Born Again

Pastor Michael Wheatley, May 22, 2011

Background.  Jesus uses a phrase which some use disparagingly.  Some use it to define their group and exclude others.  Obviously, many misunderstand it.  The phrase is important to Jesus.  He uses it three times.  Pay attention when Jesus repeats himself.  Three times Jesus also says he's telling the truth.  So, he really wants to get across a point.  He wants us to take him seriously.

The sermon this Sunday will explore the phrase "born again."  It comes out of a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus.  We will see that the "born again" concept will clash with the religious belief system and institutions of the day and maybe ours.  It will tell us of the way God has provided us to inherit eternal life.

Scripture: John 3: 1 - 16. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, 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."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

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.' 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."

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven - the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Sermon. Three times in this passage, Jesus says we must be born again. Some people are embarrassed by it. Some feel uncomfortable about it; some threatened. It is a phrase which is a mantra for some in the Christian community. It defines their lives. It is often misunderstood. It is associated with a particular brand of Christian faith.

However, they are the words of Christ to us. That he repeats them three times indicates that he thinks they are important and that we should pay attention to them. So we are going to take a look at them in the context of this encounter which Jesus had with a man named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was a number of things—a Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin, and a teacher of the law. In fact Jesus calls him the teacher of Israel. He specialized in the knowledge of the law of God. He had an expertise that placed him above so many others. As a Pharisee, he belonged to an exclusive group of men who had taken a pledge to spend their lives observing every detail of this law of God.  The word “Pharisee” meant the separated ones. They had separated themselves from an ordinary life to the extraordinary life of fulfilling every requirement that God had laid before his people. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin. He was one of only 70 men who served on a council that was a bit like our President, the Supreme Court, and Congress all rolled up into one.

Finally, we could surmise he was wealthy. He was the one who, when Jesus was taken down from the cross, bought spices for his burial. It was a mixture of myrrh and aloes—a hundred pounds of it—expensive stuff.

Nicodemus was aristocracy. This was a man who, in order to get to where he was in life, had to be well connected. He was part of a religious establishment that Jesus openly called two-faced, hypocritical, play actors. He called them whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside, yet full of dead men’s bones on the inside. Though he was one of them, Nicodemus didn’t seem to fit the description.

Here was an extraordinary man who did an extraordinary, unexpected thing. He came to Jesus one night. He did not come as one of the religious police. He did not come to trap Jesus in his own words, or to interrogate Jesus, or to compile evidence by which to convict him. This was a man who was searching personally for truth. He came to Jesus at night, alone. Some have suggested that he came at night to avoid the watchful eyes of others in the brotherhood. Maybe that was true, but maybe he was not being cautious. Maybe he came at night because the crowds were gone. He and Jesus could really talk with no distractions or interruptions. In fact the rabbis declared that the best time to read the scriptures was at night for that very reason.

Nicodemus began by saying how impressed he was with Jesus—convinced he had come from God. Obviously not all the religious leaders felt that way. But Nicodemus, speaking for himself, said that Jesus’ signs and wonders confirmed it.

Jesus responded. He told Nicodemus that it is not signs and wonders that are important. What’s important is one’s inner life—one’s spiritual life—one’s relationship with God. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

The kingdom of God—it was the goal of Nicodemus’ life. This is what he yearned for—eternal life, in the presence of God, in the kingdom of God. Everything he learned, all that he did was directed toward that end. And Jesus told him he wouldn’t even see it, let alone enter it, unless he was born again. Nicodemus is stunned—he is stumped. What is Jesus talking about? “Born again”?

Let’s think about what Jesus has done here. In effect, Jesus knocked Nicodemus off his feet. He had spent his whole life focused on attaining eternal life and the kingdom of God. He thought he was well on the way—or maybe he didn’t—maybe he had doubts, which was why he came to Jesus. Nevertheless, he knew of only one way to get there. It was the Pharisee way. Keep the law perfectly. Be like the little engine that could. Work on it so very hard: I think I can, I think I can—strain with all your might.

Are you like that? Heaven is the goal. You believe that to get there you have to be good—very good—and so you try to be. And if you fail at being good and slip up in something, you try harder next time; you redouble your effort.

Jesus told Nicodemus he was excluded from the kingdom of God. For all his training, for all of his knowledge, for all of his trying, for all of his sincerity, for all of his accomplishments, for all his dedication, his meticulous keeping of the whole law of God—he wouldn’t ever see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus is struggling. He’s at a loss. He doesn’t understand. It flies in the face of all he has known, grown up with, been taught. Jesus throws it all out and says—he must be born again. And this “born again.” It’s unknown to him. It’s beyond his knowing. It’s outside the scope of the only religious training he’s ever had.

He asks, “How can a man be born again? Surely he can’t enter into his mother’s womb a second time to be born? “ The word “again” in the phrase “born again”—there are two ways it can be understood. It can mean again, as in a second time. Or it can mean “from above.” Nicodemus is assuming “again” as in a second time. But that is not the way Jesus used it. Jesus was saying we must be born from above.

