Reaching the “Righteous”
Jesus Reaches the Lost  Part 1
John 3:1-21 	10-27-2013
Summary: The same gospel should be presented in different ways for different kinds of people. To those who think they are saved but are not, we must first bring them to a realization that they are lost before they can be saved. Do this with the “shoe fits” approach (speak about what the Bible says is required, and let them realize they don’t have those things), and be sure to describe faith. True faith believes the Bible, trusts in the true God, is broken and repentant, follows Christ, and hates sin.
Introduction
The Unbelieving Believer
Get ‘em Lost
The “Shoe Fits” Approach
Preaching Righteousness
Get ‘em Saved
Describe Faith
True Faith Believes the Bible
True Faith Trusts the True God
True Faith is Broken and Repentant
What Makes Sin Sinful
Talk a Lot about God
Talk a Lot about God’s Law
True Faith Follows Christ
True Faith Hates Sin
Conclusion
James 1:25 Questions

John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is 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.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 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 desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Introduction
In Mark 12:34, Jesus made a very intriguing remark. He said this to the guy He was talking to: You are not far from the kingdom of God. That is an interesting thing to say, isn’t it? He is not in the kingdom, which means he isn’t saved - not one of God’s people. He is lost, but evidently not all lost people are equally lost. Some are farther from the kingdom than others. 
That is not to say that conversion is gradual. Everyone who is saved got saved in a moment of time. Even if you are like me and you don’t know when that moment was, still - there was one particular moment when you went from being lost to being saved. So conversion is not a process, but there is most definitely a process that leads up to conversion. In some cases, understanding the gospel is a very gradual process that can happen bit by bit over many years. So some lost people are closer to the kingdom than other lost people.
So do we preach different gospels to different people? No, there is only one gospel, and it is the same for everyone. However each unbeliever understands certain aspects of the gospel more than others. And so even though we present the same gospel to everyone, we don’t always present it in the same way. And if you want to learn the best approach for various types of people, what better teacher than Jesus?
In John 3 and John 4, Jesus speaks with two very different individuals, and presents the same gospel in two very different ways. So let’s take a look today at the first one, and we will save the other one until next time.
If you are new here, I want you to know that most of the time I preach verse by verse through the Bible. I don’t often do topical messages like this. But once in a while when something is especially on my heart, or I see a particular need for something to be addressed, I will do a topical study on it. So my goal today is to take a jet tour through John 3, and watch how Jesus shared the gospel with a Pharisee. This is an incredibly rich portion of Scripture, and there is so much we can learn from it that I am not going to talk about today. Our focus in this study is very limited - I just want to learn from Jesus about His approach to evangelism, so we can learn how to be more effective in reaching the lost the way Jesus did.
The Unbelieving Believer
Let’s get some context from chapter 1.
John 1:12 to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
If you believe in Jesus’ name, you are a child of God. But compare that with the end of chapter 2.
John 2:23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Then he immediately goes on to give an example of such a man. There were no verse or chapter divisions in the original, so it is always best to ignore those as much as you can. And if you do that, this is how it sounded starting at verse 25:
2: 25 He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus...
Nicodemus is an example of one of those people who believed at the Passover, but Jesus did not entrust Himself to them because of what He saw in their hearts. What did He see? What kind of faith did they have?
3:2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 
First, He came to Jesus. And he not only believed Jesus was from God, he believed Jesus performed miracles - the kind of miracles that proved conclusively He was from God. That is more than a lot of theologians in our day believe.
So how does Jesus respond to that? Does He say, “Congratulations brother - now you are saved! And don’t ever doubt it”? After all, John just said in chapter one that if someone believes on Jesus’ name, that person becomes a child of God. So does Jesus now assure Nicodemus that he is now a child of God? No. He does the exact opposite. Instead of assuring him that he is saved, He assures him that he isn’t.
