Biblical Studies Symposium with Dr. D.A. Carson

what is the gospel now if I had an extra hour tonight I'd begin with a roving microphone and start getting some some answers to that question what is the gospel in your own mind answer the question you see the gospel is first and foremost news it's good news the question is what is it news about because it's news you have to remember that the first thing you do with the gospel is announce it that's what you do with news there have been people who have said preach the gospel if necessary use words as if you are announcing the gospel by simply living in a certain kind of way but that's a bit like telling the newscaster on the 11 o'clock news tonight tonight deliver the news if necessary use words it's ridiculous what you do with news is an asset that's why there's such a huge emphasis in the New Testament on announcing on preaching on declaring on explaining that's what you do with news but what does it use about it is first and foremost news about what God our maker and judge has done supremely in Christ Jesus and especially in Christ's cross and resurrection to reconcile rebels to himself that's what the gospel is so it's used about what God has done in Christ Jesus supremely in the cross and resurrection to reconcile rebels to himself now you can fill that out and say what has he done in the cross and resurrection and what does it mean to be reconciled back to God and so you could take a long time to flesh out what the gospel is but that in it's essence is what the gospel is and when you start asking what is the shape of this bringing rebels back to God then there are different dimensions for example there is what might be called a legal dimension how can guilty people be declared just before this God who is perfectly holy that brings you into some fundamental definitions of what the problem is the problem is sin you can't get agreement on what the good news is unless you know what the bad news is you don't know what the good news is supposed to fix until you know what the bad news is in the first place so that means you've got to figure out what the bad news is from Holy Scripture to see what the gospel is the gospel is the good news by which God reconciles sinners to himself now you're into substitution Christ dies for the ungodly the justice of Christ becomes ours our sin becomes his he expiates our sin he propitiate Scott he cancels our sin he turns God's wrath away by absorbing our guilt in his place all had us to do with my standing before God but supposing salvation were just bound up with standing before God how would that transform me then you realize that salvation the good news that brings about salvation is not just about how people become just before God it's also how they get transformed and now you're into new birth language power of the Spirit it's not just that God declares us just on the basis of what Christ has done he transforms us so that we have the power of God to live differently and thus the notion of a powerless gospel is in the Bible incoherent Paul says that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto wholeness but it's not just an isolated thing either the gospel so transforms us that men and women are brought together there is a relational component to what the gospel does not the gospel itself the gospel it's is what God does what God does supremely in Christ Jesus to reconcile guilty sinners back to himself but part of what he does out of this Gospel through this gospel is to reconcile people to each other as well as to himself so there's a relational component to all of this as well and there is also an eschatological component that is not only what he does for us now but ultimately his restoration of rebels to himself is so complete that we will have resurrection bodies in a new heaven and a new earth on the last day all achieved on one little hill outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago the gospel of God centers on Christ it's the good news about Christ Jesus about what God has done in Christ Jesus to reconcile sinners to himself and everything that flows out of this in terms of the way we act our concern for justice our hopes for the future resurrection existence personal relationships and above all that we ourselves have been reconciled to this God all all was achieved through what God did on the cross and in Jesus resurrection and all that flows from those great events now there would be a lot of different ways to get at biblical passages to show you the sweep of this gospel one way for example is to study 1st Corinthians 15 where most of these components are built in if you are interested in sermon just on that passage to try to explain that you can find it on the gospel coalition website but this evening I want to direct your attention to John 3 and talk about one component of this gospel however it is tied to a lot of other components John 3:1 to 21 and we'll talk about this new birth component I'm going to begin by reading the text I'm reading from the NIV John 3 beginning at verse 1 now there was a Pharisee a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council he came to Jesus at night and said rabbi we know that you are a teacher who has come from God for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him jesus replied very truly I tell you no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again how can someone be born when they are old Nicodemus asked surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born jesus answered very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit you should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again the wind blows wherever it pleases you hear it 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 very truly I tell you we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony I've 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 wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him 