Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. My name is Frank Erb, and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today to speak to you and say hello to you again. I was here years ago, but I certainly appreciate the invitation from your pastor to return. So thank you, Pastor, and thanks to all of you and those of you who are from the other church visiting as well. Wonderful to meet you. I've been a pastor throughout my life, throughout California, but throughout my adult life, but now for, hard for me to believe it, but for over 10 years now, I've been serving as a full-time missionary pastor inside our state capitol. And I'm there to reach out to, to share the good news with, and to make disciples among those at our state capitol and in our state government. So that includes our state assembly members, our state senators, statewide leaders, constitutional officers, staff, lobbyists, department heads, and others, and beyond, as God provides opportunity. And so, practically what that looks like is I'm in the Capitol on a regular basis every week, and I'm there Having private meetings with legislators on both sides of the aisle, I go to all of them, reach out to all of them, and so for any who are willing, I sit with them, often in their office, privately, and share about Christ. hear what He's done in my life and what He has to offer for them, and what it means to walk with Him, and hear the good news of Jesus. And I get to see many respond, not as many as I love to see, so I continue to labor in it, but wonderful to keep seeing how God is at work as people respond to Him. But perhaps my greatest joy is that I also get to invite them to Bible studies that I teach inside the Capitol. So I'm there each week. I do a Bible study every week with our senators and assembly members and constitutional officers. Again, bipartisan, and they're invited to come and go through the Word of God. We pass out Bibles and go page by page, book by book, verse by verse. This year in the Gospel of John, And then another one for staff and lobbyists and others, and you're actually invited to that one if you'd like to participate. It's this year on Wednesdays at noon inside our capitol. So two studies at least, but sometimes as many as four or five each week depending on what's going on in the capitol. how available people are, and then lots, as I mentioned, of personal meetings and some weekly or monthly discipleship meetings with leaders and so on. So just happy to be doing that. I can do that only because of the prayers of people like you. So I know that many of you pray for me, so thank you so much. Then financially supported by individuals and churches who want to see a missionary in our state capitol, who recognize that that is a mission field in our backyard. And so I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do that. But again, how wonderful it is to see how God's word can be at work in a place like our Capitol, and in the lives of leaders like those in our Capitol. And one of the passages that I've just enjoyed so much teaching in our Capitol this year was in John chapter three. I mentioned we go through the Bible, and so teaching through the gospel of John. John chapter 3 is a chapter that has some specific implications for those in government, as I'll share with you, and for leaders. And actually, that's the case with many pages in the Bible. I wouldn't have known this until I stepped into ministry in the Capitol, but so much of the Bible relates often directly, and if not directly, then indirectly, to those who are in government. And I know some of you may even work for our state government, so you're in government, if so, or city government or county government. And there's so much in there directly related to government, even the idea that Jesus is king, and that God is king. Those are government terms. So it's continual. It's on every page of the Bible, really, something. But John 3 really came alive, as I discussed this with senators and assembly members earlier this year. Of course, this is such a familiar passage of the Bible. It's one of the most famous passages in the entire Bible. But if we don't know the history or don't think about the history or the cultural context, we might miss some of the drama of the moment that's described in John chapter three. So I'd love to read through John three more with you. And as we do, we'll look at this conversation that Jesus had with this man, Nicodemus, and see some of the lessons that we can learn from this interaction. Let's talk about Nicodemus here. Again, verse 1, it says, So let's ask, first of all, who was Nicodemus? Well, his name, Nicodemus, is an interesting name. It's a name that his parents gave him that's a Greek name. Nic comes from Nikos, or Nike, Nike shoes, and that kind of thing. It's a word that means triumph or victory, and Demos means people, so his name could be translated, Victor over the people. And that became a fitting name, even though he was Jewish, this Greek name was fitting, because he went on to be a ruler over the people. It says here that he was a Pharisee. Who were the Pharisees? Well, they were a religious and I think we could say a political sect in Israel. We read throughout the New Testament of two main groups continually interacting and ultimately opposing Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, these