Have you ever been embarrassed to know something? Uh, uh, let me give you an example. Uh, when my wife and I got married, we kind of had an agreement, obviously a marriage agreement, but, uh, a TV agreement. And the TV agreement we had early on in marriage is that she would watch some sports events with me, and then I would watch the girl TV shows with her. And what I found myself doing was at first reluctantly watching the girl shows like, oh, it's just, OK, I, I'm just a loving husband, you know. And but by episode 3, I'm into it, you know what I mean? Like I'm into the characters and the drama, and, but, there's at no point do you feel good about being into those girls shows, right? And so I was a youth pastor at the time, and so I didn't tell anybody that I was watching these shows. I just considered myself a good husband. And so I, I was setting up for a youth group, setting up chairs and tables, and I heard a group of teenage girls talking about that show. Um, and so they were talking about the show and without looking up, I made a comment that clearly showed that I watched the show, like something along the lines of like, I can't believe Tommy's treating Bianca that way, you know what I mean? And then like all of a sudden the room goes silent. And I, and I was like, and I look up and there's like 10 teenage girls just like staring like, Pastor John watches that. I was like, OK, so I felt a little embarrassed, OK, in that moment. I share that because uh we're gonna take a look at a story today about a gentleman named Nicodemus, who was a little embarrassed with the knowledge that he had or really the curiosity that he had. And so here was this guy who was a religious leader. He was a Pharisee. He was part of the Sanhedrid, so like the 70 guys that were really religious leaders in that village. And so he memorized the Torah or the 1st 5 books of the Bible. And he was seen as good, he was seen as wealthy, he was seen as wise, and yet he had this curiosity, this knowledge of this rabbi who was performing miracles, this guy named Jesus, and he didn't know what to do about it. And so he decides to approach this Jesus figure at night and that one conversation. Not only changed his life, but actually gives us the most well-known scripture in all of the Bible today. And so as we talk about um Nicodemus and his life and his story with Jesus, today's message is entitled From Curious to Courageous, from curious to courageous. And in our series, Greater Story, what we're realizing is that when you connect your story to God's story, everything changes. Last week we took a look at the story of Zacchaeus, who his story went from selfish to sacrificial. He went from greed to being generous. And so it's really this picture of somebody who had everything of the world's success. He had power, he had money. He was well known, but yet it wasn't enough. And so when he felt lost in the crowd, when he felt really stuck up a tree, so to speak, and, and literally, he was up a tree in order to see Jesus. Jesus called him out by name and said, I'm coming to your house. And one conversation with Jesus led to a conversion of his life, and we see that response of his life that in turn, he, he started giving away all these resources that he had accumulated over this time. And so, while we look at last week was the worldly success. Didn't satisfy. What we're gonna see today is that religion and following all the rules doesn't satisfy. And then next week we're gonna take a look at the very next chapter in John about a woman, a Samaritan woman at the well, understanding that all of her lifestyle choices that led her to feeling rejected and shame didn't leave her left out either. And so we got 3 different people, 3 dramatically different stories, one same amazing God. And the common thread through all of these is that when you encounter Jesus, it changes everything. So just a reminder here that when we talk about a greater story, these stories all have the same three components. Number 1 is life before Jesus. Life before Jesus. What is your life like before Jesus? Are you pursuing uh religion? Are you pursuing worldly possessions? Are you pursuing pleasure? But then the second component that we see in the story is when you meet Jesus, how did you encounter Jesus? And then the third component is, then after meeting Jesus, how does your life change? So that for Zacchaeus, he went from greedy to generous. He went from selfish to sacrificial. And today, what we're gonna see through Nicodemus is that he's gonna go from curious to courageous. If you're taking notes, go ahead and write this down. That real faith moves from private belief to public courage. Private belief to public courage. We're gonna see this progression and, and what I love about it is that he's got a little bit of a different testimony is that Nicodemus is in process. Uh, if you've ever been to a shopping center and or really any place out in public and it says, pardon our mess, uh, we're still open during the remodel, or we're still open during construction. Have you seen that? Uh, I think that's a good sign to represent Christians as well, right? Pardon our mess. Uh, we're still open during remodel. Like we are in process, and Nicodemus, what we're gonna see is in process. He doesn't respond immediately. But eventually we see him going from a private belief, OK, ultimately to public courage. And so let's, let's jump into it where he first comes on the scene here in John chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. Say now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. His name literally means victory of the people. That's a cool name, right? Uh, victory of the people. And it says, a ruler of the Jews, verse 