It\u2019s been nearly twenty years since I met Jesus, but I can still remember what it was like to be completely hostile toward the gospel, when what seemed so obvious to those who believed made no sense to people like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bible is full of the stories of people who were trying to make sense of Jesus\u2014people like Nicodemus. He was one of the religious elite, one of the people you would expect to know everything about what it meant to worship God (John 3:1). But when he heard about Jesus\u2019s teaching, he was curious. When he heard about the signs He performed, Nicodemus knew he had to speak to this miracle-working man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when he actually talked to Jesus, Nicodemus was confused. Jesus said strange things that seemed to make no sense, things that were surely<\/em> impossible, like: \u201cUnless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God\u201d (John 3:3). At the moment Jesus explained this mystery, Nicodemus didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I\u2019m willing to bet that Nicodemus didn\u2019t get it for a while. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But there was a time when I didn\u2019t, either (and ditto for you, too). And that\u2019s okay. But here\u2019s what I love: the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus isn\u2019t the end of Nicodemus\u2019s story. Nicodemus keeps showing up all throughout John\u2019s Gospel. He\u2019s on this journey trying to figure things out. He left Jesus in the night and didn\u2019t understand, but He kept wrestling with what Jesus told him. When the other religious leaders were trying to decide what to do with Jesus, Nicodemus began to defend Him (John 7:45\u201352). He still didn\u2019t seem to quite know what to make of Him, but He knew that Jesus wasn\u2019t some charlatan. And then we see him again, after Jesus has been killed, as one of the people who prepared His body for burial (John 19:38\u201342).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nicodemus was on this journey for years. He didn\u2019t understand at first, but he didn\u2019t stop trying to figure out who Jesus was. It wasn\u2019t obvious to him, but eventually, it seems like he got it. Through three years of wrestling, he began to see what can only be seen by those who are born again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still remember when I saw and understood the truth; when what wasn\u2019t<\/em> obvious to me, suddenly was. And that\u2019s something I hope I don’t forget, especially when I think about people I know who still don\u2019t understand the gospel. They don\u2019t get it now, but that doesn\u2019t mean they never will. It might be three years or thirty, but someday, it could happen. They, just like you and me, could be born again. And when they are, they will see the kingdom of God for themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been nearly twenty years since I met Jesus, but I can still remember what it was like to be completely hostile toward the gospel, when what seemed so obvious to those who believed made no sense to people like me. The Bible is full of the stories of people who were trying to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":72347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pitnt"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72485],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"NICODEMUS<\/b> It\u2019s been nearly twenty years since I met Jesus, but I can still remember what it was like to be completely hostile toward the gospel, when what seemed so obvious to those who believed made no sense to people like me.<\/p> The Bible is full of the stories of people who were trying to make sense of Jesus\u2014people like Nicodemus. He was one of the religious elite, one of the people you would expect to know everything about what it meant to worship God (John 3:1). But when he heard about Jesus\u2019s teaching, he was curious. When he heard about the signs He performed, Nicodemus knew he had to speak to this miracle-working man.<\/p> But when he actually talked to Jesus, Nicodemus was confused. Jesus said strange things that seemed to make no sense, things that were surely<\/em> impossible, like: \u201cUnless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God\u201d (John 3:3). At the moment Jesus explained this mystery, Nicodemus didn\u2019t get it. In fact, I\u2019m willing to bet that Nicodemus didn\u2019t get it for a while.<\/p> But there was a time when I didn\u2019t, either (and ditto for you, too). And that\u2019s okay. But here\u2019s what I love: the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus isn\u2019t the end of Nicodemus\u2019s story. Nicodemus keeps showing up all throughout John\u2019s Gospel. He\u2019s on this journey trying to figure things out. He left Jesus in the night and didn\u2019t understand, but He kept wrestling with what Jesus told him. When the other religious leaders were trying to decide what to do with Jesus, Nicodemus began to defend Him (John 7:45\u201352). He still didn\u2019t seem to quite know what to make of Him, but He knew that Jesus wasn\u2019t some charlatan. And then we see him again, after Jesus has been killed, as one of the people who prepared His body for burial (John 19:38\u201342).<\/p> Nicodemus was on this journey for years. He didn\u2019t understand at first, but he didn\u2019t stop trying to figure out who Jesus was. It wasn\u2019t obvious to him, but eventually, it seems like he got it. Through three years of wrestling, he began to see what can only be seen by those who are born again.<\/p> I still remember when I saw and understood the truth; when what wasn\u2019t<\/em> obvious to me, suddenly was. And that\u2019s something I hope I don't forget, especially when I think about people I know who still don\u2019t understand the gospel. They don\u2019t get it now, but that doesn\u2019t mean they never will. It might be three years or thirty, but someday, it could happen. They, just like you and me, could be born again. And when they are, they will see the kingdom of God for themselves.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"8","scripture":"John 3:1-21, John 7:45-52, John 19:38-42 ","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Aaron Armstrong<\/i>
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