Series: Be Holy For I Am Holy

Title: Born Again – Radically Countercultural

Text: John 3:1-17

Recently I read a story about a man named Jay who was having marriage problems.

He and his wife had been to a marriage counselor several times, but Jay decided to discontinue the counseling and try something radical.

The counselor had heard from Jay’s wife that he planned to build a time machine, so she called to check on his mental health.

Jay said,

"A time machine?! Well let me assure you, Doctor, I’m not currently building a machine that travels through time."

The counselor was visibly relieved.

Then Jay said,

"I’m building a machine that reverses time."

The counselor’s smile quickly faded.

Jay didn’t plan to travel back in time. Jay planned to push the rewind button.

He planed to reverse all his terrible decisions, comments, and arguments.

He hoped to remove the wounds by rewinding his life.

I imagine every one of us would love to rewind certain chapters in our lives.

Jay had made so many mistakes, committed so many sins, said so many hurtful things, been wounded so often, he planned to rewind his entire life.

His counselor was beside herself with concern. She said,

"And you’re going to accomplish all this with a...time reversal machine?!?"

He said,

"Absolutely! Unless you know a better what to be born again."

 

The truth is we cannot rewind our lives.

As tempting as it might be, we cannot rewrite our own history.

God has a better way to be born again. He will not change the past, but He will change your future.

As Oswald Chambers once said,

"In the natural world it is impossible to be made all over again, but in the spiritual world it is exactly what Jesus Christ makes possible."

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

To be born again is to have a new life, a new life in Jesus Christ.

To be born again is to be radically different than you were before.

In our reading from John chapter three, Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again."

Nicodemus Wants More Than His "Religion"

Nicodemus was a known "leader of the Jews."

He was wealthy and powerful. He had many servants and employees.

He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish Council in Israel.

He was a scholar.

He knew the Scriptures.

He was a member of the Pharisee party.

He was a well respected teacher.

 

He came to see Jesus at night. Why in the world would he come at night?

My guess is that he didn’t want to be seen with Jesus.

As a respected Bible scholar, he was embarrassed that he felt the need to seek Jesus opinion.

He was reluctant to admit his ignorance.

In a rather awkward moment of introduction, in verse two he said,

2..."Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

John 3:2 (NIV)

Jesus didn’t say,

"Why thank you."

OR "I= m so glad you noticed."

OR "Yes, you= re right."

 

It’s almost as if he ignored Nicodemus= comment.

Immediately, he goes to the heart of the matter.

Immediately, Jesus identifies his greatest need.

In verse three He says,

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 3:3 (NIV)

Nicodemus and the other Jewish Bible scholars of the day understood what he meant when he said, "You must be born again." (John 3:7)

He meant conversion.

To be "born again" meant to be born from God.

"Jewish teachers spoke of Gentile converts to Judaism as starting life a new like ‘newborn children’."

(The Bible Background Commentary, 270)

It never occurred to Nicodemus:

That he, a respected religious leader would need conversion.

That he would need to be "born again."

That he would need God to give him a new heart as was prophesied by Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 36:26)

 

That is exactly what Jesus was telling him:

His religious heritage,

His Jewish ethnicity,

His excellent moral life,

His legalistic perfectionism,

His knowledge of the Scripture did not guarantee his relationship with God or his salvation.

As good as all of those things were, he still needed to be "born again."

After a long conversation, Jesus finally tells him how to be "born again."

He said,

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.
John 3:16 (NIV)

You must believe in Jesus to be born again.

To believe in Jesus is more than to just believe he exists.

I believe that George Bush is the President of the United States, but I don= t know him.

I believe that Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots, but I’ve never met him.

I also believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary.

I believe that Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins.

I believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

But it’s not enough for me to believe certain facts about Jesus; I must believe in Him, and I do.

I have put my whole trust in him.

I have invited him into my life.

I have a personal relationship with him.

I have been "born again."

Unfortunately, many Americans think of being born again as a transaction, a one time event, not an ongoing new life.

A Baby= s Birth, A Baby= s Adoption

Being born again is much more like being adopted than natural birth.

You have a new Father.

You have a new family.

You have new friends.

Adopted children, especially those from developing countries go through a radical change:

They often leave behind dilapidated dirty orphanages.

They leave behind meager medical care.

They leave behind dirt roads and rusty buses.

With their adoptive parents:

They learn a new language.

They learn new customs.

They receive the love they have longed for.

They have a whole new life.

 

When you are born again, your new life is very very different from your old life:

You are no longer a child of this world.

You are no longer a child of the devil (1 John 3:10).

You are child of God (1 John 3:10).

As Second Corinthians 5:17 says,

17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Our reading about being born again is from John chapter three.

In John chapter one, God’s Word tells us:

12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 1:12-13 (NIV)

When you are born of God, when you are born again, you become God’s child, you are adopted into God’s family.

Or as Ephesians chapter one says,

4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Ephesians 1:4-5 (NRSV)

 

Those who are born again, who have been adopted into God’s family, live very different lives from those in the world.

Maxie Dunham told the story of how several years ago the American Red Cross was gathering supplies, medicine, clothing, and food for the suffering people of Biafra, Nigeria.

Inside one of the boxes that arrived at the collecting depot...was a letter. It said,

"We have recently been converted and because of our conversion we want to try to help. We won’t ever need these again. Can you use them for something?"

Inside that box were several Ku Klux Klan sheets. The Red Cross workers, cut the sheets into strips and were eventually used to bandage the wounds of black persons in Africa.

Symbols of hatred had become bandages of love.

Maxie Dunnam, Commentary on Galatians

When you believe in Jesus—not just believe certain facts about Jesus—you are born again, God adopts you as His child.

The ongoing result is a changed family, a changed life, and changed behavior:

Hatred gives way to love.

Resentment melts into forgiveness.

Perversion gives way to purity.

Greed yields to generosity.

Ambition dies to servanthood.

 

You can’t rewind or rewrite your life, but as you believe in Jesus, as you embrace your new Father and family, He will change your future.