Being Born of the Spirit

John 3:1-8

Getting to the Heart of the Conversation

The Doctor’s Visit - You aren’t going to make it to 60 if you don’t turn things around

You don’t want to hear it, but need to - it shatters your false perception, puts you in reality, and shows you what you need to live.

This is what happens in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus

Nicodemus comes to Jesus

We know you are a teacher come from God

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a conservative, religious, devout man, a ruler of the Jews

He came to Jesus as an equal - as if the Pharisees were saying, “We acknowledge there’s something to your teaching, what you’ve done is amazing.” He came to Jesus as a peer, but not as a believer.

Jesus stopped him - he didn’t play the game - but saw straight to Nicodemus’ heart - You must be born again.

On the Holy Spirit- We saw last week the person and work of the Spirit, and we acknowledge it -

You may not want to hear it, but need to - it shatters your false perception, puts you in reality, and shows you what you need to live.

But Jesus’ word confronts us - You must be born again

You Must be born again. The Necessity of Regeneration

The goal is the Kingdom of God - the only way into that kingdom is through Holiness - perfect obedience to God’s command. But the fact of the matter is, we are fallen in sin, dead in our trespasses.

Rom 3:23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Rom 6:23 the wages of sin is death…

Eph 2:1 & 3, you were dead in your trespasses and sins… among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.

Flesh vs. Spirit

That which is flesh is flesh -

The Pharisees claimed to be children of Abraham, heirs of the kingdom, simply by birthright. As a people they had the prophets, the law, the history - their stock was in their flesh and blood claim to Abraham.

Christians still think this way; my parents were Christians, so I must be too… As long as my name is on the roll of the Church, I must be saved…

Rom 8:5-6 Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh… to set the mind on the flesh is death!

When we are in the flesh we are not spiritually minded, we are cut off from all that is spiritual, we are deprived of the Spirit, are by nature and by action set at odds with God.

We care less about holiness and more about happiness; His word seems dull so we make it into TV shows and movies, or only read it in short devotions; worship seems stale and empty so we make it more like a rock concert and TED talk than about drawing near to the Sovereign God.

That which is Spirit is Spirit

Unless you are born of the Holy Spirit you cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God. Nothing in us can come to God. The dead can only stay dead, unless they are brought to life.

The fallacy of a seeker sensitive model for church, becoming like the lost to reach the lost.

Rom 3:10-11 No one is righteous, no one seeks after God… unless God first seeks after him.

There must be a miracle, a restoration of life, a radical change by which the whole person is remade - we call this: regeneration, or being born again.

You Must be Born Again. What is Regeneration?

“Born Again” - generate = give life; re = again

What we don’t mean - “Born-Again” as a religious, conservative, political movement. In the 60’s and 70’s, this was a popular distinction, real Christians were “born again,” must like the mis-used “Evangelical Christian” term today. Every Christian, everyone who repents of their sins and trusts in Christ for their salvation, is Born Again.

Berkhof - Regeneration is that act of God by which the principle of the new life is implanted in man, and the governing disposition of the soul is made holy.

J.C. Ryle - “It is a thorough change of heart, will, and character. It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is a passing from death to life. It is the implanting in our dead hearts a new principle from above.”

“Born From Above” in some translations.

Those who receive Jesus are the children of God, born “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13). The new birth that Jesus is talking about is from above, that is, from God.

“Born by Water and Spirit”

What he isn’t saying

Not referring to physical birth (water) and spiritual birth (spirit)

Not referring to baptism (water) and gifts (spirit)

John is drawing from Ezekiel 36-37

(25) I will wash you and make you clean you from sin (

26) I will take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh,

From dead, cold, lifeless religion to a living faith

(27) I will put my spirit in you - giving life

Chapt 37 - The vision of the valley of dry bones - the wind/spirit came to give life

Regeneration is the Gift of God

Jesus isn’t saying, go out and get reborn -

Nicodemus thought he needed to get back in his mother’s womb - enter the womb a second time.

It is a gift, the work of God within us, calling us to him, bringing us to life, and opening our eyes that we might look to him.

It is by God’s grace.

The new birth, the new creation, the resurrected life—this is the sovereign work of God.

Left to ourselves we would never turn to God, as John 6:44 says: "No man is able to come to Me unless it is given to him of the Father." Regeneration, the new birth, is the result of God's sovereign initiative.

We don't come to Christ to be born again; rather, we are born again in order to come to Christ. When we make a decision to turn from sin and receive Christ, it is because we have already been born again by the Spirit.

Through Christ’s atoning death and resurrection -

He pays the debt, breaks the chains, destroyed the power of sin and death When God opens our eyes to our sin, we look to for a savior, and find our hope in Christ alone. We put our faith, our hope, our trust, in His perfect work, in His faithful promise, in His redeeming love. Through the application of the Holy Spirit

The Spirit unites us to Christ

So that His righteousness would be seen in us, that our lives would be hidden in his, that the mind of Christ would be in us.

Signs of Regeneration

Bad Counsel - if you are asking, don’t worry

Some fear judgment, but not enough to change

Some change outward behavior - but are still dead within

He is like the wind (vs 8), you cannot see Him, but you can see where He’s been - like the snow drifts outside

The Born Again are Broken

The gift of guilt and shame - The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin (John 16:8-10)

I asked the Lord that I might grow…

The Born Again Repent and Believe

Regeneration precedes faith Regeneration produces repentance and faith in us

I am not saved so that I may be born again. I am born again so that I may be saved.

R. C. Sproul

We are not born again by repentance or faith or conversion: we repent and believe because we have been born again.

John Murray

Those Born Again look to Christ

Stop looking to yourself - here’s what I’ve done, who I am… My parents were faithful, my grandpa was religious…

The Spirit creates in us a sincere looking to Christ - alone - for salvation and hope

The Born Again are Alive

Rom 8:11 - If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

A desire to share Christ

A hunger for the Word of God

A joy and delight in worship

A love and harmony with other Christians

Are you Born Again?