Transformed: Nicodemus
Pastor Clark Pfaff

Key Point: Nicodemus was cautious, but curious.

…we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.(John 3:2, NIV)

I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.(John 3:3, NLT) 

“How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”(John 3:4, NIV)

 “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.(John 3:5, NLT) 

6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”(John 3:6-8, NLT) 

 “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?(John 3:10, NLT) “

…as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. (John 3:14-15, NLT)

Key Point: Nicodemus was rigorous, but righteous.

48 “Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him? 49 This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!” (John 7:48-49, NLT)

“Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?”(John 7:51, NLT) 

Are you from Galilee, too? Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!” (John 7:52, NLT) 

Key Point: Nicodemus was sympathetic, but saved?

38 Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. 39 With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. 40 Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. (John 19:38-40, NLT)

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 they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people 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 their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:16-21, NIV)