Sermon Central
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Go! And Be Born Again And Live Free Series
Contributed by Dean Courtier on Nov 28, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: If there is one question every human being must face—one question that echoes through eternity—it is this: “Have you been born again?” Not “Are you religious?” Not “Do you attend church?” Not “Are you a good person?” But “Have you been born again?”
Go! And… Be Born Again and Live Free
INTRODUCTION:
If there is one question every human being must face—one question that echoes through eternity—it is this: “Have you been born again?” Not “Are you religious?” Not “Do you attend church?” Not “Are you a good person?” But “Have you been born again?”
Because, my friends, Jesus did not say, “Try your best.”
He did not say, “Improve your behaviour.”
He did not say, “Clean up your life and hope for heaven.”
No—our Saviour, with divine authority and absolute clarity, declared:
John 3:3 (NLT): “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Every soul must face this truth.
Every heart must respond.
Every believer must proclaim it.
This is the message the 21st century desperately needs: You must be born again… and only then can you be truly free.
John 3:3–7 (NLT): Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’”
John 8:32 (NLT): “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
1 — “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”: THE NECESSITY OF NEW BIRTH
Nicodemus was not an ordinary man.
He was a Pharisee, a respected Jewish leader, a scholar of Scripture. He upheld the law, studied the prophets, memorised Torah, and taught others.
Yet Jesus tells this man: “You must be born again.”
The Greek phrase is ?e????? ????e? — gennethe anothen — meaning “to be born from above,” or “born anew by divine power.”
Nicodemus thought Jesus meant a second physical birth.
Jesus meant a spiritual transformation that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (NLT): “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you…”
This promise was already part of Israel’s hope: a heart renewal, not behaviour modification.
Hebrew note: “New” is chadash—not repaired, not improved, but brand-new.
People today still respond like Nicodemus: “Surely being a good person counts? Surely religion counts? Surely sincerity counts?”
But Jesus says: Human effort produces human results. Only the Spirit produces spiritual life.
Church membership isn’t new birth.
Morality isn’t new birth.
Knowledge isn’t new birth.
Religious activity isn’t new birth.
Only the Spirit of God can make a dead soul alive.
John Piper: “The new birth is not a subtle shift in priorities; it is the supernatural resurrection of a spiritually dead heart.”
Piper reminds us that salvation is not self-repair—it is resurrection. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people better; He came to make dead people live. And if we have experienced that new life, we must proclaim it boldly.
THE STILLBORN HEART
Imagine a doctor walking into a delivery room, holding a newborn who is not breathing. No amount of positive thinking brings life. No amount of self-help. No amount of parental love.
Only one thing is needed: a breath from outside.
So it is with the human soul.
We are born physically alive but spiritually stillborn—until the Holy Spirit breathes life into us. That is new birth.
2 — “BORN OF WATER AND SPIRIT”: THE MIRACLE OF TRANSFORMATION
“Born of water and Spirit” (v. 5) refers to the cleansing and renewing work of God, not baptismal ritual.
Water speaks of cleansing (Ezekiel 36).
Spirit speaks of transformation.
Theological meaning: Jesus is explaining salvation as a complete work of God—washing away sin and imparting new life.
Titus 3:5 (NLT): “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”
Greek Word Study
“Washed” — loutron — a deep cleansing, not surface-level.
“New birth” — palingenesia — literally “again-genesis,” a new beginning from God.
Salvation does not polish the old life.
It replaces it.
We do not need a better version of ourselves; we need a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Tim Keller: “Religion says, ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted.’ The Gospel says, ‘I am accepted because of Christ, therefore I obey.’”
Keller’s words dismantle every man-made ladder to heaven. The new birth is not a reward for obedience—it’s the root from which obedience grows.
3 — “THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE”: THE LIBERATION OF THE NEW BIRTH
Jesus says in John 8:32: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
