In With the New Part 3: A New Salvation
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Whats up friends! Welcome back to NXT High School. My name is Matt Velasco, if we have not met I want you to know that I am so glad that you are here and would love to meet you before you leave tonight! You’ll hear and see that we say something around these parts, we say that Wednesday night, tonight, is the best night of the week. And we firmly believe it. Not just because you get to hangout with friends and have free dinner and a ton of fun, but also because God has a funny way of showing up in special ways on Wednesday nights here at NXT.
So, if you’re new, thanks for being here! We hope you love it and I want to personally invite you to come back next week.
Image
Image
How many of you have ever heard of the phrase born again? Most of us! Its a beautiful phrase that tends to reference someone coming to a new life in Jesus Christ- being born again in new life. Now a simple google search, celebrities who are born again Christians, led me to a website with a list of 41 celebrities who are born again Christians. Listen to some of these names,
Chris Pratt
Chuck Norris (Is the Chuck Norris joke still a thing?)
Russell Wilson
Justin Bieber
Alice Cooper, anyone? He actually has a sick quote about being a Christian, “Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion.”
Charlie Sheen
The list could go on. In fact, I can vividly recall the thrill I felt when I heard that Justin Bieber announced that he was “born again.” He started hanging out with a pastor who I still admire and look up to named Judah Smith and eventually started being really outspoken about his faith and now he’s led worship on stages with Maverick City, he’s invited Judah to share the Gospel at concerts, and honestly it seems like his faith is pretty genuine.
And there’s kind of been a movement amongst celebrity culture where many of them, like those on the list I said above, have come out and said that they are indeed born again Christians. But what does that really mean? I have no intention on commenting on whether or not I believe Alice Cooper or Chris Pratt actually are Christians- thats for God to know. However, I do want to point out that we toss around this term “born again” all the time. So much so that one fo the greatest of all Biblical terms has been stolen, emptied of its meaning, and dragged through the mire so that today “born again” can mean almost anything or nothing at all.
For instance there was a an edition of Forbes magazine that had a featured article entitled “Born-again Companies” which talked about companies that had been thriving. The Los Angeles Times printed an article about a Steeler’s football player titled “The Steeler Who Was born Again” talking about a player who had made a comeback. The Chicago Tribune once told about a women who was changing her image so she could become the sex symbol of the eighties, and mentioned that she was a born again sex symbol. Another simple google search led me to articles about Kanye West, past presidents, and even “born again robots.”
My point is simply to say that many people throw around the term born again without any realization of the beauty of the term, or knowing it and falsely labeling themselves.
Big Idea
Big Idea
If you leave through these doors tonight having heard one thing, I want it to be this: You are in great need of being born again if you haven’t yet trusted in Jesus.
Now, it may seem like over the past few weeks we’ve been beating this drum a lot- thats true! But tonight I want to change it up a little bit.
You are in great need of being born again if you haven’t yet trusted in Jesus, and many of you think you have- but you haven’t actually been born again.
Text Address
Text Address
This week’s message, part 3 of In With The New, is titled A New Salvation. Open up your Bibles to John chapter 3, starting in verse 1.
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.”
Content
Content
John 3:1-8 tells us of Jesus’ classic conversation with Nicodemus in which he explained what he meant by being born again. In fact, it tells us the two essentials, the two non negotiables, of the born-again experience.
Born of water means repentance. Nicodemus knew what Jesus meant when He said this. He realized that at that very time John the Baptist was baptizing people in water as a symbol of their inward repentance. We read about this in John 3:23
John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized
Born of Spirit means regeneration. Along with repentance comes a work of the Spirit in the heart called regeneration. We see this in Ezekiel 36:26
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
These are the nonnegotiables of being born again.
Why does this matter? A gallup poll in 2004 said that 41% of Americans identify themselves as “Born-Again” That is a huge amount. In fact, some quick googling (Remember what I said…google is a pastor’s best friend) tells me that in 2004 there were 292.8 million Americans. If we do some quick maths, 41% of 292.8 million is… roughly 120 million people who called themselves born again in our country. If these statistics were actually true, why has the sinful pace of our country not slowed down? With the exploding number of Christians, why is pornography more prevalent than ever? Why is immorality and idolatry more normalized than ever? Another Gallup study shows us that of those who claimed to be evangelicals, three in ten did not think the devil was a personal being. Only six in ten could correctly identify “You must be born again” as the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. In other words, only six in ten of the people who claimed to be “born again” knew where the verse is or who said it.
There are many people who claim to be born again who know nothing of repentance. That means, according to Jesus’ definition, there are multiple millions of people who claim to be born again but who really are not.
What is repentance? It is a change of action coupled with a change of mind.
CHEW STORY
It is not simply a new direction. It is not education. It is not a religious experience. In fact, did you know being born again is not merely “asking Jesus into your heart?”, or raising your hand, or looking up? If that happens without repentance, it will not bring regeneration and new life.
Let me clarify quickly what I mean by a change of action…this doesn’t mean if you don’t stop sinning completely you aren’t saved. It could be, like it was for me with chew, that it takes years until you finally actually stop doing whatever it is. Paul says in Romans,
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Repentance means you pursue a change of your actions. You are actively killing the sin that is killing you, knowing that God does not want you to sin!
Being born again is a radical change that takes place in a person’s life whereby through repentance and a work of the Spirit you are given a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Peter 1:4 says,
by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
This radical change is what Jesus talks about in verse 6-7
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 radical change is not something that can be accomplished by your own will and energy. Our “best” will never suffice. Jesus is essentially saying, that which is fruit is fruit, that which is spicy is spicy, that which is flesh is flesh. There is no evolution from flesh to spirit. Jesus says, “you must be born again.” You must realize you are a sinner and repent. You must receive the work of the Spirit in your life. When Jesus says must, “you must be born again,” we ought to listen.
Have you been born again? The question is not, have you had a religious experience, or have you had a transformation, but have you been born again?
Its possible that as Jesus and Nicodemus were talking, they heard the wind crying along the narrow streets. Very possibly it stirred the leaves that overhung the window and came breathing in onto them.
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, being born of the Spirit is like your experience with the wind. You can see the wind’s effect, but not the wind itself” Those who are born again, the effects of the Spirit are visible in their lives, even though the Spirit cannot be seen. One of the reasons we have not seen our country swept for Christ is that there has not been sufficient evidence of the Spirit in Christians’ lives. In many cases “Salvation” is a bogus experience.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Sometimes the wind of the Spirit is a raging power. Other times it blows gently so you can see it almost imperceptibly move a leaf. I think the winds of the Spirit were roaring for Nicodemus.
Is the wind of the spirit gently bowing in your life? From what you have heard, you feel affirmed. You are born again. You have turned from your sin, and the Spirit of God has washed you clean so that you have a new nature. “The Spirit gives birth to Spirit.” If that is true in your life, praise the Lord!
But what if it isn’t? Maybe the wind of the Spirit is roaring in your life. You clearly see the essentials of being born again. You see your sin staring you in the face: Pornography, drinking, judgementalism, hatred, self-harm, you know what it is. You see that sin, and you are repenting (maybe even now). You desire the Spirit to rush into your life and make you a new person. You believe Christ is the answer. If so, why not yield your life to Him right now.
Maybe you’re a guest here tonight and you are hearing about Jesus for the first time…let introduce you to Him. Or maybe you’ve been coming your whole life. Your parents volunteered when you were in Awana and you’ve been raised with the scriptures your whole life and you’re realizing you’ve never actually repented of anything and aren’t born again. Lets introduce you to Jesus again tonight. Who, for all of you, is longing to receive your repentance and offer you a new life.
Call to salvation.