Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night...—John 3:1, 2a
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 is doing?" –John 7:50,51
He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.
—John 19:39
CURIOUS, CONCERNED, COMPASSIONATE, BUT NOT CONVERTED
Conversion involves transformation; it is to undergo change as the result of an experience. Rarely do people change without going through an experience. Few drug addicts just wake up one morning and decide to stop using drugs; few alcoholics just make up their minds to leave the bottle alone; few gambling addicts just decide to stop gambling. That kind of conversion usually requires some kind of experience—what the young folk call drama. You awaken from a drunken stupor, not knowing where you are or what you’ve done; your health begins to fail, and a doctor tells you that you’re killing yourself; you’ve gone through your mortgage money and your car note money and your insurance money, and bill collectors are breathing down your throat. Then you decide you need to make a change in your life.
As it is for those things, so it is with spiritual conversion. Spiritual conversion comes from having an experience with the Lord. But far too many in the Church haven’t been converted. They serve in Church ministries, sing Church hymns, usher Church aisles, teach Church Bible studies, preach from Church pulpits, can quote Bible verses, can pray soul-stirring prayers, give their tithe and their offering, and yet they haven’t been converted—no real change has taken place. And you need to understand that, while conversion comes by way of an experience with the Lord, not every experience with the Lord results in conversion.
Judas Iscariot walked with Jesus for 3 years; he saw Jesus do a lot of great things; he heard Him preach the life-saving words of the Gospel. But at the end, Judas wasn’t converted. He betrayed his Master for 30 pieces of silver and then went out and hung himself. Peter had seen Jesus do some marvelous things—he saw Him raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead; he saw a transfigured Jesus engage in a divine dialogue with Moses and Elijah. But with all that Peter had experienced with Jesus, Peter still had not been converted, for when the moment of truth came, Peter denied that he had ever known Jesus.
And today, there are a lot of people in the Church for reasons other than because they’ve been converted. Somebody’s here to make their spouse happy—you know you won’t get any peace at home unless you go to Church, and so your body’s here, but your mind is somewhere else. Somebody’s trying to bargain with God. You’ve made a mess that you need the Lord to fix, and you figure you’ve got a better chance with God if you come to Church first. Somebody’s here today out of a sense of obligation—you came more out of habit than a genuine desire to worship the Lord, and you feel like God ought to be glad that you got here. But I stopped by to tell you that, if you haven’t come because you’ve been converted, if you haven’t come because you know God is worthy to be praised, if you haven’t come with a mind that’s stayed on Jesus, then you may be in the right place, but you’re not here for the right reason, and I fear that you will leave no better than you were when you came. You need to be converted.
In these texts today, John tells us about a man who had an experience with Jesus, but his experience didn’t lead to conversion. Nicodemus is only mentioned in John’s Gos-pel account—and then only 3 times. We know that he was a Pharisee, an expert in the Law of Moses; we know that he was politically savvy, for he was a member of the powerful Sanhedren Council. He was well-educated, wealthy and quite religious—many of the things we aspire to be. But with all Nicodemus had going for him, his life is a portrait of one who got close to Jesus, but didn’t allow his closeness to end in conversion.
Young people, please hear me today: Get all that you can out of life. Get the best edu-cation that you can; use your education and your talent to earn the best income that you can; get a good religious foundation—read your Bible, come to Worship and Bible Study so that you may be grounded in God’s will. But please remember that true success in life will always be just beyond your grasp until you’ve had a conversion experience with Christ. You can’t live by the Word until you’ve been converted; you can’t make the most of your education or your talent until you’ve been converted; you won’t know how to do use financial resources until you’ve been converted.
Nicodemus was a man with great potential, but he fell short. He had his chances, but he didn’t make the most of his opportunities. His first opportunity is found in John 3, when Nicodemus got curious about Jesus. He had observed Jesus in Jerusalem and he was impressed with what he had seen. He was there when Jesus cleared the Temple and chided the people for having defamed God’s house. And Nicodemus wanted to learn more about Jesus. He say to Him, “Rabbi, I know that You’re sent from God, for no one could do the things that you have done unless God had sent Him.” But it’s not so much what Nicodemus said as it was the way in which he went to see Jesus. John is careful to tell us that he came to Jesus by night. He was worried about what his col-leagues would think if they knew that he was going to see Jesus. The Sanhedren had labeled Jesus a fanatic, Someone to be given no credibility at all. So, despite his curiosity, Nicodemus decided, “I don’t want to risk anything, so the only way I can come to Jesus is to come by night.”
Church, there are a lot of people today who think that the only way they can come to Jesus is by night. Somebody’s in Church today, but you haven’t really come to Jesus; somebody’s singing the Lord’s songs, but you haven’t really come to Jesus; somebody has his Bible open, but you haven’t really come to Jesus. You see, when you come here on Sunday and have a good time in Church, but then leave here and you still can’t treat your neighbor right, that’s coming to Jesus by night; when you come here for Bible study, but then leave here with hate and anger burning in your heart, that’s coming to Jesus by night; when you come here and sing Zion’s songs and get happy, but then leave here not speaking to folk and dragging folks’ name through the mud, that’s coming to Jesus by night; when you come here talking about how good God is and how much He’s done for you, but then no one can see the light of Christ in you on your job or in your home or in your social activities, then that’s coming to Jesus by night. And you need to know that it’s all right to be curious about Jesus, but it’s bad to let other things mean more to you than your personal relationship with the Lord. Somebody here today is calling himself a Christian, and yet there is unforgiveness and meanness and selfishness fresh on your hearts and minds. And when you’re like that, you’re coming to Jesus by night.
Nicodemus was curious about Jesus; Nicodemus was looking for something that would lift the spiritual darkness that was pressed down so heavy on his heart. But he felt like the only way he could come to Jesus was to come by night. And it was a convicting experience. Jesus told him, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.” And you’d think that after such an experience, Nicodemus would have been converted. But conviction doesn’t always produce conversion, and when we turn to our second scripture, we see that Nicodemus still wasn’t converted.
When you turn to the 7th chapter of John, Jesus’ popularity was growing with the people, and it was causing great concern for the Pharisees. They had sent the Temple guards to seize Jesus and bring Him to them, but the returned testifying that they couldn’t stop Him, “...for no one has ever spoken the way this Man does.” And as we find these Pharisees, they’re debating what they should do about Jesus. And John says that Nicodemus was involved in the discussion. And no doubt, Nicodemus was concerned about what was being said by the group. Nicodemus had had an experience with Jesus, and he had been convicted by that experience. But when Nicodemus was given the chance to testify on Jesus’ behalf, Nicodemus chose instead to stand on principles of fairness. Nicodemus says, “It really isn’t fair for us to be talking about this until we’ve heard this Jesus for ourselves.” Now, somebody will read this and say, “Nicodemus did the best that he could.” But I say that he didn’t do the best that he could, for Nicodemus had met with Jesus; Nicodemus had talked with Jesus; Nicodemus had been convicted by Jesus. This was his chance to stand up and say, “We shouldn’t be fighting with Jesus, but we ought to be listening to what He has to say. I’ve heard Him for myself, and I know that He speaks words of eternal life.” But instead, the best that Nicodemus could do was to say, “Let’s be fair about this and withhold our judgment until we have heard the man for ourselves.”
Church, if you’ve been converted, then you ought to be concerned about more than what’s fair; if you’ve been converted, you ought to be concerned about more than pleasing people. If you’ve been converted, then you ought to take advantage of every chance God gives to testify for Jesus Christ. Part of our problem in the Church today is that we’ve been cowered into a position of defensiveness about Jesus Christ. But if we’re going to make a difference in our communities, we’re going to have to stop being defensive and be bold enough to go on the offensive. Stop being so concerned with what folk think about you and tell somebody what you know about Jesus Christ. If you know that He’s Bread in a starving land, then you ought to tell somebody; if you know that He picked you up and turned you around, then you ought to tell somebody; if you know that He made a way for you out of no way, then you ought to tell somebody; if you know that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, then you ought to tell somebody.
Nicodemus was concerned about fairness, but he was too cowardly to tell what he knew about Jesus. And as long as you have a cowardly concern, you may be in the Church, but you haven’t been converted. So what if they call you holy; so what if they call you pious; so what if they call you a Jesus freak; so what if they call you stuck up. I don’t know about you, but I’m willing to be stuck up for Jesus. If it’s stuck up to say, “I love the Lord,” then call me stuck up; if it’s holy to say, “I know how Jesus changed my life, and I’m better now than I used to be,” then I don’t mind being called holy. If it’s pious to testify, “He’ll make a change in your life if you let Him have a chance,” then call me pious. I don’t want to waste any opportunity that the Lord gives me to tell somebody about Jesus Christ.
