A Brand New You
John 3:1-15
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have “overs” in life? Wouldn’t that be nice? When you make a mistake, just call “overs” and begin again. I guess everybody at one time or the other has had the desire to just begin again.
Do you realize that is what God promises? Just like the craftsman in the video, God can make a brand new you.He can take the roughness and splinters and ugliness of life and let you start over.
You make have always thought that what was done was done, and could never be undone. In some ways that is true, but in other ways, it isn’t. In fact, you may be sitting there right now, and in your mind you are running backs through the memories and thinking about all the things you wish you could undo.
I would guess we have a lot of men and ladies here today and you look at your career. You look back at the things you would liked to have done a different way. Maybe sometimes you have wished when it comes to your career you could make a brand new start.
There are probably some of you, husbands and wives, and you look at your marriage and the mistakes you may have made. You look back on your marriage and you say, it would really be wonderful if I could go back to the wedding day and from that day just start all over again and have a brand new start.
That’s what I want to talk to you about today. How it is possible for a person to begin again, how can
God make out of you a brand new you? How can a person have a brand new start?
Last week we looked at the foundation for Biblical Salvation. One of the things I mentioned to you was the need for repentance.
We learned that repentance means making an about face. God changes our direction, our attitude and our Lord. Everything becomes new.
To understand what that means, I want us to listen in on a conversation which the Lord Jesus Christ had one night with a man named Nicodemus.
The Bible tells us a few things about Nicodemus. It tells us that he was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. We know from this and from other sources that Nicodemus was at least three things.
We know he was a high roller. He was a very wealthy individual. There is word that he was one of the three richest men in all of the city of Jerusalem. In fact, tradition says that Nicodemus was the scientist in the city who devised the water system for the city of Jerusalem.
He was also high profile. He was recognizable in the community. I have a feeling that he was often in the daily newspaper. He probably showed up quite a bit on the front page of the Jerusalem Gazette. He was a man who was seen and noticed everywhere.
He was also high church. He was a very religious man. On Sunday morning you could always see him getting his family together. They would roll up in the parking lot of the church with the latest model of chariot. They would come in as a family together. So we know quite a lot about Nicodemus.
We know also that he came to the Lord Jesus Christ one night and the Bible says that he was very complimentary to the Lord. He starts off with a title of respect. He says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. He recognizes the fact that
He was no ordinary teacher. But He was a teacher who had been sent by God. He said, Nobody can do these miracles that you do except God be with him.
He realized that what Jesus was doing was not some hocus pocus, but it was the real thing. Actual miracles were occurring.
Those miracles had to have their source in God.
So, he comes to the Lord Jesus. He’s very complimentary to Him and what Jesus says in response to him is absolutely breathtaking. Now I am convinced Nicodemus could have walked into any Southern Baptist church in the convention, and we would have fallen all over ourselves trying to make a good impression and hope he would join.
And yet Jesus takes one look at him and says, “You must be born again!”
Born again.
Does that sound familiar to you? It’s a phrase that’s used a great deal in our day.
A Gallop Poll says that one out every three people in America say they have had an experience which they would describe as being born again.
What do we mean when we talk about being born again? Some think that it means that you just try to do better. That you turn over a new leaf, that you kind of reform yourself just a little. Reformation is not what Jesus is talking about here.
Reformation is putting a new suit on the man. Being born again is getting a new man in the suit. It is something that takes place on the inside that changes the outside.
Other people get the idea that when Jesus talked about being born again He was talking about something like reincarnation. There are some people who believe in reincarnation. They believe that when you die you will come back as an insect or as an animal. If you behave yourself pretty good, in a few thousand years, you might get to come back as another person. Jesus is not talking about some kind of reincarnation, some cycle of life.
Jesus is talking about an experience that makes it possible for you to go to heaven when you die. To be a member of the family of God. And to get a brand new start in your life.
