ヨハネの福音書3:1-21 John 3:1-21Are You Born Again?
English below
Don’t worry about the bag right now.
In Everton, England there’s a tombstone that looks ordinary… at first!
It says: Here lies the earthly remains of JOHN BERRIDGE.
Reader, are you born again?
No salvation without new birth.
I was born in sin 1716
Remained ignorant of my fallen state till 1730
Lived proudly on faith and works for salvation till 1754
Admitted to Everton vicarage 1755
Fled to Jesus alone for refuge 1756
Fell asleep in Christ 1793
Did you catch that last part?
He became a pastor in 1755, but didn’t actually become a Christian until 1756.
He entered full-time ministry as a fake Christian, but a year later became a real Christian.
John Berridge lived during The First Great Awakening (1730-1740s) one of the greatest movements of God in church history.
In the 1700s, many in the US or UK called themselves Christians but few had real faith.
But during the Awakening, countless people came to Christ, including many who thought they already were Christians.
At the heart of the Great Awakening, was the recovery of two forgotten biblical doctrines.
First, salvation by faith alone.
That is, we are not saved by good works, but by faith in Jesus alone.
Second, the new birth.
That is, you’re not a Christian just because your parents or culture are.
To become a Christian, you must be radically changed by God, born again.
By God’s grace, churches today talk a lot about salvation by faith.
But we don’t talk nearly as much about the new birth.
That’s why we need John 3, where we find the clearest explanation of the new birth in the Bible.
In John 3, Jesus and a man named Nicodemus have a late conversation about the new birth.
The main point of that conversation is today’s main point.
To understand God’s truth, believe in Jesus, and go to heaven, you must be born again.
Nicodemus is like the pastor whose tombstone we just read.
A respected, educated, and moral religious leader who did not know God.
That’s why Jesus tells him, “you must be born again.”
So, listener… are you born again?
To help answer, let's consider three truths about the new birth from John 3.
Truth #1: You must be born again (1-7).
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 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.”
Nicodemus looks pretty solid.
From his words in v2, we learn the following about Nicodemus.
He has PhD-level Bible knowledge—he was a man of the Pharisees.
He’s an influential religious leader, a ruler of the Jews.
He has deep respect for Jesus, calling him “rabbi, 先生.”
He believes Jesus' miracles were real, proof that “God is with him.”
And, most impressive of all, he says Jesus is “a teacher come from God.”
How does Jesus reply to such high praise from such a respected religious leader?
Jesus suddenly says something completely unrelated to the conversation.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Translation: “Nicodemus, you don’t understand me at all.”
This would be like a world-famous pastor of a large church with best-selling books showing up at our church…
But as we talk to him we realize, this is really awkward… but, he doesn’t understand Christianity at all.
And so we have him do First Steps, to learn about Jesus.
In spite of his achievements and honors, he needs to start all over.
If Nicodemus showed up at our church today, we’d probably think he’s a Christian.
Kevin Roose is a journalist from a non-religious background.
He wanted to write a book about church culture.
So he spent a semester at a large Christian university and pretended to be a Christian.
He closely observed how his Christian friends talked.
He carefully followed the strict rules of his Christian university.
For a whole semester, everyone thought he was Christian, until he revealed his true identity.
One of the most dangerous things our church could do is assume someone’s a Christian just because they say they are.
It doesn’t take the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to start using Christian words.
You don’t have to be born again to imitate Christian behavior.
But here’s two things Jesus says you cannot do unless you are born again.
First, you have to be born again to see the kingdom of God (v3).
“Seeing the kingdom of God” means understanding the truth about Jesus the King.
Jesus says, you’ll never let him be your king, your boss, your Lord unless you’re first born again.
1 Corinthians 2:14 says: The natural person [that is, an unbeliever] 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.
Some think all you have to do for people to believe in Christianity is make it easy to understand.
But that’s not true!
Most people who heard Jesus’ teaching left very confused.
They probably said “well that was a waste of time” and lost interest.
But some people, who were also confused, stayed back to ask Jesus questions.
Jesus explained more, and they finally understood.
They didn’t stop searching for the truth so Jesus says, “to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God."
Non-Christian friends, if you feel like you wanna learn more about Jesus this morning, don’t wait another day to pursue it.
Do our First Steps class after the service is over.
Talk to Christians at this gathering about your questions.
Second, you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God (v5).
When Jesus returns, God’s kingdom will come on earth, as it is in heaven.
All things will be made new.
To live in God’s new world, God must make you a new person.
God must put heaven into you before you can go to heaven.
Don’t you see, becoming a Christian isn’t adding a little Jesus to your life?
If your life is a house, it's not like Jesus is a new couch that’s there to make you comfortable when you need it.
Jesus isn’t a renovation project, like–same house, updated interior.
Jesus coming into your life is like knocking down the house and re-building from scratch.
It’s time to show you what’s in the bag.
I recently bought a pack of sparkling water at Costco.
Here’s…
***
…two cans from that pack, can you spot the difference?
***
Looks the same, right?
These cans are two people that sit next to each other at church every Sunday.
They read the same Bible, sing the same songs, say the same words.
And here’s what will happen on judgment day.
[open full can, drink], Jesus will say, here’s a person filled with the Holy Spirit, changed by the gospel, born again— welcome to my kingdom!
But to the others, Jesus will say [open empty can, “dump”] there’s nothing there, no faith, no evidence of the new birth, “I never knew you; depart from me.”
No salvation without new birth.
This is very serious… but there’s good news!
Truth #2: you can know you are born again (v8-15)
8 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.
Wind and Spirit translate the same Greek word, πνεῦμα pneuma.
