Amazingly, God has got me excited about this (sometimes overly familiar) passage! I never before thought about the fact that when Jesus said "you must be born again," He was talking to someone who believed it was exactly because of his BIRTH that he was acceptable to God. Jesus was being more radical in this conversation than I have previously realized!
Sermon intro:
You ever feel like you've been lied to? Not by a person, but by the SYSTEM? Maybe you always heard, "get good grades, get a job, work hard, you'll get ahead," but it seems all you do is fall further behind. Maybe the message you heard was, "go to church, read your Bible, be good, and nothing bad can happen to you." That didn't prove true, did it?
Nicodemus was a guy who had been lied to. And he wanted the truth. Let's read about it in John chapter 3.
There was a man from the Phariseesnamed Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.2 This man came to Him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit,he cannot enter the kingdom of God.6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “I assure you: We speak what We know and We testify to what We have seen, but youdo not accept Our testimony. 12 If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.
19 “This, then, is the judgment: The lighthas come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives bythe truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
Thought this went pretty well for a first shot!
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