Onion Review and Nicodemus (Playing With Fire, Part 1)

To say that Jay Carty is an unusual communicator is a mild statement. Maybe a little nuts would be more accurate. Not a preacher, not a teacher, more a storyteller with a very important message. Where some deep preachers are too snoozy for the rank and file, and where some humorists don’t have much to say, Jay’s stuff is generally regarded as an unusual blending of humor and profound content. A former Oregon State basketball star and L.A. Laker, Jay has dedicated his life to helping people say yes to God. Now we hope you enjoy Carty’s Contemporary Classics.

Let’s review one concept. Remember the concept of the onions? We just have to review that then we’ll press on. You sin, right? Me too. Yeah. So, we stink. Sin makes you stink. Yep. Kind of like an onion. Onions stink, you stink. Think you don’t stink? Sniff the person on your right. I’m serious, sniff them don’t just stand there and stare at me. Sniff the person on your right. Okay. Now sniff the one on your left. Sniff the one on your left. Right now let me tell you what you smelled. You either smelled their stink or yo. Smelled something covering up their stink. Am I right on this? All right.

Now don’t be embarrassed about stinking. It is what onions do and some of you do it very well, and we just discovered that. Some of you are Bermuda onions. Nothing worse is there? You take a slab of Bermuda and you put it on a burger, you pound it down right before bedtime, it will give you the kind of morning mouth only your dog will really appreciate. But some of you are Walla Walla Sweets. How many have ever had a Walla Walla sweet? You guys eat them? Yeah. Aren’t they good? Actually, it’s only a Walla onion. It’s only half of the town it used to be. Been there lately? Not much of a town, you know? But, if you’ve ever had a Walla Wall, you know that they’re pretty good, and Maui unions, and… intense.

Yes, Wallas are pretty good, and Bermuda are the worst, and red onions, green onions, leeks, chives they’re all someplace in between. Am I right? But what is it every onion has in common with every onion that’s ever onion. They all… Let’s try it again. They all…

Stink.

Now, if you were to take an onion, put it in the refrigerator, what would it do to everything in the refrigerator? It would make it…

Stink.

They’re beginning to understand why you can’t go to heaven as an onion. There is no stink in God’s refrigerator, no stink allowed. And if you, as an onion, went to heaven, you’d stink up high heaven. So, what do you do to get an onion fit for the kingdom of God? Well, you can cook it. Cooking an onion will help the onion. Let me prove it to you. If you’re sitting next to an old person, I’d like you to sniff an old person right now. Just find an old one, give them a sniff. Don’t be embarrassed about it. They know if they’re old or not. It’s not that big a deal. Just sniff an old person. That’s all you have to do.

All right. Now, let me tell you what you didn’t smell. Old people don’t stink like young people because life has cooked the stink out of them, brother. You know what I mean? I saw a bumper sticker said, “Life’s hard and then you die, have a nice day.” Here’s the problem though. You take a cooked and put it in the refrigerator. What happens to everything in the refrigerator?

Stinks.

So what do you do? You can wrap that onion in Saran wrap, Clingwrap, Handi-wrap. You can Ziplock that sucker and put it in the refrigerator and it won’t stink everything out. Now in the Old Testament, a sacrifice was Saran wrap that covered the onion. Didn’t change the onion, just covered the onion. Paid the interest on the principle of your debt. But Christ paid off the debt. And not only does this blood act like Saran wrap, he goes a step further and he takes a seed.

You know, there’s no core of an onion there’s room to stick a seed right in there. It’s just a bunch of layers, right? And he puts a apple, an orange, a banana, kiwi. And as the fruit grows, the thickness of the onion, the old nature, that flesh, it gets thinner and thinner and less of an issue as you conform and grow in Christ. But you’re not an onion anymore. You’re now a piece of fruit, a new creature, something different. When the onion goes to fruit, there’s a term in the Bible we’re going to talk about this morning, it’s called being born again. It’s when you cease being that and you become this. So if you have your Bibles go to John chapter three, and let’s take a look at that term this morning.

John chapter three, verse one. There’s a man of the Pharisees. Pharisees, let’s see, corrupt hypocritical office seeking legalists. So legalistic you couldn’t walk on the grass on the Sabbath. Because if you walked on the grass on the Sabbath, you might dislodge some grass seed and the grass seeded would fall the ground. And you couldn’t plant on the Sabbath, so if grass seed fell to the ground from stepping on the grass, that would be construed as planting and they had a rule against it. Kind of legalistic, isn’t it? Pharisees, and he was also a ruler of the Jews. As a ruler of Jews, he’s a member of the Sanhedrin, maybe the head of the Sanhedrin. Think of him as the head Senator. Where that hat.

