Born from Above (Jamie Haith)

Be born again!

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Transcript

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Welcome to SGTM Talks.

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We hope you find this encouraging and inspiring. And our scripture for today is Nicodemus. Nicodemus and Jesus, reading from John chapter 3, the wonderful story of Jesus and the only Irishman in the Bible, Nicodemus. It had to be done. John 3, reading from verse 1. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who's come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. Jesus replied, Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. How can someone be born when they're old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. Jesus answered, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Well, how can this be? Nicodemus asked. You're Israel's teacher, said Jesus. And do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I've spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone up into gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that every one who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. There are moments in life when everything that we thought we understood just begins to unravel a bit. Moments when our titles don't help us, our education doesn't steady us, our reputation doesn't satisfy us. And St. John tells us now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He's not an ordinary average man. Nicodemus is educated, he's respected, he's moral, he's religious, he's influential. If anyone has spiritual credentials, it's Nicodemus. And yet he comes to Jesus at night. I think it's safe to say that night is more than a time of day in John's gospel. Night is a condition of the soul. Night is confusion, night is searching, night is hunger that has no name. And Nicodemus comes to see Jesus in the dark because something in him knows that what he has is just not enough. And so here's the first truth that we must confront this morning. It's possible to be religious and still be restless. It's possible to know scripture and not know life. It's possible to even lead others and be lost inside. And when Nicodemus comes to Jesus, he comes respectfully. Rabbi, we know you are a teacher and come from God. He starts with compliments. But Jesus doesn't respond to his flattery. Jesus responds to the need he sees in him. Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Jesus cuts straight to the heart. Nicodemus came to talk theology, but Jesus talks transformation. Nicodemus came to discuss signs, but Jesus speaks of new birth. And Nicodemus is stunned. How can anyone be born after growing old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb? Nicodemus is thinking physically, Jesus is speaking spiritually. I wonder if that problem is also ours. We all too easily reduce eternal realities into earthly logic. Jesus says no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water in the spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. In other words, you cannot produce spiritual life through natural means. Doesn't work like that. You cannot manufacture eternity, you cannot inherit the kingdom through morality. Flesh produces flesh. That's as much as it does. Only the spirit produces spirit. Nicodemus had religion, bucket loads of it. But he didn't have rebirth. And this text confronts us. Christianity is not about turning over a new leaf. It's not about self-improvement. It's not about becoming a slightly better version of myself. Like doing a spiritual couch to 5K. It doesn't work like that. So many people think that Christ and Christianity is about becoming a good person or a better person as much as you can. But Jesus says here, look, it's not about being good. It's about becoming new, not improved, not polished with a buff up, not updated and upgraded. Born. Jesus says this radical thing. You must be born from above. You must. Not well, I think you should consider. Not it would be very helpful if. It would enhance your spiritual life if you took on this perspective. You must. Wow. Because without new birth, we may study the kingdom of God, but we will never enter the kingdom of God. We may preach about the kingdom, but we will never live in the kingdom. New birth means that salvation is not something we achieve, it's something we receive. Birth is not something a baby accomplishes. It's something that happens to the baby. In the same way, we cannot birth ourselves spiritually. This is why pride is so incompatible with the gospel. It's why credentials do not impress heaven. And it's why Nicodemus must come at night. Jesus goes on, the wind blows where it chooses. You hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. The Greek word for wind and spirit is the same. You cannot see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind. You cannot see the spirit, but you can see the spirit's impact in and through someone's life. You can see the transformation. You can see bitterness transform into forgiveness. You can see addiction transform into freedom. You can see fear transform into courage. You can see selfishness transform into love. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind. And like the wind, the spirit cannot be controlled. The spirit cannot be contained. The spirit cannot be manipulated. The spirit is sovereign. And that unsettles religious people. Because religion loves control. Religion likes predictability. Religion likes formulas.

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St.

