John 3: 1-15

Theme: Regeneration

WE NEED TO BE CHANGED

Though, I have only seen a few episodes, apparently The Simpson’s is a hot TV show. In the Simpson’s episode called "Homer the Heretic," Homer decides he's not going to church, so he stays home. God comes down, lifts the roof of Homer's house and sits down to have a conversation with him. Homer says to God, "I'm not a bad guy. I work hard and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to hell?"

"Hmmm, you've got a point there," God replies. "You know, sometimes even I'd rather be watching football. Does St. Louis still have a team?" (Homer informs God they moved to Phoenix.) Later in the show, Homer concludes, "So I figure I should try to live right and worship you in my own way." And God agrees. (Christianity Today, Feb. 1, 2001, 37)

Homer’s attitude toward God is so much in tune with what most Americans think that it is scary. We have succeeded in creating a new religion based on our own egocentrism. According to the George Barna, 56% of Americans say a good person can earn their way into Heaven and a third of Evangelicals agree with that sentiment! Many believe that we can approach God any way we like and God should be happy with it. We can be good enough for God, so he has to accept us into his family. Why, we are even as smart as God. Salvation is ours for the making and we can make it any old way we want.

How different our world view is from Scripture. In the Bible, God is not nearly so dopy and easy going and accepting. And man is not nearly so good and smart and sassy. We have lost a sense of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. In Scripture, man needs to be radically redeemed because he is helplessly lost. We need to be born again. The theological term for this is regeneration. Even good men like Nicodemus need to be born again.

We don't know too much about Nicodemus. Scripture tells us enough about him to let us know that he was a prominent man, a man of some power and position. He is said to be a Pharisee.

In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees would have found this new teacher interesting because he taught many things that they believed. Jesus spoke of spirits and angels, he spoke of the resurrection and the coming Messiah. The Pharisees believed all of these things. So they loved to ask Him questions. But they quickly became disillusioned with Jesus because he saw through their thin veil of self righteousness. And self righteousness certainly will not save you! Jesus told the multitudes that unless their righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees they would not see the kingdom of God. That hurt; there was no one more righteous that a Pharisee and Jesus placed them in the same category as the common people. They grew to dislike Jesus.

Nicodemus was also a ruler of the Jews. This meant that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews. He was probably a wealthy man, not just anyone could be a member of the Sanhedrin. He is also called a teacher. As a teacher of the Law, Nicodemus was an expert on how the Jewish people were to live and worship and work and play.

Yet, when it came to certainties of the faith, Nicodemus was no better off than the lowest member of his synagogue. He knew that something was missing from his faith. For all of his trying and all of his good works and all of his righteousness, he was empty.

Nicodemus took a great risk by coming to see Jesus. Engaging in a religious conversation with any unauthorized rabbi was not good for his reputation, but Jesus was even worse. Recently, Jesus had cleansed the temple of the money changers and the sellers of oxen and sheep and doves. They had turned the outer courts of the temple into a carnival like atmosphere and they had a racket going. They would not accept a roman coin for the temple tax, so you had to exchange it at the moneychanger's table and it was exchanged for a price. Also they would not accept your animal for sacrifice so they required you to buy their animal, and at a steep price. It enraged Jesus and he cleansed the temple of them. Unfortunately, these were Sanhedrin activities and Jesus offended many powerful leaders of Israel.

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, under the cover of darkness. John wants us to understand that Nicodemus was not only in the darkness of the night, he was in the darkness of his soul. Yet, he was strangely attracted to Jesus. He believed that Jesus might have the answers to the emptiness that he felt. So he came to Jesus and called him rabbi and was respectful to him. Then he blurted out his hopes; "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 does not engage him in small talk, it is like he can read his mind or knows the longing of his heart. 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 was an honest man and he knew that he was not what we call saved. In spite of his training and his position and his wealth and blessings, Nicodemus was not a part of God's kingdom.

Some of you are sitting here today under the same conditions. You feel blessed. You participate in church life, you may even have people fooled, but inside, you know that you do not have a relationship with God. You know that if you were to die right now there is no way God would allow you into his heaven. I hope that, like Nicodemus, the compass of your heart has pointed you in the direction of Jesus and that today you will respond to His call.

Nicodemus was puzzled by the words of Jesus. How can a man be born again? Can he enter his mother's womb and be born again? Yet, when he asked that question, I think that perhaps his answer had a tinge of wistful sadness in his voice. Who would not like to start all over, who would not like to have a chance at a new life and not commit the same mistakes, fall prey to the same traps, a chance not to commit the same sins?

Jesus cleared it up for his somewhat. He said that unless a person is born both of water and of spirit, one cannot see the kingdom of heaven. "No Nicodemus, you can't return to your mother and be born again, you have to be born twice." The idea of water has to do with his physical birth. You must be born both physically and spiritually.

But, Nicodemus did not understand. The word for born in the Greek is from the word gennao and it means to "be begotten." Literally, one is "fathered." John often uses words that have two means. The word anothen can mean either "born from above" or "again." In fact, Jesus probably meant both here. So, Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, you must be fathered from above and you must be fathered again. Can you see why Nicodemus was frustrated, even confused? How could he be fathered again, what does it mean to be fathered from above? How could this be done? To be fathered has nothing to do with us, it is out of our control. Someone fathers us, someone births us, we cannot do it ourselves. In the context of a do-it-yourself religion, this is hard to swallow. It means, does it not, that God has to do something to us? And by nature, anti-spiritual people hate God and do not want Him anywhere near them. We might need to be tweaked and tuned up a bit, but surely we don’t need to be fathered from above!

We need a radical make over, we must be born again. How are we born again? By Faith! We are called to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Nicodemus did not fully understand what Jesus was saying because he had not yet experienced the cross. You and I live after the resurrection. We know that Jesus lived and died and rose again. And because He died for us, our sins are forgiven and because he rose from the grave we have the promise of eternal life that we too will be raised up and will live with him forever.

This morning, some of you have not placed your faith in Him. You know that your soul is full of rot and decay and death and that you haven't a stitch of eternal life in you. You are not being called to traditional values or a set of principles to guide your life. You are being called by God to be regenerated, to be changed, to be born again.

We have all been born, we had no choice about that. And the only way we can be born again is for God to birth us. All we can do is respond to Him by faith. Do you need to be changed? Won't you say the yes of faith?