Born Again (Chester).

Nate Schlomann

[0:08] Good morning, my name is Nate. I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church and it is really good to see you here this morning. [0:15] We are in week two of a series called Regeneration. Pastor Steve talked about that just a little bit ago. [0:22] But in this series, we’re talking about what it is that God does to bring about new life in his people. [0:28] How does God make a person a Christian? We’re talking about things like regeneration, conversion, repentance, and faith. [0:36] And a big part of this series really started off last week with talking about this understanding that it’s God who does a work in us to save us and bring about new life. [0:45] We don’t regenerate ourselves. We don’t do anything to initiate our own salvation. In fact, we can’t because we were dead in our sins.

[0:52] We’re unable to come to God on our own and we never would have unless God had first done a work in us. [1:00] So it’s completely God’s work to make us alive in Christ. We’re not straying far from that topic this morning. [1:07] But we’re going to look at another way that scripture talks about regeneration, about new life in Christ. And that’s the language of being born again. [1:14] What I hope happens as we look at what Jesus himself says about being born again is that in many ways we make this topic of regeneration more personal this morning. [1:24] That we personalize it and realize what is regeneration for me personally? Here’s a question that I want us to confront this morning. [1:32] How do we know that we’re right with God? I mean, I know most of you know the Christian answer to that by believing in Jesus, right?

[1:38] And that’s the right answer. Don’t forget that the answer that’s the answer that you need. But how do you really know that you believe? [1:45] How do you know that your belief is genuine? How do you know that you’re really saved? [1:50] And so the topic of regeneration is a theological topic. It’s an interesting topic. [1:55] There’s a lot to think about in terms of how God works in the world and how he saves people. [2:00] But I do think there’s a danger in treating this just as a theological topic in terms of how God saves people in general and never taking that next step going down to the ground level and asking what does regeneration mean for me? [2:13] How does God save me personally? And so that’s what we’re doing this morning is asking that question.

[2:18] We’re going to look this morning at a conversation that Jesus has with a man, a conversation about how that man needs to be born again. [2:25] And what I hope we see as we look at this story is that this can’t just be an academic topic for us, as interesting as it might be. [2:35] Just as Jesus once sat with a man and told him face to face, you personally must be born again if you want to be right with God. [2:43] That’s true of us, too. There’s something personal here that we need to experience. [2:48] If Jesus says something, it’s important, at least it is for me. I hope that’s true for you. [2:52] I want to know if Jesus says something is important. I want to know about that thing.

[2:57] If Jesus repeats the same thing over again, I’m going to assume that that’s really important and something that I need to pay attention to. [3:04] We’re going to see in this passage that Jesus says the same exact thing three different times right in a row that you need to be born again to be saved. [3:12] And so I don’t know about you, but for me, if Jesus is saying something three times, I want to pay attention to what that thing is. I want to understand it. [3:19] That’s what we’re doing today. We’re going to understand what does it mean to be born again. [3:23] In John chapter three, verse one, we find ourselves at the story of Nicodemus. [3:28] He’s been hearing Jesus teach. He’s been watching Jesus perform miracles, and he wants to know more.

[3:32] So what he does is he sneaks away. He finds a time when he can come and catch Jesus alone and talk to him. [3:38] And that’s where we find ourselves in this story. So let’s start John three, chapter one. [3:43] Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Stop there just a second. [3:50] Here’s what you need to know about Nicodemus. This was not just any man. [3:54] This was a religious leader, and this was not just any religious leader. [3:58] This was a ruler of the religious leaders. Nicodemus was a leader of the Pharisees.

[4:03] So he was a very religious man. He was a very respected man in his community. [4:08] He was almost certainly a very wealthy man compared to those around him. [4:12] He was a man who had done really well in life at this point. [4:16] He had had a lot of the things that the people around him probably wish that they had. [4:20] Most people would want to be Nicodemus. And even so, Nicodemus is coming to Jesus because he knows that he’s missing something. [4:27] So that’s where we are. Continue in verse two.

[4:29] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, [4:33] 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. [4:38] Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [4:45] What’s happening here is Nicodemus had been observing Jesus teaching the people and doing miracles. [4:51] And he can tell there’s something different about this guy. [4:54] There’s something that this guy has that I don’t have as religious as I am.