Well, as I hurry on today, there’s still a third place where we see John talk about Nicodemus. And I think this passage bothers me more than the other two. This third reference is found in the 19th chapter of John. It was after Jesus had suffered on the cross and died. The Bible says that as it began to draw toward evening on that Good Friday, a man named Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus went to Governor Pilate and begged for Jesus’ body. John is careful to mention that Nicodemus brought with him about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes to perfume Jesus’ body and prepare it for a hasty burial. 75 pounds worth of perfume cost a considerable amount of money. You recall how upset the disciples were when a woman broke just one jar of spikenard to anoint Jesus at Bethany, and Judas talked about how the perfume could have been sold and the money used to help the poor. So you can imagine that if they made that much fuss over one jar of perfume, these 75 pounds of perfume had to be very valuable. Nicodemus was willing to make this sacrifice because he was moved with compassion at the sight of Jesus’ limp, broken body. And his compassion caused him to make this gesture.
Now, somebody will say Nicodemus did a good thing; somebody will say Nicodemus came around at the end. But when I look at this passage, I am forced to ask the question, “Where were you, Nicodemus, when Jesus was still alive? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they came to Garden last night and dragged Jesus away? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they called for witnesses and Jesus needed somebody to stand up in His defense? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they bound Jesus’ hands and feet and blind-folded Him and struck Him in the face? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they dragged Jesus from judgment hall to judgment hall? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they labeled Jesus a blasphemer and forced Pilate to have Him crucified? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they lined up on the streets of Jerusalem and spat in His face, as He bore His cross out to Calvary? Where were you, Nicodemus, when they put nails in His hands and in His feet? Were you standing at the cross, Nicodemus, when Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’? Did you hear Him when He cried, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ Were you still out there when He said, ‘It’s Finished...into Thy hands I commend My Spirit!’? You may think that you’ve done something by coming to beg for Jesus’ body; you may think that you’ve done something by bringing all of this expensive perfume, but I just have to tell you your compassion comes a little too late.”
Church, somebody here today is just hanging around the Church, not because they want to help anything, but they just want to see what’s going to happen. You’re looking at what the Church is trying to do, and you know in your heart that we’re trying to do the right thing. But you don’t want to come in just yet. You don’t want to be counted with us just yet. You’re not sure how this thing is going to turn out, and if it messes up then you don’t want to be a part of anything that messes up. But you think that you’re being compassionate by hanging around to see what’s going to happen. But let me share something with you. I’m not worried about messing up. I’ve messed up before, and I’m sure that before it’s over, I’m going to mess up again. But one thing I know, I’ve been converted, and even when I mess up, I’m messing up for Jesus. And Jesus has a way of taking your mess and making something special out of it. God specializes in taking our messes and doing something wonderful with it. I told the Lord a long time ago, “I just want you to use me in Your service. If I falter while I’m trying, don’t be angry; just let me stay. I’m willing to run on all the way.”
God doesn’t need the kind of compassion that Nicodemus had; God doesn’t need folk who are going to stand on the sideline when the going gets tough. But God needs folk who are willing to put their hands to the plow and give their all for Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus was curious, concerned, and compassionate. But in the end Nicodemus wasn’t converted. “Well, how do you know that he wasn’t converted?” Well, if you haven’t been convinced by anything else we’ve said, I want you to note that, while Nicodemus was there to help bury Jesus, nothing is said about him following Jesus after He rose from the dead. “You do know, Nicodemus, that while you stood by and watched Him die. He didn’t stay dead? You do know, Nicodemus that while you helped bury Him, He didn’t stay buried? You do know, Nicodemus, that after the pain of Friday, there was a glorious Sunday morning? You didn’t stay there long enough, Nicodemus. You saw Him die on Friday, you put His body in the tomb on Friday, but you should have stayed there Friday night; you should have stayed there Saturday; you should have stayed there Saturday night. For early on Sunday morning, you would have seen something that would have converted you. Early Sunday morning, God dispatched an angel to roll the stone away; early on Sunday morning, this same Jesus that you were curious, concerned and compassionate about rose from the dead with all power in His hands. He rose to secure our salvation; He rose to fulfill our redemption; He rose to complete our justification. And because He rose, we have a right to the tree of life."
As I close today Church, curiosity is not enough; concern is not enough; compassion is not enough. There must be a commitment to Christ that rises above everything else. If you commit yourself to Him, He will not disappoint you.
