YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN

FATHER JIM FOSDICK

ST. MARY OF THE SNOWS ANGLICAN CHURCH

FEBRUARY 17, 2008

Lord of light - shine upon us. God of love fill our hearts with your wisdom. Holy Spirit, bring yourself closer to us in my words and how we hear them, in our thoughts and how we think them. Use this time - and use us to accomplish your good will. Amen.

Please open your Bibles to John Chapter 3 verses 1-17 which is our Gospel reading this morning. Verse 7 reads in part “You must be born again.” Those are Jesus words to Nicodemus in our Gospel today. You must be born again. I could say those words and sit down, because that is the message of the gospel, that is what will save your life, and that is my message this morning and hopefully in one way or another every Sunday morning. You must be born again. So if you want to know the theme of this morning’s message, or what the take away from today is, that’s it…you must be born again.

Let me begin by taking this short simple statement apart. Who are we talking about? You! This isn’t some statement to the congregation in general, or for that matter to the residents of Eagle River. It’s not for someone else. This morning these words are directed at you. You Bonnie, you Jim, you Ernie, you Karla, you everyone of you here today.

Certainly Jesus is addressing Nicodemus, but these words are also meant for us today. You are the one Jesus is talking to and therefore you are the one that I am talking to. So as we go through our gospel I want you to be thinking that we’re talking about you. Later on you can start thinking about whether there’s someone you know who needs to hear this good news but first let’s deal with you.

The next word is must. A friend of mine recently asked prisoners at the prison ministry he conducts, what does must mean? Does must mean should? Does it mean may? Does it mean might want to think about? Pretty obviously it doesn’t mean any of those things. Must means must. Here’s what Merriam Webster says must means, first three definitions, 1. be commanded to, 2. be compelled to, or 3. be obliged to. So it’s not optional it’s something you are commanded to do.

So Jesus is saying to you, You must what? You must be born again. As Episcopalians, and for that matter most main line denominations you may be a little uncomfortable with this terminology… Born again. I mean aren’t born again Christians religious nuts? No, born again Christians are saved children of God. Furthermore as Jesus makes clear, if you’re not born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Since Christ said you must be born again, it cannot be unsaid. It’s something we have to deal with if we are to be followers of Christ.

Maybe you’re saying like Nicodemus, How can I be born again? I want to begin with a story that involves a preacher who probably preached on this topic as much as anyone in history, Billy Graham. Steve McQueen was a pretty big movie star who lead a life as tough as the ones he portrayed on the screen. He starred in movies like Bullitt and The Great Escape, and was famous for doing his own stunts. Success filled his life until alcohol and a failed marriage left him empty. In his despair he attended a crusade led by one of Billy Graham’s associates. McQueen made a profession of faith and requested an opportunity to speak with Billy Graham. A connecting flight in Los Angeles allowed Dr. Graham to spend a couple of hours with Mr. McQueen in the actor’s limousine. Dr Graham shared numerous scriptures in his quest to give spiritual hope and assurance. Steve McQueen struggled with the thought of God giving eternal life to a man who had such a checkered past.

In Titus 1:2, however, he found a promise that spoke to him - "the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago" He requested something to write down the verse, but Billy Graham gave McQueen his Bible instead. Later, Steve McQueen died in Mexico while seeking experimental treatment for his terminal cancer. He passed into eternity with Graham’s Bible opened to Titus 1 and his finger resting on verse 2. Regardless of our past, we have the assurance of our eternal salvation because of God’s Word. For Steve McQueen as for all of us this born again idea is a matter of life and death. None of us know how much time we have on this earth and so responding to Jesus’ statement you must be born again is as urgent for us as it was for Steve McQueen.

So let’s look at this issue of being born again. There is certainly much to be learned from our Old Testament reading, from our Psalm and from Paul’s letter to the Romans, but John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus is a rich treasure trove all by itself so this morning I want to focus on that. In reading this passage this week I was first struck by the little paragraph that precedes it. John points out that many believed in Jesus because of the signs that he was doing…healing the blind, the paralyzed and the leprous and casting out demons. Chapter 2, verse 24 says, “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 was in man.” Jesus first of all may have known that some of these people were His enemies and would look for the first chance to do Him in. For the most part though I think John is saying he didn’t trust their belief in Him. It was shallow, based on the miracles and they really hadn’t done what they needed to do to be his followers. The passage also notes that he didn’t need anyone to tell Him about men because he knew what was in them. He knew them beyond their outward appearance.

