Good morning, church. Let's go to John 3 if you've got a Bible with you. We just read most of that. So we're in a series called "Jesus Is," and we're trying to answer the question: who is Jesus?

And that is not just a question, it is the question. So if you're a person trying to figure out where you land with God and spiritual things and religion per se, you have to answer that question. Who is Jesus? In fact, it's a question that Jesus himself asked.

He looks at his disciples back in the book of Matthew chapter 16 and says, "Who do you say that I am?" Who do you say that Jesus is? So we're trying to help you understand in this series who he is, what he is like, what he's about. But you have to answer that question. We saw last week that he is the forgiver of sin.

He is the only one that can look at you and pronounce forgiven. All of your sins, past, present, and future, he can look at you and say, "They are clean and paid for and deleted forever," because he is the forgiver of sin. This morning, we're going to see that he is the answer, that all of your questions, all that you're longing for, all that you're searching for, he actually is the answer to that. So this conversation, he has this one-on-one conversation with a man named Nicodemus, which we'll get to, and what he says to him is kind of confusing.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, secretly, and asks him questions, and Jesus doesn't really answer them. What he says to him is very confusing. And so you should know that it's good to ask Jesus questions. It's good to go to him and ask him, bring him your doubts and bring him your questions, and ask him to clarify things.

But just know this, he might not answer them. He might not answer all your questions. In fact, what he will probably do is he will question all of your answers. All the ways that you think you should live life and the way that life should go, Jesus calls all that into question when he comes on this Earth and teaches and speaks.

So for him, the way to find your life is to lose it. The way up is down. The way to get to the front of the line is to go to the back of the line. The way to be great is to be a servant.

The way to be exalted is to humble yourself. The way to live is to die. The way to win is to lose. We call this the upside-down nature of Jesus' kingdom.

It's not like any kingdom or any teaching in this world. It's vastly different. And so he comes, and in this, he shows us, though, that he really is the answer to all of our longings, all of our questions, and I want to show you how this works today. Because whenever you submit to him, whenever you do embrace him and say yes to him, the door to joy and life is burst open for you.

Okay? So let me show you this morning, just from this conversation, how he's the answer. He shows us three things: what everyone needs, what no one can achieve, and what he freely offers. What everybody needs, what no one can achieve, and then what he freely provides and offers us.

So let's unpack that this morning. Does that sound okay? Everybody doing all right? Okay.

Got a lot of time left today, so let's get to work. One, what everyone needs. What does every human being need? Well, the answer is in John 3:3.

"Jesus answered Nicodemus, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see," even see, "the kingdom of God.'" Now, that little phrase, kingdom of God, it's shorthand. It's a way of talking about all of the blessings and favor and kindness and love of God lavished on you freely for all of eternity. It is the life that we long for. It's what we hope for.

It's us being seen and known and fully loved and fully welcomed by God forever. That's the kingdom he's talking about. Whenever you're in the kingdom, you get all of these blessings and all of this life on you, both in this life and in fully in the next life. Okay?

We long for that. We need that. But here's the problem. Unless you're born again, you can't see it.

Unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom. Unless you have this something else happens in your life. You have to be born again, Jesus says, and that's when this new birth, this new life, this new creation happens in us. But for it to happen, for us to be, as we say, redeemed or saved or reclaimed, we'll use that language at baptism, we must be born again.

I'll come back to that. But notice who Jesus says this to. He says it to Nicodemus. Now, who is that?

We don't know a lot about him. We can get a lot from these few verses, though, as to who he is. Jesus says to him in verse one-- Well, John says, "A man of the Pharisees." Pharisees were the religious elite of the day. No one is more morally impeccable, nor more devoted to God, more theologically accurate than the Pharisees.

These were the religious elites. So Nicodemus is one of those guys, big voice among the Pharisees. He's a ruler of the Jews, so he has political power, which means he has financial power, lots of connections, lots of friends, lots of followers, lots of social media likes and posts and comments. And he is the teacher of Israel.

