Real Hope: Back to Basics - JesusSample

Know His Truth

He wasn’t a young man. He had influence. He was looked up to, respected. He was a leader. He had heard about this man, Jesus, who was travelling around doing the most amazing things. Sometimes, when you hear a story second and third hand, the meaning loses some of its sense.

We’ve all played Chinese whispers, and the message that started out isn’t the one that finds life at the end of the line. In John’s Gospel we read of a man named Nicodemus. He was a respected Jewish teacher (John 3:10) and he no doubt would have heard not just about this man Jesus, but even some of what Jesus was teaching.

When it was dark Nicodemus sought Jesus out. He wanted answers, away from the crowd. He wanted to know who Jesus was, but Jesus gave him more questions. Jesus offered Nicodemus the answer: You must be born again. If you aren’t born again, there is no salvation.

Nicodemus must have thought Jesus mad. To be told he had to go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time? What was this man Jesus talking about? And yet, after the Crucifixion, Nicodemus brings funeral spices worth a fortune to prepare Jesus for burial.

In the end, he believed. In our own hearts we must answer Jesus’ question: ‘Who do you say I am?’ All through the Bible Jesus tells us who He is. But we must make up our own minds even though the answer is already in our hearts. Jesus won’t force you to accept it, but if you open His book and read His Word, you will come to know His truth.

Written by CHRIS PARFOOT