Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 4; Be Born Again
Transcript
- John Smithson: Hey everybody, this is John Mark with Finding Jesus again. Welcome to episode four of my personal journey through the book of John to find the truth about who Jesus is and who he has called us to be and what it means to be a Christian. So we're going to pick up today in John chapter three. And I don't know if I told you guys this or not, but I am reading out of the NASB 2000 version. And the reason why is because in my research, it is the closest. To the original manuscripts, the closest interpretation. And so that's the the version that I've chosen to read out of. We're going to start with John chapter three. We're just going to read, we're going to comment, see how far we get. And I believe that God's going to speak to us today. Let's start with chapter three, verse one. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus at night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus responded and said, Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Let me just stop there for a second. It it's interesting that he came to Jesus at night. I mean, obviously he was ashamed ⁓ to come to him or afraid of the other rabbis Because there was some tension between the scribes and the Pharisees and Jesus. And so he came to him at night when no one was looking to ask him this question. He said, There's something special about you. And Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You know, you hear this phrase a lot in evangelical worlds about being born again, that we must be born again. And so what exactly does that mean to be born again? Well, Nicodemus, he asks that question. He says in verse four, How can a person be born when he's old? He cannot enter his mother's womb a second time and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it. But you do not know where it is coming from and where it's going, so is every one who has been born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, You are the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and people do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who Who ascended from heaven the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in him. So let's just stop there for a second. So so he asks him, he says, How can I enter into my mother's womb and be born again? And Jesus responds, That you must be born of water, and you must be born of spirit. And of course we know this part about water is talking about baptism. Water representing Repentance, baptism repres representing repentance. And then of spirit, I believe, represents forgiveness. And then he goes on to say that it's not something that you can see. You can't see the wind, but you can feel the effects of it, and you and you can see the effects of it. And that is what it means to be born again. It's something that you can't see, but it's something that you can feel, and something that you can can experience because any of us who have been born again we know that there's definitely a a change that takes place. So Nicodemus responds, says, How can these things be? And and Jesus says to him, he says, Listen, you're looking with with the eyes of man, you're not looking with the eyes of God. These things can't be revealed to you through wisdom, but they have to be revealed to you through faith. And and I just want to explain that for a second because a lot of people will ask us or or you know to prove our faith or Or prove things that we can't prove or explain things that we can't always explain. And that's why it takes faith. There's there's something that you know, that you feel, that you experience, and you and you can't always explain it like you can't explain the win. You know that it's there, you can't explain how it works, but you just know that it's there, you know that's necessary, you know that it's important. It's the same thing with our with our with our rebirth. It happened, we can't always explain it. But we know that it's important and we know that it's changed our lives. But this is where John chapter three, verse sixteen comes into play. So after this entire back and forth with Nicodemus about being born again, then John chapter three, verse sixteen, which we all know says, For God so loved the world. He's telling Nicodemus this. He's saying, Nicodemus, you must be born again. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish. But have eternal life. And then verse seventeen, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not judged. The one who does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God. So John chapter three, sixteen, you know, we were looking for answers, we're looking for who who God is. We want to find Jesus. And right here in John chapter three, verse sixteen, it says, God so loved the world that he gave his only son to the That whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life, that we must believe in him. Remember back a couple of episodes ago, we talked about we must believe and receive. We believe who he is, we receive him into his life into our lives. And John chapter 3, 16 reinforces that. We're not judged, it says. The one who does not believe has already been judged. And so everyone out there who has not yet believed in God, you have already been judged. You're already been condemned. Jesus isn't condemning you. God isn't condemning you. You're already in a state of condemnation. You're already condemned. But Jesus came to save us and to rescue us from that condemnation. Not to judge us, but to rescue us. And then we come into this part here. Where it says the light is coming to the world and people love the darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. Here we get to the point where we begin to question what does it mean to have evil deeds? What deeds are evil? Because there's a lot of question about what you're supposed to do or how you're supposed to live or how you're supposed to not live. So what are evil deeds? Man, I it would just be so easy if God would have just literally gave us a list. ⁓ and said, For their deeds were evil, and these were their deeds, and gave us like a list of things that we can just say, okay, this is easy. We don't have to so as long as we don't do this, this, this, this, and this, we're all good. But the thing is that that God didn't want to give us a list of rules, but he wants us to have a relationship with him. In verse twenty says, Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices truth comes to the light so that his deeds will be revealed. It's like this. If you walk into a dark room and there's no light, you can't see anything. But when you flip the light on, you can see, you can see more. You can see everything. But I have a light in my room that's kind of has a dimmer on it. And so there's like five different settings. If I set it to a really low setting, then there's a lot of shadows kind of kind of in the corner. So the light comes in and you can see some. But then as the light gets brighter, we brighten up to the next level, I can see a little bit further in the room. And I lighten it up to the next level, I can see even further in the room. Lighten it up a little bit more, and I can see even further. Do you understand what I'm saying? So when we invite Jesus into our hearts, we it exposes the darkness that is in us. We don't need someone to tell us what we're doing is wrong. We don't need someone to explain to us you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't do this. What we need is is to have more light. And the more light that we have, the more those evil deeds or that darkness is going to be chased out of the room. I think it starts with a small light, like my dimmer light in my house. And then as we read and study and receive God more, the light gets brighter and we grow. I I to me, I think that's the process of sanctification. As the light gets bigger and the light grows brighter, the darkness chases away, the darkness is exposed even more and more, and we can see the things that we need to work on. So today I want that to be ⁓ what we receive today is that number one, Jesus came to save us. He God gave his only son so that we can be saved. Number two, he didn't come into this world to condemn us. But so that we can be saved. He didn't come to judge us so that we can be saved. And number three, the light of Jesus will expose the darkness in us that needs to be changed. The light of Jesus will expose the deeds that we need to change in our lives. We don't need someone to stand from a pulpit and tell us what we need to change in our lives. The brighter Jesus shines in our heart. The more we know and understand the things that we need to change. So I want to thank you for joining with me on this journey. Please comment, respond, shoot me a message. Let me know that you're on this journey with me. This is episode four, and we will see you next week and we will finish out the book of John, chapter three. God bless you.