When Abraham Lincoln ran for Congress in 1846, he faced a tough opponent: Peter Cartwright. Cartwright was a raw-boned, circuit-riding, Methodist preacher, known throughout the state of Illinois. During his 65 years of circuit-riding ministry, he baptized nearly 10,000 converts.
During the intense campaign, some of Cartwright's followers accused Lincoln of being an “infidel.” In response, Lincoln decided to meet Cartwright on his own ground and attend one of his revival meetings.
Carl Sandburg, Lincoln’s biographer, writes about what happened in that meeting:
In due time Cartwright said “All who desire to lead a new life, to give their hearts to God, and go to heaven, will stand,” and a sprinkling of men, women, and children stood up. Then the preacher exhorted, “All who do not wish to go to hell will stand.” All stood up—except Lincoln.
Then said Cartwright in his gravest voice, “I observe that many responded to the first invitation to give their hearts to God and go to heaven. And I further observe that all of you save one indicated that you did not desire to go to hell. The sole exception is Mr. Lincoln, who did not respond to either invitation. May I inquire of you, Mr. Lincoln, where are you going?”
Lincoln slowly rose from his seat and spoke. “I came here as a respectful listener. I did not know that I was to be singled out by Brother Cartwright. I believe in treating religious matters with due solemnity. I admit that the questions propounded by Brother Cartwright are of great importance. I did not feel called upon to answer as the rest did. Brother Cartwright asks me directly where I am going. I desire to reply with equal directness: I am going to Congress.”
And that’s exactly what he did. Lincoln went to congress (Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years; “The Untold Story of Christianity & The Civil War,” Christian History, no. 33; www.PreachingToday.com).
Entering God’s Kingdom was not a primary concern for Lincoln when he ran for congress in 1846. All he wanted to do, at that time, was excel in the kingdom of men, which he did. He ran for congress that year and won. Later, he ran for president and won that race, too. In fact, Lincoln became one of our country’s greatest presidents.
He did well in the kingdom of men, but even he could not become so much as a janitor in the Kingdom of God, according to Jesus’s own words. He could not even see it, unless… Well, unless what?
How does one get to see the Kingdom of God? I mean if Lincoln himself failed to meet the standard, how could any of us hope to get into God’s Kingdom? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to John 3, John 3, where Jesus tells a “good person” how to enter His Kingdom.
John 3:1-2 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (ESV).
This is all very flattering, but Jesus could care less. So He gets right to the issue.
John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (ESV).
As a Pharisee, Nicodemus kept the rules better than most people. He was a very good man by the world’s standards, but Jesus tells him that even he cannot see the heavenly kingdom unless he is born again. Good or bad, if you want to see the Kingdom of Heaven...
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.
You must become a brand-new person. You must get a new life.
What does that mean? What is Jesus talking about here? Well, that was Nicodemus’ question.
John 3:4-7 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (ESV).
Jesus is talking to a Jewish scholar here, using the language of the Old Testament, something with which he would be very familiar. It’s the language of Ezekiel 36, where God promised to “sprinkle clean water” on Israel, and “cleanse her from all her filthiness.” He also promised to put His Spirit within them and cause them to walk in His ways.
That’s what the new birth is all about. It’s being cleansed from all your sin (“born of water”) and having God’s spirit within (“born of the Spirit”). To put it simply, it’s having your life changed from the inside out. It’s getting a brand-new life!
In the movie, Air Force One, the President (played by Harrison Ford) and his family are taken hostage when terrorists hijack the president’s plane. The president, a former marine, eventually kills or disables all the terrorists but one.
However, there is no one left who can safely fly the plane, which is quickly running out of fuel. As time runs out, Air Force airmen attach a zip line from Air Force One to a military transport plane.
It’s a gutsy move, requiring exact precision, but all of the passengers make it safely to the transport plane, leaving the President and one terrorist aboard Air Force One. Take a look (show video: Air Force One Rescuing the President).
Just before the President hooks himself to the life-saving zip line, the terrorist comes out of hiding and struggles with the president. Shortly thereafter, Air Force One dives into the ocean.
The officials on the ground wait anxiously through the long periods of radio silence. Unable to see what is happening, they all gather anxiously around the radio for a report from the military flight crew. All they know from their radar screen is that Air Force One is down. A sense of defeat permeates the room as they assume the President has gone down with the plane.
Finally, the flight crew radios the anxious officials gathered in the White House war room to say, "Liberty 2-4 is changing call signs. Liberty 2-4 is now Air Force One!" The President had been pulled safely aboard the cargo plane just before his jet plunged into the ocean.
The identity of that simple transport plane was dramatically changed—from Liberty 2-4 to Air Force One—when the President came on board.
That’s what it means to be “born again.” It’s experiencing a profound change of identity when Jesus comes into your life. The next verse, verse 8, makes that very clear.
John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (ESV).
Wind and Spirit are the same word in the original language. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. You cannot see the wind, but you can certainly see the effects of the wind. In the same way, you cannot see God’s Holy Spirit, but you can certainly see the effects He has on people; you can see the change in their lives.
Actually, this is a reference to Ezekiel 37 in the Old Testament. There, the nation of Israel is pictured as a valley of dry bones—dead and decaying. Then, the breath of God blows on them and they come to life again.
So it is with us. We are nothing but dry bones, until God’s Spirit blows upon us. We are dead, but God’s Spirit can breathe new life into us. He can cause us to be “born again,” changed from the inside out.
You say, “Phil, how is that possible?” How can I be born again? How can I get a new life? How can I be changed? That was Nicodemus’ question.
John 3:9-15 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (ESV).
If you’re going to be born again, then...
THE SON OF MAN MUST BE LIFTED UP.
Jesus Christ must hang on a cross just like the snake in the wilderness hung on a pole.
You see, according to the book of Numbers, when Israel wandered in the desert, they grumbled and complained a lot. They got tired of the manna from heaven. They got tired of the heat, and they ceased to appreciate what God had done for them. So God sent them a bunch of poisonous snakes. They bit the people, and many died. That’s when Moses prayed for the people, and God told him to make a snake out of bronze and to raise that snake on a pole. Then, when anybody got bit, all they had to do was look at that bronze snake, and they would live.
In the same way, Jesus had to be lifted up. He had to be hung on a cross, so people could look to Him and live, so people could find a new life in Him.
John Griffith grew up with one dream in his heart—a dream of travel. He wanted to travel to faraway places and see exotic sights. Those strange-sounding names of strange-sounding lands—that's what he dreamt about and read about. That was his whole consuming passion of life. But that dream crashed with the stock market in 1929.
The Great Depression settled like a funeral cloak upon the land. Oklahoma, his native state, was turned into a swirling dust bowl by the dry winds, and his dreams were swept away with the wind. So he packed up his wife, his tiny baby boy, and their few meager belongings in an old car and drove away to find greener pastures. He thought he might have discovered those on the edge of the Mississippi, where he got a job caring for one of those great, huge railroad bridges that cross the mighty Mississippi.
A few years later, John Griffith brought his now 8-year-old son, Greg Griffith, to work him for his very first time. The little boy was wide-eyed with excitement, and he clapped his hands with glee when the huge bridge went up at the beck and call of his mighty father. He watched with wonderment as the huge boats steamed down the Mississippi.
Twelve o'clock came, and his father put up the bridge. There were no trains due for a good while, and they went out a couple of hundred feet on a catwalk out over the river to an observation deck. They sat down, opened their brown bag, and began to eat their lunch. His father told him about some of the strange, faraway lands that some of these ships were going to visit. This entranced the boy.
The time flew by, and suddenly they were drawn instantly back to reality by the shrieking of a distant train whistle. John Griffith quickly looked at his watch. He saw that it was time for the 1:07, the Memphis Express, with 400 passengers, which would be rushing across that bridge in just a couple of minutes. He knew he had just enough time, so without panic, but very clearly, he told his son to stay where he was.
He leaped to his feet, jumped to the catwalk, ran back, climbed the ladder to the control room, went in, put his hand on the huge lever that controlled the bridge, looked up the river and down to see if any boats were coming, as was his custom, and then looked down to see if there were any beneath the bridge. And suddenly he saw a sight that froze his blood and caused his heart to leap into his throat. His boy! His boy had tried to follow him to the control room and had fallen into the great, huge gear box that had the monstrous gears that operated this massive bridge. His left leg was caught between the two main gears, and the father knew that as sure as the sun came up in the morning, if he pushed that lever his son would be ground in the midst of eight tons of whining, grinding steel.
His eyes filled with tears of panic. His mind whirled. What could he do? He saw a rope there in the control room. He could rush down the ladder and out the catwalk, tie off the rope, lower himself down, extricate his son, climb back up the rope, run back into the control room, and lower the bridge. No sooner had his mind done that exercise than he knew—he knew there wasn't time. He'd never make it, and there were 400 people on that train.
Suddenly he heard the whistle again, this time startlingly closer. And he could hear the clicking of the locomotive wheels on the track, and he could hear the rapid puffing of the train. What could he do? What could he do! There were 400 people, but this was... this was his son, this was his only son. He was a father! He knew what he had to do, so he buried his head in his arm and he pushed the gear forward.
The great bridge slowly lowered into place just as the express train roared across. He lifted up his tear-smeared face and looked straight into the flashing windows of that train as they flashed by one after another. He saw men reading the afternoon paper, a conductor in uniform looking at a large vest-pocket watch, ladies sipping tea out of teacups, and little children pushing long spoons into plates of ice cream. Nobody looked in the control room. Nobody looked at his tears. Nobody, nobody looked down to the great gear box.
In heart-wrenching agony, he beat against the window of the control room, and he said, "What's wrong with you people? Don't you care? I sacrificed my son for you. Don't any of you care?" Nobody looked. Nobody heard. Nobody heeded. And the train disappeared across the river (D. James Kennedy, "Message from an Empty Tomb," Preaching Today, Tape No. 66).
God sacrificed His Son for you. Does anybody care? Does anybody even notice? My dear friends, God had to sacrifice of His only Son to make it possible for you and me to live! However, the good news is Jesus did not stay dead. Three days later, He arose from the dead! But Jesus had to die if any of us were to be born again.
If you want to get into the Kingdom of God, you must be born again. But if that is going to happen, the Son of man must be lifted up. He must die so you and I can live. He must give up His life so you and I can get a new life. He must sacrifice His life so you and I can be “born again.”
Even so, God does not give you that new life automatically. So if you want to be born again so you can enter God’s Kingdom...
YOU MUST BELIEVE.
You must trust Christ with your life. You must depend on Him, and Him alone.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (ESV).
If you don’t believe in Christ, you are condemned already; but if you DO believe, you have eternal life. The issue is faith. It’s belief. It’s trust in Christ.
When you came into this sanctuary, I didn't observe any of you examine your chair before you sat in it. You just committed yourself by faith to that chair, assuming it would hold you.
Most of you got here by car; you slid in the car, turned on the ignition and away you went. Many of you don't have a clue as to what goes on under the hood. You can't explain the process. You just trust it.
Sometimes, when you go to a doctor, he writes out a little prescription. You can’t read it. In fact, you wonder if anybody can read it! But you take it to your pharmacist. He disappears behind the counter, comes back with a little bottle and says, “Take it three times a day.” What do you do? By faith you do exactly what he tells you to do (Howard Hendricks, "Faith in Tough Times," Preaching Today, Tape No. 140).
You express faith in some way every day. All God asks you to do here is put your faith in His Son. Trust Christ, who died for you and rose again, if you’re going to have eternal life. Depend on Him, and Him alone. Please, do not risk God’s judgment by rejecting Jesus today.
John 3:19-21 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (ESV).
So-called “good people” often reject Jesus, because they resist His exposure of their sin. On the other hand, those who come to Jesus (the Light) discover that God transforms them from sinners into saints. Instead of just exposing their sin, God also expresses His work in them.
Do you want to see the Kingdom of God? Then you must be born again. The Son of Man must be lifted up, and you must believe—You must trust Christ with your life.
Let me tell you about Shon Hopwood, who grew up in a Christian home in rural Nebraska. When his high-school basketball career faded and college and the military fell through, he was left with a complete lack of purpose. So, it sounded like a good idea when his best friend suggested they rob a bank.
They robbed five banks with guns. Shon knew it was wrong. Still, he couldn’t stop because of the easy money and party lifestyle that it brought him. It ended when the FBI arrested him, and a federal judge sentenced him to 12 years in federal prison. He was 23.
Shon took a job in the prison law library. He began learning the law. Over the years he took on fellow prisoners’ cases, writing petitions they would then file in federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Fellow prisoners began calling him a “jailhouse lawyer.”
His next cell-door neighbor, Robert, would grumble about missing out on the lives of his children and he ranted about a friend who had turned against him and testified at his trial. He said he wished that guy would die. It was clear to Shon that the bitterness of life and prison had consumed him.
Then, one day, Shon walked over to Robert’s cell and watched as he smiled and danced around while sweeping the floor. Shon’s first thought was that he had scored some drugs. But when he asked Robert why he seemed so different, Robert said, “Shon, I’m with Jesus now.” Within days Robert had forgiven the man who had testified against him. Today, Robert is back on his farm with his family, and once a week he treks back into prison to lead a men’s Bible study.
Robert was neither the first nor the last prisoner Shon saw experience a complete and utter life turnaround. These inmates had a great effect on Shon because he saw how Jesus can transform everyone, even prisoners.
Shon was released in 2009, during the heart of a recession, when work was hard to find, especially for a former inmate. But God graciously provided a job for him at a leading printer of Supreme Court briefs in Omaha, helping attorneys perfect their briefs.
After that, Shon became engaged, but a pastor insisted that Shon and his fiancé go through marriage counseling before he performed their wedding ceremony. During the first session, the pastor asked what they believed about Jesus. Shon said, “When he talked about grace, that free gift of salvation, I listened, especially when he said that I could be forgiven. ‘Yeah, even you, Shon.’ I couldn’t escape the feeling that God had been pursuing me for a long time.”
That’s when Shon trusted Christ with His life, or as he put it, that’s when he “surrendered to God’s grace.” He got married and his wife also became a believer. They moved to Seattle so he could attend the University of Washington Law School on a full-ride scholarship. Shawn says, “Looking back over the course of my life, I can see that although I rarely returned the favor, God hotly pursued me.”
Today, Shon Robert Hopwood is an author, appellate lawyer, and professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center (Shon Hopwood, “Like a Thief in the Night,” Christianity Today magazine, April, 2014, pp. 79-80; www.PreachingToday.com).
Wow! What a transformation. Shon was truly born again, and God can do the same for you if you let Him. Maybe, you sense God is pursuing you. Please, stop running, turn to Him, and trust Christ with your life. Let Him transform you, making you fit for His Kingdom!
