Children’s Sermon

John 3:1-17

Nicodemus and Born Anew

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John 3:1-17

Nicodemus and Born Anew

By Dell Smith Klein

One Sunday morning, the pastor held up a tiny baby to introduce him to the congregation. After he announced the baby’s name, the pastor said, “Even little Eric will have to be born anew in order to be a part of the kingdom of God.”

Later, the twins questioned their parents. Kyle said, “What did the pastor mean about being born anew?”

That evening, Mom read to Kyle and Kelly from the Holy Bible, a story about a man who visited Jesus late one night to ask some questions. Maybe Nicodemus came at night because he didn’t want his friends to know he was visiting with Jesus. Maybe it was because Nicodemus was an important religious person who should have known the answer to the question he asked.

While he was there Jesus told him that no one could be a part of God’s Kingdom unless he had been “born anew.” (3:3) But, Nicodemus didn’t understand what Jesus meant. He had never heard anything like that!

Jesus wasn’t talking about physical birth. He was talking spiritual birth. Jesus told Nicodemus that it was a mystery – like the wind. We can’t see the wind, but we see trees move, and grass move and know that the wind is blowing. We can even feel the wind on our skin, but we can’t see it. It’s a mystery. Being born anew is a mystery like that. We don’t know exactly how it happens, but we know God’s love in a special way when we believe in Jesus. Jesus becomes our best friend.

Nicodemus became a friend of Jesus. In the Holy Bible we read about how Nicodemus questioned people who wanted to deny Jesus a trial. That day when he spoke up the crowd went away (John 7:50-53) and later still, Nicodemus was one of two important religious leaders who cared for Jesus’ body when he was taken down from the cross. (John 19:39-41)

Nicodemus loved Jesus didn’t he? (Allow the children to respond.) In the beginning he may have wanted to keep it a secret. But overtime, he showed that he was truly a friend of Jesus.

It was good that the twins asked questions when they didn’t understand about being born anew. When we don’t understand something, we can ask questions of our parents, our teacher or our pastor.

PRAYER

Thank you, God, for showing us your love. We are so glad that Jesus explained to Nicodemus how to be born anew. Like Nicodemus, we want to be a friend of Jesus. Amen.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2013, Richard Niell Donovan