For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated
There's a phrase that has fallen out of favor with many in the church and yet elsewhere It's celebrated as the single most sacred moment in every Christian life It conjures up images of street preachers yelling at anybody who will come near It or baby the sign at a football game or sign out on the street or or on on the marquee in front of a church It's the questions. It's a question that new Christians will go around and asking anybody who will listen Are you born again? I mean for some this phrase makes us think of tent revivals and the Jesus movement of the 70s and Mission groups that have come out of all of that movement and even lately for some that phrase Somehow connected to politics and Yet despite all of the associations and and all of its storied past The phrase born again is is a very accurate Description of what happens to someone when they become a Christian And I think it's one that we should recover at least in understanding who we are in Christ To be a believing Christian means that you have been born again Let me give you an illustration What is one of the most addictive networks on TV today? I mean this is It's it's easily one of the most sinful too you cannot watch a show on this network Without the sin of covetousness rising up from within you Anybody know which one I'm talking about What it's not me TV not TV and Not well shopping networks close. I'm talking about HD TV HDV HD I can even say it and And they're for a while you can get and they you can get these HDV HD TV shows on Netflix Which makes it even worse because you can do them for days And then mixing it out. You're like you're so depressed from where you live. Look. Oh And what is it? What is it about HD TV that we love so much, right? It's the makeovers It's the makeovers and it could be like you got one week to redecorate this room Or you got one week to take this pile of junk and turn it into something that somebody like really wants to live in right and Then Like I think probably the one that really really started our addiction you remember Extreme makeover remember that and then there was always this like there's always this emotional angle to it There was always like this feel good story. You're like, oh, yeah They really deserve it and you remember
Here's the thing When it comes to the human heart Not even an extreme makeover will view the trick God didn't look at me and say well he has good bones No It doesn't matter how good we think we are or actually when we're looking at someone else It doesn't look it doesn't matter how good they look each one of us is a tear down We saw last week That lit is a season where we are confronted with the reality of who we are and just how broken we are Because of Adam's sin And this week we get this opportunity to look at Abraham to see just how true this is but not only that It's just how much that we need grace Salvation was never intended to come by our own efforts I mean however long I stay in this hope that until I die at least if you'll understand that Salvation has nothing to do with our efforts We need grace So Abraham Abraham is one of if not the most revered individuals in Jewish history in Jewish society I mean even today he's he's considered the father of Israel It's Abraham's promise that the people of Israel still to this very day cling to as their birthright and Yet once you get into the story of Abraham in the Scriptures, you find out that this guy's a louse really is He lies about his wife not once but twice in order to save his own skin He he lasts when God says I'm gonna give you a child. He's too old to bear a chop He lost that God He refuses to wait on that very promise and so he had the child with the hand made of Sarah and Then right here Even at the very beginning of Abraham's call Abraham demonstrates disobedience towards God Now I'm gonna ask you to pull out your bulletin because for some reason the whole scripture wasn't in the reading So I want you to pull it out and look at this. First of all Did you catch what the command to Abraham was? God calls Abraham and he tells him to leave everything and Everyone behind He says leave behind all of your status Leave behind your support Leave behind everything that you know Leave behind everything that is familiar to you Leave behind all your fallback positions if this doesn't work I can probably still go back into sales
God says no Leave it all behind Abraham was to depend on no one but God Take a quick look at the passage. What are the last five words in our scripture reading? And Lot went with him It is a short line in the scripture and yet so incredibly tragic Lot was not supposed to go with Abraham and From this point forward the whole story of Lot written into Abraham's story. It's just awful It's tragic. There's nothing good that comes out of it You get down the road and what goes with all of his household and his stuff and Abraham's Traveling with his lot household and his stuff and eventually they're in the promise land and conflict arises And now they have to divide up the promise land So this whole land that was meant for Abraham Abraham now gets half of it And Abraham lays it out and he's like you choose Lot takes the best land So not only does Abraham go get only half the promise he gets the lesser half and Lot goes out after the good Abraham then in the story has to rescue Lot not once but twice He has to rescue him the second time he dragged Lot kicking and screaming out of Sodom and Gomorrah right before it gets destroyed and Then eventually Lot has children with his two daughters And the the offspring of those relationships become that Moabites and Ammonites and those two tribes of people become better enemies of Israel All because lot went with him Abraham was supposed to go at alone and yet the effects of this one act of a disobedience was enormous and yet this disobedient man Is the one through whom God Promises to bless all nations See This promise that he gets it extends into Israel goes through Israel and it extends through the line of David and this promise goes all the way and is fulfilled in Christ We come to the family of God because of Abraham We are part of that promise. This is grace See Salvation didn't come because Abraham got it right Salvation didn't come because Abraham got it partially right Abraham got a lot of things wrong and yet God blesses him out of his own Graciousness and because of faith see what Abraham ultimately got right is he trusted God in the promise Might have gotten the rest of this stuff messed up over here But he believed God for the promise that was made that promise that would make him a great nation and it was that simple act of faith Is what was credited to Abraham for righteous and notice that God Justifies without work see this is where Paul comes in What Paul Talks about in Romans Is that it's because that Abraham believed in that promise because Abraham walked in that promise That God is able to bring Faith to bring salvation to the world And he does it without works Paul is saying that none of us have a leg to stand on He blesses because we don't have works and if Abraham the lous Was justified by faith then you and I can be also You see in the in the Romans passage God justifies the ungodly that's us We are the ungodly yet God Takes the ungodly and through faith alone Justifies us and brings us to salvation, you know, but still it's kind of hard to hear that we Don't intrinsically amount so much. I mean, I haven't lied about my wife to save my skin Not too many times Actually, I'm trying to think of ever have the opportunity. I don't know maybe but but I'm like okay I didn't do that right or you know I'm not as bad as the guy who just cut me off in traffic, which is quite frankly I am but I'm not as bad as that I'm not as bad as that person on the news who did this heinous act Surely there's something within me that's that's commendable, right? And then and then last that we are tempted to actually think that maybe you know Maybe this this stuff about unrighteous with maybe I might actually have a little bit. Maybe my bones are good
