You Must Be Born Again
John 3:1-21
Pastor Jim Luthy
Not long after I became a believer, I sat down in a Denny’s restaurant and told a friend of mine about Jesus. He grew up in a Catholic home and was a bit familiar with the things I shared with him. He was a decent man and listened respectfully. He said he believed in God and in Jesus, but in the end he responded quite bluntly: “I don’t go for that ‘born again’ crap!”
That friend of mine was in a similar position as Nicodemus when he came to Jesus at night. Nicodemus was a man who knew the Scriptures. He was a “man of the Pharisees,” the most influential party of the Jews in his day. Jesus’ reference to Moses in verse 14 indicated that he knew Nicodemus was schooled in the Torah. Nicodemus was also a good man, well respected, and religious. He was a member of the Jewish ruling council, a respected member of the community. He was drawn to Jesus’ teaching, calling him “Rabbi…a teacher who has come from God,” claiming that “no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
So Jesus replied, just as I had repeated to this friend of mine, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
What are some of the ways you can relate to Nicodemus as he comes to hear Jesus in the night? Perhaps you, like Nicodemus, are familiar with the Scriptures. Maybe you are considered by many people to be a good man or woman, well respected, maybe even an active member of the church.
I was out witnessing door-to-door one time in Kelso, Washington. A man answered the door and I asked him if he knew for certain he was going to heaven. He answered affirmatively. When I asked him how he knew for certain that he would go to heaven, he told me it was because he attended such-and-such church and served on the board for 14 years. He was a modern day Nicodemus. I knew that if Jesus were able to talk to this man he would say the same thing I tried to tell him to no avail: “you must be born again.”
Are you drawn to Jesus? Are you captivated by his miracles? So was Nicodemus. But Jesus wants so much more for us than compliance. He came to give us life. He came to offer us citizenship in the kingdom of God. But there is only one way into that kingdom and Nicodemus lacked it. He lacked spiritual life. He lacked the vitality that comes from kingdom living. The entrance to that kingdom was not through the knowledge of the Scriptures. It was not through goodness or respectability or even religious activity. It required more than being drawn to Jesus or even believing in his miracles. If Nicodemus was to see the kingdom of God—if you are to have the vitality of life Jesus came to give—you must be born again.
Nicodemus’ lack of awareness of spiritual things is quite evident in his initial response: “How can a man be born again when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” When Jesus spoke of the need for supernatural power, Nicodemus could only think in natural terms.
Jesus explained, “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” There are two sides to being born again—water and Spirit. Jesus’ entire conversation with Nicodemus was meant to explain that this knowledgeable and respectable Jewish leader had only scratched the surface of one of those sides.
You must be born again. You may have heard it called regeneration. It is often referred to as “new birth.” Whatever you want to call it, I want to assure you it is not “crap.” It is the doorway to the kingdom of God. It is the entrance to life in His presence. It is real life. It is spiritual life and vitality that builds in us hope, love, peace, and joy.
There are two characteristics, Jesus said, to being born again. First, the new birth is substantive. When Jesus says you must be born of water, he is speaking of the natural aspects of being born again. This was always the objective of Jewish law and tradition. Men and women sought to be right with God in their own actions, thinking wrongfully that by their actions alone they could find peace with God. It was this pursuit that led the Jewish rulers to incorporate all sorts of religious activity into the normal Jewish life. The God-fearing Jew was consumed with ceremonial washing, religious rites, and traditional practices that might make them clean and acceptable before God.
While there is no righteousness that comes from observing the law, there is a natural or substantive element to being born again. Paul touches on it when he instructs husbands to love their wife the way Jesus loved the church and cleansed the church by the washing with water through the word. Paul also touches on that same natural element when he exhorts the Corinthians to be “transformed by the renewing of their minds.”
You see, there are substantive elements of being born again that we can see and hear. To be born again, we must seek after Jesus. We must hear the word of God. John’s introduction to this gospel included this commentary (John 1:12): “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
The substantive aspect of new birth is receiving and believing. We can grasp that. We can ask ourselves if we have received him. We can ask if we believe. That makes sense to us. This being born of water, is expressed through our responsiveness to God. It is expressed in song…
I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, No turning back, no turning back.
You see, we understand the natural concept of conversion. Every religion in the world practices it. We can easily grasp the concept of believing in something or changing our mind about a matter. That aspect of new birth is substantive. It’s why we put such an emphasis on what is often referred to as the sinner’s prayer, when we confess our sins and ask Jesus to be Lord.
When I was born again, I never said the sinner’s prayer. I never verbally expressed my sin. I never asked Jesus to come into my heart. Tammie told me the gospel and I believed it and I received it. It all happened in here (my heart). All I could do was hang my head in humility and cry. After a few moments, I lifted my head and Tammie told me that the angels were singing in heaven, rejoicing over me as they do every sinner that repents and turns to God. How did she know I had been born again? It was written on my face that I was a new man. The old had gone and the new had come. Jesus birthed new life in me and she could see it. It was only after a few months of hearing people in the church talk about the sinner’s prayer that I began to wonder if I was born again. When I went to the Lord to pray that “special” prayer, his life in me spoke to me that my new life began with believing and receiving and not with the manufactured words of our tradition.