3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." ... 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 ... you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe
Nicodemus is one of those people who saw the miracles and believed, he came to Jesus and said, “I believe you are from God,” and Jesus, who can see into the heart of a man, ends up saying in verse 12, you do not believe. So evidently we are talking about two different kinds of believing. There is the kind of believing that makes you a child of God, and there is a kind of believing that is just superficial. It is a little more than skin deep – it is brain deep. But it is not heart deep. People like Nicodemus accept the facts about Jesus as being true, but their belief does not extend to the point of actually causing them to be born again. It does not transform their inner man into a new person. They are convinced the information about Jesus is true, but they do not actually trust Him enough to follow Him. They are not living their lives for Christ, which shows they trust their own instincts more than they trust Him as a guide through life. And belief without trust is not saving faith.
Most people would read verse 1 and think Nicodemus is an incredibly hot prospect. In fact, there are many churches where they would not even share the gospel with someone like Nicodemus because they would assume he is already saved. They would just go ahead and make him an elder. He was as devout as they come. No one was more serious about following the Bible than the Pharisees. No one was more strict in their efforts to be obedient to God. But not only was he unsaved, he was not even a very hot prospect. He was not even close to the kingdom. Prospects don’t get much colder than this - individuals who think they are saved but aren’t. They think they get it but don’t. They think they believe but their faith is superficial. When Nicodemus came to Jesus, the farthest thing from his mind was that he was outside of the kingdom of God or that he might go to hell. He was a Jew - one of God’s chosen people. And he was not only a Pharisee, but a leader among the Pharisees - a member of the Sanhedrin. Jesus called him the teacher of Israel. This man was all the way at the top of what is achievable through religion. Most people would look at Nicodemus and say, “If he aint saved, aint nobody saved!” But he wasn’t saved. He had not been reborn - made new on the inside by a supernatural action of the Holy Spirit.
Get ‘em Lost
So how do you reach a person like this - people who think they are already saved? What did Jesus do? He made it clear that Nicodemus was not in the kingdom. You have to get people like this lost before you can get them saved. A person who thinks he is saved cannot actually become saved until he first becomes aware that he is not saved. So the main objective for someone like this is to bring them to the realization that they are not born again.
The “Shoe Fits” Approach 
But how do you do that? I think it is interesting that Jesus did not just play the trump card of deity and just say, “Look, I happen to be God in human flesh, which means I can see into people’s hearts, and I can tell you right now you are lost and on your way to hell.” That would have been helpful for Nicodemus, but it wouldn’t help us learn how to deal with people like Nicodemus because we do not have the ability to see into people’s hearts and know for sure if their faith is genuine or superficial. And so Jesus gives us a technique here that we can actually duplicate.
Instead of just telling Nicodemus, “You’re not saved,” Jesus simply talks about what is required to be saved. He describes the part that Nicodemus was missing, and then lets Nicodemus put two and two together. We could call this the “If the shoe fits, wear it” approach to evangelism. The part Nicodemus did not understand was that conversion is necessary, so Jesus zeros in on that. Jesus does not say, “I think this is missing in your life.” He just describes what is required, and it is obvious to Nicodemus that it is missing.
He knew he had not had a conversion experience.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." 
True conversion always involves passing from darkness into light. If that has not happened, then the person is not born again. Nicodemus did not think he needed to be converted because he was automatically one of God’s people just because he was a Jew. In our day there are people who think they are automatically saved because they grew up in a Christian home. If you think you have been a believer since birth, think again. The only way to be saved is to be born twice - once physically and then again spiritually. So even if you grew up in a Christian home and you accept everything in the Bible as true, if you have never had a moment where you passed from the darkness into the light, you are not saved.
