The Story Behind John 3:16
Introduction: There’s no greater love anyone can express beyond what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. “John 3:16” has been used as a graphic (remember seeing football and other fans wearing vests with that reference on them?) and a quote. But there’s more to the story, to paraphrase the late Paul Harvey, as to how we have this verse, John 3:16.
(Full disclosure, there’s a sermon already accepted by Sermon Central based on this text called “The Fourth Sunday in Advent: Love” from 2022. This is a different message; based on and edited from a sermon I preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on February 1, 2026 but is not an exact transcription.)
This is the first Sunday in February and many of us see this month as the month of love. That makes sense, what with Valentine’s Day in just a couple of weeks! But the greatest love of all comes from God, and what He did when He sent Jesus into the world to live among us, die like us, and then rise from the dead to make salvation possible.
Some, if not most, of us are more or less familiar with John 3, especially verse 16. What I found interesting is that unless a certain man had approached Jesus, we might never have had this verse! This visit by Nicodemus paved the way for us to have John 3:16 and so much more!
Let’s take a look at the text:
1 Nicodemus was concerned
Text, John 3:1-16, KJV: 1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
By this time in our Lord’s ministry, He had already met two of John’s disciples, and had even been baptized by John the Baptist himself. He had endured the 40 days of testing in the wilderness, begun His own ministry, and had turned water into wine at Cana of Galilee. The first couple chapters of each Gospel have more info. Oddly enough, we don’t know for certain where Jesus was staying at this time but He had been in Jerusalem recently. According to the last part of John 2, He had cleansed the Temple for the first time.
No doubt word got to the religious leaders—I mean, this was something that had never happened before. Sure, there had been any number of basically disasters at the Temple, all the way from Solomon’s temple destroyed 600 years before to the mess Antiochus Epiphanes created when his armies conquered Jerusalem (Josephus, “Wars of the Jews”, Book 1, chapter 1, paragraph 2; and John Calvin’s notes, available online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom25/calcom25.viii.xvi.html?queryID=61552842&resultID=118321 ). It’s anybody’s guess how long it took the cleaners to remove the traces of pig’s flesh and the broth after the image (idol) of Jupiter was taken down. What a mess that had to have been!
But I think, and it’s only a hunch on my part, that there was something more than a relatively unknown carpenter-turned-preacher coming to the very Temple and doing what Jesus did! Something had to have landed on the mind of Nicodemus for so long that he had to find out more. To his credit, he went to find Jesus, even if he waited till nightfall to make it happen.
Now, suppose you or I would try to find someone with as much whatever you want to call it, such as what Jesus had done at the Temple. Some might call it notoriety (wow, did you see what that preacher did at the Temple the other day?) or righteous indignation (man, was that Jesus guy upset over all that stuff going on); maybe something else. Whatever it was, word and to have gotten to the religious leaders and, being one of them, Nicodemus probably heard many and various accounts. So, he decided (or was asked?) to find out more about Jesus, and off he went.
But when he heard what Jesus said, namely, “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”, it seems Nicodemus wasn’t just concerned anymore. He was confused.
2 Nicodemus was confused
Text, John 3:4-6, KJV: 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
This is one scene I wish I could have seen! Imagine, it’s dark, and one of the leading religious leaders in Israel has made his way—we’re never told how—to meet this strange, unusual Preacher Who had just cleaned up the Temple area. I can imagine Nicodemus having a prepared speech or maybe a list of questions ready to ask Jesus. Now he meets Jesus and it sure looks like everything Nicodemus had to say vanished before he said a word.
Remember, Jesus had just answered Nicodemus’ greeting or compliment (Rabbi, Teacher, we know You came from God as a teacher, paraphrased from Dr. A. T. Robertson’s notes on this verse in his “Word Pictures in the New Testament”) by stating unless a person was born again he would never see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus just couldn’t get it! He then asked Jesus two questions that may have made sense from a human, painfully literal viewpoint: first, how can any man, anyone, be born physically a second time? He followed up with this: can anybody go back into his mother’s womb and be literally born into this world a second time?
Imagine this, suppose you hear a joke and somehow it doesn’t make sense the first time you hear it. I ran across this the other day at one of our grocery stores. The cashiers know I usually try to slip in a joke or a pun or something and, you guessed it, that day was no different! While the cashier was scanning the codes for my groceries, I asked “Sam”, did you hear about the new cereal for cashiers? It’s common knowledge that Purina has made cereals like Wheat Chex ™ and Corn Chex™ for many years so here’s the new one for cashiers, “Price Chex!” “Sam” groaned—connection!—but another didn’t. This cashier looked puzzled and said, “What would that new cereal taste like?”
Groan from me, now. My reply? “Savings, I guess! (congregation laughed!)” The second cashier just didn’t get it. And Nicodemus just didn’t get it either! It was almost like he heard something that he could not understand so Jesus took time to patiently explain it to him.
Jesus first explained that “except a man (and that includes all people) be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Bible teachers and commentators have debated just what Jesus meant by “water” for many years but one theme stands out to me: Nicodemus seemed to focus on a literal second natural birth, which is impossible, but the “water” might well refer to the fluid in which an unborn child resides until birth. Jennie (a church member, but not her real name), as we can see, is expecting and her unborn child is residing in that fluid until the baby’s born. That’s the same way all of us were born! We have to be physically born first before we can be born again—that’s the way I see it, but may we never get so attached or attracted to one part of our Lord’s comment that we forget the other part.
