Good morning. It's wonderful to be back with you again. Let me set this up.
Let me start off by asking us a question this morning.
What comes to mind when you hear the title or the name Jesus of Nazareth?
For some of us, maybe he was a good moral teacher.
Someone who gives us wise advice how to go about our lives.
This sounds very loud again. Is it very loud? Maybe we can turn down a little bit.
But who is this man, this man of history that left such an amazing mark on the world?
Who's this man, whether you admire him or whether you reject him?
Whether you worship him or whether you're still skeptical about the claims of Christ?
Most of us, I think, would recognize that Jesus of Nazareth, there's something fascinating about him.
Something intriguing about him. Something inviting about him.
Who is this man that has left such an amazing mark on our world?
You know Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous French military leader?
He might not agree with him, but this is what he said.
He said, I know men, and I tell you that that man, Jesus Christ, is no mere man.
Between him and every person in the world, there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar Augustus, Charlemagne, and I, we have all founded great empires.
But on what did we rest the creations of our genius?
We rested them upon force.
But Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love.
And at this very hour, millions of men would lay down their lives for him.
But you see what he's saying there?
He's saying there's something about this man, Jesus, that's different from every other founder of great empires and religions around the world.
Who is this man, Jesus?
And what's so special about him?
What's so intriguing and inviting about him?
Now, as we said, some of us here this morning, maybe you think upon Jesus as a great moral teacher.
Someone full of wisdom, advice.
Someone who will help you get through your life well.
For some of us, maybe we are wondering whether he is, in fact, the Messiah.
The one that the scriptures spoke about for all those years.
And for those of you that are in high school, I hope you don't just believe in Jesus because your parents believe in Jesus.
I hope you're taking the time to search out the claims and see whether the claims of the Bible are compatible with history.
I hope you're taking time to work out whether believing in Jesus and believing in rational science and intelligence are compatible for those of us in high school.
And for some of us here, you're still maybe exploring his teachings and wondering about the things that he said.
And for some of us here, he's the one that you've come to love and worship.
Now, as Eric said, today we are starting an eight-week series called Who Is This Man?
And so for the next eight weeks, we're going to go through the Gospels and we're going to look at eight different encounters that individuals had with Jesus Christ.
Some of these people were religious leaders.
Some of them were skeptics.
Some of them were doubters.
Some of them had big questions about life and faith.
Some of them were trying to work out, is he the Messiah?
Some of them were disciples that fell from grace.
But in all of these encounters, we're going to see that as these men and women engage with Jesus, they see both him differently and the world in which they live very differently.
And so we're starting that today.
And so for the next eight weeks, we're going to dive in to the Gospels.
And today we start off with John chapter 3 with Jesus and Nicodemus.
Okay.
Now, let's consider this man Nicodemus that Alex and Gigi read to us about this morning.
We are told in verse 1 that he is a Pharisee.
Now, many of us will know that the Pharisees were the kind of religious leaders of the days.
They were people that were extremely particular and fastidious about obeying every minute detail of the law.
So they'd read the Old Testament law and they not only obeyed every detail, but everything that was maybe an implication of that detail, they were extreme in obeying it.
Making sure that nobody could accuse them on any technicality of breaking the law.
And so very, very devout, very, very faithful in their religion.
And so Nicodemus is a dedicated religious man.
But we also know he's a very powerful man.
Verse 1 tells us he's part of the ruling council.
It's kind of like the Sanhedrin, which is similar to the legislative council in Hong Kong.
He's a kind of politician.
He's one of the leaders that gives leadership to the nation of Israel and speaks to the manners of the day.
And so he's politically connected.
He's very politically powerful.
But in addition to that, he's also very respected in society.
He's a leading religious figure.
He's a leading political figure.
He's well respected and admired.
And in verse 4, it tells us he's one of the leading scholars and academics.
In other words, all the Jewish people would have come to somebody like Nicodemus to say,
What is your take on the Bible?
What is your take on God's word?
And so here is a man who's very devout.
He's very politically connected.
He's admired and respected in life.
He's probably wealthy.
He has an established career.
He's an academic.
He's got the qualifications.
Here is a man that's got everything going for him.
What more would a man in his day want than all these things?
There's nothing in his life that's lacking.
Except there's a problem.
Because look at what happens.
There's something that's troubling Nicodemus.
He comes to Jesus at night.
Now in John's gospel, John is very careful about everything that he writes about.
