Fellowship in the Word

Bil Gebhardt: You'll not find anywhere in the world two people more religious than Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus. Both of them became believers in Jesus Christ. Now, so the question comes down to: can a very religious person become born again and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes. Yes, no doubt. I just gave you two of the best examples the Bible could put together. Is it easy? No. It's not easy. It's not. It's hard.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bil Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bil Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: See, Nicodemus apparently was a member of the Sanhedrin. When they had deeply biblical or theological issues, Nicodemus would be your go-to guy. Nicodemus knows almost everything about the Old Testament. He said they view you as the teacher of Israel. How can you be the teacher of Israel and you don't understand the most basic truth I'm telling you?

You see, that's what religion does to you. You become religious enough, you won't understand anything from God. You just understand what you've made up on your own. That's what he did. He said, "Truly, truly, listen up again, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we've seen. You don't accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you did not believe, how will you believe it when I tell you heavenly things?"

You don't understand what I'm saying at all. He said, look, no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. The first to ascend into heaven is Jesus. Where did people die who were faithful before Jesus? They went to Paradise. That's where the thief on the cross was. "This day you'll be with me in Paradise." But Jesus enters heaven as the first fruits. He's first. And so consequently, he says that.

Now he's going to tell Nicodemus, "Let me give you a Sabbath school story. Maybe this'll help you." As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Ever heard of that, Nicodemus? Yes. Nicodemus memorized most of the Old Testament. He knew that story. Well, what do you think the serpent was about in Exodus? That's what Jesus is saying. People were bitten and they were dying. And so how could you live?

Moses takes a brazen serpent, puts it on a pole and holds it up. And you look to the pole and you live. He said, "Don't you remember that story? That story is a picture of me." That's what he's saying. So he says, "As Moses was lifted up in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up and that whoever believes will in him have eternal life." There's the gospel. It's clear as could be.

Just like the serpent was held up, I'm going to be held up. You must believe; you must have faith. That's how you're born again. That's our part. The Spirit of God is the agency that does it, but it's our faith that saves us. By the way, then in this dialogue, the most famous verses in the New Testament come in, but most people who know these verses don't realize this is in a conversation with a very religious man. 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." There it is. That's in this conversation with Nicodemus.

Now you've still got to be wondering—in one sense, I feel sorry for Nicodemus. What Jesus said to him from our point of view seems pretty clear. From Nicodemus' point of view, he had no idea what this guy's talking about. None. How did this turn out? Well, it doesn't tell us here, does it?

Go with me to John 19 and verse 38. Jesus has been crucified. They're going to take Jesus off the cross. And then they're going to bury him. John 19:38. It says, “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple,”—that means a learner, we talked about that last week—“being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews.” They were after them already that early. You had to be a secret believer because the Jews are persecuting you.

He said, “He asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate granted permission, so he came and he took away the body.” There's his name, Nicodemus. Nicodemus—in case you think there might be two Nicodemuses—who first came to him by night. That's Nicodemus. He said also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. That's a lot of money. Nicodemus is a believer. Nicodemus converted to Christ. Nicodemus sees it as an honor to be there at his burial. So those words Nicodemus must have gone back and thought about and thought about, and he comes to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Now I want to look at a second Pharisee. Go with me to Acts chapter 9 and verse 1. Now Saul, watch what he's doing, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples.” That's what Saul's doing. Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee. He is still breathing threats and murder. Saul likely orchestrated the murder of the first martyr, Stephen. My thought is he probably orchestrated several martyrs.

His hatred of Jesus Christ and his hatred of all Christians shows up in the arrest, incarceration, and sometimes the execution of Christians. That's who he is. So it says he went to the high priest and he asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now sometime on your own, there are maps in the back of your Bibles usually. Just take a peek from Jerusalem to Damascus. That's a long walk. But Saul's going to make it.

"I'm going to go all the way to Damascus. I heard there are people who believe in Jesus in Damascus and I'm going to go get them." That's who he is. It's an amazing thing when you think about it. So he was traveling and it happened as he was approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

And I love it. He said, "Who are you, Lord?" Kind of paradoxical, he doesn't know it's Lord yet, but he said, "Who are you, Lord?" Kyrios, showing respect. He knew it wasn't some guy hiding in the bushes because when this happened, he goes blind and goes to the ground. He knew something happened. So he says, "Who are you, Lord?" He said, "I am Jesus who you are persecuting. Get up and enter the city and it will be told what you must do."

