Nicodemus was like many of us. He had many reasons for pride in his natural birth, his nation and his good life. Such things seemed to qualify him for a place in God’s kingdom. Yet Jesus required of Nicodemus a new birth, not of the flesh, but of the spirit. Though we know that fleshly and worldly things pass away all too soon, they absorb our time and energy. How much better to focus on spiritual life that never dies! “Eternal life” begins with the new birth given by God’s Spirit. According to Jesus, there is no other way to enter God’s kingdom. It is essential to receive the new birth of water and Spirit.
Memory Verses
1) James 4:13-14 – Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
2) Ecclesiastes 12:7 – … and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
3) 1 John 2:17 – The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Lord, please give us a seeking heart, such as Nicodemus had in coming to Jesus. As David prayed, “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”
Help us to face the weakness of this flesh and the reality of death.
Strengthen our focus on preparing for eternity, beginning with learning the meaning of the new birth.