[4:58] This was a ruler of the religious leaders. [5:01] This man, Jesus, has some kind of insight or connection to God that Nicodemus didn’t have himself. [5:07] And that’s why he was coming to Jesus. He recognizes there’s something different in his spiritual life, and he wants to know more about that. [5:15] But Nicodemus does not directly ask Jesus what’s different about how he approaches God. [5:18] Probably doesn’t even know how to phrase that question. [5:22] Nicodemus just kind of approaches Jesus. He’s respectful.

[5:25] He says, it’s clear that you’re a teacher from God. [5:28] But Jesus knows exactly what Nicodemus is wondering about. [5:32] Jesus can see into his heart. And so he just goes straight to the issue. [5:36] Jesus responds to him and says, you can’t see the kingdom of God unless you’ve been born again. [5:40] That thing that you’ve been looking for, that thing that you’re missing, you have to be born again. [5:45] You have to personally experience God’s work in your life.

[5:49] We’re going to dig down in just a little bit and talk about what it means to be born again. [5:54] But I want us to not miss the personal aspect of this story before we do that, because it can become academic, and I don’t want it to be. [6:01] Jesus is telling this deeply religious, deeply respected man, you still need to experience God in your life. [6:07] You know all about him. You do all a bunch of things for him. [6:11] You have so much memorized about God, but you’ve not experienced him personally. [6:16] And so the first point that I want us to see this morning is regeneration is experiencing God’s work in your life.

[6:23] Regeneration is not knowing about God’s work in the world in general. [6:26] It’s not having an understanding of God’s work in the world in general. [6:31] Regeneration is experiencing God’s work in your own life personally. [6:36] Jesus knows that Nicodemus is a religious leader who knows all kinds of things about God. [6:41] His life looked really good on the outside to everyone. He was doing a lot of genuinely good things for God. [6:48] But Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you’re very religious, but you need to be born again.

[6:52] You need to be regenerated. You need to experience God’s work in your life personally. [6:57] So regeneration is being made alive in Christ. It’s salvation. It’s conversion. [7:01] Lots of that stuff we talked about last week. [7:04] And this is all not something that happens without personally experiencing God’s work in your life. [7:08] It’s always personal. [7:10] There’s no regeneration without experiencing regeneration.

[7:15] Knowing things about God is not regeneration. [7:18] Agreeing to facts about God is not regeneration. [7:20] Being born to a certain family does not get you regeneration. [7:25] Performing certain spiritual acts does not earn you regeneration. [7:28] Doing good works does not get you regeneration. [7:31] Saying the right Christian words even doesn’t get you regeneration.

[7:36] Nicodemus knew a lot about God. More than we can imagine, honestly, how much this guy knew about God. [7:42] He would have had at least the first five books of the Bible memorized. [7:46] Almost certainly more than that because he was a leader of the religious leaders. [7:49] He knew a ton about God. His life was centered and focused around doing religious things. [7:55] He looked really good from the outside. [7:57] But yet when he hears Jesus teaching, he sees Jesus performing miracles,

[8:01] he knew that Jesus had something that he didn’t have when it came to his relationship with God. [8:06] He knew he wasn’t in the kingdom. [8:08] All Nicodemus’s good works hadn’t helped him experience the work of God in his own life. [8:12] And so he wanted to know, genuine question, what more do I need to do? [8:17] That’s why he was coming to Jesus to talk to him. [8:20] And what is Jesus’s answer?

[8:21] Jesus says it’s not something you do. It’s not a step you need to take. [8:25] It’s something that happens to you. [8:27] You have to be born again. You have to experience a work that God needs to do in your life for you. [8:33] Being reconciled to God, becoming a Christian, always involves experiencing God’s work in your life without exception. [8:40] And that is what we can’t miss when we learn what Jesus means when he says you must be born again. [8:46] Because you can’t have a second birth dispassionately.

[8:49] You can’t have a second birth merely academically. [8:52] You can’t have a second birth by thinking and saying the right Christian things. [8:56] It’s something from God that you have to experience in your life. [9:00] And so what this morning is about is I want those of us who have experienced God’s work in our lives to be reminded of how good God is. [9:07] I want us to be reminded of how amazing it is, the fact that we’ve been regenerated and given new life. [9:11] But I also know that there are those in here who have not experienced what we’re talking about, who haven’t experienced what it’s like for God to work in your life in a very personal way.

