Rebirth
Love Never Dies, prt. 4
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
April 25, 2010
The past two weeks we have looked at Jesus as the Logos – the preexistent, eternal Word of God. In chapter 1, John presents the Logos to us. In chapter 2, John tells two stories which show Jesus revealing himself as the Logos. In John 3, Jesus begins speaking directly about his Logos-ness. Here he shares insights about the spiritual world and about the inner reality of human beings that were unlike any insights up until that time. These insights certainly do not PROVE that Jesus was the Son of God, but if one already believes this, or if one is seriously looking for evidence that might confirm it, one can find evidence here.
Like chapter 2, chapter 3 contains two “accounts,” or what you might call “scenes.” I want to start at the end of the chapter because John makes a very powerful statement there about Jesus that will actually help us better understand what Jesus says in the scene before.
Some translations (like The Messsage here, and the NIV) show these words as being spoken by John the Baptist, but many scholars believe these words are much more characteristic of John the Evangelist (the writer of this gospel), and I agree with that. If you look at John the Evangelist’s words about Christ in chapter 1, and then look at the words here in chapter 3, you will see a striking resemblance. Anyway, here is what is said:
John 3:31-36 (MSG)
31 "The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own.
32 He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts.
33 But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.
34 "The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces.
35 The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts.
36 That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that."
The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. This assertion appears 39 times in the Gospel of John. I would say that this is a quintessentially Christian statement, were it not for the fact that the statement was made by a Jewish prophet. But certainly this is a fundamental Christian belief, is it not? That Christ is head and shoulders over other messengers from God? Here is how the Apostle Paul understood this:
Colossians 2:9 (NIV)
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
That’s why Christian doctrine is that Jesus is the highest and best representation of God that has been given to mankind.
Now what does John say about Christ’s words? He says the heaven born is in a league of his own. He’s not just anybody. He is “born from above.” Bookmark in your mind that idea of Christ being “born from above.” That will be extremely important when we talk about the first passage in this chapter in a few moments.
John 3:32(a) (MSG)
32 He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven…
So Christ is “born from above.” Remember, Christ – the Logos – is the creator. He has always been. He was with God, and he was God (John 1:1). So this being who has always been, who is God, who created everything that is, comes to earth (John 1:14). And John says that Christ “sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven.” This is heavy stuff here. John is telling us, “This person is not just an ordinary person. He is literally from another world, and when he talks to you, he is telling you what his world is like.” Can you imagine what would happen if a spaceship were to land outside on the back property after church gets out today, and someone were to step out of that spaceship from another planet and begin telling us what their planet is like? Everybody would want to hear that message. John is saying that that is exactly what is happening here. That a being from another world has arrived on the scene and this being is here to tell you about his world. But there’s a catch. Not only is he going to tell you about his world. See, this also happens to be the very being that created YOUR world – the one who created YOU – so he speaks with authority not only about the world he is from, but also about the world you are from, and also about you personally. Which leads directly to John’s next statement:
John 3:32(b) (MSG)
…No one wants to deal with these facts.
See, if it’s just pie-in-the-sky news about how things work on another planet, in another world, everybody would be interested in hearing about that. But it’s not just that. It’s news about us, news about our world, news about our own hearts and minds and motives and weaknesses and sins. Now that we’re not so ready to hear. These are facts no one wants to deal with. But immediately John softens a little bit. It’s not that no one wants to hear it – just most people.
John 3:33-36 (MSG)
33 But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth. 34 "The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces.
35 The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts.
36 That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that."
In verse 36 we have this beautiful promise that whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever. This isn’t just talking about heaven – it’s talking about all you associate with life – abundance, peace, joy, love. Open your eyes to who Christ is (and who you therefore, necessarily, are because of him) and suddenly life is huge – you will never see your life the same way again. It changes everything. And it will permanently alter the way you will see other people, and the creation, and the universe. Because Christ created all of it, called it all good, holds it all together, and is at this very moment redeeming the entire thing!! Now THAT’S Christian theology at its finest.