And in John's gospel, he's always picking up on these themes from the Old Testament.
And one of the themes that he picks up on is the theme of light and darkness.
And so in John's gospel, many people come to Jesus.
And whenever John talks about darkness, he's always overtones of a shroud of darkness.
He's talking about the fact that Nicodemus has got everything going for him, but there's something troubling his soul.
There's a shroud of darkness over his soul.
There's something that he can't put his finger on, but it's keeping him awake at night.
And so John is telling us this.
And I wonder, have you ever felt like that?
I wonder for how many people in Hong Kong we feel like that, right?
We've got the name brand accessories.
We've got the fantastic apartment in the right address.
We've got that good bonus.
We've got our careers going off.
We're about to get our PhD.
Everything is going well for us.
And yet there's something in our hearts, there's something in our souls that we struggle to put our finger on.
There's something that leaves us anxious and lonely.
Have you ever felt like that?
Well, Nicodemus feels like that, but he does the right thing.
He comes to Jesus.
And he starts a conversation.
And so he comes to Jesus and he says,
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher that has come from God because we've seen the signs that you do.
And so Nicodemus and his friends come to Jesus at night and they've noticed something about him.
They've noticed that Jesus is not just an ordinary man.
There's something supernatural.
There's something different about him.
And what is it that they've noticed?
They've noticed the signs.
They've noticed that Jesus does and speaks to people in an amazing way that it kind of invites them in.
They're leaning in.
They want to know more about this man.
Who is this man, Jesus?
And so they've come to find out.
Except notice, Jesus doesn't allow them to ask the question.
Jesus kind of interrupts them.
Nicodemus comes and says,
Jesus, we've been watching you.
We've seen the signs.
We know that you're a man that comes from God.
And before he even gets to ask a question, Jesus cuts him off straight away.
And he interrupts him.
And what does Jesus say?
He says,
I know you've seen the signs.
I know you've been watching me.
But actually, you haven't seen anything.
Because until you're born again, you can't even begin to see the kingdom of God.
Now, if I wanted to start a new religion,
if I wanted to get people to follow me and start this new movement,
that's not how I would respond to someone.
I would have said,
Yeah, yeah, come.
Let's come.
Let's talk about it.
But what does Jesus do?
Firstly, he interrupts him.
He cuts him off.
And then secondly, he says,
Just by the way, you haven't seen anything.
You need to get born again.
And then you can come follow me.
Then you'll know what you're talking about.
That's not a way to win friends and influence people, right?
A great way to start a new religion.
And yet, that's one of the most amazing things about Jesus.
One of the most incredible things about Jesus is Christ has this ability
to both challenge you and encourage you at the same time.
He has this way of both confronting you, confronting the way you see the world,
confronting the things you trust in and the hope in,
this way of challenging you, but at the same time, he's inviting you in.
He's bringing you near.
And that's what he does here.
He challenges Nicodemus on how Nicodemus sees him,
but at the same time, he's offering him an invitation.
He's saying, Nicodemus, unless you're born again,
unless you're born from above, you haven't even begun to see me.
He's offering him an invitation to come on and to see Jesus.
Now, I'm not sure what it's like in Hong Kong here.
We're still new and getting to know the culture.
But where we come from in South Africa,
and I think this is true in America.
I think it's true in Australia.
It's probably true in England.
Tell me whether it's true in Hong Kong as well.
What comes to mind when somebody says,
I'm a born-again Christian?
What comes to mind?
I'll tell you what comes to mind.
Sorry, what is it?
A Bible-bashing Christian, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Well, where we come from, people think of two things.
If you say, I'm a born-again Christian,
people assume two things.
One, they assume you're emotionally unstable,
and you need some emotional help, right?
You need somebody to come along and lift you up.
You're kind of emotionally unstable,
but now you've got a religious bend to you.
Emotionally fanatical.
Becoming a born-again Christian means
God wants you to become emotionally fanatical.
But the second thing people think it means
is becoming morally fanatical, more religious.
Ascribing to more rules, more do's and don'ts.
You know, fundamentalists, there's no gray.
There's just black and white.
And born-again Christians are like that.
No gray in their life.
Just strict, authoritarian, religious regimes.
Now, is that what Jesus is asking Nicodemus to do?
Is Jesus saying, listen, Nicodemus,
you need to become a bit more emotional, right?
