John 3:13-17: You must be born again
Story: Richard Daly who was mayor of Chicago for 21 years (1955-1976).
Mayor Daly was known as a rather forbidding guy to work for.
One day one of Mayor Daly’s speech writers came in and asked for a pay raise.
Mayor Daly, who was rather stingy responded in his usual way.
He said “I’m not going to give you a pay rise.
You are getting paid more than enough already.
It should be enough for you that you are working for a great American hero like myself.”
And that was the end of it...or so the mayor thought.
Two weeks later Mayor Daly was on his way to give a speech to a convention of veterans.
The speech was going to receive nationwide attention.
Now one other thing Mayor Daly was famous for was not reading his speeches until he got up to deliver them.
So, as he stood there before a vast throng of veterans and nationwide press coverage, he opened his speech and began to read
He began to describe the plight of the veterans.
“I’m concerned for you. I have a heart for you. I am deeply convinced that this country needs to take care of its veterans.
So, today I am proposing a seventeen point plan that includes the city, state and federal government, to care for the veterans of this country.”
Now by this time everyone, including Mayor Daly, was on the edge of their seats to hear what the proposal was.
But as he turned the page these were the only words he saw.
“You’re on your own now, you great American hero.”
But unlike Mayor Daly, our Gospel this morning reminds us that we are not “on our own”.
God has a plan to save us.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
I wonder what your picture of God is like.
Would you be more likely to associate God with “the Ten Commandments” or the word “love”?
Story: I remember Dr. Billy Graham going on French television and being told by the commentator:
"Dr. Graham, the whole of France is watching you - you have two minutes to prove to us God exists."
To which Billy Graham replied:
"I can’t do that but I can tell you what I do know:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”
The background to our Gospel reading this morning was that Niocodemus, a top Jewish rabbi had come to Jesus by night to talk to him
Nicodemus had come seeking answers about religion and Jesus told him,
“It’s not about religion – it’s all about a relationship…”
Being born again is all about the grace of God, not the grace of man.
People in the world are shocked to hear that entrance into heaven is not based on what people do
It’s based on the “Grace of God”
Grace goes beyond our comprehension
By our human nature, we want to earn God’s favour
We want to get ourselves into heaven.
After all we are self sufficient in the West
Many people think of God having a big book with our names on a page
And every time we do a good deed, God puts a little tick by our name and every time we do a bad deed, God puts a cross by our name.
Actually that latter thought isn’t far from the truth – for it is the Cross of Jesus Christ that washes away our sin.
Story: I read the story of how Louis XII of France treated his enemies after he ascended to the throne.
Before coming to power, he had been cast into prison and kept in chains.
Later when he became king, he was urged to seek revenge but he refused.
Instead, he prepared a scroll on which he listed all who had perpetrated crimes against him.
Behind every man's name he placed a cross in red ink.
When the guilty heard about this, they feared for their lives and fled.
Then the king explained, "The cross which I drew beside each name was not a sign of punishment, but a pledge of forgiveness extended for the sake of the crucified Saviour, who upon His cross forgave His enemies and prayed for them."
If you think that we get into heaven or not depending on the number of good marks versus the bad marks…
Jesus says: “Think again”
That’s not how God’s plan works
Jesus said, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born again…”
That’s God’s plan – you must be born again
Nicodemus didn’t understand this
The great Jewish Rabbi struggled with the idea of a man being born again
After all how a grown man could be born again
You see to the human mind – it just isn’t logical – and to understand it we need a revelation from God.
St Paul in 2 Corinthians 5: 17 says this
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (or creation); old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new…”
What does it mean to be born again?
Well, it doesn’t mean starting a new resolution or about a set of new resolutions
It is not saying to yourself, “well, I’ve got to work on my morals”
After all, you couldn’t have got more moral than Nicodemus.
If anyone “deserved” eternal life, it would appear that Nicodemus had all the right qualifications
Nicodemus was a man of dignity and a man of righteousness
He lived his life studying scripture and doing the right things
He spent his life fasting and praying, studying the law & studying the scripture
He was religious – but that wasn’t enough
Because as Isaiah says:
All all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;(Isaiah 64:6)
You see “being born again” is not about human efforts – it’s something God does through the power of the Holy Spirit… and it’s a miraculous thing…
Being born again is an intervention from God…
God brings us back to life as new people in the spirit
He changes us
This supernatural act of God takes the Holy Spirit and implants the Spirit into our hearts –
He gives us a heart transplant
It causes us to be a changed creature…
Many of us, like Nicodemus, don’t understand it
And in some ways it seems too simple for us
Story; There was a report once in the USA of an instant cake mix that was a big flop
The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake
The company couldn’t understand why it didn’t sell – until their market research department discovered that the public felt uneasy about a cake mix that required only water
Apparently, people thought it was too easy.
So the company altered the formula and changed the directions telling people to add an egg in addition to the water
The idea worked and sales increased dramatically
And that’s how people react to the plan of salvation.
To them, it sounds too easy and simple to be true
Yet St Paul put it like this
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph 2:8-10)
Unlike the cake mix manufacturer, God has not changed His “formula” to make salvation more marketable
The gospel we proclaim has nothing to do with being good enough
That’s the message that Jesus had for Nicodemus
That’s the plan that God has for us
For Jesus told Nicodemus the words that have become known as the “Gospel in a nutshell…”
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life…” (John 3:16)
So what does believing in Jesus mean?
Does it simply mean assenting to the proposition that God exists?
I don’t think so.
St James writes this in his epistle
19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. (Jas 2:19)
But what we understand by “believing in God” is very different to what the first century Jews - to whom St John was writing – would have understood the phrase to mean
But what does belief mean
In Jewish thought, belief was more than simply intellectual assent.
If you believed in someone – it meant you had total trust in that person.
If you believed in a philosopher – you’d put his teachings into effect in your life.
It is a belief that spoke of “total commitment”
It was that belief and commitment that enabled the early Church to turn the world upsdie down within three centuries
But it is no blind trust – but reasoned trust.
Because by so doing – our lives will be changed
I would like to end my talk with a poem that was written in 1920 by the American poet Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could.
To where it bent in the undergrowth,
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
I’d like to leave you with a simple question.
Which road are you on today?