“The person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.”
You see the world, and yourself, and God, not as they are, but as YOU are. If you are bitter and angry and suspicious and fearful, you will see these things in the world and in God. If you are loving and generous, you will see these things in the world and in God. That’s why most people live under a heavy weight of guilt and shame and inadequacy. They do not like themselves and therefore they do not believe they are liked by others or by God. They do not know they are loved and accepted by God, and therefore they cannot love and accept themselves or others. It works both ways and cannot be otherwise. John’s words are scary accurate and applicable for us today – if we avoid and distrust the Christ, we are in the dark and simply will not see life around us, or in us, or in others. We will experience only darkness in God (guilt, condemnation, dread, fear, resentment, etc.), and this darkness from God will seem angry. If you want evidence of that, look at the Old Testament scriptures. That’s all the evidence you need that angry, war-like, violent people will see anger, war, and violence in God, and even attribute it to him. What’s the best explanation for why the Old Testament contains so much anger and vengeance and murder coming from God, and the New Testament contains almost exclusively peace and love coming from Christ? Because in the New Testament, God (in the form of Jesus) takes on human flesh and finally speaks for himself. Look into yourself and observe what you experience in God. Do you experience love and freedom and peace and joy? Or do you experience condemnation and guilt and dread and inadequacy? This is simply not God. There’s no other way to put it. If these things characterize the bulk of your experience with life, then your primary identity is not rooted in God and in love. I’m not being critical, I’m just telling you that’s the fact.
I want to move on to the first account in chapter 3. This is very profound, very powerful. The first part of John 3 is where, if we are listening and looking, we will encounter very profound truth that will move us from one level of understanding to a completely new level. And that’s a good thing! Let’s dig in.
John 3:1-2 (MSG)
1 There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews.
2 Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."
Here we see in Nicodemus some real powers of spiritual perception – he did what few religious people of his time did, which was recognize who Jesus was and where he came from. Are we as perceptive as he?
3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."
4 "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"
Remember earlier I told you to remember this “born from above” thing. John said Jesus was “heaven born,” and it was because of his being heaven born that he had extraordinary insight into the Kingdom of God. And here we find Jesus saying that we too must be heaven born – born from above. See that? We are to be born the same way Jesus was born – from heaven – from above – created new in God. But now Nicodemus is clueless, and Jesus says,
5 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom.
Jesus is not talking here about religion, my friends. He’s not talking about saying the sinner’s prayer, or beginning a “personal relationship with God.” He’s talking about the same thing that happened to him. This goes beyond religious systems and creeds and code words and behaviors that mark us as insiders and outsiders. He’s talking about mysticism – embracing mystery as a way of relating to God. Mystery is what cannot be known. The call of Christ is a call to know what cannot be known. Paul prayed for the Ephesians:
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
17 …I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
18 may have power...19 to know this love that surpasses knowledge…
We are called to know what cannot be known. That is what birth from above is. Being born again is not saying a certain prayer, or accepting Christ as your “personal Savior,” it is submitting to mystery – to a life that will both require and empower you to know what cannot be known – which is the infinite, boundless, truly unconditional, preposterous love of God. And Jesus elaborates:
6 When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
7 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak.
Jesus is specifically trying to say here that all is not as it appears, that all is mystery, and that God cannot be known until you resign yourself to not knowing.
Next comes one of Wildwind’s theme verses and one of my favorites:
8 You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
Amen! Again, Jesus says that the fundamental characteristic of a person who is coming to know God is that they have given up trying to systematize and codify Him. They just don’t know anymore! They have embraced mystery. They are no longer in the “making God understandable” business. They come to see clearly that most of their needs to have God figured out are simply attempts to grab God by the tail so we can control him and make him what we want him to be, so that he only saves who we want him to save, and only loves who we feel comfortable with him loving, and only heals those who we feel are deserving (and of course Jesus constantly busts up those ideas).
9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"
10 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics?
11 Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions.
