WEBVTT 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:22.160 Today's reading is from John chapter three, verses one to fifteen. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:31.839 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:38.719 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:43.679 For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:51.439 Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:56.399 Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.240 Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:10.079 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:17.599 That which is born of flesh is flesh, and which is born of the spirit is spirit. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.239 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:30.239 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.680 So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.920 Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:45.040 Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:54.560 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. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:01.280 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:07.599 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:17.360 And as 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. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:18.800 And so reads God's word. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:20.960 Welcome to you if you joined us while we're singing. 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:21.759 My name's Mark. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:29.680 I'm going to be uh looking at that passage that Jung read for us from uh John chapter three, quite a famous interaction of Jesus's. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.039 And encourage you to have that open in front of you if you can. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:44.240 Uh, there are some uh Bibles on a table down here, but if you have them, uh if you have a phone, you can just Google John 3 ESV, and that will bring you to the passage that we're looking at. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:51.840 One of the verses that uh that John records for us is Jesus' words to Nicodemus here in verse E8. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:57.439 He says that the wind blows where it wishes. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:03.599 You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. 00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:08.159 So it is with all those who are born of the Spirit of God. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:11.520 The wind blows where it wills. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:19.280 Becoming a follower of Jesus is rarely a straightforward path. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:25.439 There's no formula, there's no rite, there's no ritual. 00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:30.400 It's different for everyone in lots of ways. 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:40.560 Of course, there are commonalities and overlaps, but everybody's experience of the wind of the spirit blowing through their life is different. 00:03:40.800 --> 00:03:53.360 It's one of the things that we love about doing membership interviews, is we get to hear your story of how the wind of the spirit has blown through your life. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:58.080 Maybe you had a journey like that of Saint Augustine's. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.439 Saint Augustine's mother prayed for him every day. 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:04.159 But St. 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:07.039 Augustine didn't want much to do with Jesus. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:14.319 He was far more interested in wine, women, and song, particularly the women part of that. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:30.079 And it was a rather dramatic conversion at a time when he was uh in a pear orchard and he heard a voice saying, Take it and read it, take it and read it, like a girl singing. 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:43.680 He picked up the letters of Paul and read them, and came under the conviction that he needed to be a follower of Jesus, and it was such a dramatic reversal of his life. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:46.639 Maybe you've had something like that. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.120 Or maybe your story is a bit more like C. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:49.360 S. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:50.000 Lewis. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:50.560 You're C. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:50.800 S. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:53.040 Lewis, writer of Chronicles of Narnia. 00:04:53.279 --> 00:04:59.360 He was an English professor in Cambridge and, or in Oxford rather, I should say. 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:05.360 And uh he long loved mythological stories. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:12.639 He loved the intellectual stories of Odin sacrificing himself to himself. 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:16.079 He loved the idea of Mithras dying and rising. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:25.519 He loved it in all of the myths, but when it came to Jesus, he found it quite bland, unengaging, distasteful. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:30.560 Until one day he was on a bus journey. 00:05:30.959 --> 00:05:38.000 And if you read his account of that bus journey, he simply says, When I got on the bus, I didn't follow Jesus. 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:39.040 I was not a believer. 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.199 And when I got off the bus, I was. 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:06.800 Or maybe it's a conversion story like that of Rosaria Butterfield. 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:15.439 You don't know who Rosaria Butterfield is, perhaps, but she was a lecturer in English literature and queer theory at Syracuse University in New York. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:22.879 She was writing against Christianity and one day received a letter from a Christian pastor. 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.079 And that letter was not full of judgment or hate. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.639 It was an invitation into a conversation. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:46.720 And so she spent years around this guy, his name was Ken, around his dinner table, listening to him, listening to how he interacted with his family, listening to how he engaged with his faith in such a natural way, listening to how he even confessed his sins and faults. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:52.959 And so she says, my Christian life unfolded as I was living my normal life. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:07:00.560 In the normal course of my life, questions emerged that simply exceeded my secular feminist worldview. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:05.759 Those questions sat dormant until I met the most unlikely friend. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:25.360 Had this Christian pastor not both shared but also lived out the gospel as my neighbor and as my friend for years and years, over and over again, not in some used car salesman way, but in an organic, spontaneous, and compassionate way, those questions might still be lodged in the crevices of my mind. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:34.240 And I might not, at least not as yet, have one of the most unlikely friends, Jesus Christ Himself. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:50.079 Or maybe you were like a young teenager whose friend invited him to a Bible study, that you had no idea what to expect, but at the end of the first night you were asked, would you go again? 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:51.519 And you said, Yes. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:55.360 You went for that full year. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:59.839 As an older man who you didn't know walked you through the book of Romans. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.600 By the end of that year, you were a different person. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.639 There wasn't a moment of kneeling down by your bedside. 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:09.839 There wasn't a moment of praying the sinner's prayer. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:12.240 But something had changed. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:18.959 The wind blows where it wills. 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:27.680 That is the common thread in all of our stories that the Spirit gives life. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:37.279 This is week two, if you're joining us, in a little mini sermon series on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:54.000 Let us remember right at the start that his most miraculous work is that he brings dead souls to life. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:04.240 That he brings a resurrection miracle in each of our hearts and can do it in your heart if you're not yet a follower of Jesus. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:07.919 The wind blows where it wishes. 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:17.360 But as we begin this morning, we affirm together that only the spirit can give life. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:18.879 That's our first point. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:27.519 And Jesus is bringing us to the realization that life only can be given by the Spirit. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:30.080 Let me explain what's going on in John's Gospel. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:33.519 Jesus is just beginning his ministry, and some miracles have happened. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:47.120 And so Nicodemus, who is a Pharisee, quite a well-to-do uh Jewish ruler, he is uh very highly educated, particularly in the Old Testament. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:52.960 He is a leader of the Jews, one of the 70 ruling councils known as the Sanhedrin. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:09:58.720 More than that, he possesses this title that Jesus uses of him in verse 10. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:01.360 He says, Are you the teacher of Israel? 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:08.879 Which is a formal title, basically saying, Are you the dean of theology for all of Judaism right now? 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.840 And you don't understand these things. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:18.559 And he comes to Jesus to try and figure out who he is, what's going on. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:22.960 And so he comes to him and he begins respectfully to Jesus. 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:28.879 He calls him rabbi and he says that he can perceive something. 00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:31.919 He claims to know something about Jesus. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:43.440 He claims to perceive that Jesus must have come from God because of the things that he's doing, because of the miracles that he is performing. 00:10:44.399 --> 00:11:01.600 Jesus' response, however, is that unless Nicodemus goes through a rebirth, that unless Nicodemus is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:05.679 That is, he cannot perceive clearly what is going on. 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:25.200 Nicodemus might have seen the miracles, he might have heard what Jesus has been doing, but he cannot fully grasp what it is that the miracles are pointing to without the new birth, without being born again. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:48.799 In the same way, somebody here might come to church on the regular, they might even be part of a community group, and yet still leave saying, Well, I know what happens, and I could describe to you, they sing six songs, and there's communion every week, and Mark talks for far too long, and you could describe what's happening. 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:53.759 You've perceived it, but you don't quite get it. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:12:08.000 You don't know why people would give of their time on a Sunday morning to do this, to sing these songs, to affirm these things, to have this shape your life. 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:12.639 That's not just for the non-religious people. 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:15.279 Nicodemus is super religious. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:18.320 And he also needs his eyes to be opened. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:25.279 So it's not about Nicodemus becoming more religious because he couldn't possibly do that. 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:29.519 So whatever the new birth is, everyone needs it. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.840 And it comes not as a result of our religious or moral goodness. 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:40.639 Nicodemus' response is weird to our ears. 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:41.919 Verse 4. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:47.279 Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:51.840 Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:56.159 Is Nicodemus an idiot? 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.600 He's kind of asking about going back into his mother's womb. 00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:02.879 He's saying to Jesus was, well, she would hate that, and so would I. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.639 Is he just being foolish? 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:10.960 Perhaps we might give Nicodemus a bit more credit. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:15.039 He's trying to work on the same plane that Jesus is. 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:20.399 He knows that he's in the realm of the metaphorical, I think. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:25.279 Maybe Nicodemus is saying something like that, like this. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:35.759 Maybe he's saying something like Jesus, there are some bells that cannot be unrung. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:42.639 But Jesus, you can't do over your life again. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:48.320 What's one thing that you regret? 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.720 What's one thing that you would do over if you could? 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:55.519 I'm sure there's lots. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.519 I wonder if Nicodemus is picking up on that. 00:14:00.159 --> 00:14:04.960 He's saying to Jesus, but there are things that you can't take back. 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:10.799 There are things that you can't do over, there are things that you can't do differently. 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:15.279 You can't unring a bell. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:30.559 So Jesus explains kind of in verse 5 and says that truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:41.120 Now we're going to come to what water and the spirit means in just a moment, but let's just affirm now what Jesus is saying at the most basic level. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:15:00.559 Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, the only way that you can start again, the only way that you can deal with the things that you regret and that you would do over, the only way that you could know a life that is renewed is through the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:02.960 You can't do it by rite or ritual. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:05.360 You cannot cause the new birth. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:08.320 Jesus is saying the wind blows where it wills. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:16.799 Same way that the wind is sovereign, you cannot tell the wind where to blow, you cannot tell the spirit where to blow. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:22.480 Only He can bring the life that Nicodemus is looking for. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.759 Only the Spirit brings new life. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:32.080 And that life goes on then to transform us from the inside out. 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:33.679 And that's the second point. 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:40.399 That the Spirit brings a change that only he can make. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:45.200 How does the Holy Spirit transform us? 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:56.639 He transforms us at the level of our sight, our perception, the things that we see, we see more clearly because of his work. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:15:57.919 We're gonna look at that. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:01.840 Secondly, he changes us at the level of the heart. 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.960 He gives us a new heart, new desires. 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:11.600 And then thirdly, he gives us a new identity. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.879 That's what Jesus is pointing at in these passages. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.120 Let's go very quickly through them. 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:23.440 You see, it's no accident that Jesus is talking about seeing, because Nicodemus is claiming sight. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:29.120 We see that you are uh from God, we perceive this. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:36.399 And Jesus is saying, no, you cannot see the kingdom of God without the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in your life. 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:42.879 Nicodemus saw the miracles, but didn't see what they pointed to, didn't see what they meant. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.200 Do you know in John's gospel? 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:49.279 Uh John always calls the miracles of Jesus signs. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:51.679 Do you know why that is? 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:55.600 Because the miracles are pointers in the same way that a sign is. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:01.759 So rather than looking at, okay, what uh I'm being obsessed about the miracle, you say, okay, what is the miracle pointing to? 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:05.359 What is the miracle helping me to understand about God? 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:10.480 Nicodemus saw the signs but couldn't see what the signs were pointing to. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:19.119 Yeah, and before you become a Christian, Christianity can seem very strange, perhaps even off-putting. 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:32.880 The Bible can be dull and lifeless, preachers, coma-inducing, and you can wonder: is this a long sermon or a hostage situation? 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:44.319 But when we experience the new birth, those aspects of Christianity take on a different form. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.799 It's not that preachers stop being dull, certainly they can be. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.240 But you see them with a different meaning, with a different import. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:00.960 You see the Bible is living and life-giving and uh and a source of uh of joy and nourishment and wisdom. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:06.480 The songs that you sing stir you and move you in ways that they didn't before. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:09.920 Even some of the sermons aren't quite so intolerable. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:15.039 Because you've been given a new perception. 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.000 It's maybe that your value system has been realigned. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:32.720 You know, if you're double screening, if you're watching something and listening to something else at the same time, the visuals will always win. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:53.440 One of the reasons why we struggle to understand what Christianity is about might be because while we're hearing the gospel in a Sunday morning, our eyes, the eyes of our hearts, and maybe even our actual eyes, are focusing on other things. 00:18:54.480 --> 00:19:01.039 They're focusing on our desires, our career, our relationships. 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.720 When the new birth comes, God switches the vigils. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.720 And you see things differently. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:15.519 That's part of what the spirit does. 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:18.319 The spirit also gives a new heart. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:28.640 So back in verse 5, Jesus says, unless you are born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:35.359 What is Jesus talking about when he says, born of water and the spirit? 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:38.640 There are three main contenders, okay? 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:47.839 First possibility is that Jesus is talking about uh baptism and profession of faith. 00:19:48.000 --> 00:20:01.039 So what being born of water is what happens at your baptism when you're when you're a squishy little baby, we baptize you, so you're born of water, uh, and then sometime later you'll be born of the spirit. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:07.440 That would be a particularly uh Roman Catholic understanding of what Jesus is talking about in John 3, verse 5. 00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:09.279 That's the first possibility. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:17.519 The second possibility is that water in the spirit refers to a physical birth and a spiritual birth. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.759 So physical, the water there is, not to put too fine a point on it, where's Fiona? 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:22.640 Fiona's gone out. 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.079 It's amnionic fluid, Fiona's uh an OBGYN. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:31.359 This amnionic fluid, the water that breaks when a lady goes into labor. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:37.440 So you need to be born physically and then born again spiritually. 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.160 That is another option. 00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:45.359 I think that both of those miss the point. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.480 I think that both of those are wrong. 00:20:49.279 --> 00:21:03.200 Jesus is talking to the teacher of Israel, somebody who understands the Old Testament far better than anybody else, far better than you or I, who has memorized whole portions of the Old Testament. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:12.079 And what Jesus is picking up on is a specific Old Testament allusion from the book of Ezekiel. 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.640 Ezekiel 36, verse 25. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:22.559 God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean from all your uncleanness. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:25.440 And from your idols I will cleanse you. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.519 I will give you a new heart. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:29.839 I will put my spirit within you. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:35.039 I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 00:21:35.279 --> 00:21:42.799 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to work in my statutes, to be careful, to obey my rules. 00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:53.359 To be born of water and the Spirit is to be given a new heart by God. 00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:59.279 It is to be cleansed from our sin. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:04.880 Not just sprinkled when we were born. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:14.559 It's a heart that is now soft, not hardened to God, but made alive to him by the Spirit. 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:20.319 To be born of water in the Spirit is to have a heart that is cleansed and transformed by the Spirit of God. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.759 That is what the Spirit does. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:26.559 That is how the Spirit changes people. 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:37.680 It's not just about behavioral motivation, it's about change at the level of our desires, at the level of our deepest regrets, at the level of our shame. 00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:43.680 Thirdly, he gives us a new identity. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:53.440 Where we get our identity from changes depending a lot on the background that you grew up in. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:23:09.759 If you come from a more uh Eastern or honor shame background, your identity is generally bound up with your family and the responsibilities that you have to your family, to your ancestors, to that legacy, to the obligations and duty that you feel. 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:15.839 And that can either be wonderful and life-giving, or that can actually be quite stifling and crushing. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:21.599 In the West, we're encouraged to create and achieve our own identity. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:23.359 You can be whatever you want. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:29.519 Every little millennial baby or child was a little princess or a little prince. 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:42.640 And so through education, through career, and through those individual choices, those expressive choices, you forge your own identity. 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:48.079 But Jesus is saying that the new birth isn't like that. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:24:00.000 It doesn't come to us from our parentage, our lineage, nor does it come from within us, ourselves. 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:07.839 He says, that which is born of flesh is of flesh, but that which is born of spirit is spirit. 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:14.559 If you are born of the spirit, your identity is bound up with the spirit of God. 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:23.119 Like John says in his prologue, that we are given this new birth not by the will of man, but by God. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:29.920 So your Christian identity isn't imposed upon you by your family. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.519 It's not achieved by your effort, it's received as a gracious gift. 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.720 The gift of the Holy Spirit. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:48.240 That you know yourself to be a child of the living God, forgiven and cleansed, welcomed into his family, adopted forever and never to be turned away. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:50.079 That is the identity that you receive. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:56.720 That is the identity that grounds your life through all of the stresses and tumults that you might face. 00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:07.039 That you know who you are because of the identity that you've received through the work of the Spirit of God. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:09.680 This is the new birth, new sight. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:17.440 Seeing things differently, transformed heart, new desires, and a new permanent identity. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.319 But how does all of this happen? 00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:28.000 How does all of this happen in the life of a person? 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:31.759 How does the spirit transform us so completely? 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:40.880 He does so by applying to our hearts the saving work of Jesus. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.480 And that's our third point. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:46.799 A salvation that only the Spirit can apply. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:52.480 Jesus in this conversation with Nicodemus. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:56.880 Nicodemus is still struggling. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:00.640 Verse 9, Nicodemus says to him, How can these things be? 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:04.640 Jesus answers, Are you the teacher of Israel that you do not understand these things? 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:11.039 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, we bear witness to what we have seen, and you do not receive our testimony. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:17.039 If I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:24.640 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:35.599 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him would have eternal life. 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:38.960 The Son of Man here. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.599 The Son of Man is Jesus' favorite term for himself, right? 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:43.359 So let's remember Jesus is talking about himself. 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:45.599 He's describing himself as the Son of Man. 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.319 That's a title that he takes from Daniel chapter 7. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:50.640 You can note that and read that in your own time. 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.599 But then he makes this strange little pivot, doesn't he? 00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:00.480 And talks about something that we don't tend to remember. 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:04.000 It's not something that we tend to teach even in Sunday school classes. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:05.119 Verse 14. 00:27:09.599 --> 00:27:17.039 So must the Son of Man, me, be lifted up, that whoever believes in me will have eternal life. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:20.400 Now, what's Jesus talking about? 00:27:20.640 --> 00:27:20.960 Okay? 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:23.519 Again, he's talking to somebody who knows the Old Testament. 00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:26.559 So we need to, we need to kind of up our game a little bit. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:34.480 Jesus is talking about a time in Israel's history where they were, after the Exodus, they're wandering through the desert for 40 years, right? 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:35.039 Remember? 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:37.119 And you remember you might have seen Prince of Egypt. 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.880 They come through the Red Sea and everybody lived happily ever after. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:41.839 Not quite. 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:51.519 They wander through the desert for 40 years, and there are cycles of faithfulness and faithlessness. 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:57.279 There are times when the community is doing really good at following God and trusting his promises and relying upon him. 00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:05.519 And then there are times when, frankly, they are pretty faithless, ill-disciplined, go and worship other gods. 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:13.279 And God has to use his good disciplining hand to bring them back to following him. 00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:25.359 And in one of those times, one of the things that happens is that God, in order to kind of bring them back to their senses, sends, we'll not do this at city church, but he sends snakes into the camp, right? 