I’m interested in that kind of information. I have a feeling that there are some of you in this service today and if you really could be convinced in this service that you could have a brand new start in life, you would really like to have that experience. That’s what Jesus is talking about as we listen in on this conversation and as He talks about being born again.
In Verse 7 Jesus used that word, MUST. Jesus said, Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Why did Jesus say it is absolutely essential that you be born again?
Let’s take another look at Nicodemus. It’s hard for us to imagine that any man like Nicodemus would need anything. Here’s a man who has it all as far as this world is concerned. Yet to this kind of man the Lord Jesus said, Ye must be born again.
The reasons Jesus said that is because being a high roller is not enough. Mere riches are not the things that really make it possible for you to go to heaven. You may be a very wealthy individual. You may have a six-figure salary. But Jesus said, Ye must be born again. You may live in a house so big you need a golf cart to get around, but Jesus said ye must be born again.
You may buy all of your clothes at exclusive shops and yet Jesus said, Except you are born again
you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. There is a high-rise in hell full of rich sinners who needed to have been born again.
High profile won’t get you to heaven either. Here was a man who was well-known. In fact, I have a feeling that when Bro. Nicodemus showed up at places mothers would point him out and say to their little children, Look there, there’s Bro. Nicodemus.
He’s big time in this town. Celebrity status, political notoriety, whatever it may be. None of it really counts when you come to spiritual matters because Jesus said, Everybody must be born again.
What about his religion? He was a religious man. Won’t that do the job? Won’t that get you to heaven?
Nicodemus had religion and yet he needed to be born again. Many of you have had religion since before you were born. You were privileged to be born into a Christian family that loved and served the Lord. Your family went to church. You were raised in Sunday School as a boy or a girl, your parents had you there every time the door was open. And by the way, if you want to get on my fighting side, then just dare to be critical of your momma and day who loved you enough to make you go to church as a child and teenager.
I get so sick of people hiding behind that to justify not going to church as an adult. You ought to get on your knees and thank God you had parents who cared about your spiritual well-being!
Sorry, no-good thankless ingrates! How dare you be critical of folks who invested in your eternity.
However, just being religious is not enough. You’ve got to come to realize, as Nicodemus did, that religion is not enough. Salvation is not in religion.
There is nothing that will give you a false assurance like religion. Man, I am a Pharisee; I am a ruler of the Jews. I tithe. I know the Scriptures. Nicodemus could have walked into any Southern Baptist church in the convention, and we would fall all over ourselves trying to make a good impression and hope he would join. And yet Jesus takes one look at him and says, “You must be born again!”
Why did Jesus say that? Because you MUST be born again. Except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
The reason is found in Romans 3:22-23.
That verse teaches that all of us are born with a sin nature. Nobody has to teach you to do wrong. You come into the world knowing how to do it. You don’t take your children over to the school house and say, All right teacher, I’ve brought my kid over here, teach them how to tell white lies. Teach them how to lose their temper. We all come into the world knowing how to do wrong. The Bible says we are sinners by nature. The reason we need to be born again, born the second time, is because we were born wrong the first time.
We are sinners by nature. We have a sinful nature. So, Jesus said, Ye must be born again. It’s because of our natural condition.
I think Jesus said you have to be born again because of the nature of heaven. Jesus said if you aren’t born again you can’t even see, much less enter, the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people. You wouldn’t fit if you went to heaven apart from being born again.
You have to have a change in nature. You have to have something happen that makes you heavenly in nature. You can’t get into heaven until first of all heaven has gotten into you. It has to be a change of nature.
One old gal said to her pastor, Preacher, what’s bothering me is when I get to heaven how am I going to get my robe on over my wings?
He looked at her knowing she was a trouble-maker and said, Sister, what’s puzzling me is how are you going to get your hat on over your horns?
You have to have a change of nature. You’ll never see a fish flying in the air. You’ll never see birds swimming in the water. It’s contrary to their nature. You’ll never see a pig lecturing on astronomy. It is contrary to its nature. You will never see a team of monkeys singing the Hallelujah Chorus. It is contrary to their nature.