And Jesus then added the second part, not just born of water but “and of the Spirit”. The best effort of any of us, apart from the Holy Spirit, is nothing more than dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6) and, the sad fact is, we know this but few want to admit it. Too many of us still believe we can somehow earn our way into Heaven or everlasting life. There’s only one way: and that’s God’s way, being born again by the Holy Spirit. Paul would later write in Ephesians 2 that we’re saved by the grace of God, not by our works, so that nobody could boast about it.
Jesus went on to say in so many words “What’s born of the flesh is flesh; that of the Spirit, spirit.” To me, He was restating the need of physical birth before rebirth, but Nicodemus may not have understood it that way. In fact, Nicodemus may have still been confused about what Jesus was saying to him. He was about to get another lesson into what Jesus had to say.
3 Nicodemus was confronted
Text, John 3:7-18, KJV: 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 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. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Jesus is still speaking to Nicodemus, after Nicodemus had said all he had to say. I mean, he had apparently come to Jesus with something on his mind, maybe even a well-rehearsed or thought-out speech, but when he saw Jesus, everything flew away. No matter: Jesus had plenty more to say to Nicodemus.
The first thing was a command for Nicodemus to not even start to marvel at what Jesus had already said. Nicodemus was puzzled, maybe, or not really sure what Jesus was talking about but from this command, it seems he hadn’t really wondered about it at all. “Ye must be born again?” What did it mean? Certainly it wasn’t enough for Nicodemus to wonder.
But I’m pretty sure Nicodemus did marvel at the next saying from the Lord. Jesus added, “The wind pretty much blows in whatever direction it chooses but you can’t tell where it started or where it’s going.” I myself sometimes wonder, when I hear “an east wind” or “a west wind” is it referring to where it’s blowing from, or to (Note: after the service a member explained that an east wind blows toward the east. I thanked that member Learning had occurred!) And Jesus added, “so is everyone that is bornof the Spirit”. And He left it at that.
Nicodemus, though, still had one more question for Jesus. He asked, “How can these things be?” This, I think, is where the confrontation really began. Now Jesus asked Nicodemus a question, “Aren’t you a teacher in Israel (after all, Nicodemus had called Jesus “Rabbi”) and you don’t know these things?” That got Nicodemus’ attention, to say the least!
There’s more to our Lord’s reply to Nicodemus but let’s move on down to verse 14. Here Jesus points directly back to the Old Testament—specifically, the Law of Moses—to illustrate a very significant point. Verse 14 refers to a tragedy the Israelites brought on themselves. They grumbled, griped, and complained about not having “bread” or water, and that they absolutely hated the manna which the LORD supplied for them. The LORD God of Israel had enough of it and sent “fiery serpents” among the people. Many Israelites died from the snakebites and they finally cried out to the LORD for relief after confessing, “We have sinned”.
The LORD then told Moses to make a “serpent of brass (or, bronze)” and put it on a pole. The LORD added, “If anybody looks at the serpent, he’ll live!” That was it. Just look. . . .and live! Incredibly, we don’t know if anyone refused to do this but Moses himself added the words, “when the serpent bit a man, when he beheld (looked intently at) the brazen serpent, he lived!
The whole story is right there in Numbers 21. But, did you catch one detail that nobody mentioned in the words of Jesus? How would any cast metal image of a serpent (or anything else, for that matter) stay on a pole—unless there was a cross-piece for it to stay in place? Let me tell you, I hate snakes—sure, some are useful but the farther they are from me, the better I like them. Tell you what, if there’s a nice, thick piece of glass or something even stronger between old sneaky-snake and me, that’s okay by me!
Now notice how Jesus makes the connection: “Just as Moses lifted up that serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Even early in His earthly, public ministry, Jesus knew that there was a cross in His future. He knew Calvary was coming but He never stepped away from that knowledge, no matter what.
But we dare not stop there. Jesus Himself added, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life (verse 15)”. See how Jesus compared Himself to the serpent being lifted up? I think Nicodemus was now beginning to wonder at this new truth that had been confronted to him!
And that may have been even more so when Jesus delivered verse 16 to him. No need to repeat it here, but may I add one particular nugget? It’s true that God has always loved this world, not just the physical earth but the people living on it. What’s special is the way Jesus said “loved”—it refers to one single, particular, once-and-for-all event when God sent the very best He had, His only begotten Son, so that anyone—ANYBODY!—who believes in Him would never, no never perish but have eternal life. What a promise! What a Savior! That anyone would do that for any of us—we don’t have the words to describe it.
Conclusion: Nicodemus was committed
We’ll stop the message here, with Nicodemus apparently going back to Jerusalem and Jesus going on as the Father directed. Did Nicodemus become a believer here or at another time? We’re never told when, but we do have a couple of clues. Here’s one: in John 7, the religious leaders were arguing over Jesus—and in fact, had sent a group of men to arrest Him! They didn’t, returning without Him, leading these rulers to, as we might say, have a meltdown. Nicodemus simply asked, “Shouldn’t we at least hear Him before we judge Him?” The others insulted Nicodemus!
Then in John 19, Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes for the Lord’s burial. Would anyone have thought or cared enough to do this without being a believer, or at least a friend?
Let’s try to wrap it up here. Nicodemus was concerned and went to meet Jesus. Then he was confused by some of what Jesus said. The Lord then confronted Nicodemus with several verses of truth. Nicodemus left but eventually was committed to the Lord. May we be committed, too!
Scripture quotation taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
