Anticipating New Birth: Born Again
In case some of you are new here or if
you are just not paying attention very well, Holly and I are expecting a new
baby in very short order, come about the first week of November. Of course,
this is not our first time going through this process. Almost exactly three
years ago while we were living in
It really is kind of weird, right? It’s unique, it’s a
miracle, there is nothing in our world like birth. Sometimes Holly and I are
sitting on the couch, and I put my hand on her belly, and I feel our new little
baby girl, living inside of her, kick the place where I’ve put my hand. And I
just look at Holly and say, “Do you realize that there is something alive
inside of you? How crazy and amazing and wonderful is that? That there is
something alive inside of you!”
But as I’ve been thinking on and experiencing this
unique and beautiful miracle of new life, a new life living inside of my wife,
I’ve begun to think differently about some of the terminology that surrounds us
as Christians. One of those terms is “born again.” You know, I’ve heard people
say, and there may be some truth to this, I’ve heard them say, “I don’t mind
Christians, I just don’t like the ones who are born again. The born again ones
bother me.” In a lot of circles, he term “born again Christian” has come to
mean a person who is a Christian who forces their beliefs on everyone else. Who
is too pushy about their faith. You might also hear the term Bible-bopper
applied to them. And they are often seen as hypocrites, these born again
Christians, who preach all of this stuff, this Jesus stuff, and they condemn
everyone who doesn’t live like they do, but often times they don’t even follow
their own beliefs.
And I have to say, I feel sorry for the people who
think that’s what it means to be born again, and I feel sorry for the people
who have given born again Christians that kind of lousy reputation. Because
both groups have totally missed out on what it really means to be born again.
The term “born again” comes from an illustration from Jesus, one of his most
famous and most quoted illustrations, from a conversation that he had with a
curious Pharisee named Nicodemus. And what I want to do with you this morning,
is kind of walk with you through this conversation, and just show you the true
brilliance of Jesus and of his use of this illustration of someone being born
again, and what that means in the kingdom of God. Because there are a lot of
similarities between a new birth and you and I receiving new birth through
Jesus.
Let’s look first at verses 3 – 8 in John chapter 3,
which was read for us earlier. I want you to hear this again. Jesus tells
Nicodemus in chapter three that “no one can see the kingdom of God without
being born from above,” or born anew, or born again, depending on your
translation. And Nicodemus just doesn’t quite get it. He’s thinking too
literal. He says, “How can you be born after you’ve grown old? How do you enter
your mother’s womb again to be born?”
So Jesus says, “Look, you don’t get it. No one enters
the
That is some beautiful imagery, and when I hear it, I
can’t help but think maybe Nicodemus started to feel some of the same things
that I felt when I first saw that heartbeat in that little fuzzy
black-and-white peanut in the doctors office. That realization that somewhere
inside, there is a new life. Not a new life made of flesh and blood, but maybe
for the first time he realized that there was a new spirit preparing to be born
within him. That first realization that new life could be alive within him in
the form of a new spirit that has come from above.
You see, for Nicodemus, and for many, not all, but many
of the people who call themselves born again Christians, this was a new
concept. Because being born again isn’t about what’s going on on the outside,
it’s about what’s going on on the inside. You know, you can have the Jesus fish
on the back of your car, and you can wear the WWJD bracelets and you can listen
to K-Love on the radio and you can never miss church or Bible study, but that
doesn’t make you a Christian any more than a growing waistline makes you
pregnant. For Nicodemus, he did all the right things, he wore the right robes,
he hung out with the right people and he studied the right scriptures, but
Jesus said, look, if there isn’t something growing on the inside that is the
cause of all of these things, then they are empty and meaningless and in the
big scheme of things, they just don’t matter. Do you remember what God said to
Samuel when he told Samuel to anoint David as the new king of
That is still true today. There has to be something
alive inside, and not just stuff going on on the outside. That new spirit must
be born within you for you to be saved. All the good deeds in the world and
saying all the right things and all of that stuff won’t get you anywhere,
unless the reason that you are doing all of those things is because something
new has been born within you. Unless you’ve looked on the ultrasound of your
heart, and you’ve seen that the spirit has given birth to a new spirit within
you.
