All right, destination. We are continuing in this awesome message series. I'm kind of biased though.

I really like it. It's called Who is Jesus. And the idea is that we're answering some of these big questions about who Jesus is and looking at the Gospel of John.

And so each week's been one of these really big questions that your kid would ask you right before going to bed, like why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad. Like why is the world the way that it is. And why did God do this.

And we're looking at all of these really big questions going through the book of John. And today is what I like to call the title track of the message series. Today's question is, who is Jesus.

Okay, you guys know what I mean by title track. Are you tracking with me. Okay, let's we can have some interaction this morning.

We're going to Okay, as a matter of fact, it's going to be a really fun morning. But title track, what I mean by that is like take somebody like Michael Jackson. Okay, Michael Jackson's got a record called Thriller and has a hit song called >> Thriller.

We we we have an idea here. So, this one is the title track of the series, Who is Jesus. And I love I'm a music nerd.

I love talking about music. I grew up being in bands and even DJing some weddings. And I would say that my Spotify playlists are on point, okay. They're really good playlists, but I got to be honest with you guys, I think my age now, mid30s, about 36 going on 37 here.

I think it's the age where you start to lose touch with like modern music. You know what I mean. Like I'm starting to really find some kind of distance between me and modern music.

I want to show you what I mean. So, this song I I just I I had the radio playing a couple of weeks ago. This song comes on.

You guys hear this. So, what song comes to mind for me. I'm thinking 2011.

I'm thinking it's somebody that I used to know, right. >> Who is this chick. She just straight up stole somebody that I was ready to sing. You didn't mean to cut me off. But no, it wasn't that song.

And I got tricked and I was really upset about that. And this is a this is something called sampling. It's when an artist takes the original piece of music and tricks somebody like us into thinking that they're as cool as the original artist.

And I bet you I bet you you've been tricked before. I'm going to see if I can trick you this morning. You want to have a little fun, Destination. I want you to just listen to a section of a song and I want you to see if you can figure out what it is. Who thinks it's Ice Ice Baby.

>> You're wrong. >> You need to stop, collaborate, and listen because it's what is it. >> Under pressure by Queen, right. >> All right.

Another section of a song. Are you sure. >> Are you sure. >> Who thinks it's Werewolves of Thunder. See, like you you guys are shouting out the answer, so you're giving it away.

Like half the room was like, "Are you sure that sounded like Sweet Home Alabama. " It's because it was I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

It was Werewolves of Thunder, but the original was from Sweet Home Alabama. And then you could take it even further and and there's this song called All Summer Long, which maybe you've heard before. That is also Sweet Home Alabama.

Let's do one more. This one, keep the answer to yourself in your head. Okay, now yell out your answer. >> Stevie Nicks. See, somebody did say, "Okay, check this out.

Check this out. This is what you were just hearing. This is Stevie Nicks. " Now you you see you could you could be really tricked.

By the way, I've always wanted to come and stage to this and then start boxing. I'm not going to do that. My dad would get way too pumped about that. Okay, it's not happening. Okay, here's my point.

All of these songs you could listen to a snidbit and we could do more. I have a whole playlist of these. Like I said, my playlist game's on point.

My point is that we can so easily become tricked by something that we think is the original but is actually just a cover song. And a lot of us can sit in church and sit under the what we think is the right Christian things to do but completely miss the original intent, the original purpose. And that's what we're going to look at today as we answer this big question. Who is Jesus. We're going to look at this guy named Nicodemus.

And if you want to, you can turn there and follow along with us. It's going to be on page 913 in those Bibles. And it's John chapter 3.

By the way, again, I say it every week. If you don't have a Bible, take this one home with you. It's ours to give to you for you to open up during the week.

And also pull out your notebooks because just praying that God would speak to you this morning. But what we're going to do is before we answer this question, we need to witness this beautiful conversation that happens between Nicodemus and Jesus. And so I'm going to read a little bit and kind of give some give some talks along the way here. So let's start verse one. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicobine, who was 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 signs you are doing if God were not with them. " Okay, so just a little bit of context here. Previously on the book of John, Jesus started performing miracles. Okay, that's kind of where we left off.