Not just one of them, he is the top podcaster in all of Israel. He's the voice. And so here you have someone who is morally impeccable, devoted to God, religious elite, financially secure, politically powerful. Everyone loves him, everyone knows him.

There's no one like him. He's the guy you want to have a selfie with and have him comment on your social media. Like, he's the guy. Jesus looks at him and says, "You.

You. Unless you are born again, Nicodemus, not even you will see the kingdom." You know what this means? It means the gospel's for everyone. Everyone needs this.

It doesn't matter who you are. You can be these religious elites. No one would say this to Nicodemus. He is the last person in the country anyone would say, "Unless something happens to you, unless you're born again, you won't see God's kingdom and know God's favor and blessing in your life." And Jesus comes along and says, "You must be born again." The gospel's for everyone.

Everyone needs this. I wonder if we believe that. Because this is how Jesus sees the world, as those who are in the kingdom and those who are not, those who are born again and those who are not. We tend to see Black, white, left, right, liberal, conservative, Ford, Chevy, Mac, PC.

Maybe it's Mac these days. MJ, LeBron. We're always ready to fight. Choose a side and then fight.

That's what we do. That's how we see the world. Jesus sees the world as those who are born again and those who are not. And everyone must be born again, otherwise they won't see the kingdom.

I wonder if we believe that. Imagine the person that has arrived. That from all the human standpoint, they have arrived. They're in great health and have a great marriage and great kids or great at pickleball, great house, great yard, great 401K, great car, a dog that always obeys.

Everything's awesome. Someone that is happy in their life without God, which that should not shock you, but it might. You can be very happy in this life without God. You knew that, right?

You can have lots of joy, lots of happiness, and care nothing about following Jesus. I mean, have you ever seen a Ranger bass boat? You ever seen one? You ever smelt the inside of a Ford F-150 King Ranch?

I'm a Ford guy, so don't hold it against me. But you ever seen a Hawaiian beach or been to... There's unbelievable joys in this life apart from God. Take that person that's arrived, the most upright citizen, blinker-using, tax-paying, like everything just seems to flow their way.

Would you say to them, "You must be born again"? That's how Jesus sees the world. Do you see it that way? "Unless this happens, Nicodemus, you will not be born again," is what Jesus says to him.

This means the gospel's for everyone, that everyone has to have this happen. Listen to how Paul says this in John-- I'm sorry, in Romans 3. Paul says, "For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." All have. This is everyone.

This is Jew and Gentile and left and right and Democrat and Republican and liberal and conservative and rich and poor and Baptist and Catholic. All have sinned and all need to be born again, is what Jesus says here. This is the greatest news in history. It sounds like bad news.

No, no. This levels the playing field. That everyone needs this. You see now why they killed him?

You see now why, by the way, that Christianity can't be made up? We'd make this easier. We wouldn't make it up like this, that everyone must be born again. But that's what Jesus said.

This is what every human needs. But there's a problem, and that's number two, is this is the very thing that we can't achieve. That we can't cause this to happen. So Nicodemus is astonished by this idea that someone must be-- He doesn't understand what it means to be born again, and so here's how he responds.

He says to him, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" And Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say, unless," and it gets more confusing, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter," not see, but enter, "the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh," so human life comes from human parents is what he means there. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," so spiritual life comes from the Spirit.

"Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'" Why are you so shocked by this? "The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." So Nicodemus is correct.

Through human effort, you can't make yourself be born again. How would this even happen? To press the analogy a bit here, you didn't cause your first birth. Your parents did that.

Another sermon if you don't understand, but your parents did that. You didn't do that. Your spiritual birth, you certainly cannot cause and create that. Someone else has to do that for you.

So to say this plainly so no one is confused here, to be a Christian, to be saved, to be in the kingdom, to be redeemed and born again, you must have a supernatural work done in your heart, and you can't do it. God himself is the one that has to do this. You can't reach into your heart and create this new life. You need a skilled surgeon who will do this for you.