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 they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son this is the verdict light has come into the world but people 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 their deeds will be exposed but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God this is the word of the Lord now when I was about your age the Datsun automobile underwent a name change the parent company Nissan Motors of Japan decided that Nissan would henceforth become the base name for their cars instead of Datsun here in America the change was accompanied by endless advertisements on television about the born-again Datsun and many people in North America who didn't live in Bible Belt parts of the country heard born again for the first time in the context of the born-again Datsun and because of this use eventually born-again became attached to several other things as well a Republican became a Democrat or the reverse and then you'd hear about a born-again Democrat or a born-again Republican and then some papers connected born-again with a certain kind of Christian there are Christians out there that are reasonably okay they're nice and then there are born-again Christians and they're a nasty Bunch they're sort of the right-wing fanatic types if you're a decent Christian at least shut up and be quiet about it they're born-again ones are are the pushy types so now what does born-again mean doesn't mean a name change a change of affiliation or basically being a fanatic because the expression is not transparent and I suspect despite the fact that this is Liberty University again if I went around with a roving mic and asked what does it mean to be born again we might get quite a variety of responses certainly Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus meant when Jesus used the expression as far as we know this is the first time in history when the expression born again was used I have not found it in any earlier source greco-roman or Jewish I think Jesus coined it what did he mean but what I want to do with my time this evening is to outline first what Jesus said about being born again then second to provide the reason why Jesus could talk so authoritative ly about being born again third how Jesus brings about this new birth and finally why Jesus was sent to bring about this new birth and I would like by the end of it for you to see this component of the gospel in all of its biblical starkness and power so first of all what Jesus said about being born again verses 1 to 10 we're introduced to Nicodemus a Pharisee a member of the Jewish ruling council because we read the New Testament and most Pharisees come across and a rather bad odor we think Pharisee equals hypocrite but after all in the first century there were many many people who thought Pharisees were respectable knowledgeable religiously disciplined religiously self-controlled some of the most conservative confessional types in the country they believed the right doctrine unlike the Sadducees who had doubts about things like the resurrection not the Pharisees they tried to get their theology right but also he was a member of the Jewish ruling council a council of 70 or 72 the Sanhedrin which under the Roman governor had responsibility for everything to do with the running of the country it combined executive legislative and judicial functions so as a result to be a member of that council meant that you were extremely powerful not only so but in verse 10 if you're following in your Bibles Nicodemus is called Israel's teacher the expression in the original suggests that this is a title the teacher of Israel the Regis professor of divinity the Grand Mufti whatever category you use he was up there academically and was widely respected throughout the country for his teaching role he wasn't your average ordinary Pharisee he was a brilliant scholar a biblical expert and a member of the Jewish ruling council and we're told he comes to Jesus at night why at night all the theories multiply people say well he was ashamed a bit to be seen approaching Jesus at night because after all he was a brilliant scholar and Jesus wasn't understood to be not much more than a hick preacher from up country so in order to save his face as it were he he came at night well it's a nice theory but there's absolutely nothing in the text to suggest it whenever there's nothing in the text to suggest something don't push it moreover there's quite a lot of the Gospel of John that is against it because whenever Nicodemus is introduced after this passage he always comes across as somebody really doesn't give a rip what other people think he doesn't care what his fellow council members think he doesn't care what Pilate thinks he doesn't care what the people thinks he comes across as a pretty courageous independent sort of character no no no if you want to find out what is meant by he came at night see what John the writer does with light and dark and today and tonight you remember for example at the trial at the the Last Supper before the trial Jesus eventually turns to to the betrayer Judas Iscariot and says what you do do quickly John comments Judas went out and it was night oh that's a brilliant touch he's not just giving the time of day who was after nightfall folks undoubtedly it was but it's also a symbol Laden way of saying he went out into the bleakness and darkness of utter night and in fact in this section that we just finished reading John 3:1 221 how does it end up verse 19 everyone who does who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed along comes Nicodemus and he comes tonight now undoubtedly it wasn't nighttime but John loves using many many facts in symbol Laden ways so he sees that Nicodemus has learned and instructed as he was is approaching Jesus out of a pretty deep darkness he doesn't know what to do with Jesus and in Jew courses we'll see certainly doesn't know what to do with Jesus comments about