The very next passage is the account of Nicodemus. Now you should know that Nicodemus was not just any man, but our passage says he was a Pharisee. In fact he was a member of the Sanhedrin which was effectively the Jewish Senate. So this rich, educated high official comes to him for a private audience and what does he say? We know that you are a teacher come from God…And how does he know this? Because of the signs Jesus has been doing. You see how this follows from the previous chapter? So Jesus now gets to explain what John said when he said that Jesus didn’t entrust himself to them.

Nicodemus may be like you. He had enough information to be inquiring about Jesus and he wanted to find out more and he even had the good sense to start by saying we know you are from God but he still didn’t quite get it. Jesus stops him at his polite opening sentence and says in effect, you think you were born right, and you think you have studied and you think you have followed the law and you think that gets you into the kingdom, but you’ve got it all wrong. None of that matters. Remember John just told us Jesus knows what is on the inside of a man. So Jesus knew what Nicodemus was all about and brothers and sisters he knows what you’re about too. If it were you going at night to a private audience with Jesus to ask your questions and you began by saying I know you’re the Son of God because I’ve read about all the miracles you did, Jesus would see this when he looked at you. You believe you’re a Christian because you come from a Christian family and you attend church regularly and you go to the adult education class and you do your best to be a good person, but I tell you that is not what is necessary for salvation. Then he might say to you as he does to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  In other words you just said you know I’m from God and you can’t know about God in the first place unless you are born again.

The Kingdom of God is spiritual. As we will see being born again is being born spiritually. Because Nicodemus was of the flesh he couldn’t even get involved in a spiritual discussion so he says, how can a man go back into his mother’s womb? He’s just thinking naturally, on what Paul would call a carnal man level. Jesus is not deflected from his original line of teaching and he comes back with the same statement with a little more detail,

"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.”

            To understand why this being born again is necessary we need to understand a few things about our condition. First, since the fall of Adam we are born into this world sinners. We start with original sin and we quickly add to this personal sin. Children fighting over toys are exhibiting greed. A businessman telling his secretary to tell a caller he’s not in the office is bearing false witness or lying and a wife who wants a new car like the neighbors is coveting. Sin separates us from God and ultimately if unconfessed leads to eternal death. So we need to be born again because we need to be recreated as new persons composed of flesh and spirit. We need to regain the spirit that was lost at the fall.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” So as Jesus is telling Nicodemus, man cannot understand the things of God without the spirit of God in him. The spirit of God can only be in man if he is born again.

            What does this mean on the practical level for us now? It means that in order to discern the directions God provides to us in scripture we have to have the Spirit of God in us. In order to receive the counsel and the comfort of the Holy Spirit we need to have the Spirit of God in us. Finally in order to enter the Kingdom of God now and eternally we have to be reborn so that we have both a physical being and a spiritual being in the same body.

            In verse 6 Jesus tells Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” We are all physically born of the flesh. The flesh can never make itself into spirit. The highest it can rise is into very good flesh, that is intelligent, skilled, perhaps even altruistic flesh. But just as a serpent can never by good works become an angel, so a human being can never by good works become a child of God.

Becoming a child of God requires an act of God. Jesus explains this when he says in verses 7 and 8, “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." What he is saying is that we know the wind exists and we know that it may be blowing today from the north and tomorrow from the west and we don’t doubt that there is wind because we can’t explain how it happens. Similarly Jesus says we have to accept that something real happens when we are born again of the Spirit even though we can’t fully understand or explain it.

Nicodemus, as he was when Jesus first told him of the need to be born again, is once again unable to grasp this spiritual knowledge that Jesus is trying to impart. He can’t understand precisely because he is not born again. He is natural man trying to understand spiritual man which Paul said can’t be done. In response to Nicodemus’ question How can these things be, Jesus first states his authority to know these things and then says there’s really no point to going on because Nicodemus will never understand heavenly things. He says the answer to Nicodemus lost condition is He himself, the son of Man, being lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Do you see that in verse 14?