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:31.119 God sends snakes to bite the people in order to kind of waken them up. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:32.880 Suffering always does that, doesn't it? 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:36.960 Suffering kind of brings us back to our senses and candy. 00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:42.640 That we think, okay, what's really going on in my life and what should I be focusing upon? 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:46.559 And so the people are they're crying out, they're looking, please help us. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:50.240 We're all snake bitten, we're all dying of snake bites. 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:59.039 And God says to Moses, okay, Moses, what you need to do is uh you need to make a bronze snake. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:03.599 You need to make the representation of the thing that's going wrong. 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:07.039 You need to make a bronze snake and hold it up on a pole. 00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:13.599 And if anybody looks at the snake as you hold it up on the pole, they'll be healed. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:15.519 Curious. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:17.200 But think about it. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:23.039 It's not that they have to do anything, it's not that they have to perform a ritual or rite. 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:26.720 They look and are healed. 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:40.240 That is, they trust that in the act of looking, in the act of relying upon God's provision for salvation, another way of talking about that is faith. 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:46.160 By placing faith in God's means of salvation, they are indeed saved. 00:29:46.400 --> 00:29:48.400 They find themselves healed, right? 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:51.200 That's what Jesus is talking about to Nicodemus. 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:53.839 But do you see what he's saying about himself? 00:29:54.640 --> 00:30:02.720 Just as Moses put the bronze serpent up on the pole, so too I'm going to be raised up where? 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:05.200 On the cross. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:09.039 I'm going to be raised up, suspended between heaven and earth. 00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:15.440 That if anybody looks to me, they're going to be saved. 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:21.759 Not from the venom of a snake bite, but from the poison of sin. 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:26.480 That is what Jesus is saying. 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:28.240 That he is like the serpent. 00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:36.319 Jesus' death makes the new birth possible. 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:44.559 It is the Spirit that opens our blind eyes that we might look to the Son and find ourselves healed. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.519 It is He who awakens faith in us. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:53.599 It is He who applies Christ's death to our sin. 00:30:55.920 --> 00:31:00.880 And Christ's life to our souls. 00:31:06.160 --> 00:31:09.680 Christianity is a crutch for the emotionally weak. 00:31:10.559 --> 00:31:13.759 Christianity is just something that you kind of lean upon. 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:18.799 Christianity is much less of a crutch and much more of a defibrillator. 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:24.880 A defibrillator doesn't make the heart stronger. 00:31:25.279 --> 00:31:27.359 It shocks it into life. 00:31:28.960 --> 00:31:42.880 The cross is the power that saves us, and the Holy Spirit, in a sense, are the He is the paddles that apply that power to our dead hearts. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:46.880 That is what the Spirit does. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:56.799 He makes us alive by applying to our hearts the sin-bearing, life-giving death of Jesus. 00:32:01.119 --> 00:32:07.200 That means that we can be assured of our salvation. 00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:18.799 Because if you are looking, as those people did in the Old Testament, if you're looking to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can know that he has forgiven, cleansed, and healed your life. 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:32.160 If you are looking to him with the eyes of faith, trusting upon that provision, the provision of him dying for your sin that you might not have to. 00:32:32.799 --> 00:32:42.720 If you're looking with the eyes of reliance and obedience and dependence upon him, you can be assured that he has healed your soul. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:57.920 What's more, it stirs our evangelism, folks, that as we share the gospel with others, the Holy Spirit takes our words and uses them to bring life. 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:01.119 The wind blows where it wills. 00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:16.559 And all of this, and here we come to our final point, all of this serves to show us the love of the Father. 00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:22.720 I should have got young to read John 3, 16. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:29.039 It uh it seems a shame to get to 15 and not do the most famous verse in the Bible. 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:36.160 So let's come into land by reminding ourselves of these words. 00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:52.799 For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:00.720 What is God's motive behind the new birth? 00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:09.440 What is motivating God's transforming action in our world and in your life? 00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:12.239 Well, this is love. 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:17.599 For God so loved the world. 