You Must Be Born Again

You Must Be Born Again

Last week we began a series on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, a series that is born out of a desire to see us grow in our experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I know I need to grow in my own experience of the Spirit-empowered life, and I believe what we need in the church today (and I’m not just talking about Grace Community) is a fresh encounter with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Francis Chan is a pastor and the author of a very challenging book called Crazy Love, and he’s a man that has made some pretty radical changes in his life to live closer to what he thinks authentic Christianity is supposed to look like. He says this about the church today:
"When you read the New Testament, you see the Holy Spirit was supposed to change everything so that this gathering of people who call themselves Christians had this supernatural element about them…the church nowadays is neither super nor natural," he says. "Everything is predictable and everything is expected."
He’s right – we need to see less of what man can do and more of what God can do. The church in Acts wasn’t born out of man’s efforts and plans, it was born by the power of the Holy Spirit’s poured out on ordinary people like you and me. True revival isn’t something you put on a calendar: revival meetings from May 1-5th. True revival is when the church starts to see large numbers of people get saved and lukewarm Christians get relit with passion for the Lord and it can’t be attributed to anything men are doing. It’s the Holy Spirit at work. Let’s pray for that outpouring of His Spirit – not just for Grace Community Church but for all the churches that love and preach Jesus in this area and around the world.

And talking about people getting saved – this morning we are going to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in saving people. So let’s turn together to John 3 as we consider a very familiar passage and a very familiar phrase.

John 3:1-8

I got saved in the mid-70’s at the tail end of the Jesus People movement – what I consider a genuine revival as thousands upon thousands of young people got powerfully saved. I grew up in a church-going home but after my mom and dad divorced, I lived with my dad and we stopped going to church. Every once in a while my dad would feel guilty I guess and decide we were going to church, which lasted a week and then we stopped. I hated it. I was so glad that church wasn’t a part of our lives and when I was about 12 years old and we were in Europe I remember looking at some paintings of demons and angels and thinking, “That is ridiculous, I don’t believe in all that.”

But a couple years later, when I was 14 years old, my dad and I lived on a sailboat for a year and during that time – which was a lonely and unhappy time for me – I began to talk to God. At the age of 15 we went to a concert in a Baptist church and afterwards there was an altar call and I went forward and asked Jesus to come into my life.

Not long after that we found a good, lively Methodist church and Jesus began to become very real to me. I loved going to church, the Bible came alive to me, I began to witness about Jesus at school. I believed with all my heart that Jesus was my Savior and I wanted to serve him with my life.

What happened to change my mind and heart from ridiculing Christian beliefs and having no desire for spiritual things to wanting to live my life for Jesus? I believe that it was more than an intellectual or emotional shift or a lonely young man finding a crutch in a needy time. I believe it was during that time that God touched my heart and I was born again. Many of you have similar testimonies. What does it mean to become a Christian? How does one become a Christian? How can we as Christians help others to come to faith in Christ? Well, to paraphrase Francis Chan, the process is neither super nor natural – it’s supernatural or it’s not real. One is either a born again Christian (whether they use that terminology or not) or they’re not a Christian. You can be a church-goer and not be born again. You can be religious and not be born again. But you can’t be a Christian and not be born again. It is a supernatural thing!

• What does it mean to be born again?

The term “born again” has become well known today even among non-Christians. A stereotype of the born again Christian is the outspoken Christian who has a “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker, hands tracts out to waitresses and find a way to inject Jesus into every conversation. If you ask them, “is this chair saved?” they answer, “brother, I don’t even think it’s under heavy conviction!”

While I love that kind of boldness and openness, and in some ways miss seeing more of it, the danger with stereotypes is that we think being born again is a matter of bumper stickers and handing out tracts. Jesus isn’t talking about a personality trait here but a spiritual reality.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night because he believes that Jesus is of God and sent by God, but he is
taken off guard by Jesus’ response to his greeting. Nicodemus didn’t come to Jesus to find out how to enter heaven - he thinks he is very qualified to enter the kingdom of God, since he is a devout Jew, a Pharisee, and tries to keep the commandments. Jesus rocks his world when he says he isn’t qualified to enter the kingdom of God yet. He needs to be born again.

