The Breath Of God Series

From Mortal to Immortal

A Study of John 3-4

The Breath of God – John 3:1-8

Circle of Life – John 3:9-21

Accepting God’s Plan – John 3:22-36

Satisfying Water – John 4:1-26

Pleasing Food – John 4:27-42

Birth

Birth is an extreme event. It is a dramatic, traumatic, and radical happening and it changes your life immediately and forever! Immediately: You will carry diaper bags everywhere you go. Forever: You have a child!

Life is a miracle. It is the beginning of something that cannot really be explained - only experienced. Something happens in the moment of birth. There is a breath, there is a cry and there is life.

This idea of being part of a new life is the playground of little boys pretending to be a daddy. It?s the dream of little girls feeding their dolls ?imaginary? food. The birth of a child is the hope of young people in love thinking about marriage and starting a family.

And what parent doesn’t remember the hours of preparing a nursery while the womb grows larger and the day of the birth slowly (emphasis on slowly) - gets closer and closer

Then, suddenly, just as you think it will never happen – it does. Sometimes it happens really fast - or not. It can take hours. But there is miraculous moment when the pangs of birth become the beginning of a brand new life. There is a gasp for air and a tiny cry. The miracle of life has happened because God gave it.

Jesus said that the miracle of birth extends into the spiritual areas. This Sunday we begin a five week study of John 3 and 4 that will take us deep into the miracle of the second birth!

Let’s begin this journey from the mortal to the immortal by reading the John 3:1-8 – the late night meeting of Nicodemus and Jesus.

John 3:1-8 (NCV)

3 There was a man named Nicodemus who was one of the Pharisees and an important Jewish leader. 2 One night Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know you are a teacher sent from God, because no one can do the miracles you do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born again, he cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

4 Nicodemus said, “But if a person is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s body again. So how can a person be born a second time?”

5 But Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, unless one is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter God’s kingdom. 6 Human life comes from human parents, but spiritual life comes from the Spirit. 7 Don’t be surprised when I tell you, ‘You must all be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wants to and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where the wind comes from or where it is going. It is the same with every person who is born from the Spirit.”

Life is a expedition of discovery

At a babies first cry all things become new

That first tiny cry is the beginning of a marvelous adventure in living. It marks a journey of discovery and growth that each of us is now taking.

Some of you are just getting started on this journey. Some of you are in the middle part. In fact, you have – along with me! – topped the hill and are headed down the backside of the mountain called life. I figure that I’m still middle aged if I live to be 104!

Some of you will crash and never complete the journey because of war, accident, or disease. And some of you have hit the bottom of the hill and are coasting to the end of the line.

In all of this life you make discoveries

You discover You

Have you ever seen a baby first glimpse their hand going by their face? It is wonderful to watch them laying in the cradle looking around erratically and all of the sudden this tiny hand floating by at the end of their arm catches their eye. It focuses and follows the hand and we see a moment of discovery and wonderment… that is my hand!

This experience is followed by other discoveries throughout all of life. Things like what happens to you spiritually when you stand at the back window of your house and take in a moonlit snow covered tree line at midnight. How loud your own heartbeat is in your ears while you are finishing a five-mile run. And how wonderful moose tracks ice cream tastes just before you go to bed.

You discover Love

In the first shocking moment when you are forced to painfully leave the comfort and 98.6-degree warmth of you mother’s womb and then place in her soft arms you begin to experience love.