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George the Martyr is a church that is broadly speaking what would be known as charismatic. That is open, welcoming of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit today to do whatever He wants to do amongst us. And a big part of that is to say, I'm not in control. You're in control. Lord, you do whatever you want to do in this place through this people. But it's hard because religion likes predictability. And I've been in many meetings over the years that were far from predictable, far from formulaic. The Spirit moves. The Holy Spirit that created in the beginning, Genesis 1, is the same spirit that continues to create. Have you noticed with creativity, there's often a lot of messiness to it? If you're into arts and crafts, you'll know there's often a lot of messiness that goes along with creativity. And the Holy Spirit comes and he moves and he creates and he interrupts and he disrupts and he surprises us. You cannot control it. You can only be like what Jesus is pointing to here, like a like a sailor in a yacht, watching to see where where is the wind is going, what is going on here, and then and and then going along with it, setting, trimming your sails accordingly. And there's always a difficulty with that for us. Because if original sin, I think, is anything, then it is the desire to control. It is that desire to be in charge. And faith is a struggle because it requires letting go. Nicodemus voices what we would also ask, how can this be? Don't get it. I just don't get it. Do you remember a few weeks ago we looked at how faith is is choosing to believe and step in, and then the understanding comes. Nicodemus still is in this kind of like logical mindset. How can this be? And then Jesus sounds a bit curt, actually, a bit sharp. We don't like Jesus being quite like this. Your Israel's teacher, said Jesus. I'm sure he didn't raise his voice. You're Israel's teacher, said Jesus. And do you not understand these things? Is Jesus frustrated with him? I wonder what that engagement was like. What was Jesus' face like? What was Nicodemus' body posture like? Don't you love reading sort of around and through and inside scriptures like this? I wonder if they were having a drink together or just sort of a nice little cup of tea, or I don't know. But was Jesus frustrated with him? Because here's this high-ranking religious figure who's come to him. I wonder if it's because there's that sense that Nicodemus represents so much more than just him. That he represents the tragedy of knowledge without revelation. That Nicodemus reminds us that it's all too possible to know about God and totally miss God at the same time. It's all too possible to teach Scripture and miss the Savior. It's all too possible to defend doctrine but resist transformation. And then Jesus shifts conversation. Verse 12, I've spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? And then he makes this astonishing claim. So many people say, oh Jesus was a I believe. I don't believe in Christianity because I don't believe Jesus was more than he was only a good man. That's just been it's been blown out of proportion. It's all sort of snowballed out that he was he never thought he was that. It's all been made up by other people. When you read what Jesus actually said about himself, it's really hard to accept that. He makes this astonishing claim. Verse 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Wow. This is a huge claim. He's a good man, he's a good teacher, nothing more. Jesus says, I am so much more. He says, He's the one who's come from heaven. His teaching, in his teaching, he's not speculating about eternity, he's revealing eternity in himself. And to do that, he reaches back into Israel's history. Verse 14, Jesus says, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. He's referencing Numbers 21. When Israel sinned, poisonous serpents filled the camp. It was chaos, people were bitten, people were dying. And then God instructed Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on a pole. And whoever got a snake bite had to look at the pole with the bronze serpent on it, and they lived. And those that did that, they did nothing to earn the cure. It was simply received, just by looking. The answer, the solution, the rescue, just came by looking up at what God was putting in front of them. And now Jesus says, just as that serpent was lifted up, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And Jesus is saying, I'm going to the cross. This is why I've come. And if you will just look up at me on the cross, you will be rescued. So the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. The simplicity of it. That everyone who performs well may have eternal life? Nope. That everyone who achieves great things for God will get eternal life? No. That everyone who really impresses everyone with the way they live their life will get eternal life. No. Whoever believes, whoever believes is the one who receives. And then we arrive at what must be the most quoted verse in scripture. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. Once again, it here it here is what it does not say. For God so loved the world that he gave his only one and only son. It does not say, for God so loved the really religious. Those that just lived such a wonderful life. It says God so loved the world. That's it. God so loved the world. What is the world? Oh my goodness, if you look at the news just this weekend, it is a broken, broken world. It is a sad, dis just just fractured, rebellious, darkened world. God so loved that world. It's a world that's done nothing. No, no thing. Zero zip zilch to win God's love, to earn that love, or to really even reach out for it in the first place. God's love is not reactive. As we see in this scripture, God's love initiates before anything else. God so loved the world that he gave his son. He did not wait for us to climb up to him. He came down to us and gave because love moves towards. Love sacrifices, love gives. And then what's the result of that? Verse 14, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Eternal life that starts today, fullness of life with God. Life that begins now and then stretches into forever. And then verse 17, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Love this idea that Jesus did not come to rub our noses in shame for the things that we get wrong. We get things wrong. We don't live perfect lives. You see in what Jesus says, you see later in what Paul writes, there's this distinction between conviction and condemnation. One of the things that the Holy Spirit does, he's the Spirit of truth. He does bring conviction. He does bring conviction of our guilt, the things that are wrong in our lives that we need to change and ask for grace to be better at. On Wednesday, we had our midweek communion. We were talking about this, the difference between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is the pinpoint, gentle, gracious awareness made to us by the Holy Spirit that something is wrong and needs to change. Condemnation is a write-off. Conviction is very specific. Condemnation is everything. An illustration. This wonderful building that we get to do up over the next few years, and it's going to look incredible. This bit over here that was caused by a blocked hopper up on the roof, which meant the water was pouring down the wall outside. Now conviction says, it's a bit of a mess. It all needs scraping off, re-plastering, and repainting. Condemnation says, knock the building down. Did you get it? If you are experiencing condemnation of you as a person today, shame, ultimate shame that says you are totally rubbish and you do not belong anywhere or to anyone. That is not from God. Conviction says, well, let's just fix a couple of things here, and we can do that together. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. And part of that saving will be conviction. Things need to shift and change. Jesus did not come to rub our noses in our shame, he came to remove our shame as we work in partnership with him. And he came to do that by offering to each one of us this chance to be born again. New birth. Coming to church is not new birth. It's great to see you here today, but that's not what Jesus is talking about. Baptism. I'll point at the font, I'm not pointing at Dominic. The font is over there. If you get baptized in this church, that in itself, that's part of new birth, but that in itself is not new birth. Good works that you do. Whatever you're doing for people in your community, it's amazing to see the parish pantry overflowing. I love you so much. It's such a lovely thing to see. Were people lining up with their coupon and feeling, I just love the idea of anonymously coming in, having a look, I'll tell you. Those things I could do with those things. I don't think it necessarily needs to be your tickets and all of that. But those things in itself, good works, like buying a bunch of stuff for for someone that's a less well off, that's not new birth. That's maybe an impact, a result of new your new birth. Your family heritage. My mum became a Christian when I was two years old. My dad waited until I was uh until his deathbed to receive Christ. But but my mum's faith was not my faith. That was not new birth. Each of us must be born from above. And that means surrendering control. That means not knowing it all, but trusting God. Not admiring Christ. Not respecting Christ, not believing he was a good teacher, trusting him with everything, allowing him, allowing that new birth to happen, like a baby being born physically. And as a baby is born physically, there's a transition out of the darkness of the womb and into the light of day. Nicodemus began in the darkness. He began in the night. But there's this beautiful detail in John's Gospel. In John 19, Nicodemus appears again. And this time it's not in the dark, but it's in the light of the cross. He brings spices to prepare Jesus' body. This man who once snuck to see Jesus under the cover of the darkness of night now publicly identifies with Christ. The crucified Christ. Something happened to that man. A change happened. If you like, the wind blew. A new birth occurred. There's quite a few metaphors going on here. This time not in the dark, but in the light of the cross. New birth. Perhaps that has to happen here today. Perhaps there's someone here today. It's like, yeah, you can't you can't see the wind, but you can feel something blowing in your heart, as it were. You can sense an invitation. You can hear the whisper of the Spirit.

