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Opening Prayer

Recap

Nicodemus Responds

Nicodemus wants to know how this happens.

What must man do to make this occur?

Jesus says its a sovereign act of the Spirit of God.

No one controls the wind.

No one sees the wind.

No one can lasso the wind or call it down to do their bidding.

The only thing we can do is feel the wind.

See what the wind moves to know its come upon us.

Must Be Born from Above

Many people have risen to high possibilities:

mental and moral:

through self-development

self-improvement

self-restraint

submission to a grand idea

Many have refined themselves, even reformed themselves.

But to see the Kingdom of Heaven...

To become a citizen of the New Covenant.

To be a new creation.

To enter the Kingdom of God.

To understand with gladness the absolute, sovereign rule of God.

To have a heart that yields to God being able to be God...

Rather than our image of who we want Him to be.

To submit one’s heart, mind, & life to God as your Divine King.

To proclaim to the world the Kingship of God...

Not only to believe such truths...

But to even be able to perceive such truths...

One must, first, be born from above.

There must be a kinship of Spirit to see the Kingdom of God.

And, so that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

This is a struggle to Nicodemus, a great Teacher of Israel.

He can understand how a man might “become OTHER”...

And, so then “be OTHER”.

What blew Nicodemus’ mind...

And, I propose all minds...

Is how someone must first “be other” in order to then “become other”...

Nicodemus could understand the progress of self-reforming so that the end result would be to be a different person than they used to be.

But, he could not understand how someone was to be the other before the becoming.

The end result before the progress.

Paul fought this understanding in Corinth...

1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

The progression allows for boasting

Let me ask you something...

If you’re in church as a teenager and you’re sitting next to a friend...

And the gospel gets a hold of you…

You suddenly believe the gospel and suddenly see the beauty of Christ and His gospel...

But your friend does not...

Your friend eventually walks away from Christ and His church, never to come back.

What makes you differ from your friend?

Is it because your smarter?

Are you able to boast over your friend?

Who makes you differ?

Who gets the glory for that?

The gospel in Ephesians 2 says it is by grace you have been saved and this is not your own doing...

It is the gift of God, not a results of works...

so that no one may boast.

If justifying faith is conjured up by people who are dead in their trespasses and sins...

Then it is a work performed by them...

And, they would have every right to boast.

But, the NT teaches that salvation is a display of the power of God.

Let me give you one of the most concise biblical examples of the new birth being effected upon a person by the Spirit of God...

Acts 16:14 (NASB95)

14 A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

Which is a singular event of what happened in mass in...

Acts 13:48 (ESV)

48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

The Apostle Paul’s conversion is similarly a sovereign act of God, the Holy Spirit...

Effecting the New Covenant promises upon a person to give them a new heart...

Through and because of...justifying faith can spring up from...

And lay hold of Jesus Christ.