That's where the water and the spirit comes in. What's the water language here? Could be baptism. I don't think that's what's happening.

There's a rich history in the Old Testament of the water and spirit of God bringing miraculous things when he pours that out. So I think what is in mind here is the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 36. Ezekiel's one of the Old Testament prophets. Crazy book.

Read it sometime. Will take you three hours to get through it. Not long at all. Here's what Ezekiel, God says through Ezekiel: "I will sprinkle clean water on you." There's the water.

"And you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols." What's an idol? It's when you say, "I need something else to be happy in God. If God will do all these things, then I'll trust him." That's an idol, okay?

You don't just trust God alone. And he says, "I'll cleanse this. I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my Spirit in you," and I love this, "and move you." Move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. That's what he means here. God has to do this. God has to give his life to you.

God has to do this new work in your heart and give you a new heart and a new life, and this is what it means to be born again. So whenever we baptize someone, what we're saying is this has happened to them. This new life has entered in. It's now coursing through their veins.

God's life is in them, and they didn't cause that. That's the point here. You can't create this. He says the wind just blows where it wishes.

Now, we understand wind patterns. They didn't back then. But the issue is you can't create the wind. It's not in your hands.

So the point of all this is that you cannot think your way into the kingdom. You can't reason your way into it. You can't work your way. You cannot clean your life up enough, and do enough good things, and give enough good things, and serve enough to create this life in you.

Your parents can't do this. Your pastors can't do this. No one can do this. So if you're not a Christian, or you're just wondering where you stand, this is a very important point about Christianity, okay?

And it's this: You don't start practicing Christianity. You don't practice it. You start practicing Buddhism. You start practicing Islam.

You don't practice Christianity. You have to have new life poured into you and given this new heart. You don't just turn over a new leaf. You're a whole new creation when God does this.

You realize, though, how in the face this idea is with our current kind of cultural mood that says that you can do anything, you can be anything that you want, you can achieve anything that you want? So here's sort of the mantra, I think, of our culture is that you define you. You define who you are. Look inside your heart, whatever's inside there, you be that.

That's who you are, and so you be that. You determine who you are and your fate and who you are as a person. It's all up to you, and so you can achieve anything. And so you look in, see who you are, just let this out and let that rip, and dare anyone to push back against that.

You determine who you are is the mantra of our culture. I mean, what do you think Elsa has been singing about for all these years? You've heard the song, right? "Be the good girl you always have to be.

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know. Well, now they know. Let it go. You just let it go.

It's time to see what I can do, to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. Cold never bothered me anyway." You've heard the song, right?

Great song. Now, don't be someone you're not. Don't be someone that you think everyone else thinks that you should be. That is true.

That's not what this is saying, though. This is saying you define who you are. You determine who you are. You find your truth, and you live out your truth, and whatever's in your heart, you follow it.

And Jesus says you need a new one. And this pushes back against everything that you're seeing right now that says you determine, you decide who you are, and Jesus says, no, you need a new life. Now, this shouldn't scare us. This should actually encourage us, because what this means is this: that your salvation is not in your hands.

It's not in your hands, which means you can't lose it. There's all these questions that we always get asked. Can a Christian lose their salvation? If you could lose it, you would.

I lose my keys three times a week. I'm not keeping up with my salvation. It's in God's hands, not yours. And that's why He never lets you go.

So you cannot lose this, because He's the one holding you up. But make no mistake, you didn't put that life there. C.S. Lewis-- You knew it was coming, by the way.

Every time I quote Lewis, some of y'all email me and thank me. So this is your fault. This is on you, not me. C.S.

Lewis, in "The Chronicles of Narnia," the children's book that really are for adults, there's a guy named Eustace Clarence Scrubbs, and he's obnoxious. Everyone hates him, okay? He finds this dragon's lair, starts stealing all of this gold, all these jewels, goes to sleep and wakes up, and he's become the dragon. And he's terribly upset about this.

