Born Again - YOU CAN WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN
As the prisoner is led to a solitary cell and the iron door is slammed shut, she thinks "This is it -- and she sinks down on the dirty, hard little cot and leans her head into her hands and weeps. She thinks about what got her here and wishes she could start all over again, but she knows it’s too late. Her last meal is already coming down the hallway.
** Have you ever wished you could start all over again? To start new with a clean slate -- no marks or blemishes or past mistakes weighing you down?
Of course, you’re certainly not as bad off as this prisoner but none-the-less, we’ve all done things we’re not too proud of and have had to suffer the consequences -- maybe,
divorce, aids, some other health problem, loss of respect, humiliation, etc. And the guilt that slowly eats away and gnaws at us. Or like the lady in the story – jail or even death row in prison. At times like these, we often we could turn back the clock and start all over again.
IS THERE REALLY A WAY TO START NEW? TO WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN?
The Bible tells us there is a way for us to do just that -- Col. 3:10 talks about the "New"
self which is being renewed in the image of its Creator. (scripture on screen to read)
Definition of renewed -
What this means for us is to be renewed in our thinking so that we start thinking on good things; to be renewed in our mindset so that when our minds become so used to doing what our new thinking is -- we do it automatically! And most importantly to be renewed in our spirit, so that we can look forward to a satisfying, fulfilling, painless life in God’s kingdom. Let’s look at Rev. 21:1-4 sometime for just a glimpse of what life in God’s kingdom means. --- This is one of my favorite Bible passages because it say there in vs.3 , please read that with me, "That death will be no more, neither will mourning, nor outcry or pain.") There’s some wonderful news in that passage of the Holy Scriptures!
----- I’m going to be reading a lot from John, chapter 3, verses 1-12. Jesus tells us in this passage just what we need to do to "renew" or “start over” again with our lives. He was talking to one of the religious leaders of his day, Nicodemus, who a Jew and a Pharisee. If you’ll turn your Bibles there, it reads (starting with vs. 1) “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "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."
Do you know what an honor it was for a religious leader of the Jews to address a person as Rabbi back in Jesus day! It was a great honor! It was a title reserved only for the highly esteemed, and the religious leaders mostly only highly esteemed themselves.!
-----Jesus had been teaching and performing miracles for some time now and this Pharisee named Nicodemus recognized that there was something special about Jesus. The verse there says he approached Jesus at night. Why was that? Well, he may have approached Jesus by night to keep from being seen by his pals (most of the Pharisees and leaders opposed Jesus teaching, mostly because it was undeniably superior to theirs) or possibly because he was a businessman and nighttime would provide him with some free time (though he may have not had to work at all as he was wealthy) or possibly because that may have been the only time he could get close enough to talk with Jesus as the crowds swarmed about him so much by day.
Anyway, Nicodemus approached Jesus and said "We know you are a teacher from God, because no one could do the signs you are doing if God’s will were not with him."
Now remember, Jesus was well into his earthly ministry and had already performed oodles of miracles. Just to name a few:
--Jesus had changed water into wine at a wedding
--expelled demons from the possessed
--healed the blind, deaf, lame, paralyzed
--fed 5 thousand people with just 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread -- among other
miraculous works—we could go on and on and on and on….
** So Jesus had many times shown his power and godly spirit by means of these miracles or signs.
So, Nicodemus, not being a stupid man, (he was a scholar like all religious leaders of the day) probably said to himself, ’Hey, I ought to talk to this Jesus personally. If he is the Messiah as people have been proclaiming him to be, maybe I can walk in his light and gain an easy route into God’s kingdom.’
----- And Jesus, because he is who he is, the very Son of God, he was wise to Nicodemus’s unsaid thoughts and his reply shows this. He says in verse 3, would you read that with me please, "I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he has been born again."
This thoroughly puzzled Nicodemus! Look at vs 4 with me. Read that with me, would ya. Nicodemus is speaking again here. "How can a man be born again when he is old? Surely, he cannot a second time, enter into his mother’s womb to be born!" (Note the exclamation point, Nicodemus was floored! Here’s this religious leader well versed in the knowledge of the Scriptures up to that time, a scholar and probably pretty darned proud of it, and he was floored! This made no sense at all to him, even though it should have which I will elaborate on later.)
----- Jesus in response to this, says in vs. 5 "I tell you the truth, no one, can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again of water and the spirit."
THIS IS WHERE WE COME IN ---YOU AND I.
vs. 5 applies to us today just as it did to those people almost 2000 years ago in Jesus day.
Nicodemus posed a good question did he not? I mean, after all, we can’t enter into our mother’s wombs and be born again! (A picture came into my mind right while I was writing this portion of the sermon. Even if we could shrink ourselves down that small -- our mothers would say, ’Like , Yeah, Right! Like I’m going through that again! No way Hosea! Go get yourself a surrogate. You can be officially adopted now!’ Being a mother of 4…well let’s just say Unh, Unh…!
Anyway, what Jesus was talking about was something much better, much more enduring, and much more rewarding than a physical, human birth -- though that is something to rejoice in --. He was talking about a spiritual birth. Something that takes place inside of us, inside our hearts and minds. A change in the way we think and live and Nicodemus just did’nt get it!
SO WHY DO WE NEED A SPIRITUAL BIRTH?