This is the way to reach the self-righteous. If you are dealing with a person who thinks he is saved, and you suspect he is not saved because of a lack of understanding of some aspect of the gospel, or a lack of fruit, the best approach is usually not to just say, “I think you’re lost.” That approach is very unlikely to make them listen. Usually it just makes them think you don’t like them, or that you are judgmental, or you think you are better than them. In some very rare instances it might work, depending on your relationship with the person. If you are very close, and that person looks up to you, and they are eager to know your assessment - then it might work. But 99% of the time it is a bad idea to just come right out and tell a person you think they are not saved when they think they are (unless they deny some essential element of the gospel). A much better way is the “shoe fits” approach to evangelism. If you see something lacking in their life that would put their salvation in question, point again and again to what the Bible says about that issue and then let the person come to grips with the implications. If someone claims to believe the gospel, but you suspect his faith is superficial, just point them to what the Bible says about genuine saving faith. If you suspect he is lost because you see no fruit in his life, point him to what the Bible says about fruit, and let him put two and two together. That way if you are wrong, and the person really is saved - then no harm done. All you did was point them to some truth about the gospel that will strengthen their weak faith. And if your suspicion is accurate, and the person really is lost, then you have given them the most powerful thing you can give them - the truth of Scripture.
Preaching Righteousness
So when you are dealing with someone who thinks he is already saved but isn’t, start by letting him know that he is lost by means of the “shoe fits” approach.
That “shoe fits” principle is why I believe every sermon I ever preach is a gospel sermon. People ask me, “Why don’t you preach more gospel sermons?” And my answer is, “Every sermon I ever preach is a gospel sermon,” because the first step in reaching the self-righteous is showing them what true righteousness really is. When we study the book of 1 Peter, or the psalms or anything in the Bible, and we get a clear picture of what a life of loving God looks like - we see what peace with God looks like, we see what a life of joy and patience and kindness and goodness and self-control look like - if an unbeliever comes in and hears all that, if the Holy Spirit is opening that person’s eyes to see the truth, it will cause them to desire that life. I preach a whole sermon on, say, self-control, and the unbeliever hears that and realizes the beauty and goodness of that virtue, and he realizes he does not have that, and he wants it - that starts to prepare him to come to a point of being able to receive the gospel. Paul said he was devoted to nothing but preaching the gospel. And yet if you look at his writings, the vast majority of it is about Christian living. That is part of the gospel. It is the picture of the righteousness that the gospel promises.
In Acts 24 Paul was arrested and taken before a secular, unbelieving, gentile governor by the name of Felix. Paul is supposed to make his defense, but instead he takes the opportunity to try to win Felix to Christ. So he shares the gospel with him. But what did he say specifically?
Acts 24:25 As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid 
Most experts on evangelism would say, “Paul, that’s not the gospel. He’s an unbeliever - why are you talking to him about end times and righteousness and self-control? Why not talk about the cross? Why not talk to him about faith in Christ?” He was talking about faith in Christ. Back up one verse.
Acts 24:24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul was talking about faith in Christ. He was showing Felix specifically what faith in Christ looks like. It looks like a life of righteousness and self-control, and it exempts you from condemnation on Judgment Day.
So Jesus needs to get Nicodemus lost before He can get him saved, so he talks about something that must happen -  the new birth, that Nicodemus would know had not happened in his case. He did not even know what it meant.
Get ‘em Saved
So now Nicodemus knows he is lost. Step 1 is accomplished. If the person already knows he is lost, you can skip step 1. If the person already has a sense that he is a vile sinner, and he is desperate to know how to be forgiven, then there is no need to “get him lost” because he already knows he is lost. You can just start talking to him about how to be saved and he will be all ears.
Describe Faith 
But how is a person saved? Jesus’ answer to that is very clear: believe. But please notice, Jesus does not just say the word “believe” and then move on. That would be useless, since Nicodemus thinks he already believes. So Jesus describes what saving faith looks like and He does so in a way that exposes the problem with Nicodemus’ way of believing in Jesus.
