Who Do You Follow?

If you have a Bible with you, I just invite you to turn it to the Gospel of John. We're gonna be looking at John chapter three this morning. John chapter three. I'll be reading there verses one through 21. Beginning at the first verse.

Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs that you are doing if God were not with him." In reply, Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Now, "How can a man be born when he's old?"

Nicodemus asked. "Surely, he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born." Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit."

"You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. How can this be?"

Nicodemus asked. "You're Israel's teacher," Jesus said, "and you do not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen. But still, you people do not accept our testimony."

"I've spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the verdict: the light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil."

"Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." This is the word of God. Let us pray.

Father, we just pray this morning as we spend some time meditating on these words, that the words of my mouth and that the meditations of our hearts will be found acceptable in your sight. For you are the rock, you are our Redeemer, you are the one, Jesus, that we wanna build our lives on. And we pray in your name. Amen.

Let me ask you, who is it in your life that you follow? Is there someone that you are following? You know, when I was a little child, we used to play this game called Simon Says. I don't know if you have ever played that game. Well, those of you who've never played this game, it goes something like this.

Someone stands up as a leader in front of a group of people and he says, "Simon says, do this." And you do whatever he says. So the leader would say, "Simon says, stand up," and everyone would stand up. But if the leader would just say, "Sit down," we would not sit down.

Because the leader has to say, "Simon says," and then you do it. Now, I wonder if it would work with you. I mean, how good are you at following a leader? Could you play Simon Says with me for a moment? Simon says, touch your head.

Simon says, put your right hand in the air. Clap your hands. Whoops. Simon didn't tell you to do that. It's not always easy to follow a leader, is it?

But you know what? People are always looking for someone to follow. You see that every time elections are happening in a country. We've seen that, for example, in Australia over the last number of months prior to the election and the election that took place a week ago. The results are not even final yet.

I mean, the country is pretty well divided fifty-fifty. I mean, there are some people who follow the Liberal Party and our current Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and others follow the Labor Party and Bill Shorten, and a scattering of others. We see this also happening in the United States right now. I mean, people are following Donald Trump and other people are following Hillary Clinton. Who will become the next president of the United States?

Who do you follow? You know, as people, we're naturally followers. And those of you who go to school, I know you're on school break, but just think back, you know, when you are at university or at school and you know that there are groups of children or young people who hang out together and you follow one another. And when you get older, you do the same thing. You identify yourself with certain leaders or certain groups or movements.

I mean, it might be the latest fashion of clothes. It might be a political leader. It might be some trend in the church or society. It might be a celebrity in the movies or a sports person on the field. I mean, people are followers.

Who are you following? In Jesus' day, there were also people who had followers. These people were known as rabbis. The rabbis were very important leaders in that day, in the time of the Bible, you know, when Jesus was on earth.

These men were very smart when it came to understanding what God would teach in the Bible. When people would go to church like you and I did today, the rabbis would be there and they would do the teaching. They would lead the times of worship. And rabbis would also have a whole group of other people who would follow them wherever they went. They would listen to what they taught.

They would follow in their ways. And these people were called disciples. Now, in John three, we meet one of those teachers. His name was Nicodemus. He was no ordinary teacher.

He must have had a distinguished reputation because Jesus tells him in verse 10, "You are not just a teacher, but you are the teacher of Israel." Here truly was a religious man. He was a rabbi, a teacher of the law. And John also tells us, however, that he's not just a rabbi but he's a Pharisee. He's skilled in religious talk.

He knew the word of God. He could explain to you about God, about the world, and how we are to live in relationship to both. John also tells us that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin. These were like men who were judges in the courts of our day, magistrates.

No man could become a rabbi unless he was ordained as a rabbi by the Sanhedrin. This was done in a very special ceremony. The candidate would sit in the middle of the ruling council as all the council delegates would place their hands on his head. And then this person, this rabbi, would receive, or this part of the ruling council would receive, a key around his neck. And it would be a symbol of power.