Or, Nicodemus, you need to become
a little bit more religious,
a little bit more dogmatic.
Of course not.
Nicodemus doesn't seem like
the emotionally unstable kind of person.
He's a Pharisee.
He's a religious leader.
He's an academic.
He's a scholar.
He's a member of the legislative council.
He's someone who, he's got it all together.
Is Jesus saying, oh, you need to become
a little bit more emotional?
No, of course not.
But secondly, is Jesus saying,
you need to become a bit more moral?
You need to ascribe to a strict set
of authoritarian, dogmatic rules?
Nicodemus is one of the most moral,
authoritarian, dogmatic people there is.
Jesus isn't asking him to become more moral,
more religious.
And yet Jesus says to him,
you must be born again.
You must be born again.
You know, sometimes people say,
oh, my colleague, she doesn't smoke.
She doesn't drink.
She doesn't sleep around.
She goes to one of those happy,
clappy churches, those emotional churches.
She must be a born again Christian, right?
Jesus comes to somebody like Nicodemus.
He doesn't smoke.
He doesn't drink.
He doesn't sleep around.
And Jesus says, you must be born again.
What's Jesus doing?
He's saying, Nicodemus,
and he's saying to all of us here today,
he's saying, if you want to know God,
you don't just become more religious.
Something needs to happen inside of you.
You need to encounter me.
You need to encounter God in a way
that transforms you on the inside.
You need to have an encounter with the living God
that doesn't just change the outside or the behavior.
It'll do that.
But something that causes a creative act of God
inside of you to change you fundamentally
who you are inside.
Friends, Jesus Christ is telling every one of us,
unless you encounter him in a way
that fundamentally changes you,
something that almost creates a new you,
something that comes from outside of you,
into you,
you don't really know him.
You've never really met him.
You don't understand who he is.
And Nicodemus says,
we've been watching you.
We've seen you.
Jesus says, you haven't seen anything.
Unless you've encountered me in a way
that changes you,
you haven't seen me.
And what Jesus says to Nicodemus
is what he says to all of us.
Nicodemus, you can't initiate this.
I didn't come to get you
to initiate a self-improvement project.
I haven't come to tell you
to pull up, you know,
to get more moral
or to become better
or to become a more religious person.
That's not why I've come.
I've come to bring a new life,
a life from outside of you
that changes you inside
and to set you free.
Nothing less than a supernatural,
creative act of God
making us news
what Jesus has come to do.
And you know what?
That's still the same way
we get to know God.
That's still the same way
that we get to encounter Jesus.
Jesus looks at each one of us
in the eye and he says,
you don't need to become
more emotional.
You don't need to become
more religious.
You don't need to become
more dedicated.
You need to meet me
in a way that changes you
fundamentally on the inside.
A way that changes
everything about our lives.
We need to meet God
in a way that changes
the way we view money.
The way we view our careers.
The way we view sexuality.
The way we view our colleagues.
The way we view our family members.
The way we view the past.
We need to meet Jesus
in a way that changes
the way we view the future.
We need to meet Jesus
in a way that changes
us so fundamentally inside.
It changes everything
about the way
that we view the world.
Now,
Jesus says,
you must be born again.
Something inside of you
needs to change.
Now, look at Nicodemus' response.
Nicodemus says this.
He says,
hang on, hang on, Jesus.
Hang on now.
Are you saying that
as an old man
I need to go back
into my mom's womb
and get born again?
Like go through another
delivery process?
Is that what you're saying?
Now, Nicodemus is,
that's not really
what he thinks Jesus is saying.
He's not that dull.
Okay?
He's a sharp man.
But at the same time,
he completely misses
what Jesus is saying.
So he's not really,
he doesn't really think
Jesus is saying
you need to go back
into your mom's womb.
But he gives this
stochastic answer
because he's trying
to work out,
Jesus,
what are you really saying?
He's been watching Jesus,
but he hasn't understood him.
And so Jesus' words
miss him.
And maybe he never
thought of faith like that.
Maybe he thought
faith is just,
you know,
a set of moral principles.
Maybe he thought
faith is just a crutch
for people who can't
get through life
on their own.
They need a bit of religion
to help them.
Maybe he thought,
you know,
faith is a way
to control people.
It's the opium
of the masses.
It's a way to control
people's minds
so that you can
control them.
And so he completely
misses Jesus.
And so Jesus
helps him along.
And what does Jesus do?
