The Religiously Immunized Series

o Again, 50% of Americans say they have prayed a prayer asking Jesus into their heart, and even though half of them have no regular presence in any kind of church and 2/3 have lifestyles and worldviews that in no way differ from those outside of the Christian faith. If passages like John 2 and Luke 8 and Matthew 7 are not describing that group, then I don’t know whom they’d be describing.

People hear statistics like the ones I gave above, that 80% of people call themselves Christians and 50% claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but less than half actually live differently because of that, and they say, “See, Christians are hypocrites.”

But I read something different in those statistics: What I read is that there are a lot of people who think they are Christians and are not.

o The question presented in John 2 is “what kind of belief saves?” This is an eternally important question! And do you have the kind of faith that is superficial or the kind that saves?

 We have created a culture where millions are comfortable calling themselves “a Christian” when they are not disciples of Jesus.

Is it possible that is you? That are you in this group described here in John 2:23?

So that leads to (2) a description of saving faith

Chapter 3 is the answer to the question presented in chapter 2. (Remember, there is no chapter break in the original writing of this book, which means the story at the beginning of chapter 3 is the solution to the problem raised at the end of chapter 2—if there are people who believe in Jesus that Jesus does not give himself to, then what kind of faith saves?)

[3:1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night (see, Nic at 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.”

See? That’s tying him back to vs. 23 of chapter 2. He was one who saw the signs and believed.

[3] Jesus answered him (question? Was there a question: Jesus has a way of answering questions that you should be asking), “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now, “born again” is a familiar phrase to us. President Jimmy Carter first made it famous, but to ol’ saint nic it was unfamiliar, and so he asked what we would have asked,

[4] “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” [5] Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

( 2 David Platt, SBC Pastor’s Conference)

[6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Genuine saving faith turns on one phrase: You must be born again. Nicodemus was a religious man, and Jesus was telling him that despite all of his good works, despite all of his learning and church attendance and religious ritual, he was dead in his sin!