[9:21] And if that’s you, I want you to long for that this morning, the way Nicodemus was longing for that. [9:26] That’s what brought him to Jesus that night. He was longing for that experience of God working in his life. [9:31] And if you have not experienced that, I hope that happens for you this morning. [9:34] And through this series that we’re going through talking about regeneration, regeneration is experiencing God’s work in your life. [9:42] Have you experienced that? All right. [9:45] Let’s talk more about what it means to be born again.

[9:47] Look back at John three, verse four. [9:50] We’ll start there again. [9:52] Says Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? [9:56] Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? [9:59] Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [10:07] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

[10:10] Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. [10:14] The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. [10:20] So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. [10:23] So you’re sitting there and you’re wondering, OK, we mentioned being born again a couple of times now. [10:28] What exactly does that mean? What are we talking about? [10:31] Well, Nicodemus is going to ask that question for you right here.

[10:35] And he says to Jesus, What are you talking about? [10:37] How is it possible to be born again? [10:39] That makes no sense. And Jesus’s answer is that he’s talking about spiritual things. [10:43] Of course, he says, don’t marvel at this. It’s spiritual. It’s not physical. [10:47] Jesus says we need to be reborn spiritually. [10:51] Last week, we saw that regeneration means that God gives us new life.

[10:55] He doesn’t just fix up the old life that we had. [10:58] Regeneration means we were dead in our sins. [11:00] We’re unable to come to God on our own. [11:02] He’s got to regenerate our life. [11:04] So God makes us spiritually alive. [11:06] And then we have faith and then we’re drawn to him.

[11:09] The concept of new birth, new spiritual birth, [11:12] is another major way that scripture describes what is happening when God saves people. [11:16] So one of the things about being born is you do not initiate that, right? [11:20] You do not initiate or start your own birth. [11:22] You don’t decide, I think I’m going to get born now. And then you’re born. [11:25] It’s most definitely not up to you.

[11:28] It just happens through absolutely no effort of your own. [11:31] A whole lot of effort on your mom’s part. I can verify that. [11:33] I’ve seen that a few times. A whole lot of effort on your mom’s part. [11:36] No effort on your part whatsoever. [11:40] It’s you’re just born. You’re just there. [11:41] It’s only after you’re born that you actually can initiate anything

[11:44] and you actually can play a part in your own life. [11:48] This dynamics exactly why this is such a good analogy of new life in Christ, [11:52] because you need to be born spiritually, but it’s not something you can initiate. [11:57] It’s not something you can just decide to do. [11:59] It’s a work that God has to initiate. Only God can do it. [12:02] And Jesus was alluding to this in verse 8 there in John 3.

[12:06] Look back at John 3 verse 8. [12:08] When Jesus said, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, [12:12] but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. [12:14] He’s saying there, this is a supernatural thing. [12:18] It’s a supernatural work of God that you can’t control. [12:22] There’s some mystery there.

[12:23] And if that brings up some questions for you, don’t worry. We’re going to get there. [12:27] We’re going to talk about how it is that we’re born again. [12:29] We’re going to talk about what our response should be to hearing this truth. [12:34] But first, I want to spend some time on a really obvious point [12:38] from Jesus’ words here in this section of John. [12:41] What’s the point Jesus is trying to drive home?

[12:43] He says in verse 3, unless you’re born again, you’re not going to see the kingdom of God. [12:47] Then verse 5, he repeats that again, that exact phrase. [12:50] And then verse 7, the third time, he says, you must be born again. You must. [12:55] This is the thing I was talking about that Jesus says three times right in a row. [13:00] And if he says something three times, we better be paying attention because it’s obviously important. [13:04] Being born again is not an optional, a take it or leave it, extra commitment add-on to Christianity.

[13:10] Being born again is Christianity. [13:12] We need to see that all Christians are born again. [13:15] You must be born again. [13:17] So the second point today is all Christians are born again. [13:20] We need to pay attention any times Jesus says that something is a must. [13:24] This is a must that must happen, a must that must be true of you.

[13:29] You must experience God’s work in your life in such a way that you have a new spiritual birth that changes you. [13:36] New life is new. [13:38] All right. New life is different from old life. [13:39] Being born again is about a spiritual rebirth that will change you. [13:44] This is a supernatural thing, not a natural thing. [13:47] That’s why it’s so important to understand that God has to do the work of rebirth.