00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:30.000 Now, normally when we say that we love something, what that means is that there is something that we find lovely about it. 00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:42.079 You might imagine that you are in a relationship, perhaps you're dating, perhaps you're uh you're married, and you say to your significant other, you say, I love you. 00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:45.199 What do you mean when you say that? 00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:52.159 Well, in part what you mean is there are things that I find to be lovely about you. 00:34:52.880 --> 00:35:00.079 I I love your laugh, I love your your hair, I love the way you you make me feel. 00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:04.000 I find you to be lovely. 00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:09.760 But that's not what's going on here. 00:35:12.480 --> 00:35:14.719 For God so loved the world. 00:35:17.920 --> 00:35:24.800 The world in John's Gospel is not a geographical term. 00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:34.079 The world in John's Gospel does not refer to the big spinning ball in space, right? 00:35:35.039 --> 00:35:40.719 The world in John's Gospel is a moral term. 00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:59.840 The world in John's Gospel refers to all of humanity arrayed in opposition and hostility towards God by nature and by choice. 00:36:00.639 --> 00:36:03.440 That I don't want anything to do with God. 00:36:03.599 --> 00:36:06.239 I do not want his claim upon my life. 00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:08.079 I do not want to follow him. 00:36:08.639 --> 00:36:14.719 I do not like the idea that he says, You are mine, come and follow me. 00:36:15.440 --> 00:36:17.760 That's the world in John's gospel. 00:36:19.840 --> 00:36:21.599 And that's what God loves. 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:29.039 All of humanity, a raid and hostility, enmity towards God, and God loves us anyway. 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:31.840 Folks, you need to get this straight in your head. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:41.920 The thing that is amazing about God's love in John 3, verse 16, is not that the world is big, it's that the world is bad. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:46.719 And God loves it anyway. 00:36:48.400 --> 00:36:52.800 And he loves it in a way to transform it. 00:36:53.920 --> 00:36:57.840 He loves it in order that he might renew it. 00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:03.760 That is the love that he demonstrates to us in the sending of his son. 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:12.480 That is the love that the Spirit impresses upon our hearts. 00:37:14.800 --> 00:37:27.119 God does not love Mark because he is smart or brave or funny or handsome, though those things may be true. 00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:34.079 He loves Mark in all of his worldness. 00:37:35.840 --> 00:37:40.719 And he loves him so much that he gave that which was most precious to him. 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:47.199 That I might sit as a 14-year-old and be born again to everlasting life. 00:37:48.960 --> 00:37:51.440 That's how we get to see the kingdom of God. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:37:56.239 That is what the Spirit has done to our dead hearts. 00:37:57.679 --> 00:37:59.760 That is how he makes us alive. 00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:11.760 And it is with that love, through the power of the Spirit, that he comforts and consoles, that he encourages and motivates us to follow Jesus. 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:17.760 The wind blows where it wills. 00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:23.280 That's how Jesus describes the mysterious work of the spirit. 00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:37.920 And when you listen to stories like Augustine's or Lewis's or Rosaria's or even mine, you begin to realize that the spirit works in strange and surprising ways. 00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:46.320 There's no formula, there's no ritual, there's no stereotype, just the sovereign wind of God moving. 00:38:47.039 --> 00:39:02.800 Sometimes suddenly, sometimes slowly, sometimes through a book, sometimes through a friend, sometimes on a bus, sometimes through a long journey of knowing God's patience with you. 00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:12.320 And yet, as different as our stories are, the common thread is unmistakable, that only the spirit can give life. 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:16.960 He is the one who stirs a restless heart like Augustine's. 00:39:17.119 --> 00:39:20.880 He is the one who quietly awakens the mind of Lewis. 00:39:21.039 --> 00:39:26.400 He is the one who draws near in the ordinary rhythms of life like Rosaria. 00:39:26.719 --> 00:39:34.159 And he is the one who softly transforms teenagers in youth groups all across our world. 00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:38.559 He is the one who is at work. 00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:42.559 He is the one that is at work in you. 00:39:44.159 --> 00:39:52.400 The wind blows where it wills, but whatever, wherever he blows, he brings about the same miracle. 00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:55.760 He gives you a life that you cannot produce. 00:39:56.960 --> 00:39:59.840 He changes you in ways that you cannot fix. 00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:03.679 He secures for you what you cannot earn. 00:40:04.239 --> 00:40:07.920 And he shows you a love that you could never possibly imagine. 00:40:10.639 --> 00:40:16.400 So, as we close and as we transition to taking the Lord's Supper together, ask yourself this. 00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:19.360 What's my story? 00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:22.079 Does it look like Augustine's? 00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:24.320 Leus's Rosarius? 00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:25.280 Mine? 00:40:26.239 --> 00:40:29.440 How is the spirit blown in your life? 00:40:30.320 --> 00:40:32.960 Are you aware that it's blowing right now? 00:40:34.960 --> 00:40:38.480 If you sense even the faintest breeze. 00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:41.840 A stirring. 00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:43.280 A question. 00:40:44.559 --> 00:40:47.760 A conversation, a longing harasslessness. 00:40:50.480 --> 00:40:51.599 Don't resist it. 00:40:53.519 --> 00:41:00.800 Because the spirit who blows where he wills is the spirit who will bring you. 00:41:13.519 --> 00:41:20.159 If you found this helpful or want to know more about City Church Dublin, visit our website found in the links below.