You Must Be Born-Again

I encourage anyone reading this to get a much better sermon (with a lot better context) on this text from Pastor Kevin here: http://www.ebcrochester.org/misc/resources/sermons/2006-09-17%20-%20Kevin%20Binkley%20-%20The%20Wallop.mp3

John 3:1-21 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by 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 answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is 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 do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and 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 you 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, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

• Being “born-again” is not a separate category of Christianity. It isn’t an add-on to the Christian life. It is the beginning of the Christian life and is absolutely essential to your eternity.
• Being “born-again” is just as radical as being born the first time. At one point you didn’t exist, then you were physically born. Similarly, at one point you were spiritually dead, then you were born spiritually into God’s kingdom. You may not remember the exact time, but you should be able to look back and see a time when you weren’t living for God, then by a miracle of the Holy Spirit, you began to love everything about Him and His family (reading the Bible, more heartfelt, consistent prayer, enjoying church, singing praises and listening to sermons, and you began to grow immensely in the fruits of the Spirit).

Have you ever heard a testimony like this:

I gave my heart to Jesus as a child. Then I became involved in drugs, robbery, muggings, rape, murder, pornography, torture, gambling, money laundering, adultery, perjury, treason, extortion, and other things I’d rather not mention. I was filled with anger, hatred, and greed, but all the time I knew the Lord and gave my heart back to him when I was an adult.

Or a story like this:

There was a pastor of a large church who had a real heart for shepherding his people. One night there was a knock on the door from a guy who wanted council at 3:00 in the morning. But because of his heart, the pastor agreed to meet with him in the middle of the night. The pastor ran to his room to put some clothes on while the man waited in the living room. As the pastor entered the living room, the man attacked him with a machete so viciously that the pastor was barely recognizable, with blood everywhere. Later that week, when the neighborhood was discussing the event, it was discovered that the man went to another church nearby and the people were trying to figure out how a Christian could do such a thing to another Christian.

Points to ponder/discuss:

• What does someone who is born-again look like (how do they act)?
• Has this experience been evident in your life?

1. Nicodemus grew up in the Jewish culture. He knew the Scriptures inside and out. He was a very well respected teacher of the Law.
2. Jesus told Nicodemus that mere knowledge or lineage was not enough to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You must be born-again.
3. Nicodemus knew it was impossible to be physically reborn, so he asked Jesus for clarification.
4. Jesus explains that you are born once of the flesh, but that you must also be born of the Spirit and it is a supernatural work of God. Imagine if someone showed up to Bible study an hour late and said, “Sorry I’m late everyone. I was in a bit of an accident. I was hit head on by an 18-wheeler.” You would say, “That’s impossible. There is no way someone can have an encounter like that with something that big and walk away unaffected.” More so, how can we walk away from an encounter with God and not be radically transformed?
5. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that God sent His Son to die for the sin of the world. Those who believe in Him will be saved. Those who don’t believe are condemned already. Believe is kind of a silly word these days. When people say they believe in God, they simply mean He exists. When people say they believe in another person, they mean they trust that person can accomplish something in their lives. Our belief in God should be that trust that He can accomplish the washing of our sinful hearts, and save us on the Day of Judgment. Imagine a parachute: it doesn’t do any good to believe the parachute exists, but you must trust in it by putting it on and staking your life on it.
6. There will be evidence of the transformation in love for the things of God (holiness, thirst for knowledge, compassion for the lost, intimate prayer).

What are the implications of this teaching from Christ? Is it possible for someone to go to heaven without this transformation of the heart? Does someone need to understand fully the concept of being “born-again” to actually be saved (i.e. Is it possible for a person to be “born-again” without knowing what happened?)? What should we see in a new convert, and what should we expect from them? How should we encourage them to grow in their profession of faith?

Is this what your Christian life has looked like? Are you growing in holiness and a love for Christ and His body? Do you welcome teaching and correction or do you justify your sin and get defensive at a rebuke?

Fellowship

1 John 1:1-10

New Testament fellowship isn’t getting together to eat, or watch television, or play badmitton. It should grow us in joy, power, ministry, vision, encouragement, and discipline.

Genesis 2:8 “It is not good for man to be alone.”

What is fellowship?
See VINES Complete Expository Dictionary
Partnership, Sharing in Common, Communion, Partaking

1 John 1:1-4 , 1 Corinthians 6:17 “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” The goal of evangelism is to bring others into fellowship with Christ and His body. To be saved is to be in the fellowship. Despite all of our differences, we have one thing in common, we are all filthy sinners with nothing to offer God, but dying on the cross He paid for our sins and uses us anyway.

1 John 1:5-10 We can call ourselves Christian, but if we do not desire fellowship, Bible study, worship, discipleship, we are deceived and have not been born again.

What does fellowship look like?