[13:51] Because we believe it’s a supernatural thing, people are not capable of supernatural things. [13:56] Only God can do something supernatural, like bring someone who is dead alive. [14:00] And so it’s got to start with God. [14:02] There’s nothing natural about the dead coming to life. [14:06] It’s not something we have the power to initiate ourselves. [14:09] And this is why being born again is not the same thing as knowing things about God.

[14:13] Remember, that’s what Nicodemus already had. [14:16] Being born again is not some better understanding of who God is that you can’t figure out [14:20] because you’re not as smart as the person next to you. [14:23] That’s not what being born again is. [14:25] No, being born again is an experience of the work of God in your life that you must have to be a Christian. [14:31] So what are the kinds of things that are different about you after a spiritual rebirth?

[14:36] There’s a desire for God that wasn’t there before. [14:39] You desire Him. [14:40] That happens when you’re born again. [14:42] There’s a hunger for God’s Word and for knowing about God. [14:46] There’s nothing wrong with knowing a lot about God. [14:48] In fact, that’s a sign that you’ve been born again, that you desire to know more about God.

[14:52] But being born again comes first, puts that desire in you. [14:56] It makes that desire not about you. [14:58] It makes that desire not about knowledge. [15:00] It makes that desire about worship. [15:01] You want to know more about God because you want to worship Him. [15:04] There’s a pull to the people of God once you’ve been born again.

[15:08] You want to see the church built. [15:10] You want to see God’s people grow. [15:13] That’s a part of being born again. [15:14] There’s a desire to bring God glory and obey Him with our lives, the best that we know how. [15:19] We won’t be able to do that perfectly, but there’s a desire to put God where He deserves to be at the priority of our life. [15:26] New life does not mean that these things are easy.

[15:29] They aren’t easy. [15:30] It doesn’t mean that we don’t experience highs and lows. [15:33] We do. [15:34] But being born again is an experience of God’s work in your life that changes you when you’re not the same afterwards. [15:40] So do you have a way to talk about experiencing the work of God in your life to say to you a way that’s meaningful to you? [15:46] Is that a conversation that you can have?

[15:48] Can you talk with someone about this is who I was, but I was reborn and now this is who I am in Christ. [15:55] You need that to be born again. [15:57] Some people experience being born again in a moment when they know that God had changed them. [16:03] For others, it’s a series of moments. [16:05] It’s not one moment, but it’s a series of moments where God is working in their lives. [16:08] And then they look back and they say, wow, I’m not the same person anymore.

[16:11] God has saved me. [16:13] Either way, that’s being born again. [16:15] Being born again is a way to describe the experience of having new life in Christ that changes you. [16:21] And so undoubtedly, all Christians are born again. [16:24] That’s what we can’t stress enough. [16:27] There is not a category of Christians who aren’t born again.

[16:31] And we get this idea from this kind of cultural idea of born again that I want to talk about just a little bit, [16:36] because the phrase born again comes right out of scripture. [16:39] Obviously, we just saw it. [16:41] It’s in many other places, too. [16:43] But the concept of what it means to be a born again Christian, it’s got actually a more recent cultural history for us. [16:49] And that can have some different meanings.

[16:51] So we need to talk about that just a little bit. [16:53] The term born again Christian started to get used more and more actually in the 70s and 80s in American Christianity. [16:59] And from there, it actually spread to Europe, too, to describe a conversion experience, [17:04] usually to describe new life in Christ, just like we’ve been talking about. [17:09] So this was a good thing. [17:10] This was biblical language meant to communicate that a saving faith in Jesus would necessarily change a person and make them new.

[17:17] It was it was a good thing. [17:19] Fortunately, what kind of ended up happening out of that over the following decades was the media kind of co-opted the term born again Christian to mean basically a type of Christian who is really serious about their faith, [17:31] as opposed to other Christians who aren’t quite as serious. [17:34] So you had one large group of people identified as Christians culturally, regardless of anything else. [17:40] Then you had a subset of those people who were a little bit more extreme, who did crazy things like, you know, go to church a lot and pray and read their Bible and tell their friends about Jesus. [17:50] And these were the born again Christians.

