WATCHWORD:
3 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:1-8
Charles Spurgeon, 18th Century Theologian and preacher once advised: If we were asked to read to a dying man who did not know the gospel, we should probably select John chapter 3 as the most suitable one for such an occasion; what is good for a dying man is good for us all.
Meditation:
Born Again?
“Born Again? What? Not me!” “I was raised in the church.” “No flashing lights of awareness for me, I have always known the Lord”. “Oh, I’ve heard others talk of coming to Jesus, describing their experience on a weekend as being ‘high as a kite’. I say, good for them, not for me, though, I don’t need it.” “Born again? That’s for others who don’t know the Lord.”
Recently, a friend asked me about the disciples. When did they become Believers in Jesus? Without thinking too much (a trait of mine) I blurted out, “When they accepted Jesus’ invitation to “Come, follow me”. Then I said, “is this a trick question?” Two seconds later, another thought, and I blurted: Pentecost! The in-filling of the Holy Spirit. Is that the right answer? Do I get credit?
I am sure there must be a theologically provable answer to that question, but just the discussion brought me back to the matter of being born-again.
Listen in on this made-up conversation between two parties:
“Wait, just a dang gone minute! I believe in God, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior and you say that I also have to be born again? What are you talking about?”
“Well, That’s what Jesus told us: ‘Unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God’.”
“I think He must be talking symbolically or maybe it’s like summarizing belief, or being a really good person all the time, or something like that.”
“I don’t know, later Jesus says ‘You must be born again’. It seems to me when he repeats himself like that it’s for emphasis, wouldn’t you say?”
“Would you explain that ‘born-again’ thing to me?”
Well, how do we understand it? In my simple mind, this is what I think: First of all, every single person who sincerely has Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior has had a born-again experience, or event, or change, or moment.
You say you were born into a family of Christians and you’ve been a Christian all of your life? I would say that you are blessed, but you did have a born-again moment. Your faith went through a transformation. The transformation was from observing your parent’s faith in the Lord, and that point in your lifetime when your parent’s faith became your own. You were transformed from a child of your parents into a child of God. That was your re-birth in “water and the Spirit”. Born-again!
Nicodemus raised the original question during that nighttime conversation with Jesus. He was a good man who really struggled with the Pharisee’s attitude toward this ‘upstart’ from Nazareth. It was Nicodemus who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, after the crucifixion, asked for the body of Jesus to give it a respectful Jewish burial. Nicodemus, and probably Joseph, were beginning to understand who this Jesus is. They were on the verge of being born-again in the Spirit.
I was a PK. Went off to college and left church behind. I knew that all I needed to do as a Christian was to be a good person. Adversity came and brought me face to face with the facts of my flawed faith. Encouraged and aided by a colleague and a church, I had a born-again transformation; abrupt, real, powerful. But, it wasn’t the colleague, and it wasn’t the church. Born-again transformations are of the Spirit, not of human effort or decision.
What about you? For some, that born-again transformation was smooth, just an awareness that you were His. Some can point to a date. We celebrate our born-again life each time we pray, each time we say ‘thank you, Jesus’, or simply love others as He loves us. The work of a Child of God, is God. Our hands, His Will. Amen.
Bulletin Board:
From Pete — As far as good reads are concerned, you might include The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.
Also from Pete — Our shared hope and prayer: Looking forward to getting together soon.
Closing Prayer:
Lord, help me to hear you saying, “I am your hope” over all the other voices. Lord, your word says, you are the hope for hopeless so I’m running to you with both hands stretched out and grabbing on to you. Fill me up with hope and give me a tangible reminder today that hope is an unbreakable spiritual lifeline. God, you know those things in my heart that I barely dare to hope for, today I give them to you, I trust them to you, and ask that you because I know that you can do more than I could ever guess, imagine or request in wildest dreams. God, you are my