That is so important. It is hard for me to emphasize this enough. This is an issue that I am very, very concerned about in our church culture. In recent years I have noticed more and more that when the gospel is presented, there is a lot of detail given about the need for salvation (we are all sinners), and the provision for salvation (the cross), but hardly anything about how to actually be saved. People present the gospel, and they start with our need. They give an A+ description of the sinfulness of man and how that separates us from God, and how we need forgiveness. And then they go on to give an A+ description of the provision for salvation. They talk about God taking on human flesh - Jesus Christ, living a perfect, sinless life, then taking upon Himself the punishment for our sin on the cross, and then rising from the dead and being exalted by the Father into heaven. When I hear people present the gospel, all those parts tend to be as clear as crystal, and I praise God for that. We get an A+ on the first two components of the gospel. But there is a third part - the part about how to actually be converted. What does the person have to do? That is where the train comes off the tracks. That is where there is major confusion. And you would think if it is an area where there is a lot of confusion, we would want to make extra sure that we are clear when we get to that part. But instead, that part is becoming less and less clear, and more and more vague. We tell people, “Just believe,” or “Invite Jesus into your life,” or “Give your heart to Jesus,” or some one-line statement about faith, and rarely ever any kind of explanation of what that actually means.
We tell children, “Just invite Jesus into your heart.” I can hardly think of a statement that could be more meaningless to a little child. Small children are not capable of interpreting that level of abstract thought. They think in literal, concrete terms. I was at a camp once with a bunch of middle school students, and during one of the services we were singing that song Open the Eyes of My Heart. I leaned over to one of the students and asked, “Do you know what that means?” She was a smart girl, and I fully expected she would say,” yes.” She thought for a second and said, “no.” She had no idea. So then I started going around, and I asked a whole bunch of different middle schoolers what that metaphor means - “open the eyes of my heart.” Not one of them had even so much as a guess. Even in middle school, the ability of the mind to interpret metaphors and understand abstract concepts is very limited. So if you tell a third grader that salvation is all about inviting Jesus into your heart, that means one thing to that child. They picture a little, invisible man moving inside their chest. That’s it. And that has nothing to do with salvation. If you cannot figure out a way to communicate the concept of trust to a child - what it means to trust God or love God - then you have not presented the gospel to that child. I am appalled at the so-called gospel that is most often presented to children.
And it does not get much better with adults. I read one book about how to live for the glory of God, and when he presents the gospel, this is what he says: “I invite you to bow your head and quietly whisper the prayer that will change your eternity: ‘Jesus, I believe in you and I receive you.’ Go ahead. If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations!  Welcome to the family of God!”
Why is it that we are willing to be so clear about the first two parts of the gospel, but we become vague about the part that actually tells the person how to be saved? In many cases it is because you can get a lot more “converts” that way. The more clarity you have, the more people will count the cost and say, “No, I’m not willing to do that.” But if you leave it vague, you can get thousands of converts. There is not a Catholic or Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness that would have any problem at all saying, “Jesus, I believe in you and I receive You.” Millions of people pray that prayer and mean it with all their heart and are not saved.
The same author that wrote that book I mentioned also said this: “Through Crusade staff around the world, the Four Spiritual Laws tract, and the Jesus film…more than 150 million people have come to Christ and will spend eternity in heaven.” I don’t doubt that 150 million people prayed a prayer and made a profession of faith. But to assume that every one of them will spend eternity with Christ is to fail to understand what John is teaching in John 2:23-25. Not everyone who makes a profession of faith has true faith. If you believe that 100% of the people who pray that prayer will actually go to heaven, then of course you are going to be vague about it. Because if you are vague, it is very easy to get just about anyone to pray that prayer. But if the gospel of John is right, and there is such a thing as a belief in Jesus that is superficial and non-saving, if there really are people like Nicodemus out there, then the most cruel thing you can do is make those people think they are saved when they are not.
True Faith Believes the Bible
So how can we describe true, genuine, saving faith in a way that self-righteous types will be able to understand? Let’s watch how Jesus does it. He starts by talking about Himself.
13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man. 
The only person walking around on earth who could talk about heaven from personal experience was the Son of Man (Jesus), which means no one has more reliable information about spiritual things. Most people trust their own instincts and beliefs when it comes to moral and spiritual things. But true faith trusts the words of Jesus above all. So if something seems right to me, but Jesus said it isn’t right, I go with what He said. True faith trusts the teaching of Jesus above all, and the teaching of Jesus is recorded in the New Testament, and Jesus also referred to the Old Testament as the Word of God. Therefore true faith enthusiastically and completely trusts the Bible. 
