Jesus and Nicodemus – Children’s Church / Youth Bible Lesson

LESSON – JESUS AND NICODEMUS

by Marty Donnellan, Copyright 2010

Key Verse: “You should not be surprised when I say, ‘You must all be born again.’”

Open in prayer. (Since the plaster of paris castings must dry for at least ½ hour, you may wish to begin this project first, before the lesson.) 

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Art: Plaster of Paris Castings. (I use Hobby Plaster from Hobby Lobby, a craft store.) Have each child fill a large plastic drinking cup with ½ cup water. Add 1-1/2 cups dry plaster (roughly a 1-to-3 ratio). Mix carefully with a popsicle stick. Pour the wet plaster into plastic soap or plaster molds (if you are using soap molds, don’t fill them up all the way). Allow to dry for  at least 30 minutes. Note that as it hardens, the plaster becomes warm to the touch! This is because the plaster molecules and the water molecules produce a chemical reaction as a new substance is formed.

Say: This plaster of Paris is kind of like Nicodemus. Can anyone tell me how?  Wait for answers.  Just like Nicodemus, the dry plaster needed to have something new added. The plaster needed water, and Nicodemus needed the Holy Spirit to open his eyes to God’s truth. When his eyes were opened, he became a new creation!

Before children leave for the day, CAREFULLY release the castings from their molds. Children should allow castings to dry completely for 24 hours before painting at home. (Or they can leave their work at church to decorate the following week with paints or markers.) (NOTE: Never put wet or dry plaster down a sink drain, it can ruin the drain. Dispose of in a trash container.)

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Ask:  Who can tell me what the name Emmanuel means? Wait for answers. Emmanuel means “God with us.” It’s one of the many names given to Jesus in the Bible. It’s a great name, because Jesus is God, yet He put on a weak and frail human body so He could come be with us, and make a way for us to be with Him.

Say:  Shortly before today’s story, Jesus performed His first official miracle at the somewhat advanced age of 30. Can anyone tell me what it was? (Wait for answers.) It took place at a little country wedding. Jesus turned six enormous jars of water into wine! He hadn’t actually planned on doing this – it was just one of those things that happen, when the needs of the moment can unexpectedly pull a person in. You see, Jesus and His disciples and His mother, Mary, were guests at the wedding. Mary saw that the host had run out of wine. “Awkward!” she may have said to herself. She knew Jesus could fix it if He wanted to. She nudged Him and said, “They are out of wine.”

Jesus reminded His mother that it was not yet God’s perfect timing for everyone to find out who He was. But because she was His mom and because He loved her, He did as she wished. He did it in such a way, however, that only a few people noticed. Soon after, He started doing miracles for everyone to see. He also began teaching amazing lessons and preaching amazing sermons. And word about Him began to spread.

Ask:  Who brought their Bible with them today? I LOVE seeing you guys with your Bibles! I brought mine, too! (Show the children your favorite Bible.) However, I have a rather strange request. I don’t want you to open your Bibles. I want to see if any of you can tell me from memory what John 3:16 says. No peeking! (Wait for the quotation.)

Say:  John 3:16 is probably the most famous verse in the Bible. Even people who don’t know much else about Christianity have heard of John 3:16. It’s a great verse about God’s love for us and how we can be made right with Him if we put our trust in Jesus. Now, can anyone tell me when Jesus said these words?  (Wait for answers.)  It wasn’t during one of His big outdoor sermons, or even while teaching in the synagogue. He said them to an important Jewish man who had come to him secretly “under the cloak of darkness”, looking for answers. The man’s name was Nicodemus.

Read or have a child read John 3:1-21.

Say:  Before we talk about what Jesus meant by being “born again”, let’s find out more about Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were Jewish men who had received years and years of special training to become experts in God’s law. We call this law “The Mosaic Law” because it was given by God to Moses. The law starts off with the Ten Commandments but also includes many other rules and regulations about all sorts of things. The Mosaic Law can be read in the Old Testament books of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

The Pharisees felt strongly that God could not possibly accept anyone who was not careful to follow every detail of the Law. They thought the Law was so cool that they even started making up new rules to go along with it! (Sometimes the new rules contradicted the old ones, but they didn’t seem to notice or mind – they just liked rules!)

You might think it is pretty neat that the Pharisees cared so much about religion – but it turns out that they were missing the point. Their knowledge, training and effort did not bring them closer to God. Instead, it made them proud, merciless, and hard-hearted. Most of the Pharisees were about as far from God as anyone could be.

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Object Lesson: It’s as if you thought that the only way your parents could love and accept you was if, each and every day, you carefully performed each and every thing on a list just like this one! (Display the “Long List of Pointless Rules” which you have downloaded from the link.)

