You Must Be Born Again

The question we're going to ask today is, what would you say to someone who has been sincerely, honestly seeking peace, seeking God through the church, his whole life and hasn't found it? What would you say to someone who has done everything right, has worked his way up the church hierarchy to the very top, is a pastor, is the chairman of the deacons, is the sonny school teacher, is the person that everybody looks to for answers from the Bible and for answers from life, but they still have no peace. How do you look, what would you say to someone who honestly, when they describe their Christian life, would tell you they are compelled to seek something they have not found, not called? What would you say? I can tell you from my experience, what you could say to a college's junior who's absolutely burned out from trying to gain assurance of salvation. I can tell you what my experience was as a sophomore in college, I realized that the only people who are going to be nice to me were Christians and I needed to get busy about my Christianity and I was unable to really get on top of my sin and my laziness and just the things in my life, I was never the person I believed I ought to be, I kept having this image in my mind that if I'm a good Christian, if I'm a true Christian and I'm going to want to read the Bible, I will want to pray, I will want to do evangelism and I just didn't want to do any of those things, I wanted to sleep and I wanted to hang out with my friends and I kind of had to do homework but I couldn't do any of those things and so I tried harder and harder and my week devolved to this on Sunday morning, I went to church, on Sunday night, I went to FCA small group on Tuesday, on Monday night, I went to campus crusade, on Tuesday night, I went to FCA large group on Wednesday morning at 630, I went to campus crusade prayer meeting on Wednesday afternoons, I went and tutored kids in the inner city, on Thursday nights I went to campus crusade small groups, all trying to get gone to be okay with me, I used my breaks, I didn't think it was, I didn't want to be selfish and used my breaks for myself so on Christmas break, I went to Christmas conference on spring break, I went to Daytona Beach to share the gospel, I went in there with like everybody else there to sin, I was there to share the gospel with the lost, I spent the summer in the inner city trying to reach the poor and yet through all of that I never believed God was pleased with me, I never did, as a matter of fact it seemed that the harder I tried the worse I failed, the harder I tried the worse I failed and as I tried harder and harder to be salt and light to be attractive to unbelievers what I found that I became more and more bitter toward the people who did not respond, as a matter of fact when I looked back at my time of serving in the inner city I'm pretty sure I hated those kids by the end of the summer and I'm very sure they hated me and then my junior year started and I was done, I was just done, there's a new campus ministry and I thought well maybe he's got something but nobody else has and I stumbled into his office and I dumped all of my junk on top of him and just say here can you fix me? and he asked me a line of questions I'll never forget I told him about my dad leaving the family I told him about growing up in a small town where there were no other Christians and how I'd never had a Christian friend until I got to college and he started asking me questions and he started with this he said when your dad left why didn't you go with him? I thought that was a dumb question or a few to answer it he said well you said you were the only Christian growing up that you knew I said yes he said why did any of those guys go to church? yes everybody in my hometown went to church were any of those churches better than yours? yes were any of their families better than yours? yes then why did you believe and they didn't why are you a believer and they're not and I knew like everything inside of me said the answer is because I'm better than them but that can't be it right I mean I'd read the Bible and I don't know that good in me the answer and so I just shut up and I didn't know and I began to wrestle with those crushed questions and I realized that there was nothing I had done to make Jesus love me there was nothing I had done to get God into my debt so that he had to save me and that I was trying to live a life to get him into my debt to make him love me and as I began to realize that he loved me first I realized I couldn't do anything to make him stop and for the first time I heard the music of salvation for the first time I felt the joy of being loved by God and if you're here today because it is your habit to go to church but you've never heard that music but you've never felt that joy if you're tired because you're working yourself to the bone to try to get God on your side then I want you to feel it today I've got good news for you I got good news there is nothing you can do to save yourself there is nothing you can do to get God into your debt so that he has to save you I got good news there's nothing you can do God does not save people because he has to he does not forgive people because he has to he does not love and welcome people because he has to he delights to he loves to and that's good news please stand as we read this great story from John chapter three what we're going to see over the next few weeks we're going to study between now and Easter we're going to study John chapters three four and five chapter three is Jesus dealing with religious church sincere good people who are seeking after him chapter four is him dealing with unbelievers people who are far from him an immoral chapter five is him dealing with broken people physically and emotionally broken and we're going to see how he attracts all of us to him please read with me actually starting with chapter two because I think this last sentence here goes with chapter three we're told now that while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and he needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man 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 well 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 you are born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh 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 it 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 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 