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“Our Birth From Above”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 3:1-17
“Do not be astonished that
I said to you,’ You must be born from above.’”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS in this time of the church year, named
Lent, (40 days prior to Easter) we are with millions of Christians all
over the world, who follow lectionary Scripture readings, hearing and
thinking about one of the greatest conversations recorded about Jesus. Isn’t it amazing that we with millions of brothers and
sisters all over the world are hearing the same Word from God today?
Before we even get into the conversation itself, I want us to remember
some of the Biblical witnesses about Nicodemus.
He was one of the most popular leading Pharisees in Jerusalem.
Jesus presently, in this story, is in Jerusalem because it’s
the time of the Passover. And
according to John’s message, a day or two before this conversation
with Nicodemus, Jesus entered the temple and found men selling cattle,
sheep, and doves. Every
group had someone sitting at a table receiving purchase money and, if
needed, handing back the change. This
situation initiated such a passion in the heart of Jesus that he took
cords, used them as whips, and pushed out of the temple all these
sellers and their animals. He told them, “Take
these things out of here! Stop
making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
This is the context in which Nicodemus went out in the middle of
night to confront and question Jesus.
A couple of more things which we might want to keep in our
minds as we learn more about this conversation are that in some
important days after this talk, Nicodemus actually protested the
unfairness of the other Pharisees when they came up with their trial of
Christ. And actually, after
Jesus’ death, when Joseph asked Pilate if he could take the body of
Jesus, and Pilate allowed it, Nicodemus showed up with gifts of special
oil to anoint Jesus Christ’s body.
So, yes, after this conversation Nicodemus believed in and loved
his Lord.
Nicodemus, in this conversation, is trying to point out a little bit
that he thinks he knows. He
starts off with these words, “We
have seen all that you have done, these miracles, these signs from God;
we know that you are a teacher sent from God…
“
We all know that when we try to express ourselves, there is even more of
a real meaning behind our words in which we are trying to communicate.
If we try to write a poem, or a song, don’t we crumble up many
pages we have written and throw them away before we finally get to our
most meaningful words?
There is another very real meaning behind Nic’s words.
Basically, he is asking Jesus a question.
And Jesus sees this. Nicodemus’
real question to Jesus is, “Who are you?
We have seen these miraculous signs through you, so our ultimate
question is, who is this world are you?”
That is what Nic is asking Jesus.
Who in the world are you?
Jesus answered Nicodemus in much the same style of communication
that he had started. “Jesus
answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of
God without being born from above.’”
There is a meaning behind these words of Jesus that He will actually
give more explanation of, a little later in the conversation.
In true reality, what Jesus is telling Nicodemus is, “Nic
you must be born from above to know God’s love; and that is who I am
in this world; I am your
birth from above.” Jesus
is telling Nicodemus, in order for him to spend eternity in the perfect
life of God, he must be born from above, and because of God’s love for
him, his birth from above is located in Jesus.
It has already been accomplished.
John 3:16, we all know, was one of the most popular verses for
evangelicalism in the 20th century. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
I want us to understand this at a deeper and even a more gracious level.
Most of the translations of these New Testament verses, in
English, since about The King James Version, have used the words “you
must be born again.” But,
the New Revised Standard Version, which we read in our church, which was
translated by the greatest scholars in the world in the late 1900s,
translated born from above
instead of born again.
Now, it certainly is true that we must be born again.
However, it truly is deeper, spiritually, to hear and to say YES
to the truth which God is revealing to us in Jesus Christ: we must be born again by being born from above, and because God sent his
only Son to become human, we have all, already, been born again from
above. Because
God came into us, we have already been taken back into God, through the
resurrection.
Some Christians like to ask others if they have been born again.
And of course they want to see if they have had a certain kind of
religious experience. Many
people might give a time and experience they remember like this: “Yes,
I was born again in my Grandparents’ church when their pastor asked us
to come forward and receive Christ into our hearts.”
Still, there are other people (real Christians) who may have been
baptized as babies, and they have been believers all their lives, but
have never had this certain kind of experience of what some call being
born again.
Our understanding of being born from above in Jesus Christ is such a
blessing for all of us. For
those of us who believe that we are saved because we received Jesus
Christ into our hearts to be born again will all go through darkness
types of suffering where we question whether we really had the proper
kind of faith to be saved? And for those of us who have been in the
church all our lives, because we were baptized as babies, when we go
through the same kinds of severe miserable sufferings we will question
weather our religion is truly the kind by which we will be saved by God.
Now, however we are hearing and slowly growing in our understanding that
we are to be born from above, and that is who Jesus Christ is for us; He
is our birth from above. We
have been born again, by being born from above in Christ, even before we
hear about it.
Now, when people ask me if I have been saved, or ask me if I have
been born again, I say yes. Then
when they ask me when I was saved or born again, because they are
probably questioning my religious type of experience, I tell them that
“I was saved and born again when the Son of God was born as Jesus
Christ, died on the cross, raised from the dead, and went back to be
with God the Father. I was
included in all of that, and so were you.”
We are not to be astonished that Jesus told us that we must be born from
above. We all know that we
cannot make ourselves to be born from above.
So, we don’t need to suffer that kind of astonishment.
But, there is another kind of astonishment that we may embrace,
that we have already been born from above in Jesus Christ.
The day that this truth really spoke to me was about 14 years ago.
And I was in such an astonished phase, that I just walked around
in the sanctuary of the church I pastured, for hours. I
just walked around totally amazed, in the Holy Spirit, of what God had
taught me.
Our salvation has nothing to do with what we think we might accomplish
religiously. Our salvation,
profoundly simple, is that it has already been accomplished in Jesus
Christ.
Let us pray …
Amen!
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