Nicodemus Fasted Twice a Week and Still Had to Be Born Again

Sermon outline

Because Christ has risen, respond to the cross with more than religion: be born again into a life of the Holy Spirit, let your fruit feed others, and let go of every unforgiveness so you can walk in your own resurrection.

1. Bought out of the slave market

   Jesus' death and resurrection is the most significant event in the spiritual realm, with repercussions on every level. We were slaves to the human condition, born cursed, and Jesus saw us in the public square and paid the price for our redemption. To experience the blessing of His sacrifice we must humble ourselves and recognise that we are who we are because of who He is; the cross is the pearl of great price.

   Illustration: A tradesman bought a terrified woman at a slave market, marked by a spear hung over her head. She spat in his face, and instead of striking her he wiped his face, handed her a certificate of freedom and walked away. She ran after him and humbly asked whether she could work for him.

   “It is essential that you and I need to humble ourselves and recognize that we are who we are because of who he is.”

   • Luke 24:35-53
   • Matthew 13:45-46

2. How we respond to the cross

   He numbers the ways to respond. Give your weaknesses to Jesus, leaving your luggage and taking His, because His burden is light. Accept all His strength: when I am weak He makes me strong. Surrender your sins through repentance, the entrance door to blessing, remembering that unforgiveness, mocking and walking without love are sin too. Accept His salvation, because as far as the east is from the west He has removed your sin. Surrender every sickness and receive the health of God, through the elders, the oil and agreement in faith.

   Illustration: On the cross, with His weight hanging on the nails, Jesus said Father, forgive them, though they had planned it all. Had we been spat on in that slave market, we would have been the first to lay hands on the person.

   “Do not add Jesus to your luggage, but rather leave your luggage and take his luggage.”

   • Matthew 11:30
   • Luke 23:34
   • Matthew 22:37-40
   • John 3:16
   • Psalm 103:12
   • James 5:14-15
   • Philippians 4:13

3. The Bible is not an accessory

   We must never be Christians who read the Bible on our birthdays, or who know the verse printed on the Bible bag but not the scripture inside it. The carnal mind has to be washed daily by the word. Over time you no longer recognise the old man: the one who swore like a trooper is offended by swearing, and the one who found solace in the bottle finds it in the Holy Spirit.

   Illustration: Driving recklessly, he went off the side of a cliff and blacked out as the car tumbled. He came to on the grass outside the wreck, and the fire department asked how he got out, because there was no point of exit. It was not his skill as a driver; it was the Lord.

   “We know the scripture on the Bible bag, but we don't know the scripture inside the Bible bag.”

4. Even Nicodemus had to be born again

   Nicodemus was a respected teacher of the law, a man of morals who fasted twice a week, prayed at length and loved the scriptures, yet Jesus told him he could not see the kingdom unless he was born again. Giving your life to Jesus is the first step, not the only one; many stop there and settle into religion without ever experiencing the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit makes the word truly understood, and nobody can ride through life in the side cart of a spouse or parent who is on fire for God.

   Illustration: On a motorbike with a side cart, we cannot be the Christian sitting in the side cart. Each of us has to ride our own motorbike, because a husband will not be standing beside his wife when she gives account.

   “You cannot enter the kingdom of God. You cannot truly understand the kingdom of God unless you are born again.”

   • John 3:1-7

5. Your fruit is not for you

   Apples do not eat the apples on the tree, nor bananas the bananas, because fruit is for others. Our fruit is for our sphere of influence, and if we have no love for the lost we have a form of godliness but not the love of Christ. Beautiful are the feet, not the shoes, of those who preach the gospel. Raise the standard by looking to the cross rather than at your excuses, and God will deal with the things you are trying to micromanage.

   Illustration: You can own a sleep apnoea machine and sleeping tablets and still not sleep if the peace of God is gone. How much would you pay for that peace?

   “In order for us to truly be fruitful, our fruit are not for ourselves. Our fruit are for our sphere of influences.”

   • 2 Timothy 3:5
   • Romans 10:15

6. Let it go

   Many years ago a customer who owed him millions never paid, and the business was taken from under his feet. He was ready to call off his wedding, angry and ready for war, until his father sat him down and told him that if he did not forgive and let it go, God could not move. He put the lawyer's letter in his shoe, walked into a service and chose to let it go; it took five more years to settle in the natural, but in his heart it was over that day. He calls the church forward to release what is holding them before they take communion.

   Illustration: His father was a career policeman who became a pastor only after retiring, and he felt robbed of his father by the police until the Holy Spirit restored the relationship. He calls young men forward to release their fathers, warning that if they do not, they will become the man their father was.

   “If you don't forgive and you don't let that thing go, God can't move and God can't work.”

   • Psalm 139:23-24

In this message