Jesus is gaining traction in his ministry. And so this guy named Nicodemus comes and visits him at night. That's a very important detail because you know for us in Minnesota, everything feels like it's at night because it's constantly dark around here, right. But for this time and age, traveling in the night meant you didn't want to be seen.

And so this is kind of where Nicodemus finds himself, where he's curious enough to ask Jesus some questions, but kind of a little bit more reserved where he doesn't want anybody to know about it. And if we're being honest, sometimes even us in our faith, we're kind of like this. Sometimes we're vocal enough on Sunday to vocalize our faith, but we live more in the dark around our co-workers or on Monday. But now, Nicodemus is going to start asking these questions like he does here. He he sees that Jesus is starting to perform these signs and wonders.

This is how Jesus responds. Verse three, he says, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. " How can somebody be born when they're old.

Nicodemus asks. Surely they cannot enter enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. Okay, so this happens a lot through the book of John, and we're going to have to get used to it. Okay, Jesus is trying to illustrate a spiritual reality with a physical truth. And what's happening is they're taking him Nicodemus is taking him really literally.

It's like when my daughter says, ", I'm hungry. " And my response is, "Hi, hungry. " Like, I'm taking her literally. Every single dad in this room is just like, "Yep, I do it, too.

" , seriously though, like this is this is the seriousness that he's he's taking it. Now, verse five, look at what Jesus says. , Jesus answers, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom unless they are born of water and spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to the spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you should must be born again.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going. So, it is everyone born with the spirit. So, this is what's happening now. So, Jesus kind of sets him straight.

He's like, I'm not talking about this physical reality. There's two. You can be born of the flesh and born of the spirit.

I'm talking about the spirit side. And then he kind of is is a little surprised with Nicodemus. You shouldn't be surprised by this.

Like you should know these things, Nicodemus. And the things that you need to know about who Nicodemus is this is a guy who you would be greeted at at church. Like he is a religious guy. He's somebody who kind of has it all put together on the surface.

And so Jesus is kind of talking to him with the assumption that he's a church guy, that he knows what he's talking about. And he he's surprised because even in this moment, Nicodemus should know that Jesus is referencing Bible verses. Do you ever get around kind of your Christian friends and they start like throwing a Bible verse at you and you're like, "Yeah, I know that one. " When really like you have no idea what they're talking about.

Maybe it's just me, okay. It's happened. And like somebody will come up and be like, "Hey, what's the context of Genesis 36.

" I'm like, "I don't know. I haven't read it this week. Can you tell me what you're talking about. " , but this is the idea here is that Jesus is kind of presenting him with a fulfillment of scripture and he's he's referencing Ezekiel 36 25 which says this. It says, "I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.

I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And so what Jesus is after here is this transformation. He's talking to Nicodemus about look, you're seeking the information, but I need you to be seeking the transformation. And then he hits him with this apologetic.

This is I I I think this is just Jesus's way of explaining a little bit of the Holy Spirit. He says in verse 8, "The wind blows wherever it pleases, and you hear the sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. " Can I tell you a really cool story about this verse really quick. I one of my first jobs ever, true story, was at a go-kart track, okay.

And I worked at this go-kart track and there was this mechanic there who did not believe in Jesus at all. And I was 16 years old, barely had a year under my belt of faith in Christ. And I was reading through the book of John. And at the same time I was reading through this particular passage my youth pastor at the time gave this analogy.

He said he answered this question. How do you believe in a god that you can't see. And and he would say well you can't see the wind but you can see the effects of the wind. You can see it blow through the trees. You can even feel the wind's presence in your life.

So it is with God and God's Holy Spirit that God's spirit moves in a way. And and so I shared this apologetic. And this was my first time. This is why I remember it so vividly.

This was my first time ever sharing Jesus with somebody. And I I used these words that I read through John chapter 3. And it's just so cool that I think Jesus is trying to have this pastoral moment here with Nicodemus where he's bringing him deeper into knowing who he is.

He wants to see that transformation in Nicodemus. And this is the really important thing about who Jesus is. That Jesus is about transformation more than information. He's about the transformation of our hearts.

