Now That’s a Good Question: What Does it Mean to Born Again? (Part 1)
John 3:1-8
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
3-13-2022
Easter 1980.
Easter Sunday morning, 1980. Wooddale Church of Christ. I was 12 years old, uncomfortable in my Easter dress clothes, sitting with a couple of friends in the back of the auditorium.
At the end of the message, we sang the hymn, “Just as I Am,” for what seemed like an hour. He kept stopping and saying, “I know there is somewhere here today that needs to be saved.” I didn’t really even know what saved meant. But I knew it would make my mom and dad happy. So I slipped up my hand.
He saw me and locked eyes with me. Pray this prayer. So I repeated a prayer “asking Jesus in my heart” that I didn’t understand word for word. Then I walked down the aisle, signed a card, and in that church, they baptized me right then and there. They gave me a little King James Bible and then he introduced me to the congregation.
Hey, what’s your name, kid? I whispered, “Jeff.” He then introduced me with great fanfare as a brand new Christian and everyone clapped.
There was just one problem. I had no idea what had just happened. I got saved. But I didn’t know what I was getting saved from or what happened to make me need saving in the first place. I was no more a Christian than I would be a NBA basketball player.
My brother was born again at 16 years old. And he told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was not a Christian. He said, “I see no evidence of Jesus in your life.” I angrily shouted that I had raised my hand, said a prayer, walked an aisle, signed a card, and been baptized.
He said that all that was true. I had merely gone through a set of religious rituals but I was not born again.
The Bible Doesn’t Say That
Many years later, I was talking a guy at work and he said, “All you Christians ever talk about is being born again but, did you know, that “born again” isn’t in the Bible?
I laughed, picked the Bible off my desk, turned to John 3 and asked him to read the third verse. He was honestly surprised to hear Jesus tell Nicodemus that he had to be born again.
I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “See, you must be born again.” He simply laughed and walked away.
Born Again?
In the 1970s, then President Jimmy Carter said he was a born again Christian. Chuck Colson, Nixon’s hatchet man, came out of prison and wrote a book called, “Born Again.”
Suddenly, the term “born again” was part of the culture. Even Larry Flint, the publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, claimed he was born again.
People started to differentiate themselves by saying, “Well, I’m a Christian but I’m not one of those crazy born again types.”
Born again Christians were seen as radical and as too committed to Jesus and Christianity.
This morning, we will continue our series, "Now That’s a Good Question” with the question, “What does it mean to be born again?”
To even say the phrase “born again Christian” really doesn’t make any sense. It’s like saying a three sided triangle or a single bachelor. All triangles are three sided and all bachelors are single and all true Christians are born again.
Turn with me to John 3. We are going study verses 1-8 this week and the rest of the chapter next week.
Prayer
Text in its Context
John was Jesus’ best earthly friend and he wrote his Gospel with an evangelistic agenda:
“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)
In Chapter two, Jesus attends a wedding in which the wine ran out which could cause considerable embarrassment to the family. Jesus performed His first “sign” by turning water into wine. It’s a word picture of what He will discuss with Nicodemus in chapter three. He turned the dead filthy water of ritual into the sparkling wine of grace and new life.
John then records the cleansing of the Temple. Jesus, overcome with righteous anger over the casual way that people were approaching the Temple and the price gouging of the money changers, makes a whip and drives them out of the Temple.
When the people asked by what authority He did these things, He declared, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19), predicting his death and resurrection.
Then John makes a an interesting observation:
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person [man].” (John 2:24-25)
He knew what was in man in general. They might believe in Him but He didn’t believe in their belief. But He also knew what was in individual men like the one He met one night soon after that.
John gives us a summary of this meeting that probably went well into the night.
The Man Nicodemus
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
In chapter 3, we are introduced to a man named Nicodemus. John tells us a lot about him in just one verse.
He was a Pharisee. In that culture, the Pharisees were the ultra-conservative party as opposed to the liberal Sadducees.
