Sunday Pastor Jeff introduced us to Nicodemus: a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, the teacher of Israel. If anyone looked like he was on the right track with God, it was him.

And yet he came to Jesus at night, and Jesus told him, "You must be born again."

This week's homework: Memorize John 3:3, and write down one thing you've been trusting to make you right with God instead of Jesus. Then cross it out and pray, "Jesus, I look to You."

You can be deeply religious and still desperately need to be saved.

Read John 2:23-25, then Psalm 139:1-4. Chapter and verse numbers were added to the Bible centuries after John wrote, and sometimes they split what belongs together. These three verses aren't so much the end of chapter 2 as the doorway into chapter 3.

Many people in Jerusalem "believed in his name when they saw the signs." But Jesus "did not entrust himself to them," because "he himself knew what was in man." He was not fooled by a crowd's excitement.

Be honest: how different is the person you are on Sunday morning from the person you are when nobody is around? We all know how to present the version of ourselves we want people to see. But the private struggles, the hidden resentments, the thoughts you would never say out loud: Jesus already knows.

That could be terrifying. But David found it to be an invitation: "Search me, O God, and know my heart!" (Psalm 139:23). The Savior who knows you completely is the very Savior who came to rescue sinners.

You can fool the people around you, even yourself, but you cannot fool Jesus. And He came for you anyway.

Don't rush these. Give yourself a few minutes with each one before moving on.

Write your answers down. By Friday you will see where this question leads.

Come back tomorrow - tomorrow we meet Nicodemus, a man who had everything religion could offer and still came looking at night.

• John 3:1-3 - Nicodemus comes by night
• Philippians 3:4-9 - counting it all as loss

Read John 3:1-3. Nicodemus had it all. He was a Pharisee, one of a few thousand men devoted to strict obedience to God's law. He was "a ruler of the Jews," a member of the council that governed Israel. Jesus calls him "the teacher of Israel."

The Pharisees took God's law so seriously that they built fences around it: extra rules to keep them from ever coming close to breaking a command. Over time, crossing their fences became the same as breaking God's law. It became less about loving God and more about protecting themselves.

And still Nicodemus comes at night. Something is missing. He opens with a compliment: "We know that you are a teacher come from God." Jesus skips it and goes straight to the heart: "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Paul had the same kind of résumé, and he counted it all as loss "because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). Church attendance, baptism, serving, giving, knowing the Bible: these things have their place. None of them can give you a new heart.

You can be deeply religious and still desperately need to be saved.

• John 3:4-8 - born of water and the Spirit
• Ezekiel 36:25-27 - a new heart and a new spirit

Read John 3:4-8. Nicodemus is baffled. "How can a man be born when he is old?" He's thinking about biology. Jesus is thinking about a promise.

Now read Ezekiel 36:25-27. Centuries earlier God told His scattered people, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean… I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you." That is "water and the Spirit": God washing away sin and giving a new heart by His Spirit. The teacher of Israel should have recognized it.

Think of it this way. If your heart were failing and the doctor said you needed a transplant, you wouldn't answer, "What if I eat better and take vitamins?" Those are good things, but they can't do what only a new heart can. Nicodemus thought in terms of religious improvement. Jesus spoke in terms of new birth.

And like the wind, the Spirit is not under our control (v. 8). You can't produce new birth. You can only receive it from God.

You don't need a slightly improved version of your old self. You need the new life only the Holy Spirit can give.

• John 3:9-13 - He who descended from heaven
• Daniel 7:13-14 - one like a son of man

Read John 3:9-13. Nicodemus asks one more question: "How can these things be?" Jesus answers with a gentle rebuke: "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?"

Then Jesus explains why He can speak about heaven with authority: "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." He is the only one who has been there.

Now read Daniel 7:13-14. "Son of Man" was Jesus' favorite name for Himself, and it comes from Daniel's vision of one "like a son of man" coming with the clouds of heaven, given dominion and glory and a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Nicodemus knew that passage. Jesus is telling him: That is Me.

Nicodemus doesn't get it all in one night. But he shows up twice more in John's gospel: speaking up for Jesus before the council (7:50-51) and helping bury His body (19:39). The truth Jesus left with him did its work over time.

The One who came down from heaven is the only One who can tell us how to get there.

• John 3:14-15 - the Son of Man lifted up
• Numbers 21:4-9 - the bronze serpent

Read Numbers 21:4-9. Israel was in the wilderness, complaining against God and Moses, even about the manna God provided every day. God sent fiery serpents among them, and many died. The people confessed, "We have sinned," and begged Moses to pray.

God's answer was strange: "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." No medicine. No effort. Just look.

That's it? Just look? The power was never in the strength of the person looking. It was in the God who provided the remedy. Anyone who refused to look and fought the poison on their own was lost.

Now read John 3:14-15. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." Jesus would be lifted up on a cross. You cannot save yourself. But God has provided a Savior.

If God has provided the only cure for your sin, why would you keep trying to save yourself?