Bible Stories for the Young
Green triangles are narrated and fully illustrated and will have simple animation added along the way. Yellow triangles have narration, but the illustrations aren't done yet. Videos with red triangles are planned. New and updated videos will be added very often.
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Nicodemus was one of Israel’s teachers. That means that he had studied God’s Law and knew a lot of words about God.
When Nicodemus heard some of the things Jesus was teaching, and saw the awesome miracles Jesus was doing, he liked what he saw! He thought, “Hey, maybe Jesus is the One we’ve been waiting for!”
So, Nicodemus decided to go talk to Jesus.
But Nicodemus had a little problem. Some of his teacher-friends didn’t like what Jesus said because they were prideful and jealous of Jesus. If they found out that Nicodemus was talking to Jesus, they might be mad at him.
Nicodemus was afraid of what his friends might think, and he didn’t want them to be mad at him. So one night, when it was dark, dark, dark outside, Nicodemus decided to sneak, sneak, sneak off to talk to Jesus so that the other teachers wouldn’t see him. Booooo!
Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know You could not do the amazing miracles You do unless God sent You.”
Jesus looked up at the stars and pointed up and said, “Only a person who is born from up there can see God’s amazing Kingdom.”
Nicodemus had no idea what Jesus was talking about. Born where? Up there? Up where? A person needed to be born twice? He thought himself a pretty smart guy, and he did not understand what Jesus meant.
So Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a grown-up man be born like a baby? A grown-up man cannot go back into his mommy’s tummy and then be born a second time, can he?”
Jesus answered him, “I’m telling the truth! A person must be born of alive water and Spirit wind to come into God’s Kingdom. Why are you so surprised!? You know how the wind blows? Whooooo this way. Whooooo that way. You can hear it blowing, but you don’t know if it’s going this way or if it’s going that way! People who are born of Spirit wind are the same way. You don’t know which way they are going to go next!”
Nicodemus still didn’t understand. He said to Jesus again, “What do You mean? I still don’t get it!”
Why do you think Nicodemus couldn’t understand Jesus? Maybe one of the reasons he couldn’t see with Heaven-Eyes and hear with Heaven-Ears is because he was sneak, sneak, sneaking in the dark, dark, dark to talk to Jesus because he was afraid of what his friends would think of him. That is called being a coward, which is the opposite of being courageous. Talking to Jesus is GREAT. But, sneaking and being afraid of what others think of you is weak and pathetic. If you are ashamed of Jesus, He will be ashamed of you! But listen carefully to what Jesus says to him. Jesus uses His words like a sword to cut down into Nicodemus’ “not understanding” and makes the choice very clear.
Jesus patiently replied, “Umm… I thought you said you teach others about God? But you don’t even understand what I’m saying? I’m just talking to you about earth things and you don’t understand Me. How will you understand Heaven things if you don’t understand these easy earth things? You don’t know God as well as you thought, Nicodemus.”
Nicodemus was feeling a little embarrassed. But Jesus was trying to toughen Nicodemus up since he was clearly being a sneaky weakling who needed to “man up” and become a person with Courage.
Jesus continued, “Anyone who says ‘yes, I believe You!’ to God’s Son will have forever Life! God loved the world so much! The way that God loved the world was that He sent His one and only Son to the world to save it. It was hard for God to let His baby boy go like that. (Of course Jesus was talking about Himself. He was God’s baby boy!) But now, if you believe and say ‘yes’ to God’s Son, you will be rescued. But if you don’t believe God’s Son, then you will not be saved from all of your guilt and shame.
“Nicodemus, this is what the Judge of all has decided. A Light came to shine Bright, bright, bright into this world, but most people who do bad things like to sneak around in the dark, dark, dark so that the Bright light doesn’t show the evil in their heart.”
Nicodemus hung his head in shame. He knew he was a coward to sneak, sneak, sneak to see Jesus in the nighttime so that his friends wouldn’t be mad at him.
“But, Nicodemus, if you want to be My friend, come into My Light so that everyone can see what you are doing.”
Nicodemus had a choice. He didn’t understand everything Jesus said, but he understood that. He could choose to Believe Jesus and come into the Light or stay hiding in the shadows.
We don’t know what Nicodemus decided. Whether to be a weak, spineless sneak, sneak, sneaking man or whether to be someone willing to die for Jesus. We don’t know. But whatever you do, don’t be a sneaky weak person! Booooo! Come into His Light!