John 1:1-8
“Jesus and the Seeker”
By: Kenneth Emerson Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport
News, VA
Back in 1976, Jimmy Carter was running against President Gerald Ford.
And you might recall that Jimmy Carter caused a bit of a sensation.
Because during his campaign, Jimmy Carter said publicly that he was a Born again
Christian.
It caused a stir, and it was a term that was used about him over and over again.
Wow...Jimmy Carter is not just your ordinary run of the mill Christian.
He is a born again Christian!
A few years ago, I was the Youth Director at my home church in Syracuse, NY., and a
young girl in the group asked me about “those born again type of Christians.”
Now, what would You answer to that?
I told her that there is actually no other sort.
If you are a Christian, then you are a born again Christian.
In fact, there’s no such thing as a non born again Christian.
When I was still in high school, I had heard about born again Christians...
I had even met a few...
But I didn’t understand the concept.
I thought that a born again Christian was a person who had once been a Christian....had
somehow stopped being a Christian at some point....and then had become a Christian
again.
Somehow, it seemed to me, that they had messed things up somewhere along the
line....whereas the rest of us had stayed the course.
The only kink in that notion was that the people who called themselves born again
Christians seemed to be the people who were actually excited about their faith.
Somehow, for them, going to church was something they looked forward too....reading
the Bible was something they actually did--even in their spare time.
And they seemed to be the only ones who knew a lot about the Bible.
When I was a senior in high school some friends of mine and I were discussing the
future....we were talking about college and we were talking about careers....
I don’t think I said it out loud, but I thought to myself, “When I grow-up I’m going to be
a Methodist Minister.”
I had felt that call as far back as I could remember....
But I knew that something had to happen to me before I could make that dream a reality.
I knew that I was missing something...but I wasn’t quite sure what that “something was”.
And maybe that is how Nicodemus felt when he came to speak to Jesus secretly at night.
Nicodemus had spent his entire life trying to follow God.
Keeping the commandments, and doing all that their traditions required of him.
He was respected by all as an elder and ruler.
But deep down inside Nicodemus was missing something...
And he knew it.
Nicodemus was a Seeker.
On the outside Nicodemus was the perfect example of a Jewish Rabbi.
But inside, like all of us, he knew that there were secret sins that he had struggled with
his whole life.
At first he may have thought that these things were the follies of youth, that they would
disapear with age.
But instead of getting better with age, the weaknesses of human beings only grow more
and more ingrained.
Like many of us, Nicodemus wanted to change....but was unable to do it!
When I was a teenager....thinking about becoming a minister....I thought to myself,
“I’m going to have to clean up my act first. I don’t know how I’m gonna do it.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked, “Surely he cannot enter a
second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
Nicodemus is right.
Changing ourselves is impossible!
The child development experts tell us that the first two years of a child’s life are the most
crucial because in that time the majority of personality is formed.
The farther we are away from the womb, the harder it is to change who we are.
We might get a little better at covering it up, or smoothing over some of the rough edges,
but the inside is still the same.
No matter what we do, everything that we make of this life is the result of what we are
inside.
Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
This is true with everything that we do.
If our hearts are full of bitterness or rage then the work that we do, the words that we say,
even the way that we drive a car or play a game will reflect what we are on the inside.
“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
The Kingdom of God is Spiritual. And to enter it, we must be born of the Spirit.
There are two births....our natural and our spiritual birth....our natural birth comes in the
flesh from our earthly mother and father, but because of the Fall we are naturally born
without the Spirit of God....and to dust we shall return.....
We are not naturally children of God....
We must be adopted through faith in Jesus Christ in order to become God’s
children....as the Bible declares in the 1st chapter of John.... “Yet to all who recieved Him, He
gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of
human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Flesh doesn’t enter the Kingdom of God.
Have you ever heard the phrase: “God has no grandchildren?”
It means that it is not enough for a person to grow up in a religious family.
It is not enough for a person to just learn about Christ from his or her parents and to live
according to those teachings.
Rather every person has to make their own personal decision for God, every person has
to be born again--no matter how much holiness they have learned and practiced because of the
home they were born into or what they did throughout their lives.
Every person must decide for themselves whether or not they will allow God to be the
ruler of their lives.
This is the only fair way.
This puts everyone on the same level before God.
It makes everyone equal.
And that is Good News!!!
Especially for those who have not had all the breaks--especially for those who have been
really, really lost, those who have been raised in a godless household.
Whether we were born in a crack house, the White House, or the Waffle House, we all
must be born again!!!
Whether we are members of Noland Memorial United Methodist Church, Parkview
United Methodist Church, Trinity United Methodist Church, First United Methodist Church,
Saint James United Methodist Church, or St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome we all must be born
again!
The very words born again or born from above tells us volumes about the process
involved in becoming one of God’s children.
Think about the first birth you went through, or what you know about it.
First off, you were conceived.
And it is obviously not anything you did that brings that about.
