Born Again

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by Truth For Life For more information visit us online at truth forlife.org I invite you to follow along as I read from John's gospel and from the third chapter and from the first verse John chapter 3 and from verse one now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him Jesus answered him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born Jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is Spirit do not Marvel that I said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit Nicodemus said to him how can these things be Jesus answered him are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things truly truly I say to you we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if I have told you Earthly things and you do not believe how how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly things no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from Heaven the son of man and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life amen we we come to you the lord of the word as we come to the word of the Lord accomplish gracious God the plans and purposes that you have for these moments meet us where we are enable us to see who Jesus is what he's done why he's come and why it matters and we pray in his name amen amen well we come this morning to the second of our truly truly studies if you were here last Sunday uh we made a start at this in the 51st verse of chapter 1 in which Jesus is explaining that the realities of Heaven are brought down to earth in his person and in his work and then you have in Chapter 2 the wedding at Cana of Galilee which is the first of the son signs that Jesus gave concerning his identity and then you have the cleansing of the temple and then you have a very interesting little statement that comes at the end of chapter two now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing and then notice this but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to Bear witness about man for he himself knew what is in man in other words Jesus because of who and what he is understands not only the immediate identity of an individual both facial characteristics and task and so on but sees into the very heart of an individual and in light of that when you you come to the first verse of chapter 3 it is interesting that John introduces us to this by saying now there was a man now there was a Man chapter 2 ends Jesus knows what is in a man what is in man now there was a man causing us to say to ourselves well I wonder if this man is from the category of those people at the end of chapter 2 and that is why we need to pay careful attention to the context in which we find our verse which is verse three truly truly or I assure you or in truth I tell you or believe me truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God now the truly truly is simply Jesus waves saying all that I have to say is important but I want you to pay particular attention to this there is if you like a solemnity to it and there is an importance to it that he wants to bring out now what we should notice immediately is this that what Jesus makes clear in this statement is that the new birth being born again is essential it is essential it's not opt it's not an idea it's not an esoteric option for a certain kind of person as we're going to see and in order to understand that notice that the context in which this takes place is in this conversation with Nicodemus who is according to verse one the ruler of the Jews in verse 10 he is the teacher of Israel and it is this man who comes under the cover of Darkness in order to meet with Jesus who as we have just discovered in chapter 1 is the light of the world in him was life and this life was the light of men is Nicodemus to be found amongst the category of those at the end of chapter 2 people who apparently were intrigued when they saw the signs after all if we' been there and somebody had turned water into wine we would have been intrigued as well we would have been perhap perhaps attracted to Jesus but now speaking for more than himself ra uh Nicodemus responds to Jesus after the statement is made but having led into it he speaks to him before ever Jesus says this in a tone that is I think almost patronizing he refers to him as Rabbi rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God well of course later on in John's gospel we're going to see that one of the things that people said in negative terms about Jesus was that he had never had any formal training in chapter 7 it says the Jews were marveling saying how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied so here we have the teacher of Israel he comes to this individual and he says to him rabbi uh we can tell that I mean I've been talking with my friends and and there is definitely something very striking about what you're doing that's essentially what he's saying we can tell that you're a teacher we can tell because and you've come from God because otherwise there would be no way that you could do these signs we know that God is with you now what we need to understand amongst other things is this that Nicodemus as an Orthodox Jew understood that the kingdom of God would arrive at the end of History the Jews looked forward to the passing of the ages and finally in the age to come so he knew that there was a coming Kingdom and given his background he had a pretty strong view that his credentials for entering into that Kingdom were probably pretty good after all he was from an elite background his uh relationship with his contemporaries was that he was a leader among them that he was a a member of the right race that he had been keeping all the right rules because he understood that the way of salvation for one of these religious and Orthodox men the way of Salvation was to be found in observing the law in keeping the traditions and paying attention to the rules that God had said therefore his mindset is when and that that kingdom comes I can be pretty confident that uh even if the the grade is on a curve that I've got a pretty good shot at being a member there now Jesus knows Nicodemus how do we know because of the end of chapter 2 he himself knew what was in a man you don't need to introduce yourself to Jesus Jesus knows you and Jesus then preempts any further courteous uh dialogue by essentially sweeping away the ground from underneath the feet of Nicodemus he knocks down everything essentially that Nicodemus stood for by declaring his need to be born again can you imagine what that was like truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God you can't see this Nicodemus with all your background you can't now that's the immediate context of the statement in the text let us pause for a moment and acknowledge that we come to this in a context as well we come to phraseology like this with at least 40 or 50 years of background material in relationship to the whole notion of what it means to be born again Born Again has been applied to all kinds of things the the the renovation of companies and the renovation of sports teams and so on but in terms of its contemporary application the Jesus movement of the 60s more than any other period at least in my lifetime brought to the for this question this notion of being born again uh classic um Coulson Chuck Coulson the the hatchet man for the Nixon Administration Coulson finally gave the title to his book born again which was right at the very center of all these things and if we're honest we recognize that it became viewed as for a certain type of person for a certain type of Christian you could either be a Christian or you could be one of the kind of crazy Christians the Born Again Christians who are regarded as the emotional segment or the needy segment or God forbid the political segment but they managed the media managed to segregate the notion to say now there is there are plenty of people who have got this button down without all of that other stuff and that's the context to which we come or in which we come and in that mindset the Bible makes it clear that being born again is not optional it is indispensable we're asking the question what does Jesus say what does Jesus say Jesus says truly truly you must be born again or you will never see the kingdom of God now Nicodemus responds you will notice despite the fact that he's a bright fellow and it's intriguing that he responds in this particular way he shows no spiritual Insight at all he responds literally to things just as a side note this is a feature of John's gospel um already in Chapter 2 you've had this uh juxtoposition between the figurative and the literal Jesus says destroy this Temple and I will raise it again in 3 days and this said well how could you build a temple in 3 days said I'm not talking about a physical Temple I'm talking about my body you go into John chapter 4 and Jesus says there is living water and the lady says give me the water so I don't even like coming to the well in the middle of the day he's not talking about water in the well and in the same way here he's not talking about physical birth how can a man be born when he's old is this Nicodemus his way of dismissing it of saying this a ridiculous idea can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born well the fact of the matter is that the Old Testament the Old Testament which Nicodemus was familiar with provides essentially the background for what Jesus then says in verse 5 Jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the the kingdom of God I'm not going to delay on this but if you take notes you can make a note of Ezekiel chap 36 and there in Ezekiel 36 you will see that the word of God through the prophet of God speaks of a cleansing that will come speaks of a new heart that will come speaks of a radical transformation that will be brought about by God in the lives of people and that of course would be familiar material to Nicodemus himself I'm not going to get into a debate about uh whether we're talking here about baptism which I don't believe we are or any other thing along those lines my understanding of verse 5 is that it is a recapitulation of verse three he's not saying something different he's saying the exact same thing to be born again of the spirit Spirit of God the water to be born of the water and of the spirit is a picture of spiritual cleansing that comes in the New Birth the sprinkling of water is an outward sign now with all of that said we have only said one thing Jesus says this is essential secondly we observe that that to which he refers is Supernatural it is Supernatural verse six that which is born of the flesh is flesh notice the contrast that which is born of the spirit is Spirit he said I'm speaking to you about a spiritual reality you've responded by asking can we do this again physically clearly we can't now let me say it to you again human birth produces people who belong to humanity human birth produces people who belong to the Earthly family of humanity Jesus says spiritual birth gives birth to spiritual people that's the contrast Nicodemus should have understood this in light of Ezekiel and that is why Jesus says to him do not Marvel that I said to you you must be born again in other words Nicodemus why would you be surprised by this after all you're a teacher of Israel you're you're one who understands the background of things and this is your response you see we'd already noted when we labored our way through the first chapter trying not to do so that this picture has already been given to us he came to his own his own people didn't receive him but to all did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God verse 13 of one who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but born of of God this is a supernatural reality it is the work of almighty God bringing about a radical change in the nature of an individual a change that the individual cannot bring about by themselves that's what Jesus is saying it's not external renov ation it's not cleaning your act up it's not even illumination being attracted being intrigued it's certainly not baptismal regeneration which