What a father. Yes. Crossroads, can we celebrate dads one more time here in this place? Fathers, thank you so much for all that you do. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your generosity toward your family and all that you do. I want to introduce myself this morning. My name is Chris Standridge. If you don't know me, I am our Ontario campus pastor. So I spend probably about 95% of the time on Sundays over at the Ontario campus. So some of you may not know who I am. You might look at me and see this strange face, but just want to make sure now we're all friends. Now we all know each other, and it's really a privilege to be filling the pulpit here as Pastor Andrew is away for the weekend. I want to invite you to grab your Bibles. We're going to be in John chapter 3 this morning. John chapter 3, we're going to have some ushers that are going to walk down through the aisles. If you're here today and you don't have a Bible, man, don't hesitate to raise your hand. One of these ushers would love to place one in your hand. That is your Bible to keep. It's not something that you have to return. It's something that you can just take home with you. You can write in it, you can highlight in it, whatever. We want everyone to have a copy of God's Word. So while they're passing out those Bibles and you're turning to John chapter 3, I want to let you know about a missions team that we have going to Guatemala tomorrow morning. Praise God. We've got people that have responded to the gospel and said, Hey, I take the Great Commission seriously. So I want to go into all the world and preach the gospel. This team of ten people from Crossroads Church is going to be leaving tomorrow. They're going down to Guatemala. They're going to be putting on a VBS. They're going to be doing some ministry at a girls' school down there. And they're also going to be manufacturing and distributing some like high-efficiency stoves, some gas stoves down there as well. So they've got about four or five different branches of ministry that they will be doing over the course of the next week. So what I would love to do as a way of opening up the sermon this morning is praying for that team, but also praying that God would open our hearts here today to the word of God. And I love listening to your worship. You all have been crying out to God with your praise and your adoration. So one of the ways that we can continue in worship this morning is simply by listening to God's word and responding appropriately to it. So let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for this time together as church family. We're grateful for the power of your word and the work that it will do today because we believe that it doesn't return void, it doesn't return empty anytime it goes forth. So God, would you open our hearts? Would you prick our spirits? Would you convict us where we need conviction? Where we would you give us a heart to respond where we need to respond? Let your work and your spirit do the work in our lives. And I also pray for our team going to Guatemala tomorrow. I pray that you would give them safety as they travel. I pray that they would have kingdom and gospel impact. I pray that as they go, that they would connect as a team and they would also connect with the people in Guatemala that they're ministering to. And as a result, I know, Lord, that these people that are on this team, God, you're gonna, you're gonna highly um, you know, impact them as they minister to others, but you're also going to impact people in Guatemala as well. So, God, we we we lift them up to you and we just pray a prayer of blessing over them and just ask that as they come back, they would come back with all kinds of stories of success and victory and triumph in the name of Jesus Christ. And we pray all these things in his mighty name. And all God's people said, Amen. John chapter three is where we're at this morning. But before we get into that, 1941, Great Britain was in the midst of a great war against Nazi Germany. And in the midst of their weariness, as they were fighting this ongoing battle, Winston Churchill challenged the people to strengthen their resolve because they were growing tired of fighting. Winston Churchill stood in front of his alma mater and he gave a speech that challenged the people. And within the midst of that speech, he said five of the most powerful and impactful words that have been spoken in modern day history. He said this never, never, never give up. Those words, those five words, pierced the heart of the people that were listening and pierced the heart of that nation at just the right time. And it gave them the courage, it gave them the strength, and it inspired them to continue in their fight. I get to thinking about that this week. And you know, the power of the right word spoken at just the right time has the potential of not just changing one person's life, has the potential of not just changing generations, but has the potential of changing the course of history. You've heard these words over the course of time as you sat in history classes in school. You heard the words of Franklin Roosevelt, who said, the only thing that we have to fear is what? Fear itself. You heard the words of John F. Kennedy, who said, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. You heard the words of Neil Armstrong, who said, That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. You heard the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who said, I have a dream. You heard the words of Abraham Lincoln, who said fourscore and seven years ago. You heard the words of Napoleon, who said, Tina, you fat lard, come get some dinner. Sorry. Oh, I'm gonna let that one hang there for a moment. Those of you, I got the wrong Napoleon, just gonna be honest, got my wires mixed up a little bit there. That's Napoleon dynamite, not Napoleon Bonaparte. If you've seen the movie, you know where I'm coming from on that. But I gotta say this a rightly spoken word at just the right time has the potential to have great impact on another person. Has the potential of doing exactly what Solomon said in all of his wisdom. And in song, or I'm sorry, in Proverbs chapter 25, verse 11, Solomon wrote these words. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Just once in my life, just one time, I want to speak a word that is fitly spoken at just the right time. A word that people will hang on, that they might remember for generations to come. The truth is, because of who I am and the platform that I have, it's likely that nobody's gonna remember anything that I say 50 years from now. And that's okay, I guess. If I'm lucky, I might say one or two things that are worthy of an epitaph on my tombstone. In fact, I got to thinking about that this week as well, as I was thinking about those historical quotes that I just read to you. I want to give you some of my own quotes that I have said over the years. And the only reason I have these quotes is because my daughters have an app on their phone where they catalog all of my wise sayings and all of my foolish sayings at the same time. And so every time I say something stupid, they end up typing it in their phone and they share it amongst each other. And so I got to thinking about some of the things that I have said, and I want to read them to you. Would that be okay? Great, thank you for being excited about that. Nine o'clock was not so excited. I read them anyways. This is what I've told people in the church. This is what I've told mostly my girls as I've raised them over the years. I have three daughters. Um, two of them are adults, one of them is gonna be a 14-year-old. This is what I have told them for years. Girls, don't be low-hanging fruit for guys. You are not low-hanging fruit. Amen, ladies. I've said to the church, do you want to be right or do you want to get it right? I've said to my daughters, I don't negotiate with little terrorists. This is gonna be a fun one. Um, I like I like your guys' spirit this morning. I've also said to my girls when I discipline them, this is gonna hurt you more than it's gonna hurt me. Ironically, I also told my daughters along the way, I told them, don't marry a pastor. Marry someone who's gonna be rich. We'll see how that goes. I don't know. I've also told them over the years, especially in junior high and high school, I told them, your friends are not your spiritual barometer. They are not your measuring stick for spirituality. You don't compare yourself against your friends. And then this last one I'm gonna read to you. I don't remember saying it. I'm just gonna be honest with you, but my daughter swears I did. I think it's hilarious, but you may not. Um I told my girls, you're at an age where you don't need more friends, you need a mating partner. So I don't remember saying it. I don't remember saying it. Either way, there's some apples of gold in there somewhere, if you mind deep enough. But timely words have power. And the words of Jesus that we're gonna look at in John chapter 3 this morning are not only timely, they're timeless. Because these words that we will read, and you can imagine if you know your Bible at all, where we're gonna go with this, these words are as important and true and powerful and impactful today, 2,000 years later, as they were when Jesus first spoke them. We're gonna talk about these timely words. And so I want to I want to give you just a little bit of context as we get ready to get into our text of where we're at in the Gospel of John in chapter three. Jesus has just started his ministry, okay? He has um he has already gained a little bit of a following, he has already performed some spectacular miracles, he's already made some scandalous statements, and people are generously or gener generally curious about who Jesus is. They want to know, is this, could this be the Messiah? Could this be the one sent from God? So people are really wanting to know, is he the one that we should be looking for? So, in their curiosity, there's one man in particular that is gonna have a dialogue with Jesus in our narrative today. He is curious, and he's coming to Jesus looking for answers. And what I'm gonna tell you is that the words that Jesus spoke to him in this conversation are like no words he had ever heard before, and it changed everything. John chapter 3, starting in verse 1. I want to read down through verse 21. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you uh are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God's with him. And Jesus answered him and said, 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 again 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 have 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 was born of the Spirit. Now 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? No one has ascended into heaven except he 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. 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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he is not believed in the name of the only Son of God, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For every one who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clear, clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. This is the word of God. This word is true, this word is trustworthy, and I believe it's transformative for each and every one of us today. These words are so impactful that we just read. They not only inspire people how to live, but they show people how to find life and how to find abundant and eternal life. And so, what I want to do with our text this morning is we're not gonna work through this text verse by verse. That'd probably take us an hour and a half to do that. I want to work through this as a conversation because that's what it is. I want to work through this conversation in sections. So what you're gonna see is you're gonna see five sections this morning, and if you're taking notes, these are the five main points that I want to break down for you. So the first section of this conversation, number one, if you're taking notes, is the tragedy. There's a tragedy here. If we look at verses one and two of John chapter three again, we'll start to break down these sections. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Now I want you to understand that Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees. He was a member of a like a very exclusive spiritual club. The Pharisees were one of five different sects of Jews. You had the Herodians, you had the Essenes, you had the Zealots, you had the Sadducees, and you had the Pharisees. And Jesus, if you know your New Testament at all, specifically the Gospels, you know that Jesus was always having run-ins with the Pharisees. They were kind of like a thorn in his flesh, a thorn in his side. They were always there trying to trap him, trying to trip him up, trying to get him to contradict Scripture, trying to just make him look like a fool. They were always making his ministry and his life difficult. And the reason was because Pharisees were fundamentalists and they were literalists. They took God's word seriously all the way down to every jot and every tittle, every little dot, every little cross line. They followed every word of scripture, all the way to the T. They took it literal, and they also took a vow before people that when they became a Pharisee, that they would devote their lives to living it out faithfully. So these were pious people, these were religious people who were dedicated to living out all 613 commandments of the Old Testament. Now just imagine how exhausting that would be for these Pharisees, but that's who Nicodemus was. He was a Pharisee. These Pharisees were also so pious that they would create laws in order to protect them from breaking the actual laws of God. I don't know if you've ever heard of the term bleeding Pharisees, but there was a subgroup of Pharisees that called themselves the bleeding Pharisees. And the reason they got that title or that nickname is because they took God's word so literally that they felt like they were not supposed to look at another woman. And so when they were out in public and women came along, they didn't want to look at them inappropriately, so they would just shut their eyes and continue walking. And they would walk into walls, they would walk into doors, they would walk into lampposts, whatever it might be, and then all of a sudden they're bleeding from their face, and it looks like a badge of honor. They say, Look at me, look how spiritual I am. I'm bleeding for what I believe. So Nicodemus was a Pharisee, but he was not only a Pharisee, he was also a ruler of the Jews. He was on a religious spiritual council called the Sanhedrin. Now the Sanhedrin was made up of 70 scribes and elders and chief priests of all of Israel, and they were overseen by the high priest that oversaw all of Judaism. So there were 70 plus one. So if you just imagine the United States Senate in our context and the Supreme Court, that's kind of what the Sanhedrin was. And the Sanhedrin's responsibilities were to go out and investigate would-be messiahs that would come onto the scene. Now, in this day and age, and in this context, you need to understand that there would be all kinds of would-be messiahs, self-proclaiming messiahs, because the people were desperate. The people were looking for a deliverer, they wanted a hero, they wanted a messiah to come. They've been waiting for hundreds of years, and they were tired of the oppression of Rome. They wanted someone to come and free them. And so they were desperate people, and so people would cap, men would capitalize on that, and they would come onto the scene, they would build a following, and they would say, Follow me, I'm the Messiah, I'm the one you've been looking for. And the Sanhedrin would get sent out to investigate their followers, to investigate their teachings and their truth claims and even miracles, if they had ever reported to you know, perform one. And so these this is the job of the Sanhedrin was to protect the people from false teachers and charlatans that would lead the nation of Israel astray. And so Nicodemus comes to Jesus. Likely, he's on assignment as a member of the Sanhedrin. He's coming on behalf of the other 69 or 70 men, and he wants to investigate Jesus. But at the same time, Nicodemus has his own level of curiosity. He is hearing things about Jesus and he's hearing his teaching and he's seeing some of his miracles, and he wants some answers to his own questions. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and he comes to Jesus by way of night, under the cover of night. And one of the reasons is likely because this was the best opportunity that Nicodemus could get a private audience with Jesus, because Jesus was becoming very popular, and everybody wanted a piece of him, but at night he was the one who could sit down and have a one-on-one, face-to-face conversation with Jesus. But it's also likely that not only did he want a private audience with Jesus, he didn't want to be seen in public with Jesus because he didn't want to be identified with him or appear to be in agreement with some of his teachings. So Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and what I want you to understand is there's a metaphor here, right? And the metaphor is he comes to Jesus in darkness looking for truth. And the reality is that beneath the scenes or beneath the surface, Nicodemus is a man who's walking through life in darkness, and he's searching for truth, and he's searching for light. So I hope you can see that because this is gonna, this is gonna be a part of everything that we talk about this morning. It's gonna it's gonna paint a fuller picture. And so here's the tragedy beneath the surface, if you read between the lines. Nicodemus had religion, he had reputation, and he had the respect of the people. But the one thing that he was lacking was regeneration. He needed to be saved. He was trusting in all of his religion, but he needed to be regenerated by God in heaven. And I believe, man, it's tragic how many people there are like Nicodemus in the church today. There are a lot of people who come to church that believe in a historical Jesus. They might even believe that Jesus was sent from God. Nicodemus even said that, Rabbi, we know that you are sent from God because who else could do these things? There are people in the church that believe that Jesus was sent from God, that Jesus might even be God, but they still won't surrender to Jesus because they would rather be a fan than a follower. They would rather keep Jesus at a distance because they're they're they're they're too worried about what it's gonna cost them to follow Jesus closely. Nicodemus was a man who had way too much to lose. He had gained the whole world when it came to his religion, when it came to his um yeah, when it came to his