And it was his authority to be able to teach others. This key would be worn as a badge of honour. And when the rabbi would die, that key would be buried with him. Now, perhaps that's why Nicodemus comes to Jesus. He wants to check Jesus out.

He's part of the Sanhedrin, isn't he? And only he and the Sanhedrin can give authority to other rabbis to teach. But Jesus had never received a key from the Sanhedrin giving him that authority. But yet, they heard about things, about Jesus.

How Jesus would go around the countryside, and he would teach others. And he would perform all kinds of miraculous signs. And so, Nicodemus gives Jesus the benefit of the doubt. He says to Jesus, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs that you are doing if God were not with him."

Nicodemus looks to Jesus and he notices that Jesus is no ordinary man. He was someone special. But look what Jesus does. He doesn't try to prove to Nicodemus that he was a special teacher sent from God. Instead, Jesus talks about something much more important.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." By this time, Nicodemus is interested. Being born again? I mean, what is Jesus talking about?

I mean, he knew about the kingdom of God. When he went to rabbi school and when he was trained as a Pharisee, he knew that one day someone would come from God, led by a descendant of King David, and a great kingdom would erupt in land in Israel. He also knew that everybody who faithfully kept the law of God would be allowed to be part of the kingdom of God. But Jesus doesn't talk about keeping the law. Jesus talks about being born again.

So, Nicodemus asked Jesus, "Now, I mean, how can this be? I mean, how can a man be born when he's old? Surely, he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born." I mean, wouldn't you ask Jesus that same question?

I mean, how's a person supposed to do that? How, especially, are you supposed to do that when you are as old as Nicodemus was? The age of a grandfather. What is Jesus talking about? Well, you need to know that the word "again" can also be translated to "be born from above."

Nicodemus sees it one way, but Jesus meant the other. And so Jesus explains this to him. He says, "I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh.

But the Spirit gives birth to Spirit." Flesh gives birth to flesh. Here's Jesus talking about our physical birth. We're born of water, the natural birth from our mothers.

That's how we get the colour of our skin, the colour of our eyes, how tall or short we are, the shape of our nose and our ears. I mean, flesh gives birth to flesh. But the Spirit can only give birth to Spirit. And if you want the kingdom of God in your life, you need to have a spiritual birth, a spiritual rebirth.

Now, that doesn't happen by you and I going back into our mother's belly. This happens when the seed of faith enters inside our life. The spiritual rebirth is something that God does through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enters your life and you become one of God's children. You're no longer just a child of your mother and your earthly father.

But now you are also children, boys and girls, sons and daughters of your heavenly Father. Now, I can't explain how this happens. But you know when it does happen. Look at verse eight. It's like the wind, Jesus says.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it is going. And so it is with everyone, Jesus says, who's born of the Spirit. There's a change that happens on the inside that you start to see evidence of on the outside. Now, Nicodemus still doesn't get it.

He asked Jesus, "How can this be?" In other words, how does this happen? For Nicodemus, this all sounded totally impossible. He's, I mean, he's all mixed up. Everything that he believed in and all that he was taught was now being challenged by this so-called rabbi, Jesus.

I mean, Nicodemus, he did everything that he was supposed to do. He prayed. He offered sacrifices. He went to worship. He obeyed the law.

He was even one of the Jews, one of God's chosen people. Wasn't that enough? Why all this talk about a rebirth? Being born again.

A spiritual rebirth. Notice how Jesus responds. And it's almost comical. Jesus says, "I mean, you're religious, you're one of Israel's teachers, and yet you don't understand these things? Come on, Nicodemus.

Jesus refers to Nicodemus as a rabbi, just as Nicodemus referred to Jesus as a rabbi. But guess what? Nicodemus doesn't know everything. Jesus simply tells him, "You do not accept our testimony. You do not believe."

Now, you might think if there was anybody who would have seen the kingdom of God, it would have been Nicodemus. He studied and knew the word of God all his life. He lived a morally good life. He kept all the religious traditions as a good Pharisee. From all appearances, when you looked on the outside, he was a godly religious man.