religious sects, but they were basically political parties, we would say as well, in this theocracy that was the nation of Israel. And the Pharisees, the name Pharisee means literally separatist, so they were the Puritans, we might say, the conservatives, maybe, in that sense, that they were trying to stay pure and not have their faith corrupted. That was their aim and their pursuit and their spoken desire. And these were the hardcore devout, these Pharisees. They've been called the Marine Corps of Judaism by some today. They felt the elite. They were extremely detailed and fastidious with the law of God. We read how Jesus dealt with them and pointed this out sometimes. Jesus said that they were so careful to tithe that they even would, what, count every seed You can imagine them taking the bags of grain down off the shelves or the spice rack and getting all the seed out and counting every single seed to make sure that they gave the right percentage to God. And we know historically that they implemented what were called fence laws. And the fence laws were laws that they made up to keep them from breaking the laws that were given by God. So where the law of God said, shall do no work on the Sabbath, they said, let's have laws to keep you from doing anything that might come close to breaking the law of God. So they said, for instance, the rabbis taught over the centuries, after that law of God was given, they said, well, you should never look in a mirror on the Sabbath day. How does that work? Because if you look in a mirror and you see a gray hair, you might be tempted to pluck it, which would be work. So don't even go there and look in a mirror. And they'd say, don't wear false teeth, because then you're carrying a weight. Carrying a weight would be work. And if you have a wooden leg, you better remove it on the Sabbath day, because that would be carrying a weight. And so it went on and on like this to where they just had hundreds of these fence laws. And the Pharisees prided themselves on following every one of them. But Jesus looked at their heart, right, as we know, and said, you're following these outside laws, that have actually become a burden that you're putting on everybody, and you're missing the true intent of the law, and God is looking at your heart and sees this hypocrisy, and actually your hearts are disgusting to God. So he cited them for their hypocrisy and called them to something better. We read in John 3 then, verse 1, that this man was a ruler of the Jews also. So not only was he a Pharisee, but he was a ruler of the Jews. So what did that mean? Well, later in John 7, verse 50, we have that clarified that he was a member of the, what, you know this, the Sanhedrin. And so what is the Sanhedrin? The word Sanhedrin means literally the sitting together, because this would be the group of men who would sit together to rule, and it could be translated the council or the assembly, which is interesting, because in our state capitol, We call the lower house the state assembly. And so it was nice to have this discussion with legislators and say basically what we're reading about here, if you will, is an assemblyman coming to Jesus to have a secret meeting at night. That's literally what it is, an assemblyman or a council member or a member of the Sanhedrin. And who were the Sanhedrin? Well, they were the Supreme Court. They were the leading legislative body for the nation of Israel. And there were lesser Sanhedrins in every city throughout the country, but matters of greater significance or that couldn't be decided by the lower Sanhedrins were passed on to the national Sanhedrin. So this would be like in our country, the U.S. Congress combined with the U.S. Supreme Court. And there were 71 of them. Why 71? Because in Numbers 11, 16, it said the Lord told Moses to gather 70 men to be elders. and to take their stand with you and govern the nation, and so 70 plus Moses, and so that tradition carried on through the centuries where they would always have 70 men plus the leader of the Sanhedrin who was considered to be in Moses' seat. And so we don't know specifically what role this Nicodemus had, but he was a ruler. Perhaps he was even in that leading seat in the Sanhedrin, but he was certainly one of the leaders of the Sanhedrin. That's a big deal, again, because of the culture and the history we know of this group. Some of the things about the Sanhedrin were, if you were to be a member of the Sanhedrin, again, just 71 men out of the entire nation, well, every member of the Sanhedrin was supposed to be coming from an unblemished family. So we know that Nicodemus' family line was well-respected. Every member of the Sanhedrin had to be distinguished in Torah knowledge, in knowledge of the law of God, and also supposedly in wisdom, humility, fear of God, indifference to monetary gain, love of truth, love of fellow man, and a good reputation. Now, we know from Jesus' interactions that they had strayed from that, but that was how they thought of themselves. Since the Sanhedrin had to be competent to render judgment in all cases that came before them, all of its members were to be experts in the law, but also have enough knowledge of science and mathematics to be able to adapt Torah law to every possible problem they might face. Members of the Sanhedrin likewise