So, Jesus said, Ye must be born again. It is not optional. It is not a hint. It is not a suggestion. It is an absolute necessity.
Have you been born again? Have you had that experience in your life where you realized you were a sinner and invited Jesus Christ to come into your heart and into your life? By faith have you asked Jesus to come in? If you have the Bible says you have been born again. But if you have not had that experience you have not been born again.
Jesus said, Ye must be born again.
By that time there was a puzzled look on Nicodemus’ face. He was scratching his head. The first word that pops out of his mouth is found in verse 4 where he says to Jesus, How...?
I think he was thrilled at the possibility. I think he realized the need. I think there are many of you and the very thought of a brand new start, the very thought of having a brand new life is appealing to you. But you are now raising the question “HOW?” like Nicodemus did.
How can a man be born when he is old?
Think about
1. The Mystery of It
Nicodemus knows he is in the presence of a mystery. Any time we talk about spiritual things we are in the presence of mystery. Certainly it is mysterious to talk about being born again. We’re talking about eternal things. We’re talking about spiritual things. We’re talking about God things. We’re talking about things that have to do with God and eternal life.
One of the illustrations he uses is that being born again is like a physical birth.
That’s what he’s talking about in verses 5-6 where he says you have to born of water and of the spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh (physical birth) and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (spiritual birth). I think he’s saying that being born again is like a physical birth.
A physical birth produces life. When a little baby is born then life is born.
The Bible says, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. When you come to the Lord and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior you are born again. You receive spiritual life. You are now in the family of God. Birth produces life.
Birth is something that happens only one time.
It is never repeated. Ever so often I talk to someone who tells me how many times they have been saved. They were saved when they were 9 and they were savaed when they were 16 and they were saved when they were 34. . .
That flies in the face of the illustration that Jesus uses. He didn’t say you must be born again and again and again and again. When the census-takers come by your house they don’t say to you, Now how many times have you been born?
Try that when you go to the doctor and fill out there paperwork. They’ll ask “What is your date of birth? Say, “Which time?”
So it is with spiritual birth: Has there been that definite time in your life when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’ve received Jesus Christ as your Savior? It is an experience that happens once and it is never again repeated.
Something else about being born.
When you are born you don’t have any past,
you have only a future.
Isn’t that a wonderful thing! Would you like to be able to have an experience today so that all of your past could be forgiven, never held against you anymore? Wouldn’t you like to have a brand new sheet in the paper of life? Wouldn’t you like to have a brand new start on the race track of life? Wouldn’t you like to have a brand new opportunity up at bat? Wouldn’t you like a beginning again, a brand new start?
Well Jesus said it can happen to you. Just like a birth you can be born and you will have no past--only future.
Something else about birth.
When birth occurs someone has to suffer.
All of us in this building today are here because we had a mother who was willing to suffer. When you were born physically born, your mother walked through the very valley of the shadow of death in order to give you the physical life and the existence which you have right now.
Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary and on that cross Jesus Christ died. When Jesus died and suffered like He did, He was paying the price once for all for our sins that we might be born again. It’s like the birth.
Notice in verse 8 Jesus talks about being born again in terms of the wind blowing.
Now when Jesus brings up the wind, I wouldn’t be surprised if about that time Nicodemus could feel that warm Oriental breeze as it was blowing across his face. He could hear that Jerusalem wind as it was hopping and skipping down through the narrow streets of Jerusalem.
It’s as if Jesus, in verse 8 said, Nicodemus, do you hear that wind blowing? Do you feel that breeze on your cheeks? Being born again is just like that wind.
There’s a mystery to the wind. We don’t understand a lot about it. We have meteorologists, weather people, who try to help us a little. Did you hear about the weather man, by the way? He left town for health reasons. The weather didn’t agree with him. There are a lot of guys like that. They do their best, but it’s hard to predict the wind.
