A) INTRODUCTION.

B) STEP 1.

C) STEP 2.

D) STEP 3.

 

 

A) INTRODUCTION

 

 

Only the Apostle John mentions Nicodemus.  He was a Pharisee (John 3:1) and most probably a member of the Sanhedrin.  The name Nicodemus in Greek means, “People’s victory.”

 

 

Nicodemus is best known for:

 

 

1) The interview with Christ at Jerusalem at night, in which he was taught by our Lord the doctrine of the New Birth (John 3:1-15);

2) His defending of our Lord before the Sanhedrin (John 7:50-52);

3) His assistence at our Lord’s burial (John 19:39-42).

 

By contrast, there is another aspect of Nicodemus’ life that I would like to bring out and portray.

 

 

B) STEP 1

 

 

Step 1) Although Nicodemus had been thus won to believe in the Divine nature of Christ’s mission, his faith was yet very incomplete in that he believed Him to be inspired only after the fashion of the Old Testament prophets.  To this faint-hearted faith corresponded his timidity of action, which displayed itself in his coming “by night,” lest he should offend his colleagues in the Sanhedrin and the other hostile Jews (John 3:2).

 

The rich were ashamed to confess Jesus openly, in spite of convictions of the reality of His mission.  So also, Joseph of Arimathea presented himself “a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews,” John 19:38.  The poor “came” by day, but Nicodemus “by night.”  Nicodemus was now a timid but candid inquirer; sincere so far as his belief extended.  Fear of man holds back many from a decision for Christ.  In this case, it could also be fear of losing his status and wealth.

 

Many of Nicodemus’ fellow rulers attributed Jesus’ miracles to “Beelzebub.”  Nicodemus on the contrary avows, “we.”  What is interesting is that he includes others besides himself:  “we know Thou art a Teacher Come from God, for no man can do these miracles which Thou doest, except God be with him,” John 3:2.  Nicodemus was probably one of the many who had seen “the miracles” on the Passover feast day “which He did,” John 2:23, and believed [in a superficial way, but in the case of Nicodemus it ultimately became a deep and lasting faith].

 

In answer to the veiled question which the words of Nicodemus implied, and to convince him of the inadequacy of mere intellectual belief, Christ proclaimed to him the necessity for a spiritual regeneration:  “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” John 3:3.  This was interpreted by Nicodemus only in its materialistic sense, and therefore caused him bewilderment and confusion (John 3:4).  But Christ, as on another occasiona when dealing with His questioners on a similar point of doctrine (compare with John 6:52 and John 6:53), answered his perplexity only by repeating His previous statement (John 3:5).  Jesus then proceeded to give further explanation.

 

The re-birth is not outward but inward, it is not of the body, but of the soul (John 3:6).  Just as God is The real Agent in the birth of the body, so also is He The Creator of the New Spirit; and just as no one knoweth whence cometh the wind, or “whither it goeth,” John 3:8, yet all can feel its effects who come under Its influence.  So is it with the rebirth.

 

Only those who have experienced it as a change in themselves, wrought by The Divine Power, are qualified to judge either of its reality or of its effects (see John 3:7-8).  But Nicodemus, since such experience had not yet been his, remained still unenlightened:  “Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?”  John 3:9.  Christ therefore condemned such blindness in one who yet professed to be a teacher of spiritual things, yet not understanding spiritual things (John 3:10).  Jesus then emphasized the reality in His own life of those truths, which He had been expounding to Nicodemus (John 3:11).

 

With this, Christ returned to the problem underlying the first statement of Nicodemus.  If Nicodemus cannot believe in “earthly things,” i.e., in the New Birth, which, though coming from above, is yet realized in this world, how can he hope to understand “Heavenly things,” i.e., the deeper mysteries of God’s purpose in sending Christ into the world (John 3:12), or of Christ’s Divine Son-ship (John 3:13), or of the Messiah’s relationship to the atonement and the salvation of man (John 3:14), and or of how a living acceptance of and feeding upon Him is in itself Divine life (John 3:15)?

 

 

C) STEP 2

 

 

Step 2) The above interview, though apparently fruitless at the time to affect an immediate change and follower of our Lord, was not without its effect upon Nicodemus (just as we plant the seed, God does the watering).  At the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Sanhedrin were enraged at Christ’s proclamation of Himself as the “Living Water,” John 7:37-38, Nicodemus was emboldened to stand up in His defense.  Yet here also he showed his natural timidity.  He made no personal testimony of his faith in Christ, but sought rather to defend Him on a point of Jewish law (John 7:50-52).  The naturally timid Nicodemus nevertheless remonstrates the Pharisees as being bigoted.

 

The Pharisees, chagrined at the failure of their officers to apprehend Jesus, therefore stated, “why have ye not brought Him?”  John 7:45.  These replied, “never man spoke like This Man.”  John 7:46.  The Pharisees retorted, “[47] Are ye also deceived? [48] Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?”  John 7:47-48.  It is here that one, who as they thought should have stood by them and echoed their language, ventures to cast a doubt on their proceedings, belted out, “doth our law judge any before it hear him and know what he doeth?”  John 7:51.  Indignantly they asked him, “Art thou also of Galilee?  Search, and look:  for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.”  John 7:52.

 

In a side note, it was spite that made them ignore that the prophets Jonah and Nahum came from Galilee.  It is also in this discourse that John marks the spiritual advance in Nicodemus’ life by contrasting his first coming “by night,” to that of openly defending Him.  He is now virtually confessing Jesus, though in actual expression all he demands is fair play and a fair trial for any Person; thus avoiding openly confessing Jesus as Lord and acknowledging the original argument, that yes, there was a rulers and Pharisee that “believed on Him,” John 7:48.  Thus, before, he was an anxious inquirer, but now, he is a decided, though timid and cautious believer.

 

 

D) STEP 3

 

 

Step 3) What Nicodemus failed to fully do in step two is fully realized in step 3.  Here we come to the full purpose of Nicodemus’ life and to the full purpose of our lives, which is the main reason that any of us are alive today.  By assisting at the Burial of our Lord, and by this open act of reverence, Nicodemus at last made a public profession of his being a follower of Christ.

 

Is this not the purpose and meaning of our lives today?  When even the twelve Apostles shrank from the danger of being apprehended from the mob who had clamored for Jesus’ crucifixion, and whose appetite for blood might not yet be satisfied after the crucifixion, but the mob would have then turned on His followers, when Christ’s cause seemed hopeless, the once timid Nicodemus shows extraordinary courage and faith at Christ’s crucifixion, which had shook our Lord’s other followers, and the faith of many others, this event of crucifixion now only confirms that of Nicodemus’ belief.  Oh, that the Apostles should have had such faith.

 

Nicodemus’ wealth enabled him to provide the “mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds,” John 19:39, with which the body of Jesus was embalmed.  Although questionable, “The Gospel of Nicodemus” and other apocryphal works narrate that Nicodemus gave evidence in favor of Christ at the trial before Pilate, and that he was deprived of office and banished from Jerusalem by the hostile Jews, and that he was baptized by Peter and John.

 

His remains were said to have been found in a common grave along with those of Gamaliel and Stephen.  The manner in which the true Gospel of John’s narrative traces the overcoming of his natural timidity and reluctant faith, is in itself, a beautiful illustration of the working of the Holy Spirit.  Of how belief in the Son of Man is in truth a “new birth,” and the entrance and way into eternal life.  Christ’s resurrection richly rewarded the faith of him who stumbled not at His humiliation.  Like the women who came to anoint Christ’s body for the burying, what Nicodemus did is and shall be spoken of for a memorial of him wherever the Gospel is preached throughout the entire Christian world.  Where real desire after the Saviour exists, it will in the end overcome the evil of the heart, and make a man strong in faith through the power of The Holy Spirit.

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