had to have knowledge of other religions, as well as the teachings of idolatry and the occult arts, so to be able to render judgment in cases involving those matters. It was preferable that they be familiar with the languages spoken by Jews throughout the world, so that they could rule appropriately with people who were living throughout the world who were Jews. And in order that they would command the utmost respect, the members were expected to be of good appearance and free of bodily defect. So they would say, for instance, if someone had any obvious bodily defect, one example that was recorded by the rabbis is somebody who was blind in one eye would say, no, you can't be in the Sanhedrin. You had to look the parts to command the respect of the people. And it was preferable that each member be at least 40 years old, and for the head of the Sanhedrin to be at least 50 years old. And the head of the Sanhedrin, as I mentioned it's possible that's Nicodemus' rule, was called the head of the city. Later it was referred to as the president. So interesting that again in our legislature we have a president pro tem of the Senate. The leader of our state Senate is called the president. Same with our nation. So here we have Jesus calling this man also the teacher of the Jews. Later on, he's going to call him the teacher of the Jews. So he was respected as a leader of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of the nation. We know that he was born into the right people, the Jewish covenant people of God. He was not a Gentile. He was not a Samaritan. He was part of a covenant family. He was born into a respected family. As we said, that was a given. But throughout Israel's history, throughout the previous centuries, there were famous Nicodemuses. There was one who was very famous, one of the most distinguished men in the nation's history over the past previous centuries. And so it may be that he was named after this forefather of his, Nicodemus, in which case he would have come from one of the most esteemed families in the nation. We know then that he was exceedingly religious. He was considered to be a model of morality. He was, as we said, a teacher, John 3.10 says. He was also, according to tradition, extremely wealthy. Tradition holds that he was one of the three wealthiest men in Jerusalem at the time, the capital city. And so he was, to say the least, successful. He was the epitome of success. This was the guy in the nation of Israel. He would be up there as high as anyone could be in terms of success in the nation at that time. And here we read in verse two, this man came to Jesus by night. When you think about that, that here he shows up by night, for this meeting with Jesus must have been shocking, I would think, for the disciples to see him arrive. They must have been stunned to say, wow, look who's here to meet with Jesus. I think they must have stood off in the dark and watched this interaction as Jesus met with him by candlelight or oil lamps or around a fire and said, to believe who's here to meet with Jesus. Wow. And it probably made them feel pretty good about themselves. as followers of Jesus, to see that such a respected, esteemed leader of the nation would come to meet with Jesus. This would be, as if today, as if one of the, let's just say, one of the very top members of our government, of Congress, said, I've heard about your pastor, and I want to come have a meeting with him, and showed up with a limo, right, snuck in for a meeting, and then snuck, he said, well, what is going on here? Why would this leader, even of the party that we know is opposed to God most, one of those that's opposed most to the things of God, why is this supreme leader of this leading party of U.S. Congress showing up to meet with our pastor? I think that's probably how the disciples felt. And they thought, what a privilege and an honor they were experiencing, and that Jesus was experiencing, to be with this man. William Barclay, commentator, said, it's just amazing that this Jewish aristocrat could come to this homeless prophet, who had been the carpenter of Nazareth, and he might talk to him about his soul. And yet actually what we know is that the privilege is actually all his, the honor was his, that Jesus would be willing to meet with him, that Jesus would care enough to take the time for him. And I keep that in mind as I walk from office to office in our Capitol. are many who no doubt think, oh, here's this lowly missionary, pastor, or whatever they want to call me, minister coming to meet with me. Do I have time for someone like this? But I remember who I represent. And though they may not know it, it's a wonderful privilege for them to hear about our great God and King, to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are the ones who should be humbled to be in the presence of anybody, anytime, who would speak about our God and to hear a message from the Lord. We should all feel that way. And often it reminds me that Jesus does care about leaders like this. We often think of Jesus going to the disenfranchised and the poor and the disabled, and indeed he did, and how beautiful that is. But it is interesting to see that He did also reach out to in various ways and respond to highly accomplished and popular leaders. He never excluded any who would come to Him, including them, and