They came into existence after the exile. Some of the Jews had learned the lesson of the exile and wanted to make sure that the nation never slipped into idol worship again.
They believed the Bible to be inspired by God and wanted to live as close to its precepts as possible. They followed all 613 rules but then they also created rules to protect them from breaking the first rules.
They were looked up to as the most spiritual people in the culture. They lived moral lives and didn’t associate with those who didn’t. They were the “separated ones.”
Paul was a Pharisee and he wrote:
“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Phil 3:4-6)
They weren’t necessarily politically connected or hobnobbed with the elite.
He was a member of the Jewish ruling council, or the Sanhedrin. He was one of the seventy men, plus the high priest, that provided leadership for the nation. The Sanhedrin is like our Supreme Court and Senate combined. Nicodemus may have been a Pharisee but he was also politically powerful.
His name was Greek, meaning “conquerer of the people.” Nicodemus came from a well known family of military heroes.
From verse ten we learn that he was considered “the teacher of Israel.” He was a brilliant theologian who was the foremost professor of theology in Israel.
When Jesus died on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body to prepare it for burial and John records:
“He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.” (John 19:39)
So we learn that he was very wealthy.
Let’s put it all together. Nicodemus was very religious, morally upstanding and politically powerful. He had a family legacy of victory, was born a Jew (the chosen people), a brilliant theological mind, and a very healthy bank account.
But he wasn’t born again.
He was searching for answers that even his great intellect didn’t have. That led him to visit a young Galilean rabbi named Jesus at night.
A Polite Introduction
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Why did Nic come at night? I’ve always heard that he was afraid to be seen with Jesus. That may be true but there may also be some other reasons.
Nicodemus was a very busy man and night might have been the only time he could get away.
He may have wanted uninterrupted time with Jesus so nighttime made more sense.
But there may be more to this than meets the eye. From the very beginning of his Gospel, John has presented a light/darkness motif:
"In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)
Although Nic didn’t know it yet, he was in darkness searching for the light. And that light’s name was Jesus.
Nic calls Jesus a rabbi. This was meant as a compliment. He considered Jesus on the same level as he was. Boy was Nic wrong!
Then he turns a little snarky. He says “we know.” In other words, the spiritual kingmakers in Jerusalem have been watching you and we will make the call about your ministry.
He asserts that Jesus is a teacher that has come from God. But again he is wrong. Jesus is not a teacher who has come from God but God who had come down to teach!
They couldn’t deny the miracles and, unlike many of the spiritual leaders who attributed Jesus power to satan, Nicodemus makes it clear that he believes that Jesus would not be able to perform these signs without God’s power.
Nothing had prepared Nicodemus for what Jesus was about to say to him and it would rock him to his spiritual core.
Not an Optional Birth
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again”
Honestly, it’s almost like Jesus doesn’t even hear Nicodemus opening words. He knew why Nic was there, even if Nic didn’t quite understand it himself.
He begins with the solemn words, “Amen, Amen.” It’s His way of making sure that Nicodemus listening intently to what he’s about to say.
Jesus drops a truth bomb into Nicodemus’s heart makes it clear that no one, without exception, can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
I can just imagine Nicodemus jaw dropping and his eyes growing wide with the realization of what Jesus was saying.
First, it was comprehensive. No one, not even Nicodemus the ultra religious Pharisee, could see the kingdom of heaven without being born again?
This didn’t make any sense to him. Gentiles that decided to convert to Judaism were said to be “new born babies.”
What was wrong with his first birth? He was born a Jew, a part of God’s chosen people. God had to love him. He was part of the kingdom simply because of his birth. He didn’t need to be born again for born from above. He already was assured heaven, he thought, because of his nationality.
His head must of spun when he heard the words that he couldn’t see the kingdom. Was Jesus calling him blind? Yes. He was the blind leading the blind.
And how could he see the kingdom? The kingdom, to Nicodemus, was something that happened in the future, a long time from then.
But Jesus was saying the kingdom of God was not a future event but a present reality.
This was deeply confusing to Nicodemus. In one sentence, Jesus had insinuated that he was spiritually blind, that his his first birth wasn’t enough, his morality and religious life wasn’t enough, and that he needed something more.
No wonder Nicodemus response seems a little sarcastic.
A Confused Pharisee
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Nic is shocked. Surely Jesus can’t mean him.
He takes the first meaning “born again” and asks a seriously absurd question.
“Do you want me to get in my mother’s womb in order to be born a second time?”
By the way, there is an example of being born twice.
[Video of Baby Linley].
This is why we must pray for the end of Roe and of abortion.
Back to the story. Jesus completely ignores his question and continues to teach the teacher.
A Cleansing Birth
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’
Again, he makes it clear that NO ONE can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
There are some Christian traditions that take this verse and tell people that you have to be baptized to be saved.
This is NOT what this verse teaches. Jesus didn’t baptize anyone and he didn’t teach baptismal regeneration.
Jesus is actually reaching back into the Old Testament teaching about the New Covenant. The prophet Ezekiel wrote:
‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel 36:24-27)
Before God gives someone a new heart He cleanses them from the inside out.
The next chapter in Ezekiel is the valley of the dry bones where the Spirit comes and brings them to life.
The writer of Hebrews picks up this theme:
“…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
Flesh gives birth to flesh. When we were born, we didn’t nothing to cause our birth and our mothers did all the work to birth us.
When we were born, we were spiritually still born, dead in our sins. Nothing we do can change that.
Only the Holy Spirit can transform us from death to life.
Paul picks up this theme in his letter to Titus:
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7)
A Sovereign Birth
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
You don’t see it the English but Jesus is using a play on words. The words “wind” and “spirit” are the same Greek word “pneuma.”
In the Midwest, we are very familiar with the wind. You can’t see the wind but you hear it and see the effects of it.
As many of you know, I chase tornados and a couple of summers ago I caught one. I was between Chenoa and Meadows, in a corn field when the tornado, that was rain wrapped, went right over my car. How do I know? Because there were corn stalks spinning all around my car like a wash machine and when I turned the corner , all the telephone polls were down for about a mile.
The new birth is a mysterious, sovereign act of God whereby He imparts new life into a dead soul.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)
It happens in an instant. I can tell you exactly when it happened in my life, almost to the hour.
I attended a college retreat in Moscow, Tennessee and the speaker preached about the prodigal son from Luke 11. I couldn’t stop thinking about that father standing on tiptoe waiting for that kid to come back home. I came home and went to a new years party at my girlfriend’s house and as I sat on the couch I kept asking God what it all meant. Then, in an instant, God impressed upon my heart, “You are the prodigal son. I’m standing with arms open wide. Come home.”
I put my faith and trust in Jesus sacrificial death for me in my place and was born again at about 10:00 pm on December 31, 1990.
But you may say that it happened during college, or when you in 5th grade, or like a friend who said, “There’s never been a time when I didn’t love Jesus.”
It’s comprehensive. The Holy Spirit opens your eyes to your sin and need of salvation and gives you a new heart, a new mind, a new outlook, a new worldview.
It’s a radical change. It’s not a makeover but a takeover. Death to life. Darkness to light. Old to new.
Paul said it this way to the new Corinthian Christians:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This isn’t like joining a club. This is process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
It’s a permanent birth. In our culture, there are many people claiming to be in the process of “deconstruction,” saying things like, “Well, I used to be a Christian…”. It shows me that they don’t understand the Gospel.
Once a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it can’t change back to a caterpillar. It’s a whole new thing. Once you are truly born again, you are justified, meaning your legal status in heaven was changed from guilty to not guilty, not based on anything you did but on the merits of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross in your place.
Eddie grew up in my youth group. He was a hilarious kid that everyone loved.
I ran into him at a hospital while visiting someone and he asked if he could talk to me. We went out to my car and talked for over an hour.
He started out telling he was struggling with his faith. He was raised in a Christian home, went to Christian school, prayed to ask Jesus in his heart when he was ten, was baptized, and went on retreats and attended youth group.