He has wings and scales, and he's trying his best to rip this dragon scale off of his body and become Eustace again, but he can't do it. And then one night in a dream, Aslan, the great lion, shows up, and he sinks his claws into this dragon scale and begins just ripping the scales, and it hurts him terribly. But after this, he's Eustace again. He's a new person now.

What Lewis is saying is you can't de-dragon yourself. Some of you are trying. You're trying so much to kind of copy and paste this Christian life onto your life externally, and it's not working for you because the heart's not been changed. God has to put his life in you and give you new life, and if this has happened to you, if you are a Christian, this is what's happened.

You're new. You're different now. You have His life coursing through your veins. You have the Father's smile and His delight on your life forever, which means you can go through any suffering, any temptation.

You can endure anything if this life is in you. So let me be sure that I ask this question before we move on. Have you been born again? Because if you've not, you can be, but you just can't do it yourself.

So have you been born again, or are you just really trying to pretend and hope no one notices you've actually not become a Christian, you're just kind of on the surface looking like one? So what needs to happen to us? What do we need? We need new birth.

Well, can't we achieve the new birth? So we have a problem, so what do we do? We have to look to someone that can offer it to us freely and that's the third point, is what Jesus does for us, what he freely provides for us. He says, "If I told you earthly things 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." So what he's saying is, "I know the heavenly things because I'm from there. I've been up there." "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." So this new life is what we need more than anything, but more than anything else, we can't achieve this. We can't clean ourselves up enough to achieve this and create this. So what hope do we have?

If everyone needs this, but no one can do anything about this, then what hope is there? If we can't work for this, then what do we do? Well, you depend on someone else's work for you, someone else's work in your place. So let's press the birth analogy a bit more here.

The whole chapter, the whole section, is on child labor, okay? That's what it's about. And so, I don't know, I have three sons, and I was there for all of their birth, okay? I was there.

My sons, they can be hard workers if they put their mind to it. They can grind out a workout or a test. They can work. I was there that day, though.

They did nothing to help their birth that entire morning, not one thing. In fact, they did everything in their power to not be born in the world on those days. They're screaming and kicking and running back. They're not helping at all.

But there was someone in that room laboring for them, and it wasn't me. I was just holding the ice bag in shock. It wasn't me doing anything. My wife was laboring for them.

She is writhing in agony and screaming with no epidural. Didn't work on her. I guess she's Kryptonian, I have no idea, but it didn't work on her. She's saying words I didn't realize that she even knew.

She's screaming, bringing these three children into the world. That's how it happens. That's how you got here. Somebody else worked on your behalf to bring you into this world.

Do you understand that that's exactly what Jesus is saying here, is that you can't cause and create your first birth. You can't cause and create your new birth. You have to depend on somebody else laboring for you to bring you in, and that's how the gospel works. That's how Christianity works.

That's how this new birth works. Someone else must suffer and labor on your behalf. Someone else cries out in agony and pain and bleeds and suffers and labors for you. That's what Jesus says here.

He's the one. So mothers at this time, especially in the ancient world, mothers would give birth at the risk of their life. Jesus goes to labor for us at the very cost of his life. He dies for us.

He is on the cross laboring and crying out and bleeding for us, and that's how we're saved through him. So let me be real clear on this. It is his work that saves us, not ours. You have to have good works to be saved.

Let me just be real clear here. To be saved, there must be good works. They just aren't yours. They're someone else's on your behalf, and all you have to do is look and receive.

That's what he says here. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness." What is that about? It's a crazy story. Go back to the Old Testament, the book of Numbers.

The Israelites are in venting sins. God is so angry with them. They're rebelling. Every time they have a chance to sin, they do it.

So God sends these snakes throughout the camp, and it bites them, and many of them die, and they get sick, and many of them die. Well, Moses takes a bronze serpent, he makes a serpent, lifts it up on a staff, and they just look at it. So if you get bit by the snake, you look up at the bronze serpent, and then you're healed. All you have to do is look.

