Born Again
Notes
Transcript
Dylan and the “Bad Kid”
Dylan and the “Bad Kid”
In Kindergarten, and he has already identified the “bad people” in his class.
“Dylan, there are no bad people… maybe he has made some mistakes?”
“No, he is always naughty!”
Then, the bad kid got some bear bucks for being brave and it kind of blew Dylan’s mind.
He is still a bad kid… but something is wrong with the system!
Who is “bad” and who is “good”? More importantly, judgement is coming! A day is coming when all the deeds of our life are tallied up, added up, and worst yet, exposed for all to see.
Imagine that for a moment. You stand before a crowd, in front of everyone, like giving a book report. And there, for all to see, are all your good deeds… and all your mistakes… and stupid stuff… and sin. Shameful stuff. Your lies large and small, the times you acted to hurt, your Internet history, your internal imaginings of all kinds, the thoughts you filtered out, the words you bit back, the anger and bitterness you hid.
What a lovely slideshow.
And we know it isn’t going to be “good”… but will it be good enough? And because we are comparing creatures, will it be good enough to be better than the guy next to me. The “bad ones”?
Jesus and Nicodemus
Jesus and Nicodemus
John 3:1-21
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
The Pharisees often get a bad rap. But here is one who seems to be honestly seeking. Secretly seeking… but honestly seeking. And the Pharisees were deeply concerned with the question of being “good enough.” They were seeking to do God’s will. They were super aggressive about doing so, and Nicodemus was so good at this that those guys made him one of their leaders, a representative of the ruling council.
And Nicodemus, passionate about doing God’s will, realizes that this man must have insight into God. Jesus sees right to the heart, he knows the heart of man, and answers Nicodemus’ real question:
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Familiar phrase. Born again Christian!
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Water and Spirit: Ezekiel 36:25-27
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
John 3:6-21
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
???
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
He is rightly confused. I am confused!
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Son of Man?
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
Jesus is going to lay it out. He is again here hinting at his crucifixion. [Story of Moses and the snake]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Not condemned… but to save. Not condemned but to save. Verse 17 is just as important as 16.
It isn’t about what you have done. It isn’t about the thresholds you have passed. It is simply the wrong question to ask.
When asked “what must I do to be saved?” Jesus usually answers with something impossible. Born again? This isn’t code for how we must be saved… Nicodemus understood what Jesus was saying, crawling back into the womb, and this time being born with a Spirit!
The situation was impossible. So there is nothing you can do… but there is something the Son of Man, the Son of God can do.
And then it is simply about your orientation to Jesus. Do you believe in him.
And we want to pin that down. What has to be the character of that belief? What are the truths I have to articulate? In baptism, someone said I believe Jesus is my Holy Spirit, my Savior and my Lord. 2 out of 3 is pretty good. Does that disqualify him, a little ignorant heresy.
No, because it is about orientation to Jesus, the direction of it, not the content of it. Jesus unpacks this a bit.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
When the light comes, what is your reaction? Those who believe in Jesus, that he has saved them, that there is no condemnation then for them… they have nothing to fear from that light, and so they will love it! It is an automatic inner reaction in response to a core belief in the way the world works.
Those who do not believe will react in fear, because they believe deep down that they are guilty and condemned and that there is no help for them.
Your Book Report
Your Book Report
So let’s draw a circle. Here are the people who are “in” with Jesus. Outside are the people who are out.
So you come to Jesus this morning. You come with the question of Nicodemus: am I good enough? Do I get in? Am I enough? Have I done enough? Am I good?
‘cause I have a lot of things I am ashamed of.
And you can spend your whole life feeling like you are hopping in and out of this circle. Christians spend their whole lives obsessing about this line. What defines it? What is the list? Based on the earlier passage, is Baptism required? What if they die before there’s time? What if someone believes and then doesn’t and then does and then doesn’t?
More personally, what about me? I still have addiction, I still have sin, I still have stupid! I am not where I should be as a Christian! I am not a very good Christian! Definitely not as holy, or knowledgeable, or good as some others at church!
This is absolute soul-killing poison! Stop it!
Until you have this truth so locked in your soul that it defines who you are, stop thinking or worrying about sin. (There are lots of reasons to pursue righteousness… but you need Jesus first!)
There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. He came not to condemn but to save.
You don’t need to sin less… you need a Savior. And once you have a savior, you never need to be condemned again!
You may have to return to this idea over and over again.
Stop trying. Start believing in a Savior.
Shame + light = torment.
Jesus + light = glory
We Are Free From Condemnation
We Are Free From Condemnation
I get that people are bad at this judging and condemnation thing… but that isn’t what we are talking about. This is about you and God. This is about us and God. And even if no one else “gets” it, if everyone else judges and condemns you, you can know that before God and for eternity you are not condemned… you are saved.
And you never have to carry the shame of condemnation again.
… this is what defines us here this morning. This is the fundamental truth of our church, of our gathering together, of our lives, and of our eternity. This is our gospel.
We see him lifted up. Lifted up like the snake in the desert, that to look on him we might be healed.
Be healed of “good enough”. Be healed of shame. Be free from condemnation.
Stop trying. Start believing in your Savior.