True Faith Trusts the True God
Secondly, true faith trusts the true God. Jesus is making claims about who He is, and then makes it clear that Nicodemus must trust in Him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
It is not enough to trust in one’s own conception of God. The god of deism, the god of Islam, the god of Mormonism, the god of our own imagination - all the various gods we come up with in our religious reasoning - they are not the same god as the God of the Bible. If a person has a conception of God that does not match the description in the Bible, or if a person does not consider Jesus to be the one, true, Almighty God, then that person’s faith is in the wrong object. And trusting in the wrong object will not save. If I place all my trust in thin ice, thinking that it is really concrete, and I have such strong faith that I put all my weight on it, I will still fall through. Faith must be in the right object, which means no one is saved who rejects the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ or God the Father or the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus believed Jesus was from God in the sense that any true prophet is from God. But that is not enough. He is God in human flesh. He is the only human being in existence who came from heaven.
True Faith is Broken and Repentant 
So true faith believes the Bible and true faith trusts in the true God, but that is not all. True faith places a person in a certain posture before God.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
That is a reference to Numbers 21. Nicodemus was an expert in the Old Testament, so Jesus didn’t have to explain the whole story. But just by referring to this account Jesus is painting a very dramatic picture of what true faith looks like. Just to refresh your memory of Numbers 21, after God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt, they grumbled and complained, and He punished them with a plague of poisonous snakes. He sent the snakes to bite the people, so they would die. So there they are in the middle of the desert, no modern medicine, dying of fatal snake bites. Many are already dead, and the rest are in the throes of death. They knew it was judgment from God, and so they repented. They admitted their rebellion, and turned away from it, and begged for Moses to pray for them. So Moses did, and God granted mercy. But He did not just heal them automatically. There was something they had to do.
Numbers 21:8 The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
Bringing up that account communicated volumes to Nicodemus about what it means to come to Christ. You do not come to Him as a colleague, or even as an intriguing miracle worker who is from God. The only way to come to Christ is with the same posture as the people in Numbers 21 came to the bronze snake. They were condemned sinners, who had received a death sentence for rebelling against God. So they confessed and repented and turned away from their sin, and now they were begging for mercy. And there was nothing they could do to heal themselves, but if they followed God’s instructions, He would heal them. 
When a person claims to believe, but they will not repent, they will not give up their sin, they will not bow the knee to Christ as their Master and Lord and King and Owner, if they do not come to Him in broken contrition over their sin, realizing they deserve hell and are on their way there, and so they come to Him begging for mercy - if they don’t come like that, that means their faith is the superficial kind and they are not saved.
What Makes Sin Sinful
The hardest part of reaching a self righteous person is generating this attitude. If you ask them, “Do you admit you are a sinner in need of grace?” they will say, “Yes, of course. Nobody is perfect.” They will admit to making mistakes, they will admit to doing wrong- but there is a difference between admitting you are not perfect, and genuinely being broken and contrite over your sin. The self righteous are rarely contrite because they tend to measure evil the way the world does - by how much your sin hurts people, or by how scandalous your sins are in human society. That is legalism - follow all the big rules, and you are a good person. So they never get drunk, no sexual sin, nothing illegal - if their sins were known to the church no one would consider it a big scandal. And so even though they claim, “Oh yes, I’m a sinner,” they don’t really think of their sin as being that big a deal compared to other people. That is why they are not very broken and contrite over it.
That is the way the Pharisees tended to be. So when this Pharisee comes, Jesus is so masterful in the illustration He chooses. He picks a time from Israel’s history when the people were deeply sorrowful and repentant over their sin, and they were in the throes of death because of God’s wrath and punishment for that sin. And the sin was ... complaining. Hardly a scandalous sin in human eyes. When is the last time you picked up a tabloid and saw a big headline: “Breaking news - another prominent pastor has been exposed as a complainer. The congregation is in turmoil.”? God killed a whole bunch of Israelites with snakes for the sin of complaining, but in our culture that will never, ever be considered a scandalous sin. Why? Because in secular culture, man is the most important thing there is. Man is supreme, so every sin is judged by how it affects man. If your sin hurts people, then you are evil. If it does not seem to hurt anyone, then what’s the big deal?