And now, while he's giving Nicodemus all of the information he needs, what he's really after is taking the heart of stone and turning it into a new heart. He's going to place a new spirit within him. He's about transformation. What we do here at destination is about transformation. That's why announcements information are only about two to three minutes.

And everything else from worship to the message, everything else is transformation. And guess what. All the information that we give you during announcements is just leading to further transformation for you.

And so Jesus is about this kind of transformation. He really wants Nicodemus so badly to just realize and understand this and he's starting to just really kind of bottomline it for him. So look at verse 10. It says, "You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus.

And you don't understand these things. Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. But still you people don't accept our testimony. I have spoken to you on these earthly things and you do not believe.

How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things. No one has gone into heaven except for the one who came from heaven, the son of man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. So here again, Jesus is throwing it back to the Old Testament. He's using an analogy using the story of Moses and he's saying, "Look, Nicodemus, here's the testimony.

I'm right in front of you. And if you cannot believe when I'm right in front of you to have these answers, to have this kind of transformation, if you can't believe that, then you're gonna miss it when you get to the beauty and the splendor of heaven in eternal life. And I don't want you to miss that. So I need you to see I need you to see even though you're you're Israel's teacher. I need you to understand these things.

And this teaches us something so important that like Nicodemus, we can have Jesus right in front of us but still miss him. Isn't that a scary reality that all of us can have Jesus right in front of us but still miss him. I'll give you an an analogy here.

In seventh grade, I had this biology class and I was in the class every day. Didn't miss a class. I took notes.

I read the book. I did the homework, but I failed the test. Completely failed the test. And the reason why I failed the test is because I was doing all the right things, but none of it was getting to here.

None of it was getting to here. None of it was really resonating with me in a way where I understood it. And the scary thing is is that we can sit in church and be church people and and and claim Christ a lot of times, which is all good things, but we could sit there and we could not know the real person of Jesus.

And so this apologetic, this section of scripture here where Jesus is having this conversation with Nicodemus, if we are in here and we say, "I'm a Christ follower," this should be something where we really open up our ears and listen to the story that's unfolding here. Because any one of us at any time can fall into this trap of becoming like Nicodemus and be seeking more of the answers to these questions and more of the information instead of the transformation that Jesus wants in your life. And so this plea that Jesus has is not to miss this. Now the cool thing is you know what verse we're getting to. We just left off on 15.

You know where we're getting to now, right. This is like the theme song of John, right. And this is this big moment where all of this discussion is gonna get summarized.

This is the most famous Bible verse. Some people call it the back of the Bible Bible verse. Do you know what that means. When you pick up a book off a shelf and you want to know what it's about, you read the back of the book. People say John is the back of the book.

If it's this whole thing summarized and it says this, I'm sure you might have heard it before. 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. Have you taken in the beauty of that statement, the beauty of those words.

Because it shows us something so amazing about the character of not only who Jesus is but who the father is. This is what it teaches us that the father gives the son goes because they love. The father gives his son and god goes because they love.

Listen, the whole story, this whole narrative of the Bible is that God is in pursuit of his people through the Old Testament. He's pursuing them and trying to give them chance upon chance to show them that he loves them, to provide mana in the desert and to do all these amazing signs and to show his presence, right. And he does all of these things and per and and gives and gives and gives and then he makes this ultimate sacrifice of giving his son. Now listen, if you're a parent, you know that you've sent your kids places before, right.

You've signed them up for sports or just sent them out to go play or sent them away for a little while so you could get some peace and quiet, right. And and but if you think about it from a parent's perspective, you would never send your son to go into certain death. But yet that's the father heart of God. And what's happening here is this is a fulfillment of another Old Testament thing that happened. The story about Abraham and Isaac.

If you don't know it, it's a really quick summary here that Abraham is promised a son and he waits and waits and waits and waits and waits for a son. He even tries to make a son happen out of wedlock and it and it doesn't go well. And finally in his old age, he's given his son Isaac. And then God gives him this command. I want you to go sacrifice your son.

That's crazy. And then Abraham listens. He takes Isaac up to a mountain and he's ready to sacrifice him. And God stops. God stops him and says, "Wait, there's somebody that can stand in that sacrificial place.

