A New Beginning presents a new book from Pastor Greg Laurie. We are offering a brand new resource called The House of David Devotional and it's based on the great Psalms of David as well as the life of David. So I'm going to put this brand new devotional in your hand so you can learn from this man of God. Or your gift of any size at harvest.org.
It's the official companion resource for the new Amazon TV series also called The House of David. Here's Nicodemus, a man who was hungry for real truth. He had everything one would want in life but something was missing. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us chart the spiritual pathway of a man who is searching but who found what his heart longed for. Everyone deep down inside is empty.
And why are they empty? Because effectively God created us with a void in our life that can only be filled with Him. Some may think Jesus is only for the needy, the neglected, the down and out. But Pastor Greg Laurie has pointed out before Jesus is for the up and outers as well. He's for those who've tried and failed. He's for those who've tried and succeeded.
He's for everyone. For God so loved the world. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us follow the trajectory of one man's walk of faith.
He knew there was something more out there and he found it. We're in a brand new series called Jesus and You. So it's about the encounters that Christ had with different individuals. So just imagine for a moment if you will if you could have a personal appointment with Jesus. Just you and the Lord hanging out. Maybe over a cup of coffee. You could ask Him any question. No topic was off limits.
Just you and Jesus. A younger person might have some different questions and an older person might. A younger person might ask about their identity or their purpose in life or what course their life would take. An older person might ask questions about the afterlife or their mortality. Studies have shown that's what people think about as they get older.
In fact it's what they ought to be thinking about as they get older. I don't know if you've seen that film Saving Private Ryan but it's a powerful film. And in this movie Captain John Miller played by Tom Hanks is sent on a mission. And it is to save Private Ryan because Private Ryan's three brothers had been killed in combat.
And it was felt that the mother could not stand the heartbreak of losing all four of her sons. So some soldiers are sent on a mission to save Private Ryan. And they finally located them. Tragically almost everyone in the squad that was sent to save this young man died in combat. And at the very end of the film they finally find Private Ryan played by Matt Damon. And then Captain Miller is shot. And he's dying. And he says to Private Ryan, James earn this.
Earn it. So now you go to the end of the film. And Private Ryan's an older man. And he goes to a cemetery to visit the grave of Captain Miller who had died saving his life. And he is there with his family. And he says to them he tried to live the best life that he could live. And he hoped he earned what they all did for him. And then he turns to his wife and says, tell me that I lived a good life.
Tell me I am a good man. You know. And that is a valid statement to make. And we have a similar situation in the story before us. We have an elderly gentleman thinking about his mortality.
Realizing he may not have that much longer to live. And he comes to Jesus. And the name of this man is known to most of us. His name was Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was effectively a household name. He was known to be a great spiritual leader. He was an intellectual. He was a deeply moral man. Obviously a very religious man and a leader of the highest order. And now he encounters a humble, a completely uneducated or comparatively uneducated poor carpenter from Nazareth. So here we have the intellectual elite with a man that was controversial.
But it really wasn't a rabbi and a carpenter. This is effectively a conversation between God and man. And we could not nominate a better representative than Nicodemus. He was sort of the finest of humanity.
Sort of speaking on our behalf. And so Jesus unfolds the mysteries of life to Nicodemus. And Christ also utters probably the best known Bible verse of all time. John 3 16. But before this conversation begins to unfold in John 3 we have what happened before it in John chapter 2 verse 23. Look at that with me. Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration many began to trust him.
Ok that sounds good. Maybe your translation says many believed in him. But then this. But Jesus didn't trust them because he knew all people. No one needed to tell him about human nature for he knew what was in each human heart.
Wow powerful statement. Many trusted in him but effectively he didn't trust in them. Many believed in him but he didn't believe in them.
Why? Because their faith was superficial. It was based on the spectacular. On miracles that they had seen. It wasn't a genuine in real faith. When someone is really seeking God the Lord will reveal himself to them. But if you are not a true seeker God won't reveal himself to you. Now in contrast this we come to chapter 3. But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. Now when the Bible was originally written there were not chapters and verses. Jesus did not begin a statement with chapter 1 verse 1. We added that later so we could find our way around in our Bible.
So this is a flow of thought. So these people believed in him but he didn't believe in them. But there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. So in contrast here is a true seeker.
Let's look at it. John 3. We read that there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. A ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night.
You might underline that. We will come back to it. He 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 them.' Jesus answered and said to him, "'Most assuredly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to him, "'But how can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Jesus answered, "'Most assuredly I say to you unless one is born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don't marvel that I have said to you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said to him, "'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said, "'Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't know these things?'"
We will stop there. So here is Nicodemus. A man who was hungry for real truth.
He had everything one would want in life but something was missing. You know as long as we think our dream is going to be realized we may press on in life. We set certain goals. I am going to go to school. I am going to go to college. I am going to get that degree. I am going to get that good job. I am hopefully going to get promoted in my job and then I am going to get married and then we will have kids. These are all goals that we set. Maybe we meet those goals and after we have been married for 15 years you would say, I don't know, maybe I will marry somebody else. So we trade our spouses in and then with the kids you say, I enjoy having kids but are they ever going to leave the house. They are all in their 50s now. So we just keep thinking when I get to this certain place then I am going to be happy.
Then you get to that place and you are still not happy. You may have read the tragic story of this member of the band One Direction. Liam Payne. Very successful. His group sold over 70 million records.
They had global fame. And he died recently falling off a balcony in a hotel in Argentina. And so this young man did an interview before this event happened. And in the interview he said quote he had hit rock bottom during this time in One Direction. It was due to his use of drugs and alcohol. He said, I was worried.
Where is rock bottom for me? And you would have never seen it. I am very good at hiding it. And now he is gone. I wish I could have said to young Liam Payne, Liam for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. And whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Why is it that someone who is so successful turns to drugs and alcohol?
Here is the simple answer. You think it is going to get better if I hit this goal. Then one day you hit the goal and a very rare group of people hit the goals they set in life and surpass them. In other words they get to the top and they find out there is nothing there. And that is why so many of our popular iconic rock figures and movie stars and others end up addicted to drugs. End up sometimes taking their own lives.
This is not new to our generation. King Solomon experienced it in his day. He had unlimited wealth and power and everything you could want in life.
And he said, one day I looked at everything that I had and it was all emptiness. Tom Brady who is the GOAT. The greatest of all time. The greatest quarterback has won seven Super Bowls. After he won three Super Bowl rings he made this statement and I quote, why do I have three Super Bowl rings and think there is something greater out there for me? I mean a lot of people would say hey man this is what it is.
I reached my goal, my dream, my life but I think God it has got to be more than this. And then Brad Pitt who people mistake me for often. That was not a joke.
That is the most insulting laughter I have ever. No it is meant to be a joke of course. Brad Pitt who I am never mistaken for has been very successful in his career said quote, I know all these things. They are supposed to seem important to us. The car, the condo are versions of success.
But if that is the case why is the general feeling out there reflecting more impotence and isolation and desperation and loneliness. End quote. Lady Gaga said quote, I won an Oscar.
I sing at the Super Bowl. But in some ways I still feel empty inside. I think it is because I am still searching for who I am and where I fit in.
End quote. You know we look up to these people. Oh I wish I was like this movie star. I wish I was like that singer. I wish I was like this athlete. And then I would be happy.
No you probably wouldn't be at all. After Greg Laurie, I will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Well we are talking about the search for happiness and fulfillment.
Pastor Greg's message is titled Jesus and the Moral Man. Here is something that is true of every person. I don't care if they are young or old, famous, infamous, or completely unknown.
It doesn't matter if they are a man or a woman. Everyone deep down inside is empty. And why are they empty? Because effectively God created us with a void in our life that can only be filled with Him. So you will try to fill that void with so many things. Relationships, sexual experiences, drugs, alcohol, accomplishments, possessions.
The list goes on. But you will only find the satisfaction you seek in a relationship with God. Number one everyone is empty. Number two everyone is lonely. You may have a lot of friends. You may be at a party with people all around you and a deep sense of loneliness just sweeps over you.
That is a loneliness for God. Thirdly everyone is guilty. We feel guilt. We try to mask it.
We try to pretend it is not there but it is there. And you know why you feel guilty? Because you are guilty. Because you are a sinner. I am a sinner. We have all broken God's commandments. And lastly everyone is afraid to die.
Oh I know we will show great bravado and laugh at it. No. Deep down inside when you are laying your head on the pillow you think of your mortality and people are afraid to die.
Well the gospel answers all of those issues. So coming back to Nicodemus here he is. Powerful. Rich. Famous. People went to him for answers but he had questions. So he comes to Jesus and verse 1 says he was a Pharisee. And we usually think of the Pharisees in a negative light.
And understandably so. Because Christ saved his most scathing words for these religious leaders. But they weren't all bad. In fact Nicodemus was a good Pharisee. He was looking for truth. But they were a select group never numbering more than 6,000 and each had taken a solemn vow before three witnesses that they would dedicate their entire life to the keeping of the commandments of God. But they weren't satisfied with the Scripture alone. So there was another group called the Scribes that came up with a whole other book very thick called the Mishnah. It had 24 chapters alone dedicated to how to keep the Sabbath.
And in addition to the Mishnah the Scribes wrote a commentary on the Mishnah called the Talmud. So they have all of these books and all of these rules and all of these regulations and they felt if we do all of these things we will be pleasing to God. They also would put on displays of piety and religiousness. When they would pray they would pray loudly on a street corner. You remember the story that Jesus told of a Pharisee and a publican that went into the temple to pray. And the Pharisee said God I thank you I am not like other men.
I fast. I tithe. And I am not like this publican over here. And the publican who is a tax collector just said God be merciful to me etcetera. But that is typical Phariseedical behavior. I am so awesome.
I am better than everybody else. But you know we can be like Pharisees too. We can do things for theater. We can do things to make people think we are more spiritual than we really are. I mean they had all of their extra volumes to the Bible. We can have all of our commentaries that we carry with us to church commentaries. Really big Bible. Our Bible is bigger than anyone's Bible. And we take pictures of ourselves doing devotions with our Bible and all of our commentaries in front of us. And we are like wow look at me. And we are learning a few Greek words now and we use them all the time even when we don't need to.