That standard is as wrong as it can be. What makes sin evil is not what it does to man – it is how it assaults the glory of God. One of the problems that exist in our day is we have made the gospel so man-centered. We have made it mainly about the sinner, instead of being mainly about God. The measure of evil is how much of an assault is it on the glory and majesty of God. That is why complaining about what God has done is way up there on the true scale of evil, because it slanders God’s providence. 
One of the most effective things you can do in trying to win the lost is impress people with the greatness of God and His worthiness to be honored. They cannot be saved unless they become broken and crushed under the guilt of their sin. And getting a self-righteous person into that posture is next to impossible. The only way to do it is to somehow open their eyes to the greatness and worthiness of God.
Talk a Lot about God
When you share the gospel, talk a lot about God. Do not just talk about what God has to offer; talk about what God is like. You are asking the person to trust this God with his/her life. I am not going to trust someone with my life if I don’t know anything about that person. No sinner is going to place his full trust in God if He does not know anything about God. So talk a lot about God.
Talk a Lot about God’s Law
And one way to learn a lot about what God is like is by looking at what God commands. Use the commands of God’s law to bring people to repentance. One of the best ways to learn how to do that is by listening to The Way of the Master program. Ray Comfort is so skilled at using the law of God to bring people to repentance. He shows them what God commands, and helps them see their sin and their need for salvation. That is why I showed that video clip earlier - to show you how he brought a self-righteous person into a much more humble attitude by using the Ten Commandments. 
True Faith Follows Christ
Ok, so true faith believes the Bible, trusts in the true God, and is broken and repentant over rebellion against God. But Jesus is not done talking about the nature of true belief. 
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Literally it is whoever believes into him shall not perish... To believe into a person means becoming a follower of that person.
 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes into him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed into the name of God's one and only Son. 
Jesus keeps emphasizing faith. Four times in three verses He mentions believing. Salvation through faith alone. And it is the kind of faith that makes you a follower of Christ. People who want to follow their own way and refuse to submit to Christ and commit their life to following Him, obviously do not trust Him. True faith means trusting enough to follow.
True Faith Hates Sin
And that will have an effect on your attitude toward sin. You go from loving it to hating it. One of the ways you can tell if you have truly placed your faith in Christ is by your attitude toward sin.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." 
You can tell you have been born again when you go from loving your sin and holding on to it, to hating your sin and confessing and repenting of it. True believers in Christ still sin, but they hate it and repent of it and fight for victory over it.
Conclusion
That is how you bring a self-righteous person to saving faith in Christ, following Jesus’ example in John 3.
“I would be happy to do that if I had the opportunity. But I don’t get people like Nicodemus just walking up to me and asking about salvation. I don’t get people like the Philippian jailer who fall down in front of me on the street and say, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ I know what to say to people, but how do I make them interested enough to listen?” 
I know of a way you can actually get unbelievers to come to you and ask you to teach them from the Bible - and they are all ears when you do it. In fact, you can have as many of those people as you have time to talk to. I don’t have time to get into it today, but next time we will plan on talking about that, as well as looking into how Jesus reached a very different kind of prospect in John 4.

Benediction: Hebrews 1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

James 1:25 Questions
1)	On a scale from 1 to 100, how sure are you that your faith is true, saving faith. What are the chances that your faith might be like the superficial faith of Nicodemus? 
2)	Of the five marks of true faith Jesus gave in John 3 (believes the Bible, trusts in the true God, is broken and repentant, follows Christ, hates sin), which are most clearly evident in your life, and which are the least evident? 
3)	Think of two or three names of people you know who might be like Nicodemus with whom you could use the principles from this study.