10/4/2009
B.A.S.I.C Part II
Understanding being “Born Again”
John 3:1-8 Read and pray
Last week we began a series of becoming a servant in Christ. (BASIC)
We centered our attention on the person of Jesus Christ.
How some people do lip service but really have no relationship with Christ.
We looked also at the heart and the mind. How both needed to be renewed by Jesus Christ.
We dispelled the belief that all will be going to heaven but only those who have taken Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Today I want to look at “Being Born Again”. It is a phrase used by most protestant churches, but really I do not think that most understand it imprecation. Words like saved, come to Christ, being born again, and the Nazarene’s use regeneration have little meaning to those that don’ t understand them.
The text tells us about a pharisee named Nicodemus. One who comes to Jesus at night and began by respect of calling Jesus a teacher who has come from God.
Jesus cuts right through all the small talk and says to Nicodemus “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. You have to understand that this cut Nicodemus to the heart, because they believed all Jews because of being close to God was to make heaven. By just being a Jew, it was their ticket to God.
We have all heard Pearly Gates jokes about so and so meeting St. Peter and how and why they should make heaven. By nature, we want to merit God’s favor. What do we have to do to get to heaven?
Nicodemus was from the religious left. He was a seeker. He was a religious man who knew the law. But he did not understand or realize that there is a difference between religion and a personal relationship.
He came at night as to not lose face with his peers.
He was seeker, but his heart and mind was not in it.
He was intrigued with Jesus miracles. He lost focus.
He was an admirer, but not a believer.
Being born again is a common term, most associate it with pentecostal or Charismatic churches. Those that preach the fullness of the Spirit. I want you to see that it is a Scriptural term and applies to any church or denomination that believes there is to be a rebirth in someone ’s life to be saved or spared from the judgment of God on sin.
Being born again is a supernatural event. It is spiritual new birth. A supernatural transformation. Nicodemus was thinking physical, Jesus tells us it is spiritual. That is why I don’t preach religion, I preach relationship with Jesus. No women here would like to give birth to a 200 pound baby. Like the 19 pound Indonesian baby last week. Salvation is not being religious, it is being redeemed.
There is three truths here that you cannot miss.
It is not human effort
It is a personal relationship
It is supernatural
There are people all over the world that cannot answer the question “If you were to die right now, would you make heaven”?
They believe it is about the justice scale and how it tips
They do not look at Jesus , they look what they have done.
A physical birth is when 2 people have relationship with physical contact and a child is a result. A spiritual birth is initiated by God. God draws you to himself and makes what Jesus did for you real in your life.
It is the understanding of the death and resurrection of a savior, it is the transforming power of God that causes you to believe that He was resurrected and that God did that for you also so that you would not perish but have everlasting or eternal life.
There are some hindrances for us becoming born again.
Pride- were religious and we are told it is not about what you do but what Jesus has done.
Ignorance- Like Nicodemus, we think about the physical and God says it is spiritual, it is much deeper than what your mortal mind can totally comprehend.
Some are able to grab it and some don’t. Some struggle with it and some just accept it and grow.
Misunderstanding- Not knowing God’s Word, not willing to study God’s Word and you live your life on ½ truths. Which is the devil’s playground. It is why so many doctrines and problems plague Christians from uniting in the common cause to exalt Jesus.
Tradition- I have always done it this way. It is not working , but I hate change. Nicodemus was a ruler, leader, but he himself did not understand God’s truths about the importance of relationship. Everything taught was dogmatic and critical not personal and relational.
Here is the thing about being born again.
It has gotten a lot of misrepresentation.
Products are born again, new and improved.
President Carter in the 70’s was a professing Christian being born again. What they didn’t like about him they blamed with him being a born again believer.
Crazy sects of people who isolate themselves and have weird religious rituals are associated with being born again.
We saw preachers fall . Those that preached being born again.
God saw us in our sinful state and did something about it. He provided Jesus Christ as our sacrifice for sin. If we accept and believe, it means we went from that dead in sin relationship to a rebirth and personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
This new birth comes through Jesus Christ, no short cuts, no other way. God alone gives new birth.
Remember the story of Lazarus. John 11- Jesus was summoned that his friend Lazarus was dead. He waited four days . Mary and Martha, sisters to Lazarus couldn’t understand why Jesus didn’t respond quicker. The disciples of Jesus thought he was speaking of natural sleep, but Jesus chapter 11:4- told them plainly “Lazarus is dead”. Jesus goes to the tomb and calls Lazarus by name out of the tomb. I believe he had to call him by name or everything creepy crawling would of came out of that tomb at the authority and voice of Jesus Christ. Lazarus hops out of the tomb after being dead for 4 days. (v440. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
It is an example of us being dead and bound in our sins, and supernaturally Jesus gives us new life. Not physical, but spiritual. He was reborn, born again.
Catch the last part of that verse? Jesus said to them- “Take off the grave clothes and let him go”.
The death linens are cut off of us. We are alive and free.
The grave no longer can hold us down, because what God did to raise Jesus Christ, he promises to each one of us if we will put our trust and faith in believing .
Jesus tells a doubting Martha:
I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live. (v25).
Listen, I am winding down, this should be fresh to about 17 of you. This is part of our New Testament reading this week.
Unless we realize that being born again is spiritual, that it is not a religious ritual.
It is not what we do, it is what Jesus did for us, we have to be willing to accept it and allow it to change our lives.
Jesus says, I have the authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. He is talking about his willingness to lay down his life. We have to be willing to lay down our old life, wrapped in grave clothes and allow by the mighty Spirit of God to loose us from the grave clothes, and resurrect us to a spiritual rebirth with Him.
Jesus declares, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
John Maxwell gives a great illustration of momentum makers and momentum breakers. Some people people just never get momentum in their walk with God. A train traveling at 55 miles an hour can crash through a 5 foot thick wall of reinforced concrete without stopping. That same train from a stopped position cannot go through a one inch thick block put in front of the wheels. Some of us never get going, we have always a block resting on the track.
Momentum Breakers:
Double-minded
The past
Tradition
Critical attitude
Conformity
in-decision
Momentum Makers:
The Future
Constructive attitude
Creativity
Change
Gratitude
Action
This morning being born again is a spiritual thing, it is between you and Jesus Christ.
This morning if you have no experience being born again, and God is directly speaking to your heart this morning, I want you to respond in the way that He is directing you to respond.
Weather that is finding a place at this altar,
weather you raise your hand and say that is me this morning,
He is telling to you to sit quiet and be in His presence.
I want you to be obedient to Him. Maybe to some this morning, He is saying to take off the grave clothes and put on the new. Being born again is a change in relationship with God.
Before you were alienated from God, but this morning He is drawing you near to Him.
He says to you today is the day of salvation. Behold, now is the accepted time. Do not say tomorrow because we are not promised tomorrow.
Altar Call:
