Is Jesus In Your Room? Part 2
John 3:1-21
Is Jesus in your room with you? This is perhaps the most important question I have ever asked myself. This question has been ground-breaking, heart-breaking, and positively pivotal in my walk with the Lord. Though acknowledging the sight of what I really am can, at times, be too much to bear, the act of confidently coming into the light of the gospel has been essential to my growth in the Lord! Lord, give me the strength to never relate to the guy James is talking about in the first chapter of his epistle, who, when the lights turn on, looks at himself in the mirror, he never knew was there, sees himself, then goes away and forgets what he was like (James 1:22-25).
Do you live in the dark? Are you alone in your room, stumbling over clutter day after day? Most people do not live this way. Most people do not want to live in a mucky mess of a room! At minimum, most will clear a pathway through the muddled mishmash so that they can navigate through the room without falling, and I am willing to bet that most would prefer to navigate a maze-like-mess of a room with the lights turned on. Some might even choose to clean it!
Why then keep the lights turned off where our hearts are concerned? Where our sin is concerned! Why do we so often choose to navigate our lives in the deep darkness of a dirty dungeon-like room? Jesus offers eternal light! He is the light! Eternal life, complete with joy and contentment, is ours in Christ! But we must leave the lights on! We absolutely must be asking ourselves daily if Jesus Christ is in our room with us because he absolutely is!
Beginning in the third chapter, the book of John introduces us to a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, for those who do not know, Pharisees were the religious leaders of the time. They were the guys the Jewish folks of the time would run to if they had any questions about Yahweh, and he was not just any Pharisee, he was “the teacher of Israel.” This is significant to understand. This way of referring to Nicodemus indicates that he was a recognized master, an established religious authority. To the Jews, he was Reverend, Professor, Doctor – if you had a question, he was the guy with the answer. Yet, here we have Nicodemus in chapter three, “The Teacher of Israel,” with Jesus, asking questions of Jesus. Why? As we see in verse two of this chapter, he and some of the other Pharisees, at minimum, recognized Jesus as “a teacher come from God.” This was clear because no one could do the things Jesus was doing “unless God is with him.” But the religious leaders of these days were no friends to Jesus. In fact, they were his greatest enemies. The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees were all enemies of Jesus.
It is interesting to point out that he came by night. He was a hypocrite and did not want his religious buddies seeing him talking to Jesus, much less asking questions of Jesus. He would never talk to Jesus this way in front of the other Pharisees, but Nicodemus was scared! He knew that despite all of his excellent outward religious performances, he was lost!
He knows something of the rottenness of his own heart! I’m sure he is quite familiar with his own secret thoughts, which are not actually quite secret at all!
And aren’t we all quite familiar with these types of not-so-secret thoughts? You know the ones I’m talking about. The thoughts that are so shocking you wouldn’t even tell your dearest friend about. Those things you keep pseudo-safe and not-so-secure in the dark. That’s who you are. That’s who God sees, and Nicodemus must have been quite alarmed and abruptly aware of this fact! This is why he came in the dark, under cover of night, to sit in a candle-lit room with Jesus, having nothing but his self-righteousness to stand on. Nicodemus is panic-stricken, mortified, and feeling lost. He doesn’t even know where he is a thousand miles from, but he knows one thing for sure: all of his outward religious discipline is for nothing. It’s all show! This man knows that, although he is a teacher of the things of God and the “Teacher of Israel”, religious and pious, in reality, he is nothing more than a lost sinner in need of a Savior! That’s why we see him here, maybe for the first time ever, under the cover of darkness but in the light, asking Jesus how to get to heaven. Nicodemus is scared! He has seen himself in the light for the first time ever, and he is hugely horrified. And he absolutely should be!
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
To be continued…
In Him, with love, mike
P.s This was part two of a five part series. Here is the link to, Is Jesus In Your Room? Part one.