Now that's an interesting conversion. Notice Saul wasn't coming to—and indirectly he was—Saul wasn't coming to Jesus, Jesus was coming to Saul. And so Saul has this amazing Damascus Road conversion. Now please understand in the aftermath of that, nobody in the church really believed it. They were terrified of him. So they thought he's faking this; he's just trying to figure out which one of us are real believers so he could put us all in jail. But Saul did it.

Now go with me to Philippians chapter 3 and verse 2. Paul is going to give a warning to the church. He's now a believer, he's the great apostle, and he's written about half the New Testament. Paul says, "Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision." Ah, this is the false circumcision. These are the religious Jews. He said, "Beware of them. You better be aware of these people."

He said, "For we are the true circumcision." Remember that was described by Paul: what is circumcision? He said, well, there's an outward physical circumcision, but it is just representative of the circumcision of your heart. So he said that's why we're the true circumcision. He said, "We worship how? In the Spirit of God and glory in Christ and we put no confidence in the flesh." Paul's now a believer. How much confidence does he put in his flesh? Zero.

You see, and what's the great words, the mantra of all religious people? "Can do, can do, can do." "What can I do? I can do it." Paul said, "I put no confidence in my flesh. None." Now I love what he says. "Although I myself might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more." Any of you out there that are religious and say, "I'm still in a can-do mode, I have confidence that I can do this." Paul said, "Look, I should have a lot more confidence than you have." What's he saying? "I'm more religious than any of you. None of you can compare to me religiously."

So he goes on to explain it. He said, "I was circumcised on the eighth day." All good Jewish boys were. That sounds fine. He said, "Of the nation Israel." I'm a Jew's Jew. I'm not someone brought into Judaism, I'm a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, "Oh, by the way, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin." Now for us that doesn't mean anything. For them, that's top tribe. That's the crème de la crème. He's from Benjamin.

Benjamin is considered by the Jews of the day the best of all tribes. They didn't have quite the scandals that the other tribes all had, especially even Judah had a lot of scandals. Not Benjamin. Oh, and by the way, every time Israel went into battle, the first tribe into battle was Benjamin. He said, "I'm a Benjamite." You'd be so proud of that if I met somebody somewhere, I'd say, "Hey, my name's Bil, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin." Sort of like astrological signs today, "I'm a Leo, I'm a tribe of Benjamin." That's what Paul says.

Then he says an idiom here, "I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews." I'm not just a Jew, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm more Hebrew than Hebrews are. That's his point. He said, "As to the law, Pharisee." Now to a common Jew, that's like, "Oh my goodness, he's one of the Pharisees." He said, "As to zeal, a persecutor of the church." You want to talk about religious zeal? I went and got them. I hunted them down. I incarcerated them. That's how zealous I was for my religion.

He said, "As to the righteousness that is found in the law, blameless." Now remember, Paul doesn't mean he's blameless and sinless at this stage. He means as a Pharisee interprets the law, blameless. Never violated anything. I earned everything. That's what I thought. Now Paul has said, "I am the chief of sinners," even after he's a believer. In Romans 7, he said, "I do the very things I don't want to do, and the things I don't want to do, I find myself doing." But in this case, he said, "I'm just trying to tell you who I am."

So he said, "I'm circumcised on the eighth day, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, I'm a Pharisee." He said, "As to zeal, persecuted the church; as to the law, blameless." And oh, by the way, I was taught by Gamaliel. You'll find that in the rest of the scripture. The greatest Jewish rabbi alive was Gamaliel. Paul said he taught me. So you can't be more religious than Saul of Tarsus.

Now listen to what he says. "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Zemia, loss, means complete, total loss. Good English word would be bankruptcy. I counted all nothing. All of it means nothing to me. He said, "I count it loss because of the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ."

Notice what he has now. "I have the value of the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ." That's what I now have. I never had that. Paul, in his way, is describing what it was for him to be born again. He said, "Now I know my Lord. I know I'm forgiven. My sins are forgiven. I know I'm adopted into God's family." He said, "I know I'm part of the bride of Christ. I know I'm a joint heir with Jesus. Everything he inherits, I'll inherit. And I know I'm heaven-bound and spend eternity with God."