[17:52] They’re really the ones who are more serious about their faith. [17:55] So what you end up with then, and this is where it’s not the best thing in the world, it’s actually bad. [18:01] You end up with regular Christians and born again Christians, regular Christians who just identify as a Christian culturally, born again Christians who actually take their faith seriously, maybe even make some other regular Christians a little uncomfortable. [18:15] And in one sense, these categories aren’t wrong. [18:18] Born again Christians do take their faith seriously. [18:21] That’s part of new life in Christ.

[18:23] The only thing is, that’s the only kind of Christian that there is. [18:26] Someone who is not born again is not a Christian at all. [18:30] All Christians are born again Christians. [18:31] There’s no other kind of Christian. [18:33] So the problem with this cultural idea of a born again Christian being in this category of super Christian or extreme Christian is it gives people the idea they have the option. [18:42] It gives people the idea they have the option of just being a regular Christian, a not born again Christian who is a Christian but doesn’t take it quite so seriously.

[18:51] And sadly, you will see this playing out in mainline denominations all across the country in cultural Christians, all of whom on survey after survey will identify as a Christian but then not check the born again Christian box. [19:05] And that’s sad. [19:06] They think they have just enough Jesus to avoid hell, but they’re not really Christians at all. [19:11] So that’s why we need to talk about this. [19:12] They need to be born again. [19:14] They need to personally experience the work of God in their life.

[19:19] Let’s look at John three again. [19:21] Back at verse five again. [19:22] I want us to not miss on them before we move from this section. [19:25] John three verse five. [19:27] Jesus answered. [19:28] Truly, truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

[19:34] Water and the spirit. [19:35] What does that mean? [19:37] What’s Jesus talking about here? [19:38] He’s describing what it is to be born again. [19:41] But what is this water and spirit? [19:43] What Jesus is doing here is pretty interesting.

[19:45] He’s talking to a Pharisee who would have known the Old Testament really, really well. [19:51] And what Jesus is actually referencing here is the prophecy in Ezekiel 36 that we looked at last week. [19:57] Remember from last week, we looked at Ezekiel 36 verses 25 and 27. [20:01] And let’s look at that again. [20:04] I said this. [20:05] I will also sprinkle clean water on you.

[20:07] There’s the water and you will be clean. [20:10] I will cleanse you from all your impurities and your idols. [20:13] I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. [20:16] There’s a spirit. [20:16] I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. [20:19] I will place my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statues and carefully observe my ordinances.

[20:26] So you see it there. [20:26] Jesus is referencing the water and spirit from that prophecy. [20:30] And he’s saying that being born again is just like the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied. [20:35] God’s people would be born of water, which is being washed clean of their sins. [20:39] And they would be born of the spirit, which is being given a new heart and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. [20:43] So what Jesus is doing here is actually saying to Nicodemus, this prophecy from Ezekiel, this is the answer to your question.

[20:49] This is what you’re missing. [20:50] What you should already know in Ezekiel has been prophesied. [20:54] You need God to do a work in you to be born again. [20:57] It’s almost like God had a plan all along in Christ. [21:00] So back to our story with Nicodemus. [21:02] He comes to Jesus because he sees something different.

[21:05] He sees something different in Jesus. [21:07] He comes to him and he wants to know what that is. [21:10] And Jesus’ answer is to look back to Ezekiel, to this prophecy that Nicodemus should have known well. [21:17] And Jesus’ answer to what Nicodemus needs to do is that it’s all about what God prophesied he was going to do. [21:24] It’s nothing you can do. [21:25] It’s what God said he’s going to do.

[21:26] He’s going to cleanse his people of their sin. [21:28] He’s going to give them a new spirit. [21:31] And this answer could be irritating, I think, depending on how you want to take it. [21:35] Because if you ask, what do I need to do? [21:37] And then the answer is there’s nothing you can do. [21:39] It’s what God is doing.

[21:40] You might think, oh, great. [21:41] Well, then I guess I just got to wait. [21:43] I guess it’s hopeless if nothing happens for me because it’s nothing I can do. [21:47] I’ve noticed that that is some people’s reaction to hearing that regeneration starts with God. [21:52] Their action is, well, great. [21:54] There’s nothing for me to do then.