position, when it came to his status, he had everything that the world had to offer. And the cost of following Jesus at that moment looked like it would be too much. And there's a lot of people in church today that love to say, Jesus, I like you. I want to keep you at a distance. I'll come to church every once in a while, and I'll throw a little bit of cash in the offering box, and you know, I'll I'll maybe even get in a small group or I'll serve on a team when it's convenient for me. I want to do all these things so it looks good, but don't ask me to surrender all my life. Don't ask me to take up my cross. Don't ask me to be born again, which we're gonna talk about here in a few minutes, but because there are people in the church today who won't surrender, I believe those same people are walking through life trying to be spiritual and religious, and what they are is they're restless. And I believe Nicodemus was restless in this moment. You know, when you have an outward righteousness but not an inward, it leaves you empty, it leaves you restless. One of the church fathers. That we sometimes quote around here. His name's Augustine. He once said this hundreds of years ago. He said, You may have uh you have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Weariness comes from effort. Weariness comes from trying to measure up. Weariness comes from spiritually trying to earn it. Weariness comes from work, but rest comes from a relationship. God wants a relationship with each and every one of us, and we can rest in that. And Nicodemus, I believe, in this moment is he's weary and he's desperate for answers to his questions because what he's seeing from Jesus is turning his life upside down. He wants to believe it, but he has too much to lose to give his life to it. So he's weary, and that's the tragedy is that he has everything. And he even looks the part, but he hasn't surrendered his life to following Jesus. The second section of this conversation, number two, is the thesis. Let's look at John chapter 3, verse 3. It says this. The thesis is this. Jesus answered him and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This statement, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God is the summation of the entire conversation that we're gonna break down. Jesus cuts straight to the heart. He is not interested in surface level, he is not interested in trivialities, he's not interested in small talk. He comes and he tells Nicodemus what Nicodemus needs to hear, not what he wants to hear. Here's my question: What are you here for today? Are you here to hear what you want to hear? Or are you here to hear what you need to hear? You hear me? Like, sometimes we come to church because we just want to feel better. We got some anxiety, we've got some guilt, maybe we've got some shame. Maybe we feel like, oh, this is just like it's what I do, it's a part of my weekly routine. So I do this, and I mean, hopefully, Pastor Andrew or whoever is preaching that Sunday, hopefully they give me something that encourages me. Hopefully they give they give me something that uplifts me. Hopefully they give me something that just makes me feel better about myself. It's okay sometimes to feel that way when you come here because this is a place to heal, this is a place to be recharged. But if you come here every week only hoping to hear what you want to hear, you're gonna miss out on hearing the thing that you need to hear. And Jesus is cutting straight to the heart with Nicodemus. He's like, Nicodemus, this is what you need to hear. You must be born again. Jesus starts out with this heavy-hitting statement. I had some friends like this uh back in Colorado. We didn't, my wife and I did ministry in Colorado for 10 years, and we had some friends, their names were uh Kyle and Tammy Hansen. They were wonderful people, they were godly people. He was an elder at our church. Um, but Kyle and Tammy were very intentional people. We affectionately nicknamed them the heavy handsons. The heavy handsons because anytime you got into a conversation, you knew that they were gonna bring the heavy. You knew that they were intentional. They had a way where they could like peek and speak right into your soul. You ever met that person? You ever had that friend that when they look into you, it looks like they're looking straight through you and into your heart and into your soul, and it makes you a little uncomfortable. This was Kyle and Tammy. They just had a way about themselves. They would ask like one question, and you would just find yourself like dumping all of your childhood trauma onto them, and you're like, you'd walk away thinking, how did they do that? That's like witchcraft, man. Um, but that's what they did. They just brought the heavy, so you you knew you were hanging out with them. That's where the conversation was gonna go. And Jesus makes a really heavy statement to Nicodemus that Nicodemus didn't want to hear. And he says, You must be born again. Now, that word born is used eight different times in this passage of scripture, in this text. If you're a if you're a Bible writer, if you're a highlighter, if you're comfortable with that, I would challenge you to underline or circle or highlight every time in verses 1 through 21 that born is used. And you'll find, if you're using the ESV, you'll find that it's eight different times because Jesus is giving us a symbol of what it looks like to have life. And Jesus invites Nicodemus to be born again into this new life, but he was he wasn't talking about physical life. He wasn't talking about physical birth, he's talking about something spiritual, something much deeper, a spiritual life and a spiritual rebirth. This statement, you must be born again, is a declaration more than it is an invitation. So this is the declaration to you today as well. You must be born again. It's not, hey, if it suits you, you might want to think about being born again. Or, hey, if it's convenient for you, you might consider being born again. Maybe you should be born again, or maybe you ought to be. No, Jesus is saying, you must be born again. And I know that that term born-again Christian in today's day and age and our culture comes with connotations, right? It comes with baggage these days. And the reason is is because Christians have