But all of those things was simply flesh giving birth to flesh. See, Nicodemus tried to live the godly life through his own physical effort. But all of this only produced a change on the outside. Inside of Nicodemus was only darkness, darkness that held a tight clutch on his soul.

All was not well with his soul. And like many others, as we read in verse 23, Nicodemus was impressed by all the miraculous signs that Jesus performed. They even believed in Jesus' name, but Jesus knew better, for He knew all men and He knows what's inside of a man, what's inside of you, what's inside of me.

And He also knew what was inside of Nicodemus. And the only way that Nicodemus could be changed was from the inside out through a spiritual rebirth. My friends, Nicodemus is no longer mentioned in chapter three after that initial conversation that Jesus had. But this story is not just about a man named Nicodemus. This is about anybody and everybody.

This is not just a story about something that happened one night in Jerusalem. This is about any place, any time. I mean, Nicodemus was a real man. But his story is really a story about you and me, about where you and I are at with Jesus today.

It's a story about Jesus bringing light to people who live in darkness. Nicodemus came at night in the darkness and he leaves in the darkness. He did not accept what Jesus said, at least not yet. We have to wait till chapter seven and nineteen to see if Nicodemus really becomes born again from the inside out. But where are you at?

Where are you at? Because that's the real question. If I sat down with each one of you, I'm quite sure that, like Nicodemus, you would tell me that you would want to see the kingdom of God. It's not as if you wanna die and go to heaven. But you wanna see the kingdom that God promised by God.

You wanna see a life of joy and peace, a life that is free from pain and misery. You wanna see the fullness of all that is good to be realised in your life and that of this church and that of the community around us, Australia and beyond. Now, the Bible promises that one day God's kingdom will come in all its fullness. And this will happen when Jesus returns.

But you know, already here and now, today, we can see in part what one day God said we will see in full. You know, perhaps like Nicodemus, you've been trying to see all the good things of God become real in your life through your own efforts. "If I only try harder. If I only pray harder. If I only attend church more faithfully.

If I only give more of my tithes and offerings. If I only do this and do that, then finally all of God's blessings will come upon me." I mean, try to keep all the religious traditions as a pious believer. And people look at you and they might even conclude that you are a very religious person. But what Jesus tells us in John three might shock you.

It might even disturb you. Because if you want to see the kingdom of God, if you want eternal life, then all the efforts that you're doing won't get you there. All the good things that you do in life, that won't enable you to receive the kingdom of God in your life. You must be born again. You must be born again.

You must have a spiritual rebirth. And to be born again is simply meaning to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You need to put your faith and trust in Jesus alone. Why? Because Jesus is the source of eternal life.

And when we think about eternal life, don't think about, you know, the life that we're going to have when we live forever with God in glory. That's not what eternal life is just referring to. Eternal life is referring to God's life, God's life. When you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, that's when God's life comes inside of you.

And when God's life comes inside of you, when you put your faith and trust in Him, then you will have God's life. You will have eternal life inside of you. And when God comes inside of you in the person and work of the Holy Spirit, He empowers you then from the inside out to live the kind of life that God wants you to live. Why? Because Jesus and Jesus only is the source of eternal life to all those who believe.

Jesus alone is the source of God's life to come inside of us. Look at verse 14. "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life, may have God's life inside of him." Jesus is referring to the story of Numbers 21, when Moses built a snake of bronze and it lifted up before the Israelites.

And these Israelites, you know, were sick because a lot of them were being bitten by snakes and they were dying. But when Moses built that snake and it was lifted up and everyone who looked on that snake would be healed of all the diseases that bit them in the desert. In the same way, John reminds us that one day Jesus would be lifted up. And He was on the cross. And everyone who looks to this Jesus will have God's life come inside of him that will change them from the inside out.

You wanna see the kingdom of God? Then don't look at all of your good deeds, all of your religious habits, all the things that you know. Just look to Jesus. He's already given you the promise of eternal life, of God's life coming inside of you. All you have to do is believe.

Everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life, we're told. And when you look to Jesus, you will have God's life inside of you. You know, here in Australia, we sure love our sports. You know, whether it's soccer or football or tennis, you know, golf, cricket.

I mean, we glue ourselves to our television sets or we head down to the stadiums. People by the tens of thousands, you know, they just gather into these stadiums to watch sporting events. They might even go wild when their teams win. But you know, on a Sunday here in Australia, so many of our churches have empty pews. And many of them are so empty that they have to shut down.

Over twenty million people in Australia are not born again. Oh, some of them might consider themselves religious, as Christian, but they're not following Jesus. They're not born again. They haven't had this spiritual rebirth. And why?

Why do millions of people get so excited by sports but millions do not get excited about Jesus? Have you ever wondered why? I mean, Jesus has done a whole lot more than just winning the State of Origin rugby game. I mean, Jesus, who is the Son of God, came down from heaven to earth and sacrificed everything to pay the price so that the whole world may be saved, everyone including you. So that everyone could have God's life inside of them.

Yet people are so weak in their commitment to following Jesus. There's so many other things that seem to be more important. You wanna know why? When Jesus tells us why. There's two reasons.

Look at verses nineteen and twenty. Jesus said, "This is the verdict. I'll tell you why. He says, Jesus, why people turn away from him and don't trust him. He says, light has come into the world because people love darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light. It will not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." Perhaps that's true of some of us this morning. You don't follow Jesus because you really don't wanna clean up your life. You wanna continue living in sin.

Even today when you hear this message, you don't listen because you love darkness. You love sin. You don't want the light of God's word to show you that you're not living the way that you should. You know, the light of God's word will show you exactly where you have to change, the areas of your life. But that's exactly what you don't want to do.

And so, like Nicodemus, you slip out into the darkness. Others of you don't go to Jesus and follow him because you're afraid that God will judge you, that God will condemn you. And when you actually go face to face with God and you show God exactly how your life is like, you feel unworthy. You know your sin.

You know what happens behind closed doors, what happens in secret, what goes on in your own heart. You figure if you follow Jesus, He's gonna point fingers at judgment at you. He'll look down at you for what you've done in your life.

And so, like Nicodemus, you slip out into the darkness. To you and to everyone else here this morning, I want you to hear the message of John's Gospel. You don't have to be afraid of Jesus. Jesus did not come into this world to condemn you but to save you. And if you follow Jesus, you will have eternal life.

You will have God's life inside of you. His light shines in the darkness of your life, not to make your life worse, but in order to make your life better, much better. If you follow Jesus, you will have life in all of its fullness because you'll have God's life inside of you. You will no longer be filled with sin, but you will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You'll be born again. And your life then will not be full of evil but it will be full of good. Look at verse 21. "And you will realise that all that you have done is not what your hands have done, but what you have done has been done through God and through God alone, through His life that is inside of you."

Yes, you'll receive life eternal, life in all of its fullness, all as a gift from God. Why? Because God loves you. "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will have God's life inside of them, will have this eternal life." So, me just ask you, who will you follow?

I challenge you to follow Jesus, to look only to him in life. For Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life. Follow Him and you will be born again. And Jesus will lead you into a life of faith and hope and love, of blessings today and for eternity. Not just in this life but also in the life to come.

So, will you? Will you follow Jesus? Will you truly follow Him? Will you follow? Let's pray.

Father, we come this morning under the teaching of your word. And we thank you, Lord, for the conviction that you give to us through your Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that you would guide each one of us, Lord, not to slip into the darkness of this day or the darkness of this world, or the darkness even of our own heart. But that we will look to you and in you find acceptance and forgiveness. And in you find the strength and the endurance and the encouragement to live the life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Help us, Lord, to truly be born again, born from above. And Lord, may our lives be so changed that others may look at us, just like Nicodemus looked at Jesus and recognised that God's life was inside of him. May others also see God's life in us. So that others too, Lord, will be drawn into fellowship with you for all eternity. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.