Do you get what Jesus is saying? He’s saying, “You are a spiritual leader, and yet you don’t understand what Spirit is? How can you not know what Spirit is? What exactly are you teaching people in your church anyway?” I wonder how many times that conversation would be repeated if Jesus were still here today. I don’t want Jesus to say to me, “David, you are a spiritual teacher and yet you really don’t know what Spirit is? You’re teaching your structures and systems and rules and regulations and sacraments, but you seriously don’t know what I’m talking about when I’m talking about Spirit? How can this be? Who taught you what to do in ministry, and how did they fail to teach you how to see?”
And then Jesus delivers this amazing zinger to Nicodemus. “Instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions.” Now Nicodemus was one of very few religious leaders who believed Jesus was who he said he was. Why wasn’t Jesus more patient with him than he was? What was wrong with Nic’s questions?
See, the reality is that Nicodemus already had this spiritual vision. He already believed. The spirit was already in there, and that’s what moved him to reach out to Jesus and believe. He approaches Jesus and says, “I know you are from God,” and Jesus responds, “You’re right – unless a person is born from above, he cannot see what you have seen.” So what is Jesus saying? He’s saying, “Nicodemus, you are ALREADY born from above. You are already in the kingdom. You already know. You already see.” But that point goes right over his head. He gets into the whole “being born again” thing and fails to see that Jesus is telling him is that he is already with God – he already gets it.
This same scene plays out between Jesus and Peter.
Matthew 16:15-17 (NIV)
15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
In other words, you already get it. You already see. The problem with Nicodemus is that Nicodemus has an entirely different problem than the one he thinks he has. He thinks he can’t see. But his real problem is not that he can’t see, but that he sees and doesn’t know it. The problem with Peter is not that he can’t see, but that he doesn’t know he is seeing. So Jesus just wants Nicodemus to stop meandering around, trying to figure out theology and make sense of this and that – because he has already understood what matters most, and he doesn’ t even know it. He knows, but he doesn’t know he knows.
12 If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?
We must start with what is obvious -- our desire for God, our belief in him. We start with the confession of Nicodemus, the confession of Peter – I know you are the Son of God. When we simply rest with this, Jesus replies to us, “You know this because you TOO are a son/daughter of God. Spirit recognizes Spirit! God in me recognizes God in you.
Romans 8:16 (NLT)
16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
13 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man.
Here Jesus makes clear that he is not being philosophical – he’s telling us what he knows from firsthand experience to be true.
14 In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—
15 and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
Here it is. Jesus is clearly saying I am the blueprint. Watch me. Look at me. I am going to show you exactly how humanity and divinity coexist in a person, and if you do what I do, that will happen in you as well. And whether you know it or not, you are already there.
John 14:3-4 (NCV)
3 After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.
Isn’t this amazing news? So many of us are struggling to know God. We are asking this question and that question, not realizing that our problem is not that we don’t know God, it’s that we already know him and don’t realize it. Just exactly like the people who lived in the time of Christ – there was God, living and breathing, walking around in their midst, and nearly everybody missed him. Today we get all smug and say, “How could those people have missed God,” but most of us are missing him too. Christ is in you. Guys, you see him every single morning when you shave.
Ladies, you see him every morning when you are curling your hair. If you do not recognize your eyes as the eyes of Christ, if you do not recognize your physical body as the dwelling place of God, then no matter whether or not you have prayed a sinner’s prayer, received Christ, accepted Christ, etc., you have missed God. Jesus says,
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
40 "…'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Of course that’s true, because God is there, dwelling in each of us, because we are his body! We are all his brothers and his sisters!
So spiritual rebirth is not about a moment when we pray a prayer or agree with some doctrine. I mean it may happen then, but for Nicodemus it had already happened when he approached Jesus, because he approached him saying, “I know who you are,” and that can only be known through this rebirth. Like Mary on resurrection day, we need to stop looking up into the sky hoping to find God. God is located in exactly the same place you are located. Just as you are located in your body, Christ is located in his body also, and you are his body. Knowing this, and coming to know that we know it, is what Jesus called being born from above.
So howdaya like them apples?!
