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10-John-C3-Born_Again.hwp|
John 3:1-8 Key verse 3:8 "To See the Kingdom of God..." “In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’” In today’s passage Jesus meets a man whose name is Nicodemus. He seemed to have everything. But he lacked the most important thing: the kingdom of God. Jesus humbly taught him how to enter the kingdom of God by being born again. All human beings need most to enter the kingdom of God. To enter the kingdom of God, we must be born again. Since 9/11, the US have invested a lot in its homeland security, but still many enter the US illegally. However, no one can enter the kingdom of God illegally. The only way to enter the kingdom of God is to be born again. Let’s accept Jesus’ truth in our hearts today. Who was Nicodemus? Look at verse 1. “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.” Nicodemus was a Pharisee. To be a Pharisee was not easy. They had to start on a strict training course at the age of six. Under a strict rabbi he would study hard every day, memorizing many passages of Scripture. By age ten he knew the Torah and the details of the oral law. By age thirteen he was considered a responsible covenant bearer of the law of God. He had to overcome petty desires to become a noble human being. Still, to be a Pharisee required further study. He had to enter a rabbinical college under a great teacher of the law. There he learned the spirit, ethics, and morality of his teacher, as well as the classic subjects of oratory, philosophy, history, medicine, politics, and so on. It was not easy. Nicodemus studied like this to become a Pharisee. Then Nicodemus went further. He became a member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. It was like being a senator. No doubt, he was wealthy and well-connected. Nicodemus had made it to the top. He had fulfilled the Jewish dream. However, deep in his heart, there was something he felt he lacked. Look at verse 2. “He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’” Regardless of his successful life, he still needed a miracle in his life. The miracles he saw and heard about Jesus opened a question to his life. He saw the lame walk, the blind see, the sick become well, tax collectors and prostitutes repent of their lives and come to be baptized. He saw people changing, and it was something he could never experience in his legal, struggling life. He wanted to experience the miracle. something beyond what he or anyone could do. He may have looked back at his life with all its successes and thought, “Is this all? Is this what my life is about?” Not only Nicodemus, but all people are seeking and looking and longing for something beyond themselves. For some it’s love. For some it’s achievement. For some it’s recognition. Then, what was the miracle that Nicodemus most needed? Look at verse 3. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" Nicodemus needed to see the kingdom of God. The things of the world can never satisfy a human being. When we are young, honor and wealth seem to be worthy of our life investment. So we can stay up all night studying for a Ph.D., and we can burn our energy to establish a successful business. But these things soon perish and fade away. Mankind must see the kingdom of God. A young man Daniel was a POW in Babylon. His nation had been crushed and his people exiled as God’s divine discipline for their disobedience. But Daniel was not fatalistic. He made a decision to live a pure life before God by not indulging in royal food and wine. God blessed his decision and gave him spiritual insight to see the kingdom of God. In his vision, all the kingdoms of the world were like a statue of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay. It looked dazzling and awesome. Then he saw a rock come and strike the statue, smashing it to pieces. The rock became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth. It was the kingdom of God. Daniel saw that the kingdoms of the world rise and wane, one after another. But the kingdom of God is everlasting. The kingdom of God gains the final victory. Those who hope in the kingdom of God will live forever and share God’s victory. Like Daniel, we must see the kingdom of God when we are young. To see the kingdom of God, we must be born again. Nicodemus, though he was a scholar and was well-versed in Scripture, realized that he knew little of the kingdom of God. His rigorous, prescribed, legalistic lifestyle made him disciplined and absolute, and true, these things are necessary and commendable things. We need a certain degree of order and structure in our lives. We should have standards by which to live. We should aspire to a code of behavior and thought that is pleasing to God and makes us people of integrity. But gradually, over the course of time, such a rigid lifestyle has a tendency to turn into empty, meaningless and impersonal ritual. This is exactly what the Pharisees fell into; their deep respect for the Law prevented them from leaving room for God’s power to work in them. It hindered God’s power from being fully present in Nicodemus’ life. Nicodemus was like an old wineskin that wanted to experience God’s power; but he needed to be transformed into a new wineskin first. God’s power and kingdom are like dynamite. People who only know how to obey rules and codes of conduct cannot contain the dynamic power of God. We must be changed, just as Nicodemus needed to be changed. We must be born again into a material which can contain God’s dynamic power. Nicodemus couldn’t understand what Jesus talking about. Look at verse 4. ″How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” He had trouble believing what Jesus said. What is being born? It is the process by which a new life transitions from one world to the next. For forty weeks, a baby grows in the warm, soothing environment is his/her mother’s womb. Though the baby is comfortable, well-fed and perfectly provided for in this environment, this is not all of his/her life. There is a much more wonderful and fulfilling existence that awaits him/her beyond his mother’s womb. There is rolling over, crawling and walking. There’s eating and sleeping. There’s