Nicodemus then looks at Jesus, and gives the same kind
of response that a lot of fathers, at least, the surprised ones, give when they
first realize that there is a new life growing within. He says, “How can this
be?!” How did this happen? Ironically, that is also the same question that
Holly’s dad asks me. But Nicodemus is taken aback, he’s confused. How can this
be? And so Jesus, at this point, explains the birds and the bees of spiritual
birth. You all remember the birds and the bees talk, although I never found out
what birds and bees really have to do with anything. In my family, we call it
the combine talk, because when we were old enough, we’d go ride on the combine
with dad, and while he had us in solitary confinement, he’d give us the talk. That’s
really what John 3:16 through 18 are. The birds and the bees of spiritual
birth. He lays it out in the most simple and basic terms that he can. No more
illustrations. This is too important to be left up to interpretation.
Nicodemus, everyone, you must understand this.
God loves the world so much that he gave his only son,
that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.
God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not
condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they
have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Nicodemus, when God really loves his people, and his
people really love him back, then their two spirits come together and through
the miraculous work of Jesus, a new spirit is born within you. And as this new
spirit grows, as you nurture it, you’ll begin to see some changes. Your
language might change. Your actions might change. Your attitude might change.
That is how you are born again.
And like childbirth, at times it may be painful. The
changes that occur in your life through this new birth may result in the loss
of friends and family who can’t handle the new you. Because your morals and
your priorities change, you may need to cut out some areas of your life. The
way you spend your money will change. Eventually, should you continue to
nurture and love this new spirit within you, that is, the spirit of Jesus
Christ living within you, then everything will change.
That’s the bottom line: get ready for your life to
change. When Adelyn was born, you know, there’s no way to totally prepare
yourself for how much your life changes when you have a child. You can read
every book and hear all the advice from your parents and your friends who have
kids, but there is no way to totally prepare yourself. Everything changes. The
way you think changes. The TV shows you watch change. And you know, sometimes,
there are things you miss, right? Every now and then, Holly and I think,
“Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just say, ‘Hey, wanna just go somewhere and
do something?’” But you can’t just pick up and leave at the drop of the hat
when you have a kid. You have to work around nap times and dinner times and you
have to take diapers and wipes and a jacket in case it gets cold and a change
of clothes and by the time you’re ready to go, you’re too tired to go anywhere!
Sure we miss that. But would we trade Adelyn for more free time? Not in million
years.
When the spirit of Christ comes to live within you,
your life will change without a doubt. And it might be hard and messy and emotional
and you’ll have to make some tough choices and the way you think will change
and how you act will change and you might have to give up some things that you
like but you know just aren’t compatible with living a Christian life. Having
that new spirit born within you is complicated and messy and wonderful and
miraculous and awesome and the best thing that you can possibly ever do with
your life, period. Would someone who believes that say amen?
John 3:21 says, “But those who do what is true come to
the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in
God.” When you begin to live this new life, with the spirit of Christ, the
spirit of truth living within you, then you begin to walk in the light. And
when you walk in the light, you see things in this world that you’ve never seen
before. You realize things that you never realized before. Like what really
matters in life. Like the miracle of God’s creation. Like the deep and wide and
wonderful compassion and mercy and sacrifice of a God who in his perfection,
humbled himself to be like us, to die a death that would allow us to live with
him forever in Heaven. The reality of what that means doesn’t really hit you
until you are walking in the light and you come to terms with just how far
short we have come, how sinful we really are. The words of the famous song
really put it well: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” When you walk in the
light of the new spirit of Christ living within you, you begin to understand
just how amazing that grace really is.
You know, Holly and I are excited. We’re excited for
the new birth that is about to take place in our lives, and for the changes
that that she will bring. But I want you to know, and I mean this with all
sincerity, I am even more excited about the possibility of new birth in your
life. And I’m talking about the birth of the spirit of Christ in your heart.
There is nothing more exciting to me than seeing you give your hearts to
Christ, because I know what He has done for me, and I know what He can do for
you.
This can be a day of new beginnings for you. If you’ve
been doing all the right things but you’ve never allowed that change to take
place within your spirit, don’t walk out of these doors without being sure that
there is a new life within you; the life of the Spirit of Christ. Just say a
short, simple prayer during this last hymn, that maybe sounds something like
this: “God, I love you, and I know you love me, and I don’t want to spend one
more day without you in the center of my life. I believe in you, I believe in
your son Jesus, and I believe that he paid the price for my sin. I want that
new life within me. Come into my life and change me.”
That short, simple prayer, a prayer that says yes I
believe and yes I want you Jesus, that’s all it takes to wipe away a lifetime
of guilt and shame and enter into an eternity of joy and hope. Today is a great
day for a new beginning. Make this your day.
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United