John 3:1-2 (ESV)

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 are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

The third chapter of John’s Gospel is perhaps the most consequential encounter between God and man in the entire bible. Jesus does almost all of the talking—17 out of the 21 verses—while Nicodemus is the test subject, standing in for every single human being that has existed since the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. There is almost no resistance both inside and outside academic circles as to the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth, a “first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader who is the central figure of Christianity” (Wikipedia). He existed. He drew great crowds and had a great impact. He was executed by the Romans outside Jerusalem. His followers started a movement that grew rapidly and became the organized Christian religion. Today, there are estimated to be 2.3 billion “Christians” in the world—nearly 1/3 of the earth’s population.

Everybody knows Jesus was a great teacher. He IS the 800lb. gorilla in the room.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, the most influential of the three Jewish sects (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes). The Pharisees were “supernaturalists” for they believed in the resurrection, the existence of angels and demons, predestination, free will, and the validity of both the written and the oral law. He “knew his stuff” and most likely had just heard Jesus’ teachings in Jerusalem during the Passover and the cleansing of the Temple. He was curious, but he was cautious, which is probably why he came to see this new teacher at night, under the cover of darkness. As a Pharisee, he believed he could earn God’s favor by observing the law, and thus inherit eternal life. He was very religious, but also very wrong. Jesus knew it before Nicodemus said a word while Nicodemus was…clueless.

Religious but Wrong.

Are you a Nicodemus? If not yourself, then you probably know one or two or ten or fifty. In fact, churches all over America and the world have a significant population of Nicodemus’s—religious, but wrong. Additionally, there are millions and millions of them around the globe. People who think Jesus was a good teacher of morals who also taught how to “love your neighbor” and perhaps invented The Golden Rule. Like their first-century Jewish predecessor, they may have good intentions and some genuine interest, but they are lost and destined for hell unless they accept the truth:

You must be born again.