(From our church-wide devotion book at Pinedale Christian Church, "You 2.0”)

One thing I’ve learned over the years - there is a temptation for all of us to keep our faith hidden. It’s hard to let others see what is true inside of you and really LIVE what you believe. We tend to worry about what other people will think if they know. I used to be like that, too. But that was the old me.

“Nicodemus 1.0” was a lawyer and a priest – a highly religious Jew who had authority over the general Jewish population. I was proud yet compromised. “Perfect,” yet perfectly hollow.

Everything finally started to change the night I met Jesus. He was... different. Jesus had authority. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it was palpable. Hehad substance. He was real, and He was unafraid to let others see who He was.

That night, Jesus challenged me and made me consider myself and God in a completely different way.

The weird thing is that even though I knew that that night changed me, I was afraid to let anyone see. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you’ve been scared at your job, or at your school, or with your family and friends, to really LIVE your faith. Maybe you’ve been scared of ridicule. You don’t want to seem weird. You’ve been afraid others won’t understand.

I was like that, too. If the other members of the Sanhedrin found out that I was starting to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, they might disown me.
I would lose respect from some people. I would lose power. What would become of my career? But the funny thing is that the more things started to change inside of me, the less I started to care.

One day, after the other Pharisees heard people whispering that Jesus might be the Messiah, they decided to move against Him. They actually sent the Temple guards to arrest Him. Can you believe that? This guy was healing sick people and teaching great mysteries, and because people had the audacity to take notice, He was going to be placed under arrest. It was crazy. It was unfair, so even though my heart was hammering in my chest, I took a stand.

I said, “”Wait a minute? Do you think maybe we should at least hear this guy out?” It wasn’t much. I certainly didn’t change anyone’s mind. But it changed my heart. When I left the room, I was changed. I walked out, feeling stronger. I felt more real. I felt like I had let God do something inside of me that I had never let Him do before that moment. And I was different.

One thing I’ve learned about “Nicodemus, 2.0” is that I’m not driven by the same things I used to be. I can relate to Paul. In Philippians, he remembered how much his powerful background once meant to him:
“If others have reasons for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.” (Philippians 3:4-6)

That sounds just like me... and so do the next verses: “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-9)

The “new me” became so much less concerned with what people thought and so much more concerned with what Jesus thought!

That’s why, on the day Jesus was crucified, I knew I needed to make a stand. My new friend Joseph of Arimathea and I were not included in the (unlawful) decision to try Him at night or execute Him without a proper hearing. But when we saw His dead body on the cross, we knew it was time to make a statement. We took His body off the cross and buried it in Joseph’s own tomb. Everyone watched us do it, and there was no going back. At that moment, they all knew that we were Jesus-people.

Neither of us really knew what that meant. I don’t think we expected Him to come out of that tomb. Both we decided that we had seen enough. Jesus was TRUTH, and truth demands a response, no matter how much it costs. So at a moment when everyone else was running away, we took a step into the light and embraced Jesus.

(Con't in the comment below)