https://www.bible.com/events/49311109
Church of the Nazarene – East Rock
For One Part 4 East Rock
You must be born again…
Welcome to our teaching series called “For One”.
Throughout this teaching series we are seeking to know and understand the power of Jesus’ one at a time pursuit of people. We believe that Jesus came to save the whole word, and that through his life, death, and resurrection, he has made the pathway to salvation and eternal life open to us.
Jesus is for everyone.
During his earthly ministry, many times we see Jesus fulfilling this worldwide redemption mission, one person at a time.
Jesus is for one.
So, what would it look like for you and I to adopt that same model for our lives? So many times, our focus is on our country or our community, and that’s not a bad thing. But what would it look like for us to be for one, like Jesus was?
That’s what Jesus did, and it transformed the lives of many people in the gospels.
Today as we continue in part 4 our teaching series, we are going to look at the story of Nicodemus. One of the most well known one-on-one conversations in the bible.
John 3:1-2
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
We are introduced to Nicodemus as a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council.
The Pharisee’s were an elite group of people who had sworn to uphold all of the law and the extra oral traditions that went with it. They separated themselves from most normal life so they could be perfectly in line with every letter of the law.
The Jewish Ruling Council was also known as the Sanhedrin. This was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jewish people. It was like the supreme court of the Jews. And Nicodemus is there.
He is a portrait of the best of the best in the Jewish mind, and he is coming to ask Jesus some questions.
John 3:3-4
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
“Like for real, how is someone supposed to be born a second time as an adult?” That’s basically Nicodemus’s question back to Jesus. One of the most prestigious religious leaders in all of Israel isn’t getting it.
But Jesus is clear- VERY truly I tell you- he adds extra emphasis- No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
What Jesus is pointing to is an altogether different kind of birth, not from our mothers, but from above, the spiritual realm
This idea of again can literally mean a second time, or it can also mean from above. Here it seems to be referring to both. To see the kingdom of God, something new and from another source, must be born, must come alive inside of us.
John 3:5-8
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are 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.”
Much scholarly debate exists trying to tease out what exactly water and spirit means, but there is a clear reference in the Old Testament that seems like the clearest connection.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
God was describing what the new work of Messiah would be like.
It would be a washing a cleansing from sin. He would put a new spirit within his people, and they would be made new, having a new heart. With all this NEW, it’s like being born all over again. Completely different.
Fast forward to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus says, if you don’t have that cleansing from sin and spiritual birth from the Lord- you aren’t going to be in the kingdom of God. You won’t see it or participate in it.
John 3:9-15
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, 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 wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
How much Nicodemus left understanding that night, we may never know. For Jesus, this born-again idea was a basic understanding that he felt was easy to see in the scriptures. But yet, Nicodemus had missed it, he was still confused.
In one more attempt to help Nicodemus, Jesus likens his work to the story of Numbers 21 where the people are sinning by grumbling against God. In response the Lord sends venomous snakes among the people, causing many people to die. The cure for them was that they would look to Moses and this bronze serpent being lifted on a pole. It was a look of faith.
Jesus tells Nicodemus, that in the same way, when He, Jesus, is lifted up on the cross, all those who look to him in faith will be saved. Those who are experiencing the sting and bite of sin, those dying in sin, if they will look to HIM, will experience the new birth and have eternal life in Christ.
This is really the answer to Nicodemus’ question: How can these things be? How can this new birth happen?
Jesus says: to be born again, you must believe in the work of Christ. Place your faith in his death and resurrection and receive the purity and eternal life in the spirit. Believe that you need cleansing from sin and a new spirit within. As you look to Christ in faith, that’s how these things can happen.
So, have you been born again?
Have you experienced the cleansing from sin, the freedom from it’s penalty. Have you received the new life of Christ? Have you received a new heart? Do you have the Spirit of God within you?
Friends, this is not a religious question.
Nicodemus was the most religious person any of us would have known. He followed all the rules, he prayed multiple times per day, he gave of his money, he served the church, everything, down to the letter. Perfect. Jesus looks right at him and says: You need to be born again.
Entrance into his kingdom is not an achievement of man, no, its step of faith. It’s by God’s grace through faith in the person and work of Christ..
Will you place your faith in the person of Christ Jesus? Will you look to him for cleansing from your sin, and the source of eternal life in you?
That’s being born again. And today friends, if you place your faith in Jesus, you confess to him that you are a sinner, ask for his forgiveness, and invite him to come into your heart, to make you alive- you too can experience this new birth.
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