So it is with our Spiritual conception--God, by the power of His Spirit, brings it
about--God plans it--and God executes it.
Just as a baby in the womb is surrounded by water, so God surrounds us all with His
Spirit, protecting us and sheltering the growing seed, the seed of faith.
And the first birth is the same.
It is the work of the mother, not the child.
There may be some help of course.
Help from doctors and nurses who assist the mother in the case of our physical birth.
Or help from spiritual midwives, from friends, from evangelists, from neighbors, and
those who have been praying for our salvation in the case of our spiritual birth.
In fact, the only thing we have to do on our own is do what our new bodies want us to
do--all we have to do is breath.
Breath the air of life, breath the Spirit---which in Hebrew is translated wind or breath.
How can a person be born again?
All it takes is wanting to breath the breathe of God, All you have to be is a seeker......
“seek and you shall find”....
Be willing to trust the Holy Spirit....
And believe that God loves you.....
As a matter of fact God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that we
can be born again!
Being born again involves surrendering.
Being willing to be pushed out of the darkness, and into the glorious light of God.
During my first year of college....I got the crazy notion that I wanted to be a rock star.
Since I couldn’t play the guitar or the drums, and since I wasn’t aware that I couldn’t sing
a note....I decided I would be the lead singer.
At school, I saw an ad that read, “Guitarist looking for singer to form a Christian rock
band.”
“Hey,” I thought, “that sounds cool.”
So, I called this kid up on the phone and told him I was interested in singing with him.
His first question was: “Are you a Christian?”
Although, I thought the question to be a bit odd, I answered, “Yes.”
After all, I had gone to church all my life....and I even planned on becoming a minister
some day.
We set a time to meet, and he came over to my apartment to pick me up.
He looked like he was already a rock star.
Long hair, cool clothes...the whole bit.
Anyway, Tim and I became fast friends.
And in a very short time, I came to the very real conclusion that his understanding of
what it is to be a Christian, and my understanding were polar opposites.
He was actually living--to the best of his young ability--his faith.
And even though he never questioned my answer to his initial question....
I knew that he had something I didn’t have.
Jesus was the most important part of Tim’s life, and it made him different than any other
kid I had ever met.
For the very first time in my life---I saw that it was actually possible to walk the walk
and talk the talk.
So I started to do some really heavy thinking.....
I started thinking about God.....
I started thinking about the devil....
I started thinking about the meaning of life.....
And I started talking about things--spiritual things--that I had never even thought of
before.
One night, I was walking down the sidewalk all by myself
and I felt that I had come to a cross-road.
Was I going to give my life completely over to God....giving up on the world and
everything that I had placed between myself and a relationship with Jesus.
Or was I going to continue down the road I was was already going?
Seeking, but not finding....
Looking but not seeing....
Listening, but not hearing....
I decided to give all I had to God....it was a big decision for me, but I made it....and I
have to tell you that it was the most thrilling experience of my life....and the most important
decision I have ever made.
My life has not been even close to the same since.
I had been born again!
And once we are born again, we begin to see things in a spiritual fashion.
We discover new truths operating in our lives--spiritual truths.
We learn new ways of dealing with life in the world.
We begin to live differently than before.
Our priorities change in a drastic way!
Instead of living just for ourselves....we gain a brand new outlook where we can start
forgetting about ourselves....and strat thinking about others...gaining a new confidence that we
never knew was possible.
In order to be born again, Jesus Christ must be the most important force in our
lives....God must come first....before any material possession or comfort this world has to
offer....before any temptation or sin....we must decide to give them all up....repent....make a
three-hundred and sixty degree turn....and live completely for God....
Then and only then...is anything possible.
Then and only then does real life.....
eternal life...our citizenship in heaven begin.
So whatever happened to nicodemus who had become a Jesus-seeker?
Did Nicodemus experience the second birth?
Did Nicodemus begin to live differently?
Did Nicodemus find what he was looking for?
apparently so because Nicodemus was radically changed as a result of this
conversation in which Jesus challenged him to get his spiritual eyes opened.
We know that Nicodemus risked his reputation and place of prominance in the Jewish
ruling body to speak up on Jesus’ behalf at His trial before the High Priest the night before Jesus
was killed.
And Nicodemus shows up again in John chapter 19 as well.
Nicodemus, accompanied by Joseph of Aremethea stood before Pilate in the light of
day.
They asked for Christ’s crucified body.
Nicodemus even supplied the burial herbs and wrapping.
Christian tradition has it that Nicodemus was baptized by Peter and John, suffered
persecution from hostile Jews, lost his membership in the Sanhedrin, and was forced to leave
Jerusalem because of his Christian faith.
Nicodemus sought Jesus in the darkness....but he proclaimed his faith in the light.
Do you have questions you need to ask Jesus?
Is there something missing?
My friends, if you have not done so already, are you willing, like Nicodemus, to walk out
of the darkness and be born into the glorious light of God?
Have you been Born Again?
