You Must Be Born Again

Joh 3:1-36.   

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He was one of the Jewish rulers.

He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. We know that God is with you. If he weren't, you couldn't do the miraculous signs you are doing."

Jesus replied, "What I'm about to tell you is true. No one can see God's kingdom without being born again."

"How can I be born when I am old?" Nicodemus asked. "I can't go back inside my mother! I can't be born a second time!"

Jesus answered, "What I'm about to tell you is true. No one can enter God's kingdom without being born through water and the Holy Spirit.

People give birth to people. But the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

You should not be surprised when I say, 'You must all be born again.'

"The wind blows where it wants to. You hear the sound it makes. But you can't tell where it comes from or where it is going. It is the same with everyone who is born through the Spirit."

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus. "Don't you understand these things?

"What I'm about to tell you is true. We speak about what we know. We give witness to what we have seen. But still you people do not accept our witness.

I have spoken to you about earthly things, and you do not believe. So how will you believe if I speak about heavenly things?

"No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven. He is the Son of Man.

Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. The Son of Man must be lifted up also.

Then everyone who believes in him can live with God forever.

For God So Loved the World

"God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.

"God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him.

Anyone who believes in him is not judged. But anyone who does not believe is judged already. He has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

"Here is the judgment. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light. They loved darkness because what they did was evil.

"Everyone who does evil things hates the light. They will not come into the light. They are afraid that what they do will be seen.

But anyone who lives by the truth comes into the light. He does this so that it will be easy to see that what he has done is with God's help."

John the Baptist Exalts Christ

After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the countryside of Judea. There he spent some time with them. And he baptized people there.

John was also baptizing. He was at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water. People were coming all the time to be baptized.

That was before John was put in prison.

Some of John's disciples and a certain Jew began to argue. They argued about special washings to make people "clean."

They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan River is baptizing people. He is the one you gave witness about. Everyone is going to him."

John replied, "A person can receive only what God gives him from heaven.

You yourselves are witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ. I was sent ahead of him.'

The bride belongs to the groom. The friend who helps the groom waits and listens for him. He is full of joy when he hears the groom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.

Joh 3:30 He must become more important. I must become less important.

"The One who comes from above is above everything. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks like someone from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above everything.

He gives witness to what he has seen and heard. But no one accepts what he says.

Anyone who has accepted it has said, 'Yes. God is truthful.'

The One whom God has sent speaks God's words. God gives the Holy Spirit without limit.

The Father loves the Son and has put everything into his hands.

Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life. Anyone who says no to the Son will not have life. God's anger remains on him."

Our Hope Amid Suffering

I have buried too many children in my ministry. I have watched helpless parents weep in torment. I have seen hopelessness face-to-face. I have seen cancer leave its calling card on ravaged bodies. I have seen dementia claim the lives of tortured souls. I have felt the destructive force of mental and physical abuse. I have seen and experienced suffering. It is a pitiless force of nature, sweeping aside all in its inexorable path. We can’t escape its grasp. We can never run fast enough. We can never shut our eyes tight enough. We know, if we live long enough, that one day it will come knock at our door.  

Our Hope amid Suffering

by Mez McConnell

Thankfully, the Bible is no stranger to these things. 

The Apostle Peter wrote a letter of encouragement thirty years after Christ’s death to the beleaguered Christians of Asia Minor. They were being abused by overbearing bosses (2:18), threatened by unbelieving spouses (3:1, 6), and ridiculed by skeptical neighbors and associates (4:14). On the horizon loomed the possibility of a much more violent form of persecution—a fiery ordeal (4:12–18). They were suffering, and they would suffer yet more. What were they to do?

Peter’s response in 1 Peter 1:3 sounds glib to the modern ear. “Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” How helpful is that to Jane battling cancer? Or what about John whose father was killed in an accident at work? Why should they, and we, be blessing God? What have we got to bless God for?

According to Peter, we ought to bless God because of His great mercy to us in rescuing us through Jesus. He has given us new birth. We may not feel it, but our salvation is an act of God’s great mercy. We deserve death, yet He gives us life. We deserve punishment, yet He has achieved a great reward for us. We should bless God that our souls are safe in His hands. That is something that far outweighs all of our slight and momentary troubles. We have a God who has rescued us, even when we don’t feel rescued.

But there’s more. Peter writes,

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1:13)

Some people fill in their lottery tickets, lie back on their sofa, and hope their numbers will finally come in. But such a hope is uncertain, and it is temporary even if it comes to pass. Our hope is so certain that it actually lives. Our joy and certain hope for the future are tied up in the fact that He rose again (1:20–21). Don’t forget, Peter was a guy whose whole life was crushed when Jesus was killed. All of Peter’s greatest hopes died with Jesus. But then he heard the news of the resurrection and went running to the tomb to see for himself. Despite Peter’s denial of Christ, our Lord came to Peter in the upper room and once again his hope rose with Him. Like Peter, we have a living hope that is:

Eternal

Can never be defiled

Will never fade

Kept in heaven for us

Compare that to our earthly experiences. We live for an age and then we die. Not so our inheritance from God. It never decays. It is completely indestructible. That’s why the Lord encourages us in (Matthew 6:19–20:)

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Several years ago, a Scotsman won about six million British pounds from the lottery. Within ten years, it was gone, squandered on bad deals. As a result, he was left penniless. Our inheritance, on the other hand, can never be used up. It is an inexhaustible, eternal treasure trove. How so? Because what has been secured for us is stored in the safest and most secure place imaginable. It is impregnable. Even though we will only fully receive it on the last day, it is ready for us even now. It is finished, perfect, and unchangeable. And it is reserved for each of us who have been chosen according to His great foreknowledge and love.

Whatever else we lose in this life, we cannot lose our salvation. It is cancer proof. It is abuse proof. It is even death proof. These are the truths we run to when life kicks us in the teeth. When a relationship is shattered, when the dreams of what we wanted to be in life have been eaten away and eroded by the sands of time; when our health fails, when we feel like nobody cares anymore, when all seems lost—the Christian still has reasons to hope. We hang fast to Jesus. Keep our eyes fixed on Him. We have a wonderful Savior. He will never let us down. He’s done all the hard work and one day we will cash in—even if for a little while we have troubles.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10–11). But The God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that he have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you v11, To Him Be Glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen.