Nicodemus Visits Jesus at Night ~
Nicodemus was a pharisee & a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. What does all this mean? Well, the Jewish nation was ruled by God through the temple, their government officials were all religious leaders. So, the church council, the Sanhedrin, was the government. However, in Jesus' time, Jerusalem was also ruled by Rome. So, they were under the authority of Rome and their governing officials, but they were still allowed to have their own government, as long as it did not usurp the Roman government. It's kind of like our state vs. federal government. In the United States, we have local city & county government, who makes some rules & laws, but they answer to the State government, who make other rules & law, & they are required to obey the rules & laws of the Federal government.
Now back to Nicodemus. He was a pharisee. In the Jewish government there were two main parties - the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees believed in strict observance of the law, and were usually middle class citizens who believed in educating the people on the Torah. Most of the scribes (those who studied and copied the Scriptures) were Pharisees. They were the most vocal in their criticism of Jesus. The Sadducees were from upper-class families, usually from the priestly line. They supported a more political & judicial view of the government. Because of their more favorable support of the Roman government, they held the position of high priest. However, the Pharisees were more popular with the people. Sadduccees did not believe in resurrection or spirits, while Pharisees held to a more spiritual belief.
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. He was curious about this new prophet, but he didn't want to make his inquiries known to his fellow religious leaders. Jesus blew his mind with this teachings - you must be born again. Nicodemus couldn't even fathom how that was possible. So, Jesus explains further - we are all born of water (physical birth) but one cannot enter heaven without a second birth (spiritual birth). This birth is accomplished when we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Messiah.
Jesus also prophesied that He will be lifted up as the snake in the desert was lifted up. What?? Back in Numbers 21:8,9, when Moses was bringing the Israelites through the desert, they whined - A LOT. God basically got sick of it. I mean, really, He had provided for their every need yet they continued to complain & whine. "We're going to die out here." "There's no water." "Now we have water, but there's no food." "Now we have food, but we want meat." "Now we have manna & meat, but we are sick of eatting manna." "We should go back to Egypt. Sure we were slaves, they killed our children and abused us, but hey, that's better than traveling through the desert with all our needs provided." So, God gave them something to whine about - He sent deadly snakes into the camp. Of course the people cried out to God, "Save us, save us." So, God told Moses to make a statue of a serpent and place it on a pole in the midst of the camp. Whoever looked upon the snake would be healed. That was all you had to do - look at the snake & believe that God would heal you & boom - you were healed. It is the same with Jesus. God has given us everything we need. He will continue to lead us through every trial & problem we have. But we just whine & complain & demand our own way. We make ourselves miserable & we struggle through all sorts of ridiculous problems simply because we refuse to look to God for help. Jesus is our help. He was raised up on a cross, His blood has covered our sins. All we need to do is look up at Him & believe. Pretty simple - so why aren't we doing it? Why do we allow ourselves to sit in disbelief? It's really simple - "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." Those are Jesus' words. Look to them & be saved.
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