Nicodemus At Night

April 14th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

John 3:1-2 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

John 2:23-25 reveals that many were coming to believe in Jesus because of the signs He was performing. Yet although these “believed” in Him, Jesus did not necessarily believe in them. He knew their hearts, and their belief was apparently nothing more than intellectual, for it was obviously void of any true commitment given that when Jesus was being crucified three years later none of these “many believers” were there except those who helped condemn Him to death. Truly, Jesus had good reasons not to entrust Himself to these phony believers. The only thing that seems to have attracted them to Him was His ability to perform signs.

In John 3:1-15 one of these “believers” approaches Jesus to speak with Him about His signs. This story follows directly after 2:23-25 so as to illustrate why Jesus was not entrusting Himself to these “believers” in Him. The man that approaches Jesus is named Nicodemus. The first thing learned about Nicodemus is that he is a Pharisee—an influential conservative religious party within Judaism opposite the Sadducees who were quite liberal. The Pharisees adhered to the entire corpus of what Christians today call the Old Testament, although the Sadducees restricted their beliefs to the Torah (first five books of the OT). Many of them were scribes (lawyers) who were the teachers and expounders of the Law of God. They led people to believe that they were in possession of the hidden meanings of Scripture, and they added many legalisms to the Law. They were, in a word, religionists enmeshed in man-made laws.

A second characteristic about Nicodemus is that he was “a ruler of the Jews.” This means that he was on the Jewish supreme court known as the Sanhedrin—a 70-member group of men who judged the people of Israel along with the reigning high priest—the 71st member. They arrested criminals (Matt. 26:47; Acts 5:17-18) and conducted trials (Matt. 26:57ff.; Acts 5:27ff.). Now if Nicodemus was a ruler of the people in Israel who believed the signs of Jesus yet did not truly understand Jesus with saving faith, then the belief of the others was likely less than his.

A third characteristic of Nicodemus was that he “came to Jesus by night.” Coming to Jesus during the daylight hours would have put his reputation as an authority in jeopardy. Being the ambitious man that he was, having ascended to the level authority that he had, conceding that the teacher from Nazareth was from God might have made him timid. After all, Jesus was an untrained carpenter while Nicodemus was a scholar of the highest rank. Just being seen asking Jesus a question would have tainted the people’s view of him and caused others to look beyond him to Jesus. Yet in spite of his timidity in coming to Jesus at night, there seems to have been a glimmer of hope in Nicodemus. After all, he did not despise the words and signs of Jesus but instead had a humble curiosity about them. Clearly then he was sensitive to God’s leading.

Fourthly, Nicodemus addressed Jesus as “Rabbi” revealing his respect for the man from Nazareth. He also confessed that he and others (“we know”) believed Jesus came from God given His ability to perform signs and speak as He did, although as a “teacher” and not God Himself. Thus, he had a pious belief at this point, albeit merely intellectual and not salvific.

Food For Thought
Nicodemus represents those wealthy, learned, and respected people who know about Jesus, even believing Him to be the Son of God. But they are unwilling to humbly submit to His lordship because it would hinder their reputation as self-made authoritative people. There is hope, however, for Nicodemus later gave it all up to follow Christ in broad daylight (19:39).