being born again he comes with a certain kind of ambivalence on the one hand he's respectful is remarkable really rabbi he says now by the time you get to 80 200 150 years and more after this event then rabbi was used only for those who had been through the appropriate schools and it got rabbi tup they'd got revved up they were revs at that point but in the first century you didn't get revved up by going through a school it was an honorific and for this learned scholar to approach an itinerant preacher from Galilee and address him as rabbi shows that he's approaching Jesus with a certain amount of respect that's correct yet at the same time he's got this very strange plural approach have you heard exactly what he said a rabbi mm-hmm but we know that you are a teacher who has come from God we do for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him who's the we Oh again they're been all kinds of interesting speculations maybe he was there with a whole lot of his own disciples oh nice try but the text doesn't say so now this we sounds just slightly pompous unless you think I'm reading in too much wait'll you see what Jesus does with it a few verses later welcome back to this one he comes across slightly promise and yet in one sense he's fastened on something pretty important what do you make of this Jesus you see in every generation in every culture anywhere in the world there are sometimes fake healers Muslims have them Hindus have them Buddhists have them there are always charlatans around not too far away in every culture in some sect or another and in the first century there were lots of them but Nicodemus was an honest enough man to see that the kind of miracles Jesus was doing could not possibly be psychosomatic what do you do with someone who actually heals a man born blind that doesn't sound like a psychological somatic fix what do you do do it's with someone who can actually raise the dead after that dead person has been in the grave long enough that he's putrifying you can actually smell the stench of decomposition that's not a faith healers trick so Nicodemus has got far enough in his thinking that he says teacher we know that you must have come from God for no one can do the kind of miracles you're doing unless unless God sent him he's got that far and Jesus replies with one of the best known verses in the whole Bible verse 3 very truly I tell you no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again and at this point if you're a good reader you're scratching your head and saying how does Jesus get from Nicodemus question to his answer it's as if somebody comes along with a question on this planet and then Jesus answers with a question on that planet so people have sometimes wondered if perhaps there's sort of a an assumed question that Jesus is answering maybe it really went like this Nicodemus says we know that you must be a teacher sent from God because no one could do this kind of miracle unless God were with him and so implicitly he is saying so tell us are you really the Messiah who was to come are you the Promised One tell us who you really really are and Jesus answers no I'd rather not talk about who I really am just yet I'd rather talk about the fact that you're not ready to accept Who I am unless you're born again unless you get there well that makes sense it makes a good logical flow but you have to put in an awful lot of words to get there now I think that there's a more direct route did you see Nicodemus is claiming to be seeing something he's claiming to see the power of God the reign of God the authority of God in Jesus miracles we know that you are a teacher sent from God because you're doing miracles of this quality we know that this is what we see and Nicodemus is claiming to perceive something important Jesus responds in effect My dear Nicodemus you don't see a thing you can't really see what's going on here unless you're born again what Jesus is doing is telling Nicodemus that he's making a false claim very truly I tell you you can't see the kingdom that is this reign of God you can't see it unless you're born again oh you might see the miracle you might see this display of power but but you can't really see the kingdom unless you're born again and in this sense Jesus is actually putting Nicodemus down he's saying you're making a false claim Nicodemus you don't understand at all so Nicodemus responds how can someone be born when they are old surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born now does that mean that Nicodemus thought that Jesus was talking about real birth natural birth physical birth and therefore what Jesus was demanding quite impossibly is that you climb back inside your mother's womb somehow and start all over again but you know Nicodemus was the Regis professor of divinity he was a smart man there is no way that Nicodemus was so stupid as to think that Jesus was being quite that crass quite that physical smart biblical teachers who are considered experts in the Scriptures have stumbled across metaphors before no I think that Nicodemus is response is actually quite brilliant it's really insightful because he hears Jesus saying in effect Nicodemus to really see the kingdom you've got to start all over again you've got to start all over again by being a little baby and coming at it again and Nicodemus says in effect you can't start over again there's no way of doing that as one poet puts it the moving hand has writ the moving hand having writ moves on despite all of our lovely science fiction television programs you can't go back in time and start over you can't redo things now all of us even when we have not yet had a lot of personal history all of us have memories don't we where we wish we could start over are there not things that you have said things that you have done which you wish with your whole heart you could do again and do differently some of them are bad enough that you wake up in the middle of the night and