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 his 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 as far the reading of God's words may be seated there's nothing we can do to make ourselves be born again there's nothing we can do to make God save us there's nothing we can do to put God in our debt he does not save people because he has to he saved people because he loves to the first thing I want you to see is this need for the spirit Nicodemus it's attempting to kind of look at him with cynicism and and assume that he's actually a bad guy with a you know ulterior motives but there is not a hint of that in this text we know that there will be Pharisees who come to Jesus asking questions just to try to trip him up just to try to get him in trouble but there is not a hint of that here Jesus himself compliments Nicodemus saying you are the teacher of Israel he is he is a good person he is someone who has lived his life working his way up in the church seeking something he's seeking something and he's he's getting the knowledge and he's learning the stuff but he's not at peace he's not at rest and so he comes to Jesus by night he sneaks up to him basically if you follow the book of John there's all kinds of uses of light and darkness and the fact that Nicodemus comes to him at night is probably a literary device that he's using to say he was still lost he was still lost he comes to him by night and he asks this question because he hasn't he's not satisfied yet he hasn't gotten it yet if you're some of you who've been around for a while remember watching a video we showed from 60 minutes with Tom Brady in it I don't know if you'll remember that you know but it was it was right after it was right before actually he had won his third superbowl and he was talking about this this drive within him and he said on the interview he said most people would say you've you've you're at the top of the world you've accomplished everything there is to accomplish two superbowl two superbowl MVPs that's where it's at but I say there's got to be something more than this there's got to be something more for Nicodemus it wasn't worldly success it was religious success he was a Pharisee he was he was the ruler of the elders he was the chairman of the of the board of the church he was the teacher of Israel but he still didn't have it he knew there was something more and so he sneaks up to Jesus quietly maybe out of shame and says we know that you are come from God and he never even gets the question out Jesus cuts him off Jesus tells him right up front unless you were born from above unless you're born again that the text be translated both ways historically in America we've always said born again it's kind of taken on weird connotations so I prefer to say the other one born unless you're born from above you will never see the kingdom of God never see it your eyes have to be opened to see the kingdom of God you you have to have the spirit take the take the lenses off your eyes so you can see what you don't see it's a great image I love it it's something you see in a lot of movies all of a sudden someone gets introduced to a secret world whether it be Harry Potter or Will Smith and men in black I'm like you don't remember men in black am I the only one old enough to remember that movie it's hilarious right he doesn't believe in aliens there's such thing as aliens and he gets recruited to work with aliens right and and all of a sudden Tommy Lee Jones starts taking him around showing him where all the aliens are and they're everywhere you just get to you have to find out where they are there's just one hilarious scene you know where there's this old guy selling magazines and and Will Smith thinks he gets it he's like yeah this is guys clearly in this guys and so it goes up and tries to talk to him but Tommy Lee Jones goes to the dog remember the black pugs and the next room like that's the alien and he's getting the lens taken off he sees that there's this whole world inside his world that he hasn't seen and that's what have been your eyes open to the kingdom of God is like you see beauty you see beauty or you just never saw it before you see joy in things that you never saw joy in before you see the the the the the the joy of giving the joy of generosity the beauty of saints you see this bigger movement of God going on in the world when you when you see uh prostitutes or the wealthy in the world and the glamour of the world you you see sad people who are broken who desperately need to be saved when you see those who are despised by the world those who are gathering to worship and and foolishly giving away their money you see beauty you see joy you see that you see a whole movement going on of of God's people as agents of light working to free people from oppression your eyes are changed you see the kingdom of God now and you you see the world differently and you see yourself differently you see yourself differently the the old creeds in confession say this they say you see your your sin and your misery you see your need for a savior you see your inability you see your inability to do anything good um when when I was in seminary this older pastor and he was 86 it was retired but he used to give me a lot of his time and he mentor me and he told me about a lady in his church who was converted after being in the church for more than 40 years and he had used the old prayer book the old book of worship confession of sin that week and in that old confession of sin that we sometimes use has his sentence have mercy on us miserable offenders and she went up to this before email when people actually had to confront you to your face to tell you what they didn't like your sermon and that was unfair nobody ever sends me bad emails that y'all are great to me I don't know why I said that I'm trying to get a laugh all right so this woman comes up to him through his face and says I don't know about you but I am no miserable offender and he said well then you are not in Jesus either you have your eyes open to yourself I was listening to an incredible testimony someone telling me how they were called to faith last week and he was talking about growing up in a Christian school and he said it was the 10 commandments that did it just learning those 10 commandments and seeing that I had committed them all you see yourself you see yourself as someone in need and until the Holy Spirit works and you you just never see