John 3:1-21 – Jesus teaches Nicodemus
- “The ‘Born Again’ Head Fake”
- Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night.
- This is another passage that challenges the simplistic idea that Jesus hated the religious leaders but loved the sinners., The fact is that Jesus invested in whoever pursued Him with the right intentions; and in many cases these were those who knew they were lost without Him.
- In the this passage Jesus invokes the famous ‘Born Again’ phrase. Since the 1970’s that sentence has been used to define at least a generation or two of Jesus followers.
- Many think that Jesus invested the phrase ‘Born Again’ and that the phrase is the key to what He was teaching Nicodemus.
- But he did not and He was not.
- The phrase ‘Born Again’ or its variations already existed in Jesus’ day.
- In fact there were six major uses of it.
- You were born again when:
- You converted to Judaism and came out of the waters.
- You got married.
- You were crowned King of Israel.
- You were numbered with the believers of Israel and became a son of the commandments [bar-mitzvah].
- You were ordained as a Rabbi.
- You became leader of a Rabbinic school.
- All of these were major life changes and none of them were something that Nicodemus was likely to do due to his age. Although some of them would of already happened to him.
- Imagine Nicodemus’ shock. What did Jesus mean? What else was left open to him… to re-enter his mother’s womb?
- So what was Jesus emphasizing? What was His message?
- Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
- And Spirit.
- All the above were rituals of some sort. Jesus was emphasizing that a ceremony would not save you.
- A ceremony such as marriage, ordination, coronation….
- Or putting your hand up after an alter call.
- It is a heart and Spirit thing that Jesus was emphasizing.
- Yesterday I pointed out that verse 23 of chapter 2 shows us that many believed in His name but few believed in Him.
- Are we in danger of simply adding number 7 onto the list?
- Creating people who think they are born again because they went through a modern, protestant, evangelical ceremony?
- Leaders beware… what you sow into people... you will reap.
- The key to salvation is responding to an invitation to participate in His Kingdom not a personal ceremony.
- Praying I sow into others the right thing because in this case number seven is not a lucky number.
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