Born Anew
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Born Anew
Sermon 3
Prayer: “Lord, your word says that you will give us a new heart. It says that you will give us a heart of flesh and put a new spirit in us. We want that, Lord. Take our old heart of stone and throw it away. Replace it with a heart of self-giving love that looks like yours. Amen.”
Scripture: John 3:1-17, Numbers 21:8-9, Colossians 1:21-22, Ezekiel 36:26-27
(All scripture is taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted)
Introduction
Bottle of Seltzer/Carbonated water - Shaken experience
Hello church! I’m so glad to be with you as we continue in our series Letting Go. Today, I have this bottle of carbonated water with me. I want to use this bottle as an illustration of the incredible love God has for every one of us. What happens if I do this? [SHAKE BOTTLE] What’s going on inside the bottle? [Tremendous pressure building]. Now, what happens when I twist off the cap like this? [Pretend like you’re about to twist off the cap, but stop short…what are people’s reactions?]
Okay, I’m not going to actually remove the cap, but what if I did? What would happen? It would’ve sprayed everywhere! Everything up here around me would’ve been wet. It would be messy!
the carbonated water would’ve come out with tremendous force.
God’s love is just like that.
His love , just like the pressurized water from this bottle.
He wants His love to fill us so much that it just overflows from us. For all eternity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have existed in a community of self-giving love.
There is no fear or insecurity in their communion because they are three in one ...ONE God.
...and He wants to share this love with us.
So God, who is a Creator, created the universe.
God’s creation reflects this incredible love!
His love is so great that he has to share his life and love with all of creation.
...just like if I were to take off this cap. Something’s gonna happen. When God shares His love...something incredible HAS to happen.
So, the next time you open a bottle and it accidentally sprays everywhere, remember that’s how much God love for you and His creation.
Today we’re going to look at a story from the Gospel of John. A Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and they have a very interesting conversation.
SLIDE
Read John 3:1-17
Now there was a man of the Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to him at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one is able to perform these signs that you are performing unless God were with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from above, he is not able to see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is an old man? He is not able to enter into his mother’s womb for the second time and be born, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born of water and spirit, he is not able to enter into the kingdom of God.
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘It is necessary for you to be born from above.’
The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things?
Truly, truly I say to you, we speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony!
If I tell you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, thus it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world in order that he should judge the world, but in order that the world should be saved through him.
Main Teaching
Nicodemus comes possibly in secret. Maybe afraid of being seen by others. Maybe.
But, he definitely wanted to meet Jesus in person. Sincere...curious...being drawn to Him. All probably.
Usually we read the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus in an awkward answer to a question. This seems much different.
Some observations:
A. In Christ we are born “anew”
Nicodemus knew that Jesus was distinctive and unique. He confesses to Jesus, “No one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him” (3:2).
Jesus knows now Nicodemus recognizes Him different...and responded, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above, anew, again....” (3:3). ...a second time.
“How can someone be born when they are old? (3:4).
Jesus said, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (3:5).
Baptism is a picture of this. Have you ever thought about that? It is a picture of old life buried...new life in Jesus.
In baptism we are buried with Christ and born anew. We are united with Christ in his death and raised from the water with him in His resurrection. It’s an awesome picture!
It’s a picture of our new identity. God’s child...IN CHRIST
After baptism our focus locks onto the crucified and resurrected Christ who now dwells in us by the Holy Spirit!
Our life, as a follower/disciple of jesus, starts to look like the life of Jesus: we are daily crucified as we pick up our cross and follow him, but we are also daily resurrected with life, love, joy, and peace — because we are now receiving that love...overflowing from God.
When this happens we have “entered the kingdom of God” that Jesus speaks about! (3:5).
Wow! And that begins now, in this part of life.
Nicodemus simply responds, “How can this be?” (3:9). Dude I can’t make sense of this! This is hard to think about!
B. God loves this God-hating world
It’s clear that Nicodemus did not understand being “born again” or being “born anew” like we do today. We have the benefit of 2,000 years of church history and Biblical studies to use as hindsight, not to mention the Holy Spirit.
He asks a good question! How can it be that we are born anew? Like, not doctrinally, but in reality?
How can I experience this renewal in my life, practically today? Isn’t that a great question?
Here’s how Jesus helps Nicodemus begin to think about this... “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” (3:14-15).
Jesus is referencing a story in the book of Numbers which Nicodemus would’ve been familiar with. God had sent snakes as a response to the Israelites rejection of Him. To remedy this, Numbers 21:8-9 says, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”
Jesus is saying this is the first step to experiencing this renewal in your life, being born anew.
The first step towards a total transformation.
Anyone who looks to Christ on the cross, receives life. (born again from above born new)
SLIDE
Later, Jesus would say
The Greek word here is “helkysō” which literally means “to drag” or “to pull”!
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
The Greek word here is “helkysō” which literally means “to drag” or “to pull”!
John, the writer of the gospel, continues, “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” (3:16).
Now we come back to where we started. Do you remember my bottle of soda and how God’s love is like that water, ready to splash out everywhere because it’s meant to be shared?
God loves the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to endure the cross.
And this is even more mind-blowing: God loves us even when we hate him back.
God loves this world, this God-hating world.
He doesn’t love only those who love him back, God loves absolutely everyone. Jesus came and died for absolutely everyone so everyone has the chance at new life through Jesus.
SLIDES
Our nature is quite different. We are the ones who considered God our enemy. Colossians 1:21-22
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
Part of being “born anew” is seeing our Father with brand-new eyes for who he truly is: Love. That last verse said that our actions showed us to be enemies...and even in that Jesus said...I love you. Please believe in what I’ve done for you.
Jesus loves this world who hates Him. Jesus was lifted up for it.
And he will drag “all people” to himself.
A huge way we partner with God in this mission is to love our own enemies.
In fact, if we are Christlike, we will love our enemies and pray for them. Why? Because God continued to love us, even when we hated him and didn’t understand him.
Everyone we meet, viewed as an enemy or not, is someone to be loved, to be served, to be blessed, and to be prayed for. One day they might be drawn to Jesus too. Then we’ll be brothers and sisters with them in God’s family/Kingdom!
SLIDES
Also, once we are born anew, we receive a new heart! God rewires our internal hardware! Ezekiel 36:26-27
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.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
This is an Old Testament prophecy about God’s New Covenant started with Jesus’s death and resurrection. Isn’t this amazing?
(Sounds like Jesus talking about being born anew, doesn’t it?). Our new heart is like God’s heart, full of self-giving love for those around us, including those who regard us as their enemy.
Why does God love this God-hating world?
C. Jesus came to save the world, not condemn it
And finally, the gospel writer drops this zinger in the conclusion of our text today: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him” (3:17).
Maybe this is “the something” distinctive and unique that Nicodemus saw in Jesus.
Nicodemus was part of the Pharisees and we know that the Pharisees vibe was more condemning than loving.
And because of that, they had it backwards from God, and they modeled to people an angry God who demanded you follow the rules.
Jesus gave off a completely different vibe, and John the gospel writer nails it right here.
Jesus was the opposite of the Pharisees.
Jesus demonstrated a God who was completely upside down from their understanding. God does not condemn the world, but wants to save the world through Jesus.
Big shift right? From what the Pharisees were teaching...
The world, through sin is already judged...broken in a way. We’re sinners. We sin. We want to make ourselves right...fix ourselves...make our own identity.
God’s mission is to save and make things new.
God did not send Jesus into this world to condemn us but to save us.
The Greek word for save here is “sozo” which means to heal, to restore, or to make whole.
Jesus comes to “save” us today, in this life, to heal us, restore us, and make us whole...to start that process in the here and now.
That’s the kind of salvation the world needs, isn’t it? This world needs to be healed. It needs to be restored. It needs to be made whole again. And this is why Jesus came.
Conclusion
Some questions for consideration:
1. Have you been born new? If not, would you like to be?
2. Have you been baptized? If not, would you like to be?
3. Do you see God as angry and condemning? Or do you see him as loving and saving?
God is just...but He also invites you to be saved....reborn...life again with Him through Jesus.
You might not be able to answer these questions today, but I hope that over the next few weeks you’d take some time to consider being born anew. I hope you’d take some time to let go of the sin and shame that may be holding you back.
SLIDE
So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
We had some people here yesterday who are beginning to experience that different sense of freedom....
David and Barb Peters....PICTURE
Main idea: Those who are “born anew” lock their focus onto the crucified and resurrected Christ who now dwells in us by the Holy Spirit.
Our life starts to look like the life of Jesus: we are daily crucified as we pick up our cross and follow him, but we are also daily resurrected with life, love, joy, and peace. We are immersed (“baptized”) into the life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When this happens we have “entered the kingdom of God” that Jesus speaks about.
(Pastor - This series ends on Easter Sunday, which could be a great time to perform water baptisms. If that’s something you plan on doing, announce it here, and invite people to pray over baptism, commitment, etc…)
Pray Together