He takes him back
to the Old Testament.
And he says,
he says this in verse 5,
he says,
truly I say to you,
unless one is born
of water
and of the Spirit,
you cannot enter
the kingdom of God.
Do not marvel
at the fact that I said
you must be born again.
The wind blows
wherever it wishes
and you hear it 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.
Now,
what on earth
is Jesus talking about?
Well,
Nicodemus is a Jewish Pharisee.
He knows the Old Testament
really well.
And so Nicodemus knows
exactly what Jesus
is talking about.
Jesus is not saying
you need to have two births.
You need to be born
of water,
you know,
your mom's amniotic fluid,
and you need to be born
of the Spirit.
That's not what he's saying.
Nicodemus knew
that in the Old Testament
prophet Ezekiel,
Ezekiel chapter 36,
the people of God
have gone astray,
things aren't going that well.
And God says to his people,
he says,
I will wash you
with cleansing water.
I will wash your sin away
with cleansing water.
I will wash you clean.
And I will put my Spirit
inside of you.
I will cause a new
spiritual life
to take hold of your life.
And the result is,
you will be my God
and I will be your God
and you will be my people.
No, no,
you won't be my God.
God says,
I will be your God
and you will be my people.
In other words,
Jesus is saying
to Nicodemus,
what God has always said
to his people
for thousands of years,
he says,
for you to really know me,
it's not a matter of
what you can do for me,
it's what I need to do
inside of you.
You need to be washed
of your sin.
You need to be washed
of your brokenness.
You need to be washed
clean again.
And you need
a new spiritual DNA
to be put inside of you.
You need to become
alive spiritually.
You need to be infused
with my spiritual life.
But,
says Jesus,
this is not something
that you can generate
on your own.
This is not something
that you can muster
on your own strength.
This is not something
that you can do
by going to Mecca
or going to Jerusalem
or going on some pilgrimage.
This is something
that God himself
needs to do
inside of you.
You can't buy it
with all the money
in the world.
You can't earn it
with all the hard work.
It's a force of nature
that comes from
outside of you
and when you experience it,
it changes you.
What's it like?
It's like a typhoon
of God's grace
that completely changes
your life
and doesn't leave you
the same.
You know,
there's a wonderful story
and I don't,
I haven't been able
to verify
that it's 100% true
but it's attributed
to a man called Augustine.
And Augustine
was a great philosopher
and theologian
of the 4th century.
Lived 1700 years ago.
And he's kind of
one of the founding fathers
of the Christian faith.
A man that really
understood the gospel
and the Bible
in a beautiful way.
But Augustine was,
before he became
a follower of Jesus,
he was an absolute hedonist.
He was someone
who lived for pleasure
and pleasure alone.
He was a self-confessed
sex addict
and so he had
multiple relationships
going on
at the same time.
He was sent
away from home
as a young boy
to go study
at the top universities
of the world.
And he used to just go
from city to city
to city
tasting the pleasures
of the city.
And his mom
was a devout follower
of Jesus
and his mom
used to pray for him
but he didn't follow
his mom's footsteps
until one day,
one day God
got a hold of him.
One day he's outside
in a courtyard
and he's a spiritual seeker.
He's asking these big questions
about Jesus
and life and faith
and he hears somebody
singing next door
about the wonders
of the gospel.
And he says
it's like a bright light
shone from heaven
into his soul
and caused him
to be born again.
But anyway,
Nicodemus Augustine,
his whole life changes.
And so a few years later
he's walking through a town
that he used to frequent
you know often
and he meets a lady there.
There's a lady,
a sex worker
and she recognizes him
and so she runs up to him
and she's expecting
this warm,
salacious welcome.
Right?
And she's very friendly
and she's expecting him
to reply
and Nicodemus is kind.
Not Nicodemus,
Augustine.
Okay,
my friend Bob.
So Augustine,
he's kind,
he's polite
but he doesn't respond to her
and he walks on in his way
and she's very confused.
And so she thinks to himself,
maybe he's forgotten
who I am.
And so she calls out,
Augustine,
it's I.
And she names her name.
And Augustine turns around
and he says,
I know,
but it's no longer I.
For the old Augustine is dead
and I've been made alive again.
You see what happened?
Here was a man that,
he was still the same man.
It was still Augustine.
His mom would have still recognized him.
He wasn't,
he didn't have a new face
or a new personality.
