Born again

Thank you for coming

Last week we saw how Jesus drives out what does not belong in the temple and in our own lives

Tonight we are going to see how Jesus engages with a person who would have been a scholar and also an incredibly moral person

Seeing that this is not enough to see the kingdom of God and that a person must be born again.

I have a question to start us of with tonight.

What make’s someone a Swifty?

pick two or three students

Give Definition

an enthusiastic, dedicated fan of the pop singer Taylor Swift. [1, 2]

someone is what happened to Jackson about now

So how would someone become a swifty

ask the students?

That’s right they have to posses these things

But it’s hard to define

I think most people define if they are a swifty if they call themselves a swifty

alright i have another question this ones rhetorical.

What Makes someone a Christian?

Is it doing the right things?

Is it like how we defined most people define there being a swifty. Cause they claim to be?

Now we can have all the theories we want, but let’s turn to scripture,

We will see that to be a Christians means to be born again

We will see what it means to be born again, who needs to be born again, and how someone is born again

So if you have your scripture flip to John 3:1-21

John 3:1–21 ESV

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 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?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 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. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

pray in

What does it mean to be born again?

Ok as a reminder We will see what it means to be born again, who needs to be born again, and how someone is born again

Background

Last week we ended seeing that there were some people who “believed” Jesus

Jesus though did not believe in them

So we see this guy who is confused by this so he comes to talk to Jesus

Nicodemus, we’ll learn more about him later

Jesus knowing that he is confused tells him in John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

Ok kingdom of God is when God is with his people, this is what we think of when Christians think of heaven

ok a good thing i want to go to heaven

Ok this leads us to the first question

What does it mean to be born again?

Are you a little confused by this wording

so is Nicodemus, if you look at verse 4

I’ll help you out this is the same thing as asking what makes someone a christian

We often think two things in our culture what makes some a christian

Being a good person or claiming to be a christian

Like how we said that to be a swift was to listen to enough of her music, or on the other hand to claim that you are a swift

But that’s not the context here, why

because what is the anology that Jesus is using to call someone a christian

Being Born

A Child is not born by what they do or what they believe about themself

They are born because of the pain the mother goes through

Christ is saying what makes some born again is if he calls them born again

Jesus is who defines who is born again or a Christian

But how does he do this

Look at John 3:5 “Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Well what dos it mean by water

Well this is an allsuion to the sprirt being cleasing in exekial 36

What does it mean by Spirirt, it means that the HOly Spirit dweel in you

To be born again means that a person has been indwelled by the Holy Spirit

Who gives eternal life

This means when you are born again, you are with God

You see the kingdom of God as v.3 says

Imagine with me a place with no more tears,

of peace

fullfillment

that’s the kingdom of God

But what Nicodemous would have thought of as in the future

Jesus is saying it is hear and now

And when we do what we talked about last week

we expeince this

not avoiding sufering but we get a foretast of heaven

Thats why in Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

now i bet you have thought of the fruits of the Spirit as things you have to do

But that’s not the point

it’s what you will experince when the Spirit is in you

That’s what the kingom of heaven is like

That;s what those who are born will experince here and now,

and fulling when Christ returns

So we know what it means to be born again to be a Christian, someone who is indwelled by the Holy Spirit thanks to Chirst work in suffering.

So this leads us to our next question

Who needs to be born again?

So at this point the concept of the Kingdom of God sounds great right

Dweling with God in kindness goodness.

But is this just for some people

People who are legalist?

People who are doing the right thing

who needs to be born again

Let’s look at the person of Niodemus and he will give us a hint

So who is NIcodemus

A teacher

he was a phrasies

So does that mean he is legealist

no good rotten

NOo i don’t think so

Becasue he i actualy realy humble in this passage and wise

Jesus was coming from noware did not raise through the sytem but yet Nicodemus calls him Rabbi Which means teacher

So Nicodemous is both a wise man who knwos scripture and is humble

Now this is important because a lot of people think yyou either needs to be a good person

Or no everthing about the Bible to get to hevean

That’s not the case though, because Nicodemous was both of these things

and he still needed to be born again

Nicodemous is an example of the best of the best and he still is not enough

There is no one who is the right caadenit to be born again

THis tell’s us that hey, your church attendacne

being the good kid

Won’t make you ready to be born again

But also this mean that if it’s not bassed on us it’s open to everyone

Let’s see with John 3:16 ““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 Whole world.

Why the whole world, because all have sinned romans 3:23

We are all sick with sin

dying with sin

The kid with the perfect church attendance, who does not have the spirit

the Kid who is party their life away

They are sick with the posion that will kill them, and seperate them from God for eturnity

How do we know this look at John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,”

so this is a illusion to Numbers 21

God sends snakes as an act of justice to punish the rebellious Israelites who reblled

And they are dying

That’s what sin does it’s like being bit by a snake that effects you so much you cna’t even move

your only hope is someone else come for you

or be born again

so the obivous question is

How someone is born again

So how were the Israelites saved from the sankes

well all they had to do was God had moves craft a brozne serpent and putt it on a staff

And it they cased there eyes to it

They would be healed

nothing but that

No hudge task

No list

Just look

So what is Jesus saying here

All those who look on the son of man will be saved

Who is the son of man

Jesus

How was he lifted up on the cross

He was crucifed for your sin

for the poision in your vains

He died

for you

his blood fell

or you

Becasue we had no hope without him

Like a child we don’t choose to be born it is Chirst who does

But what can we do

Main point: We can look to Jesus to be born again

We can not do enough good things

We can not bring the Spitit ourselves

But we can look to Jesus

What does that mean

COnfessing our sin

Rezlize that we have the posion in our vains and it is killing us, and it’s are fault

and then beilving that Christ did bear our sin on the cross

and that he he was raised on the thrid say,lifted up to the right hand of God

Take aways: Know that Jesus is who cases us to be born again and repent for when you tired to get into the kingdom of God on your own

Guy’s so many times we want to move past the gospel but we must grasp this

Jesus is the one who saves us by his work

not by our work

Even for those of us who have the Spirit

we start to live like we are paying God back

As though if we would be a good enough person

We won’t need him any more

That is a wicked thougt

Because we have been saved by grace and Christ payed a debt we could never

We belong to him

As children

And we seek to love our heveny father

and we have the Spirit in us to do it

love joy peace patince kindess, all the fruit

But if you have never been obidence even for just a little bit

Not moved by the love of Christ

But because you are trying to get to heven because of who you are

because you have deemed yourself good enough

Even if you are the best person

Always doing the “right thing”

Your lost

You are not born again

The true gospel both humbles us that we know we could never be enough

Yet gives us confidence because we know our idenity is are in Christ

IF you don’t know this and thought that you had to be a good person or know alot of the Bible

come talk to one of your leaders

Look to Jesus

So we say to be born again met that the Holy Spirit dwell in you

We saw that everyone needs to be born again, no matter how good you are, meaning that everyone has the option

But How we are saved is not of our own works, But of Christ

So we must look to him

At the first moment of faith

At our final breath

Our hope to enter the kingdom of God is only in him and what he did on the cross being liftyed up so we could look to him

that we should not persish but have ever lasting life

Pray out