2, this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher that come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. So here's Nicodemus. He had again, he memorized the first five books of the Bible. For those that are counting, that's 187 chapters or 5,852 verses. So he's educated, he's moral, he's religious, he's wealthy, he's powerful. And he's just curious. Now, he says there, rabbi, we know, who's the we in that factor. We don't fully know, but my guess, my personal guess on this is, this is my guess on this. Maybe it's Joseph of Arimathea. And the reason I say that because it's another Pharisee who secretly is trusting in Jesus, and we're gonna see him come into play in John chapter 19. But he's sitting there like, hey, he comes to Jesus at night because he doesn't want to put his reputation on the line. And he comes to him though with respect. He says, rabbi. Teacher, I've heard of the miracles. I've heard of these things that you're doing. I've heard of the teachings. What, what, what, what must we do? What's, what's going on? How is this come to be? Who is this person? So it's just curious. Right. I wonder how many people are in this room or maybe are watching online. Who you're, you're curious about Jesus. Right? You grew up with some semblance of religion in your background. Well, we go to church on Christmas and Easter, we go to mass, or we go to this place, or we go to that place. And, and your life is defined by keeping all of these rules. Right, we don't dance, cuss or chew or go with girls who do, right? Kind of like the old. And there's a list of rules that if you followed A, B, and C. Then you would pass and you were accepted and you were loved. The problem is Nicodemus followed all those rules, did all of those things, and yet was found wanting. So he's curious He's gonna enter into this dialogue, and it's a masterful dialogue that there's so much richness to it that we don't even get it at first glance. I'll share a little bit of insight as we go along, but let's kinda see this conversation with Jesus and Nicodemus. Verse 3, Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him, How, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Says the wind blows where it wishes. I wanna pause here for a second, cause it's such a cool little verse that we might miss it initially. Is that the same word for wind is actually the same word for spirit. And so as he's talking about the wind, he's giving you, Jesus is giving a physical description of a spiritual reality. He does so often in parables as well, but we see this picture of a physical reality of the wind that you cannot see to describe the spirit which we cannot see. So he continues on. So 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, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? What a, what a subtle punch, right? Aren't you the teacher? Aren't you the pastor? Aren't you the leader that memorized all these verses and you don't get it? Verse 11, truly, truly I say to you. We speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? says no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. It's a title for Messiah. 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. And now is the setup for the most famous verse in scripture, and it goes well beyond any sign we just see at a football game or sporting event. Say, 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. Now, there's so much power in the story because you have Nicodemus, and I appreciate Nicodemus because he's not a bad guy, he's not mean, he's not harsh, he's just curious. But Jesus actually makes reference when he's talking about the spirit and talking about rebirth and talking about cleansing, actually makes reference to Ezekiel chapter 36 in verses 25 to 27, which talks about how uh you must be sprinkled clean water upon you and that you shall be clean from all your uncleanseliness, that God will give you a new heart and a new spirit to put in your life. There's this idea that then is describing Moses in, in Numbers 21, that's where Moses lifts something up, lifts up the staff lifts up something there. This is this clear picture that would be known by the Pharisees. And Jesus says that idea of lifting up is the picture of the Son of Man, a title reserved for Messiah to describe what was going to happen to Jesus Christ being lifted up on the cross. And so what Jesus is saying in this moment is saying like, everything that you've learned, everything that you've experienced. Is the moment you've been created for right now. My, uh, we did something fun this week as parents. You have some wins as parents, right? Well, we say win now. I don't know what what verdict's still out, but here's why I say this. Um, my daughter has wanted a cat for the longest time. And I'm not a cat person. But if you got a little girl. You know, they give you, she gives you those eyes, right? And, and so now I guess I'm a cat person, OK? And so this was all set up too from just a couple of years ago, um, I was, so every time we go on vacation and we're staying in a townhouse or condo or hotel or something and they would see like a local cat, like it was her favorite part of vacation, never mind that we're in some tropical location. Uh, that she's not grateful for. Uh, what she remembers most about these vacations was the local kitten or the cat that was in that complex that she would try to bring food to and care for. And in fact, uh, this last summer we were on vacation and we were there, we were driving along and she was so sad because she hadn't seen any cats on vacation. And all of a sudden she saw one off, off the side of the road, uh, by these series of, of condos, and she goes, stop the car. This is my moment. I