Sermon Tone Analysis

Children of God

Mother’s Day 2007

 

©May 13, 2007 Rick Goettsche

Today is mother’s day, and some people view it as a day when they have to be nice to their moms.

Let’s face it, mothers often don’t get the respect they deserve.

They are expected to play all sorts of roles, and we often don’t notice the things they do unless they fail to do them.

So, today, I would encourage you to recognize the things your mother does or has done for you, and thank her for them—do it not just because it’s a day set aside for that, but because she deserves it.

Motherhood is kind of like a club.

If you ever get a group of women together, those who are mothers seem to share a certain bond with one another.

I suspect it comes from having each endured the process of carrying and giving birth to a baby, and subsequently raising that child.

But as you talk to most mothers, (with the possible exception of new mothers) they generally don’t talk about their child’s birth in terms of how bad the delivery was, but rather how joyous of a time it was.

But, it’s interesting to ask, what is it that makes the birth of a child so joyous?

Is it that the pregnancy and the labor are finally over?

Is the woman just glad to have the “hard part” over with?

Certainly not!

No, we celebrate because of what birth really is—it is the beginning of new life.

We are excited to see what is in store for our child.

We have great plans for it.

I always have to laugh when I go to visit a baby in the hospital, and the baby already has a little football in his hands—the father has big plans for that child.

Or at just a couple weeks old, the little girl has bows in her hair and a pretty dress and pretty shoes—she’s mommy’s princess.

We look at this new life and we are excited to see this child grow into an adult.

We look forward to seeing what will happen in this child’s life.

Now, motherhood is a club that not everyone belongs to, but there is one club that all of us belong to, and that is the club of people who have been born.

I would venture to say that everyone in this room has experienced physical birth of some kind.

That may be the reason that the Bible uses the illustration of a baby being born so frequently—because it’s something that all of us can relate to.

This morning, I’d like to focus on that—not so much on our physical birth, but on the spiritual birth that comes through Christ.

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Being Born Again

This is a concept that can be difficult for us to understand.

Earlier we read about the story of Nicodemus from John chapter 3. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a theologian in the Jewish community, but he just didn’t seem to get it when Jesus tried to explain to him that he must be “born again.”

In the story we read in John, it seems like this exchange happened rapidly, but I think there may have been long pauses as Nicodemus tried to grasp what Jesus said.

I can almost picture Nicodemus’ face as he tried to imagine just how being born again as a grown man might be possible, and I can imagine his face as he thought about his poor mother.

He asked Jesus, “How can I go into my mother’s womb a second time?”

If I were Jesus, I would have rolled my eyes and banged my head against the table, then looked up and said, “I’m not being literal here!”

But Jesus isn’t like me, and his response was a little different.

He took the time to explain that to be born again means to receive a new life from God.

He compares it to the physical birth, telling him that flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

Basically, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that his mother gave him his physical life, but his spiritual life must come from God.

He must be born again of God to receive spiritual life.

* *

In Romans 8, Paul seeks to explain why this second birth is so joyous.

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

(Romans 8:13–17)

 

This new birth is joyous in a different way from our physical birth,

* Our physical birth was joyous for our parents but we were largely unaware, in the new birth we have a greater sense of the change that is taking place.

* Our first birth led us into a life of sin and the second birth leads us out of that life of sin.

* In our first birth we are helpless and in the second birth we find help

* In the first birth our family responded with joy; in the new birth our spiritual family as well as all of Heaven rejoices.

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Crying Out

Let me pose a question to those of you who are mothers.

When you gave birth to your child, what was the one thing you were waiting to hear?

Were you waiting to hear the doctor say, “Keep pushing!

One more contraction!”

Were you waiting for your husband to say, “You did good.”

Were you waiting to hear the doctor say, “It’s a boy,” or “It’s a girl!” Probably not.

I would venture to guess that the one thing you were waiting for was the baby’s first cry.

Why?

Well, all of those other things are great, and you want to hear them, but the only way that you know that the baby has been born and is healthy is if he or she cries out.

If you don’t hear the baby cry, you begin to worry that something is wrong.

Imagine the hustle and bustle of a delivery room.

There are doctors and nurses standing around, waiting for the baby to be born.

Everyone’s talking, making sure that everything is going just as it should be.

The doctors and the nurses are talking to the mother-to-be and the father-to-be, telling them what’s happening and what to expect next.

Finally, the doctor says that the baby’s out, but suddenly the room gets quiet, and all of the doctors and nurses rush to the other side of the room with the baby, now speaking to each other in somewhat hushed tones.

In an instant, you have gone from relief and elation to fear.

This is because you are now worried that the baby isn’t healthy, or worse, may not even survive.

You’re waiting to hear that your child is healthy; you’re waiting for that cry to let you know that they’re ok.

Notice what Paul says in Romans 8:15.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.

And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."

The crying out that we expect after physical birth should also be expected with our spiritual birth.

If we have been born again, then we have received the Spirit, and our response should be to cry out to God.

If we don’t cry out to God, something is wrong, we aren’t healthy; we should be concerned.

I think there are at least three ways in which we will cry out.

*First, we will cry out to God and ask for his help.*

This is actually a prerequisite for our birth.

Before we can be born again, we have to cry out to God, acknowledging that we need His forgiveness, because we stand condemned before him.

We must cry out to Him, asking Him to save us and set us free.

*Second, after we have been born, we will cry out in praise to God.* Newborn babies don’t recognize the pain and suffering that their mother had to go through to give them life, but as believers, we should recognize the sacrifice of our heavenly Father.

Jesus told the Pharisees in Luke 19 that if the people didn’t cry out to praise him, then the stones would.

If we understand even a little bit of what we’ve been given through Christ, we will praise him.

As we grow in our understanding and in our faith, we will gain a greater understanding of what God has done for us, and a greater desire to cry out in praise.

*Third, we should cry out about the truth of Jesus Christ.*

This isn’t so much a crying out /to/ God, but crying out /for/ God.

In our Wednesday night bible study, we are going through the book of Acts, which is the account of how the church started after Jesus left the earth.

In it, there are numerous accounts of people being born again.

What is interesting is that they all hold one thing in common.

It isn’t that they prayed a specific prayer, or were baptized in a certain way, or spoke in tongues, or anything like that.

What all of these people held in common was that after they believed in Christ and received the Holy Spirit, they spoke boldly for Him.

It’s interesting to note that most of these people were not pastors or apostles or anything like that.

They were just healthy, new believers who cried out about what God had done in their lives—they grasped what God had done and so they desired to tell others.

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Growing Up

It doesn’t end there though.

Just like babies, once we are born again and cry out, we should start growing up.

We should begin to grow up in the way that we act and in the way that we think.

A baby crying because he or she wants something is acceptable to us, because he or she is a baby.

A ten year-old crying because he or she wants something is a little less acceptable to us, because they should have learned by now that you can’t always get what you want—and hopefully the difference between wants and needs.

Similarly, you expect children to grow in their understanding of how things work.