learning to ride a bike. There’s presents on Christmas morning. There’s skateboarding,, and playing a guitar. There’s the fun of elementary school and the drama of high school. There’s college and the adventure of discovering his/her identity. Birth is the transition from one form of existence into a much more heightened form of existence. In the same way, spiritual rebirth is the process by which we transition from being a people destined for condemnation into a people blessed with eternity in God’s presence. Being born again prepares us to be citizens of the kingdom of God. Nicodemus needed to be born again, to make this transition in order for the kingdom of God to become his reality, to become the new wineskin that could contain the new wine that Jesus was pouring out. He couldn’t depend on his Jewish heritage; being a descendant of Abraham did not gain one entrance into God’s kingdom. One needed to be born again. But how? What is the process of spiritual rebirth? Look at verse 5,6. Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" In Mt. 3:11 John the baptist already had said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” According to Jesus and John, there are two requirements for being born again: being born of water and born of Spirit. Firstly, we must be “born of water.” Being born of water signifies repentance. What is repentance? It is change. It is a change of one’s orientation away from a life of sin and toward a life in Christ. Repenting does not make you a saint; rather it stress' the fact that you are not a saint by giving you a sense of problem about your standing with God. To be born of water, desire to be changed is essential. Nicodemus’ life was stagnant in his laws and traditions. He was stuck in the web of his secret, hidden sins while keeping appearances with his legalism. His soul cried out for change. Jesus embodied what Nicodemus longed for. But he was afraid. Coming to Jesus would offend a lot of people, perhaps even endanger his own life. So cloaked in the darkness of night, he visited Jesus. This is extremely important. The first step in experiencing a changed life is coming to Jesus, not reading a book or following any self-help guru, coming to Jesus. There are many Nicodemus’—people who desire to change but who are clueless or powerless or too stubborn to come to Christ. To some, it is fear. They are afraid of offending or alienating the people they love. To some, it is exhaustion. To some, it is hopelessness. They think that they are too set in their ways or too deep in sin to undergo any sort of transformation. They are all wrong. If we want to change, if we're serious about change, it begins with simply coming to Jesus. Secondly, we must be “born of the Spirit.” Let’s read verses 7-8. "You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Being born of water is somewhat understandable. But being born of the Spirit is an entirely different matter. It involves the work of the Holy Spirit, the invisible presence of God which resides in his children. The Holy Spirit has one and one job only: to accomplish God’s will. He obeys no one except the Father. God uses his Spirit to whisper like a gentle breeze into one person’s heart, while in others he stirs up a violent convicting hurricane. We see the Spirit in people’s tears and hear him in their testimonies. His work is unpredictable. He can work surprisingly and unexpectedly in ways we could never imagine. He is creative and flexible. It is unbound, unrestricted, unprescribed very organic and free to flow wherever and however God wills. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. We can’t contain it or control it; we simply step into its current and enjoy the ride, trusting that where he takes us is exactly where God wants us to be. Through out my graduate study, I have achieved many things that I had been longed for. To achieve the recognition from my advisor, I worked hard, day and night, through out several months. My advisor really was impressed by my experimental performance and hard working spirit. I heard from two other professors that my advisor praised every day before professors. One day, he told me that he wishes to publish the result of my experiment on the journal of PRL which is the top journal in overall physics. Those things excited me. I thought I was happy. However, strange enough, it did not last long. Regardless of all the success, I felt an emptiness, a deep emptiness. Soon, the emptiness in my heart was filled by overwhelming fear about my future, especially after my master's degree. I worried about where to go, how to go. Every Friday, after all the hard working days of the week, when I was exhausted, I wanted to be conlsoled of my emptiness. But there was nothing that could encourage me. I walked along the 청계 stream to prove the problem in my heart. But I felt in even more emptiness after I walked. As time further went by, I lost my motivation. I couldn't work. Two days a week, I spent half of the day sleeping. I couldn't know what was the problem. I experienced some miracle that I had longed for ; advisor's praise, results of the experiment, the top journal. But regardless of those miracles, I have become more and more powerless and was faded. I realize that the true miracle that I should experience is the kingdom of God. Only the kingdom of God can empower me and quest my drying heart. One day, a shepherd told said "You accomplished every thing you can do with your ownself, but this is the limit line. You now have to depend on the Spirit if you want to break your limit and go further". That ignited my thirst and long for the work of the Holy Spirit. May God bless me so that I can see the kingdom of God and taste the miracle of the Holy Spirit from now on. In this passage we learn that human achievement has a great limitation. Sooner or later, what all people really need is to see the kingdom of God. We can see the kingdom of God when we are born again. Let’s remember that God loves us and really wants to give us the kingdom of God. All we have to do is repent of our sins and look at Jesus with faith in God’s promise. May God help you to look and live. |
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