Journeying with John - It’s a Blast (JWJ-13)
Born from Above
John 3:1-8
Professional golfer Paul Azinger was diagnosed with cancer at age 33. He had just won a PGA championship and had ten tournament victories to his credit.
He wrote these words, "A genuine feeling of fear came over me. I could die from cancer. Then another reality hit me even harder. I’m going to die eventually anyway, whether from cancer or something else. It’s just a question of when. Everything I had accomplished in golf became meaningless to me. All I wanted to do was live."
Then he remembered something that Larry Moody, who teaches a Bible study on the tour, had said to him. "Zinger, we’re not in the land of the living going to the land of the dying. We’re in the land of the dying trying to get to the land of the living."
Golfer Paul Azinger recovered from chemotherapy and returned to the PGA tour. He’s done pretty well. But that bout with cancer deepened his perspective. He wrote, "I’ve made a lot of money since I’ve been on the tour, and I’ve won a lot of tournaments, but that happiness is always temporary. The only way you will ever have true contentment is in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not saying that nothing ever bothers me and I don’t have problems, but I feel like I’ve found the answer to the six-foot hole."
This morning I want to talk with you about what is probably the most important passage in all of Scripture. And just in case you need a little more motivation than that to give your attention to our discussion this morning, I am sure I do not need to remind you, but this is the most important book in all the world. As a matter off act, I would suggest to you that it is the most important book in all of eternity. So we are looking this morning at the most important passage in the most important book in all eternity.
Please open your Bibles with me to the book of John - we are studying our way through this incredible gospel - and we come this morning to the third chapter. John chapter 3.
While you are turning there, listen to this if you can. More than 75% of our nation describe themselves as Christians. Three out of four people that you bump into in the street will tell you that they are Christians - and would go to heaven one day when they die.
The problem is that not everybody who calls themselves Christian is Christian. Not everybody who says they are going to heaven is going to heaven.
There are four equally wrong, yet commonly held perceptions, about getting to heaven. They are . . .
i. Religious People Go to Heaven
“All religions are true and honorable and ultimately lead to the same destination, heaven.”
ii. Good People Go to Heaven
“If I am good and do my best to be an honest person then God will let me in to heaven.”
iii. Church People Go to Heaven
“As long as I go to church - albeit infrequently - God will let me in to heaven.”
iv. Sincere People Go to Heaven
“As long as I am committed to church and tithe and mean it then God will let me in to heaven.”
Jesus cuts right through that in our passage. Listen, if you would, to the Word of God.
John 3:1-8 - Read - Pray.
Would you read verse 3 and 5 with me again please - let’s read it out loud.
John 3:3, 5
My heart is very excited about this passage - and I realize that all eternity hangs in the balance. I have spent many, many hours studying these verses - I want to be sure to clearly and unambiguously unpack them for us.
By the way, this passage is not hard to understand. People often fail to understand biblical passage not because of the difficulties in the passage, but because of the prejudices in their thinking. So I want to give you simple Bible on this.
This passage demands our attention for two reasons. The first is that Jesus starts off saying, “Truly, truly” - that is Bible for, ‘Listen up ya’all - this is very important.” The second is Jesus’ strong and unequivocal statement that, "unless a man is born from above he cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven.” Now I don’t know about you but if that is what Jesus said, I want to make very sure I have got ‘born from above’ checked off my list of life things to do in life.
Jesus did not say that unless we know about being born again, or how to be born again, or unless we go to church with others who are born again - but unless we ourselves experience being born again we cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Now we need to recognize that by the instruction and implication of this passage, It is clear that to be born again and to be born of water and the Spirit are synonymous - Jesus looks at them synonymously.
Now listen up if you will - all of God’s children are born again - and if this morning you are God’s child, then you are born again. What is true of being born again and what is true one you are born again is true of you.
So lets look at each of those statements.
1. You Must Be Born Again
The word for ‘again’ in ‘born again’ (anothen) is an incredible word - I think you are going to enjoy this.
Have you ever watched ‘Deal or No Deal’ - the game show where one suitcase has $1 million dollars in it and all the rest of more nominal amounts. I remember once I was watching and I so wanted this guy to win - he had three suit cases left, one with a million, one with $50 000 and one with something like $200 - and he picked the case with $200 - the case with a million was opened and he about cried.
Now imagine if at that point, you knew the winning case number somebody stopped and said, “Freeze” - roll back - we are going to start this again - same case, same players - from the beginning.