Truly, truly (notice the double amen – this is important and it’s true) I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jn 3:3
What does that mean, born again? Nicodemus in his surprise gets sarcastic and asks, can a man climb back into his mother’s womb when he is old? But Jesus isn’t talking about a second natural birth but a supernatural birth and he explains, Truly, truly (again the double amen) I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
This should jog Nicodemus’ memory of scripture, specifically Ezekiel 36: 25-27 where the prophet writes:
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your unrighteousnesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezek 36:25-27
Water represents our being cleansed of our sin, and the Spirit removes the dead heart, the heart of stone, and gives us a heart of flesh – hearts that obey the Lord because we want to, not because a stone tablet tells us to.
Death had us at hello
The Bible tells us that the first time we are born, we are born spiritually dead. That’s not a cheerful thought but it’s true: death had us at hello! God told Adam and Eve that on the day they disobeyed His command and ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, on that day they would surely die. And yet they ate the fruit and seemed to live on, but in reality they died that day, not physically but spiritually. Before the Fall they walked with God in relational intimacy and friendship but now they hid from God, because they knew they were guilty and they were ashamed. On that day mankind died spiritually and every baby born since then (except for Jesus) is born spiritually dead. What that means is that we are born with a heart that is hostile towards God and settled in its opposition to God. We are born with eyes that are blind to God and His glory and goodness. We are born with hearts that are rock hard towards God. We are born with minds that are dull towards God. We are all born alive to sin and dead to God. Eph. 2:1 says:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked (notice we are dead, but active), following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
What we needed wasn’t to be convinced of something or a change of beliefs. We were dead and needed to be made alive, and that’s exactly what Paul says happened when we believed in Jesus Christ:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—
He made us alive – we didn’t make ourselves alive. Jesus used this same death to life metaphor in John 5:25:
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live - John 5:25
How can the dead hear the voice of Jesus and live? The dead can’t hear cause their ears don’t work. If being spiritually dead is really being dead, then to demand that we hear before we are made alive is to ask the dead to hear before they are called back to life. It’s impossible.
I've Always been fascinated by dog whistles. You blow into it and you don’t hear anything. Years ago we bought “deer whistles” and attached them to the front bumper of our car. Never heard a thing. How do we know these whistles aren’t one big scam?
The truth is dog whistles emit a pitch with frequency 23 – 54 kilohertz. The reason we can’t hear it is that the human ear can only hear up to about 20 khz. The problem isn’t the whistle, the problem is our ear is unable to hear the frequencies the whistle is producing. In that way the spiritually dead can’t hear the voice of God unless God enables their ears to hear. The problem isn’t God’s voice, the problem is our ears – they are dead.
When Lazarus was dead in the tomb for four days, his ears were dead too. When Jesus called out “Lazarus, come forth!” his call wasn’t depending on Lazarus’ ears being able to hear that call and respond. No, his call enabled Lazarus’ ears to hear, and empowered Lazarus to rise up alive. The call carried along with it the power both to hear and to live again. Listen again to John 5:25:
John 5:25 - Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
That’s another description of the work of the Holy Spirit and being born again. The wind blows where it will and its effects are seen. We can’t always see where the Holy Spirit is at work, and the Holy Spirit works in different ways in different people. Sometimes the wind hits with hurricane force and sometimes the wind blows gently. Some people are born again dramatically, and some people are born again after being worked on gently. His work isn’t always the same. That’s why no two testimonies are exactly the same. What is the same is that being born again MUST be a work of the Spirit making us alive in Christ and giving us spiritual senses – ears to hear, eyes to see, hunger for Christ, thirst for truth – or we will never enter the kingdom of God. That’s what Jesus is saying.

• What does this mean for Christians?
For believers, how does this apply to our Christian witness and to our walk with Jesus?

• Leading people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is something we must do and can’t do at the same time!
It’s not hard to lead someone to Christ – it’s impossible. For someone to get saved it must be the work of the Holy Spirit. If it’s the work of our eloquence or convincing words or manipulation, than it’s not real and it won’t save them.
And yet, we cannot be silent and not witness without disobeying our Lord’s command to make disciples of all nations. So we are to speak, we are to witness, we are to boldly share our faith and testimony with people, all the while trusting God to save them cause we know we can’t!
Knowing that their getting saved doesn’t depend on our words or presentation should make us all the more bold to witness – trusting God the Holy Spirit to blow through their hearts enabling them to hear Jesus’ voice and believe to eternal life. Leading people to Christ is something we must do and can’t do at the same time!

• Preach the gospel as if salvation completely depends on the unsaved person choosing to believe and pray as if salvation completely depends on God supernaturally bringing them from death to life!
When Jesus put out the gospel call he made it very simple: repent and believe. You do it! The gospel call is for anyone – everyone – who will believe. Don’t muddy the waters by saying things like, “you should believe, but you can’t believe unless God helps you believe…” No, just tell people that Jesus died for their sins and if they will believe in him, he will save them. That’s the truth.
But we need to pray as if it all depends on God, because it really does. Prayer calls upon God to do what only God can do. If we are content to see what men can do with the right planning and presentation, then we don’t need to pray. But if we want to see the Holy Spirit breath life back into dead bones, we must pray. Church, let’s pray.
I was sharing the gospel the other day and outwardly I was trying my best to tell this person about Jesus, but inwardly I was aware that this guy needed Jesus to touch him –my feeble words never could. So even while I was talking I was praying, Spirit, help me. Use my words. Open his eyes to see Your truth.

• Don’t expect everyone’s spiritual journey to look the same
Jesus says that in the same way the wind blows where it wishes and we can hear it but we don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going (in other words, we can’t map out it’s trajectory) in that way we can’t map out or predict precisely how the Holy Spirit is going to work in people’s lives. As I’ve already said, sometimes He moves in such a way that someone’s life is powerfully transformed, and sometimes he moves in a gentle way that draws someone to faith in Christ slowly, gently, over time. Both are His power at work. Being born again is both a miracle and a mystery – it’s not something we can predict.

• A word to those who are not Christians
I realize that this could leave you a little confused. Maybe thinking, “well, if I can’t believe unless God enables me to believe, then I might as well not even think about it and if He’s going to do it, He’s going to do it.”
Listen, here’s the thing. If you hear about Jesus Christ and something inside of you stirs and you know that you need a Savior to save you from your sin, and you want Jesus to save you – just believe. Just take a step towards Jesus. Just pray and ask him to save you. It will feel like it’s all you, but when you look back you’ll see that God was working in your heart. But He works in your heart, not apart from your heart, to believe. It will feel like it’s completely your choice. He might blow you away with His power, and He might gently persuade you to believe over time. But I appeal to you: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Based on the promise of God’s own word, you will be saved if you will believe.
As we close, I believe there are some here that God is talking to today. He is working in your heart and you need to respond. Ask Jesus to come into your life and save you. Ask Him to help you to know him and to trust in him with all your heart and life. Ask him to make you born again. As we close with a song, if anyone wants prayer for anything – maybe you need healing, or financial provision or something in your life or a loved one’s life, or maybe you want to be born again, you want to be a Christian, as we sing this closing song, just come on up for prayer and someone up here will pray with you.