mean, you, you have to stop the car at that point, right? And so we go and, and then she, we meet this, uh, there's a gentleman who was feeding the cat and there's there and, and he was called himself the catman of Kauai, seemed a little unique, but we were all there, so it was OK. And, uh, and so anyway, so my wife and I were talking about this. I was like, OK, we've gotta, we've gotta get our cat. Well, this week we surprised her with a cat. And so, um, surprised her with a cat, and she walked in her room and was just like, this is the best day of my life. And as parents, you're like, yes, right? Why do I share that? In the conversation Nicodemus is having with Jesus. What he's subtly and then also not subtly saying is this is your moment. This is everything that you've studied, everything that you've learned, everything that you've taken in. All of that was about me. And the reason rebirth and and a spiritual rebirth is so important, because you cannot do that on your own. It's a spirit, not of flesh. Because what Jesus is saying here is that it's not about bad people becoming good. It's about dead people becoming alive. And that when the Spirit of God comes into your life, it changes everything. You know, we see that verse, John 3:16. And we see it given other places, but there's even more weight to that. And the reason I say that is because that word believe has a lot of weight to it. It actually says in there to, to me, not just a head knowledge. But to put the full weight of your life in Jesus. I was teaching this passage. Uh, one time at a, at a camp in Ohio, and I was teaching the passage, and, and, and we were talking through these conversations with people about how like you can't kind of follow Jesus. You have to go all in. And actually, uh, I was uh talking to a kid afterwards. Well, yeah, it's kind of like we did the zip line. And, and I've, I hadn't really thought about it. But then, as I went on the zip line that later that day, I realized, yeah, that's actually true. You can't halfway zip line. Right? You, you can't halfway zipline. You can't be on the stage and be like, oh, look, I, zipline, that was fun. And then come back like at some point, you gotta go, right? That you have to put your, I, I've never felt comfortable in like in climbing and other things. Maybe it's because I'm awkwardly tall and not very, like I don't have very great balance. Um, but I always felt a little nervous about putting the full weight of my life on whatever said carabiner is, you know what I'm talking about? Like have you ever had that thought, whether it's, it's zip lining or parasailing or climbing, and you're like, that thing's gonna hold me? Anyone have that? OK. Um, but what you realize in that moment that you can't kind of zip line. You literally have to put the full weight of your life into this thing and trust that it's gonna hold you. In the same way, when you believe in Jesus. It's not a mere head acknowledgment of who God is and what God has done. It's putting the full weight of your life in Him. Right. Uh, do me a favor here, Dustin, can we put up John 3:16 again, go backwards here. I want you to put in that definition of belief into this verse, and let's, I, I want you to think about this. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever puts the full weight of their life in Him. Should not perish but have eternal life. I think this is important to distinguish of who he's talking to, because if you could be saved by information, Nicodemus would be saved, right? If you could be saved by following all the rules by being a quote unquote good guy, it would be him. And he's telling you can't. There's no amount of rules. To follow That will get you to heaven, because all of us have broken the rules. All of us have had sin in our life. All of us have made mistakes. Some of you have already sinned on the way coming in this morning, right? Someone cuts you off in the road and, and, you know, you already are thinking things in that right like, like we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Aren't you encouraged today? But the goodness is, the good news is. Is that it's not about information in your head. It's about transformation in your heart. So that when you see this verse, you come to understand the gospel in really 4 phrases in 8 words. The first phrase is this, God loved. That when God sees the world that he created, he doesn't just look down in pure judgment, but looks down with love. God loved the world so much where the second phrase here is God gave. So God loved, God gave, gave His Son Jesus Christ. And what we miss sometimes is that Jesus is sharing this gospel. But he's also condemning himself to the cross. Do you get that? By saying, That God gave a son. Who's a son? Me. That's what Jesus said, God loves you, Nicodemus, so much that he's giving me to die for you. You don't know it yet, but you will. And so that when he's performing miracles. Saying I forgive your sins, and people are like, wait a second, only God can forgive sins. He goes back and says, well, yeah, let me show you because I have the power to forgive sins. Let me show you a physical reality to understand a spiritual one. Hey, go ahead and get up and walk. Hey, you can't see, now you can, right? And and he starts performing these miracles. Why? To prove his divinity, to show that he has the power to forgive sins. So when he's saying this to Nicodemus, he's admitting that he's going to die on the cross for him. That's how much God loves you. God loves. God gave. And the third phrase here is that we believe. What do we believe? We believe that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus is savior. Right? We, it's not just a head acknowledgement. That we put the