there are a number of stories of people like that coming to Jesus. And so Jesus loved the down-and-out and reached out to them, but He also, likewise, to the up-and-in, as we might call them. And so the gospel extends into all areas of society. And that's what makes this story especially meaningful to me as I reach out to leaders who might think of themselves as men, similarly, and women, to how Nicodemus thought of himself. And so he came to Jesus by night, it says in verse two. And why did he come at night? Well, it doesn't say. Maybe it doesn't mean anything, but I think that I may know why he came at night, because, again, this would be maybe comparable in our country to a leading member of U.S. Congress who leads a party that is publicly known to be opposed to Jesus, coming to Jesus to have a secret meeting. It would seem to me that maybe the intent is for this to be a secret meeting. private meeting, a confidential meeting. Why? Because you can imagine someone in that position might be afraid of the implications of associating openly with Jesus. How that would be perceived, how it would be talked about. And I can relate, because in our state capital, I've had many, many interactions over the years now where our government leaders will say, I want to meet privately. Don't tell anybody, or let's have a personal conversation. One day, legislators were finishing up for the year some years ago. And as people were going down the hallway, one of our state legislators pulled me aside in the hallway and pulled me over. to have a little conversation, and she said, listen, I'm going to U.S. Congress now. She'd been elected to U.S. Congress. She's now still in U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. And she says, before I go, I just want to tell you, I haven't spoken with you much, but I'm really glad you're here, because I love the Bible. In fact, I read the Bible every morning. But nobody here knows it, and they can't know it, because it would be very bad for my career. Ouch. And she says, but I'm really glad that you're here. Boy, interesting, yeah. Another one, I met with him. He had authored the law that year. There's always at least one each year that all the churches were upset about. All the Bible-believing churches were upset about. There's always one, sometimes two a year. It's just, here we go again. I just wait to see what it's gonna be each year. And that year, that senator was the lawmaker that the churches were upset about this law, that the church is considered godless. So, my response is to go meet with them and share about Jesus. And I shared for 20 minutes with them the gospel of Christ, and the tears were coming down his cheeks as I sat across his big desk from him. And the senator said, you know, Frank, what you're sharing, that's what I need. And I said, what do you mean, Senator? This is what you're talking about. Well, all I've been doing is sharing about Christ dying for our sins and a new life through him. That's what I need. He said, tell me about that. So we see that picture. I look back and he had about 100 pictures, which is an uncommon, of him with various leaders and prominent people. But there were all these pictures. I said, well, which ones? He said, see that little one in the corner. He had many large pictures, but he had one picture that was about four inches tall in the very corner of his office where he could look at it from his desk. Just go look at that. I went and looked at it. It was a young man. It was him when he was much younger. That was me in college. Notice I'm coming out of the water. That's me getting baptized. Tell me about that, Senator. Well, someone had reached out to me and I was baptized in college. But then years went by and it took a different path. But how interesting I thought that He's keeping that picture where he can see it, but it's hidden amongst a hundred other pictures. And this was something that we wouldn't ever talk about publicly. And he's also now in Washington, D.C. fighting quite strongly against our president. Actually, you think how interesting these leaders who have this secret interest in the Lord to some degree. and aren't following him closely, aren't following him publicly, but they're curious, they're interested to some degree, but they're afraid to let it be known because of the implications of that. And of course, Jesus warned anyone who's ashamed of him that he's not in a good place at the judgment day. But what did this man want? Well, it says in verse two, he came to Jesus by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. So he wanted, it would seem, an understanding of Jesus. And what was his current understanding? Jesus, you're, and he says, we know. So apparently there was some agreement among his colleagues that some of them thought he'd come from God, and that he was a teacher of God, and that he was doing some signs that were from God. And so he showed a degree of honor and respect as a teacher, as a leader from God, but that's where it stopped. He doesn't say, therefore, I serve you, I worship you, I want to devote my life to you, I trust in you, what do you want me to? How can I continue to participate and be one of your followers, one of your disciples? None of that. He's still at a distance, just wants to know a little bit, wants to understand. And I think what we have