Shoes | God Loves Skeptics and Doubters – Week 3

1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
– John 3:1-2 (NIV)

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
– John 3:3 (NIV)

4 How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!
– John 3:4 (NIV)

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

10 “You are Israel’s teacher,”said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
– John 3:5-7, 10 (NIV)

“Man I know all these things are supposed to be important to us – the cars, the condo, our version of success – but if that’s the case why is the general feeling out there reflecting more impotence and isolation and desperation and loneliness? If you ask me, I say toss all of this – we gotta find something else…I don’t have those answers yet. The emphasis now is on success and personal gain. I’m the guy who’s got everything. I’m sitting in it, and I’m telling you, this is not it.”
– Brad Pitt, Rolling Stone Magazine

13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
– John 3:13-15 (NIV)

“…anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
– Numbers 21:8b (NIV) 

50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
– John 7:50-51 (NIV)

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 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. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.
– John 19:38-40 (NIV)