probably not always lived up well to that title, and also the culture has kind of hijacked it. You see, when we talk about the born-again Christians, they're the Jesus freaks. They're the holy rollers, they're the holier than thous, they're the goody two shoes, they're the ones that take the Bible seriously and literally, they're the ones that actually follow Jesus, they're the ones that take their religion way too seriously. They might even be the Bible thumpers, they might even be the bigots. Man, and there's many people in the church today that call themselves quote unquote Christians who are very okay. In fact, they prefer to be a casual Christian. They prefer to be a cultural Christian because in our day and age, there's not there's not really consequence negatively of being a cultural Christian to say, I'm a Christian. It's like, you know, it's it's just like it's a part of who we are in some ways. And I think the culture is shifting away from that in some ways. But the fact of the matter is, is there's no consequences with saying that I'm a Christian. It's just like a checkbox on your voter registration or something like that, you know? But I want you to understand that according to Jesus, the only kind of Christian that there is are born-again Christians. This is his definitive statement that he makes in John chapter 3, which leads us to point number three. The third section of this text or this conversation is number three, the trouble. The trouble. Let's look at verse 4, all the way down through verse 10 of John 3. Nicodemus said to him, How could 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 was born of the Spirit. And 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? This is the troubling part of the entire conversation for not only Nicodemus, but also Jesus, because Nicodemus is struggling with this statement that you must be born again. And he's struggling with this for reasons that you may not think. I think a lot of times, those of us who know the Bible, we hear the story, we know the Sunday school story and all that kind of stuff, and we just think that Nicodemus was probably like, How is it possible for me to go back into my mother's womb, into the birth canal? Like, how do I do that? If you think for one moment that Nicodemus was that dumb or that naive to think that that's what Jesus was talking about, you do not give Nicodemus nearly enough credit. You need to understand that Nicodemus was really intelligent. He was the elite of the elite of all the teachers of Scripture. He was an academic. He knew God's word forward and back. So at no point did Nicodemus do I believe, I believe that Nicodemus didn't mistake this. But what he's saying is, is how am I supposed to be born again? How is this possible for me? What you need to understand as well is in that culture and in that context, there were like six different ways that a person could be considered born again in Jewish culture. And I'm not going to share all six of them with you for the sake of time, but one way in particular was if a Gentile converted to Judaism, that person was considered born again. Another way, I told you I won't share all six of them, but just one more way is like when a man um was at his wedding ceremony, at the end of his wedding ceremony, at the end of all of the party and everything, a man was considered born again because he's now married. And here is Nicodemus at his stage in life, at his age in life, likely he's a senior citizen, if not elderly, he's accomplished all these things. And he's saying to Jesus, how is this possible? Like some of these things that can that we consider like necessary to be born again in our culture, I've already done them. Or I never will be able to do them. So you might as well be telling me, Jesus, that I might as well just go back into my mother's womb because that's how ridiculous this sounds. Nicodemus doesn't think it's possible because he doesn't, he's not thinking at a deeper spiritual level right now for him to be born again. He's so troubled by this idea that he questions Jesus and he says, How can these things be? And Jesus, in his response, is just as troubled. He's like, How can this be? Like, you're the teacher of Israel. Now understand the word the. He didn't say a. He said you're the teacher. He is the preeminent teacher of all of Israel within the Sanhedrin and the sect of the Pharisees, and he doesn't understand what Jesus is talking about. And I think a lot of it is because Nicodemus was so stuck in his religion, so stuck in playing the part and trying to measure up that he couldn't be retaught by Jesus. It was incomprehensible for him to think that he is the as the leading teacher of the Jews needed saving. Because if in his mind, in his mind, if if he ain't saved, ain't nobody saved. Because he is the spiritual of the most spiritual. See, Nicodemus trusted in his position, he trusted in his works, he trusted in his knowledge, he trusted in his routines and his repetitions. And I believe that there are some times where we trust in things that honestly bring us trouble when it comes to a relationship with Jesus. What are the things that are troubling you and your relationship with Jesus or keeping you from a relationship with Jesus? For some of us, this would have been me 35, 40 years ago. I was raised in Sunday school. So I knew all the stories, I knew all the verses, I had seen all the flannel graph, you know, presentations. Back when we used to do those things, I grew up in church. So I'm a pretty good person. Maybe you had a Sunday school upbringing background and you've just been like, yeah, this is what I've been doing since I was four years old. Maybe for some of you, you've just memorized a lot of scripture. You know the Bible. Like I said, like Nicodemus, you know it, forward and back and backwards and forth. You've memorized a lot of scripture and you're trusting in all the things that you know in your head. Maybe that's the thing that's troubling you from coming to Jesus. Maybe for others of you, and hold on tight because this might hit some people. Maybe you were baptized as a baby, and your parents made a spiritual decision for you to dedicate you to the Lord, and you've been holding on to that baptism and you've been saying, This is what I hold on to for my