But Jesus said that is exactly what it means to be born again. It is like the breeze. You can’t see the breeze. You can’t tie a rope to the breeze. You can’t catch the breeze in a basket. You can’t lock up the breeze in a cell. But you can see the effects and the results of the breeze. When a storm blows through and trees are uprooted and signs are torn down and cars are toppled, you can see the powerful effects of the wind.
That is exactly the way it is with being born again. When a person is born again you see the change in their life. It starts on the inside, but it gets to the outside.
This being born again can take all the hate out of your heart and put love there. It can take all of their arrogance and haughtiness out of your heart and put humility there. It can take all of that lying out of your heart and put truth there. It can fill that empty hole in your heart. It can take the hurt out of your heart. It’s a mystery, but it’s something God does in your heart and in your life. Don’t let the mystery of it cause you to miss it.
I don’t understand electricity. I don’t know how it is that through an electrical current, through wires, electricity comes into this building and causes these lights to illuminate as they do. I know what the theories are, but we don’t understand electricity.
We don’t know why it goes this way in the wire instead of that way. But like Vance Havner said, I don’t understand electricity but I don’t intend to sit around in the dark until I do.
I believe in electricity.
I don’t understand how it is that a brown cow can eat green grass and produce yellow butter and white milk, but I like butter and I drink milk. Just because you can’t understand it doesn’t mean it is not real. You don’t have to understand it in order to experience it and to enjoy it.
The mystery of it.
II. The MEANS of it.
By this time, Nicodemus is really interested. In fact, he is so interested in verse 9 he asks the second time--how. How can these things be? He is wanting to know how can this happen to me? How can I have a brand new start? How can this experience be mine?
Jesus begins to tell him about the means of it. How a person can be born again.
verse 13-14
Notice that word, MUST, again. He used the word must to Nicodemus. Ye must be born again. Now he says that the Son of man MUST be lifted up. He is saying in order for you and me to be born again there is something I have to do. You know what that is, don’t you?
Jesus had to be lifted up on that cross. When Jesus was lifted up on that cross, the Bible says, The Lord laid on Him all the iniquity of all of us. The Bible says, In that moment God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. Jesus has already done His part. He has already died for all of your sin. Every bad thing you’ve ever done, every ugly word you’ve ever said, every evil thought you’ve ever had, every bad thing you’ve ever done or ever will do, Jesus died for all of that on the cross of Calvary. That’s His part.
Now, he talks about your part. He says in verse 15, Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus is saying, I have done my part, now your part is just simply to believe in Him, believe in the Savior, and you will not perish but you will have eternal life. It’s just as simple as taking a gift.
Ty Cobb played 3,033 baseball games. He had a lifetime batting average of 367. Not bad! Ty Cobb came down to the end of life and didn’t know Christ as his Savior. One day a preacher came to see him and witnessed to him. He told him about the Lord and how he could be saved.
Ty Cobb looked at the preacher and said, Preacher, are you telling me that a death-bed repentance can do away with a whole lifetime of sin?
The preacher said, No. But I’m telling you that the blood of Jesus can. Ty Cobb received Jesus as his Savior. As the preacher left that day he called after the preacher and said, Preacher, tell all my friends I’m sorry I did this in the bottom of the 9th.
I should have done it in the top of the 1st.
Some of you here this morning and your heart is beating a funeral march to the grave. In fact, the truth of the matter is that all of our hearts are beating a funeral march to the grave. I’m not much of a mathematician so you mathematicians can correct me after the service.
I got to thinking if your heart beat an average of 50 beats per minute. You would be in pretty good shape if it did that. If your heart beat 50 times per minute for 50 years, I think I’m correct in saying that your heart would beat over 13 billion times.
Have you ever thought about how often your heart beats? It beats and beats and beats. Over 13 billion times. It’s beating and beating and beating. That heart of yours is moving forward. It’s moving you rapidly toward the future. One of these days it will be the last time. All that will matter then is -- have you been born again? What did you do with Jesus?