I told him that when someone is born again, there are signs that their faith is real and healthy. I asked him the following questions:
Do you love the church? He smiled and said, “If you want me to be honest, I think church is stupid. I haven’t been in church since high school.”
I said that someone who is born again will love the church, with all of its flaws, because the church is the bride of Christ.
Do you love the word of God? Tell me about your Bible reading? Again he smiled, and said that she didn’t even know where his Bible was and that when he did try to read Scripture it didn’t make any sense.
I said that someone who is born again will be lead by the Holy Spirit to treasure God’s Word, read it, apply, and obey it.
When’s the last time you simply worshipped God for who He is?
He said, “Christian music is hokey and I turn it off when I hear it.”
When’s the last time you prayed? He couldn’t remember.
I asked if he was sleeping with his girlfriend and he said yes. I reminded him what the Bible says and he just shook his head.
He put his hand up and said, “It sounds like from your questions, you are trying to tell me that I’m not actually a Christian at all.” And then paused and said something that completely surprised me. He said, “I think, based on the evidence of my life, you are probably right.”
That doesn’t happen very often! I said, “Okay, let’s start at the beginning,” and I shared the Gospel with him and told him that he must be born again. I told him that being born again wasn’t about being raised in a Christian family or going to Christian school or repeating someone else prayer.
When God works in a dead heart, He opens our blind eyes to see our sin and our need for salvation. Then he gives us faith to respond to invitation of eternal life.
He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You know how much I appreciate you but I’m not really interested in that right now.” I prayed for him and then he got out of the car and walked away.
Eddie was baffled by the whole conversation. As was Nicodemus who finally blurted out, “How can this be?”
Jesus responded, ““You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” (John 3:10)
We will pick it up at verse nine next week.
For now, I want to look at a couple of verses in chapter one of John that will help to understand being born again better.
Children of God
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” (John 1:9-13)
As I’ve said before, John loves the interplay between light and darkness.
Jesus came to His own, the Jews, but they did not receive him. They rejected Him because they wanted a political Messiah that would rescue them from Rome and Jesus’ mission was to rescue them from hell.
The new birth is an act of God alone. Charles Spurgeon said the only thing we bring to our salvation is our sin. But once God convicts us of our need for salvation, Scripture is clear that we must receive him.
This is not asking Jesus in your heart. I had a student tell me one time that when she was volunteering in a children ministry, she saw something that made her sad and mad at the same time.
If the kindergarteners that she worked with said, “the sinners prayer and asked Jesus in their hearts” they got cookies. Every week, they celebrated salvations that were most likely not real at all.
When I speak at camps, I call students to believe in His name. At the end of a session we might have 50 students at the front. I always had their student leaders take them in the hall and asked then why they came down front.
One night out of the 50, only three truly understand the Gospel and wanted to put their faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins. How easy it would have been for me to announce on Facebook or Twitter that 50 students “got saved.” That would have be false and those students would then think they were, what John calls children of God, when they weren’t.
John gives three negatives and one positive.
Not born by natural descent. No one is born a Christian. You are not a Christian because your parents or grandparents are/were Christians. You are not a Christian because you are American or because you were born in a particular part of the country or because of the way you vote. You are not a Christian because you are Baptist, Methodist, or Catholic.
Nicodemus thought that salvation was for other people. He was Jew, part of the chosen people. But he needed to be born again.
Not of human decision. This implies the sexual union that produces a baby. Remember, flesh gives birth to flesh. But this can also be a metaphor for passion or sincerity.
One of my seminary professors told the story of standing for orthodox Christianity while in grad school at Oxford in England. In the 60s, denying the virgin birth and the miracles of the Bible became very common. Dr. Kelly stood against the tide and proclaimed his belief in the inerrancy of Scriptures and that the virgin birth, miracles, and resurrection were true.
