Scripture: John 3:1-4
Good Friday Service 2026

A four-year-old boy and his family were sitting outdoors enjoying lemonade and cookies when a bee started buzzing around the table. The little guy was very upset, so his mother tried to calm him. “Nathan, that bee is more afraid of you than you are of him,” she said. “Look how much bigger you are. Besides, if that bee stings you, his stinger will fall out and he’ll die.” Nathan considered this for a moment and then asked, “Does the bee know that?” That’s a good question!

The most important questions that anyone needs to ask are spiritual and related to eternity. Questions like: Is there a God? How can I know Him? Is there life after death? Do heaven and hell exist? If so, where will I go when I die? How can I know for certain that I’m right about the answers to these questions?

At the root of all these questions is a crucial one every person must answer. But if you wait to answer it until after this life, it will be too late! The question is simply: Who is Jesus Christ?

In the last few decades, a new word has become prominent in the American church scene, “seeker.” Many are looking for a spiritual connection, something deeper that provides meaning in our crazy world. They are looking for answers to the big questions of life. Though they may not know it, the question they’re asking is: Who is Jesus Christ?

Something wonderful happened with the coming of Jesus. We don’t seek Jesus – Jesus seeks us. In Luke 19:10, Jesus described His mission: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

At Grace, we’ve just finished a study of John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 wasn’t given in isolation. It was Jesus’ answer to a seeker, a Jewish leader named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus is mentioned three times in the Gospel of John. In chapter 3 he appears as a halfway seeker, intrigued but confused by Jesus. In chapter 7, he steps up to defend Jesus among his religious leader peers. Finally, in chapter 19 he takes a surprising risk: he joins another Jewish leader, Joseph of Arimathea to give Jesus a decent burial. Each time we read about Nicodemus he’s moving closer to Jesus. So, the last time Nicodemus is mentioned is on Good Friday at Jesus’ Cross. It’s The Spiritual Journey of a Seeker. We first meet Nicodemus in John 3.

1. Spiritual Questions but no commitment. 

Nicodemus is a religious leader, a member of the Sanhedrin, but he’s also a seeker. He wants to find out about Jesus. He’s very educated and a member of the Council of elders that are at the center of Jewish religious life. He was brave. Jesus wasn’t a popular figure with the Pharisees, so maybe it’s why he came at night.

He comes to Jesus because he’s seeking something. He’s heard about Jesus and he’s curious. Perhaps he’s driven by a much deeper hunger which even he wouldn’t be able to explain. He’s nice and respectful and approaches Jesus with deference. Rabbi, he says, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God (John 3:3). He’s impressed with all that he’s hearing about Jesus and figures Jesus is worth looking into.

John doesn’t shame Nicodemus for coming at night. He simply tells us that Jesus meets him. It’s good news because it means that doubt or fear aren’t a barrier to knowing God. Questions aren’t failures of faith. They can be the place where we hear God speak.

Have you ever lain awake at night, staring at the ceiling, pondering the questions of life, the deep spiritual ones: Is God real? Are you still with me God, though I’ve doubted you? God, can you give me a fresh start?

Nicodemus finds Jesus at night. He acknowledges that he sees something happening with Jesus that can’t be explained. Jesus answers: No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Jesus isn’t telling us what we need to do; He’s telling us what God does. No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.

Nicodemus is understandably confused. How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born? Nicodemus is thinking like Mr. Spock, logically, practically. But Jesus is talking about something else.

Nicodemus has already told Jesus he sees the kingdom. He sees the actions of God. He knows Jesus’ miracles, signs, and the healing He does can only be from God. The fact that Nicodemus recognizes God means God is giving him the gift of new life – a heavenly birth, from above, that allows him to recognize God’s hand at work. To be born from above is new life. It’s not an achievement or a decision. It’s a gift. Jesus describes what God does and it’s about God doing what we can never do for ourselves.

