5.3.38 8.15.2021 Regeneration (God's Work)

Start

Entice: It can be, to generalize, risky to generalize. In preaching it is sometimes necessary. The alternative? 8 hour sermons with dinner breaks. So, let me generalize. Religion in the ancient world had different assumptions than what we assume for "religion." Paganism was both evolving and devolving at the same time. Becoming further estranged from clear understanding of the Creator God whilst at the same time becoming more complicated and "sophisticated."

The real difference between the religious approach humans create and that which God reveals in scripture is this.

Paganism is about changing God.

Christianity is about changing "me",

"us",

"we".

The Bible says that humanity has fallen into a sinful state which separates us from our loving creator. Human religion says that we need to placate a capricious, sometimes tyrannical God.

Engage: So this is The question: "Who needs changing?" Whose mind? Whose behavior? Whose life?

That is the central question. The next step on our quest to understand our faith better by focusing on a theological core is understanding regeneration which is God's transformative work in our lives. We are redeemed, restored, reunited with Him. We are sanctified in the image of His Son. We are discipled into maturing obedience. All of these ideas presume a change within us that only God can work.

Expand: In the OT there are hints that this needed transformation was possible and coming.

Psalm 51:10 ESV

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Ezekiel 11:19–20 ESV

19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

These transformations are clearly something that only God can do. The story of the New Testament is the story of God realizing that promise to change us, reclaim us for His own, and restore fellowship with Him.

This is realized through the empowering work of Christ.

Romans 6:3–4 (ESV)

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Explore:

You must be born again and it's a good idea to understand exactly what that means.

Explain: There are surely more but today we will discuss four essential characteristics of our new birth.

It is Spiritual.

John 3:1–8 ESV

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 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.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 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?” 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. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.”

Romans 8:9–11 ESV

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.

It is Personal

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

It is Communal

…Not just you, not just me…

WE

1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:22–23 (ESV)

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

1 John 3:1 (ESV)

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

We. Us. Children. Brotherly. The new birth is a shared birth. It is essential for all who wish to come into fellowship with God.

Which brings us to a final characteristic of our common birth…

It is Exceptional

It changes our line of descent and the arc of our future. In a sense it obliterates all other fleshly distinctions.

Galatians 3:27–29 ESV

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Shut Down:

This morning I have made few comments. I have let the Bible speak for itself. Good theology helps to focus what the Bible says. We don't want to make it more complicated or less. We don't want to increase or decrease the degree of difficulty. We don't want to provide a chaser of vinegar or sugar water. The Bible says what it says. The Bible teaches what God can do. It teaches us what we must do to respond.

So now let me clearly ask...

Will you be regenerated—>Born again into the image of Christ through His resurrection power?