w/c 13th March

Our reading this week is John 3: 1 – 16

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man named Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. ² One night he came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miraculous signs that you do unless they have God’s help.”

³ Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus said, “How can a man who is already old be born again? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Believe me when I say that everyone must be born from water and the Spirit. Anyone who is not born from water and the Spirit cannot enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ The only life people get from their human parents is physical. But the new life that the Spirit gives a person is spiritual. ⁷ Don’t be surprised that I told you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it wants to. You hear it, but you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born from the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus asked, “How is all this possible?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “You are an important teacher of Israel, and you still don’t understand these things? ¹¹ The truth is, we talk about what we know. We tell about what we have seen. But you people don’t accept what we tell you. ¹² I have told you about things here on earth, but you do not believe me. So I’m sure you will not believe me if I tell you about heavenly things! ¹³ The only one who has ever gone up to heaven is the one who came down from heaven—the Son of Man.

¹⁴ “Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. It is the same with the Son of Man. He must be lifted up too. ¹⁵ Then everyone who believes in him can have eternal life.”

¹⁶ Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.

Prayer for the week:

Dear Lord,
thank you for leaving heaven and coming to this earth.
Thank you for explaining to Nicodemus how he could be accepted by God.
Thank you for dying on the cross to show us how much God loves us.
Amen.

In school:

We watched a video about Nicodemus.

‘God loved the people of the world so much that he gave his own Son so that anyone who believes in him will have eternal life.’ 

John 3:16

We thought about what this might mean. 

Before Nicodemus met Jesus he thought he was good enough to meet God. When he met Jesus he realized to meet God he must trust Jesus. Nicodemus was still scared of the Pharisees so he become a secret follower of Jesus until..

...Jesus died. He helped with the burial and become a public follower of Jesus. He was amazed when Jesus came back to life! 

We thought about some of the questions we might ask Jesus if we could have a private meeting with him. 

Questions to think about at home:

What big questions would you like to ask God?

What do you think his answers might be?