What does it mean to be born again? It’s means to realize deep in my heart that I’m helpless and sinful to the core of my being. I’m rightly under God’s eternal judgment, and there’s nothing I can do to make it right. At the cross, this terrible place of torture and punishment, we see ourselves, every man, woman, and child, every lost, sinning, rebellious one of us.

But it’s not just us we see. It’s God’s Son there in our place. If God’s own Son has taken our place, then God truly loves us. There is hope, there is salvation, there is a way out. It’s the beginning of Christ’s ascension, and ours. From the cross, He takes us with Him, reconciled to the Father.

Even though Jesus shares the gospel with Nicodemus, though Jesus shares John 3:16, the account ends with no response from Nicodemus. After this Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside… (John 3:22).

Nicodemus has Spiritual Questions but no commitment. Is that you tonight? You have questions but haven’t yet committed your life to Christ?

2. Spiritual Questions but guarded commitment, John 7:45-52. 

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, ‘Why did you not bring Him?’ The officers answered, ‘No one ever spoke like this man!’ The Pharisees answered them, ‘Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.’ Nicodemus, who had gone to Him before, and who was one of them, said to them, ‘Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what He does?’ They replied, ‘Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee’ (John 7:45-52).

As a preacher, it’s easy to become discouraged when people don’t respond to preaching as you’d hoped and prayed. That’s especially true when you’ve preached a clear, compelling gospel message, but no one asks for prayer or counsel on how he or she can trust in Christ as Savior.

That happened to Jesus, the most famous preacher of all time. Jesus often experienced negative and hostile reactions to His preaching. In John 7, He so ticked off the religious leaders with what He was teaching that they sent a goon squad to arrest Him. God’s truth is the great divider.

That’s the story of a Muslim girl named Rifqa Bary. She became a Christian at age 16. When her Muslim father heard about it, he and some members of their mosque planned to kill her unless she renounced Christ. Under Sharia law, it’s called an honor-killing. But Rifqa refused to denounce Jesus and had to run away. She found refuge with a Christian family in Florida. Her story and the subsequent custody hearing made national news. She was ultimately returned to her home in Ohio but was placed under protective care of local law enforcement. Her family ignored her as if she was dead. At 18 she left home, gained legal citizenship, graduated from college and wrote a book entitled Hiding in the Light: Why I risked everything to leave Islam to follow Jesus.

It’s a story repeated countless times. It doesn’t just happen in Muslim families. Many times, a family member will follow Jesus, and the other members of the family want nothing to do with them.

Some of you have family members who make it difficult to talk about things of faith when the family gathers. When it comes to commitment to Christ, Jesus is the great divider. That’s what happened to Nicodemus.

Jesus said, Anyone who is not with Me is against Me… (Matthew 12:30). Someone said it’s the most narrow-minded statement Jesus ever made. That may be true in our pluralistic, super-tolerant American religious mindset. It does sound rather intolerant, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. Jesus says you can’t straddle the fence when it comes to Him. You’re either trusting Him or you are rejecting Him. The only thing you can’t do is be neutral.

C.S. Lewis wrote: There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan. Lewis said that You can write Jesus off as a lunatic. Or you can attack Him as a liar. Or you can crown Him as Lord. The only thing you cannot do is ignore Him.

When Nicodemus defended Jesus, they turned on him with sarcastic anger, mocking him, saying, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?”

But Nicodemus’ point was valid: In contradiction of the law that they purported to uphold, they were judging a man without hearing his case (Deuteronomy 1:16-17). And their put-down (7:52), Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee, was wrong. Jonah, Nahum, and other prophets had come from Galilee. But they were so upset with the direction they saw things going that they just mocked and used illogical ridicule.

Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus. It’s a step of commitment but it’s not commitment. They shamed him and shut him down…and he lets them.

3. Spiritual Questions to Committed Christ-follower, John 19:38-42.

After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John 19:45-52).

We were horrified when we saw the photos of the 21 Egyptian Christians who were beheaded on a beach in Libya or read stories about our brothers and sisters who are asked by Muslim extremists on threat of death, Are you a Christian?

What would you do? We can’t know for sure in advance of how we’d respond faced with martyrdom. God would have to give us special grace.   

