pole, but to the son of man.
And then, and then Jesus says this.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God did not send his son in the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.
Because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.
It's the context.
As a man is coming to Jesus, and Jesus says to him, you must be born again.
Well, how's that going to happen?
Because God so loved the world that he gave and that he sent Jesus so that whoever would believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The truth of the truth of the hope of what we have.
That God saved and that God sent.
So what happened in Nicodemus?
I'm a history guy.
I love watching history stuff.
I love listening to podcasts.
I don't like cliffhangers.
I want to know the end of the story.
What happened in Nicodemus?
Well, Nicodemus reappears two other times in scripture.
Next time we see that we see an encounter with Nicodemus, he's functioning in his official capacity as a member of the Sanhedrin.
And they're considering what to do with Jesus.
This is found in John chapter 7.
And some of the Pharisees and priests sent some to the temple guard to arrest Jesus, but they returned and they were unable to do it.
And the guards are questioned by the Pharisees in authority of what happened.
But Nicodemus presents an opinion that Jesus should not be dismissed or condemned until they've heard from him personally.
Now, I don't like to speculate, but I can't help but think the John 3 conversation is processing through in his brain.
Like, man, y'all don't need to jump to any preconceived considerations about Jesus until we hear from him personally.
And the rest of the council, they dismiss Nicodemus because they've already made up their minds about Jesus.
The next time we see Nicodemus is in John chapter 19.
And this is after Jesus' crucifixion.
Nicodemus was a leader.
Nicodemus was a part of the Sanhedrin.
Nicodemus would have heard the false testimonies.
Nicodemus would have been around when the sentences were handed out.
Nicodemus would have heard the crucifying.
Nicodemus would have been in every aspect of this.
And then we see Nicodemus again.
Scripture records him in John chapter 19.
And what we find with Nicodemus, a person who by law is not to touch anything dead.
What we see about Nicodemus is he's assisting.
He is not leading.
He's assisting.
He's assisting Joseph of Arimathea in Jesus' burial.
And Joseph is described in John 19.38 as a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one.
Because he was afraid of those in power.
And who's with him?
Someone in power.
Joseph goes to Pilate and he asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.
And he's granted it.
Scripture tells us that Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of spices to use in preparing the body for burial.
And then assisted Joseph in wrapping the body and placing it in the tomb.
Now was Nicodemus a disciple of Jesus like Joseph?
Secretly?
Was he simply a man who respected Jesus?
And thought that he got the bad end of the deal?
I don't know.
But I can't help but think that what he had seen that night of what was done to Christ,
as he had been lifted up onto a cross,
that the words of John 3 didn't register in his very being.
Now this side of eternity, you and I cannot know about the eternal destination of Nicodemus.
We can debate it.
We can argue.
We can have good discussion about it.
We can't know.
But here's the thing.
You and I, we can know ours.
I can know mine.
And you can know yours.
Because God loves you so much.
God the Father gave God the Son to die on a cross.
To pay the penalty for your sin and for mine.
And he sent Jesus, not just to die, but to live.
To live the perfect life.
To live in perfection.
So that when we believe in him,
when we put our faith and our hope and our trust in him,
that that life, that holiness scripture teaches, is imparted to us.
So now I'm not known before the Lord for all my faults and failures and sins.
But now I'm known by God by the work of the Son.
And that's the joy and the hope of this season.
Would you pray with me?
Amen.
God, we come to you in this season.
Lord, our houses are decorated.
Our trees are up.
We've got presents under a tree.
We're planning parties.
We're getting Christmas cards.
We're spending days in the kitchen baking.
And we know why.
So many don't.
God, it's that you sent your Son.
As we read in Matthew 1.
To be born of a virgin.
To be laid in a manger.
It's a journey to the cross.
God, we thank you.
Because it's through that we have hope.
It's through that we find peace.
It's through that the joy is made possible.
That Christ came.
He lived.
He died.
He was resurrected.
He ascended.
Lord, I pray for those who are here.
Maybe, Lord, this message this morning is a message they've heard before.
But they too, like Nicodemus, want to find their righteousness in their works.
They want to find their righteousness in their intellect.
But it's Jesus.
Or, Lord, maybe they've never heard before.
And today is the first time they've heard.
And they're being told this morning a lot to process.
That there is an eternity.
That heaven is real and so is hell.
And that, Jesus, that you teach about hell.
That hell is an eternal place of punishment.
Of unquenchable fire.
Where there's gnashing of teeth.
Where you cannot return.
That it's a place of misery and suffering and continual pain that never ceases.
And, Lord, that heaven is real and so is hell.
And that our sin will send us to hell.
And Jesus can deliver us to heaven.
And that's it.
And that there's never being good enough in ourselves.
There's never being smart enough in religion.
It's just Jesus.
And so if our means of salvation is not Christ and Christ alone.
Then it is insufficient.
It's Jesus.
And today, whether they've heard this a thousand times.
Or whether today you're hearing this for the first time.
And you want to be born again.
Feel the drawing of the Spirit.
It's not hard.
Jesus says you've got to be born to water.
You've got to admit that you're a sinner who needs to be washed and made clean by the blood of the Lamb.
But you've got to be born of the Spirit.
That you believe that Jesus is the one and only Son of God sent to die for you.
To take on what you deserve.
And that you confess Him as the Lord and Savior of your life.
Lord, as we stand and sing.
Lord, I pray that your Spirit would work and move in this place.
I pray if there's anyone here who does not know you.
Anyone here who has not been born again.
That today could be the day of their spiritual birth.
Today would be the day where they'd be found in Christ.
Today would be the day that they would be born of water and born of Spirit.
And it's all because of Jesus.
And we'll celebrate you.
And we'll glorify you.
And we'll praise you, Lord, for all you are.
For all you've done.
And all you're going to do.
God, we thank you.
We thank you.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.
We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message.
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Thank you.