Free Access

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (v. 3)

Hi, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have a story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

One day, a long time ago, Jesus and his friends went to the town called Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday of Passover. Passover was a very special holiday, and people came from all over the place to celebrate it in Jerusalem. A lot of the people spoke different languages and even used different kinds of money, so sometimes they had a hard time figuring out how to buy things in the shops and restaurants while they were there. Have you ever traveled anywhere that you didn’t understand everything going on? (Let them respond.) It can be pretty confusing.

And, to make it worse, there were some people in some shops and restaurants that took advantage of those visitors and cheated the ones who didn’t understand what things cost and how to pay for them. That was pretty rotten, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.) Well, Jesus was visiting the shops one day and saw what was going on and how the visitors were being cheated, and it made him angry. Does anyone know what he did? (Let them respond.) The Bible says he found a piece of rope and started swinging it around and chased away the people who were cheating the other people. He told them they were a bunch of thieves and needed to stop doing what they were doing.

When Jesus did that, there was another group of people standing over by the road watching him. They were the people who owned the shops Jesus was messing up, and I wonder how they felt about what Jesus was doing? (Let them respond.) Yeah, they were not happy at all. They decided they were going to have to do something to stop Jesus from causing more trouble.

That night, one of those men found out where Jesus and his friends were staying. The man’s name was Nicodemus, and in the middle of the night, Nicodemus got his flashlight (turn on your flashlight and have fun pretending to be Nicodemus sneaking around), left his house, and started sneaking down the alleys to go find Jesus. He sneaked down the alleys, and he sneaked behind the buildings, and he sneaked along the walls until he came to the house where he knew Jesus was sleeping. What do you think Nicodemus did next? (Let them respond.) Nicodemus went up and knocked on the door of the house, and when someone opened it, he said, “I would like to talk to Jesus.”

Well, the man who answered the door recognized Nicodemus. He told Nicodemus to wait and he went back inside and woke Jesus up and told him Nicodemus was here. And he told Jesus he would go wake up the others and they would all find some clubs and rocks and things so they could protect Jesus from the man. But Jesus told him to calm down and let Nicodemus come in so they could talk. He did what Jesus said, and Nicodemus came inside and met Jesus face-to-face.

Does anyone know what Nicodemus did next? (Let them respond.) He looked at Jesus and said, “I know you are from God. I was watching you today and know that no one could do what you do unless God is with you. How can I join you?”

I’ll bet the rest of the people there were pretty surprised, don’t you? (Let them respond.) They thought Nicodemus had come to attack Jesus, but instead, he had come to join him. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

Jesus smiled at Nicodemus and told him that if he wanted to join them all he had to do was to be born again, but Nicodemus didn’t understand what he meant. And you know, sometimes we still get confused about it. Jesus said that if we want to follow him, we need to be born again, and people argue a lot about what that means. How in the world can we be born all over again? Well, I have an idea that might help us understand what Jesus meant.

How did Nicodemus know that Jesus was with God? (Let them respond.) Was it something Jesus wore? (Let them respond.) No. Was it something Jesus ate? (Let them respond.) No. Was it something Jesus wrote? (Let them respond.) Nope, Nicodemus knew Jesus was with God because he had been watching the things Jesus had been doing. That’s how he knew who Jesus was…by watching the things Jesus did to help the people who were being cheated and hurt.

I wonder if Jesus was saying that if we want to follow him, we have to stop doing things that might hurt other people, and make sure that we just do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other? It would be like we were born all over again and we behaved like someone brand new, wouldn’t it? (Let them respond.) Jesus wants us to choose to start over and do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

And do you know what I think is so cool about that? (Let them respond.) If we do that, then when people watch us, what will they see? (Let them respond.) If we spend our time doing the things God wants us to do, like Jesus did, when people watch us, we will remind them of God, just like when Nicodemus watched Jesus. And I think that would be really cool, don’t you? (Let them respond.)

I hope you’ll remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to show everyone around us how much we love them, too.

Let’s have our prayer and ask God to help us start all over and do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.