Live Free with Josh Howerton - Marked By Jesus | Ep. 244 | Thursday, January 11, 2024

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

What does a changed life look like? Nicodemus went from a questioner of the faith to a defender of the faith after his encounter with Jesus. Don’t hold back on your relationship with the Lord. Spend time today encountering Jesus and His word. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Welcome to the Daily Drive podcast. I'm Mike Bro, and we started walking together this new year through a book of the Bible called The Gospel of John. And we've been in chapter three for a couple of days talking about a very cool encounter between Jesus and this intellectual scholar named Nicodemus. There are four different books all about Jesus' life in the New Testament.

They're called the Gospels, which simply means the good news, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it's interesting to me that only John's gospel mentions Nicodemus, and he does. it three different times. Not only in chapter three, but I want to jump over to John Chapter 7 for a second. About a year is past since Nicodemus left his late-knout conversation with Jesus, and by this time, the debates concerning the identity of Jesus are really hegan up. Most of the members of the Sanhedron, they want Jesus dead, they'd had enough of his teachings, enough of his miracles, his popularity, his pointed comments toward them, so they send these guards to arrest Jesus. When the guards come back empty,

handed. The members of the Sanhedron get ticked and asked, why didn't you arrest him? And I love the way the soldiers respond. They say, because we've never heard anybody speak the way that guy does. In other words, if you want him, go get him yourself. We think this man, Jesus is the real deal. Well, the Pharisees climb all over these guys, seeing that they had been deceived, like every other dim-witted loser in Judea, and a heated argument breaks out in the Sanhedron, and then one of their own stands up. Guess who? Yeah, check it out.

Verse 50 of chapter 7. Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number asked, does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he's doing?

You see, Nicodemus had been with Jesus. He had heard those words of eternal life. He had sensed something different. He had been one-on-one with goodness. He had looked into the understanding eyes of truth. He had experienced hope in his presence, so he uses his respective position to say, hang on a minute, man. Are you guys going to jump to conclusions and condemn someone without really taking the time to examine the evidence? This is so cool to me, that his doubt has now turned to

defense. Going secretly at night has turned into public association by day. Private conversation has turned into public debate. So many of us, like Nicodemus, have or have questions, doubts, and we begin to examine the evidence, and the evidence that supports the claims of Jesus, gang, it's absolutely staggering. I'd encourage you to grab a book like The Case for Christ or the Cold Case Christianity or mere Christianity

or evidence that demands a verdict, all written by people who were atheistic in their thinking until they began to examine the evidence. and as a result of that examination, their lies were changed. There's a third time. John mentions Nicodemus. It's in chapter 19, right after the crucifixion of Jesus, and this rips me up every time I read it. It says this in verse 37.

Afterward, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus because he feared the Jewish leaders, asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus' body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away, and with him came... Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought 75 pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices and long sheets of linen cloth. Two powerful guys.

Once in hiding. Hiding from God, hiding from each other. Now together at the cross. And think about what was his... stake for rule-keeping Nicodemus in this moment. Both men by handling the dead body have now defiled themselves for the Passover, and no true Pharisee would ever do that for any reason. And to top it off, the body he was handling was Jesus, the one his fraternity had just crucified. He would have been kicked out of the group ostracized and lost everything. And not only that, Nicodemus makes a huge

financial investment as well. You might remember the story of a woman. who annoys Jesus with a bottle of perfume, it said the contents of that vase were worth a year's wages? Well, Nicodemus brings 75 pounds of super-expenses spices with him, primarily mur, because that's how they kind of embalmed the body from the exterior to overpower the decaying stench of death. But this was more than that, though. This was an expression of gratitude and love and deep respect. Nicodemus, this intellectual who had arranged a secret meeting at night, had moved from doubt to defense to devotion. And I just wonder if as he stood at the foot of the cross

looking at the lifeless body of Jesus, I wonder if he heard those words from his late night encounter when Jesus said the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. As Nicodemus helped pry the nails from between Jesus' wrist bones and ankle bones, was his mind swirling with the thoughts of for God's soul of 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 As Nicodemus began to wash Jesus' blood-grinched body with water Could he hear those words

The first words Jesus ever said to him I tell you the truth No one can enter the kingdom of God Unless he is born of water and the spirit So let me ask you, where are you in all this? Maybe you find yourself in his story. What next steps do you need to take? What questions do you have?

Or maybe you've settled most of the questions. But you've never, ever invited Jesus to come into your life and forgive your sin and give you a new birth and give you eternal life. You can do that right now. You can be born again. Be born of the water and the spirit. Die to your old self. Let him wash you clean and give you a new life.

wherever you're at, I just want to encourage you to make this a front-burner issue in your life. And I want to challenge everyone listening to do what Nicodemus did. Step away from the crowd and come face to face with the real Jesus. And let His promise of everlasting life be yours and believe. I love you all and I pray for you every day. I'll see you back tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online,

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