Nicodemus is the Pharisee who came to Jesus by night and heard that he must be born again.
Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God,
for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.
Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
How can these things be?
He is a ruler of the Jews,
a teacher of Israel who did not yet know the wind of the Spirit
—
and later he spoke a cautious word in council
and brought seventy-five pounds of spice to a grave.
John introduces him as a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews. He comes at night. The signs have already spoken. Jesus will not stay at the compliment. You must be born from above, born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh. The wind blows where it wishes.
Nicodemus answers with a midwife’s puzzle: Can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb? He is not playing. He is lost on the threshold of the new heart the prophets promised. Jesus points him to Moses lifting the serpent in the wilderness, and then to the Son of Man lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life. God so loved the world. Light came, and people loved darkness.
Nicodemus leaves the chapter unfinished. Later, when the council is ready to condemn without a hearing, he asks, Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing? They mock him: Are you from Galilee too?
After the cross he comes with Joseph of Arimathea, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds—a burial for a king, in the open, no more only at night. John never writes his altar call. He writes a man moving toward the Light.
- Night can be fear. It can also be the first honest hour a teacher has.
- Signs convinced him God was with Jesus. Signs did not equal new birth.
- Teacher of Israel is a hard title when the lesson is Ezekiel and the wind.
- How can these things be is better than We know, if it stays to hear the answer.
- The serpent lifted up is the door out of the puzzle—look and live.
- A legal question in council is not yet a confession. It is not nothing.
- Spice by daylight is costly love after the lift-up he had been told about.
- Pharisee and Ruler – Sanhedrin; teacher of Israel.
- By Night – First approach in the dark.
- We Know – Signs as evidence; still short of birth.
- Born Again – Water and Spirit; the wind; the serpent lifted up.
- In Council – A hearing before judgment.
- At the Tomb – Myrrh and aloes; Joseph of Arimathea.
- Toward the Light – John’s three scenes, not a finished biography.
- John 3:1-8 – “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’… ‘Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit… The wind blows where it wishes.’”
- John 3:9-16 – “Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?’… ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.’”
- John 3:19-21 – Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light… whoever does what is true comes to the light.
- John 7:50-52 – “Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ‘Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.’”
- John 19:38-42 – Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body… Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight… they bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.
- Ezekiel 36:25-27 – I will sprinkle clean water on you… I will give you a new heart… I will put My Spirit within you.
- Numbers 21:8-9 – Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. If a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
- John 12:32 – And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself.
- Titus 3:5 – He saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 – If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
He came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God.
Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. How can these things be?
Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
As Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing?
Nicodemus, who earlier had come by night, brought myrrh and aloes—about seventy-five pounds.
Do not stop at We know. Ask How can these things be—and stay for the lift-up. Look and live. Come to the Light. A new heart is not a night class. It is birth from above.
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