He said, "And then the translators there were trying to be nice at the end, but they probably shouldn't have been. He said, 'Suffer the loss of all things and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ.'" The word's not really rubbish. Doesn't even sound like an old—rubbish. No, it doesn't really mean rubbish. Better translations will say refuse. Now refuse is different than rubbish. If I were translating it, I would translate it "dung." That's what he's saying. I count everything in my religious past as dung when I compare it to knowing Christ.

You see how far he's come? He said, "And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. I'm not righteous because of that. I used to have a righteousness derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." That's what I know.

That's what I know, all because I was born again. That's his point. All of it. You'll not find anywhere in the world two people more religious than Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus. Both of them became believers in Jesus Christ. Now, so the question comes down to: can a very religious person become born again and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes. Yes, no doubt. I just gave you two of the best examples the Bible could put together.

Is it easy? No. It's not easy. It's not. It's hard. You see, there was another one; he's reported in most of the gospels. He came to Jesus, come to me. He was called the Rich Young Ruler. And he came to Jesus and he said, "What must I do to be saved?" Perfect question. Wouldn't you like someone to come to you like that? "Hey, tell me how I get saved." All right, let's go.

Jesus knew his heart. And Jesus says, "Okay, just keep the law." What? Just keep it. Now Jesus is knowing, by the way, who keeps the law? No one. Who's ever kept the law? No one. And I don't mean the 600 that they added, just the ones God put in there. No one's ever kept it. James says if you're guilty of one part of the law, you're guilty of all the law. So he said just keep it. And guess what the Rich Young Ruler said? "Got it. I've done it."

What? Yeah, done it. Jesus knows his heart. So Jesus says to him, "Okay, good. Sell everything you have and come and follow me." What? Sell everything you have and come and follow me. Oh, I don't—no. Now please understand: who told him that? Not Bil. Jesus. If you find the Son of God, and that God who's loved you enough to die for you, that if you have faith in that God, you'll be born again into the family of God, and that God says something to you, you do it. He's the Son of God. I have to believe that if I'm ever going to be saved. So if the Son of God said to me, "Bil, sell everything you have," Bil better sell everything he has. I was just told that by the Son of God.

But this guy didn't believe that. You see, he still was in that idea. He had two things working against him. He was a ruler, he was religious, and he was rich. That's where the passage comes in, it's easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than a rich man into heaven. You see, that's where the passage is added to that. Which means it's impossible? No. Joseph of Arimathea is rich. He's there. You see, Nicodemus is extremely religious. He's there. It is done, but it's not easy to do this. That's the whole point.

And so what I wanted to say is that can a religious person—don't ever give up witnessing. Can a religious person come to a saving knowledge of Christ? The answer is emphatically, yes, it can. You see, the religious person is living in that context of those two words: "can do." "What can I do? Tell me what I need to do." As believers, we live in another word: "done." That's our word, it's done. Everything that needed to be done is done in Jesus Christ.

So we put our faith in Christ. And when we do, Jesus says the Spirit of God gives us a rebirth into new creatures in Christ. Peter was so overwhelmed by that, he said there's no other name given among men by which we must be saved. There's no other—Jesus said the same thing, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one will come to the Father but through me." And that's the most important thing about it. So keep on witnessing. It can be frustrating at times, but keep on witnessing because you never know. There are definitely Nicodemuses and the Apostle Paul out there. Let's pray.

Father, we find it frustrating because of the barrier of "can do," of religious fervor, of the idea that we do the things that save us. But Father, we know that it's all because of Jesus Christ. And we know that it's because of your great love for us that you sent him, and his great love for us that he lived a perfect life and died as our substitute on the cross. We don't earn that salvation; it comes as the grace of God. It is a gift that we receive through faith.

I thank you so much, Father, for the wonder of the gospel. And it can penetrate any human heart. No one is too lost, no one is too wicked, no one is too religious not to have their soul and heart cleaned by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. I pray this in his name. Amen.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Pastor Bil Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well.

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If you would be interested in hearing today’s message in its original form, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bil delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That’s f-b-c-n-o-l-a-dot-o-r-g. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bil’s sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title.

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