Good Morning Family!
Let begin our worship in prayer
Heavenly Father,
In a world of busyness and distraction
Open our eyes to beauty that surrounds us.
Tune our ears to harmony of Your creation.
Let us pause, to enjoy the fragrance of Your love
permeating every moment.
The gentle touch of Your hand
guiding all we do.
Tasting the delight of Your Holy presence
in the sweet ripeness of joy.
Thank You Father for all You have already done
that which You are working out
And that which will be done in faith believing.
In Jesus' name
Amen
Today's message is called You Must Be Born Again.
How important is it that we be born again?
I've heard some say, "I do to church, I read my Bible..I tithe. I'm good to go!"
Many today have the same attitude about marriage,
"I've got my partner, we got some kids, a house.. we don't need a piece of paper.
We're good!"
Let's turn to the Scriptures...
"There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’"
John 3:1-7
As we begin to read this scripture we immediately discover a man by the name of Nicodemus.
Nicodemus us a ruler of the Jewish nation.
In fact, we understand that he is in fact a Pharisees.
The name Pharisee in its Hebrew form means separatists, or the separated ones.
They were also known as Chasidim, which means loyal to God, or loved of God –
This
is extremely ironic in view of the fact that by His time, they made
themselves the most bitter, and deadly, opponents of Jesus Christ and
His message.
Perhaps the Pharisees meant to obey God, but eventually they became so devoted and extremist in very limited
parts of The Law, plus all that they themselves added to it, that they
became blind to The Messiah when He was in their very midst.
They saw His miracles, they heard His Words, but instead of receiving it with joy, they did all that they could to stop Him
Eventually to the point of getting Him killed.
Jesus Christ had strong words about the Pharisees…
These Pharisees thought that by observing the law of the Old Testament that they could somehow earn their way into Heaven.
They thought that by living and observing a lifestyle of religious laws and rules, they could make their way into Heaven.
They thought their righteousness would cause them to be saved.
They thought their goodness would be good enough.
These
Pharisees were one of three sects of the three major religious societies of
Judaism at the time of the New Testament
The Pharisees, the Sadducees,
and the Essenes.
The Pharisees were often the most vocal and influential.
I have found that self-righteous people usually are the most vocal.
These Pharisees had a very limited view of God.
They had a very limited view of Heaven.
They thought it was all as simple as doing the right things to get God’s favor.
They thought it was all about acting the right way in order to get into Heaven.
Somehow you could EARN your way into this thing called the Kingdom Of God.
Somehow
your righteousness could get you enough points that eventually
If You
Were Good Enough & Did The Right Things, you could go to Heaven.
That’s what the Pharisees thought in that day.
And not much has changed today has it...
that’s what Pharisees of today still think!
These Pharisees were a religious sect of the Jewish order in the day
of Jesus, but you don’t find many people today professing to be a
Pharisee.
But it amazes me that although one would never
call themselves a Pharisee, yet, so many still have this kind of understanding
concerning the Kingdom of God.
There are many people today who believe that they can earn their way into heaven by doing good deeds.
There are many people today who believe that if they follow some strict list of do’s and don’ts that they will be saved.
Even some very
religious people.
Even Church people.
Even Christian people too often
believe that they can or have to somehow earn their way into heaven.
But you and I must understand something....
You and I must understand what Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand and that is this:
Our righteous, no matter how good it is, is never going to be good enough to get us into Heaven.
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:20
Now let me just explain something.
The Pharisees had it all down to a science.
They had everything all figured out.
They had every single one of the Ten Commandments so defined that it actually became millions of little do’s and dont's.
One of the Ten Commandments said that you could not work on the Sabbath day.
But that was not good enough for these, hair splitting Pharisees, so they had to define what Work meant.
So
one of the Definitions of Work on the Sabbath day was defined to mean
that they could not lift anything any heavier than a dried fig on the
Sabbath day for to lift anything any heavier than a dried fig was to
break the law and disobey one of the Ten Commandments.
Another
of their definitions of Work was Healing. Jesus healed on the Sabbath
day which caused an uproar among these religious Pharisees.
And if you disobeyed any of the 10 commandments, you were not saved so to speak.
So these Pharisees, lived by these religious rule sets.
And they believed that by strictly living by these that they would be saved.
And Nicodemus is a ruler of these people.
He’s one of their preachers.
He’s the guy going around and telling other people how they should live in order to get to heaven.
He’s the one reading off the rules.
He’s the one with a pointed finger whenever someone gets off track.
He’s the one with the ruler and the gauge deciding who is living right and who is living wrong.
And here comes Jesus and He cuts right to the chase!
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’"
John 3:5-7
Nicodemus is going on and on about the miracles.
“No one could do these accept God was with Him.”
Boy, you’re a great preacher.