some of you still hold on to a dangerous position in which to take your security as if somehow or another our condition before almighty God could be made right by the activities of some inferior ior being in the course of Earthly Ministry Not For a Moment becoming a Christian is always and in every case a miracle because God is the cause of the change it is God who does it now you don't have to just tie yourselves to John 3 you're students you can read the Bible you must read your Bibles and see if this is so when Peter who uh had a checkered background up to the time of the Resurrection if you like finally writes to the scattered Christians of his day this is where he begins blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great Mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope that's 1 Peter 1:3 when Paul writes to Titus to help Titus make sure he's doing a good job in pastoring his church Titus says to the people he says you know you need to be much nicer than you are in society you need to be far more engaged with people you need to be marked by the identifying features of your relationship with a living God because he says remember we ourselves were once foolish we were once foolish we were once disobedient we were once of an entirely different department We Were Once By Nature without hope and without God in the world but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared he made us Brand New by the washing of regeneration now that word which is used both in First Peter and here in Titus I'll give it to you it's a it's a Greek word it's Palin genesia palingenesia p a if you want to in English as it were p a l i n g n n e s i a regeneration now born again generation re okay so is born again again it's regenerated now as I've been thinking about this all week I always go to the guys that help me most so Singler Ferguson is top of the list and I was greatly helped by listening to him answer a question that was posed the question was this is there a difference between regeneration and being born again classically Sino replies well yes and no and he simply points out that the New Testament uses the term regeneration in terms of cosmic renewal remember Jesus says to his followers in the new world when the son of man will sit on his throne when when the world is cosmically renewed when there is a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwells righteousness when every everything is put back together the way God intends for it to be in that day that will be this that is that great work of regeneration so what then is the Regeneration of being born again it is essentially this it is the bringing of that Cosmic reality into the present experience of an individual the same Power by which God will recreate the entire universe is the power that is brought to bear in the life of an individual when he recreates us as the children of God so that being born again in terms of New Testament theology is essentially our participation in the inauguration of that great final Cosmic renewal now we are the children of God but it does not yet appear what we shall be because when he appears we shall be like him now this actually uh can lead to all kinds of conversations for example the Greeks and the stoics they used the word palingenesia they used it to talk about the way in which the world was constantly regenerating itself so it would go along for a little while and then there would be a palen Genia and then it would go along for a little while and then it would drift back down into where it was before and then there would be a need for another one and what the Bible says is not the the ultimate one is already secure and is taken care of and it is that reality pressed on an individual life that is being described here in the New Birth what God did cosmically which will eventually be appearing he does personally it is a complete change of heart and character produced in a person by the Holy Spirit it is the power of God to regenerate the entire world brought into your heart now it is miraculous and it is at the same time mysterious the wind blows where it wishes you hear its sound you don't know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit now let me see a third thing incidentally when the wind blows and you don't know where it's coming from or actually where it's going what it's doing if if you have umbrellas up on your back patio and it blows good enough you see the effect of the wind you can't go hey wind no stop that Jesus can this is something to do with pal and genesia incidentally but the fact of the matter is we can see the EV we can see the effects of the wind now let me say this and then I have one final point and don't get these two in the wrong order it is absolutely essential it is Supernatural and its effects are experiential its effects are experiential so we're talking about the impact the wind we cannot grab a hold of but we see what it does so it is with everyone who is born of The Spirit Well we could spent an entire series working on the effects the impact of the new birth but let me just say three things experientially what happens is that we get a new family we get a new family that's John 1 again he gave them the right to become the children of God this is who you are you you are a child of God you are a child of the king in Jesus you have been adopted into his family that is it right there a whole new family and you think about this even though churches are weird places and we're not unique in that regard and there are all kinds of strange people there at the end of the day you're still my family you're my family for here my friends and family dwell this you I you're stu with me this is an eternal stock I mean you you can move out of the neighborh Hood but you can't get away because of what is done you see Saul of Tarsus was born again and then he had a whole new family in fact his family was the company that he thought were a bunch of nuts he was going to kill them destroy them imprison them and now he's in there sitting with them and anybody's going what the what