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Be born again.

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Be born again. Not by striving, not by earning, not by doing good and being good, but by believing. Receiving the love that gave everything. Receiving new life today. Let's pray. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. You are not condemned. There is no condemnation. I want to make it possible for anyone that feels they've heard something they've never heard before this morning. To pray a simple prayer and to be born again. I'll just pray it and pray along. If that's you, then just pray this. Heavenly Father, I've heard something today that I've never heard before. I sense your invitation. I don't know you as my father. But I want to. I want to be born again as your child today. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for him dying on the cross for me. I thank you that that shatters the shame in my life. And I ask you now to fill me with your life-giving Holy Spirit. I give you the control of my life. I don't understand it. But I hold on to your hand because I choose to trust you, Father. I am yours. Amen. And Lord, I pray for if anyone has prayed that prayer this morning, I pray that you would do such a beautiful work of grace in their heart this week. And in each of our hearts, Lord. Would you come, Holy Spirit, blow the wind of your Spirit through our lives, the wind of your grace, your peace, your joy. I pray especially, Lord, for that sense of conviction where it's needed. For you to point out things in us that need to change. Even this Lent, we give ourselves to that process. But I thank you, Lord, that our shame has been lifted because of what you have done on the cross, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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Thank you for listening to SGTM Talks. We hope you found this insightful and inspiring and can tune in again soon. In the meantime, find out our website, sgtm.org.