[21:55] God’s either going to regenerate me or not. [21:57] God’s either going to regenerate my friend or my family member or not. [22:01] That’s not the right reaction. [22:02] And we’re going to see that. [22:03] It’s good news that this is a work that God does because we can never do it on our own. [22:08] That’s what you need to see.

[22:10] God wants to do a personal work in your life. [22:12] And that is very, very good news because without that news, it would be hopeless. [22:18] But Nicodemus is going to ask that question for us and we’re going to see an answer there. [22:22] Let’s continue in John 3 verse 9. [22:26] Nicodemus said to Jesus, how can these things be? [22:31] Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

[22:34] Jesus, by the way, is digging in there a little bit. [22:36] He’s saying this is a prophecy from Ezekiel. [22:38] You should have known this. [22:40] Verse 11. [22:41] Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. [22:46] But you do not receive our testimony.

[22:48] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [22:54] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. [22:59] And Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. [23:02] So must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [23:15] Last thing that I want us to focus in on this morning is our reaction to this teaching about being born again. [23:22] What should our reaction be?

[23:23] What should we do with this teaching? [23:25] And really, this is about our reaction to learning about what God does in the supernatural act of regeneration. [23:32] Learning that it’s a work of God that enables us to have faith, but it’s a work of God that he needs to do on our behalf. [23:40] Some people react to that truth by saying, like I was saying earlier, well, I guess there’s nothing to do. [23:45] God’s either going to regenerate or not. [23:47] There’s nothing left to do.

[23:48] But this is not how Jesus talks about that in these verses. [23:51] This is not what Jesus says our response should be. [23:54] Jesus says our reaction should be what? [23:56] That we believe. [23:57] This is what Jesus says our reaction to understanding it’s God working in us should be that we believe. [24:03] And that is because my last point this morning, belief affirms that you’ve been born again.

[24:09] Belief affirms that you’ve been born again. [24:11] If you have been born again, you will believe in Jesus and what he’s done for you. [24:16] Your belief is only possible because you’ve been given a new spirit. [24:19] And so that belief affirms that you’ve been born again. [24:22] And so the answer is believe. [24:24] And if you’re thinking that’s great for me, but where does that leave my friend?

[24:29] Where does that leave my family member? [24:31] The answer is the same. [24:33] You share the truth with them. [24:34] You tell them they need to believe. [24:36] That’s where that leaves them. [24:38] It leaves them with the need for belief.

[24:40] We’re not supposed to get hung up on the details of how God works this all out. [24:45] We’re supposed to believe his word and experience his working in our lives. [24:49] Belief is supposed to be our response to hearing that God is going to save his people. [24:56] So how does a person become born again? [24:58] They hear the truth of the word of God. [25:00] They recognize that it’s true and they believe it is that simple.

[25:03] We need to never forget that it is that simple. [25:07] Other authors in scripture talk about it in just the same way. [25:09] Look at 1 Peter 1, 23. [25:11] The Apostle Peter is going to use very, very similar language here. [25:16] He says this, because you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. [25:25] We’ll just read that part of it.

[25:27] The living and enduring word of God is what causes a person to be born again. [25:32] We’re born again when we hear the word, we acknowledge it as truth, and we respond in belief. [25:38] That’s our response. [25:40] See, we don’t preach these truths from the stage up here. [25:44] This series, every series, we don’t preach these truths about God so we can look at those who have not been born again and say, well, good luck on getting regenerated. [25:54] I hope that works out for you.

[25:56] I hope that happens for you. [25:57] It’s actually the opposite of why we preach these truths. [26:00] The whole point in talking about the need to be born again is to be able to say to those who haven’t been, look here, this is what you need. [26:07] This is what you are missing in your life. [26:09] You need to respond in faith to Jesus. [26:11] You need to believe.

[26:12] See, God has done all the work for you, and that’s good news. [26:16] Without that, you never could have done it. [26:18] But he has done the work. [26:20] And so you just need to believe. [26:22] That’s our response. [26:23] That’s why we talk about these things.

[26:25] If you’re one of those people who over thinks everything and so you can’t get out of your own way mentally, I do want to help you out a little bit here because if your reaction to this truth is, again, to say, well, then I guess there’s nothing for me to do because it’s either going to happen or not if God initiates it. [26:39] I would say to you, then you actually don’t understand how big God is. [26:43] You actually don’t understand the fullness of God’s sovereignty because God sovereignly determined that you would be sitting right there. [26:52] God sovereignly determined that you would be here at this specific time. [26:57] He sovereignly determined that you would be hearing the specific mention message. [27:01] And even more, God sovereignly determined that you would be thinking these specific thoughts about him.