you squirm in wonder inwardly and you you wish you could take it back and you can't Alfred Lord Tennyson poet laureate of England in the 19th century wrote I for a man to arise in me that the man I am may no longer be or one poet wrote if life had a second edition how I would correct the proofs but you can't do it the time you cheated on the exam you can't undo that the time you use a lot of foul language with a peer here in the university just because you lost your cool you can't take that back the nurtured bits of enmity the secret pandering to lust and porn on your computer can't take it back even if you are so transformed you never do it again you can't take it back the images are now burned on your brain Nicodemus here's Jesus saying really to see the kingdom you got to start all over again and and he says you might be a great miracle worker Jesus but now you're going too far you can't start over you can't climb back in your mother's womb and be born again doesn't happen but Jesus won't back down he repeats it in verse 5 jesus answered very truly I tell you no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they're born of water and the spirit so exactly what does Jesus mean by being born of water and the spirit and once again there have been a lot of creative suggestions some people have suggested for example born of water means natural birth the water and the amniotic sac breaks you're born of water and what you need in addition to that is spiritual birth birth 1 earth 2 the difficulty with that is that if you compare verse 3 and verse 5 line by line you discover that the expression born of water and the Spirit is parallel to born again in other words born of water and the spirit means born again razzin this interpretation of born of water and the spirit you've got tubers it's only born of spirit that is equivalent to born again on that interpretation others think that that water here might refer to baptism or others have suggested that water is a symbolism for some kind of spiritual seed it's it's trying too hard to be clever in what domain was Nicodemus a specialist where did he have knowledge that Jesus could appeal to well we're told he's Israel's teacher he's a Pharisee he knows the scripture he knows the Bible what what Jesus is saying to him is Nicodemus in the domain in which you're you're an expert what does water and spirit mean to be born of water and spirit what does that mean so you start looking up in the Bible every place where water and spirits come together they come together several times to get across one notion for example its found in Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25 to 27 in one of those great passages that anticipate the coming of the new covenant and with the coming of the new covenant we're told that God will sprinkle your hearts with clean water and pour out his Spirit upon you and the two expressions in that context are very clear the sprinkling of water means cleaning you up and the power of the Spirit means transforming you what what you need is a kind of beginning all over again in which your clean up and and and you start all over again all that Jesus is added to the Old Testament prophecies in this respect is the metaphor of new birth itself that's always added and that this is what he means is suggested even by verse 9 where it is clear when Nicodemus doesn't get it that Jesus rubs it in just a wee bit and he says you're the teacher of Israel and you don't get this the teacher of Israel is supposed to know his Bible and in fact Nicodemus would have memorized the entire Old Testament in Hebrew biblical scholars in the first century did that not only the entire Old Testament in Hebrew but a body of popular oral tradition twice as long again he would have memorized the whole lot that was standard in the first century but he doesn't know this why not well the fact of the matter is that there was a lot of scholarly rabbinic interest in the coming of the kingdom and the character of God and the purpose and function of the law and all kinds of things of that order but relatively little distant distinction relatively little concentration on what the Spirit would do in the coming age it was just one of those topics that just tended to get ignored so prophecies like Joel which which predict the coming of the Spirit that that the Apostle Peter quotes and acts 2 on Pentecost or or this passage that Jesus is alluding to in Ezekiel 36 they tended to get overlooked and Jesus is insisting listen when the kingdom truly Dawn's when God's Authority through his Messiah comes this good news that we're talking about people are cleaned up and transformed that's what happens and you need that both to see and to enter the kingdom and then Jesus goes on to explain a little bit with a couple of metaphors he says flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit you should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again after all pigs give birth to pigs and orangutangs give birth to orangutangs and eagles through the eggs that they lay ultimately produce eaglets tarantulas produced tarantulas like produces like flesh gives birth to flesh but if you want the kind of transformation that makes you of God born of God than you need spirit from God this is Jesus way of saying the kind of thing that Paul says in 1st Corinthians 2 you see the person the natural human being already lost in rebellion and decay before God cannot possibly understand the things of God at the end of the day it takes it takes God's Spirit him in himself to open up our understanding and transform us and change us it's not just a simple matter of believing certain things and signing a statement and praying a prayer and everything's fine you have to have the power you have to have the Spirit of God you must have the transformation or you've got nothing like produces like flesh gives birth to flesh Spirit gives birth to spirit they put this another way he says the wind blows