here, and in the verses that follow, is a summary of what might have been a much longer conversation. It might have gone on for hours, for all we know. And so as he presents to Jesus that, Jesus, I have some interest in you, and I have some regard for you, and think that you do have some kind of a connection with God, he's in a similar place that I find a lot of people are in. Most people think of Jesus like that. They think he is a man who came and brought some good teachings from God, who he did some kinds of things that were quite remarkable, from God, most people in America think of Jesus like that, a great man who God used, and they have a certain degree of respect for him, and that's about where it stops. But he got much more than he was bargaining for. Because Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. And in the verse here, verse three, and the verses that follow, what did Nicodemus get? He got the path to eternal life. He got the path to life with God. And let's read it. Jesus says, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse four, Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? I think Nicodemus was used to rabbinical discussions like this. Rabbis love to toy with words. Great images with words, and mystery with words, and debate and discuss, these kinds of things. So Nicodemus is playing along and saying, well, let's talk about this. What do you mean, born again? Verse five, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it's going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." By the way, in Greek, they're the word wind and the word spirit are the same, same root word, pneuma. So the pneuma blows, the wind blows, same with the pneuma of God, blows where God wants, the Spirit of God. Verse nine, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the son of man. Jesus is speaking of Himself there. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him, He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness. rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. Interesting that Jesus is using light and darkness there, which was common in the Gospel of John and common in his teaching. But I do wonder in this context, as Nicodemus is coming at night, and they're meeting in the dark, basically, that Jesus was also saying something about coming to me publicly versus coming to me in secret. Those who want to really be with God will come publicly, come into the light. Perhaps there's some meaning there about that as well. But Jesus is clearly saying, Nicodemus, if you want to be part of God's kingdom, which means connected to Him, connected to the King, welcomed by the King, dwelling with the King, now and forever, then you must be born again. And this is translated, born again, in most translations, but it could also be translated, born from above, because the wording there in Greek actually means both. It's born again from above is a good way to translate it. It means both those things. And we've heard this throughout our life. Those of you who are my age or older remember that back in the day, this phrase became very popular in the United States. Back when Jimmy Carter was running for president, he declared he was born again. And so it made it all over the news as everybody was talking about this back in that day in 1976. What does it mean that this presidential candidate says he's born again? And then by the 1980 campaign, all three presidential candidates stated that they'd been born again, too. But what does it mean? It's so often misunderstood. Well, it means, for one thing, that life with God is not earned or deserved. That's why I think this was such an important thing for Nicodemus to do. Jesus didn't speak about this to everybody all the time, but it was especially important for Nicodemus to grasp this, because I think when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he might have expected Jesus to say what he had been hearing his entire life. Nicodemus, what an amazing boy you are. Oh, you're going places. You're getting all the merit that. You're doing everything just right. You're so good. You're just such an achiever. You study so well. You're so moral. You're so wonderful. And he heard that, I think, at three, and at four, and at five, and here he is maybe at 50. What an achiever. What a leader. What an honor to be in your presence today. What an example you are. You've done it all. I think that's what Nicodemus was used to hearing. And so when Jesus says to him, Nicodemus, it's not about what you do. It's about something that happens to you. I think it must have been shocking to him. You think about this. You must be born again. Well, we've all been born physically. What did you do to achieve that? What was your part in being born? You had zero part in being born. Correct? Nothing to do with it whatsoever. God did it. Caused you to come into this world. And after a certain period of time, you were able to process that and you said, huh, I exist. How about that? Right? Here I am. I have identity. You were born physically. And that's quite an amazing miracle we've all experienced already. Jesus says, you want to connect with God, that has to happen again traditionally. So what do you do to be born? I had nothing to do with my physical birth. And the lesson is, and I have nothing to do with this spiritual birth