2,000 years later, what Jesus says is still true, the wind blows where it wishes. No one can control the weather.
And Jesus says, you have as much power to control the work of the Holy Spirit as you do to move the clouds in the sky.
The wind blows where it wishes…so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Just as the wind blows wherever it wants, so the Holy Spirit gives the new birth to whoever he wants.
Historically, Christians have looked at this passage and concluded: regeneration precedes faith.
That is, being born again causes belief in Jesus.
Now, it's not like, one week you’re born again, then the next week you have faith.
No, the new birth and faith happen at the same moment.
But…one causes the other.
Here’s why it matters.
With so few Christians in Japan, it's possible you’re under the impression Jesus is desperate for followers.
Like Jesus is standing at a street corner handing out tissue packs that say 弟子募集中, wanted: disciples.
You walk past him, trying to not make eye contact, but then ahh!! he sees you!!
You feel bad, so you stop and talk to him.
You tell him “ok…fine, I’ll be your disciple” and, with the desperation audible in his voice he says “really? Do you mean it?!”
In reality… Jesus shows up in your life like an unexpected typhoon on a tropical island.
You weren’t asking for him, but suddenly he comes and changes everything.
Just like the wind, you can’t control or physically see the new birth.
But Jesus says, while you can’t see the wind, you can hear its sound.
Likewise, you can't see the new birth itself, but you can see its results.
And the primary result of the new birth is faith in Jesus.
The Bible never commands you to be born again.
It says you must be born again but it never says “thou shalt be born again.”
But over and over again what the Bible does command you to do, is believe in Jesus.
The clearest way to answer the question “am I born again?” is to ask “do I truly believe in Jesus?”
We learn more about faith starting in v13.
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus references a bizarre episode during the Israelites journey out of Egypt into the Promised Land, in Numbers 21.
The people get impatient and speak against God and Moses, saying “Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness?”
God judged them by sending poisonous snakes, killing many.
The people cry out for mercy, saying to Moses “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.”
God provides a strange solution, a bronze snake on a pole.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.
Jesus says, I am the reality the bronze serpent was pointing to.
Just as the Israelites spoke against God, we’ve all sinned against God.
Just as they deserved the judgment of fiery serpents, we deserve God’s fiery wrath.
Just as God used a serpent, an instrument of judgment to save them, God uses an instrument of judgment, the cross, to save us.
And when the Israelites looked to the serpent lifted up on a pole, God extended their life.
But when you look to Jesus lifted up on a cross, God gives you eternal life.
Looking is a metaphor Jesus uses to explain faith.
John 6:40, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Looking doesn’t take effort, skill, or education.
You don’t have to be smart or rich– anyone can look.
Many consider Charles Spurgeon the greatest preacher in the English language.
But long before that, he was a teenage boy who stumbled into a church service one snowy morning.
The preacher was talking about looking to Jesus.
At one moment, the preacher started talking directly to the young Spurgeon.
“Young man, you look very miserable, and you always will be miserable…if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.” Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted…“Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.”
Spurgeon recalls what he felt in that moment.
I saw at once the way of salvation…Like when the bronze serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me.
I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness rolled away, and I saw the sun…the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him.
Friends, are you waiting to do fifty things to be saved this morning?
If I read the whole Bible,
if I clean up my life,
if I have a certain experience,
THEN I’ll be saved.
No, you have nothing to do except look to Jesus and live.
Your eternal destiny turns on a single word– “look!”
Which brings us to our final point.
Truth #3 Your eternal destiny depends on being born again (v16-21)
At last, we come to the greatest verse in the Bible, John 3:16.
Martin Luther called it “the Bible in miniature.”
John 3:16 is like if Christianity were concentrated down into an essential oil.
It says: 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This is the message that when you hear it, has the power to make you born again.
This is the message that when you believe it, proves you’re born again.
Every word deserves our attention.
For God so loved the world– John usually uses “the world” to mean the sinful, anti-God world system.
But this is the only place in the Gospel of John where it says God loves the world.
That he gave his only Son– God loves a world of sinners so much, he gives his greatest treasure, his beloved Son.
That whoever believes– whoever: American, Japanese, German, Korean anyone can believe in Jesus!
In him —not faith in general, but faith in Jesus.
Should not perish but have eternal life— faith leads you out of hell and into heaven.
Listen–God has already broadcast the verdict of the final judgment.
Let’s say you wanna invest money in the stock market. But someone hands you a sheet showing how the top 100 stocks will perform over the next 5 years.
Would where to invest be a hard decision?
Likewise, God’s already announced the outcome, so your choice is simple.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Apart from the grace of God, mankind hates the light and loves the darkness.
Thomas Cranmer wrote “what the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”
The world wants you to believe that sin feels better, sounds more reasonable, and is more popular than God.
But Jesus, the light has come into the world.
Some cling to their sin and run from the light of Jesus.
Others find themselves strangely drawn to Jesus.
Which one are you?
If you feel like Nicodemus this morning, like “I just don’t get this whole Jesus thing”, there’s hope for you.
In John 3, Nicodemus meets with Jesus at night because he’s afraid of what people will think.
But by John 7:50, something starts to change.
Nicodemus stands up for Jesus in front of the Jewish high council, saying “does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”
And after Jesus died, his disciples fled, and all seemed lost, Nicodemus stood with Jesus.
John 19:39, Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight.
What makes someone afraid to even be seen with Jesus suddenly identify with him at the most dangerous time?
What makes someone who’s scared of what Jesus would mean for their life become willing to die for him?
What’s the greatest need of every person in this room?
The new birth.