wherever it pleases now this works better in Hebrew and in Greek and it works in English because the word for wind in both languages is the same as the word for spirit in both languages but stick with wind for a moment imagine the two men standing on some street corner in Jerusalem the big sycamore leaves in the evening are swaying back and forth in the breeze or maybe there's a little dust bunny that bounces down the street and nobody looks at what's going on the effects of the wind and says mm-hmm is this cyclonic or anticyclonic in the Arabia Peninsula they didn't know enough about meteorology in those days to ask questions like that and even so when we see wind today we don't start asking a whole lot of things that you could put up on a TV weather chart what happens is you see the effects even if you can't give the explanation you see the effects the wind blows where it it blows it just does what it does and you see the effects of it we're told but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going and then this line underlined it so it is with everyone born of the Spirit in other words even if you cannot explain the mechanics of spirit transformation you always see the effects so it is with everyone born of a spirit that's why Jesus can elsewhere say by their fruit you shall know them because so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit if if people are affected by this new birth have been they've been transformed by this new birth it changes their lives you see the effect even if you can't explain all the mechanics there is some kind of cleaning up and there's some time kind of transformation affected by the very Spirit of God do you really think the Spirit of God is so weak that he produces no effect so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit of God Nicodemus finds this a bit difficult and he says you are Israel's teacher Jesus says and you do not understand these things and that's what Jesus says about the new birth now I'm sure most here have heard of the so-called Great Awakening or in Britain it was called the evangelical Awakening associated with John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield and Howell Harris and others we sometimes forget just how far down Christianity had sunk in the english-speaking world both in Britain and in America before God raised up those men on Easter Sunday in 1740 in London in st. Paul's Cathedral an Anglican Cathedral on Easter Sunday only six people showed up for Holy Communion there were 280 crimes on the books for which you could be hanged including stealing a loaf of bread slavery was rising and rife in the Empire the Industrial Revolution was in full swing but at this juncture so completely corrupt that the rich were becoming filthy rich and children at the age of four and a half and five were being sent down into the mines to dig out coal because because they were so small they could get down into the little narrow tunnels you could be thrown into prison for being in debt but they wouldn't feed you in prison so that unless somebody fed you you could die in prison for all a few Bob a few a few bucks but because nobody was feeding you the prison system was totally corrupt then God raised up George Howell Harris first of all in 1734 in Wales 17:38 George Whitefield began to preach to coal miners at five o'clock in the morning of the change of the shift just outside of Bristol England does he preached men and women got converted observers at the time spoke of men crying the tears making Rivlin saan their black faces in the coal dust as they climbed out of the mines 1740 John and Charles Wesley started preaching and for sixty years God did a formidable work of transformation and what came to be called the evangelical awakening or the Great Awakening George Whitfield crossed the Atlantic thirteen times so he was bound up with the Great Awakening in this country Wesley only crossed at once Wes Whitfield crossed at thirteen times by sail obviously he spent the three months that it took each time studying his Greek New Testament believe it or not and preaching to the sailors on board and when he came to this country again and again and again all through the New England states he preached you must be born again you must be born again you must be born again toward the end of his life it was estimated that he had preached on John three close to three thousand times because of course he was itinerant going from village to village city to city place to place placed a brace and he preached again and again you must be born again and eventually somebody somewhat exasperated said to him mr. Whitfield why is it that you preach again and again and again you must be born again you must be born again you must be born again because he said you must be born again and before I go any farther tonight you must see that that's true for you it's possible for some of us to come from conservative religious backgrounds and to have been done in our local churches and prayed the prayer or whatever we've done and actually quite frankly never ever to have been born again and I want to tell you you must be born again if you are to see and enter the kingdom of God and where people are born again well it's like the wind that blows you may not get all the schematics right and all the mechanical causes but you will see a life cleaned up that's transformed because you're born of water and spirit now second much more quickly why Jesus could speak so authoritative lis about being born again verses 11 to 13 what's so interesting about verse 11 is that Jesus himself now uses the plural we very truly I tell you we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen but still you people do not accept our testimony so why is Jesus using we and again people have thought well maybe it means Jesus and His disciples we together are testifying along these lines but when you read the rest of John chapter three you discover very quickly the