He's still the same person.
But something about him
had experienced the typhoon
of God's grace
and had left him a new man.
Something inside of him
had changed fundamentally.
There was a new person.
It is no longer I.
It is a new man.
And this is what Jesus
has come to do.
And friends,
isn't this what Matt
was saying to us?
Matt didn't become
a follower of Jesus
because he decided
to become more religious.
Matt didn't become
a follower of Jesus
because he was born in life
and he thought
he'd become more dogmatic
or more emotional.
Something of the typhoon
of God's grace,
the wind of God's grace
blew into his life
and caused a new life
to well up inside of him.
And he became a new person
and he shared about that.
Friends,
this is the wonder
of what Jesus does.
He encounters us
and he doesn't leave us the same.
Now,
look at what Augustine says
in verse 9.
Augustine says this.
He says,
How can these things be?
And isn't that
a great response?
When you understand
the wonder of the gospel
and what Jesus has done,
something inside of us
just says,
How can these things be, right?
How can it be
that God would take sinners
like you and I
and welcome us
into his family?
How can it be
that God would take
men and women
whose sin is red
like the piano cover
and wash us
white as snow again?
How can it be
that God would take
people that have
lived their lives
for their own glory
and their own pleasure
and now turn us around
to live for him?
How can it be
that God would take us
and welcome us
into his family
and give us a new life
and cause his spirit
to be infused in us?
How can these things be?
Well,
Jesus gives the answer.
In verse 10,
he says,
Are you not
the teacher of Israel
and yet you don't
understand these things?
In other words,
he says,
How can you not see
God's been telling you
this for 2,000 years?
Throughout the whole
Old Testament,
God's been speaking.
He's been showing you
right from the beginning
how these things can be.
And then in verse 13,
Jesus says the most
amazing thing.
He says this,
No one has ascended
into heaven
except the one
who descended
from heaven,
the Son of Man.
And as Moses
lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man
be lifted up,
that whoever believes
in him
may have eternal life.
For God so loved
the world
that he gave
his only Son,
that whoever
believes in him
should not perish
but have eternal life.
How can these things be?
Two ways to experience
the life-transforming
power of God.
Experience this
typhoon of God's grace.
Firstly,
look to the one
who came down.
Remember earlier,
Jesus says,
he says it a couple of times,
he says,
You must be born again.
Remember that?
Well,
if you look in your Bible
or also in the bulletin,
you should see
a little footnote
where it says
born again.
I think it's in verse 3.
And there's a footnote
at the bottom
that should say
something along the lines of
this can also be translated
born from above.
Do you see it there?
It's in the notes
in the bulletin.
You see,
Jesus purposely uses
this word
that's a bit ambiguous
in the Greek.
It can either mean
being born again
like a second time
but it can also mean
being born from above,
being born in the heavens.
What's Jesus saying here?
He's saying,
if you want to know me,
if you want to experience
the typhoon of my grace,
you must be born again.
There's something
that you knew
that needs to happen
inside of you.
But in addition,
you need to be born
from above.
You need something
in the heavenly realms
to happen to you.
But this is what Jesus is saying.
There's a problem.
It's in the heavens.
It's beyond your reach.
You can't get it.
The thing that you and I
so desperately need
is way beyond us.
You can't just climb a ladder.
You can't earn it.
You can't buy it.
Something that's
in the heavenly realms.
Jesus might as well have said,
if you want to be born again,
you need to go to the stars.
There's no hope.
But then what does he say?
He says,
no one has ever gone there.
No one has ever ascended
into the heavens.
But there is one
who has come down
from the heavens.
The Son of Man.
The Son of God.
You see what he's saying?
He's saying the salvation
of your souls,
it's beyond you.
It's beyond your own ability.
You can't generate it.
You can't earn it.
It's beyond the stars.
But there is one
who's come down
and he's come to bring
the salvation to you.
Salvation is in the stars
but also it's right in your midst
because it's in me.
Salvation is in me,
says Jesus.
Friends,
who is this man?
Who is this man,
Jesus of Nazareth?
He's the one who's come down.
He's the one who's come
to bring salvation to us.
He's the one who's come
to bring to us
what we could never reach,
never obtain on our own.
He's God himself
in human form.
How can these things be?
Look to the one
who came down
and brought it to us.
The second thing is this.
Look to the one
who saves.
