Evangelism 101 - John 3:1-21

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) This is the most popular and quoted verse in the Bible; and one that I had memorized even before I became a Christian. It was not until several years after I got saved, that I was reading my Bible one morning, and happened to be reading this verse; the Holy Spirit instructed me to read it again, and again, and then a third time. As I read it for the third time, it began to lift off the page as if magnified; then I took notice for the first time that the letters were in red. I had for some reason or another never realized before that this was not John speaking about Jesus, but this was Jesus himself speaking; which lead me to look further into whom He was speaking to; so I started over at verse one. Then I realized that this was instruction from the Master on how to evangelize and lead someone into the Kingdom of God. Jesus shows us all the steps to be a evangelist with the best of examples. Here we have a man coming to Jesus by night, most likely for fear of being discovered visiting Jesus; but he comes searching for answers. He believes Jesus is sent from God and gathers that He would have the answers to the questions he seeks. Nicodemus was not only a Pharisee, but he was a ruler and and teacher of the Pharisees. Right off the bat Jesus turns him around; Nicodemus came seeking worldly answers, but Jesus shows him spiritual answers. Then Jesus also shows him how unfit he is to enter the Kingdom of God; him, being a Pharisee of the Pharisees, unfit to enter. Not only was he unfit to enter God's Kingdom, but he was condemned to perish; and then to take it a step further, Jesus shows him his sinful nature and why he is in such a desperate need to be forgiven and born again. Jesus also shows him how simple it is to be born again; by just believing on Him that was sent. I can only imagine that as Nicodemus went away that night, the 'Swirling Eddie's' were spinning around in his head; "serpent lifted up, condemned, perish, born again, everlasting life, God's Kingdom, Isaiah 9:6, and on and on". One thing we can be assured of, Nicodemus did become a follower of Jesus; and most likely it was on that night. Not to long after this we see him mentioned in another passage; John 7:45-52, as the Pharisees scolded officers that did not arrest Jesus, Nicodemus defends Jesus, and the other Pharisees asked if he also was of Galilee. Then we see at the burial of Jesus in John 19:38-42, there were two wealthy men. One was Joseph of Arimathea, who being a disciple of Jesus, was also a Pharisee; he asked Pilate for the body of Jesus and provided a borrowed tomb, (after all Jesus would not need it for to long). The other was non other than Nicodemus, and he brought a hundred pounds of expensive spices that he might preserve the body of Jesus; I think he knew Jesus was going to rise on the third day; in fact I think they both knew it and were looking forward to it. The spices were not necessary; but sometimes we do things that may seem unnecessary; but God counts them as necessary and He honors them.