"You Must Be Born Again

Rev. Terry Breum St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lindenhurst, Illinois Third Sunday After Pentecost June 22, 2014 "You Must Be Born Again John 3:1-21 (ESV) [1] Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. [2] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "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." [3] Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." [4] Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" [5] Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' [8] The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." [9] Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" [10] Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? [11] Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. [12] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? [13] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. [14] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." [16] "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. [21] But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God." Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen. John wrote the Gospel of John for this very reason. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may life in his name. After John came to believe in Jesus as the Son of God he spent the rest of his life doing his best to convince all that Jesus truly is the Christ the Son of God that that eternal life is only possible 1

through Jesus. John began to follow Jesus as a teenager and John lived well into his 90 s and he lived every day to convince people that Jesus truly was who he said he was and eternal life is only possible through Jesus. Parents, do you live every day desiring to see your children come to know Jesus and be saved. The condition of your child s soul is the most important aspect of their lives. It is more important than their grades, their athletic skills, their musical skills, and their social life. Nothing is more important than for your children than to be saved and to have a relationship with Jesus. When you wake up in the middle of the night are you asking the Lord Jesus to save your child? Pastor, you make this sound like an unhealthy obsession. Aren t you getting a little carried away. Absolutely not. Is there anything more precious than a person s soul? No there is not. Every word that John writes he writes so your children and my children, so all of us can come to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved. I call this a healthy obsession. As a pastor my major concern is the soul of each person here. I want God to use our worship services, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and other ministries to bring souls to Jesus. In America sleeping in on Sunday mornings is more important to 70 and 80 percent of our population than coming to worship and bowing down to Christ. In the county I grew up in 98 percent of the population stays away from the church each Sunday. That bothers me terribly. We have the answer to what every human being needs the most. And what every person needs the most is Jesus. And people come to know Jesus when they year the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. Nicodemus, a high powered, highly educated Jewish religious leader came to Jesus by night. He may not have wanted to be seen with Jesus or he may not have wanted to take time away from Jesus ministry during the day. Either way Nicodemus was walking in darkness and now he was talking to the light, Jesus. 2

The conversation was very intense. Jesus cuts through the small talk and speaks these words, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Read 3-11 and comment Regeneration: An act of God alone in which God renews the human heart, making it alive when it was dead. In regeneration, God acts at the origin and deepest point of the human person. Regeneration is a gift of God s grace. It is the immediate supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in one s soul. Its effect is to take you from spiritual death to spiritual life, eternal life. You were dead in your sins but God made you alive in Christ. When the Holy Spirit regenerates you God gives to you the faith to believe. Regeneration precedes faith. You believe in Christ because God did a work in your soul to cause you to believe. Left to yourself you would never believe. i.e. dead battery Nicodemus ought to have understood what Jesus was talking about in relation to being born again. In Ezekiel chapter 36 of the Old Testament the experience of being born again is described. I quote, 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 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. Paul writes, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. This is the work of regeneration. 3

Read 3:12-21 and comment 1. You must be born again. 2. It is God who regenerates your soul. It is God who gives to you the new birth. It is not your doing. It is not your work. It is a work of God and God alone. 3. Jesus died on the cross for with your sins on him. It is his work that brings you into God s family and brings healing to your soul. Jesus paid for it all. Your sins are forgiven for Jesus bore all of those sins on the cross in your place. Jesus paid the price for your sins. He went to hell for them bearing all the guilt and shame. The deeper we understand this we learn we no longer have to carry the guilt and shame of our own sins that we have carried for years. Jesus bore it all for us. The blood of Jesus wipes us clean and we will never perish. To perish is to spend an eternity in hell. The blood of Jesus purifies our souls for heaven. Oh how necessary is the blood of Jesus. 4. Not all will be born again. Those who reject Christ will be condemned to hell. God is the judge. We cannot determine who is born again and who is not. There are going to be people in heaven who we will frankly be surprised to see them. And in heaven we will not see people who we thought for sure would be there. The Bible makes it very clear that God s judgments are utterly perfect. The Bible says on judgment day there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those weeping will be doing so because they know they deserve hell and they realize what a wonderful thing they have missed out on. The gnashing of teeth refers to those in their rage may say, How Dare God Do This To Me? Who does he think he is anyway? These are those who have nothing but utter contempt for God. Oh how they hate God. I want you to hear me on this. Throughout my years of serving Christ I have experienced spiritual warfare, the type 4

of warfare where you sense and feel the powers of hell, as if the very devil himself was in the room. The absolute horror and unrelenting sense of evil that I have felt is so awful that I have not publically spoken of this. I know it is not a place that I even wish to contemplate. I also believe in the struggle between good and evil, God has given to me a taste of heaven and the victory we have in Christ. I know that I want to spend eternity with Jesus and I want all of us to be there together. I do not want anyone to miss out on God s salvation. And as one of your pastors I hope I never do anything that turns you off from following Christ or believing in the true Word of God. If anyone here has never received Christ, please go to Jesus today and ask him to save you. Confess your sins to Him and ask for forgiveness. Everyone who receives Christ, the Bible says, who believes on His name becomes a child of God. 5. Once you are born again God will persevere with you and He will never let you go. Once God saves you God will never forsake you. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 5