The question was asked, “What one thing would you want if you could have unlimited amounts of it?”
Lots of people responded with things that get you other things - money, gold, wishes
(not sure how that works if there’s no one to grant them).
But these aren’t ends in themselves.
They’re just means to get what a person truly wants at any given moment.
But the assumption is also that you could buy happiness.
Other’s mentioned happiness, time, youth, love.
But these all can end up empty, unfulfilling, or even despised if they are without purpose or reason.
Some time after the wife of my distant uncle died, he was asked if he’d thought about getting married again
He responded, “No, I figure I had as much bliss as one man can handle.”
I think he was being sarcastic about his wife (who I’d heard was pretty difficult).
Still it points to how we pursue something or a situation.
But any situation or fulfilled desire can end up too much of a good thing.
It would seem to me that there is a best answer to the question, “What one thing would you want if you could have unlimited amounts of it.”
I think the answer should be unending, fulfilling, purposeful, fits-like-a-glove LIFE
We look at the truth that -
Title: PEOPLE MUST BE BORN AGAIN
And this is true for anyone that would receive what God calls the most desirable of all blessings
People must be born again if they are to experience unending, fulfilling, purposeful, fit’s-like-a-glove LIFE
Truthfully, those who doesn’t experience eternal life, will experience unending, sorrowful, tormented death
These most important destinies are discussed in Jesus’ conversation with a man named Nicodemus.
John 3:1–18
* 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 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.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
* 4 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?”
* 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. 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.’ 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.”
* 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 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. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
* 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
* 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 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. 18 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.
First, I want to point out that -
TO BE BORN AGAIN IS WHAT PEOPLE NEED MOST.
* John 3:3 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus jumps the conversation right to what Nicodemus needed most
To see the kingdom of God means “to experience fulness of life from now through eternity”
Seeing or being a part of the kingdom of God may feel like an option right now.
It may seem like just one of the ways that a person could choose to live - joining a Jelly of the Month club.
But one spontaneous moment, it will be the defining characteristic for every person.
Being a part of the kingdom of God will define whether a person spends every moment in eternal torment or in eternal bliss.
This is what were being warned about when Jesus says in v. 18 -
“whoever does not believe is condemned already.”
And for us who are in the kingdom of God, life before Christ felt pretty much like hell on earth.
Sadly, those that aren’t presently a part of the Kingdom of God don’t know what they’re missing.
?- So, how does a person become a part of the kingdom of God - what they were made to be?
They must be born again
This is “experiencing a complete change in one’s way of life to what it should be”
New birth is necessary for a person to be what they were meant to be - live as they were meant to live.
Being born again isn’t about knowing or understanding a truth or agreeing with an idea.
Nicodemus came listing a bunch of stuff he knew about Jesus.
And Jesus got right to what he was missing - he needed a total rebirth.
And a few verses later Jesus phrases it as “You MUST be born again.”
Being born again is the foundational step in God’s life-transforming work.
As the Apostle John goes on to explain in his first letter -
* 1 John 3:9 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
* 1 John 2:29 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
* 1 John 4:7 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
* 1 John 5:4 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Different superheroes went through different experiences that transformed them.
Hulk and the Fantastic Four were exposed to radiation
Dr. Strange and Shazam encountered some magic or ancient artifacts
All of these superheroes had a transformative experience that stuck with them for the rest of their lives.
And this is similar to being born again in that a person is transformed into a new version of themselves.
But it might not always be a instantaneous experience.
For me, mine was a little more like Spider Man.
He was bit by a radioactive spider.
And so was I… just kidding.
Spider Man didn’t fall to the ground and become something different there on the spot.
Instead, something entered him that changed him over a short time into a different version of himself.
I prayed to receive Christ when I was 5 or 6 with my Sunday School teacher.
But, when I was a teenager, I also came before the Lord saying,
“I’m ruining my life. If I’m not Your child, make me one!”
I don’t know which of those or other moments was my radioactive bite.
But I know this - I was reborn.
And I have the Holy Spirit living within me.
True Christians have had the transformative experience of being born again.
And this is what transforms our lives slowly but surely over time.
Nicodemus is pretty taken aback by this conversation.
He came expecting Jesus to be encouraged that Nick was supportive of Jesus’ ministry
But after Jesus blindsided him with his need to be redone, he starts to challenge the idea asking,
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
* John 3:5–8 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. 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.’ 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.”
Here we see that -
TO BE BORN AGAIN IS TO BE BORN OF THE SPIRIT
* Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. We’ve focused on the necessity of new birth.
What we’re getting into here is the nature of the necessary new birth.
It’s a spiritual rebirth.
But that doesn’t mean that a person should wander off into a corn field on a vision quest to get spiritual.
It means that it’s a spiritual work that’s done by the Holy Spirit.
And we’re told that (like the wind) the Holy Spirit does it when He sees fit in the way that He sees fit.
In his letter, John adds another little fact to what it means to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit.
It’s this - God does the reviving regenerating work in us.
And as a result of that work, we respond with belief/faith in Christ as our Savior.
He describes it in a way that can be easily missed if you don’t notice the verb tenses
* 1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
A person believing in Christ is the result of God making them new.