Jesus said we need to be born again, but why??
Well, because, every since Adam and Eve ate that "golden delicious" apple (my favorite!) babies all down through the generations have been being born into inherited sin. When sin went into Adam and Eve’s genes, it was inherited down through the generations into ours. ( We don’t really know what kind of fruit Adam & Eve ate - I’m just using a golden delicious apple because the popular story is that Adam & Eve ate of the apple, and I like them.) So they ate of the apple and since then as.....
Romans 3:23 says, (would you read it with me) "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." You know, I don’t think I believe that saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"! It sure didn’t do anything for Adam and Eve! We’ve been sick and seeing doctors every since.
----- Getting back to the message here. Jesus goes on to say in vs.6, of John chapter 3, "Flesh gives birth to flesh and spirit gives birth to spirit." (read again for emphasis)
***Since God’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, humans, us, cannot enter into it unless we are born again spiritually. Hmm…makes sense or at least I think it does. Our thinking, our aims in life, our principles, and hearts desire must be cleansed through rebirth - being born again.
Now remember, I said earlier this should have made sense to Nicodemus?
Nicodemus and the other religious leaders of Jesus day, thought the way into God’s kingdom was through good deeds (Isaiah 64:6) and pious rituals. Besides they were the religious leaders, why would they have to be reborn. Preposterous! But they of all people, should have been able to understand what Jesus meant by being born again. They’d had years of religious training and Scripture study. but they were too puffed up with pride and self-importance. To them, only the Gentiles needed to be washed clean and born again and that into the Jewish way of belief or religion.
**** But Jesus told us in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except by me." We can only be born again through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ***** (Have you noticed how he used that phrase "no one" several times? But still the Pharisees didn’t get it.)
Jesus is the only way through which we can accomplish being born again spiritually.
Before he came to earth and was nailed to a cross for us, we were forever lost to sin, because we are ALL born with it -- we inherited it from Adam & Eve. So don’t blame your mom & dad. Blame Adam & Eve! Or better yet blame Satan who deceived them!
So here we are---all with inherited sin and no hope until God sent Jesus. But! God was way ahead of Satan. Long before Adam & Eve’s sin, he formed a plan to get us out of the hot water he knew we would all be in. That plan can be summed up in one word. Jesus! Jesus came to earth and took our sins upon himself so that we could look forward to something more than just struggling through this life and then dying. Jesus came to take our sins upon himself so we could be cleansed, renewed now & in future in God’s Kingdom.
Would you read John 3:16 with me --. " 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." It is only by believing in the son of God, Jesus, that we can be "born again and have the hope of eternal life in God’s Kingdom. Remember, that place where death, or mourning, or outcry, or pain will be no more! I don’t know about you, but that’s where I want to be forever, not in this world like it is today forever.( which is tantamount to hell)
SO, exactly how do we get this rebirth? Be born again? So that we can have eternal life in God’s Kingdom? Going back again to vs 5, remember Jesus said we must be born again of water & spirit.
----- The 1st step toward getting reborn in spirit is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he came to earth and died for our sins, repent or be sorry for your sins, and ask him for forgiveness and tell him you want him as Lord of your life from this moment on. By doing this you are asking God to come into your life, to take over and change you on the inside; liked we talked about before, a change in the way you think, the way you live, and in your heart. This is the cleansing or being born again of the spirit.
----- The next step is to be baptized publicly to show the world what you’ve already proclaimed in your heart. This is the cleansing of being born again of water.
Water & spirit.
It’s as simple as that! No hard labor pains. You don’t have to be of a special social status! It’s what’s in your heart that matters to God. When you get reborn you become a child of God. John 1:12 says, "To all those who received him, to those who believe in his name (Jesus), he gave the right to become children of God."
At this point, your slate gets wiped clean. All your past sins, no matter what, are forgiven and you can start over with a clean slate. No matter what your past. No matter how bad you think your old slate was. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow." In Jeremiah 31:34 God says, "For I will forgive their weaknesses and remember their sins no more."
And after we get reborn, Then what? What can you expect? Well------------
Remember! it’s a New Birth. You will have just been "born again" and like a newborn baby you will have a lot of growing and learning to do. But since you will now be God’s child, you can rest assured He will be there to help you. God is a very loving Father. There is no better! And you will also have a new family of Christian brothers and sisters anxious to share in your newfound joy and to help you grow step by step.
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" I John 3:1.
.....You cannot wipe out all the consequences of your past mistakes - you will still have to deal with them but you can now do it with God’s help, the Creator Himself! The best Dad in the universe! and without the oppressive guilt!
***** God wants you to be happy! He wants you to be born again so you too can have the promise of a better life now and in the future. He wants to be your spiritual Father.
So, how about it? Would you like to feel new inside? to wipe the slate clean? Please turn to Rev. 3:20 with me. Read that with me. “Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.”
Jesus is waiting for you right now. The Bible says he wants to be your friend – to come in and “eat” with you – you do that with friends! And he’s waiting – he’s standing at the door (of your heart). Your opportunity is now! My friends, if you have not accepted Jesus into your life, I’d like to ask you, to urge you, to do it NOW…. What if he goes on to another door & your opportunity is lost? There’s no guarantee you’ll get another one.
Bow heads in prayer.
Altar call.
Final prayer.