Look at what happens here.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus
and he says,
Rabbi,
Rabbi is the Hebrew word
for teacher.
He says,
Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher
that comes from God.
And then Jesus interrupts him
and he says,
no one can see the kingdom
of God unless you're born again.
Now first you think,
Jesus,
why are you changing the subject?
Just listen to him, right?
But what's Jesus saying?
Nicodemus says,
Jesus,
I see you as a teacher.
And Jesus says,
if that's all you see me,
you haven't seen me at all.
If you think that I'm
just a moral teacher,
someone's come to set an example,
someone's come to tell you
how to live your life,
you've missed me completely.
Jesus says,
you'll never get to know me.
You'll never experience
the force of my grace
if you come to me as teacher.
You have to come to me
as savior.
Jesus says,
you say I've come to teach you,
but I say I've come to save you.
If you come to Jesus as teacher,
all you'll do is
you come to him for an example.
You'll come,
you'll think of Jesus
as a good example,
how to live your life,
someone to get some wisdom
and you'll miss him completely.
Jesus says,
I haven't come to be your teacher.
I haven't come to be your guru.
I've come to be your savior.
I've come to save you.
And look at what he does.
Jesus says this,
just as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the son of man
be lifted up
that whoever believes in him,
they have eternal life.
1300 years before this
in the Old Testament,
the people of God
are in trouble.
The nation of Israel
are in the wilderness
and they're going their own way.
They're not really following God.
They're living for their own glory.
And so God sends snakes
into the wilderness
as a form of punishment.
The problem with sin
is sin is so deadly serious.
And so these snakes
come into the camp
and if any Israelites
is bitten by a snake,
they slowly start to die.
And so God sends these snakes
into the wilderness.
But even though death
is a natural consequence for sin,
God wasn't trying to kill them.
He was just wanting to wake them up.
He was wanting to get their attention
so that they would turn back to him
and come to him
in faith and repentance.
And so God gives them a way out,
a way to be saved.
He says to Moses,
Moses,
form a bronze snake
and lift it up on a pole,
on a stick,
high in the camp.
And if anybody is bitten by a snake,
all they need to do
is look at the snake.
They need to look at the pole
and as they believe,
as they trust that God will heal them,
they'll automatically be healed.
They'll be saved.
They'll be forgiven.
They'll be made new again.
Now look what Jesus says.
Just as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man
be lifted up.
What's he talking about?
He's talking about the cross.
Friends, this is what Jesus is saying.
He's saying,
just like the people
of the Old Testament
were stuck in their sin,
they were slaves to their sin,
and the consequence was death.
He says,
every one of us
on the same boat,
we are slaves to our sin.
We're stuck.
We're dying.
And the problem
and the consequence of sin
is that it always leads to death.
Maybe some of us here,
maybe our sin is obvious.
Everyone can see it.
Maybe we think of like
a cousin or a friend,
and you think they sin
is because they're addicted
to some substance,
or their life is going off the rails.
They need Jesus,
but me,
my life's fine.
Maybe some of us here
are like Nicodemus.
On the outside,
everything's all together.
You're respectable.
People,
society think your life is perfect,
but inside,
there's a lingering hunger.
There's a darkness
that hangs over us.
Every one of us
are like the Israelites.
We've gone our own way.
But then Jesus says,
in the same way
that the bronze statue
of the snake
was a symbol
of God's punishment,
so the cross
is a symbol
of God's punishment.
The cross is a symbol
of God's grace,
but before then,
it's a symbol
of God's punishment.
That sin is so deadly serious
that God put the sin
of the world on Jesus.
The seriousness of the cross
persuades us
of the seriousness of sin.
God took our sin
and put it on Jesus
and punished Him there.
But that's not all.
Just as the Israelites
look to the snake,
they look to the statue,
so they find healing.
Jesus says,
if you simply look to Me,
if you simply believe in Me,
don't need to go to Jerusalem,
don't need to earn your stripes,
don't need to become
more fanatical,
just look to the One
who is lifted up on the cross.
As you look to Me,
you'll find your healing
and your wholeness.
Don't look to Him
as a teacher,
don't look to Him
as a guru,
don't look to Him
as a man of good advice,
believe in Him,
bank your life on Him,
bank your future on Him,
look at Him
as if He's all you have.
Just as Moses
was lifted up
in the serpent,
so must the Son of Man
be lifted up,
that whoever believes in Him
may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world
that He sent His Son
to be lifted up on the cross,
that whoever looks to Him,
whoever believes in Him,
will not perish,
but have eternal life.