either, being born is not something we produce, it's something that happens to us. So Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, I believe, Nicodemus, something has to happen to you that hasn't happened yet, that is a gift from God, that you have no part in achieving. Wow, what a message for Nicodemus when his whole life had been about achievement, especially religious achievement. And this is still a confusing message to people. This is not how most people think about God. This is not how the typical person that we interact with out on the street or at work or anybody you meet thinks about God. And that includes most churchgoers, in my experience. People assume that the message is that we're all good people. And if you're a really good person, as most of us are, we almost all think that, then we'll be fine with God. If you're really good, like Nicodemus, you're definitely fine with God. But Jesus is saying that favor with God is not based upon all these things Nicodemus had achieved, morality, Religion, trying harder, being a good person, it's based on something that happens to us, new life. It's not based on knowing the Bible. If it were, Nicodemus definitely would have been in it, as would have all the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. But as Charles Spurgeon put it, he said, quote, I may know all the doctrines of the Bible, but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me. But Jesus is saying that his entire life had been inadequate. And as I talk to people about it, and I had a conversation with a family member just the other day about this again, who isn't a follower of Christ, people just resist that, they don't get that, they don't understand that. It just sounds too, in some ways, simple to us. How can it not be something I have to earn to be with God? There's a story that back in the 1950s, when Eddie Crocker was marketing cake mixes at the time for housewives who would be making cakes for their family. This was a new thing to have a boxed cake mix, and you only had to add water to the box to come up with a cake mix. And this became a debate among the housewives about whether you could actually have a quality cake out of a box when they were used to making it by scratch back in the 1950s. And so it became a controversy, and the sales actually were not doing well, and the company was discussing, what do we do about this? And they thought, you know, it's a pretty decent cake, you know. All you have to do is have water, why isn't it selling enough? The research department found that there was controversy, but part of the controversy was, is it just didn't seem natural, just having it come out of a box. So they changed the box and the recipe, and they said, just add an egg, and they put that prominently on the box, just add one egg. So now, instead of just adding water, you added water and an egg, and had to whip it up, and sales went way up. And there was a debate about, well, does it taste better because there's an egg and so on? And maybe it did. But part of it, the marketing department was convinced, was simply that these housewives felt that they couldn't get a decent cake without any work. And it would make them feel actually a little ashamed for their family to say they made a cake when all they'd done is added water. So now, as they put an egg in and whipped it up, they felt better about it. And that's how it is with spirituality and religion. People think, well, I've got to have a big part in this. And I can't tell you how many people I've spoken to over the years who are churchgoers, who say they're Christians, and I say, tell me about your salvation. And they say, well, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, and I believe in him, and I trust in him, and I'm a good person, and so I'm gonna be with God. I believe that Jesus did this for me, and I'm really a good person. I go to church, and I've been faithful to serve him. And you begin to realize what they're doing is they're adding a lot of their own works and ambition and accomplishment to the mix. You can imagine, as I talked about this in our legislators' Bible discussion, many of them think of themselves kind of like Nicodemus. They've been receiving merit badges their whole life. That's how they got to the point of being state assembly members, state senators. Many of them are gonna go on to Washington, D.C. One of them could be the president someday. Why? Because they're achievers. They're esteemed by lots of people, and so there was silence in them. We talked about this man, Nicodemus. We talked about how there's no security in heritage. Not that Nicodemus came from the right family. So because somebody's parents were Baptist or Lutheran or Presbyterian or Catholic or whatever, there's no security there. That's a good message for the children here to know about. Just by sitting in church and being born into our family doesn't necessarily mean that everything's fine with God forever. It's a wonderful gift. But it's not all that there is, because life with God is not earned. If it were, Nicodemus would have had it. And the other point is, it requires something that he said, a new birth, a brand new start spiritually. That's because everybody, according to God's Word, as you know, has a sickness, or actually is dead and needs new life. And so Bible scholars call this