What Does It Mean To Be Born Again?
John 3:1-16
I. Born Again Defined.
A. The strong assertion, “Except a man be born again.” The word “again” (anoôthen PWS: 80) has three different meanings in Greek. It means...
1. From the first: from the beginning or completely and fully
2. Again: a second time, a repeated act (John 3:4) (cp. Galatians 4:9)
3. From above: from the top, which means from God (cp. John 19:11).
B. The point is this, a man must be “born again." He must be...
Born completely and fully, a complete and full change
2. Born all over again, in the sense of a second time.
3. Born from above, from God.
C. Jesus gave the nature of the new birth. It is spiritual, not physical and material.
D. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
II. It means to begin with a change in one’s relationship with God.
A. JFB - be born again — begin life anew in relation to God
B. Before the new birth, man is totally alienated from God.
C. Ephesians 2:12 "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:"
D. Ephesians 2:13-15 "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. [14] For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; [15] Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;"
E. John 1:12 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"
F. The egg’s no chick by falling from the hen, Nor man a Christian till he’s born again. - John Bunyan (1628-1688)
III. It involves a radical change of heart
A. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
B. Ezekiel 18:30-32 "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. [31] Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? [32] For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."
C. In his book, An Anthropologist on Mars, neurologist Oliver Sacks tells about Virgil, a man who had been blind from early childhood. When he was 50, Virgil underwent surgery and was given the gift of sight. But as he and Dr. Sacks found out, having the physical capacity for sight is not the same as seeing. Virgil’s first experiences with sight were confusing. He was able to make out colors and movements, but arranging them into a coherent picture was more difficult. Over time, he learned to identify various objects, but his habits--his behaviors--were still those of a blind man. Dr. Sacks asserts, "One must die as a blind person to be born again as a seeing person. It is the interim, the limbo . . . that is so terrible." To truly see Jesus and his truth means more than observing what he did or said, it means a change of identity.
D. The distance between the head and the heart is 18 inches. Unfortunately, a ’head’ (intellectual) knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, fully knowing and giving mental assent to the plan of salvation, without also a ’heart’ acceptance that brings the personal relationship that the Bible demands, avails nothing to any man. Christ wants your ’heart’, not just your head because "The Lord sees not as man sees; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." It is vitally important that you make sure it is not just head knowledge and mental assent you have given to Jesus Christ. He needs the complete surrender of your heart and life so that you may be truly born again. Eighteen inches can mean an eternity with Christ or an eternity with- out Christ. Are you sure of your personal relationship to Him? Why not settle the question in your heart once and for all right now?"
E. Psalms 51:10 "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
F. II Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new
IV. It means a complete change of life
A. "Trying to get a unsaved individual to live like a Christian without being born again is like trying to teach a pig how to sing." Someone has said that you should never try to teach a pig to sing. All you get is frustrated, and it really annoys the pig. Likewise don’t try to change an unbeliever’s lifestyle. Bring him to Christ and when he is born-again Christ will transform his life.
B. Ephesians 2:1 "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:"
C. Ephesians 4:24 "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
D. Romans 6:11 "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
E. An illiterate couple had just been saved. They met with a group of believers who dressed alike. The men wore red shirts while engaged in a certain project, so the woman made one for her husband. He came home after the meeting, however, with a look of disappointment on his face because the others had a message printed on their shirts but he did not. His wife, undaunted by her inability to read, sewed three words on his shirt, which she copied from a sign in a store window across the street. He wore it to the next meeting and came home bubbling with joy. He said all of the men really liked the inscription because it so aptly described the wonderful change they had seen in his life. It turned out that his wife had written, "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT."
F. Romans 6:4 "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
V. It means becoming part of a new society
A. Ephesians 2:12 "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:"
B. Ephesians 1:5-6 "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, [6] To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."
C. Ephesians 2:19 "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;"
D. A sharp distinction ought to be made between a church and an audience. An audience is a group of unrelated people drawn together by a short-lived attraction. An audience is a crowd. A church is a family. An audience is a gathering. A church is a fellowship. An audience is a heap of stones. A church is a temple.
E. Ephesians 4:17-19 "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
F. The Christian life was not meant to live in solitude forever, nor is it suited to it. It is a social life. All its movements suggest and prophesy a brotherhood. That brotherhood of believers is the Christian church. - Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)
G. There is no brotherhood of man without the fatherhood of God.
H. God does not want Christians to be nomads, hermits, or recluses. In the light of this truth it might be good if we gave up singing one of the old spirituals: On the Jericho Road, There’s room for just two, No more and no less, Just Jesus and You. Think about it. If that song is right, we had better get "off" the Jericho Road. That is not the highway to glory because, as the New Testament repeatedly discloses, the glory highway is broad enough to allow all of God’s people to march along together. Side by side.
VI. It means a change of direction to a new destination
A. Two roads - two destinations - Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it."
B. "Stand up if you want to go to heaven!" the preacher exhorted his congregation. The worshipers rose as one, with exception of a man in the front pew. "Are you telling me you do not want to go to heaven?" thundered the preacher. "When I die, yes," the man responded. "But I thought you were getting up a load right now."
C. Be Born Once Die Twice - Be Born Twice Die Once
D. John 3:16
E. John 11:25-26 "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: [26] And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"
F. John 5:24 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
G. Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952) "Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to heaven. Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are his enemies, can go to heaven."
