Born Again

You Must Be Born Again

Nicodemus was a Pharisee that visited Jesus by night. There are many reasons theologians present as to why it was night. I don’t believe the timing is as important as the reason. We see an indication based on Nicodemus statement to Jesus . “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” It is obvious that the Pharisees witnessed the miracles Jesus was doing in Jerusalem. Nicodemus greets him as rabbi and uses the plural word “we”. So either he has been sent or is just inquiring for himself we do not know. What we do know is they want to know who Jesus is and what He is about.

Jesus blows Nicodemus away with His statement “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus was unraveling the belief of the pharisees. They believed outward adherence to the law was the highest level of religion. They believed that it was the only way you can get to heaven. Jesus just told Nicodemus that a person must be born again. The Greek word for again Jesus uses is anothen which means “from above”.

Jesus just told Nicodemus that salvation does not come from what you do here on earth, it comes from God above. Salvation always begins with God.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph 2:8-9

God draws us and God saves us. Nicodemus believed that you could save yourself by observing the law. Jesus corrected his belief by saying that he must be born from above in order to be saved.

There is only one way a person can be saved.

Most people in the around here would agree with this, but I find many do not live by this. What I mean by this is that people view their salvation based on how good they are. As long as they are a good person and have good morals then they believe that God will let them into heaven.

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Isaiah 46:6

Isaiah says that our good deeds are like a filthy garment. Why would he say this? Because if we are depending on ourselves for salvation we will fall woefully short. Our iniquities are so great that we don’t even recognize many of them. Besides all you have to do is break one law and you are disqualified from salvation. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. James 2:10

God’s mark for salvation is perfection. Anything less than perfect disqualifies you from salvation on your own. That is why we must be born from above.

Some may say that their are many ways that a person can be saved. As long as they are sincere in what they believe then they can get to God. NOPE! Jesus says the only way is to be born from above. It is not what you believe about God it is what God does in you that leads to salvation.

You Must Be Born of the Water and Spirit

Nicodemus obviously was confused at Jesus statement. He believed Jesus was talking about physical birth. Jesus was referring to spiritual birth. A person must be born spiritually in order to know God. He says that a person must be born of water and Spirit. Ezekiel foreshadowed this in his prophecy:

24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 46:24-27

I see four things that the Holy Spirit does at salvation.

Cleanses us from all our filthiness.

Give us a new heart and Spirit.

Remove our heart of stone

Cause us to walk in His statutes.

This is what it means to be born of the water and Spirit. He cleanses us from our sin. He removes the penalty, guilt, and shame that is associated with our sin. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

The Holy Spirit removes the filthiness of sin from our lives.

Many of us growing up in the south played out side most of the day. You would run, ride bikes, play sports, and do all kinds of things. By the end of the day you were sweaty, smelly, and dirty. Your parents probably made you go take a bath or shower. When you got out of the shower you were clean. You no longer were sweaty, smelly and dirty. This is what the Holy spirit does to our soul. It cleans it!

The Holy Spirit gives us a new heart and Spirit.

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and [d]He has [e]committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:17-19

The Holy Spirit radically changes our personhood. The old person that we were is replaced by the new person God intends us to be. Before coming to know Christ was all about what made you happy and brought you pleasure. We would do whatever was necessary to make sure that we were satisfied no matter if it was wrong or if it affected anyone else. When they Holy Spirit changes you, you no longer live for yourself, but for God and others.

The Holy Spirit removes our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh

The heart of stone is insensitive to God. It does not recognize God. That is why unbelievers do not have the conviction of the Holy Spirit when they sin. They may have an uneasy conscious, but that is not the same as the conviction of the Holy Spirit. A person with a heart of stone has no desire to be godly. They are perfectly content living in unrighteousness.

A heart of flesh is sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when convicted will lead to repentance. Repentance leads to change. Change leads to godliness. Only when God removes our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh can we walk in righteousness.

The Holy Spirit causes us to walk in His statutes.

Not only does the Holy Spirit convict us of sin, He also convicts us of righteousness.

5 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin [j]resulting in death, or of obedience [k]resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that [l]though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Rom. 6:15-18

When you receive the Holy Spirit you have a desire to be righteous. You want to walk in the statutes of God instead of the darkness of the world. You have become a slave to righteousness.

The Spirit Brings Change

Paul gives the illustration of the spirit using wind. He points out that no one knows where the wind comes from or where it is going. He also mentions that you cannot see the wind, but you can see the evidence of the wind.

This holds true for the believer. No one sees the Holy Spirit enter into a person, but they do see the change that the Holy Spirit brings into a person’s life.

John Newton Story

During the voyage home, the ship was caught in a horrendous storm off the coast of Ireland and almost sank. Newton prayed to God and the cargo miraculously shifted to fill a hole in the ship’s hull and the vessel drifted to safety. Newton took this as a sign from the Almighty and marked it as his conversion to Christianity. He did not radically change his ways at once, his total reformation was more gradual. "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterward,” he later wrote. He did begin reading the Bible at this point and began to view his captives with a more sympathetic view.

It was not until 1788, 34 years after leaving it that he renounced his former slaving profession by publishing a blazing pamphlet called “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade.” The tract described the horrific conditions on the ships and Newton apologized for making a public statement so many years after participating in the trade: “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” The pamphlet was so popular it was reprinted several times and sent to every member of Parliament. Under the leadership of MP William Wilberforce, the English civil government outlawed slavery in Great Britain in 1807 and Newton lived to see it, dying in December of that year. The passage of the Slave Trade Act is depicted in the 2006 film, also called Amazing Grace, starring Albert Finney as Newton and Ioan Gruffud as Wilberforce.

📷BY DAVID SHEWARD📷

As you can see the Holy Spirit radically changed John Newton over a period of time. This is what the Holy Spirit does in our lives as well. I am sure you can see as well as others that you are not the same person you were before coming to Christ.

Jesus Is God’s Son, You Must Believe!

Nicodemus still does not understand the concept of being born again. He asks, “How can this be?” Jesus shoots straight with him and says as a teacher of the law he should know about being born again, but he doesn’t.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that He is testifying by what He knows and has seen. He further says that He has descended from heaven and been with the Father. His testimony is credible because He has been with the Father and knows the Father’s plan.

Jesus finally tells Nicodemus something He can understand. He tells him about the bronze serpent Moses set up for the people to be healed. Nicodemus would be familiar with this story. It is one where the Israelites were complaining to God about their conditions and this is what happened

6 The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “[e]Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Numbers 21:4-9

Just as the Israelites had sinned against God, He sent serpents to kill them for their sin. He however gave them a way to be healed. If they were willing to put their faith in promise of God’s healing by looking upon the bronze serpent they would be saved.

Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross. He died for our sins. We must look to Him for our healing and salvation. Are you sin sick this morning? Are you tired of living the way you are living? do you want to change? Look to Jesus and He will save you!