But isn’t it entirely possible for us to convert and say some words and not mean it? In the movie, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” the man converts to the Greek Orthodox church so he can marry his Greek goddess and satisfy her family. But there was nothing real to it. There was no believing. There was no receiving.
I think a lot of people come to the sinner’s prayer with their fingers crossed behind their back, as though they see certain undeniable things about Jesus but they are reserving the right to hold on to their own notions and ideas and values. Is that believing and receiving? Do you think the man that thought he would go to heaven because he served on the church board didn’t sing “I have decided to follow Jesus” or something like it a number of times in church? Do you think Nicodemus didn’t express in a number of ways that he had decided to follow God? Those of you who grew up in the church, if you made your decision to follow Jesus at a very young age, dare I challenge you to consider that maybe you have been born of water but lack something more? Jesus said to Nicodemus—and he says to you too—that you must also be born of the Spirit.
That’s the second characteristic of being born again that Nicodemus did not understand. There is not just a substantive element to new birth where we hear and learn and believe and decide to follow Jesus. The new birth is also spiritual. After John 1:12 says that all who received him and believed in his name were given the right to become children of God, John comments that we are “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” When Jesus says we must be born again, that word for again is anothen, meaning “from above.” We must be born of water AND Spirit. This was what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus and what he wants us to know too.
There is an aspect of being born again that we cannot see—not with human eyes. We can see someone showing an interest in Christ and in spiritual things. We can observe the man or woman asking questions, attending a revival meeting, reading books, or even just slowly becoming more open to the gospel. The Spirit of God that completes new birth, however, we cannot see. He is like the wind, Jesus explains, blowing where it pleases. “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” (John 3:9-10)
Jesus would point out that Nicodemus was just a natural man who had only seen things from a natural perspective. Nicodemus was a respected religious leader but he did not know he needed to be born of the Spirit. Jesus was uniquely qualified to teach him.
“I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:11-15)
Jesus was and is uniquely qualified to teach us about heavenly things. When he refers to himself as the Son of Man, he is reminding Nicodemus that he is, indeed, a man, just as we are. But he is also one who has come from heaven. He knows about heavenly things by experience. Therefore he knows that people like Nicodemus are in desperate need for heavenly things. “You must be born again,” he says to the Jewish leader.
“You must be born again,” he says to you.
The Israelites had been rescued from slavery in Egypt, but were left wandering around in the wilderness because they refused to enter the Promised Land because of fear and faithlessness. Soon they were whining in the desert because they didn’t have enough bread and water.
Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” (Numbers 21:6-9)
Nicodemus did not really know spiritual life because snakes bit him. Jesus referred to a group of Nicodemus’ peers as a “brood of vipers.” Their bite was condemnation, dooming people with their lifeless religion and loveless self-righteousness. The antidote for the Israelites in Moses’ day was to make a snake that looked like the snakes that were biting them but had a God-ordained power to give life in place of death. Jesus was fashioned into a man to look like the men who were bringing condemnation to the land. Like the bronze snake, Jesus was to be lifted up so that people like you and me and Nicodemus could look upon him, and by believing and receiving we could live. The bronze snake only offered temporary life, though. Jesus offers eternal life.
“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:16-21)
I don’t know how Nicodemus responded to Jesus message. I do know that he made it quite clear that Nicodemus’ options were simply darkness or light. Nicodemus came to him at night, but he was living in darkness. He was pursuing God naturally, relying on his own efforts, his knowledge of the Scriptures, his own goodness and respectability. If you are relying on your own efforts, you cannot afford to have your deeds exposed. You cannot afford to confess the folly in your thinking or the depravity of your own heart. So you remain in the dark in condemnation.
Jesus is the light who has come into the world. If you live by the truth you will come into the light, though your deeds will be exposed. The truth is that God already knows the folly of your thinking and the depravity of your heart and anyone who is alive to God knows that about you too. That’s why we open our doors and our arms to everyone who comes into the light because we know that none of us are without sin and without need of a Savior. But when you come into the light, the condemnation for your sin is lifted. The lifelessness of your religion is replaced with life in the kingdom. That is what God does. When we receive Jesus and believe in his name, he births us into a new life—the old has gone, the new has come. When you are born again of water AND Spirit, it will be plain that your new life has been born through God.
I need to tell you the rest of the story about my friend. I continued to befriend him and eventually he and his wife attended a financial management class at our church. Still impressed with the teachings of Jesus and the love that existed in his people, they began to attend church with us. Before long, the pastor of our church visited with them and shared with them how they can see the kingdom of God. He and his wife both believed in Jesus’ name and received him as Lord, even receiving what he had once called that “born again crap.” And so they were born again. Jesus changed their lives dramatically and they still serve him today. My friend’s name is Mark Clerget. He and his wife Christina and their five children moved with us to start this church. I saw them being born of water. I watched as they inched ever closer and grew evermore open to the gospel. But it is plain to see that the dramatic change in their lives was a supernatural act of a powerful God.
You must be born again. Don’t be bitten by the ways of man who look to natural remedies for our separation from God. Don’t come and tell God you’ll do better. Simply look to Jesus with belief and receive him as Lord. Come into the light and he will replace your self-efforts and your condemnation with eternal life. Your substantive role is to believe and receive. The work of the Spirit will be to give you new birth. This is why God sent his Son. You must be born again.