salvation. But that's not what Jesus teaches. Maybe for others of you, again, like me, maybe you prayed that sinner's prayer and you said all the magic words. The magic words. But as you prayed it, you didn't really mean it. You just said it because it sounded like the right thing to do, and it didn't change anything about your life. These are the kind of things that from time to time can trouble us in coming to a relationship with Jesus. And all these righteous things without Christ are the one thing that keep us from they're the things that keep us from him. They'll leave you in the same place that they left Nicodemus, thinking that you're safe, thinking that you're godly, thinking that you're righteous, but still wandering in darkness and lost and weary and restless. This was Nicodemus. You know, I believe there's a lot of people in the church today, maybe right here in this place. I believe there's a lot of people that when they stand before heaven's throne and they have to give an account for their life, there's a lot of people that are gonna say, Jesus, I did all these things. You know all of my works, all of my good deeds. And he's gonna say, What did you do with my son? And you might think, I'm gonna hear, well done, good and faithful servant, but what Jesus and God is gonna say to you instead is depart from me, you worker of lawlessness, I never knew you. And that statement right there is gonna bring trouble to your soul eternally because you think that you're saved, you think that you're a Christian, but you've never truly surrendered to Jesus Christ. So it's troubling. Then you have the fourth section of this conversation. Number four is the truth. The truth. Jesus is wondering, how am I gonna get through to Nicodemus? I only have so much time. How am I gonna help him understand? And he's he's saying to Nicodemus, he's like, if I tell you earthly things and you do not believe, how are you gonna believe if I tell you heavenly things? So Jesus decides he's gonna give Nicodemus like a word picture. He's gonna draw him to the one thing that Nicodemus knew the most. He knew Scripture. As a Pharisee, like I said earlier, he was a devout follower of the word of God. And as a Pharisee, it's not only likely, it's probable that he knew the first five books of the Old Testament, the law of God, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Not only did he know it, but he likely had it memorized. So Jesus, or Nicodemus knew the law of God. And so Jesus is like, listen, no more metaphors, no more like crazy statements that you can't understand, no more dancing around this. I'm just gonna cut straight to it. I'm gonna give you the truth, and I'm gonna tell you about who I am in light of what happened a thousand years ago with Moses and the children of Israel. Look at what he says to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, verse 11. 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? No one has ascended into heaven except he 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. Jesus just drops a truth bomb on Nicodemus. He says, Nicodemus, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and I'm him, I'm the Son, I'm the Son of Man, I'm the Messiah. He's pointing to himself. And you might be wondering, and Nicodemus might have been wondering, what does this have to do with being born again? Let's look back to um Numbers chapter 21. I want to look at that story in Scripture. Numbers chapter 21, verse 4 says this. This is what Jesus was referring to. From Mount Hor, they sent out by way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food, and there's no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and he set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. I want you to understand that not long before this little narrative, this little story right here, not long before that, the Israelites had just gotten their first taste of freedom in 400 years. For 400 years, they were in slavery and in bondage to Egypt. So God delivers them through Moses. They get out into the wilderness, they are on their way to the promised land, and they only get out there maybe a few weeks. I'm not even sure how long it is, but they're out there not very long. And what do they do? They do the thing that they always did. They just start complaining. They start griping against God. They're like, they're like, Moses, why did you bring us out here to die? You could have at least left us in Egypt. At least there we had food. At least we had shelter and homes and all of these things, even though we were prisoners. Why'd you bring us out here? We've got no food. We've got no like water. We've got, and the food that we do have this manna, it's disgusting. It's worthless. It's like eating kale and salad and stuff like that, you know? Like they're like, we may as well not even eat. So they're complaining against God, and God is like in his righteous anger. He's like, oh, I'm gonna show them. So he sends serpents in his foresight and in his wisdom. He knew what all of this meant a thousand years later. He sends these serpents, these fiery serpents, poisonous snakes, into the camp, and they start biting the people. And the people are dropping like flies. They start dying off, and they realize, the people realize, uh, maybe we took this too far. Maybe we shouldn't have complained as much as we did. So they repent and they say to Moses, Moses, will you please pray to the Lord? You're our intermediator. You're like, you're our go-between. So will you go to the Lord and will you pray to him that he'll take these snakes away from us? Because we're dying out here. So Moses prays to the Lord, and the Lord does something that Moses and the people didn't ask for and didn't expect. Instead of just removing the snakes, what does he do? He has Moses fashion a bronze serpent. And he says, Moses, take this serpent and put it on a pole, and I want you to lift it up in the air. And anytime someone gets bit, even though there's poison running through their veins, if they look up at this serpent on the pole, they'll be healed and they will live. So I want you to understand what this means about being born again? What is the application? I want you to understand that the serpent in this story is a picture of our sin. Each and every one of us have sin in