Day 73: He Took the Loss
“Try to understand it, you will lose your mind. Fail to believe it, you will lose your soul.”
Preaching to over 400 teens, Pastor Dean Miller made that statement at our 30th Annual Mid-Winter Youth Conference.
This is how we find Nicodemus in John 3. He was just not getting it. So the questions flowed.
“How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?”
“How can these things be?”
Here sat a master in Israel baffled as Jesus spoke.
A Pharisee who had studied the law.
A ruler of the Jews who taught the law.
But if Nicodemus had any redeeming quality it was that he believed in miracles.
Not only had Nicodemus humbled himself and come to Jesus, but he believed Jesus was performing miracles. And to him the only way to explain the miracles was God.
Have you ever thought of the humility it takes for one to believe in miracles? A miracle is an event that, humanly speaking, cannot be explained or figured out. We humans like to figure things out and we definitely like to explain things. The ability to do this makes us feel big and important.
But everything about Jesus is unexplainable! Dying so we would not have to die. Taking the loss to carry the cross.
“He knew who I was when He carried my cross
He knew that I would fail Him but He took the loss”
~He Knows My Name by Tommy
Using an Old Testament story this ruler of the Jews would have heard many times throughout his life, Jesus reveals the gospel to Nicodemus. He simplified it for us all. You simply need to look to Jesus Christ and live.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:14-15
Loser Bible Study Series Theme Verse:
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:35
“Lose” from the Greek word “Apollymi” means “to destroy fully.” It is translated should in John 3:15, our verse for today.