happened to you Saul he says to me to live is Christ to die again because a new family secondly a new identity so almost the same thing isn't it God so loved the world you see in verse 16 we didn't read that far that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life I met with a very elderly man some weeks ago now we talked about heaven we talked about life we talked about things and he said what am I to do I said well in some senses there's nothing you can do I said but do you believe do have you ever put your name in John 3 I said he said I don't know what you mean I said well it would be like this for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that James Jenkins who believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life you see identity is a huge part of our existence isn't it you can't into a setting like this as a stranger or going into a new office or to a new lab or to a new school and want to make sure that we have the requisite identity people spend enough Fortune to manufacture ourselves in in the right way the identity that we have in Jesus is not an achieved identity it is a received identity you family new identity and new mentality new mentality you see when our nature is renewed by the spirit of God it inevitably changes all kinds of things our view of the world our understanding of our place within the world the the nature of significance and so on one of the songs that we could have sung this morning was one that we haven't sung in a while which has the lines all I once held dear built my life upon all the things I yearned and longed to own all these things I now count in an entirely different way because of Jesus essentially coming out of Paul's words I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews I was a Pharisee I was had a good school I had a good intellect I had good background and all those things he said but you know this is this has changed this has changed what happened to him he became religious no he was religious he was completely religious religious Nicodemus didn't need to become religious Nicodemus didn't need to become intelligent Nicodemus needed what only God can give he needed to be born again Charles Simeon for 55 years or 54 the minister in the church in Cambridge was asked by a member of his congregation well what then do you think is the indispensable sign of regeneration you know what he said ah humble contrite spirit self abasement self-abasement Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a Wretch like Me a wretch you're wred by nature and so am I he doesn't set his love upon us because of who we are or what we've achieved or what we've done or where we're going not for a moment and you will notice in the text when you read it on your own at home Nicodemus comes back to me and he says how can these things be that's a good question is it's the right question and Jesus said are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things truly truly I say to you we speak of what we know and we bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony nck deus's failure wasn't a failure of intellect it wasn't that he couldn't understand it was a failure an unwillingness to believe Jesus testimony that's why he says you do not believe you do not receive our testimony and he says if I've told you about Earthly things what I'm telling you now is the entry is the entry thing and if you can't even get the entry thing if you stumble at at this point what use is there going to be for me to start to explain to you the details of life in the Kingdom why would you be concerned about life in the Kingdom you're stumbling over what I'm telling you about the only way of entry into the kingdom it's like people when you're talking to them at over coffee or something they want to talk to you about well what about the the state of UFOs what about the thing over two of those five of those every said for goodness sake come on Friday night we'll help you with that but for now let's talk about what Jesus says what does he say truly truly I say to you unless one is born again now finally and just quickly so I I wrote down these words I wrote essential uh Supernatural experiential and individual individual to make the point that this is not this is not like shyang Moon that you go away to a conference somewhere and all of a sudden you're all swept in some great surge or something no the reality of this is individual everybody is born as an individual John start has a wonderful little piece where he says no infant has a say in being born true you remember on the Johnny Carson show he said he was arguing with his son and his son said I didn't ask to be born and Johnny Carson says yeah and if you'd asked I would have said no no infant contributes in any way to their birth their birth is not conditional upon their acceptance of it or their rejection of the idea some arrive Kicking and Screaming some just seem to emerge without fuss or bother we would never know the date of our birth if our parents hadn't told us the reason we know we're born although we don't remember the occasion is that we're enjoying life today that's how we know it doesn't matter at all if although you know you have turned to Christ you do not know the date when you did so some do and some don't but here's the deal the new birth is not something we do it is something God gives because you will notice that Jesus is not here demanding that Nicodemus experience the new birth in the instant he's not saying that to him what he's actually saying to Nicodemus and forcefully articulating it he's saying this is what must be experienced to enter the kingdom of God so if you ask how can I be born again what can I do technically the right answer is there is nothing nothing you can do if you ask the a question what must I do to be saved the answer is to believe what God does by way of initiative and what we do by way of response is inextricably woven together professor John Murray who was singler's great great Idol and teacher says the gospel of Christ is Sovereign efficacious irresistable regeneration