disciples don't have a clue at this stage if this means we the disciples and I together declare this witness then Jesus is being very generous in his praise no John is John's Greek is really quite simple but he's one of the most subtle of writers did you see I think that what's going on is this Nicodemus has come to Jesus and said rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God we do and Jesus has this little explanation and then he says and Nicodemus we know what we're talking about we do the proof that that is what he means is bound up with the fact that Jesus then immediately reverts to the first person singular he starts off by saying very truly I we speak of what we know we testify to what we have seen verse twelve single I have spoken to you 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 down from heaven do you see what Jesus is saying I've been explaining he says the new birth that's an earthly thing oh it's sources in God no no but it's something that takes place here on earth in the lives of men and women who are transformed I've been talking about earthly things spiritual things that take place here on earth now supposing instead I told you what takes place in the throne room of God how would you respond to that huh you're finding it hard to believe what I'm telling you about spiritual realities here on earth and the new birth supposing I told you about things that you can't even imagine you can't even conceive of but you know what Nicodemus I've been there that's right come from no one has gone up to heaven to check it out the only one who knows is the one who's come from there that's me in other words at the end of the day you can't come to grips with the power of Jesus teaching about the new birth without coming face to face with Jesus Authority claim Jesus can speak so authoritative Lee about this new birth because he comes from the right hand of God he comes from heaven he knows what he's talking about and that means that at the end of the day if you cannot accept what Jesus says about the new birth what you are really doing is rejecting his claim that he knows what he's talking about because he's come from God himself that's why this good news about the gospel about what God has done in Christ Jesus turns finally on the truthfulness or otherwise of where Jesus comes from of how he knows what he knows suppose you don't like what the Bible says for example about the truthfulness of Scripture one of the things that you do as a Christian is to ask what does Jesus think about the truthfulness of Scripture if Jesus thinks that the scriptures that came along before him are true and he comes from the right hand of God he comes from the very throne of God he is depicted throughout the Bible as one with God sent as God's own son he knows he's been there then you're really picking the wrong person to argue with it doesn't really matter whether you believe me your argument finally is not with me it's with the only one who's come from the throne of God at the end of the day to come to grips with what Jesus says about the new birth is to come to grips with Jesus Authority claim I know what I'm talking about he says no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven the son of man so that's why Jesus could speak so authoritative Lee through the years through the centuries there been various ways that people have understood that you could get to God one way that many people have proposed is reason they think you can reason your way to God so they have constructed huge logical arguments to prove the existence of God the cosmological argument the ontological argument and so on so on so on and sometimes they are connected to entire systems of philosophy like like power Pascal system and and and and it is actually believed that that you can reason people into the kingdom today not many people believe that anymore but at various times in history that's been very popular another approach that people take is mysticism it's not that you reason yourself into it it's that in the domain of aesthetics and feeling and emotion with self-discipline and maybe with a whole lot of self-abnegation and-and-and even self flagellation beating yourself with a whip and starving yourself to death and and self-denial you can somehow enter into a kind of mystical experience that enables you to be connected with the great other God knows that in the Bible there is a kind of personal connection that human beings have with a living God I'm not convinced the best description of it is mysticism because in the Bible this personal connection with the Living God is brought about by the good news by the gospel by what God has done in Christ Jesus and the Spirit who is in consequence poured out not by trying harder and fasting a little more often and being a little more self denying and and and and making sure you you take the Eucharist very often or any such thing at the end of the day mysticism is finally a kind of drumming yourself up into knowledge of God that's not good he sanctioned by scripture it's got nothing to do with the good news it's got very little to do with a storyline of all of Scripture so when I read for example the mystical writings of Julian of Norwich an Anglican mystic in the Middle Ages despite the name Julian that's a she when I read her writing some of them are very very moving about her intimate communion with God and prayer and fasting and her visions of seeing God and and the the sense of his love pouring over her and so on I read right through her readings or the writings but you know what I don't find I can't find any clear statement of the gospel it's mystical so just as some people think that they have reasoned themselves to God others think that they have somehow experienced themselves to God put in the Bible it's the gospel that brings men and women to God and that finally is tied to quite a different mode not reason not mysticism although we are to use our reason and