“BORN AGAIN” John 3:1-13
INTRO – Birth of a child is an incredible miracle. Doesn’t matter how kids you have, how many grandkids you have – still a wonderful, miraculous experience. As F.B. Meyer said, “Born! That is true of all of us. We were not asked if we would be born, or of whom we would be born. But we awoke gradually from months of almost unconsciousness to find that we had been born. And birth was the gate into life. Through birth we entered the blessed k’dom of life.”
Even more miraculous than the physical birth of a child into the physical world is the spiritual birth of a lost sinner into spiritual life. Why is this such a miraculous experience? B/c when a person is born again, God moves them from death to life. He changes them from being condemned to eternal death and separation from Him into a son or daughter of God, recipient of the gift of eternal life and a place reserved in heaven.
To be born again doesn’t mean that a good person just becomes a really good person…
- Or that a moral person just becomes an even more moral person;
- Or that a church member simply becomes an even better church member;
- Or that an upright citizen becomes an even more upright citizen;
- Or that a liberal becomes a conservative;
- Or that a person who keeps less than 5 of the 10 Comm. starts keeping more than 5.
In our “religious”, Bible belt, church-on-every-corner culture, we need to understand this afresh and anew. Being born again is not just a rite of passage for kids who grow up in church. It is not something that is expected if a person is to be socially acceptable. It is not membership in another organization that we can add to our resumes.
It is a life-altering, life-changing, life-giving moment when a person who is dead is given life by Almighty God. 1 Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (NASB) You don’t earn it; you haven’t done anything to deserve it; you aren’t smart enough to find it; you aren’t religious enough to gain it. God causes it to happen. He gives it as the NIV says in 1 Pet. 1:3 – “In his great mercy he has given us new birth…”
To be born again means that a spiritually bankrupt person gains all of the promises and blessings that God promises to those who are His. It means that a totally depraved, wicked person is completely cleansed of all his/her sins. It means that a person who has absolutely nothing to offer to God is freely given the greatest gift that they could possibly receive, and that is eternal life. It means that someone who is completely and totally rotten to the core becomes a child of God. Who is that spiritually bankrupt person, that totally depraved wicked person, that person who has absolutely nothing to offer to God, that person who it completely & totally rotten to the core? That person is you. That person is me.
I. LET’S TALK ABOUT NICODEMUS – v. 1-2
We need light in our lives. Power goes out & we immediately find flashlights and candles. Have to have light. People in Alaska go crazy and commit suicide b/c of the constant darkness during the year. We have to have light.
Nic. needed light in his life. He might not have known it at the time that he came to Jesus, but his heart was a dark as soot. He needed the Light.
Don’t get any more religious than Nic. As Wm. Barclay – “In many ways the Phar. were the best people in the whole country.” Gave their entire lives to the keeping of the Law, the first 5 books of the OT. But they went further than that. Took the Law, and came up w/ hundreds and thousands of rules, regulations, by-laws to try and cover every possible situation in life.
Sabbath Laws prime example. Bible itself simply says to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and that on this day no work must be done. Just the later Jews were not content w/ that and spent hour after hour and generation after generation defining what work is and listing the things that may or may not be done on the Sabbath.
Tying a knot on Sabbath was work; but a knot had to be defined: “The following are the knots the making of which renders a man guilty: the knot of camel drivers & that of sailors; & as one is guilty by reason of tying them, so also of untying them.” But then there were knots that were legal, those that could be tied and untied w/ one hand. Also, “a woman may tie up a slit in her shift or the strings of her cap and those of her girdle…” So here’s what could happen: If on the Sabbath a man wanted to let down a bucket into a well to draw water, he could not tie a rope to it, b/c that tying that knot would be work; but he could tie it to a woman’s girdle and let it down, b/c a knot in a girdle was legal.
Could not carry a burden on Sabbath. Jer. 17:21 – “Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day…” Had to define burden. Could a woman wear a brooch on the Sabbath? Could a man wear a wooden leg or dentures on the Sabbath? Would that be a burden? Could you pick up a child on the Sabbath?
While we may scoff at these things and see how ridiculous they truly are, we need to understand that Nic. was truly earnest in his desire to please God by keeping all of these laws, rules, and regulations. A Pharisee may have been misguided, but to undertake the keeping of these thousands of rules was quite a religious commitment.
But this extremely religious man, this extremely moral man, this extremely righteous man, this man who would have been a leader in any church in the land, came to Jesus to have a serious discussion with Him about who He was, where His power came from, and what He was teaching. “Nic. was a puzzled man, a man w/ many honors & yet w/ something lacking in his life. He came to Jesus for a talk so that somehow in the darkness of the night he might find light” (Barclay, p. 124).
How many religious people do we have in our churches today who are holding on to their outwardly righteous practices as their hope, but have never had a real talk w/ Jesus about the inward condition of their heart? While we may enjoy singing the old Gospel song, “have a little talk w/ Jesus,” I’m afraid that that’s how many people view being born again. Our little talk goes something like this: “Lord, you know I’m a pretty good person and just trying to do the best I can, so help me out here. Just give me a little light from heaven.” And then He’ll shine that “little light from heaven” in our soul and that makes everything right. Just a LITTLE light…that’s all we want…just a little, not too much, don’t want to change too much…just a little. Don’t really want to truly be born again.
BEING BORN AGAIN – v. 3
But that’s not what being born again means. It does not mean that a “little light” from heaven fills our soul. Our Savior Jesus Christ is not a “little light from heaven.” He is the Light of the World (Jn. 8:12); the Great Light of Isa. 9:2 that the people walking in darkness have seen; our Light and our Salvation (Ps. 27:1). 2 Cor. 4:6 – “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” – That’s not a little light! 1 Tim. 6:15-16 – “God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” 1 Pet. 2:9 tells us that He has called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. 1 John 1:5 – “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”
When we are born again, the Light of the World, the Great Light that shines in the darkness, calls us out of the utter and complete darkness of the sin of our spiritual deadness into His wonderful, life-giving Light and Life. The terms “born again” mean to be born from above, to be born anew. We are born of God, born of the Spirit, born through the Word of God – all of these are valid Scriptural descriptions of what instantaneously happens to us when the Light of the World crashes into our heart with a brilliance that only He can impart. That moment changes everything. At that moment we are promised that we will be able to “see the K’dom of God.”
When will we see the “K’dom of God”? We’ll see it now. The K’dom of God involves God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule. His people are those who are believers in Christ. His place is the body of Christ, the Church. His rule is exercised through Christ and His undershepherds. To see the K’dom of God now means that we will be God’s people, faithfully worshipping and serving Him through the Church, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If you don’t see that in your life, you may not be born again. Do you see the K’dom of God in your own life? That is why the Bible tells us to work out our salvation w/ fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). That is why 2 Cor. 13:5 tells us to examine ourselves to see whether we are really in the faith b/c upon that examination of our lives, we must SEE the K’dom of God in our lives. Being born again means that we will see the K’dom of God. If we don’t, we are not born again.
We also see the K’dom of God in the future. This is where most of us focus in this verse and in our salvation. We want to know that we have a place secured for us in heaven, one of the mansions that Jesus promised in John 14. Being born again means that we will see that K’dom of God, that we will enter that K’dom of God (v. 5), that we will spend eternity with Jesus in heaven. Heaven is not a place where good people go; it is a place where born again people go.
“I Bowed on My Knees”
CONCLUSION – Born again! What a reason to celebrate! What a reason to worship! What a promise for us today! But the question for today is – Have you been born again?