That is exactly what the word ‘again’ used in our passage means. That is one fo the three meanings of the word.
It Means to Start Again from Scratch
It Means to Repeat Something
The word also means to repeat something .
Every one of us was born wrong - we were born from the devil, we were born into the Kingdom of Darkness - even the nice and the religious - were born wrong. You cannot be unborn - so you must be born again. And this is what that means.
Col. 1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
It Means to Be Born from Above
I love this - it picks up on what John said earlier when he taught us . . .
John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
When the Bible says “you must be born of” born of’ is passive - unequivocally expressing the human side
That is what it means to be born from above - it means your second birth is purposed, planned, initiated, enacted and completed by an act of God. By the way, whenever Jesus says ‘born again’ or ‘born of water’ or born of the spirit’ each and every time it too is in the passive sense in the Greek. That means it is something that happens to you - it is not something you do.
Salvation is from first to last a work of God.
By the way, being born from above is not one of the ways of entering the Kingdom, it is the only way.
Now watch this - it is profound - when you are born again, born from above born into the family of God you become a son of God.
Somebody say, “Son.” Now remember, we agreed, there is no higher privilege deity can bestow on humanity that to become a child of God.
What is a son? A son is . . .
A Representative of God’s Eternal Kingdom
An Agent of God’s Divine Purpose
A Custodian of God’s Anointed Truth
A Vessel of God’s Creative Power
An Heir of God’s Measureless Inheritance
Come on somebody.
OK - we looked at verse three from our passage - there is something else I want us to talk about this morning from our passage. That comes up in verse five - and it is true of you if you are born again.
John 3:5
2. You Must Be Born of Water and Spirit
If you are a child of God, not only are you born again, born from above, got to start again from scratch, but you are also born or water and born of spirit.
So what is the difference between being born again and being born of water and of spirit? It is simple Being born again is the what - born of water and spirit is the how..
Now this is important - many folks get this wrong. Nicodemus’ question was, “How can a man be born again?” He was not asking how one is born the first time. He is asking about how one is born the second time. So the answer is that one is born a second time by being born of water and the Spirit! I say that because if you got that wrong you probably came up with all sorts of fanciful stuff that is not in the Bible. I have heard people talk about amniotic fluid, baptism, rain (which is a rabbinic picture stuff.
So being born the second time is by being born or water and the spirit. Now in the Greek those are not easily seen as two different events, but two aspects of the same event. As a matter of fact - what it says is to be born of water and spirit.
So what does that mean to be born of water and spirit?
To be born of water speaks about cleaning and to be born of spirit speaks of regeneration.
Jesus was speaking a Nicodemus - not only a teacher but, according to the text, the teacher. Nicodemus was acutely aware of a famous text from Ezekiel chapter 36 and verses 25 - 27 that said, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
Precious believer - when you get born of water you get cleansed, and the word means not a surface or a superficial cleansing, but a deep down inside cleansing that is true and permanent.
The second part is not only were you cleansed, but you were regenerated, made alive by the Spirit - you were given the gift of eternal life now.
In Titus 3:5 Paul, describing our salvations speaks of it as "the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit."
In other words precious believer, “born of water and the Spirit” refers to the life-giving and purifying activity of the Spirit.
Conclusion
Now watch that precious believer - when you got saved you got . . .
To start from scratch
To Repeat Something
Born from above
Cleansed deep, deep inside
Given the gift of eternal life now
Additional Material
Back in 1976, Jimmy Carter was running against President Gerald Ford.
And those of you who are old enough or those of you who have studied up on recent American history might recall that Jimmy Carter caused quite a bit of a sensation.
This was because during his campaign, Jimmy Carter said publicly that he was a born again Christian.
It caused quite a stir, and it was a term that was used about him over and over again.
Wow…Jimmy Carter is not just your ordinary run of the mill Christian.
He is a born again Christian!!!
Thus, the term “born again Christian” became a very well-known term…and a very well-used and often-times misused term in American pop-culture.
LL- During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. "What’s the rumpus about?" he asked, & heard in reply that his colleagues were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among the world’s religions. Lewis responded, "Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace." Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional.
Different Interpretations of Born of Water and Spirit
Christian Baptism and the Spirit
John’s Baptism and the New Birth
The Word of God and the Spirit
Natural Birth and the New Birth
Double Metaphor for the New Birth
Purification and the New Birth
Christ’s Piercing and the Spirit
Rabbinic Rain = Human Seed and the Spirit
