Two questions. First question: ‘are
you sure that you have eternal life?’
Second question: ‘if you died, and God said to you, “why should I let
you into my heaven?”, what would you say?’
Take a moment and think how you would answer each of these.
In this sermon we are looking at the question of what it means to be
born again. It does not matter whether
you call yourself a ‘born again’ Christian or not, but it does matter that you
have been born again. You aren’t a
Christian if you are not born again.
Becoming a Christian involves
being born again (1-3)
The Pharisees were a religious movement that looked at the religion of
their day and believed that it was weak.
They would not only seek to obey the rules, they would add to the rules.
The Pharisees are generally portrayed in a negative light in the
gospels. They try to trick Jesus. Despite Jesus’ obvious goodness, they accuse
him of evil. Ultimately, they seek to
have Jesus killed.
But Nicodemus comes across as a different kind of Pharisee. He calls Jesus ‘rabbi’ (‘teacher’), although
Jesus had not undergone formal training.
He is insightful, recognising that Jesus comes from God. He is sincere. He is respected, being called ‘Israel’s
teacher’, and is a member of the Jewish ruling council. He would have been a man of prayer. He would have regularly been at meetings of
worship. Yet Jesus tells him, ’truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.’
What does it mean to see the kingdom of God? Well, the Jews were waiting for God’s
promised king. Jesus is that king. To see his kingdom involves being one of his
people. We might say that is what it
really means to be a Christian. What
Jesus says is shocking! A religious Jew would
have expected to be one of the king’s people.
Jesus say only those who are born again are.
Can you see that your background, your baptism, your first communion, your
reputation, your prayers or your church attendance don’t make you right with
God? Nicodemus was religious and
devote. Yet Jesus says, ‘truly, truly I
say to you, unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God’
(3).
Being born again is a work of
God (4-8)
It is the most important thing in the world to know what it means to be
born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a
clue what it means. He thinks that Jesus
is speaking about physical birth. ‘How can
a man be born when he is old? Surely, he
cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born?’ (4).
Jesus explains, ‘truly, truly I say to you, no one can see the kingdom
of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit’ (5). These words might seem confusing to us, but
Nicodemus should have known what they mean.
You see Nicodemus was an expert on what we call the Old Testament.
In the book of Ezekiel God declares that a time is coming when, ‘I will
sprinkle clean water and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your
impurities and from all your idols. I
will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you
to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws’ (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
Water is a picture of cleansing.
God promises to wash away all your sin.
When you are born again the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your
heart. The Holy Spirit changes you from
the inside out. He causes you to desire
to follow God and he enables you to live a life pleasing to God. Being born again involves knowing God’s
forgiveness and transformation.
A business man went to his pastor and said, ‘my wife is glad I have
become a Christian. My kids are glad.’ They saw the change that
Jesus made in his life and they were impressed. Forgiveness and change
are the results of being born again.
A girl was always in trouble at school. Her name was always being
brought up at staff meetings. But over the holidays she attended a
Christian camp, where she was a handful for the leaders. Yet she heard
the good news about Jesus and it impacted her. When she returned to school
her name came up in the staff meeting. However, this time the principle
exclaimed, ‘what has happened to that girl?’
Forgiveness and transformation!
Before we move on to see the role of the cross in all this, I want you
to see the words the Spirit gives birth
to spirit (6). It is saying that just as we contributed
nothing towards our physical birth, neither did we contribute to our spiritual
birth. We didn’t make our mother
pregnant. We didn’t produce our own food
in the womb. We didn’t do all the
pushing and shoving of labour. We were
born by the efforts of another. Similarly,
it is the Holy Spirit who shows people that they are dead in rebellion and sin,
who tells them that Jesus has taken the punishment for their sin, and who
raises us from spiritual death. If you
are born again then you should be among the most grateful people in the world.
Being born again is a result
of what Jesus did on the cross (9-15)
Nicodemus still doesn’t understand. ‘How can this be?’ (9).
‘You’re Israel’s teacher and you don’t understand these things’ (10).
‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be
lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life’ (14).
This is a reference to our Old Testament reading (Numbers 21:4-9).
In the reading from Numbers, the people were dying as judgement for their
rebellion against God. Yet God
graciously gave Moses a rescue plan. All
the people needed to do was look at the bronze snake that Moses lifted up and
they would be healed. That bronze snake pictured
Jesus being lifted up on the cross. We
are dying in our sins but look to the Saviour.
Put your trust in him. He died
for people’s guilt. He is the rescue
plan we need. He is the only way to we
can have eternal life.
So why not choose life? (16-21)
Then comes what one of the most famous verses in the Bible. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life’ (16). The amazing
thing about this verse is that in John’s writings the term ‘world’ doesn’t mean
the planet or even people in general. For John ‘the world’ specifically
refers to society in rebellion against God. God sent his Son for
rebellious people like us who had done nothing to deserve his favour.
‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God’ (18). You are presented with a
stark choice! Jesus spoke plainly about
the righteous and eternal judgement of hell.
You are invited to come to Jesus for life or you will spend eternity apart
from him and all that is good.
So why aren’t people flocking to Jesus to experience forgiveness and
transformation? ‘This is the verdict:
Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because
their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will
not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed’ (19-20). By nature, we are rebels who don’t want to
face the reality of our guilt. We need
to be asking God to change people’s hearts.
We should be thankful for the grace that ‘taught my heart to fear, and
grace my fears relieved’ (John Newton, ‘Amazing Grace’). ‘But whoever does what is true comes to the
light, so that it may be seen clearly that his works have been carried out in
God’ (21).
Conclusion
I began by asking you two questions.
Let’s take them in turn.
‘Are you sure that you have eternal life?’ You can be sure! ‘God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’ Later in this gospel, Jesus will promise that
he will not turn away anyone who comes to him (6:37).. There is nothing in your life that he is not
willing to forgive if you will bring your life to him.
‘If you died and God said to you, “why should I let you into my heaven?” What would you say?’ Can you see that any answer that depends on
you is the wrong answer? ‘God, you should
accept me because I am a nice person, because I pray, because I was baptised,
because I go to church, because I have never been in trouble with the law.’ All the wrong answers! Nicodemus was a nice, respected, religious, man
and Jesus said, ‘you must be born again.’
If you are not sure that you are right with God, why don’t you pray with
me?
‘Lord God, I offer no excuse for all the wrong that I have done. I realise that there is a problem with my
heart. But I now see that you are a God
who delights to forgive and want people to experience your mercy. Please forgive me for trying to justify
myself. Please make me sincere as I ask
you to take my past, present and future sin.
Please give me a heart that longs to follow you. Please let me not be ashamed to tell people
that I am born again. Thank you. Amen.’
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