[27:07] And what you need to know is this is how God works. [27:09] That is God drawing you. [27:12] If you’re thinking about it, he’s drawing you. [27:14] That’s the spirit moving. [27:15] Look back at John 3, verse 8 again. [27:18] I want to go back to verse 8 again because I really think that it could help you understand what it looks like for God to draw you.

[27:26] This is where Jesus said, The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. [27:33] So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. [27:36] What is happening in that verse that is describing God calling people to himself. [27:41] That is describing the spirit initiating the life of God in the person. [27:45] This is how it works. [27:47] So if you’re one of these people that thinks sits around and thinks, I just need to wait for God to initiate God’s initiating.

[27:54] That’s what that passage says. [27:56] Stop being so stubborn that God is calling you and your response is, well, why doesn’t he make it more obvious? [28:01] He’s made it obvious. [28:02] You wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t. [28:05] That’s your pride talking. [28:06] That’s your old life you’re hanging on to.

[28:08] God is calling you and you need to have the humility to admit it and just submit to his calling you. [28:14] Experience God. [28:15] Worry about some of your questions later because you’re missing out on real life in the meantime. [28:20] Your belief affirms that you’ve been born again. [28:23] You don’t get born again because you believe. [28:25] You believe because you’ve been born again.

[28:28] And being born again changes you. [28:30] Being born again absolutely changes you. [28:33] I want to look finally at First John 5, 1, because the same apostle writing the story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, he writes this later to a letter to the church in First John, Chapter 5, Verse 1, talking about born again. [28:51] John didn’t get over born again. [28:53] He kept talking about it. [28:54] And here’s what he writes.

[28:56] Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. [29:01] And then he explains that a little bit. [29:03] And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. [29:06] But this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. [29:12] For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. [29:18] Your belief in whether or not First John 5, 1 through 3 is true.

[29:22] Your belief in whether or not that is a true word from God that affirms whether or not you’ve been born again. [29:29] Do you believe this is true? [29:31] Do you believe it’s true that if you love God, you’re going to keep his commandments? [29:34] Do you believe that if it’s that you love God, do you believe that his commandments are not going to be burdensome to you? [29:41] Because scripture here is working to give you assurance that you’ve been born again or else it’s working to confront you that maybe you haven’t. [29:50] Because the apostle here is answering the question, how do I know if I really believe and have been born again?

[29:57] He’s answering that question for you. [29:58] He says that you will believe if you love God. [30:02] He says you really can know you believe if you love God and keep his commandments. [30:07] Because then the question of how do I love God is another question. [30:12] And he answers it for you. [30:13] You know you love God if you keep his commandments.

[30:16] That’s what we need to get. [30:17] You know you love God if his commandments are not burdensome. [30:21] You have a desire to obey God and to honor him and to bring him glory. [30:25] Now here’s what can happen. [30:26] We see, I mean, that’s a heavy verse. [30:27] First John 5, one through the.

[30:29] Those are heavy things because I want to we want to believe. [30:32] We want to have faith. [30:33] And yet we’re hearing in order to believe or for your belief to be real, you have to keep his commandments and find them not burdensome. [30:41] Who among us doesn’t occasionally find the commandments burdensome? [30:45] At this point, you can either go law or you can go gospel. [30:50] So you can start to think, great, I need to keep all the commandments and I need to find them not burdensome or else I don’t really believe.

[30:56] So I got to do that. [30:58] And I could stand here as a pastor and say, yep, you’re right. [31:01] You better do all the stuff. [31:02] You better obey really good and prove to everyone that you believe. [31:07] But you can’t possibly do that. [31:09] That’s the law.

[31:10] You need to go the other direction. [31:11] You need to go gospel. [31:13] Because, of course, you can’t keep the commandments. [31:16] That’s why it is such amazing good news that Jesus kept them for you. [31:20] Of course, you’re not going to do this perfectly. [31:23] This is the same John who writes in this same letter that anyone who says they have no sin is a liar.