Forty years later, he got a call from one of his classmates from Oxford. This man said thank you for standing up for the Bible all those years ago. I remember your words and wanted you to know that appreciate them more than you know. He then said, “I wanted you to know that I was born again last year. I thought that would encourage you.”
What had this man been doing for the last forty years? He was a pastor and a professor! That’s scary!
Nicodemus was brilliant, moral, passionate and sincere. But he was sincerely wrong. He needed to born again.
Not of the will of man. This is the most common assumption in our culture. If you go to the mall and ask someone how to get to heaven, you will most likely get something like this, “Be good. Your good deeds and your bad deeds will be put on a scale and if the good deeds win, you are in.”
The problem is that is completely contradictory to what the Bible teaches. You can not be good enough. You can not hop high enough for God’s holiness. Your good deeds are good enough because God demands perfection and we don’t come close.
* But born of God. It’s all about God’s grace:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
I posted this on Facebook recently:
How does the thief on the cross fit into your theology? No baptism, no communion, no confirmation, no speaking in tongues, no mission trip, no volunteerism, no church clothes. He couldn’t even bend his knees to pray. He didn’t say the sinner’s pray and among other things, he was a thief. Jesus didn’t take away his pain, heal his body, or strike the scoffers with lightning. Yet it was a thief who walked into heaven the same hour as Jesus simply by believing. He had nothing more to offer than his belief that Jesus was who He said He was. No spin from brilliant theologians. No ego or arrogance. No shiny lights, skinny jeans, or crafty words. No smoke machine, donuts, or coffee at the entrance. Just a naked, dying man on the cross unable to to even fold his hands to pray.
And yet, he was born again.
Nicodemus was on a religious treadmill, running to try to be good enough and moral enough. He needed to be born again.
George Whitfield, the great evangelist of the Great Awakening, preached all over the east coast of the US and he had one message, you must be born again. A lady came up after a service and asked why He kept saying that she met be born again and without hesitation he said, “Because you must be born again!”
Steven Lawson sums it up:
“If you are only born once, you will die twice. You you are born twice, you will only die once.”
What must you do?
Examine yourself to see if you truly born again.
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
If you are born again, then you will love the church, treasure His Word, make prayer a priority, worship in spirit in truth, and love others extravagantly and intentionally, not perfectly, but with a clean conscience and a heart to obey.
2. Admit your need.
Nic knew there was something missing.
It’s not enough to be religious or moral. It’s not enough to be good because you can’t be good enough. The Holy Spirit helps us to see that we are in a desperate situation - helpless, hopeless, and hellbound.
?We cannot earn our salvation and we certainly don’t deserve it.
Cry out to Him and ask Him to save you.
3. Come to Jesus personally.
Nic came to Jesus directly to try to figure out what was missing. No one can do this for you and salvation is in no other name.
4. Trust Jesus completely.
We aren’t told explicitly that Nicodemus trusted Christ for salvation and was born again but it is implied when he arrives with Joseph of Arimethea to claim Jesus’s body after His crucifixion.
Paul wrote to the Romans:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
5. Rest in the assurance of your salvation.
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (I John 5:11-12)
6. Pray for God to save those around you.
If we truly believe that only the Hoy Spirit can open people’s eyes to their need for salvation, we will pray more than we ever have. We have the honor to pray that God would draw our unsaved family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors to Himself, convict them of their sin and convert them from a “lifeless death to a deathless life.” (Jack Odell)
On October 8, 1871, D.L. Moody preached to his largest audience in Chicago. His question for them that night was, “What Will you Do Then with Jesus who is called the Christ?”
He shared the Gospel but because he was so tired and it was running late he said, “Now I give you a week to think that over. And when we come together again, you will have an opportunity to respond.”
Ira Sankey finished the night with a song and as he sang sirens started to blare. The Great Chicago Fire had broken out, killing hundreds and leaving 100,000 homeless.
Several months later, Moody addressed the crowd gathered and said, “I would give my right arm before I would ever give an audience another week to think over the message of the Gospel. Some that heard that night died in the fire.”
