Birth From Above
0 Amens
What Makes a Follower of Jesus? (1-15)
A religious leader, Nicodemus, is trying to figure out who Jesus is. Implied in his statement in verse two is a question along the lines of “So come on out with it! Are you the Messiah, the prophet, a great teacher, or what?” Jesus’ answer and the exchange that follows is a shocker. The answer to the implied question is, be born from above. That is the best literal rendering (it’s likely better than again). A spiritual transformation outside of us is necessary. Being born from above means we need a total renewal of our nature, not a better effort. What a crazy answer!
His dialoguing sermon helps us understand why he re-answers the question about his identity with a command to be born again. We’ll see that Jesus’ identity is all wrapped up in what He came to do: He came to make a broken humanity new again.
Let me explain why this was such a shocking statement and I want you to pay close attention to the assumption of Jesus’ day and see if it is close to the working assumption that most people have in our day. The assumption was that the vast majority of Jews would see the kingdom (i.e. go to heaven when they died) because of their identity as Jews. (As an important aside, Jesus tends to use the term “kingdom” to refer to a present reality that will explode in the future in a much greater way.) I say “vast majority” because it was assumed the proverbial “Hitlers” of their day wouldn’t make it. For them it was grounded in a theological half-truth. True, they were God’s covenantal people to begin restoring the whole planet. But it’s a half-truth (non-truth) because nowhere was it implied that genetic Jewishness saved anyone. This one liner by Jesus then must have been dumbfounding to Nicodemus. He wants to know who Jesus is and Jesus tells him that he must be born from above (again) to go to heaven. But Nicodemus wasn’t even asking about heaven. He already assumed it was his. Nicodemus thought the answer to all questions of life was in himself and he didn’t need an outside transformation. He was a good guy.
See the similarity between their cultural assumptions and ours? We think we are going to heaven because we are good, too. Also, we tend to have a tough time with any angles on life that have us looking outside ourselves for answers. Think about it. What do most people say after tough times or as encouragement for tough times others are facing? “Look inside yourself.” “The thing I learned about x experience was that I was stronger than I thought.” Bottom line: We feel like all challenges in life (including the next one!) can be answered internally. I think Jesus’ response stuns us at least as much as it must have stunned Nicodemus. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this is the thing that most people recoil against the most in Christianity. Most people assume that Jesus is the Great Therapist who came to affirm and listen. The only problem with this thinking is that Jesus’ words completely contradict it! Yes, He comes to heal and to make people right with God, but a change is needed. But what kind of change?
Verses 4-15 are spent explaining what Jesus means by being born again. It’s not a thing like being born of the flesh. Water and spirit are likely a reference to the OT-especially Ezekiel 36:25-27. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. This is a direct confrontation of Nicodemus’ misunderstanding. The point in all of history was not entitlement to a certain race or to “good” folks, but the plan was to totally change us…to make us new and to cause obedience. This work of the Spirit is not controlled by us. It’s up to God. We see its effects like the wind, but we don’t generate it and can’t control it.
Jesus’ role as the promised Messiah and the Spirit’s work of transformation shouldn’t have been this big of a mystery! Nick’s a teacher of
After this exchange, Jesus makes an analogy between Moses’ serpent and where His ministry was headed. In Numbers 21:4-9, God uses this bronze snake to bring physical healing to people who were enduring a plague of deadly snakes as a result of their disobedience, but God in His grace brought new life (physical). In the same way, Jesus (the son of man) was going to be lifted up on the cross and would bring spiritual life to people. And all of those that believe in Him, will live with Him! That life begins immediately, but will explode after death in the next life.
This is where the biggest misconceptions of Christianity reside. Most people think religions (and they’d be right) preach that we need to turn over a new leaf. We need to try harder. In fact, that’s what every world religion preaches. Pray and give to the poor and you’ll be fine. Detach from emotion and you’ll escape this reality. Do good and karma will return to you. In short, they all basically say, “The answer is in yourself.” Do you see the contrast from Jesus’ way? Jesus has incredible news for you. He first will crush any idea in your head that you are good on your own. No, He won’t deny that you’ve done good things, but you have disregarded him and not loved Him and stand guilty and alienated from Him. But that’s where the bad news stops. The good news begins from there! Jesus came not to expect you to try harder or turn over new leaves, but to be totally transformed. This separates Christianity from all religions and really makes it no religion at all. It’s the story about God coming to earth to seek out a broken humanity to renew us from the inside out and to heal what’s broken.
