The New Birth (John 3:1-19)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” -1 Peter 1:3

“This new birth in Christ, thus firmly believed and continually desired, will do everything that thou wantest to have done in thee, it will dry up all the springs of vice, stop all the workings of evil in thy nature, it will bring all that is good into thee, it will open all the gospel within thee, and thou wilt know what it is to be taught of God.” -William Law

In John 2, Jesus is in Jerusalem performing miracles, people are starting to see, be impressed, one of those ones is a man by the name of Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews…

↠Nicodemus comes at night with questions (vs. 2)

↠He was a religious leader (Sanhedrin), educated, and influential

↠He was drawn to Jesus, and he wanted to find out more. Have you been drawn?

↠“Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God..” (vs. 3)

↠Jesus gives a strong statement that shatters Nick’s thinking

↠The Jews assumed, due to their racial identity, their BIRTH, that they were assured a place in God’s Kingdom.  ”They were good….right?” Jesus says, “NO!”

↠Many today have the same mindset as Nick…church attendance, Grandma’s salvation, “I’m a decent person,” None of that matters- REBIRTH matters (1 John 5)

↠”Born again” What does that mean? Nick has trouble with that phrase… (vs. 4)

↠Regeneration: our first birth gave us physical life, the new birth gives us spiritual life and entry into God’s family (Titus 3:4-5, Ephesians 4:24, 1 Peter 1:3)

↠John 1:12-13- “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

↠The only way to be born again, to experience this spiritual birth, enter into God’s family is through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus (John 14:6)

↠Born of the WATER & the SPIRIT (vs. 5)

↠A fountain of cleansing from sin and one of life (Zech. 1:3, Psalm 36:9)

↠Prophecy of Ezekiel 36:25-27- He says there is a time coming when there will be this transformative new beginning- the water symbolizes all the impurities being washed away.

↠”How can this be?” Jesus: “Everything has pointed to Me”

↠This plan was plainly laid out in the Old Testament, but you believed that you had already arrived. Going through ceremony & Scripture yet you’ve missed Jesus- which is what it was all about.

↠”As Moses lifted up the serpent…even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (v.15)

↠Jesus points back to Numbers 21:4-9: God’s instruction to be “saved”/bronze serpent

↠Picture of sin judged/dealt with, now in like manner Jesus would be lifted up and they must now look to Him to be saved/reborn (Isa. 45:22)

↠The “why” in all of this- verse 16 spells it out- “For God so loved the world…” (vs. 16-17)

↠We see the Father’s heart- sent Jesus to make a way as we are the object of His affection. He provides a path, a way out to rebirth, but to not choose that path is to actually choose condemnation (Jer. 9:6, Rom. 10:13). Have you truly been reborn?