[31:28] Of course, you’re not going to keep the commandments perfectly. [31:30] The point is, do you see that Jesus has obeyed perfectly for you? [31:36] And so by grace, you can say that God’s righteousness is good and right. [31:39] And it’s not burdensome, even if I don’t measure up because Jesus measures up for me. [31:43] Do you delight in the things of God because of this grace? [31:46] You cannot delight in the things of God if you don’t understand that Jesus is your obedience for you.

[31:51] Otherwise, the commandments of God are a burden. [31:53] But because Jesus is our obedience for us, the commandments of God are not burdensome. [31:58] And we can say, yes, I’m keeping them through Christ. [32:01] Do you desire to do what God says? [32:03] And so you cling to the righteousness of Christ, which is the only way you could ever meet that standard. [32:09] If that’s your attitude, that’s the gospel.

[32:11] And that’s how you know that you have been born again. [32:14] If you don’t have that attitude, the fact that you’re realizing that there’s a difference there, that is God drawing you. [32:21] And so you need to believe. [32:24] I want to end on this this morning because it’s actually at the end of our John 3 passage. [32:28] And I think it’s really pretty cool that Jesus goes here in John 3 because John 3 16 is one of the verses most well known of any verse in Scripture. [32:37] But that verse in its context is actually answering the question, how can you have faith that your belief makes you right with God?

[32:46] And the answer is this. You can trust God that if you believe you’ve been born again, we can have faith because we can trust God. [32:52] But here’s why the best answer to the dilemma of how can you really be sure that you believe? [32:59] How can you really be sure that you’re born again is that you can trust the God who gave up his own son. [33:04] It’s right there in Jesus’s answer to Nicodemus in John 3 16. [33:08] I actually want to look at this in the CSB. [33:11] That’s the way the CSB translates this.

[33:13] And also the ESV in the margin. [33:15] If you’ve got a Bible with notes in the margin, the ESP translates it the same way there. [33:20] This really is the right way to translate this verse in modern English. [33:24] It says this for God loved the world in this way. [33:28] He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. [33:36] The Christian answer to the dilemma of how can I know if my belief in Jesus is real and I’ve been born again is you should trust the God who loves you by giving up his own son.

[33:48] Jesus was a man who claimed to be God and he proved it when he rose from the dead.

[33:54] Trust that God. [33:55] Trust that the God who loved you in this way. [33:59] What way? [33:59] The way of giving his own son. [34:01] The God who loved you like that is going to be true. [34:04] That if you believe you are right with him, you are saved.

[34:08] Trust the grace of that God who gave up his own son that you’ve been born again if you believe. [34:14] Responding to God in belief is not a denial of God’s sovereignty. [34:18] I think people get hung up on that a lot and they need to not. [34:22] Responding to God in belief is not a denial of God’s sovereignty. [34:26] It’s a submission to it. [34:28] It’s submitting to saying God you are sovereign.

[34:30] You have made a way. [34:31] You have made a way I could never have made for myself. [34:34] So I’m going to respond to that in belief. [34:37] Just realize that is what Jesus says in these passages. [34:40] He says you need to believe. [34:41] It’s a recognition that God is able to save.

[34:44] You can trust the goodness of the God who loved you by giving up his son. [34:49] Your belief affirms that you’ve been born again. [34:53] So our response is believe. [34:55] I encourage you to believe. [34:57] Right now we’re going to move into a time of communion. [35:00] And this is a way to respond in belief for those of us who know Christ.

[35:06] But maybe you’re out there and you’re realizing, and I expect this is going to happen through these series of messages. [35:13] Maybe you’re realizing you have not believed before. [35:15] I want you to know don’t leave today having not believed. [35:18] You can believe there are people in the foyer. [35:21] And just a minute when we break for communion, I encourage you to slip out there and talk to someone who wants to talk to you about how to believe. [35:29] Just head out there.

[35:30] Someone will help you with that. [35:32] For those of us who are followers of Jesus, communion is an amazing time to remember what Jesus has done to enable our belief even being possible. [35:42] The bread represents Christ’s body broken for us. [35:45] The cup represents his blood shed for us. [35:48] And so when you come either the tables in the front or the tables in the back in just a moment, if you’re a believer in Jesus, just remember your belief affirms that you’ve been born again. [35:58] It’s possible because God did the work first.

[36:01] So when you’re ready, come.