Let me make sure you understand what He’s saying here because this isn’t altogether explicit. The reference to Moses is to a situation when the people of Israel were on the move and they became angry with God and spoke against him. In other words they sinned. God sent fiery serpents to attack the people as punishment and anyone who was bitten died. The people, who realized they had sinned against God asked Moses to pray for them and God told Moses to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole and tell the people that if they were bitten if they looked up at the serpent on the pole they would live. God gave the people a way to escape the penalty of their sin if they did what he told them to do.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that this is what God will do by Jesus’ death on the cross.

Verse 15 says, “so must the son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” That, brothers and sisters, is the HOW to being born again. Believe in Jesus to have eternal life which is to say to be born again. It’s a package deal. The Greek word Pist-yoo-oh is translated in most Bibles as believes. A Greek lexicon offers the following definitions, to have faith in, to put ones trust in or to entrust ones spiritual well-being to Christ. So it’s more than belief. It’s trust Jesus to lead you to the future that God intends for you, a future that will be best for you. As it says in Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you hope and a future.

 Verses 16 and 17 tell us why God is doing what He is doing and how we benefit. For God so loved the world… All of this is because God loves us. Since I started out with you let me reinforce that now. The story of salvation is a story of God’s love for you. Each and every one of you individually. And he loved you first before you knew who he was and certainly before you loved Him. God loves you and He loves you so much that when he saw that there was no other way to accomplish it, he sent his only son whom he loves to die for your sins and mine. He sent Jesus to die so that if you believe in him, trust him, follow him, you will not perish but will have eternal life. To drive this point home, verse 17 says For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Do you want to be saved? Do you want to have eternal life? Do you want to be able to see the Kingdom of God? To enter the Kingdom of God? You must be born again. Maybe you’re like Nicodemus. Maybe you think you’re already guaranteed a heavenly future because of lifelong church attendance. Let me tell one more story.

It’s another story from Billy Graham.

Billy Graham was once attending a dinner in his honor and found himself seated by an archbishop of a dominant church in another country. During the evening he asked this man how he had become a Christian. This is the story he told Dr. Graham: He had already been installed as the archbishop in his country when he was invited to Chicago to give a lecture in a prominent theological school. One afternoon while sightseeing, he boarded a city bus. No sooner had he taken his seat when a big black finger tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to look into the full, round, ebony face of an obviously poor woman seated behind him. In a wonderfully rich voice, she asked, “Mister, has you ever been born again?” He frowned, thinking for sure he had misunderstood her question since English was his second language. With polite reserve he asked, “Excuse me?”
The deep, rolling voice repeated, “I says, has you ever been born again?” The archbishop stiffened his back, straightened his shoulders, and replied with the greatest dignity, “My dear madam, I am the archbishop of the church in my country. I am here to give a lecture at the theological seminary.”
As the bus rolled to a stop, the woman rose to get off. She looked at the proud, religious man dressed in his flowing robes bearing the insignia of his office & said bluntly, “Mister, that ain’t what I asked you. I asked you, ‘Has you been born again?” Then she turned and walked off the bus and out of his life. But, the archbishop said, her words rang in his ears and burned in his soul. He went back to his hotel room, located a Gideon Bible in a dresser drawer opened it to the Gospel of John, and read the familiar story of Nicodemus. With increasing clarity & conviction, he knew that even with all of his religious training & devotion & service & recognition, he had never been born again. So in tears he slipped down on his knees, & that night, in a Chicago hotel room thousands of miles from his home, God answered his heart’s cry, and he came face to face with grace. He was born again by the love of God.

Brothers and sisters if an archbishop can rise to his position in the church without realizing he wasn’t saved so can you. Jesus may have brought you here today to hear his words. You must be born again. If you haven’t been born again, or if you’re not sure, this simple prayer will erase the doubt. Please pray with me.

Heavenly Father I know that I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and ask for your forgiveness. Lord for too long I have been trying to do things on my own. I want to be born again. I believe that your son Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I believe that he was resurrected from the dead and sits in heaven at your right hand. Lord Jesus be the Lord of my life. Direct me in all that I say and do until that day when you welcome me into your loving arms. Use me in whatever way builds up your kingdom. I love you and thank you and praise you for saving my life. Amen.

If you just prayed that prayer for the first time would you please tell me? We’ve got a lot to talk about. If you need time to think about it before you do so I just want to say time is short. Every day we read in the paper about someone whose life was taken from them untimely. Is it ever timely to die? Turn in your Bibles one more time to Second Corinthians Chapter 6 verse 1, “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Amen.