understanding God and we are to experience God that's all true but that's not the way we get there the way we get there in Scripture is by revelation God discloses himself and that's the point of our passage here that's why Jesus could speak with so much authority about being born again he was speaking out of the matrix of Revelation third how Jesus brings about this new birth now these next two verses 14 and 15 must strike any contemporary reader as almost bizarre but they wouldn't have struck Nicodemus this way because he knew his Bible so well Jesus says 14 just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him what does that mean and of course to have a good idea of what Jesus means you must remind yourself of the account in which a snake was lifted up in the wilderness it's found of course in numbers 21 verses 4 and following I'm going to read these verses to you it's very important Nicodemus would have had them memorized all Jesus have to do was allude to the passage they the Israelites traveled from Mount hor along the routes to the Red Sea to go around Edom but the people grew impatient on the way they spoke against God and against Moses and said why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness there is no bread there is no food we need just this miserable food there is no water then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them they bit the people and many as relates died the people came to Moses and said we send 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 every 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 they lived that's it that's the full account nothing more never mentioned again until Jesus picks it out of numbers 21 and he says to Nicodemus 3:14 just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him and you want to say good grief that's not a very tight parallel is it but actually is when you stop to think about it what happens in that wilderness scene God rescues the people out of slavery and serfdom and poverty and brutality in Egypt he enables them to cross the Red Sea he gives them the law and enters into covenant with him and when they are short of food he provides manna he can provide quail when they're short of water they complain but that's all right God provides water from the rock he ensures that their sandals don't wear out he cares for them and he's promised them that they will enter into the promised land a land flowing with milk and honey Cathy trusts him at this point after all that he's done for them all those plagues that fell on on on Egypt and all the miracles that have taken place to bring them this far that they've got so far it does it take that much faith just to trust God a wee bit more instead they're whining and complaining you know how often in the Bible whining is viewed as idolatry because you see if you really do love God with heart and soul and mind and strength then you're not whining and if you don't love God with heart and soul and mind and strength you're an adulterer whining is idolatry covetousness is idolatry because that's what you want the most you covet something that's idolatry so these people by their whining we're sinking back into D Godding god that's idolatry you're not trustworthy God besides I like my old life better you know I got some garlic once in a while when I was back in Egypt out here I'm in the desert my quail and manna give me a break where are you God whining idolatry and rejecting likewise the leader that God had given them Moses and God said enough you must understand that the way of idolatry leads to death and he sends in a plague of venomous snakes thousands died and eventually eventually the people cry to Moses for help Moses intercedes with God and God provides a remarkable solution a strange thing they cast a bronze stake and stick it up on a pole this is God's provision this is what God says we'll fix it so that anyone who is bitten and now is doomed to die from these venomous snakes they simply have to look at the provision that God has provided this snake on a pole and they will live thus God in mercy shuts down the judgment that they actually deserve now Jesus says if you want to understand the fundamental basis of this new birth it's like that that is we are a rebel brood against God we are a lost people we love ourselves more than we love others we love ourselves more than we love God we are idolaters all we our sinful people in imagination we are sinful people because of what we do when we shouldn't and of what we don't do when we should and we stand under God's curse that will become a little clearer farther on we read in the last verse of this chapter whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects the son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him we are already under the threat of God's wrath the question is how can we escape it and God provides his own solution not a snake on a pole but the Son of Man lifted up on a pole in fact the very verb lifted up becomes one of John's inwards every time Jesus is described as being lifted up in John's Gospel it's lifted up on the cross lifted up on the cross where he is publicly pluck hearted as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world lifted up on a cross until finally he has lifted up to the Father's right hand returning to the glory that he had with the one with a father before the world began and the people who escaped this death must look to him in other words the good news is bound up with what God has done in Jesus especially on the cross and the way you access this the way you access this we're told is very straightforward just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes they have eternal life in him this is not just believing in the sense of oh I believe that Jesus died on the cross as a datum of history and brute fact nothing more this is believing him in the sense of trusting him abandoning yourself to him bowing the knee before him lord I believe