About Being "Born Again"

John 3:1-15

Can you believe it?  In less than two weeks the election will be over.  It sometimes seems as if the campaigning has been going on since the day after the inauguration.

Once again religion has been an issue in the discussion.  And no wonder.  For perhaps the first time in modern American history we know that both major candidates hold views that are at great variance with historic Christianity.

Despite the fact the Constitution forbids using a “religious test” to determine who may serve as president, most Americans have commonly been either curious or concerned about the religious view of our presidents.

When Thomas Jefferson was elected, many residents of New England hid their Bibles because they feared he would order them confiscated. 

Voters were concerned Abraham Lincoln had no formal association with any church.  The most he did to calm their fears was to assure them he believed in the Almighty.  I am among those who believe Lincoln was converted in the White House.  Though, I’m not sure how reliable the story is that he planned to make a profession of faith on Easter 1865.  That never happened because he was assassinated on Good Friday.

Religion didn’t always play a role in the campaigns but some of our presidents had closer connections to the church than others.  James Garfield had been a lay preacher in the Disciples of Christ. 

William McKinley’s mother had wanted him to become a minister and was still disappointed even after he was elected president.  By the way, McKinley’s opponent in both the 1896 and 1900 elections, Democrat William Jennings Bryan, would eventually become the voice of fundamentalism in the Scopes Trial. 

Some of you will remember how John Kennedy’s religion was an issue in his campaign.  Many feared the Vatican would have too much influence should a Roman Catholic be elected.

During his first campaign for the presidency, Jimmy Carter captured national attention by his claim to have been “born again.”  Some say he was the first president to ever make the claim.  A Baptist, Carter may not have known the phrase was unfamiliar to many Americans.  If so, it wasn’t unfamiliar for long.  It seems like everyone was soon talking about the phrase that has its roots in this passage.

But that doesn’t mean everyone understood.

One morning a woman answered the doorbell of her suburban home to find a man dressed in well-worn work clothes.

“Pardon me, ma’am,” he said, “but I’m out of work and I was wondering if you have any jobs I could do.”

The woman asked, “What kind of work can you do?”

“Most anything,” the man said, “but I’m pretty good with a paint brush.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” the woman said, “There’s a porch around back that needs painting.  My husband and I just bought some paint and brushes and we were going to look around for someone to do the work.  Since you’re here, I’ll pay you to paint it.”

So, the man took the paint and brushes and headed to the back of the house.  A couple hours later he rang the doorbell again. 

“Finished already,” the woman asked.

“Yes, and I think you’ll like it,” the man answered.  “But there’s just one thing, that’s not a Porsche, that’s a Mercedes.

It’s always important we’re speaking the same language.

Hearing a lot about something doesn’t always mean we understand it.  Since this story Jesus and Nicodemus suggests it’s important to understand what it means to be born again, I’m going to try to clarify the term.

What does it mean to be born again?

Being born again is not being religious.

Many born again people are religious but not every religious person is born again.

John describes Nicodemus as “a man of the Pharisees.”  In first-century Judea, you didn’t get much more religious than that.   Many people saw the Pharisees as spiritual heroes.  Yet, Jesus told him he had to be born again.  You need to appreciate just how that hit Nicodemus.

Jews reserved the term “reborn” for the Gentiles who chose to embrace Judaism.  Nicodemus would have heard Jesus saying, “You—a ruler of Israel and a Pharisee—must regard first yourself as one outside God’s Kingdom if you would enter God’s Kingdom.”

Jesus was telling Nicodemus, no matter how often you attend the synagogue, no matter how much you pray, no matter how strict your diet, no matter how much scripture you can quote, you must be born again.

American evangelist Sam Shoemaker once said, "It is sadly possible to 'ooze into church membership', without a personal relationship with God"[1]

According to George Barna, a researcher who has explored every aspect of American church life, about four out of every ten adults who regularly attend church claim to have never been “born again.” 

You need more than a place regularly reserved on a pew to be born again.

Being born again is not admiring Jesus.

Did you hear what Nicodemus said to Jesus?  He said, “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.”  You have to appreciate what he is saying.  Jesus had critics from almost the beginning of his ministry yet Nicodemus was ready to acknowledge there was something worthwhile in Jesus ministry.

That kind of flattery could turn a person’s head.  Coming from a highly respected religious leader, Jesus could have easily said, “Well, this fellow obviously gets it.  He’s tuned in to what God is doing.”

It wasn’t enough to admire Jesus, Nicodemus needed to be born again.

Did you see the recent story about Anne Rice?  If you don’t know her, Anne Rice is a novelist.  Her books may not be for everyone.  You see, Anne Rice was writing about vampires before vampires were cool.  Her 1976 book Interview with the Vampire was a bestseller and was eventually made into a film.

In 2005, Rice announced she had embraced faith in Jesus.  She even began writing a series of novels based on his life.  In 2010, she said she no longer considered herself part of Christianity; she was simply a follower of Jesus.  Then, in September of this year (2012), she said she had abandoned even her faith in Christ.

It’s hard to know why some people make decisions like this.  I may be wrong but I strongly suspect Rice had a few years of simply admiring Jesus, not that she had been born again.