The crucifixion account ends with the full commitment of Nicodemus. Up to this point, Nicodemus has been a secret Christian. Nobody except God knew that he was follower of Jesus. But now, after Jesus has been crucified, he joins Joseph in giving Jesus a proper burial.

Joseph goes to Pilate to ask for the body, while Nicodemus provided about 65-70 pounds of myrrh and aloes to fold in with the linen wrappings to offset the stench of the decomposing corpse. They took Jesus’ body from the cross, prepared Him for burial, and laid Him in Joseph’s personal new tomb, a cave near Golgotha where no other bodies had yet been placed.

So, you have this odd situation where the disciples, who’d followed Jesus when He was alive, and expressed their willingness to die with Him, all fled when He was arrested and crucified. It seems only John dared to come back to the scene of the cross. But Joseph and Nicodemus, who’d hesitated to confess Christ publicly when He was alive, now risk their positions on the Sanhedrin and take this bold, open stand for Christ after He has died.

You have to ask, “Why the change?” Why did these men now come out boldly for Christ when they easily could have reasoned, “He must not have been the Messiah or He wouldn’t have been crucified”? Why risk the wrath of their fellow members on the Council now to join what seemed to be a lost cause? Why didn’t they just shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh well, I hope that His disciples give Him a decent burial”?

The answer lies in the way that John unpacks the final scene at the cross with the actions of these two men. These men watched Jesus die and it deeply affected them. Seeing Christ crucified solidified their commitment to Him. Thanks to them, Jesus’ body was not thrown on the ash heap where they burned the bodies of other crucified men. Of course, God could have raised Jesus from the dead even if He’d been burned to ashes, but we wouldn’t have the evidence of the empty tomb, which had been secured by the Roman guard. The application for us is: Looking on the crucified Christ either brings our commitment or rejection of Him.

Nicodemus was rejected by the Jewish leaders, but by confessing Christ on earth he gained eternal acceptance in heaven. He lost rules-keeping religion but gained an eternal relationship with the risen Savior. He lost earthly riches but gained treasures in heaven. Remember Jesus’ words: For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:25-26).

Conclusion

Nicodemus started out as a seeker but ended up a committed Christ-follower. How about you? Are you a committed Christ-follower?

About 150 years ago, Charles Blondin was very popular. He came to the United States and was fascinated, obsessed actually, with Niagara Falls. He wanted to cross Niagara Falls on a tight rope. He strung a rope 1100 feet across and 160 feet above Niagara Falls and said he was going to cross from one side to the other.

A crowd of 100,000 people gathered to watch Blondin walk across Niagara Falls. Can you imagine the drama of that moment? Life or death. He had no safety net. He crossed over. Tons of people, of course, were taking pictures, so he did it again. Then, he crossed over with a camera and took a picture of the crowd while they were taking pictures of him. He went another time and took a wheelbarrow across. The crowd went nuts.

He turned to the crowd and asked, “Do you believe I can do this?” Of course, they all believed. Then he asked, “Now, who will get into the wheelbarrow?” It got very quiet. Do you believe, or do you just admire? All 100,000 people were silent. One man named Harry Colcord knew Blondin. He’d worked with him and seen him do it 100 times. He got into the wheelbarrow, and they went inch by inch, step by step.

Can you imagine that ride? In a wheelbarrow over Niagara Falls? They make it to the other side. The crowd went crazy again, but no one in the crowd got in the wheelbarrow. Everybody applauded Blondin, but only one man truly trusted him.

Many of you have already committed your lives to Jesus. I want to speak to those of you who’ve never committed your life to Jesus. You’re still a seeker. You’ve never confessed your sin, repented and devoted your life to Christ. I want to give you a chance to make that commitment now.

Would you do that right now in the quietness of this moment? This is just between you and God. When you make that decision, it is the most important thing you can do. It brings joy and delight to the heart of God when somebody says, “All right, God, my life, my time, everything I have, is yours.” It’s being a Nicodemus and making a commitment for Christ.