And Jesus says, "As Moses did that, the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." What is he saying? That he will be lifted up on a pole someday, on a cross. That he'll be lifted up in agony, in pain, crying out, laboring, bleeding, suffering for us, and all you have to do is simply look and behold him. You have to see him hanging there, crying out, bleeding for you, working on your behalf, and that's how you're saved.

That's how you're born again, just by believing in that. It's very simple, but it's the only way. It's the only way that this happens. That's why Jesus cries out on the cross, "It is finished." Not, "We're just getting started," or not, "Now go earn this," but, "It is finished now." All of his work is done for you.

It's his life, it's his death, it's his blood. You rest in that. I learned recently, and I'm done soon. I learned recently that Billy Graham, the great evangelist, you've heard of his name probably.

He went to Cambridge University once. I didn't know this. So Billy Graham, if you don't know, he was this evangelist, famous evangelist. He'd preached literally to millions of people.

He would fill up stadiums for days on end and preach the gospel. His message, though, was very simple. He was not this trained theologian, this trained scholar. He's from backwoods North Carolina and preached a very simple gospel message.

Well, he gets invited to Cambridge in 1955. He does have lunch with C. S. Lewis.

That's confirmed. Which would be really cool. But he was nervous because here are the intellectual elites in Europe at Cambridge University, and here's this backwoods preacher from North Carolina. He changed his entire approach.

He's brushing up on his Nietzsche and Descartes and all these philosophers. And so he preaches for four nights, has all these long philosophical quotes. He's trying to get inside their mind and read what they're reading, and it went terribly. No one responded. 2,000 people were coming each night.

No one's responding to this. The last night, though, was what people that saw this said was the turn. He decides to go back to what his message had been the entire time for his whole ministry and just preach on the blood. So he goes from Genesis to Revelation and looks at all the blood sacrifices in the Bible and shows how Jesus fulfills that, how you cannot have payment for your sins.

You need the blood. It's the only hope for you. Which, by the way, that idea at that time was absolutely offensive in Europe. The idea of a blood sacrifice was this obscure idea to them.

Many of them didn't like it. So for an hour and a half, he preaches on the blood. Someone that saw it said that night, "The blood just flowed." The blood is flowing up the aisles and on the walls. The blood's just flowing all over the chapel. 2,000 intellectual elites hearing about, from a backwood preacher, the blood.

And when he was done, many of them hated it. But that night, 400 students from Cambridge University stood up, men and women, and gave their lives to Jesus because of the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

So have you seen it? Have you looked at it? Have you received this? Because all you have to do is look.

This is why Jesus is the answer, because no one can do what he's done for us. I'm done with this, I promise. Nicodemus shows up one more time in the Gospel of John. You know where he is?

At the cross. John 19, Jesus has been crucified, and Nicodemus, it says in verse 39, "Nicodemus also, who had earlier come to Jesus by night," which may be John's way of saying it was more covert, more secret, more hidden. Now he's coming out into the light and saying that he identifies with Jesus. He helps Joseph of Arimathea get his body down from the cross, and then he pays for his burial.

He came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. Nicodemus pays for this. This would've been an absolute risk of his life to do this, to identify with this person that had been crucified. As a Pharisee, ruler of the Jews, the teacher in Israel, he's now saying he identifies with Jesus.

And three days later, he saw him rise again. So have you looked? Nicodemus saw him there, and he looked. Have you looked, and are you still looking?

This is how you become a Christian. This is how you grow and walk in the Christian faith, by looking at what he's done for us. He is the answer. Let me pray for us.

God, thank you for your Son, that there is no life without him. There is no hope without him. And I pray that we could rest in that, that we could believe that, that we could trust that, that, Jesus, you are enough for us. For my friends who've never said yes to you, would you open their eyes and bring them to faith in you?

Would you cause them to be born again and give them new life, and give them hope in your name? We pray these things in Jesus' great name. Amen.