That’s pretty mind-blowing I know.
I love how Paul describes the circumstances of salvation.
* 2 Corinthians 4:3–6 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
This is describing a situation in which God must shine His light through a person’s spiritual blindness.
Without God’s help, no one sees “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”
He must give “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Maybe God is opening your eyes for the first time and calling you to be born again.
I've shared a statement that I read in an antique store in Beulah, MI.
I think of it when I read of how Jesus talks of the Holy Spirit as being like the unpredictable wind.
The sign says, “You can’t direct the wind, but you can set your sails.”
I’m very excited about the fact that my brothers or sister or neighbor can be opposed to the gospel one day
And they can be open to it the next.
We pray for the names on our prayer wall to be open to the gospel.
And we need to be ready, willing and able to share the gospel with them.
We’re praying after the service for God to move with His Holy Spirit this Saturday.
And we need to be ready to share.
In addition to the necessity and the nature of being born again -
TO BE BORN AGAIN IS TO BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS
Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus eventually led to one of the most often quoted verses of the Bible.
It’s John 3:16
* John 3:16 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The gospel is the good news that Jesus took the penalty of our sins…
The gospel must include the truth of who Jesus is and what He has done.
* 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
* 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
To simply tell someone that God loves them or show them God’s love is not sharing the Good News.
This is like telling a person that needs a heart transplant that the heart surgeon loves them.
They need the heart surgeon to doing his loving work of heart surgery.
The Good News must be shared with someone if they are going to be able to trust Jesus as their Savior.
And sharing the gospel is to be part of living that new life we’ve been born into.
The Apostle Peter writes about how the communicated truth of the gospel leads to a person being born again.
* 1 Peter 1:22–25 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
?- What does obedience to God’s truth look like?
Loving others from a pure heart in obedience to the truth of God’s Word. (22)
?- How did this life-change happen for any of us?
By being born again. (23)
?- How did being born again come about?
By the imperishable seed of the living and abiding word of God. (23)
Isaiah 40 is quoted to prove it as it was written 700 years earlier than that time and 2700 before now
God’s Word isn’t trendy.
It’s not here today and gone tomorrow like Spring flowers and everything else that becomes popular.
It’s one of the only things that lives forever.
?- Do you know what is the only other physical thing that lives forever? - people
These are the two things that live forever - God’s word and people.
Every other created thing will burn up.
When the gospel meets a person under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they can be born again.
Let me share with you two tools for sharing God’s Word of the gospel with a person.
I’m focusing on these because we’re told above that people are born again through the living and abiding Word of God.
The first is the Roman’s Road.
* Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
* Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
* Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
* Romans 10:9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
* Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Before we believe something is good news, they need to understand the bad news.
The bad news is that if we’re not reborn, we’re a part of the walking dead.
[Drawing the Gospel on a piece of paper]
In your notes you can see a picture.
There’s a simple way to explain the gospel with the single verses - Romans 6 23.
You could draw out this picture on a napkin or any piece of paper.
And you can use Romans 6:23 as a guide.
You can write out at the top of the page,
* “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This verse describes the bad news and the good news of the gospel.
This calls for the need to memorize this verse.
Stop groaning. I bet you already have it memorized without knowing it.
next on the paper, you’re going to explain where things presently sit.
On the paper, draw two sides of a Chasm with ”GOD” on one side and a person on the other.
This is where all of us are at birth because of our SIN.
I’m tempted to list other passages of scripture that you could share (and I would encourage this)
But the point of this is for you to see how you can do this just knowing Romans 6:23
next we’re moving to the drawback of being separated from God.
Draw “wages of sin” under the person
You might ask the person what a “wage” is - it’s what we earn when we do something.
The wages of our sin is death.
You might explain that SIN is anything that we do, think, or say that falls short of God’s perfect standard.
And because of our SIN, we’re separated from God.
But there’s a BUT!
Next we share what God is offering.
Very different from the WAGES OF SIN, we’re told that there is a FREE GIFT OF GOD.
You might ask the difference between what is given and what’s earned.
This free gift of God that He offers all people is eternal life.
This is unending, fulfilling, purposeful, fits-like-a-glove LIFE
So, God isn’t just taunting people like He’s saying, “see what you could’ve had, you sinner.”
He’s provided a way for us to be redeemed from our debt to sin / ransomed from our slavery.
And it only comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It’s only because of who He is as 100% God and 100% man.
It’s only because of what He did in paying the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross for us.
He took for us the wages/what our sin earned - death
How does a person be born again- move from separated from God to a saving relationship with God?
It’s through believing in Jesus/entrusting themselves to Him for salvation that a person passes from death to life and are saved.
If the person wants to repent of living separated from God in their sin and trust in Christ.
You can encourage them to pray and tell God that.
If the Holy Spirit is at work in them, they will be born again to a new life.
among many different ways this is what it can look like to help a person to be born again.
There may be many ways that can be used to lead people into being a part of the kingdom of heaven
But there’s only one way for them to get there.
And that’s by being born again.
To be born again is to believe the good news.
it’s to be born of the Spirit.
and it’s what people need mos