Jesus is talking about a second birth, but it is unlike the first. This second birth is from the womb of the spirit of God. It is a spiritual birth. Jesus says without equivocation that unless we are reborn, unless we have a spiritual birth we will never enter the kingdom of God. Why? Because the kingdom of God is as much a spiritual reality as it is physical. And these physical bodies of ours have their limits. They are limited to their physical world. They cannot enter the spiritual one unchaperoned by the spirit—therefore the need for a spiritual birth—to be born from above.

Jesus admits to some mystery to that. And Nicodemus is truly mystified. Jesus says, “You must not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.” Some things we won’t full understand. They are beyond us. Nicodemus again asks how can these things be? Jesus’ reply indicates that Nicodemus should understand better than he does. He should have understood that these physical bodies, in and of themselves, would never qualify for heaven. Keeping the law can’t purify the body. Keeping the law can’t transform it into something spiritual. The solution is a rebirth—a spiritual birth, from above.

Let’s move on to John 3:16. This is perhaps the most recognizable verse in the entire Bible. Jesus hasn’t changed the subject. He’s going to change the angle from which we are looking at it and simplify it and make it usable and practical. He says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” We need this second birth; we need to be born again—born from above. How does that happen? Jesus tells us in verse 16. Actually he tells us a lot in this one verse.

He begins saying  “God.” God has done something. The initiative begins with God, not us. God has done something to make it possible for us to have a spiritual birth. We cannot effect that alone or by our own efforts. We can’t work our way into the presence of God. That’s what Nicodemus had spent his life trying to do. It won’t happen. God must provide another way.

What has God done? He’s given us his son. We will come back to that, but first, why did he give his son? Because he loves us. I’m not convinced everyone in this room has come to grips with that. Jesus says God loves the world. This word “world”—it’s a code word for the world in opposition to God. It’s not the world of God’s incredible creation. It’s the world that has turned on him. It’s the world in rebellion. It’s the world that is hostile to his intent and his son. It’s the world whose vision is short-ranged; that sees only those immediate things it can touch. It’s the world that lives as if there is no God, wishes there were no God, and/or thinks it can do a better job than God. But what does Jesus say about this world? God loves it. God loves it in spite of itself. God loves you—unconditionally, no strings attached—with all your warts and shortcomings, whatever your attitude toward him, or your faith or lack of it, or your treatment of the people around you. God loves you. He loves the world.

Nicodemus would have flinched at that. He was brought up to believe that God loved only Israel: God’s love is limited—restricted to God’s chosen people to whom he revealed himself, to whom he sent the prophets, to whom he gave the land of promise—whom he rescued out of Egypt. But Jesus said it’s bigger than that . . . you are included in God’s love. And there is nothing you can do to change that. Why does God love you? It’s all he can do. It is his nature to love. He can do no other.

And his love is seen most clearly in the gift of his son. It’s freely given. His love is not something wrung from his tightly clenched fist. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus tells us the way to that spiritual birth—second birth. It’s faith. It’s putting our faith in what God has done through Jesus. Every life has but one of two possible outcomes. We either enter into eternal life, or perish. We either enter the company of God himself, or cease to exist. If all we have is our physical birth, we perish. It’s that second birth that makes the difference. The second birth occurs when we put our faith in the son.

I’m going to finish by summarizing all of this in no particular order.

First, we learn that heaven is not our adversary. God loves us more than we know.

Second, this is an argument against religious sophistication. Jesus is telling us that simple faith in what he accomplished leads to eternal live.

Third, we should realize our need to make a choice or the choice will be made for us. We must do something. We must put our faith in him or we perish.

Fourth, we know that everyone who has put their faith in him has been born again. That phrase “born again” is not the exclusive possession of some spiritual elite. By faith we are born from above, born again. By faith we have a second birth. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

Fifth, this point is a bit lengthy. It’s almost a new subject—not quite. Historically, in the church, with religious people there is this concept of surrender. It’s a good concept, and we get it from any good reading of the Bible. And some push it hard—surrender, surrender, surrender—surrender your life to Christ. What we miss is this: we can’t possibly understand what surrender means until we first see it. This is where John 3:16 comes in. Surrender looks like John 3:16. This is the picture we see. We see God totally surrendering himself to us. We see God absolutely completely give himself to us. The word became flesh. God gave himself on the cross. We could say he surrendered to his own love for us. God surrendered—he held nothing back—not even his son. That’s surrender.

Now when we see it, first we need to accept it. And second, in accepting it we need to surrender to it. In this we are born again. Faith is surrendering. In surrender we enter into that perfect union with him. In surrender we are delivered from the consequences of sin, we are made new. In surrender we are made alive to the things of God. When we surrender, he folds his life into ours so that we are changed. We become more than we are. This is what Jesus talks about when he says we must be born again.