our lives and it's coursing through our veins, and we can't escape it. And the bronze of the serpent, the bronze serpent, is a picture of God's judgment. And God has to judge our sins. But the pole in the story, where the bronze serpent is placed on it and the pole lifts it up, is a picture of the cross. So what you need to understand, the application for each and every one of us is that even though there's poison in our veins, even though there's sin that infects each and every one of us as individuals, if we would just look to the cross, if we would just look to Jesus on the cross, he is the remedy, he is the solution, he is the balm that we need in order to be healed. This is how we're born again by looking to Jesus. What a powerful word story. And Jesus is so deep in all of this, he just explains it. I'm sure he's blowing Nicodemus' mind. The problem is for us today, is we like our home remedies, don't we? I lived in uh I lived in Colorado for 10 years, and uh I used to call it the land of the hippies. There's a lot of like um granola people there. They love their organic stuff. We had friends all the time that were like, hey Chris, I made my own shampoo and my own laundry detergent and soap for the shower, and I'm like, good for you. I go to Kroger's and get that, or you know, I go to Walmart, like, hey, great for you. That's not really what I do. There are people that were, some of them needed to do it, some of them wanted the organic feel, and that's great. I'm not here to judge people that do that because I know that we have people like that here uh in Ohio as well. I'm not here to judge if that be you, but the the reason a lot of these people would do that is not necessarily for health reasons in particular. It was just they wanted to be the ones that felt like they had the formula, they had the fix, and it's on me to provide for myself. And aren't we kind of like that as a people? Don't we want to fix things ourselves? Don't we want the formula in the way that we concoct it? Don't we wanna be the people that provide for ourselves? And I'm here to tell you, and this is what Jesus. Jesus is saying, if you're looking for a fix, if you're looking for a formula through any other thing than looking to him on the cross, then you are always gonna fall short. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, he is the antidote to each and every one of our sin. He is the one who is the fix. And so if you start looking this way and that and won't look to Jesus and surrender to him, then you are missing out. You are just like Nicodemus, you're missing the point. You must be born again through Jesus. So look to Jesus. He is the remedy. And then lastly, number five, let's look at verses 16 through 18. This is the triumph. This is the triumph of everything. If you've got a tragedy and you've got a thesis and you've got uh, you know, a truth and you've got trouble, this is the triumph. Verse 16, many of you know this verse, 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. 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. These are words of life that just get breathed into us as we read God's Word, as it comes alive, it inspires us. You know, uh about a year ago, Pastor Andrew, when he came to Crossroads Church, one of the things that he started is a culture of celebration amongst our staff, and it has been phenomenal. Like he has lifted the spirit, he has lifted the enthusiasm of our staff in ways that we can't even fully calculate or comprehend. But he started this practice that we do a couple times a year. It's called, I don't even know what he calls it specifically, but it's basically a game ball moment amongst our staff. So when we find staff that's just crushing it, like they're going above and beyond, they're showing integrity, they're showing a heart for people, they're doing everything that they can to serve the church and the kingdom well. They're just making an impression on people. We have our entire staff sign a game ball, and then we present it to that staff member in one of our staff meetings. And that staff member has to sit by themselves in front of the entire staff and listen as we lavish our love onto that individual and we celebrate their contribution and everything that they've done, and we recognize all the success that they've had. And it's awkward for that person sitting in front of all of the staff to hear these words of affirmation. But slowly, one by one, you kind of see they just it builds their confidence, it breathes life into them. And so we did this um recently on our New Testament trip at the at the very tail end of our Greece New Testament trip. We had a meal with our tour guide. Our tour guide's name was Dionysius. And Dionysius is an amazing tour guide. We plan these New Testament trips, the footsteps of Paul. We plan it around his calendar because he's that good. And I would tell you this morning, if you ever get a chance to go on this trip, don't miss it. It will fundamentally change the way you see scripture. But on the last night, we shared a meal together, and then we had everyone in the group sign a game ball. Now, we didn't have a football like we do here in America, so we had to get an actual, you know, football. Any soccer fans in here? All right, I'm about to offend you because I don't get it. But in Greece, they don't have footballs like Americans, so they have soccer balls, so we went and got him a soccer ball. And we presented, all of us signed it, and we presented it to him as a game ball, and he sat there as we poured out our praise upon him and celebrated all that he had done to contribute to our trip. And you could see at first it was awkward, but then you could see his chest just kind of puff up a little bit, and then you could see the energy. We were breathing life into him, and it was amazing to see how he grew into that. And as powerful as those words were, they're not nearly as powerful as the words that I'm gonna quote to you right now. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Those are the most powerful words ever spoken in human history. And Jesus speaks them to Nicodemus and he speaks them to us. You see, God so loved the world. Now, this would have been um I don't know, controversial to Nicodemus, because the Jews would have believed that God only loves the Jews. They're the chosen people, the Gentiles are the sinners, they're the ones that God hates and the ones that God wants to judge. But here Jesus says, God so loved the world. He so loved the world that he demonstrated it. He didn't just pity us, he didn't just feel sorry for us, he didn't just say, Ah, find your way. Kind of a tough road. Sorry, sorry about you know what's gonna happen, but you did this to yourself. The Bible says he loved us so much that he demonstrated it. Romans 5.8 says, but God demonstrated his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. These are hope-filled words for each of you today, Christian or not, that Jesus died for you in the midst of your rebellion, in the midst of your spite and anger and treason that you've committed against God, in the midst of the fact that you played the prodigal, while you were in sin, Christ died for you. This is the hope, this is the impact, this is the power. Because of the poison of the sin that's infecting us, the fact of the matter is that in eternity we have no hope without Jesus. We can't find our own way, we can't make our own way. It's only through the cross. Jesus loved us, and He gave us He gave his life so that we would not have to suffer the shame of condemnation. Any of you ever felt that condemnation before? I've seen it firsthand. I was on a trial jury in Richland County about four years ago. We sat judging a man who was accused of basically running over his nephew in a parking lot. This man was 67 years old. His nephew was in his mid-50s. You thought you had family problems. Um this guy had some family problems, and he ran over his his nephew. His nephew sued him. And I sat there and listened to all the evidence, the entire jury did, and it was obvious that the man who was 67 years old driving the car was guilty. And we gave the judge our judgment. We passed him what we found, and as I sat there on the jury, the judge begins to read the ruling that the jury came up with, and then he begins to hand down the punishment. And can I tell you, in that moment, it brought me no satisfaction to see this 67-year-old man sit in shame of condemnation. Because in that moment, all he had right beside him was one lawyer, and he puts his hands in his face, and he's just sitting in shame because he realizes maybe for the first time he is guilty. And the only hope that he had was to serve his sentence, to pay his debt for society. There was no reconciler, there was no one to overturn it. The only hope he had was to sit or stand condemned. And I want to tell you this morning one day each and every one of us are gonna stand before the judgment seat of God. And we're either gonna be condemned for our sins or we're gonna be pardoned from our sins. And the only difference between the two is what you do with Jesus. What are you gonna do with Jesus? Because some of you right now are sitting in condemnation. Will you surrender your life to him? Will you give your life to him in this moment? Because I know some of you here have been playing the game for a long time. Jesus offers you a free gift. And when you receive it, you will be born again. But this is the way, this is the way to life. You must be born again. So here's what I want to do. I want to invite you right now, in this moment, to stand. I want to invite you to stand, heads bowed and eyes closed. I believe there might be people in this room this morning that are saying, Chris, I've heard this a dozen times, maybe a hundred times, but it's hitting different right now. There might be some of you here this morning that are like, I've never heard this before. I've heard of John 3 16, but I never put the pieces together. And you're saying, I need to be born again, I need to stop playing games. This is my eternity. If you're here today and you're saying, Chris, I've never accepted Jesus into my life, I would love to know how to accept him and be born again. I'd love to do this for the first time with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. Please respect this because this is a private moment. This is a hard thing for people to admit, especially in front of others. If you're here today and you have never accepted Jesus, but you would like to be born again, I want you to just raise your hand right now, right here in this place. Is there anyone? Is there anyone who needs to be born again? I see one hand, I see two hands. Anyone else? Is there anyone courageous enough to say, I need Jesus? I see three hands. Here's what I want to do. In this very moment, if you would like to accept Jesus and be born again, I'm going to lead you through a simple prayer. It's not about magic words, it's about a confession of you pouring your heart out to God. With no one looking around, follow me after I pray these words. Heavenly Father, I know I'm a sinner. I'm like Nicodemus. I think I'm righteous, I think I'm good, but I need forgiveness. I'm weary and I'm trying to I'm trying to earn it, and I'm tired of earning it because it's leaving me restless. In this moment, I know I'm a sinner and I want to repent of my sins. I recognize that Jesus died on the cross for me, and I want to look to him on that cross. Jesus, would you save me in this moment? Would you make me new? Would you reconcile me to the Lord? Would you make me right with God? Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name. Amen. Heads bowed, eyes closed. Heads bowed, eyes closed. If you prayed that prayer for the very first time and just accepted Jesus, you are born again. I have some ushers that would love to put a first steps packet in your hand. Raise your hand. If you prayed that for the very first time today and you meant it, you want Jesus into your life, raise your hand high. I've got some volunteers all over. I've got one right here, Jonathan, right here in the middle. I've got anybody else, raise your hand high. It's pretty dark in here. I've got two hands right in the middle, I've got one in the very back. Anybody else? Praise God. Praise God. Look up here. Everybody look up here right in this moment. Can we celebrate that God has brought salvation to this place? At least three people. Praise God. You leave this place. If you're a follower of Jesus and you have given your heart to him, you can leave this place knowing that you were born.