Monday, February 7, 2011

I am not ashamed!

In todays text we learn about the night Nicodemus came to Jesus and they spoke about the concept of being born again. Now The born again thing is something that everyone talks about on a fairly consistent basis, I want to talk about some of the hidden lessons in this text. First lets start with the text, which comes from John 3: 1-21.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.a”
4“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spiritb gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘Youc must be born again.’ 8The 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.”
9“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11I 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. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.d 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.e
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.g 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But 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.”h


Now in the story it very plainly states that Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night and tells Him that he knows He is from God, simply based on the lessons Nicodemus has heard Jesus give and the things he has seen Jesus do. He begins to discuss the philosophy behind what Jesus is teaching as he travels from town to town and asks questions about the conceept of being born again. He is very intrigued by all of this and wants to learn all that he can, but he doesnt want anyone to see that he is with Jesus.

The reason he doesnt want anyone to see him with Jesus is because he is a very important person in the society of the Jews and considered to essentially be a high level ruler in the area. If someone were to see him spending time with Jesus, he could lose his status, or even be prosecuted for a crime. In this time it was very dangerous to go against the grain of the society and not follow the religious teachings that they were given, so anything and everything that Jesus taught or said was essentially illegal and nobody liked what he was doing. Nicodemus liked what Jesus was teaching, but he was afraid to show it to the people around him.

This is what I see as the problem a LOT of young people face today. It may be OK to go out and go to church with your family or attend church functions, but if you begin to start talking about what youre learning in church or what you believe as a part of your faith to your friends or society, then it stops being OK and begins to be "taboo". When I was growing up and coming into my faith that was very much one of the same problems I faced. Today, I know that without my faith I wouldnt have anything that I have today or be a fraction of the person I am. I know that I have to share my faith with others for it to mean anything. Faith is a VERY personal thing, and is a little different for each and every person, but it shouldnt be so personal that no one knows you have faith. It is my personal challenge to any and all that read this or hear this message from me to begin to take the LEAP that I have talked about and Eat that frog. We have to get out there and share what Christ means to us with the people around us. We have to be the ones to make it cool to have faith, or no one will do it for us.

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