that until the Holy Spirit works and you you only see Christianity as a way to be better than other people honestly it's self-improvement it's like jogging a friend of mine it was really interesting she was a freshman in college and she went home and got together with her old youth group and this is the sentence that converted her it's fascinating she was a friend she saw a friend from high school had gone to a different college and her friend came up to her and said I love college don't you she said yes it's okay and she said you know it's great about college you can be a little bad and still be better than everybody else and what was so convicting to her was she realized that's how she had been living for her Christianity it just been a way to be better than everybody else to feel good about herself and if she was around people who were sending a lot then she could send a little until the Holy Spirit opened your eyes you never see your misery your desperate need for a Savior and then your whole the Holy Spirit opened your eyes to see him to see him and you don't see God anymore as somebody who's selfish and withholding you don't see God anymore someone who's who's trying to make you earn something you don't see God as someone who's trying to keep you away from joy but you see him as big-hearted you see him as someone who's just jolly this the best way to where I can think of to describe God he's just jolly he loves to forgive he just loves it he Jesus teaches us parables about how God is the land owner right and he has all these people working for him and some people only work an hour and he pays them a full days wage because it's fun to give people money he just loves it it's his and you begin to see him like that you're not afraid of him anymore you want to come running to him we we sing a song sometimes we sing it last week or I would have had a singing again this week but the once it's called amazing love and can it be and then the third verse it says this long I am prison lay fast bound and sin and natures night my night your eye defused a quickening way Ray I woke the dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off my heart was free I rose went forth and followed me that's what the Holy Spirit does he opens your eyes you see that you're in a dungeon you thought you were fine but now you see that you're in a slavery of your own making and you run towards him that's the need for the Holy Spirit you can't even see the kingdom of heaven you can't enter the kingdom of heaven without this this being born again right this the Holy Spirit has to come and open your eyes you'll just be blind to it until he does and then Nicodemus asks ask a question and he asks what I used to think it was a stupid question honestly I used to think he just didn't get it at all right he asked how can he enter into his mother's womb what does he say says Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he was old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born now again I used to think that's dumb he just doesn't get it but now that I've grown up I realize he got it what's he saying Jesus you just told me I have to be born from above how I didn't have anything to do with being born the first time how am I going to have anything to do with being born the second time I didn't enter my mother's womb on purpose the first time just I mean basically just I want you to hear the pleading in his voice he's saying just tell me what to do okay be born again I'll do it just tell me what to do and Jesus gives him this incredibly frustrating answer I mean it's awful he says unless one is born of the water in the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of flesh is flesh that's which is born of spirit what does that mean it means you can't do anything with your body all you can do with your body is produce more flesh the flesh can produce flesh you need to be born in the spirit don't marvel that I said to you you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes this is the frustrating born and you hear it sound but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit he says nothing you can't do anything you are as you have as much power to make yourself be born again as you do to make the wind blow you just can't you can put up all the windmills you want you can't make the wind blow you can't make it blow the right direction you know the youth the girls in the church had a lock-in like Friday night they wanted to watch an outdoor movie where this beautiful outdoor projector video screen and me and the boys put it up for them and set it up and then that wind started blowing I went guys if you watch a movie out here it's gonna have a sad ending the ending of the movie is gonna be girls crushed I mean that's that's not what we want to do and I just had we had to lay it down and they had to do something else I can't there's all the preparation in the world will not make the wind blow the right direction it won't and and Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind what's he saying why is that good news that sounds mean he's saying you can't get God in your debt you can't get God in your debt a lot of people all this all the religious work they do even if they don't really know their own motives what subconsciously they're trying to do is get God in their debt so that he has to do what they want him to do Tim Keller tells a story of a woman who had I mean she'd never missed church she'd grown up sacrificing time energy and money for the church and she got older she was unable to have children and he went in to counselor and she started crying saying I just don't understand after all the things I've done for God why he would do this to me and there's there's this there's honesty there I get but there's also this confession there why was I doing all these things for God so he'd be on my side so he would do something for me so he'd be safe so I could control him that's not how it works you're never going to get God in your debt you're absolutely passive you're as helpless to make yourself be born again as you are to make your to make the wind blow now why is that good news well it's not really good news it's true news and sometimes you got to know the truth because if you don't know the truth you'll never act on the truth and let me give you just a couple of dumb analogies that I've used my entire life to try to explain why this is important news one is this you're never going to cry out