unless God by Sovereign operative Grace had turned our enmity to love and our disbelief to Faith we would never yield the response of faith and love you see Jesus is reminding his his his friend again from the Old Testament Nicodemus would get this this is famous numbers 21 Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness you remember that he says to Nicodemus you remember that that they had been now bitten by the snake that they were all filled with uh the Venom of the snake and God in his mercy and his grace using the means of a serpent says that everyone who looks to the serpent will be free who looks says Calvin the true looking of faith is placing Christ before one's eyes and beholding in him the heart of God poured out in love now when you think about birth you think about the nature of birth you think about even the way Jesus called his disciples in chapter 1 all these different ways and backgrounds and bits and pieces Wesley was a preacher of the Gospel before he was converted he was a graduate of a fine University he had the Bible under his uh under his grasp he was moving around in America teaching people everything and then he goes one evening to a Bible study in uh allgate Street and he says and there my heart heart was strangely warmed he couldn't explain it they said what does that mean so well I can't really tell you all about it but I know that I was once this you take the man born blind in John chapter n maybe and and and you've got that big fussing a bother depression on his parents what's going on with this guy what has Jesus done to him and what about you what do you have to say for yourself he says I I don't know what I have to say to myself I can say one thing I know one thing once I was blind but now I can see see that's all I can tell you that's my testimony I was a blind man I am a seeing man that's what happens you see people are listening to me and my colleagues teach the gospel they're going to one day say I was in a gospel church I heard the Scottish guy preach but I never heard the gospel why because I didn't preach it no because you never heard it because God didn't unstop your ears he didn't open your blind eyes you can stare at it your face and read it in the text and stand back from it Spurgeon probably is the greatest illustration of how Jesus ends here and with this illustration I will end too Spurgeon was 15 years old he said it was a day never to be forgotten when I first understood that salvation could not be of myself but must be through one stronger and better than I I heard that the Son of God had taken upon himself our human nature and had by his life and death provided a perfect salvation finished from top to bottom when he was ready to give which he was ready to give to Every Soul that was willing to have it and that salvation was all of Grace from first to last the free gift of God through the Blessed son Jesus Christ January the 6th 1850 his school is closed and the winter has taken a bite in the greater London area he's going to church but he can't get to the original church he goes to a different one uh A Primitive Methodist Church down a street in Colchester he enters the room there were no more than a dozen or 15 people present even the minister had failed to arrive because of the weather it was the wrong Church the wrong congregation the wrong wrong weather and the wrong preacher into the pulit climbed a thin looking man Spurgeon was never to know anything about him he announced his text as Isaiah 45:22 look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the Earth for I am God and there is none else Spurgeon records he hadn't much to say all that he could really do was continue to quote the text my dear friends this is a very simple text indeed it says look now look and don't take a deal of pain it ain't lifting your foot or your finger it's just look well a man need go to college to learn to look you may be the biggest fool in yet you can look a child can look however weak or however poor a man may be he can look and if he looks the promise is that he shall live and SP says he went on in his broad Essex accent you'll never find any comfort in yourselves no he says look at me the preacher managed to spin that out for 10 minutes and then running out of anything fresh to say looked at his congregation and picked on Spurgeon young man you look very miserable he said well says Spurgeon I did look miserable but I had been accustomed to have remarks made from the poopit about my personal appearance before however it was a good blow and it struck right home the preacher went on and you will always be miserable miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text but if you obey now this moment you will be saved and then he shouted at the top of his voice as I think only A Primitive Methodist can young man look to Jesus Christ look look looke you have nothing to do but look and live Spurgeon said I at once saw the way of Salvation I know not what else he said I didn't take any notion of it or all oh I could have looked until I almost have looked my eyes away there and then the cloud was gone the darkness had rolled away and at that moment I saw the sun and I could have risen that instant and sung of his grace and his Mercy truly truly I say to you Jesus says unless one is born again he cannot see cannot enter the kingdom of God how gracious of God how good how amazing is our Salvation father turn Our Eyes Upon Jesus enable us to look full in his wonderful face that the things of Earth might grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace and may Grace from Father Son and Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who looks today and forever more amen this message was brought to you from Truth For Life where the learning Is For Living to learn more about Truth for lifee with Alis beg visit us online at truthforlife.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 117,859

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Id: D70xSncZBDI

Length: 43min 25sec (2605 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023