Abandoned At Birth-5 Series

ABANDONED At BIRTH-V—John 3:1-21

Concessions For New Birth

Attention:

No Opener Used—Reiterated past points.

OR

The internet company ‘LetGo.com’

Their TV commercials visit the absurdity of holding on to certain things.

Likewise, when you are saved/born again/born from above, you must abandon everything ‘you’ are holding onto for whatever reason. You must let go in order to be & have what God wants you to be & have. Unless you surrender your hold on the things of earth, you are not allowing God to give you the Kingdom of Heaven.

In God’s scheme of life for mankind, New Birth—being born again— is the only means of...growing close to God, finding power in prayer, being faithful in service, finding God’s purpose in life, becoming dedicated to His direction.

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus yielded the essentials of being born again.

Being born again is essential to God’s plan.

What is essential to achieve new birth?

What is essential to be born again?

7 Concessions we all must make to achieve a new birth.

‘Concession’—Something surrendered or given up

We have already found that

Those born from above, Abandon their previous...

1. POSITION(:1-2)

2. LIMITING WISDOM(:3-7)

3. DIRECTION(:8)

4. ACCEPTANCE(:9-13) Accept Jesus & His testimony

5—Those born from above, Abandon their previous...

BELIEF(:14-18)

Explanation: (:14-18) Belief/Trust/Confidence

:14—“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,”

cf.—Numbers 21:4-9

Num. 21:4-9—“Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; & the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God & against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food & no water, & our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, & they bit the people; & many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, & said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD & against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, & set it on a pole; & it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, & put it on a pole; & so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

In Numbers 21:4-9 the details are given of an incident where the people were grumbling due their misery of limited food & water in the wilderness. Because of their lack of faith, “Fiery serpents” were thus sent among the people, which caused them to pray to YHWH for the removal of the serpents.

However, rather than simply removing the serpents from among the Israelites, God told Moses to make a molded bronze image of a(“fiery”) serpent which was then set on a pole for all to see.

All who had been bitten, & then looked at the molded serpent thereby lived rather than dying.

Whoever believes, as the people dying of viper bites believed, that in obeying God by looking to the serpent, will have eternal life just as those people gained physical life while unbelievers perished.

You must accept the need for salvation!

You must accept that true salvation comes from outside your ability!

You must look to God for salvation!...rather than to yourself, or others, or things, or religion, spirituality, or philosophy, or morality, or good deeds, or popularity, etc.

You must exercise simple trust/belief in God’s available cure!

“Lifted up”—uqow—1) To lift up on high, to exalt; 2) metaph.—2a) To raise to the very summit of opulence & prosperity, 2b) To exalt, to raise to dignity, honor & happiness.

“Must”—dei—1) It is necessary, there is need of, it behooves, is right & properIy. Seems to be more suggestive of moral obligation, denoting esp. that constrain which arises from divine appointment. Dei indicates a necessity in the nature of things rather than a personal obligation; it describes that which must be done.

:15—“that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Here Jesus reveals to Nic that these truths(:3-13)—he is faced with accepting or rejecting—should not be so new & foreign to Israel’s thinking at all. This is because they are seminally present early in her history involving Moses.

The event in Numbers is thus a ‘Type’(earthly picture) of the forgiveness which will be fulfilled & available for all, in the Messiah to come. In fact it pictures His future crucifixion perfectly in that the Messiah would likewise be “lifted up.”

Thus the crucifixion is integral to bringing whoever “believes” in Jesus—as the Christ & Savior of their very lives both physically & spiritually—to salvation from eternal hell.