for help until you know you can't save yourself you won't there's a old Southern Presbyterian you see this illustration he said telling people that they're in danger of God's judgment is like telling them the building is on fire they don't care because they think they have a fire escape right out back and the truth what Jesus is telling you is the fire escapes on fire too and if you once you know the fire escape is on fire you'll call out for help once you feel your own helplessness you'll begin calling out for help and once you realize you cannot do anything the story of her me use a million times of my kids playing in the mud until you see you know kids play in the mud and then that's great you don't mind when playing in the mud you're glad they're out of the house and uh but the problem is when they want to come back in the house and they're like well we'll clean ourselves right and everything they touch you don't want to touch in your towels you don't want to touch in the water hose you don't want to touch because anything they touch you're just gonna have to come along after them and wash until you see how filthy your hands are until you see how stained you are you won't be still and let God clean you you won't be still and let God clean you and you won't stop trying to jump across the canyon until you see how big it is um again it's another I'm just trying to use different pictures to get you to see why it's important for you to understand your helplessness a lot of people I think view Christianity as trying to to bridge a gap right and they're doing everything right to so they can bridge it themselves they're going to the Sunday school and they're teaching Sunday school and they're getting the gold stars and and learning the memory verses and when I want you to see that's all good if it's ways for you to get hold of Jesus and love and more but if you're trying to bridge this gap on your own essentially we're doing this um we're trying to jump the Grand Canyon and some of you guys can jump really far I was telling my son Will last night I was asking him if he could spike a volleyball and it's not really I said you got my jumping skill didn't you I can't jump over a dime that's how high I can jump about dying you measure my my jumps and dimes so I'm not going to get very far into the Grand Canyon right like some of you can dunk a basketball you're going to get four eight ten twenty feet out into that canyon before you fall to your death you're not going to make it you're never going to make it you've got to be carried you have to be born again and you've got to look up from your mud pies and if you want a feast on this bread and wine that Jesus gives us the freedom of the spirit means there is nothing you can do to save yourself or to put God in your debt to save you he doesn't save people because he has to he saves people because he loves to and Jesus goes on to use this analogy to show us that all we have to do is look to him stop looking at ourselves and look at him and be saved naked even says how can these things be and 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 we bear witness to what we have seen but you do not receive our testimony if I've told you earthly things and you do not believe 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 his moses lifted up to serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life Jesus points back to this weird story in the book of numbers it's odd what happens is the Israelites they're in the wilderness between Israel and the promise between Egypt and the promised land and they're they're getting mad because God is miraculously feeding them every day with mana and they're sick of mana and they want meat and so he brings them pheasants and then he sends in these snakes because he's just sick of them your parents get it right sometimes you're just tired of your kids complaining and so he sends in snakes and they start biting them and people are dying from the snakes and so moses it God tells moses make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole and everybody who just looks at that snake will be healed and then Jesus goes on to say I'm going to be lifted up I'm going to be lifted up on a pole and when I am if you will look to me you will be saved all you have to do is look you've got to stop looking at yourself stop looking at what you've done stop looking at what you can do you have to look to him you have to look to him stop dying the bitter death of trying to perfect yourself and look to him all you have to do is look Jesus says you can't make the wind blow one direction but you can tell where it's blowing you can and it's fun to be there when you see it blowing it's fun to see people with their lives changing it's fun to hear people confessing sins that they've never told anyone in their lives it's fun to see people come from darkness in the light we've we've gotten to see that recently we're going to get to rejoice in that both services as we receive new members and I want you to see it in your life there's there's only one you're going one of two directions one of our shepherding elders and now we're talking about this let this last week everybody is going one of two directions you're either growing in bitterness or you're growing in thankfulness either your life is one big disappointment of not getting what you deserve or your life is one celebration of not getting what you deserve and I can't control which one of those directions you're going I can tell you that's a really great barometer for you to use on yourself I encourage you to ask your spouse or your best friend what direction am I going am I getting more bitter or am I becoming more thankful am I getting easier to be with because if this if you're born again you'll see that when you'll be amazed that Jesus is just crazy about you he's just crazy about you and with every new day you find a new reason to say isn't it amazing that we have a god like that isn't it amazing we have a god who just saves us because he loves to do it who's just that generous please pray with me or Father in heaven I pray that you would blow this music into our hearts I pray that you would show us where our religious service has been an empty effort to try to get you on our side and would you instead make us to hear the music of the gospel and make us sing out isn't it amazing that you are so generous isn't it amazing that we have a god like this we pray in Jesus precious name amen