regeneration. That we're not just sinners in need of forgiveness, we're dead people in need of new lives. Jesus didn't just come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive. And so what can you do, again, to be come alive? Nothing. And it's the same with the spiritual life. It's a gift from God, not of our own effort. for all of them, not gained by those who are more religious or who go to church or who are more moral and do good deeds. It requires new life from God. And the New Testament makes this clear in many passages, doesn't it? John 1.12, as many as received him, to them he gave the right, speaking of Christ, to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. And one of the helpful things for me to, No, it's that the word believe is the same as the word faith, and both those words actually could, I think, be translated trust. It's not about mental belief, it's about trust, confident trust. So even to those who believe, who trust in his name, who were, this is John 1.13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. There's a new birth. And Ephesians 2.4, because of his great love for us, God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. And 1 Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by his great mercy, he's given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1.23, you've been born again, not as seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God. James 1.18, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth, to be translated, gave birth to us by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his people. I got to sit with a young, very prominent leader in the last year, and I meet with him regularly. In fact, I'm gonna meet with him again soon. This man has been going to the right churches for all the years I've been in the Capitol. He's been regarded as a leader. He is somebody who everybody would have thought of as, this is a, he's not as young anymore, I'm just getting older. Now the young men are middle-aged men. But he's somebody who everybody would have thought of as this man really gets it. He knows the right pastors, the right teachers, he's reading the right books, he's going to the right seminars. He's somebody who knows all the right doctrines. who is a model follower of Jesus, and he's doing the right things politically, and et cetera. What an upstanding man. He says to me, Frank, something's not right. I said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, he talked, he said, I don't really know where I'm at with God. He said, tell me about it. Well, as we continued to discuss, what he came down to, he said, to be honest, I don't even know if God exists. That's how far away from the kingdom of God he was. I don't even know if God is real. And I said, how could that be? I said, why are you so involved with theology and church? This is all the guy does. He said, well, I enjoy it. What do you mean? I enjoy, he says, he's a very smart guy, he says, I enjoy the, the discussion. I enjoy hearing these very intelligent preachers and teachers. I love how they can discuss these philosophies and speak about these things and be so intelligent. I find it intriguing, but I don't know if I believe any of it. So what were we dealing with here? As I spoke with him, and I had to be very direct with him, What we were dealing with was somebody who had all the things on the surface going for them, but in his heart, there was still not a trust in Christ. And it was shocking to him to really face this. But as I encouraged him to look to Christ, not to himself, he confessed that he did put his trust in Jesus. And no one would know that that had finally happened in his life. But he told me that, actually, I think this is when I really know I'm saved. Unbelievable to those who knew him. And that's Nicodemus. Someone has said, religion is spelled D-O. Life with Christ is spelled D-O-N-E. It's not about what I do, it's about what God has done. That's what God has done for us. Someone else said grace, which is what we're talking about, is God's gift, is God acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot accomplish on our own. And then once we have this new life with God, this regeneration, this new birth, then he sanctifies us, as we know. He transforms us so that we continue to serve him in ever greater ways. But now it's out of a life, out of a heart that has been transformed, it's been made new. So everything takes on new meaning. And I remember in my life how much that meant to me. I grew up in a church going home, went to church at least Sundays and often throughout the week. Heard God's word every week. Thought I was fine. And then when I was 15 years old, something happened as I read the Bible and really was in a place of need and saying, God, if you're real, I really, really need this. And as I cried out to God, and I actually got on my knees alone with the Bible on my hands, I felt a surrender happen in my heart, where it wasn't now going through the motions of church, it was a crying out to God. Thank God, I need this. I need you. And I actually remember, I mean, no one had preached to me, but I remember just trying to form the words and express it to God and saying, I read what happened to those here who said that they encountered you. If that can happen today, I need that. And I picked up a book that had