The Family of God
Maybe I won’t call for a show of hands, but how many of us are totally proud of our families? I know we love them and all that.
But there is that cousin who laughs like a horse, or that uncle who tells the same story again and again, at the same braai. Or maybe we’re embarrassed by that auntie who always fills her tissue with cake while no one is looking and hides it in her pocket.
I love my family, but I remember when I was dating Sam, the day came to introduce her to the Taylors, and I wished I could take her to another family rather.
Have you ever dreamt how your life would be if you were born into a different family?
Imagine being born to Bill Gates.
Imagine if your dad was Mahatma Gandhi
Then imagine if your dad was Ozzy Osbourne, Saddam Hussein, or Hitler.
I think the family you are born into creates the platform from which you will live your life.
Some years ago a popular argument was going around, that being born in a garage doesn’t make you a car, or being born in a McDonalds doesn’t make you a hamburger. So being born to Christian parents doesn’t make you a Christian.
But the argument is critically flawed, because unless you are applying for a passport, it doesn’t matter where you are born. But it makes a whole lot of difference to whom you were born.
If your mom and your dad are both horses, you will be a horse.
If you parents were Boarder Collies, you would be a boarder collie.
If your parents were parakeets, you would be a parakeet.
Geneticists go further to say if your parents carry certain genes, those genes will determine a lot of things about you. What geneticists are discovering now is that even some disorders like bi-polar are genetically transferred from parents to children.
Sociologists today speak of repetitive cycles in families. Children born and raised in poverty will have to break the cycle if they are to live lives better than their parents.
Children of alcoholic parents more often than not marry alcoholics.
But when a theologian says the children of Christian parents are predisposed to living lives of faith in God, many people say “No, that can’t be true.”
John tells us that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, under cover of darkness.
To understand why John has told us it was at night, we need to tie it to v 19 Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil
Nicodemus was a powerful Pharisee who also served on the Jewish Ruling Council.
If you were born in Jesus’ day, Nicodemus would have seemed like a good father. He wore all the flowing robes, he would have prayed on the street corners and in the Temple. He would have memorised the Law and Scripture.
And yet Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because his heart was full of darkness.
Nicodemus dressed like a thoroughbred, but underneath all the clothes he was a mule.
Nicodemus probably did all his religious rituals, and still ended the day unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
And then he saw this wondering peasant rabbi who performed miracles, and Nicodemus yearned for what Jesus had.
But Nicodemus was so chained by his religion; he couldn’t approach Jesus by day, so he comes to Him at night.
He was so afraid someone might see him, this mighty Pharisee, coming to Jesus.
Nicodemus wore all the right robes, but they were just to hide from the world the emptiness he felt inside.
How many of us wear all the right robes when the world is looking at us, when our family are watching or when we’re around other Christians.
But underneath it all we feel like a bag of bones. We feel like we’ve put on the lights outside, but on the inside we live in darkness.
I spoke to someone the other day who is so busy being who everyone wants him to be, he can never be himself.
When I pray for people I often get the sense that their lives are like a house full of rooms. Some of those rooms are pretty and welcoming.
But then some rooms are boarded shut and filled with dust and despair. But they keep the door securely locked so no light ever gets in.
Maybe like Nicodemus, we hide in the dark all out fears and anger and hatred and unforgiveness. We hide our low self-esteem and memories of being taken advantage of. We keep it locked away and let sleeping dogs lie.
Because what would people think if we were real?
But what if God dreams for us that we would be whole. Jesus didn’t die so we can live in denial. He died so that we can walk in the light.
But sometimes we want to curl up into the foetal position and hide.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No-one can SEE the kingdom of God unless he is born from above”.
Jesus was saying to Nicodemus who came with a heart full of darkness, “You have to be born from above, you must be born to new parents”.
Nicodemus had been the best Pharisee he could be, but that could never be good enough, because his spiritual ancestry was flawed.
He needed to break the cycle of spiritual poverty he had inherited from his spiritual parents.
He couldn’t learn some new skill or add some new religious discipline, the whole thing was corrupted and the only way forward was to be born again, born from above.
Jesus uses the analogy of birth for some very good reasons.
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I don’t remember much about my birth, I was very young, but I have been told I was in no hurry to come into the light, I was quite happy to remain in darkness.
My mother was the opposite, long before I was due, she would have been quite happy to be rid of the bump.
But neither of us had control over the date nor the hour of my birth.
John says “the wind blows where it pleases”.
Being born again is an act of God and not of human will. When we are born again, it is not because we choose to be born again, it is because God has called us and drawn us to himself.
Many of us came into the kingdom of light painfully kicking and screaming.
As Christians we can be midwives to the birth of others, but the person about to be born again is born of the Spirit of God.
The second thing I have been told about my birth, and this may shock you, but I was born naked.
I was there for the birth of both my children. Dylan was born in a hospital and Lauren was born at home as a water birth. But both of them were also born naked.
When we are born again, born from above, we are born naked before God. Everything we used to hide under our robes is exposed to our heavenly father. Every nook and cranny is revealed.
When we are born again, we leave the darkness and come out into the light and everything is exposed. In fact, people who continuously do things in darkness show by their actions that they are not children of the light.
Imagine being made brand new and all those secrets you have built up in your lifetime, all those rooms in your life which you keep locked away, and imagine the lights of God just flooding in there and healing you.
The third thing about babies is that they are born powerless.
When a baby is born, they are fully reliant on others for everything.
When we are born from above, we realise we are fully reliant on God our Father, the Holy Spirit our Mother and Jesus our brother to meet our every need.
We learn to trust God, because every meal we eat is provided by God who owns the earth and everything in it. The house we live in and the car we drive in and the sun that shines and the rain that falls are all provided by our Father.
God is the source of all we need, but God also washes away the mess we make and makes us brand new a few times a day.
Now here is the most amazing thing about being born from above. We are born into a family better than that family we always wish we had.
Our father knows everything, sees everything, can fix everything, and understands everything. Our father is perfect in his love, perfect in His discipline. Our Father is always available to us. Our father knows us inside and out, He knows our every need, He knows what makes us sad, or happy.
And there is nothing better than being the child of the inventor and owner of the entire universe.
In our new family we are all born of equal status, the only one of higher status is the first born of our Father, Jesus.
Conclusion
I think all too often, we are born again because we say a little prayer, or respond to an alter call, but we never experience being spiritual babies who start from scratch. And because we never start from scratch, we never grow and develop properly.
We are born again but we don’t rid ourselves of our old ways when we were children of darkness.
We still do everything like the person we used to be before Jesus brought us into the light. We still want the dark little corners of our world to hide from God. John says whoever lives by the truth comes into the light.
We need to comprehend that when we are born from above, we are absolutely new creations, the old things we did and said and carried around like a ton of rocks have passed away and we are starting over from day one. It is like God has rewritten our genetic code and made us His children.
Like newborn babies, we need to be taught by our heavenly Father, Mother and Brother everything we need to know about living as a child of the king.
When we are born again, Father God takes us in his hands, and says, “I love you”.
Last week we nailed a bag of money to the cross, reminding us how Judas sold Jesus.
On this the second Sunday of Lent, maybe as I hang some material symbolising the robe that Jesus wore to the cross, which was taken and cast lots for by the Roman soldiers, we can think of the “robes” we wear that hide our secrets, the lies we tell that keep us enslaved to darkness.
And maybe this week we can focus on stripping away those things that hide us from God. Even if you can’t be nakedly honest with any other person, as children of the Father, May I encourage you to share your innermost life with Him.