If you are a Christian, the Spirit has renewed your being at the deepest level. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t competing thoughts and desires that run contrary, but Jesus has been made our deepest desire! We’ve been born of the Spirit and now have communion with God through the Spirit! God has not left you alone to turn a new leaf or to be good. He has changed you. It might have happened at age 5 or at 25. Not only has your sin been removed (“not in part, but the whole”), but per the prophecy in Ezekiel you have been given a new desire for obedience. This is a great challenge to us. If there is not a desire for obedience, we should make sure that the Spirit has turned the lights on! If the desire is weak, join the club, but do everything in your power to walk in this new life in the Spirit. You were created for this!
Jesus and the World (16-21)
Let’s look at one of the most famous verses in the Bible and the context around it. What was the reason for Jesus’ plan to be lifted up on the cross to spiritually heal humanity? It was motivated by His love for humanity! God’s justice demanded that a final payment be made (and in this regard, Jesus was primarily motivated by His love of the Father to go to the cross), but because of His love for humanity, He sent His only Son. Nicodemus was wrong that being a Jew was the main qualifier…no, it’s the whole world! Like verse 15 stated, everyone that believes will have eternal life. Verse 17 does not rule out condemnation, but makes plain the reality of Jesus’ incarnation: Humanity was already condemned because of its rebellion against God (v. 18) and His life, death, and resurrection became a reality because He didn’t want condemnation to be the final word for all who would believe. This verse also does not imply that the world’s sin is removed regardless of their response to Jesus. No, verses 16, 17, and 18 have made it clear that we are only connected to the benefits of the cross…new life…through faith.
Let’s finish with a bang. Jesus gives some insight into why many of you will walk away today and reject Him. In some ways, all of us do, right? Some of you have not embraced any part of Him and remain guilty before God because of it. Why do we do it? The light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead. We reject Jesus because we love our evil, anti-God stuff. I know you don’t want to see it, but that’s why both the religious and non-religious people miss Jesus. A religious leader like Nicodemus missed it. Non-religious people miss it, too. We hide behind religion, being West Texas nice, safe neighborhoods, our kids’ activities, or whatever, but our hearts are wicked and are afraid to come to Jesus where our (v. 21) works should be exposed.
Search your heart on what I’m saying here and you’ll see that it’s true. You know you are afraid to engage Jesus right now. Why would that be? You aren’t afraid of coming to a worship service, but you are afraid of stopping and drawing near to Jesus. Why? Think about it! The only reason that makes sense is the one that Jesus gives here. You know that for you to come to Him, you’d have to submit to Him. And you don’t want to do it. Now we are getting somewhere. You love to be in charge of your own life. Maybe you aren’t as easy-going of a good guy/gal as you like to pretend to yourself. There is some secret stuff that is evil in there that you conceal behind a smile. You are broken, but as long as you are in charge, you can keep pretending.
The Christian way is different in every way. And, by the way, it’s easy to do the opposite even as a Christian, right? It’s rooted in our birth from above where we were given a new nature. It’s recognition that we are broken and have anti-God tendencies coursing through our veins. Instead of kidding ourselves about how good we are (and yes, I know church people are the worst at this), the Christian way is to acknowledge our weakness and our need for a real change. We bring our broken selves to Jesus. When we do this for the first time, this is called salvation/conversion. When we do it for the 2nd-134,009th time we call it the Christian life. Every one of us in here has things we try to conceal, right? Quit playing the shell game. Come to Jesus and find mercy and the joy of obedience that flows from faith! Let’s take this message of grace to a city that is full of grand masters at the shell game. People around you think the answer to life is “do better” and good things will happen to you. “The answer is in us” is not good news. “We are good people” is hollow and we know it. (If we don’t, we will later!) That’s not good news. Jesus changing us is. And that is how all of this passage goes together. Close with some “shell game” examples from my life.
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