A summary of the sermon preached given at the baptismal service this Sunday evening, on


JOHN 3:1-16

“BORN AGAIN”


It’s become a jargon phrase, greatly beloved of American presidential candidates – “born again”. But the phrase didn’t originate in America. Jesus said it.


To be born again means to experience the wonderful new life that starts when someone becomes a real Christian.


So let’s ask some questions about this phrase “born again”, and what it means.


1. IS IT NECESSARY TO BE BORN AGAIN?


Jesus here stresses how absolutely vital it is that people are born again. He stresses:

[i] THE NEED IS URGENT


Three times in this short paragraph – in verses 3, 5 and 11 – he uses the phrase “I tell you the truth.”


It’s a phrase that Jesus used when he wanted to stress how absolutely vital what he was about to say was.


One Bible translation translates it “with all the earnestness I possess, I tell you.”


Jesus says, I’m not just saying this – I’m not just bouncing ideas around – I’m saying something that is supremely, vitally important.


[ii] THE NEED IS UNIVERSAL


Verse 3, “No-one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.”


Verse 5, “No-one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”


Verse 7, “You must be born again” – the “you” is plural – it means you all, all people.


Whoever you are, says Jesus, you MUST be born again.


There’s a widespread idea about being “good enough” for God. But if anyone could ever claim to be good enough for God, then surely Nicodemus could.







Yet to such a man, Jesus says, “You must be born again.” You won’t do as you are – you need to make a completely fresh start.


Many people today may think they’re alright: they were brought up to go to church – they come from a respectable home – they lead a good life – they believe in God.


But to every single individual, Jesus says, “You must be born again.”


You may be religious or not; great or small; a success or a failure; someone who never goes to church or an archbishop; good bad or ugly. But whoever you are, whatever your life may be like, Jesus says, it is absolutely VITAL that you are born again.


Everyone here is either born again, or desperately needs to be.


Why? – What is the point of this new birth?


2. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE BORN AGAIN?


Jesus says (verses 3 and 5) that we need to be born again, so that we can “see” or “enter into the Kingdom of God”


That means, simply, so that we can know God as King, and live our lives with God as King in our lives.


Birth leads to life – and new birth leads to NEW LIFE, or ETERNAL LIFE – to life in relationship with God himself, and lived under the Kingly rule of God.


This was God’s intention from the beginning. God created us all to live our lives in his Kingdom. That is real life – what Jesus calls “life in all its fulness.”


It means three things:


[i] KNOWING GOD PERSONALLY


Life in the Kingdom is life in a personal relationship with God, sharing the whole of our life with him, experiencing the whole of his life – his love, his glory, his peace – as a reality in our lives.


Christian life is first and foremost life in relationship with Christ. It’s not a moral code, church involvement, a set of beliefs.


It’s possible to have all that, but still not be born again, not to know Christ personally.


“This is eternal life, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent” (John 17:3).


In the Bible, “know” is always relationship knowledge, not philosophical or intellectual knowledge.


[ii] LIVING THE WHOLE OF LIFE UNDER GOD’S AUTHORITY AND FOR HIS GLORY


We are made to live our lives with God as King. God to come first, as King, Lord – so we live first and foremost for him. Life in God’s Kingdom is life lived in obedience to God, and for his glory.


That is what it means to live under the Kingdom of God – it is our choice, pleasure and privilege to serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords.


That is life in all its fulness!


Our lives are not naturally like that. God is not central – we don’t naturally live for him. We’ve all rebelled against the Kingdom of God. We want God to be there when we need him, but we don’t, by nature, live our whole lives for him.


Life in the Kingdom of God means:


first, knowing God personally;

second, living the whole of our life under God’s Kingship;


And third...


[iii] EXPERIENCING THE BENEFITS THAT COME TO US WHEN GOD IS KING


Experiencing the joy, the justice, the love that we can experience when God is King in our lives. Living in the reality, not just of the best of earth’s blessings, but of the blessings of God’s heaven.


That’s why people don’t just need to be improved, or educated, or even changed – they need to be totally re-created.


You and I need to be made totally new if we are going to be acceptable to God.


That brings us to the third question.


The first – is it necessary to be born again? – YES!


The second – why is it necessary? – to see the Kingdom of God – to have the new and different kind of life that God created you to have.


And third...


3. HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?


Verse 5, “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”


[i] BORN OF THE SPIRIT


Verse 6, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”


Or, to put it in simpler language, a person is born physically of human parents, but he is born spiritually of the Holy Spirit of God.


To be born means to receive life; and when we are born, we receive the same kind of life as our parents. Human parents reproduce human children.


A Sunday school class was once asked: “Are you born a Christian?” One boy replied, “No, miss, you’re born normal.”


That’s absolutely right! We’re born normal – with “normal” human life. And you can only pass on to your children the same kind of life that you have yourself.