Paul says something else He says he'll he takes it one step further. He says not only do our works not amount to anything He says the reality is we're dead We are dead without Christ And there's a thing many of us have been told you know, we're supposed to do our part in religion You know, we we take it this far and God takes it the rest if the partnership and this is a lie because there's no effort that can bring us closer to God because we are dead The process of salvation is taking something that is dead and giving it life And so I Paul says God gives life to the dead and He calls into existence things that do not exist God doesn't God doesn't make us good He doesn't come to us and polish this up He doesn't clean us up throw some pain on the walls and redecorates And he doesn't knock down walls and turn us into an open concept. That's not what he does He gives life to people who are dead He brings into existence that's that which doesn't exist See if during length you get one thing if During what you hear me say one thing if you hear and understand that without Christ you are dead And that's good That's good Because that is where it starts. It's the first step in being made a lie in Christ And this is where the gospel comes into play Again, we're not like in the movie Princess Fry. You know, we're not mostly dead. You know, we're not we're not mostly dead We are all dead Our souls aren't just a little bit sick They're in need of utter complete reanimation and this is what Christ is talking about With Nicodemus and Nicodemus doesn't get it because he's looking for a philosophy and Jesus doesn't offer a new philosophy He doesn't offer spiritual wisdom. He doesn't give Nicodemus a bumper sticker faith That's not what he's saying He offers him life In an offer he offering him life. He is telling him plainly Nicodemus You are dead. You need to be reborn But Nicodemus needed was a fundamental Radical change in who he is And this distinction between life and death According to Paul trusting in the law as your salvation that is death But Jesus offers life And being born again, it's it Again, it's not putting paint on an old building wall It's the reality that your life before is gone It's a lie. It's a reality that you are now completely different that you're made new that you have Undergone an utter and complete change. It's moving from utter Spiritual darkness to living within that epiphany light and having that light now Residing within you and shining out See no matter how much no matter how much faith Someone has in their own actions in the law in some construct that that they have built saying If I do this this makes me right with God only faith in Christ and Believe in a promise We'll make someone born again. We'll make someone a lie And Nicodemus doesn't get it at least at this point in the story He doesn't get what Jesus is saying And here's why Interestingly enough in your text. It doesn't say born again. It says what? Born from above And when the writers write this and the word Jesus uses actually has two meanings The word that's translated in the King James as again is translated in our text as above because the same word means both ideas And Jesus is challenging him to move from one understanding to the other he says you must be born again and Automatically Nicodemus is saying I can't get inside my mother But that's not what he's saying Because to be born again needs to be born from above. It means having a spiritual rebirth And the and the distinction is that Nicodemus was still stuck on the law He wanted to earn his way before God he wanted to build up his reputation. He wanted to be worthy But this promise of Abraham was dependent upon faith and Again, the promise of Abraham it begins there that's ultimately about Jesus And and what does Jesus do with Nicodemus? Well, he lovingly tries to woo him back to himself He doesn't blast him. He doesn't tear him down. He does question him You mean you're a teacher of the law and you don't understand this He should have understood it but then he tries to draw him back And at the end of the conversation he says plainly he just says plainly for God He said listen Nicodemus God loved the world so much He loved the world that he gave his only son that if you would just believe in him You would not perish, but you would have what ever lasting life and then Last Nicodemus walk away feeling just condemned by Jesus Jesus also extends love to him and he says this he says listen Nicodemus Not here to condemn you Said I'm here to save you. I'm here to call you to new life Many people many Christians think that Christianity the church is just about condemnation and it's not It's about God coming to us with the good news The good news that Jesus accomplishes for us that which we cannot and that which we in our wildest efforts could never accomplish for ourselves Christ reconciles us to his father and Not based on jumping through hoops But in response to a promise That promise was that Abraham and his descendants would inherit the world and this is the promise that's given to us Abraham's promise we are the descendants of Abraham We are the ones that believe in Christ or may part of that promise and and did you catch there's a turn of phrase? He says The promise was for Abraham for the descendants and the world. What was the promise given to Abraham originally? It was for a land and it was for a land this big. It was it was for a land that we would call Israel But by the time we get to Christ That promise has expanded it's not like some little plot of land over in the Middle East The promise includes the entire world This promise didn't depend on how great Abraham was doesn't depend on how great we are God uses Abraham calls him out of earth in order to Bring grace to humanity and God knew how this story was going to pan out There's no surprise that he took a lot. There's no surprise at all that mess happened. He knows our story He knows how we got here He knows and he knows what how it's going to go from here Nothing takes him by surprise and yet he extends grace to us He knows every detail where we've come from where we're going And here's a thing there is no amount of shipwrap that's going to cover up the mess that we are as Human beings Jesus comes to completely pull down our Meager and our childish efforts at being righteous And he takes us and he lovingly Restores us by his spirit making us Born again Born from above Born by the spirit And he does all of this by grace and we need only to believe