Admiring Jesus is fine, completely understandable.  But many millions around the world admire him without being born again.

Being born again is not self-improvement.

In Luke 11, we find one of Jesus’ strangest parables.  He said,

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’
      So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order.
Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”

 

I think Jesus is saying this is what happens when we reinvent ourselves.  Sometimes by the power of our own will we can overcome bad habits, change behavior, and seemingly be reborn.  But Jesus says there is still a problem.  We are still empty on the inside. As a result we may be “worse off than before” because our new and improved self becomes proud of what we have accomplished, disdainful of those struggling with problems because they are so obviously weaker than we are, blind to problems that were not on the surface of our character.

Jesus easily could have told Nicodemus to embark on a self-improvement course.  He could have told the Pharisee to fast a couple more times each month, to add a half percent or so to his tithe, to pray a little longer each day.  That might have enhanced Nicodemus’ reputation with the other Pharisees but it really wouldn’t have dealt with the problem that brought him to Jesus that night.

He needed to be born again and that was something no self-improvement program could produce.

Being born again is the experience of a life-giving transformation God works in our lives.

            What Jesus says to Nicodemus could be translated, “You must be born again from above.”   That shows that the act of being “reborn” doesn’t come from our own efforts or by releasing our own inner goodness.  Being reborn, as Jesus means it, is an act of God within us.
            Jesus’ simple picture of the way the wind works is a simple analogy of what happens as God’s Spirit brings about spiritual rebirth in our lives.  We see the leaves of a tree move, we here the rustle of those leaves, we may even see a leaf fall from the tree—all the while knowing we are seeing the work of the invisible wind.  At the same time, when we are born again we see our motivations change, we see our temperament become more mellow, we see the chains of our old habits broken, we see ourselves become less self-centered, we develop a new vision for serving God—all the while knowing that this transformation, this rebirth, is being accomplished by God’s Spirit.  It is nothing we could accomplish on our own.

When God works in our lives he gives us what wasn’t there before.  He gives us life.  We cannot produce that on our own.

Among the items we’ve collected over the years are some lovely little marble eggs.  They are the size and shape of chicken eggs but they are made of marble.  But they are much more colorful; they’re pink, blue, and green—not white or brown.  Yet, if you could persuade a hen to sit on one of these eggs she would sit there for weeks and nothing would happen.  Oh, it would be warm, and if it were among real hen eggs it would eventually be surrounded by chicks.  But it would never hatch.  Why not?  It has no life in it.

We can never experience the reality of being born again unless we have life given us by God.

Apart from that life there is only death.  John’s comment on this episode includes some of the Bible’s most famous words.

God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.
God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
Those who believe in him won’t be condemned. But those who don’t believe are already condemned because they don’t believe in God’s only Son

When we hear Jesus’ call to be born again, we receive eternal life.  When we turn a closed ear to Jesus’ call, we are condemned.  But that doesn’t have to be.  Jesus wouldn’t have said “you must be born again” if there weren’t a God guaranteed offer of new life.  With that guarantee comes a God’s promise to remain so close to us that we may be said to be “filled” with his Spirit.

Rather than seeking to populate Hell with as many people as possible, God devised and implemented the only escape plan.  Because God's character demands it, He must judge; but he would prefer to show mercy.  Ronald Youngblood says, "Judgment is never God's last or best word to those who believe in him, because 'mercy triumphs over judgment'' (James 2:13). God's love was not limited by culture, race, or geographical boundaries.  His desire to save was extended to the entire world.  He did not simply love the lovely people of the world; he loved all the people of the world.  That love prompted an act of radical sacrifice.  Jesus’ death on the cross makes possible our new life.

Trusting Christ is that way to that new life, the way to being born again.

Those words of Jesus, “You must be born again,” echo down the centuries.

Jesus’ words reflect a heavenly imperative.  Jesus did not say to the man who would have been considered a spiritual giant among the Jews, “You should consider being born again.”  He said, “You must be born again.”  It was nonnegotiable.  In light of this we can’t say, “Six out of ten people who attend church will go to heaven because they have been born again, the other four will go to heaven some other way.”  We don’t have that option.  Whether they go to church or not, everyone who hopes for salvation must be born again.

Your hope of real life beyond death depends on your hearing Jesus’ call: You must be born again.

As I close this sermon, I want to speak to those who have never had this experience.  I want to offer you an opportunity to let me lead you in a prayer for spiritual rebirth, a prayer to be born again.  If this is an experience you want to be yours, pray this prayer with me.

Dear God,

I admit I need to be born again,

My life needs the “life” you give,

The life I can’t produce on my own.

I ask for that new life based on Jesus’ own promise.

I pray that as one who has been ‘born again’

I might experience a new relationship with you,

enjoy being part of a new family made up of all those

who have been born again by your power,

and

face the future with a new purpose and hope

that comes from knowing you have given me

eternal life.

I pray for this in the Name of Jesus.

Amen.

 

If you prayed this prayer, tell someone about it.  Tell a pastor, tell a Christian friend.  You might even consider coming this morning and telling those gathered here about your decision.

Tell someone you responded when you heard Jesus say, “You must be born again.”

 

 

 

 

 

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[1]  Quoted by John Cooney, Exploring Christianity.