a prayer I could pray to ask God to forgive my sins through Jesus and come into my life. And I knew something was different from that point on. I'd always been hearing about God, always heard the word of God, always heard about Jesus. From that point on, things were different. And I get to see that at the Capitol. One leader said to me less than a year ago, he's been coming to the Bible studies now regularly. And he says, Frank, I just want to tell you, it's fascinating to watch this man. He's a very, very accomplished leader, one of the most accomplished leaders, I would say, that I've worked closely with. And he said, I can't explain to you how different it is. But I believed in God. But now, as I have this life with Christ, he said, it's like I'm seeing everything, every day, different. And he's trying to articulate what it's like to have new life. He's saying everything is different and better. And then another leader stopped me at a street corner. And she says, I just want to thank you for the ministry, because she says, I can't explain it. It's common that people say that. But she says, it used to be, she's talking about a year ago, two years ago, three years ago. She says, it used to be that I never really thought much about anything. She's very smart, very intelligent, very involved in our lawmaking. But she says, I never thought much about anything But now I think about everything, and I think about it differently, because I think, what would God's words say about that? And they're describing, and you can see the puzzled look on their face, kind of, because they're describing something that's happening to them, not that they're producing. And so it's a wonderful thing when we have this new life. How do we have it? Well, Jesus went on to say, didn't he, in verse 16 and others, it's about, again, trusting in God through Jesus. Then, God in his grace and mercy imparted it to us. Well, what did Nicodemus do with it? Jesus says to him, don't be amazed that I say this to you. Why? I think Jesus must have seen the look on Nicodemus' face in verse seven. It's amazing, why? Because Nicodemus was like, what are you saying? I can't do anything? I think the disciples must have been stunned also, but in John 7, verse 50, we see this Nicodemus later, and we see that as Jesus is brought to trial before, or actually, the Sanhedrin is about to go after Him, Nicodemus stands up and says, point of order. We have to investigate this man first, so he's kind of coming to Jesus' assistance. And then in John 19, verse 39, when they're taking Jesus' body off the cross, there's Nicodemus, one of these two leaders, taking the body of Jesus off the cross and preparing it for burial, which was expensive, which was time-consuming, and which was public. I think Nicodemus later did trust in Jesus. Not that night in John 3, but sometime, later. And we know that the party of the Pharisees, his party turned against Jesus, but not Nicodemus. And there's nothing else in the Bible about that after John chapter 19, I believe, but history records that Nicodemus did trust in Christ, lost his position in the Sanhedrin, lost everything financially, but he gained Jesus, gained eternal life. He trusted in God through Jesus. So what will we do through this through this example? Well, I think it's clear, isn't it? There's nothing we can achieve. All the good things we do may be good, but they're not good enough. So have we trusted in Jesus? Have we abandoned our own human effort, cried out to God for grace and mercy, asked Him to rescue us through Jesus, to forgive our sins by His grace? And if so, We should be rejoicing. I heard a little parable about this little story. It goes like this, that a man died and went to heaven. As he went to heaven, St. Peter met him at the pearly gates, and St. Peter said, here's how it works. You need 100 points to make it into heaven. You tell me all the good things you've done, and I'll give you a certain number of points for each item, depending on how good that item is. When you reach 100 points, you get in. This is how most people think of heaven, right? And so, okay, the man said, well, I was married to the same woman for 50 years. I never cheated on her, even in my heart. That's wonderful, said St. Peter. That's worth three points. Three points, the man said. Well, I attended church all my life. Every Sunday. Supported its ministry with my tithes and service. Terrific, said St. Peter. That's certainly worth a point. One point. Why? I started a soup kitchen in my city and worked in a shelter for homeless veterans. Fantastic, Peter said, that's two more points. The man cried out, two points? At this rate, the only way I'll get into heaven is by the grace of God. Peter says, bingo, 100 points, come on in. That's a parable, but you get the idea. Don't overplay that, that's not gonna play out like that. But now's our chance to have that conversation with God. Are we relying on our efforts or the grace of God? If we're relying on the grace of God, we can rejoice and know that God will not reject any who come to Him, it says. And we can have this new life, guaranteed, if we trusted in God through Jesus, and be with Him in His kingdom forever. That's my prayer for all of us, and also then, Let's pass this on. I think we all have a Nicodemus. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.