John 3:1-21
“The New Birth”
By: Rev. Kenneth Sauer,
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA www.parkview-umc.org
As many of you know, my wife, Jeanne is seven months pregnant. There is a little baby living inside of her…named Mary Ellen.
And even though Mary Ellen has not yet been born, Jeanne and I have already seen her on several occasions.
At the doctor’s office, through what is called an ultra-sound, we have been able to see Mary Ellen on a t-v screen.
We’ve seen her hands, we’ve seen her toes…and Jeanne, especially has felt her kick!
We’ve also seen Mary Ellen’s eyes, nose and ears.
And although Mary Ellen has eyes, she cannot yet see.
All of her senses are greatly limited right now.
She lays in the dark water of the womb waiting to be born.
And even though Jeanne and I have only seen her face on the t-v screen in the doctor’s office, we already love her…with a love which is indescribable.
I remember a conversation Jeanne and I had several weeks ago.
It went something like: “Isn’t this amazing. We have a human being who is growing inside of you, and yet we have so little to do with it.
We are not forming Mary Ellen’s eyes, nose, mouth, spinal cord, etc…
…this is happening without our having anything to do with the process.”
God is forming Mary Ellen in her mother’s womb.
God is creating the little girl that we will all come to know so intimately very, very soon.
As soon as Mary Ellen is born, she will begin to see light and the various objects that surround her.
Her ears will be opened, and she will hear sounds.
And all her other organs of sense will start to work their appropriate functions.
Yes, pretty soon, Mary Ellen will begin to breathe and live in an entirely different way.
And in a spiritual sense, prior to our being born again, or born anew, or born of God, or born from above…
…let’s just call it the new birth…
…prior to this new birth we are in a purely natural state of being.
We have spiritual eyes, but they cannot see.
“A thick impenetrable veil lies upon them,” as John Wesley put it.
We have spiritual ears, but we cannot hear; we are completely deaf to what we hunger most to hear.
And our other spiritual senses are closed as well.
They have not yet been born!
And just like Mary Ellen has no real understanding, right now, of the world she is being prepared to enter…
…we have no real understanding of the spiritual or eternal things of God.
Although we are living persons, we are dead to God. We do not know Him.
But God knows us and loves us and is ready to birth us as soon as we are ready to allow Him to do so.
As soon as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to live inside of us…
…as soon as we open the door of our hearts and allow Jesus…
…Who is always standing outside knocking—come in and abide in us…
…As soon as we do this, we experience our second birth, the new birth!
And as soon as we are born of God
our spiritual eyes are opened and we are able to see the light of God shining in the darkness.
Our spiritual ears are opened and we are able to hear the inner voice of God speaking love and forgiveness—causing us to love…to really love for the very first time!!!
And to live…really live for the very first time!!!
Grace descends into our hearts, and prayer and praise ascend to heaven.
And through this vital union between God and God’s children, the communion with the Father and the Son is a type of spiritual breathing, by which the life of God lives in our souls.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning a man named Nicodemus is talking to Jesus.
Nicodemus must have seen something in Christ, that Nicodemus did not yet have…but what was it?
“Rabbi,” Nicodemus says, “we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
“In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Now what in the world is that supposed to mean?
Nicodemus’ reaction is basically, “I’ve already been born. As a matter of fact, I am now an old man. I can’t just re-enter my mother’s womb and be born again!”
“Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is 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.’”
Just like Nicodemus and the rest of us, Mary Ellen will only experience the physical birth once.
She will be born of the flesh, having been surrounded by water in her mother’s womb.
And one day, by the grace of God, Mary Ellen will experience another birth.
And when that happens, it will be a spiritual birth…as she will be born of the Spirit.
Now many of us might very well ask: “Why does this have to occur?”
For the answer to that question, we must look back at our Old Testament Reading for this morning from the first few chapters of Genesis.
The foundation of the new birth begins almost as early as the creation of the world.
In the Scriptural account of creation, we read: “God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…”…
…So God created humankind in His image, as a portrait of His immortality, a spiritual being endowed with understanding, free will, and lots of other wonderful things.
God made us to be the rulers of the earth: “over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth.”
And God made humankind in God’s moral image, which, according to the apostle Paul, is “true righteousness and holiness.”
And “God is love.” Therefore, at the creation, God made the man and the woman full of love.
Love was the single principle controlling their attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions.
As Wesley puts it: “God is full of justice, mercy, and truth, and so were the man and the woman as they came from the hands of their Creator. God is spotless purity. Accordingly, the original man and woman were free from every sinful stain.
Otherwise, God would not have pronounced humankind (and all the other works of his hands) as being ‘very good.’”
Now God created humankind with the ability to stand, and yet they were also susceptible to falling.
God Himself warned the man and the woman of this possibility, and God gave them a solemn warning against it.
But fall they did!
They ate “of the tree about which God commanded, ‘You shall not eat of it.’”
And in doing so, they willfully disobeyed their Creator and openly rebelled against His sovereignty.
By these acts, the man and the woman flagrantly declared that they would no longer have God as their ruler.
Instead, they would be governed by their own wills, not the will of God Who created them.
They would not seek happiness in God, but in the world and in the works of their own hands.
Thus, the man and the woman lost both the knowledge and the love for God, and without these things, God’s image could no longer exist in them.
They became unholy and unhappy.
“They plunged into pride and self-will, the very image of the devil.”
Saint Paul teaches that “all die in Adam.”
That statement refers to all of us who have descended from Adam and Eve.
As Wesley put it: “The natural consequence is that everyone who comes from Adam and Eve enters the world spiritually unresponsive to God, completely ‘dead in sin.’”….
….and “Because we are ‘born in sin,’ we ‘must be [born again].’”
Everyone born of the flesh…that is, you and me and everyone else…must also be born of the Spirit of God.
And this is just the beginning of a brand new life of transformation.
It’s called the Christian journey.
Just like little Mary Ellen, when she has her moment of fleshly birth, those who are born again must learn to live and breath and eat and interact in this brand new world—which is called God’s Kingdom.
And just like the life of the flesh can be terribly difficult at times, so too is the life of the Spirit.
Yes, we will be able to sense “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”
Many times we will sense that “God’s love has been poured into [our] hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to [us].”
After the new birth, our spiritual senses begin to be “trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”
And by the use of these spiritual gifts, we are to daily increase in the knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ whom God has sent, and of all the things that have to do with His inward Kingdom.
We will live a life that the rest of the world cannot understand—it is a life “hidden with Christ in God.”
Will it always be easy? No.
Is it worth it? You bet!
As John Wesley states: “unless we are born anew, none of us can even be happy in this present world. In the nature of things, it is not possible for us to be happy if we are not holy. Even the poor, ungodly Roman poet could tell us,
“No bad person can be happy.”
And the reason is obvious: All unholy attitudes are unsettled attitudes.
Hostility, hatred, envy, jealousy, and revenge create a present hell in the heart…
…consequently, the new birth is absolutely necessary for happiness in this world and in the world to come.”
A child is born of the flesh in a moment, or at least in a very short time.
Then, the child gradually and slowly grows until he or she becomes an adult.
Comparably, a person is born of God in a short time, if not a moment. Then, slowly that newborn Christian grows and grows and grows toward “the measure and full stature of Christ.”
Have we experienced the new birth?
Are we growing in our knowledge and love of God?
If not, let your continual prayer be, “Lord, add this to all your blessings: let me be born again. Deny me anything you want, but don’t deny me this blessing: Let me be born from above. Take away whatever seems right to you—reputation, fortune, friends, or health. Only give me this: I want to be born of the Spirit! I want to be received among the children of God. Let me be born, ‘not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.’ Daily, let me ‘grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’”(from “The New Birth, John Wesley)
May it be so. May it be so. Amen.