We have one kind of life – human life, “normal” life. But God has a different kind of life – what the Bible calls “eternal life”.


Just as when a child is conceived, the seed of the human life of its parents is planted in that new life, so when someone is born again, it means that the Holy Spirit of God plants in us the kind of life that God has.


We don’t have that kind of life by nature.


When people first rebelled against God, fell into sin, they lost that spiritual life. That is why the Bible says that all people are “spiritually dead in sins.”


Spiritually, people aren’t just weak, or faltering, or damaged – they’re DEAD!


We’ve lost our share in God’s spiritual life.


And that means:


[i] The relationship with God is broken


We no longer live in a close relationship with God, in which we can delight. We are separated from God by the gulf of our sin.


[ii] We’ve lost the gift of eternal life


We are left with mere human life, which does not last forever, and is tainted with the effects of our human sins.


[iii] We are banished from the presence of God


Our sinful nature makes us unfit for God’s presence and God’s heaven. A holy God must judge and condemn sin.


Remember: to be born means to receive the same kind of life as your parents.


We all inherit that natural human life – in which the relationship with God is broken, we have no share in God’s eternal life, and we are separated from the presence of God.


There is no natural evolution from flesh to spirit.


That is a life that is totally different from the eternal life of Jesus. Ordinary human life is sinful and corrupt; Jesus’ life is perfect and sinless. Ordinary human life is separated from God; Jesus’ life is sharing in close fellowship with God. Ordinary human life is under God’s wrath and judgment; Jesus’ life is sharing in the blessing and love of God. Ordinary human life is mortal; Jesus’ life is eternal.


To become a Christian, to be born again, means that the Holy Spirit plants in us the kind of life that Jesus has, God’s kind of life. It is only by receiving that kind of life that we find real life – God’s eternal, spiritual life.


It’s because we’re born of human parents that we can know real human relationships and human life.


And it’s when we’re born of God that we can know a real relationship with God and the real life of God.


[ii] BORN OF WATER


Verse 5, “Born of water and the Spirit.”


This speaks of cleansing – being washed from the guilt and sin of human life.


God says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities...” (Ezekiel 36:25)


This is possible only because Jesus took all our sin and guilt on himself when he died on the cross.


“He saved us by the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour” (Titus 3:5-6).


So, being born again means:


receiving new spiritual life;


receiving forgiveness, cleansing from all sins.


4. WHO CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN?


Who does it?


It is God’s doing, absolutely and utterly.


Natural birth is from the parents – you can’t arrange your own birth or bring it about.


In the same way, spiritual birth is not something we can bring about for ourselves. It’s not by our efforts, our work, our religious or moral deeds.


Verse 8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”


The Holy Spirit is like the wind – you can’t see him, but you can see the effect he has.


When you see trees bending in the wind, you know the wins is blowing on them – trees cannot bend themselves. A tree can’t decide for itself to do some bending!


But when the wind blows on them, they can sway and bend.


So it is with the Spirit of God. You cannot get God’s new, eternal life for yourself.


But when the Holy Spirit plants the seed of that life in you, you and others will see the effect.


Salvation, being born again, is entirely God’s work. God took the initiative.


It’s God who sent Jesus to die on the cross for all our sins. The wages of sin is death – Jesus died to pay that price for us.


It’s God who sends his Holy Spirit to give us new life – to make his eternal life real in our experience.


It’s a free gift from God – free because Jesus has already paid the price for it on the cross. We don’t earn it, deserve it, pay for it, achieve it. God’s Spirit, who shares fully in the life of God, brings that life to us.


5. HOW CAN WE BE BORN AGAIN?


How do we receive it?


There is an important difference between natural birth and spiritual re-birth.


Though you can’t achieve it, you can ask for it. Though it’s entirely God’s work by his Spirit, you can ask him to do that work in your life.


How do we receive this new birth?


Verse 16 tells us: by faith – by trusting him.


Faith means asking Jesus to save you, and trusting that he will.


Sin is destroying people – keeping people separated from God. We cannot do anything about it ourselves – but we can trust Jesus to. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”


Ask Jesus to bring you new life, and you will be born again, you will start an entirely new life in relationship with God – you will enter the Kingdom of God – you’ll experience the new life of the Kingdom of God


To exercise faith means essentially three things.


[i] ADMIT


Admit you need God’s new life.


Admit you can’t get yourself to heaven by your own efforts. As long as you think you can, you’ll never know what it means to be born again.


Admit you need to be forgiven and washed clean from the wrong things in your life.


[ii] ASK


Turn to Jesus, and ask him to wash you clean, to bring you the gift of God’s new life.


[iii] ACCEPT


Accept Jesus’ gift of new life. Accept from him a brand new future – lived for God, as part of God’s Kingdom.


Receive that life as a gift – you can ask him to do that for you today.


Jesus said, “You must be born again” – and you can be born again!


Because God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.