" And he shows him a spotless lamb. What else do we know. Jesus as a lamb.

The lamb of God. He is the sacrifice. And then he says to Abraham, I'm going to make you a father of many nations, a father of this idea of bringing Jesus into the world.

You see, God isn't asking us to be Abraham, but he is trying to show that he has that kind of sacrificial love for each and every one of us in this room. No matter what we've done, no matter what we're doing, and no matter what we have yet to do. And so, listen, Christian, when you feel called or you feel that little nudge inside of you that's a little uncomfortable that says, "Hey, sacrifice something. " I know it's really hard to listen to, but remember how much God sacrificed for you. Remember the father's love for you and the sacrifice he made for you.

And when I do that, it becomes easier for for me to give out of my sacrifice because I love God, because I love other people. And so when you feel that nudge to give, remember the father's heart of giving. When you feel that nudge to share with somebody who might not know Jesus, share because they need to know about this this son that came to give them eternal life. Not because you feel guilty about it or not because you think you should, but because you want to do it out of reverence for God's love for you. Do you understand how much God loves you.

God loves you so much. But still the question that like lingers in my mind as I sit and reflect on that love is why did he have to send his son. Why was that the display of love that God needed to give to us.

Why couldn't he have just like I don't know erased it or done something else. Well, John 17 goes on to say it. Let's look at John 17.

It says, "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. " That whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever believes or whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. So again, this now is contrasting. Just a quick side note here, you can't have John 16 without having John 17. Okay, John 17 packs a little bit more of a punch.

And it shows us again something different about the father's heart and about the son's heart. That the father is just and the son saves so that we are not condemned. Now, what I mean by this is I love this title of savior for God.

I'm a big superhero nerd and so I'm just like I love calling Jesus savior because he really saved me from something. Do you know that Jesus saved you from something. And what that something was was justice was the father's justice. It's this balance between truth and love and love and justice.

And you can't have one without having the other. Now listen to me. If you if you don't spend a lot of time in this Bible, that's okay.

But something you need to know as you open it up and it changes the way that you read it is to know that God is both truth and love. That God is both just and love. And when you know that both of those things exist in the character of God, in the personhood of Jesus, you start to understand this book differently.

Let me kind of give you an example. If somebody came in the door right now and started hassling you, okay, and started kind of pushing you around and making a scene, I would, as the pastor and shepherd of this kind of this group here, I would seek justice. I would call the cops.

I'd call our security team. I'd probably have a couple guys that would voluntarily stand up and do something about it, right. I would do something to seek justice to make sure that justice was served because why. That's the loving thing to do in that situation, right.

And so throughout human history, there's been people that have done those kind of things that have walked away from God and done evil things and done different things that they need justice served because that is loving. That is God showing his love through truth and through justice. If you love somebody, typically you would tell them the truth.

And so God is is trying to paint this picture that look if you are condemned there was this savior that came and paid a price for you that you were bought at a price that you owed for some of this bad stuff that you have kind of accumulated in your life. And the good news of the gospel is that Jesus stood in your spot to pay the price. Romans tells us that you were bought at a price. So live like it.

Live like you were bought at a price. Live like Jesus did something worth saving you for. Let me just say it like this. If Jesus is just, then sin must be punished. But if God is loving, then sinners must be saved.

This is where we start to understand the gospel. The cross is where both happen. The cross is where both sin is paid for in full. And the cross is the ultimate display of Jesus's love for you.

This gives us the most realistic picture of who Jesus is. If you want a real answer of who Jesus is, he is a sacrificial savior that loved us so much that he was willing to die for each and every one of you so you could have life here on earth and eternal life in heaven. Don't miss knowing that savior.

And you'd think with this reality, you think with this simple gospel it would be so easy to just accept. But we all know somebody who just hasn't really came to know this yet. Or maybe we are somebody who just hasn't come to know this yet.

And John also addresses that. Look at verse 19. He says, "This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives in truth comes into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. So here's the truth.

The truth is if we're being honest about ourselves that sometimes we like the darkness a little bit more than we would like to lead on on Sunday, right. We're saints on Sundays and then we sin by Monday or Sunday afternoon depending on what football game you're watching, right. But see, that's that's the picture.