You don't need to use Greek when you are ordering it in an hamburger but you do it anyway. You just do things that cause people to think you are more spiritual than you really are. Here is the bottom line. If you are a really spiritual person you won't be a show off. You will be more humble. You won't assert yourself and say look how great and awesome I am.
You will do the very opposite. After years of walking with God the apostle Paul himself said hey it is not that I have already attained but I press on toward the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. Let's paraphrase.
Hey I have got a long ways to go. But that is the way the Pharisees rolled. And they thought that they were better than anyone else. So along comes Nicodemus. Now he is one of the primary leaders. He is identified as a ruler. There was a ruler among the Pharisees. So now we have the Pharisees that are an elite group.
Now we have the Sanhedrin that rules over the Pharisees. And Nicodemus was on the top of the heap. He was the goat.
Right? Someone called me the goat the other day. I was really complimented. Hey you goat. They said old goat get out of the way. How did you mean that exactly? I was offended. I just moved you know very quickly.
As quickly as an old goat can move actually. I was talking to some Gen Z kids and they told me about the term Riz. He had Riz right? It means he had charisma.
Well he did. He was the man that others went to for advice. And so he comes to Jesus and we look at this now. In three ways this conversation goes. Number one they had a conversation face to face. Face to face verses two to three. Mind to mind verses four to eight. And finally heart to heart verses nine to twenty-one.
So here is point number one. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. But at least he came. He came to Jesus by night but at least he came. So it was Nic at night. I want to get that joke out of the way. It is a dated joke because there is no Nic at night anymore is there?
So people who are old ago I remember that. Ok so he comes at night. Now why? Why did Nicodemus come at night? Well the obvious reason would have been he is Nicodemus. Everyone knows him. He is the guy that is supposed to have the answers. He didn't want to be seen talking to Jesus.
That could be the reason. Another reason could be that well Jesus was a busy guy and every day was filled with activities. He was raising the dead. He was healing the sick. He was giving the greatest teachings ever given.
Teaching in parables so much. And at the end of the day he would be exhausted. But Nicodemus did not want a moment with the Lord. He wanted a conversation with Christ. He effectively wanted an interview. And so he came at night.
Point number two. Better to have a weak beginning and a strong finish than the opposite. So Nicodemus didn't have the strongest beginning. He kind of comes under the cover of night. Has this conversation with Christ. But in the end he came through for Jesus. In the end Nicodemus along with a man named Joseph of Armathea came and claimed the body of Christ publicly.
That was a very unpopular and even dangerous thing for the two of them to do. But it is even said Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night came with Joseph of Armathea to take the dead body of Christ and bury it. So there are some people that have a strong beginning.
But they have a bad ending. And the Christian life is compared to a race on more than one occasion. And the key of this race that we are running is not only to win to the best of our ability but it is to finish it well. The apostle Paul said I want to finish my race with joy. Then he wrote to Timothy I fought the good fight. I kept the faith. I finished the course. Henceforth there is later for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me in that day.
And not to me only but to all who love is appearing. So finishing well. Maybe Nicodemus had a weak beginning but he had a strong finish.
Consider this. Judas Iscariot was an apostle in good standing while old Nicodemus was groping his way in. But in the end of our Lord's ministry Judas betrayed Christ and Nicodemus came through with flying colors. Important insights today here on A New Beginning as Pastor Greg Laurie is offering a look at Nicodemus in his message, Jesus and the Moral Man. It's important to think about our own spiritual journey. Are we searching? Have we found what we've been searching for?
Are we going to finish well? Pastor Greg maybe somebody would like to make a change in their relationship with God today. They'd like to find what Nicodemus found.
What would you say to them? I would say that God is just a prayer away. You know it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. Frankly it doesn't even take hours.
It can happen so quickly. It just starts with you saying to God, I know I'm a sinner. I know that you love me. I know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and pay for those sins and then to rise again from the dead and I want him to come into my life. So here's my question to you.
Have you done that yet? Because Jesus who did die on that cross and rose again from the dead three days later is alive and standing at the door of your life right now and he's knocking and he's saying if you hear my voice and open the door I will come in. Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die you will go to heaven?
Do you want Christ to come into your life right now? If so why don't you just stop whatever it is you're doing and pray this prayer with me. You can pray it out loud. You can pray it in the quietness of your own heart but pray this prayer to God. Say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I ask all of this in Jesus name.
Amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer the Bible promises that God has heard your prayer and has answered that prayer. The Bible says that we will confess our sin.
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God bless you. You've made the right decision. The decision to follow Jesus Christ. Yeah yeah that's right and listen as you begin to live this new life we want to send you something to help you get started off right. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's an easy to understand translation plus hundreds and hundreds of study helps especially for those who are new to the faith.
It'll answer the questions you may have. So get in touch for your New Believers Bible. We'll send it free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300. Again that's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside California 92514.
Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially. Those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We're definitely a listener supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help.
It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside California 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again that's 1-800-821-3300. Well next time more insight from this encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus in the message Jesus and the moral man. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