Friends,
who is this man?
Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?
He's the one who came down,
but He's the one
who was lifted up.
He was lifted up on the cross
that we can just simply
look to Him and believe
and find new life.
Friends,
for those of you
that haven't encountered
the typhoon of God's grace,
will you look to Him?
Will you look to Him today?
You may have it all together
on the outside.
You may be greatly admired
and respected,
but will you look to Him?
Every one of us
has a cancer of the soul
that Jesus wants to heal.
Will you look to Him?
For those of us
that are followers of Jesus,
this week,
will you look to Him?
As you go to work,
as you travel around the region,
as you look after your kids,
as you write exams at school,
will you look to Him?
Will you look to the one
who was lifted up
on the cross for you?
Will you look to the one
who rose again victoriously?
Will you look to the one
who ascended into the heavens
and now He rules and reigns?
Will you look to the one
who intercedes for you
and prays for you daily?
Will you look to the one
who is coming back again
to make all things new,
to wipe away every tear
and to destroy every sin?
Will you look to Him?
You know,
later on,
we encounter Nicodemus again.
In fact,
we encounter Him
two more times
in John's Gospel.
In chapter 7,
the Pharisees are arguing
about Jesus
and they're working out
how can we arrest Jesus
and how can we kill Him?
And so Nicodemus
goes to the Pharisees
and he says,
guys,
this time no longer
under the cover of darkness.
In broad daylight,
he goes to the Pharisees
and he says,
does our law allow us
to put somebody on trial
without giving him
a fair trial
or to arrest somebody
or to kill somebody
without giving him
a fair trial?
And the Pharisees
turn on him.
They say,
who are you to defend Jesus?
They suddenly turn on Him
and attack Him.
But then later on,
we meet Nicodemus
one more time.
Jesus has been crucified
and He's hanging on the cross.
And Nicodemus
and another man,
Joseph of Arimathea,
go to Pontius Pilate
in broad daylight
in front of all
the other Pharisees
and they go and they say,
we'd like to give him
a decent burial.
Can we have the body?
And so Pilate consents.
He allows them
to take the body.
And Joseph of Arimathea,
he has encountered
Christ's grace
and the result is
he becomes exceedingly generous.
He says,
I've got a tomb
that is prepared for me,
cut out especially for me,
but Jesus can have it.
He gives away his tomb.
And Nicodemus,
he comes and he brings
a whole lot of spices
and perfumes
to embalm Jesus' body.
In fact,
he brings 65 pounds worth,
almost 30 kilograms.
Some commentators say,
the amount of spices
and perfume he brought
was almost what people
would have brought
for kings and governors
and people and royalty.
What's happened to Nicodemus?
This man that first came
in the shroud of darkness,
covered at night,
didn't want the Pharisees
to see,
came to settle,
you know,
came up to Jesus
to ask him a question privately.
Now in broad daylight,
he comes and he wants to,
he wants to give him
a decent burial.
What's happened to Nicodemus?
Friends,
I'll tell you what's happened.
He saw the one
who came down.
He saw the one
who was lifted up
on the cross.
He experienced
the typhoon of God's grace
that changed his life
and left him
a completely different person.
He experienced
the amazing,
magnificent grace of God.
Friends,
who is this man?
The good news
of the gospel
is that Jesus Christ,
God himself,
came not to show us
how to live,
not to tell us
to become more moral
or more religious,
not to curtail our fun
or to tell us
how to live our lives
necessarily.
He does that,
but he came to save us.
He came to cause us
to be born from above.
He came to give us
new life
that changes us completely.
He came
because he loves us.
For God so loved the world
that he sent his son,
his son from the heavens
to come
and to be with us.
For God so loved us
that he sent his son
to go and hang on the cross.
That whoever would
simply look on him,
believe in him,
bank their lives on him,
to get to experience
the typhoon of God's grace,
the life-transforming power
of the living God.
Friends,
will you come to him?
Will you look to him?
Will you trust him?
Will you bank your life
on him?
Now,
this is Christ,
our King.
Let's worship him together.
Will you stand with me?
Or actually,
maybe stand if you want to.
If you want to,
just take some time
reflecting.
You're welcome to do that.
Respond in any way
that you feel appropriate.
But let's worship.
Let's worship.
Thank you.