The picture is that we get all of this information, but we miss some of the transformation that Jesus is trying to do in each and every one of you. Now, let me just say that I've been praying for our church to be a church where people are changed, where they find and follow Jesus in a way where they are transformed, where I'm not just speaking at you, but you are experiencing the transformational power of Jesus. And that you're seeing and walking into this light that Jesus gives. Because look at this is the coolest thing about this whole story. You ready for it to come full circle.

This is so cool. So this is the end of John chapter 3. But if we look at the rest of Nicodemus's story, we see something really beautiful.

Okay, if we go throughout the book of John, we we see Nicodemus again in John chapter 7 and Nicodemus starts sticking up for Jesus. Now remember, he visited Jesus in when the dark, right. And so he starts sharing about Jesus to other Pharisees and religious leaders. And then and then in John chapter 19, Jesus has died.

Hope is gone and we hear Nicodemus's name again. Look at how we hear it. This is the the account from John chapter 19.

He that's followers of Jesus, Joseph and some others were accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrr and allows about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus's body, the two of them wrapped it with spices in strips of linen.

Now, I want to tell you about the significance of this. Can I tell you about the significance of this. I'm going to get really excited.

The significance is this was a man who was once too embarrassed to be seen talking to Jesus. And now he is helping take Jesus's body off of a cross. And not only that, but do you know how much this would have costed Nicodemus.

Like physically money with all of the myrr and allows and all of the mixture of stuff that they that they listed here. That was a lot of money that Nicodemus was just willing to put down into a proper burial for Jesus. Not only that, but it can be very much assumed that Jesus or that Nicodemus lost all of his credentials.

He lost his job. He lost his friends. He lost everything because he wanted people to see that I have now walked into the light.

I've walked out of this darkness and into this light because I finally get it. I finally understand that whoever loves that God loves us so much that he gave his one and only son. And this guy right here, this is that son.

And I'm willing to believe that. And when you understand that God's love is like that, when you see him as savior, you start really living for God and not anything else. And that's what Nicodemus does. He starts living for Jesus above anything else.

You and I have the tendency, and maybe I'll just say, hey, maybe it's just me, but you and I have the tendency to make other things that aren't Jesus our savior. And you know how you know it's however you fill in this blank. If I had more blank, I'd be happy.

If I had more money, I'd be happy. If I had more comfort, if I had a vacation, I would be happy. Those things in your life when pursued in a way that we are supposed to be pursuing Jesus become the savior of your life.

Here's the thing. You don't need more of any of those things. You need more of Jesus. And if you are in here, you have the danger of living like Nicodemus where you fill other things into those blanks.

And I don't want you to miss what Jesus has for you. And so I'm just going to ask you to bow your heads and and close your eyes. I just this is something we do at destination to just have a a moment to reflect on what our action is, what next step that we're going to take as a result of of today. And maybe for you, you find yourself being like Nicodemus where you sat in church for a really long time.

You went to Sunday school. You said all the right things, but you would say that you maybe just have the information more so than the transformation. If that's you today, I just want to invite you to find and follow Jesus in a way that puts him as savior and lord of your life above all else. For some of you, it's not that you need to say yes for the first time, but it's that you need to say yes for everything for all time.

And for some of you, maybe you're in this room and you haven't accepted Jesus. Maybe you haven't came to know this savior in this way. To know that God so loved you that he gave his one and only son so that you can have life on earth and life for eternity in heaven. And so if that's you, I just ask you to come connect with myself, with Joshua, with one of our next steps team at the next steps table.

We want to pray over you and we want to help get you involved in your next steps. But for the rest of us, I just I want to pray over you, God. Thank you so much for your word in in John chapter 3.

Thank you so much for this conversation, God, that can help us to open our eyes as we sit in church week after week. God, help us not to miss you. Help us to leave transformed.

Help us to know you better. Not just to check a box, but to truly be changed by who you are. Jesus, you are love.

You are truth. You are just, you are grace. And God, we thank you for that and we praise you for that. So God, just be with us as we as we put you first in all things in Jesus name.