and that brings me to the fourth and last point why Jesus was sent to bring about this new birth why because God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that's why it was all grounded in the love of God God could have with perfect justice condemned us all he didn't owe salvation to anyone but 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 so thus it is this eternal life that is the fruit of the new birth than you birth is the origin of eternal life and that new birth is brought about because of what Jesus achieved on the cross and that is accessed by faith in Him and it is empowered by the Spirit of God transforming us cleaning us up and conforming us to new life in Christ Jesus now a young man and a young woman go for a walk they're both in their fourth year at Liberty University six weeks before graduation and they are now they're pretty convinced deeply in love hand in hand they walk along a lakeside and Bob turns to Joyce and he says to her choice I love you I really do what does he mean he could mean quite a few things if we imagine for a moment that despite all the excellent training at Liberty the man is still unregenerate and a bit of a CAD he may mean no more than that his hormones are topping and he wants to go to bed with her forthwith but let's assume he has a modicum of decency in him we might even hope that he's regenerate born again what does he mean in that case well the least that he means he might need more than this but the least that he means is it's got to be something like this Joyce you are wonderful in my eyes I love the scent of your hair your smile it lights up the room it lights up my heart you know I love the the tinkling sound of your laughter what a privilege it is to be with you and and your presence oh I go all wobbly at the knees it doesn't mean something like that I mean when he says I love you part of what he means is I find you lovely isn't it he does not mean quite frankly Joyce your hair is so greasy you could lubricate an 18-wheeler and your halitosis your bad breath would scare off a herd of rampaging elephants and frankly your knees remind me of a crippled camel and your personality well the closest parallel that I can think of as Genghis Khan but I love you I love you that's not what he means you know so part of what we mean in our social intercourse when we say I love you we're we mean and at least in part I find you lovely okay so now God says in John 3:16 world I love you what does he mean does he mean world world I'm so passionate about you your scintillating conversation you're brilliant personality you're sensitive you were the dialogue the repartee ah world world I love you I love you I don't imagine what heaven would be like without you world I love you is that what God means nope not in John's Gospel John's Gospel the world is a damned place it's what God has made that has rebelled against him it is this world of darkness that is already under condemnation it's under the frame of death and the wrath of God it's as if God is saying world you're the people of the crooked camel knees you're the people of the genghis khaan disposition you're the people of the greasy hair and the halitosis but I love you anyway because I'm that kind of God it is entirely misleading to read this passage and say who God loves us the world therefore we must be pretty important because God loves us that completely misunderstands the text God loves us not because of who we are but despite who we are He loves us because this is the kind of God he is and that's the only reason there has arisen a redeemer the only reason and that's why in the pages of the New Testament Paul can pray for believers in Ephesus that they might experience together with all the saints the height and depth and width and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus so that you might be filled with all the measure of the fullness of God that's a Pauline locution for saying so that you might be genuinely mature in other words you cannot possibly be genuinely mature as a Christian unless you learn experientially to wallow in the limitless dimensions of God's love for you that love which sent his own son to the cross to bear your punishment die your death and give you new birth you cannot be mature if the truth of God's love is merely a dictum that you check off in your personal Creed list but you have not been captured by it you are a spiritual pygmy spiritual maturity is tightly bound up in Scripture with coming to grips with the limitless dimensions of God's love which lies at the heart of the gospel let us pray Heavenly Father we freely confess how easy it is in the context of Christian churches and Christian friends and Christian University Christian studies somehow to think that because we can voice certain words and check off certain points that we too are in but here we find the master declaring unless you are born again you cannot see you cannot enter the kingdom forbid that anyone here this evening should be in such a wretched state for this chapter goes on to insist the wrath of God remains on him we beg of you Lord God that by your spirit you will cause those people here and now even where they sit to lift their hearts heavenward and cry lord I believe help my unbelief God be merciful to me a sinner and for all of us Lord God open our blind eyes enlarge the vision of our slow and dull hearts so that we may see more clearly how great and glorious this gospel is and revel in the love that is brought to pass this spectacularly good news by which we declare to others what you have done in Christ Jesus supremely in the cross and resurrection to bring about new birth both for this life and the life to come in Jesus name amen

Channel: Liberty University

Views: 15,315

Rating: 4.8762889 out of 5

Keywords: Symposium, Bible, DA, Carson, Liberty, University, Forum

Id: BvlYWXnvoMQ

Length: 66min 30sec (3990 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2012