Man what a church this is.
Wow what a fantastic service.
What a choir that church has.
What an amazing this, what an amazing that.
But Jesus doesn’t hear any of the accolades.
He’s got a message for Nicodemus and He’s hoping that he will take it to the rest of the Pharisees.
And
it’s recorded here in the book of John so that anyone coming along
after Nicodemus who thought that their good deeds or religious living
could get them into Heaven could hear the rebuke and correction of
Jesus…
"You must be born again"
It’s got nothing to do with your position in life.
It's got nothing to do with if I just do everything just right.
It’s got nothing to do with your own righteousness.
But it has everything to do with the Redemptive Power of God.
It has everything to do with being Born Again.
It has everything to do with Jesus!
It has everything to do with His ability to save us when there is no way we can save ourselves!
Here’s the mistake so many people make.
They think they can save themselves.
They think they can Earn God’s favor. WRONG!
"They have all turned aside,
They have together become corrupt;
There is none who does good,
No, not one."
Psalm 14:3
"All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive."
Psalm 22:29
You and I can ever get is never going to be good enough to get us to Heaven…
We need a Savior.
We need Jesus.
And according to Him, we need to be born again.
So many people think they can do it on their own.
So many people think they can do it their own way.
There is but one way to heaven.. Jesus Christ!
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:6
I've heard some claim, “There are many roads that lead to God.”
Oh Really, is that right?
Because I hear Jesus saying in the book of John here, “You Must Be Born Again”!
Ephesians 4:5 Tells us there is "One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
And that baptism is the same baptism that Jesus was referring to when he told Nicodemus in John 3 verse 5
We're living in a culture of people, who think they have a "right" to make their own decisions
They can "choose" their own destiny..
Well, I suppose to some extent, they're right...
But there are only two destination options are Heaven or Hell
"having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever"
1 Peter 1:23
The natural man was born unto sin.
But our spirit man needs to be born unto the Spirit of God.
Nicodemus asked Jesus: …"How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"
Now this did not make any sense to Nicodemus at all…
Can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born?
Now, I
don’t know if Nicodemus is being sarcastic or if he was,
but if you
don’t understand what the scriptures say, this sounds like a perfectly logical question.
What do you mean “I have to be Born Again”?
How in the world does that happen.
Jesus answered that question for Nicodemus and he answered it for us here today…
Verse 5 Jesus
answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God"
So here Jesus give us the process necessary for an individual to be born again.
By Water, or what we know as Baptism.
By the Holy Spirit infilling.
Did anyone notice capitalization on Spirit in verse 5?
In Closing...
Some may say, this just doesn’t make sense to me at all…
Read verses six and seven again...
How can baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit into my life cause me to be Born Again?
First: you have to understand that what I am teaching to you today is not of this world.
I’m teaching you something that is a Spiritual requisite of God.
We are not talking about a Physical birth here… We are talking about a Spiritual Re-birth!
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Acts 2:36-37
This Holy Spirit infilling is what Jesus was talking about when He said a person had to be born of the Spirit.
To be Spiritually Born Again is the greatest Privilege God has given any human being.
What an amazing opportunity that you and I have today!
All of our past erased.
All of our sins washed away in Baptism.
All of the stuff that we’ve ever done wrong, never to be brought up before God again.
How many of you can say you have ever experienced that kind of forgiveness before?
A few of you..
Now, how many of you have extended that kind of forgiveness to others?
One or two..
Did you hear the part where it is never brought up again?
Let me ask again...
Now, how many of you have extended that kind of forgiveness to others?
No one.. that's because we have trouble, with that issue..
We want that kind of forgiveness, but we don't often give it in return, do we?
When something happens, that brings us to recall a memory, we quickly revert back to how we felt, what someone did to us.. that caused us to hurt, become angry.
Church, if we are still doing that, we have not truly forgiven them!!
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Matthew 6:14-15
To be Born Again is to have a fresh start Spiritually.
To be Born Again is to have the Do-Over of all Do-Overs
To be Born Again is God’s way of providing an opportunity for each of us to have the opportunity to make it to Heaven.
But "You must be born again"
If you haven't yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior,
there is a burden on my heart, to extend His invitation to you today. To encourage you to not waste another day, while we are still able to do so..
Some of you may be saying to yourselves,
"He could never forgive the things I have done. You just don't know all I've done!"
But I am here to tell you, you can never have fallen too far, that He won't receive you, if you'll just ask Him.
Won't you consider it today, now?
I thank God every day, for the forgiveness I have received through Jesus Christ. It is by far, the single best decision
I have ever made in my life..
Now only will I rejoice in your salvation, but you will also cause a celebration and rejoicing in heaven...
"And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."
Luke 15:6-7
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries