Readings: Psalm 121, Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, John 3:1-17.
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on March 5, 2023
I am not a great fan of the sort of Christianity that turns religion into an isolated decision to follow Jesus Christ. I'm not the sort of preacher who punctuates every sermon with invitations for "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved." I consciously try not to manipulate people’s guilt or emotions so as they make a misguided decision to be a disciple of Jesus.
I well remember the lady who told me that she had been saved by Billy Graham five times and she couldn't wait for him to come and preach again so she could go down to the front and be saved once more. I believe that discipleship isn’t that easy or that shallow.
My personal reservations aside, (and being a white, approaching retirement, middle class British male, I probably have more personal reservations than many) certain texts of Scripture do call us to ask the most direct, searching, and personal questions about our faith and our salvation. John Chapter Three is one of those passages.
In this passage Jesus tells us that unless we are born again, (or born from above) we shall not see the Kingdom of God. That unless we are born of water and Spirit, we shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Spiritual birth is related to both seeing and entering the things of God. We are given some of the most well-known words of Scripture in John 3, verses16 and 17; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
These passages compel us to ask the question, "Are we saved?” Do we know the experience of being born again, or as it can also be translated being born "from above"? Have we considered the alternatives that Jesus offers? We are asked to make a choice between eternity or perishing, salvation or judgment, light or darkness, earthly things, or heavenly things, to believe or not to believe in the saving work, the name and the person and the witness of Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere we are told that it is by faith that we are saved, and by implication, that where there is no faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Our Old Testament passage gave us the account of Abraham's calling and setting out on his journey of faith.
Abraham’s experience was one of new birth. At birth we are born into a family, a nation, and a certain heritage. Abraham is called, by the Spirit of God, to leave behind his family ties, his ties of nationality and his heritage. Those things that were naturally his by birth. He is called by faith to abandon and spiritually lay claim to a new family, a new country, a new life, a new hope, a new vision of who he was, how he related to God and all that was in the world around him.
Through the waters of birth, he was born into an earthly heritage. Through the Spirit of God, he is born again, born from above, to a different way of being. Just as Jesus called Nicodemus to embrace a new way of life, a way not envisioned by the natural inclinations of man but by the vision of God, so Abraham was called. We also are called to be born afresh, to embark on a new journey, to leave the old behind and be part of something new.
For Nicodemus it was not going to be easy. He had intellectual difficulties to work through. He had pictures in his mind of what birth was about and what religion was about and how a person should serve God and who Jesus was and what life was all about. He had thought deeply about these things. He was a man with an education, a teacher of Israel, a judge, a ruler among his people. He had his social position and political position to consider. He had economic and religious commitments to consider.
Then again, it wasn't easy for Abraham. He also was a man tied to his tradition and his position. He had commitments to things that made it hard to say "Yes" to God. How could God bless him as being the Father of a new nation when he had no child, and his wife was barren? How could he leave behind his established way and venture into the unknown for places he knew not where? You’re born, you make a life for yourself, you have responsibilities, you’re settled, things are good... who wants to be born again and have to face all that over again?
Abraham’s journey turned out to be, not one isolated decision, but a continuous coming to terms with all that God was calling him to be. Wrestling with tough decisions, being prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, conflicts with family and neighbors, mistakes, and misunderstandings, all this and so much more.
About Nicodemus we know less, but at the end of John's gospel he is one of those who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, comes to prepare the broken body of Jesus for burial, bringing spices and myrrh and laying His body in the tomb. Nicodemus, in time, came to believe enough in Jesus, to sacrifice all that he was, in order that his life may bring honor to that of Christ's.
So, what of ourselves? Are we on that journey? The born from above, re-birthed journey? The salvation journey? Every journey must have a point of departure. Earthly life begins as we depart from the waters of the womb and start to breathe the air and relate to the world around us. Until that point, we are an embryo, a human in the making, an unborn child.
Likewise spiritual life must have a point of departure. For Abraham it was a movement out from all that he held dear, to embrace a vision that he couldn’t precisely define. For Nicodemus it was having to choose between all that his life had so far taught him and to embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ.
That process of moving from a position of unbelief to a position of faith is what Jesus describes as being born from above or being born again. It is seen as a different kind of birthing to human birth because it is a response to the work of God’s Spirit upon a person’s life. It is a super-natural thing, dependent upon the initiative of God.
In Matthew’s gospel (16:17) when Peter came to make his confession of Jesus as being the Son of God, Jesus praises him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Simon Peter is praised for showing evidence of spiritual rebirth by testifying to those things God was revealing in his heart.
Spiritual rebirth can take place as we draw near to Jesus. It takes place as we hear His words and act upon them. It takes place as we pray and open our hearts to God’s influence. It takes place as we eek to serve others in Chris's name. It means asking Jesus to be at our center, not as a one off and once for all decision, (although that may well be our point of departure) but constantly seeking for His love to be at the heart of all things in our lives.
From my standpoint, which admittedly is extremely biased for I am after all a Presbyterian minister, I can only see what you can gain by committing your life to Jesus Christ. It is a marvelous thing to have the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It is such freedom to not have to live with the guilt of past mistakes and daily lapses into sinfulness, because Christ died for our sins.
It is a liberating thing to know that my life and my death are in God’s hands. Whilst I don’t always understand and often become frustrated with God for the injustices, the personal failures, the annoying things, the things I don’t understand, it is like a rock below the surface to know that despite my questions there is a God who knows all, sees all, and loves us despite it all.
At times I do become pessimistic, when I think of the state of the world, and all the stuff that’s wrong with it, but at other times I get excited at the prospect of the world as it shall be and what Scripture calls the hope of Glory. I don’t have all the answers and a lot of the time don’t even ask the right questions, but God lets me in on all that I need to know, so even my ignorance is something God is working on.
I’ve heard people say sometimes, “Well, I would be a Christian, but I can’t take all that giving up stuff... all those dos and don’ts are just so repressive.” Personally, I don’t have a problem with giving up death, which is where my life would be heading without Christ. I don’t have a problem with giving up on doing stuff that is ultimately life cheapening or addictive or sometimes just plain stupid.
May God forgive us for at times portraying God as somehow being the invisible policeman, the great Mr. Kill-Joy in the sky. The prohibitions that Scripture presents us aren’t for any kind of sadistic divine pleasure. They are there because we are fallible, unpredictable and certainly misguided creatures, with a tendency to make bad choices and wrong decisions. Christ came that we may have life.... so, we can really live!
I can guarantee you that as you draw near to God, God won’t force you into giving up or taking up anything that’s against your will. God's Spirit will work on you and change you. Things you once thought really mattered will become of minor importance. Relationships will form with the most unlikely of people and situations. Life won’t be the same... but who wants more and more and more and more of the same?
A text like John 3:16 invites a response. If we don’t see that, we are not paying attention.
Because I know in my own life, I had been attending church for a while before I made that decisive step of commitment and surrender. But once I had, it opened to me a whole new world. I knew that God was with me. I knew that my sins were forgiven. I had a new purpose, a new way of looking at the world and the people around me. It was like being born again.
Worship became not a duty, but a natural response to what was being revealed about God’s love. The words of scripture started to become stories that resonated with my life and were filled with deep meaning. Prayer became, not an exercise in trying to get God to do things my way, but seeking to align my life with the things God was already doing. The influence of God’s Holy Spirit was tangible, real, and all around. It truly felt like something that was being born in me from above.
Maybe you have had similar experiences, but have now become bogged down, like the good seed that fell among the weeds. I have experienced that as well. There was a definite departure point, yet sometimes I have lost my way and times of re-commitment have been required. ‘Milestones on the journey’ I like to call them. There were days when it all seemed so clear, but others when I have not been so sure. And if that’s where any of us are right now today, around this communion table, would be a good time for renewing our commitment.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Why not join me in this commitment prayer.
“Lord Jesus Christ I ask you to come afresh into my heart this day.
Forgive me and renew me, that I may know Your salvation,
To the Glory of God. AMEN!”
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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