Long List of Pointless Rules .PDF FILE

And not only did you try to follow the list, but you tried to force all your friends to follow it, too!

Whew! It’s a good thing your parents love you! They would set you straight – that, yes, there are things they expect from you such as being kind to others and cleaning your room – but that you NEVER have to work to earn their love! Because love can’t be earned; it’s something that is freely given.

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Anyway, because the Pharisees were experts in the Law, they knew that God had promised to someday send the Jews a Messiah, or Savior King. But they did not believe it was Jesus. Yes, their Messiah would be a spiritual leader like Jesus, but he would also be a mighty military commander who would free the Jews from Roman rule. He would sweep to victory on horseback, wear royal clothing and be surrounded by armed soldiers. He would NOT be born in a smelly stable and grow up to be a simple carpenter with zero formal religious training. He would not be Jesus!

Ask:  Based on this information, can anyone guess why Nicodemus might have come to see Jesus at night, and not in the daytime? (Wait for answers.) He was probably scared! Nicodemus was a well-known and respected leader in the community. He was a member of the Sandhedrin, which was the Jewish ruling council. He did not want his Pharisee friends finding out that he went to visit Jesus, the uneducated redneck teacher from Galilee.

His problem was that he had heard Jesus teach, maybe even seen a miracle or two. He had to find out more.

Say:  Jesus and Nicodemus met and had their conversation. When Jesus says, “You must be born again” and Nicodemus replies, “How can these things be?”, he sounds bewildered, doesn’t he? And when Jesus says, “How can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things?”, He sounds surprised as well.

The original words used for “born again” can be translated “born from above”. Nicodemus didn’t understand that Jesus wasn’t talking about a physical birth, but a spiritual birth, a brand new life from God.  Jesus made it clear that this new birth could not come from any effort on Nicodemus’ part, just as a baby can’t create itself and be born – but only from God’s effort.

Years later, in his letter to the early church at Corinth, the apostle Paul wrote these amazing words:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Cor. 5:17 And in his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul compares our pre-born-again state to the state of being dead. Before we are Christians, he writes, we are “dead in trespasses and sins.”

Ask:  Can a baby make itself be created and born, or a dead person make himself alive?  (Wait for answers.)  Of course not! It takes a miracle, God’s act of creation when we believe in Christ. Do each of you feel that you have had this experience of being born again?  (Wait for answers.) 

(This is a good time for the leader to relate his or her own conversion experience.)

Ask:  After Jesus and Nicodemus talked, do you think Nicodemus believed in Jesus? (Wait for answers.) If he did, it doesn’t sound like it happened right away. Nicodemus appeared two more times in the New Testament: In John 7:45-51, he defended Jesus’ right to a fair trial before his fellow Pharisees, but fell short of saying he was a believer. But after Jesus was crucified, Nicodemus helped a man named Joseph to prepare Jesus’ body for burial (John 19:39-42). In that act we see that, at last, he publicly took his stand with Jesus. Christian church tradition has it that Nicodemus was eventually killed, or martyred, for his faith in Christ, but we won’t know for sure until we get to heaven!

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Art: Stained glass effect using colored tissue paper.

Church Stained Glass Window Template .PDF FILE

You will need 8-1/2×11” clear plastic sheets (I used clear frosted plastic file folders cut into sections), Elmer’s glue, and sheets of black posterboard or construction paper. Before church, cut the window shapes into the black sheets. The negative area, the area you cut out inside the border will be the “stained glass” area.

Have the children cut shapes out of an assortment of colored tissues. Have them glue the shapes down onto the clear plastic sheets. Carefully place the posterboard borders over the stained glass area. Press down. Turn over and carefully tape back of artwork to reinforce. When dry, put it in a bright window and let the sun shine through it!

Say:  God’s love makes us beautiful!

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Science Experiment: (The kids will watch while YOU perform this.) The carafe supplied contains ½ cup of Chlorox Bleach. Open the smaller bottle which contains 1 cup of water. Add three (3) drops of blue food coloring to the WATER. Mix. Carefully open the carafe containing the bleach. Pour the blue water into it. Put the lid back on the carafe. Watch as the color slowly changes from blue back to clear! (It takes a minute.)

Say: Isn’t it great that God doesn’t see our sins because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross? Does this mean we get to keep on sinning and sinning after we are “born again”, because we know He will forgive us? No, we want to please God by trying not to sin!

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Game:  Penny-stack. How many pennies can each child, or team, stack, before the penny towers topple? The pennies are like the Pharisees’ many rules. There are too many of them!