full weight of our life in Him. That we believe that through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, we can be saved, that he is the Son of God, that he is God, and that by his death on the cross and burial and resurrection, that it's only through him that we can receive forgiveness in our life and be saved. Which then leads to that last part. It's first, God love. God gave. We believe. The last part, we live. We live Eternal life. It's so much greater than anything we could ever have or think or imagine in this world. That Nicodemus, who's got all of the things, he follows the rules, he's got the money, he's got the power, he's got the position. I said that's, that's not, that doesn't even come close to what you're gonna have through personal relationship with Jesus. The greatest verse that we have in the Bible was given to Nicodemus, a man. Who needed it And if Nicodemus needed it, I can tell you, you and I need it just as much. So, He hears this gospel. Does he respond? Nope. I mean, he just got a gospel presentation from Jesus. But he's in process. He's in process, he's thinking about it, right? How do we know? Well, a couple of chapters later, the Pharisees are getting mad because he's doing all these incredible miracles, right? In John chapter 6, for example, he feeds the thousands. And then he, but then he preaches this message saying, now you must eat of my flesh. We're like, oh, that's weird. And he's referring to his body that he was gonna sacrifice on the cross, also connection to Passover and communion that we have, right? And so people are following, people are listening to him, he's performing miracles, and the Pharisees don't like it. And so like, what should we do? We should kill him, we should arrest him. And, and Nicodemus is not quite ready to go public with his faith, but yet he also doesn't want to see Jesus killed yet. And so we have this story here in John chapter 7, we're gonna pick it up in verse 43. It says, and so there was a division among the people over him. That's where we get our word schism, is that Greek word there for division. It says, and some of them wanted to arrest Jesus, but no one lays laid hands on him. It's like, well, cause he hadn't technically done anything wrong. But they're challenging their power, their authority, their rules. And so Nicodemus verse 50 says who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, Hey, uh, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning? What he does So he's actually quoting Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 and Exodus chapter 23, 1 to 2. So he's not quite ready to go public with his faith, but he doesn't want to see Jesus executed yet. And so it's kind of like, hey, if we're going by our own rules, we can't really. Arrest the guy yet, right? Right? We, we, we don't want him hurt, right? And so he's kind of like in process going through. Well, Jesus goes on, performs miracle after miracle after miracle. And ultimately it gets too much for the Pharisees to handle. They take it to the Roman government saying he's, he's launching a rebellion. He's claiming to be God. It's a threat to Jewish religion. It's a threat to Roman power and government. So they, they arrest him. They turn him over to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate and says, Hey, you want Jesus? You want this? I'll release one of these guys, Barabbas or Jesus. And the crowd. Like, no, give us Barabbas. We wanna execute Jesus. And so they go through with the plan. And so Jesus is crucified. And on a Friday night, crucifixion happens right before here, we have the Passover weekend, we have Sabbath where, where the leaders, the Pharisees aren't supposed to touch anything that could make them unclean. We see that Nicodemus is going to go from process. To proclamation. And we know this because of what happens. And this is sometimes a footnoted part of the Easter story. But check out these incredible details. John chapter 19 verse 38 and 39. It says after these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. OK, so that's why I say maybe he was the we in John chapter 3, we don't know. He asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and he took away his body. And here's a little cameo coming back in, verse 39. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, which pause there for a second. Where does myrrh sound familiar to? It's a Christmas story, right? You got tie into Christmas story, Easter story here, OK. It was prepared for, for death. It says about 75 pounds in weight. Now why does that matter? It matters for a number of reasons. First, here are two guys who are Pharisees, part of the 70. Who now publicly and visibly and costly put their reputation on the line and they take the crucified body of Christ. And they prepare him for burial. Thus fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 53:9, saying that he will be buried among the rich. And so Nicodemus takes it and wraps him with 75 pounds of these spices. Why is that important? Because the average burial of a Jewish person at that time was about 5 pounds. But he did 75 pounds, which that was an amount reserved for royalty, maybe even a king. And we don't know exact numbers, but it could have cost him as much as over $100,000. To prepare his body this way. So it cost his reputation. It cost over $100,000. Why? To acknowledge him as royalty and even king in his life. And so here's what we have in Nicodemus's Jesus story. Is that before Jesus, Nicodemus was curious and he was confused. He followed all the rules, he knew all this stuff. It was a head knowledge. But sometimes the biggest distance to travel when it comes to faith is to move from head knowledge to heart knowledge. So