Acts 1:14-15 Praying in upper room after Jesus has ascended. Luke 24:52 says these people spent time worshipping at the temple and praying in the upper room. They then would go out in public to preach the gospel.
Acts 2:1-2 3000 people were saved once as a result of these 120 people praying for ten days in the upper room
Acts 2:46 The 3000 new converts followed this example. The Lord added to their number day by day.
Acts 4:31 Peter and John arrested, get out of jail and then go to small gathering and prayed. The Spirit of God came and gave them power to speak the word with boldness.
Acts 13:2 Church leaders were gathered, worshipping and fasting, the Holy Spirit gave them a mission to reach Barnabas and Paul.
Acts 16:25 “Forced fellowship” Paul and Silas people in a dungeon singing hymns and praying, when the prison was miraculously opened. They chose to turn their crisis into a fellowship of praise.

James 5:16 “Confess your sins to one another” Be open and honest about your sins.
Forgive one another. Colossians 3:13 says, “Forbearing one another and forgiving one another.”
Bear one another’s burdens. Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Rebuke sin in one another. Ephesians 5:11 says “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them or rebuke them.”
Galatians 6:1 says, “If a brother be taken in a fault, restore such a one in love.”


“The neighborhood bar is probably the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church. It’s an imitation dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but it is a permissive, accepting and inclusive fellowship. It is also unshockable. It is Democratic. You can tell people’s secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to. The bar flourishes, not because most people are alcoholics but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers.” - ? Larson

Aristides’ writing on Christianity in the second century wrote these words. He was an observer of Christians, he said. “They obtain from all impurity in the hope of the recompense that is to come in another world. As for their servants or handmaids or children, they persuade them to become Christians by the love they have for them. And when they become so, they call them without distinction brothers. They do not worship strange gods, and they walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them and they love one another. And when they see the stranger, they bring him to their homes and they rejoice over him as over a true brother for they do not call brothers those who are after the flesh but those who are in the Spirit and in God.

And there is among them a man that is poor and needy and if they have not an abundance of necessities, they will fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with his necessary food. And they observe scrupulously the commandment of their Messiah. They live honestly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and all hours on account of the goodness of God toward them, they praise and laud Him and over their food and their drink they render him thanks.

And if any righteous person of their number passes away from this world, they rejoice and give thanks to God and they follow his body as though he were moving from one place to another. And when a child is born to any of them, they praise God. And if again it chances to die in its infancy, they praise God mightily as for one who has passed through the world without sins. Such is the law of the Christians and such is their conduct.”

From Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose (pg. 69) “That night and every night, we invited everyone to remain while we read a portion of God’s Word and prayed. We were united by a recognition of a mutual need from within for help from One Who is greater than we. We faced a common enemy from without, and if we were to survive we had to function as a unit. The interpersonal barriers of language, race, and color became nonexistent, and an ever-increasing appreciation of one another enabled us to face with courage the common plights of most prisoners of war: suffering, hunger, deprivations of every kind, forced labor, bombings, disease, psychological pressures, death, and lonely graves. People from other barracks often joined us during evening devotions. Throughout those very difficult years that tried our souls, God kept our barracks a calm center in the eye of the military storm that raged around us. There was a sharing, a concern, and a love that was unique. We struggled to preserve family feelings, to discover ways to lift morale, to encourage, comfort, and bear one another’s insupportable burdens. I am convinced the harmony we experienced in Barracks 8 was due to the spiritual shelter beneath which we all hid when there was no other refuge.”

We gather together as a fellowship in Christ, to have fellowship by praising God, teaching one another, rebuking, confessing, and forgiving sin, encouraging each other to grow in our faith, and spending time in prayer showing our reliance on God.

The result of fellowship “That your joy may be full.”

Pray that this group grows together in Christ that we may become more faithful believers, and we may encourage each other through necessary rebukes and positive affirmations. Pray that together we reach those who do not know salvation from sin in Christ, and that those who are simply Christians outwardly but have not been regenerated within become fully devoted followers of Christ. May God receive all the glory from what is accomplished here.

Resources:

EXPLOSIVE FELLOSHIP - John Piper
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1990/724_Explosive_Fellowship/

TRUE FELLOWSHIP – John MacArthur
http://www.gty.org/resources.php?section=transcripts&aid=231746

Songs of a Lukewarm Church

I found this list online ( http://www.wayofthemaster.com/songofthelukewarm.shtml ) and found it both humorous and convicting.

12. It Is My Secret What God Can Do

11. Fill My Spoon, Lord

10. Oh, How I Like Jesus

9. He’s Quite a Bit to Me

8. Where He Leads Me, I Will Consider Following

7. What An Acquaintance We Have in Jesus

6. Take My Life and Let Me Be

5. Sit Up, Sit Up For Jesus

4. I’m Fairly Certain My Redeemer Lives

3. I Surrender Some

2. Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me

1. Blest Be the Tie That Doesn’t Cramp My Style