John 3:16

Many people aren’t aware that the often quoted John 3:16 is part of a nighttime conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus – one of the Jewish leaders of that time. Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus meant when He said we must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus gently explained His meaning using an example from the Old Testament with which Nicodemus was very familiar – the story of God’s command to Moses to make a bronze serpent and hang it upon a pole so that any Israelite who looked upon it would be healed of the deadly venom after they were bitten by the snakes that God had brought into the Israelite’s midst following their complaints against Moses and against God. Jesus told Nicodemus that just as the Israelites had been healed from the poison of the snakes, all mankind would be healed from the poison of our sin when Jesus was lifted up (on the cross).

Nicodemus finally understood and believed, but it was only the beginning of his journey of faith. He remained a secret believer until he actually saw Jesus lifted up on the cross. After Jesus died, Nicodemus and his fellow Jewish leader Joseph of Arimathea performed the Jewish rites of burial for Jesus’ body.