You know the judge, Nicodemus, Your Honor Nicodemus, Senator Nicodemus. And then he had his Pharisees hat. Doctorate of Divinity degree Nicodemus, Pastor Nicodemus, Rabbi Nicodemus, you know stuff like that. Couple hats. You got hats? You got hats. You got at least two. The one you had this morning. Remember? Husband was drumming his fingers on his steering wheel going, “She’s late as usual.” Of course, all she had to do was get herself ready, three kids ready, fix breakfast for all five. And the toad sits in the car, strumming the steering wheel wondering why she’s late. Get out of the car and help the woman! All right. So they exchange glances, “Uh! Uh!” And drive to church in stone silence, and when the front tires hit the driveway into the parking lot, you put on your church face. “Tadum!” And you’ll put the other face on the way home. Got hats.

Nicodemus has got two hats. He’s Pharisee. He’s the rule of the Jews. Verse two, he comes to Jesus by night. Why by night? Well, Jesus might have been too busy to see him that day. He might have been too busy to break loose. But probably he didn’t want anyone to see him, so he shows up at night, right? And he says, “We…” Now he’s alone but he says, “We.” Said a little word we, what’s he got a frog in his pocket or what’s the deal with the we? He’s coming wearing his Pharisee hat. He’s got his Pharisees face on. He’s coming, representing the Pharisees.

He says, “We… know you must come from God. As a teacher, no one could do the kind of tricks you do unless God is with him. You must know about the kingdom of God. I’m a really religious guy. I’m going to be in the kingdom of God. Let’s talk about it. What do you say?” That’s the paraphrase. And Jesus takes this verbal fist, not his physical fist, takes his verbal fist and he smacks it right in the Pharisee face. And he says, “Talk about it Nicodemus? You’re not going to see it, because you must be…”

Born again.

Knocked him back, but he’s quick on feet. Does they old soft shoe two step. Puts on his ruler of the Jews mask, says, “What, I’m going to go back into my mother’s womb? Give me a big break on that one. Not possible. Can’t happen. What in the world are you talking about?” Jesus takes his verbal fist, not his physical fist, takes his verbal fist, sends that rule of Jews mask flying when he says, “Nicodemus, you’re a two part critter. There’s a part I can see and touch and smell, Whoo! There’s another part of you. There’s the spiritual part. Now when you were born physically, that was your first birth. But Nicodemus, you were born spiritually dead. Now that has to take birth. The spiritual part of you has to have birth. So, you’ve been born once, do not Marvel that I said to you must be…”

Born again.

So ,what happens when you’re born again? Verse eight tells, “The wind blows where it wants to, you don’t know where it came from, you don’t know where it went. All you know is it’s blowing.” Here we go. “Whizz… Whoa!” That’s the wind. “Whizz… Whoa ho ho…” How do you know the winds blowing? He knows. Do you know where it came from? Huh? Know where it went? No. Huh. But you know if it’s blowing. Huh? Hmm? Wouldn’t you love to be a weather man? Get paid for being right less than half of the time? It’d be great!

See, you know when you’re born again, right? I mean, you know that you know that you know. Don’t you know? See when you don’t know that you know, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you don’t know. But if you know that, you know that you know, well then the there’s just no question about it. You just, you know…

Oh… Have you ever lead somebody to Christ? Don’t you want them to come to Christ the way you came to Christ? And why do you want them to come to Christ the way you came to Christ? So you can know that they’re in.

Huh?

I mean, did you hear bells, gongs, buzzers, and whoops when you came to Christ? And the person you led to Christ doesn’t hear bells, gongs, buzzers, and whoops don’t you always kind of wonder about them? Huh?

I mean, did you cry when you came to Christ? And you let somebody Christ and they didn’t cry? Don’t you kind of wonder if they really got saved? Huh? Huh? Don’t you? Because, you want them to come to Christ the way you came to Christ so you can be sure they’re in. But you’re not the fruit inspector here. They just need to know that they know that they know.

I was at a men’s retreat. I said, “Okay, if you don’t know Christ and you don’t want to know him, you leave. If you know Christ, you leave. And if you don’t know Christ, and you’d like to, you stay.” I had a CEO of his company sitting right over here, and he was bent over in convulsive tears. Tears of repentance, just weeping uncontrollably. And the employee who had brought him, had his arms around him, holding him, consoling him as he wept.

Then I had a young guy up here, kid 21, 22, you know, kid. At my age you understand 21 year old’s a kid, just take it. And he was just sitting there, and his grandpa brought him and got up and walked out assuming his grandson was behind him. When he got in the foyer and realized his grandson was inside receiving Christ, grandpa burst through the door. He’s blubbering, he’s crying, he’s all over the kid. He scoops him up. He’s crying all over his shoulder. And the kid said, “Lighten up, Grandpa. I’m just receiving Christ here.” Now there are lots of different ways to come, right? I mean, if you’re going to enter into a personal relationship with the living, God, isn’t it likely that your method of entry is going to be highly personal? We still have to come.