he meets Jesus, then through a personal conversation. And Jesus shares with him that you you it's not about bad becoming good, but about being reborn with the Holy Spirit being placed into your heart and changing your life. That God loved, God gave, we believe we live. That is the gospel. I'm going to die for you, Nicodemus, so that when Jesus did die. Then after meeting Jesus, we see this journey of Nicodemus, who he becomes a cautious defender at first. But then ultimately becomes a courageous believer. Becomes a courageous believer and it changes everything. To where now we have this story in process. Somebody who tried to define themselves by following all the rules. But realizes that keeping the rolls doesn't get you to heaven. That rather you need a rebirth that comes through belief in Jesus and Jesus alone. But what he came to understand is that real faith moves from private belief to public courage. That he made a declaration in that moment there in John 19. To go with Joseph of Arimathea, to take the body of Jesus, to place him in that tomb, to spend over $100,000 on the on the burial preparations, to recognize that it was burial for a king. To make him unclean, in reality, he was the purest he'd ever been. Let me ask you. Are you willing to go? From private belief to public courage. To understand that true faith is not about information, but about transformation. It's not about knowing all the things, but rather believing in the God who made all things. And that what you need is not anything that the flesh can provide, but it's through the power of the Holy Spirit that God can come into your life, that salvation is not something to be achieved, but something to be received. I want to challenge you as we wrap up this morning with 3 things. Number 1, Can you identify the barriers that keep you from believing in Jesus? Can you identify the barriers that are keeping you from believing in Jesus? Maybe you've been hurt before. Right? Maybe you had a bad church experience. Maybe You experienced a grief beyond comprehension that you blame God for. I don't know. But is there a barrier, a question, a sin, a struggle, an action that has kept you from going all in for him? Second, then I want to challenge you to bring those worries to Jesus. Bring those concerns, those questions, those doubts to him. See, Nicodemus started quietly. Right, he, he read all the things, he followed all the rules, and he realized that it wasn't enough. And in that private moment, has a conversation with Jesus that ultimately will lead to a conversion to Nicodemus. Because if you do that, then I wanna challenge you to take what I would call the greater story challenge. I'm gonna send an email out this week. I'll post on social as well. But would love to hear your story. Because every story. Has those same components. Before Jesus, I was like. I met Jesus when. And after Jesus, now my life has changed because. So I would love for you to share your story online, to, to be courageous, to share it publicly. We're gonna give you ways this week too to to upload that story whether in written form or in video form or audio form that we can share with each other and lift each other up. Because when you have a story of Jesus of life change, it changes everything. When you come to believe that God loves, that God gave, that we believe that we live. We become courageous and we share that publicly. But I also come to to believe and know that maybe you haven't put that faith in Jesus just yet. To, to borrow a phrase from my daughter. This could be your moment. This could be the time. You don't have to be embarrassed by it. To realize that you know what I've been in church my life, my whole life, or I've been trying to get my identity by breaking all the rules or by pursuing the things of this world or by keeping all the rules. Maybe the Holy Spirit's prompting you right now that you realize it, it's, it's not what saves us. And what you need is not to go from being bad to being good. What you need is to become alive. You need a rebirth, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and belief in Jesus, because again, belief is not a head acknowledgment. It's to put the full weight of your life in Jesus. If you're ready to do that today, I wanna give you that chance. I invite everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes for just a moment. And there's somebody here in this room feeling prompted by God right now. They're saying, I wanna, I wanna put my faith in Jesus. I wanna receive him in my life as Lord and Savior today. I wanna commit my life to Him today. If that's you with nobody you're looking around, would you raise your hand? Would you raise your hand if you wanna receive him as Lord and Savior today? Amen. Amen. If you wanna receive Christ right now so I can pray for you, if you just raise your hand, get a few of them, amen. Amen. For those that raise their hands, I invite you to pray this with me right now. There's not. Power in these words but who we pray to. Let's pray right now. Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I can't make it to heaven on my own. But I want to put my faith in you. I put the weight of my life in your hands. I believe that you are Lord. And that you are savior. That when you died on the cross. You paid for my sins that when you rose again. God, you offer me life. I repent of my sins. I asked for your forgiveness. I asked that you would come into my life. And I put my life in your hands. I put the full weight of my life into you, Jesus. I commit my life to you. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for loving me. Help us to live in light of this story. We love you, God. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.