John 3:1-8: How Many Birthdays Do You Need?

INTRODUCTION

When I was a child I remember that some of the families we knew had a second verse to the Happy Birthday song. It went like this:

Happy birthday to you;

Only one will not do.

Born again means salvation;

How many have you?

Have you ever been asked, “Have you been born again?”

In many churches the term “born again” is used sparingly.

But in other circles, such as the one I grew up in, preachers very often preached the gospel in terms of being “born again.” I think that some of our preachers didn’t know how to talk about salvation in any other terms.

But some people are disturbed by the question: “Have you been born again?” It creeps them out.

One of my friends has a stock answer to that question. She says, “No, I did it right the first time.” But she doesn’t understand what “born again” means.

Actually, the phrase only occurs a handful of times in the Bible. St. Paul never uses the words in any of his letters, and they never occur in the book of Acts or the first three gospels.

St. Peter mentions the term “born anew” in his first letter, and St. John uses the term “born of God” in his first letter.

But the preachers of my youth would always go to John 3—the story of Jesus and Nicodemus—and preach on the verse 3: “You must be born again!”

I want today to talk about that story and explain what that phrase—“born again”—means—and doesn’t mean.

The story begins this way: “Now 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”

I. First of all, let’s go in our imaginations to that scene John describes.

A. Nicodemus was not typical of people who are attracted to Jesus. Nicodemus was an important man, an educated man, a ruler in Israel. He was a Pharisee, and we often read in the gospels of the hostility of the Pharisees to Jesus.

But Nicodemus wasn’t a typical Pharisee. Nicodemus was impressed with Jesus’s miracles and with Jesus’s teaching, and he wanted to know more.

So he came one night for a visit, and Jesus welcomed him.

Many preachers, when they preach about this story, will tell you that Nicodemus came by night because he was afraid for his reputation if he was seen with Jesus. So he came after dark, secretly, so that he wouldn’t be criticized. But from the other things we read about Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, we know that Nicodemus wasn’t a coward.

I think Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because in the daytime, Jesus was typically surrounded by crowds. He came after dark because he wanted to have serious conversation with the Lord Jesus.

Artists picture this scene in various ways. Some picture the two sitting among the olive trees in a garden at night. Others picture the two sitting in a dimly-lit room.

But the picture that I like best shows the two sitting on the low wall that ran around the roof of the house where Jesus was staying. The two men are sitting there, under the stars, deep in conversation.

A typical house of the time had a flat roof with a low wall around it. People often went up to the roof to sleep on hot evenings. An outside stairway led up to the roof. Often a guest room—called an aliyah—was up there on the roof.

Perhaps Jesus was staying in the guest room and studying or praying when Nicodemus arrived. Nicodemus could have come up the stairs to the roof without disturbing the family sleeping below in the house.

B. Nicodemus began his interview with a compliment: “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’s answer seems rude. He replies to Nicodemus’s greeting with: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now that rejoinder puzzled me. It seems ungracious for Jesus to judge Nicodemus so quickly as one who will not see—that is, will not experience—the kingdom of God.

The fondest hope of a devout Jew like Nicodemus was to see to be alive to welcome the Kingdom of God.

I think that probably this conversation lasted for some time. The short sketch included in John just hits the highlights of the conversation.

I think that leading up to Jesus’s remark being born again was a lengthy conversation about the kingdom of God. And as the two talked about the coming Kingdom of God, Jesus realized that Nicodemus didn’t realize that he wasn’t ready to enter that Kingdom.

C. So Jesus used this startling metaphor about being “born again.” Actually, the word means literally “born from above.” Jesus no doubt was thinking of both meanings—born again and born from above.

But Nicodemus was puzzled. He didn’t realize that Jesus was speaking symbolically—or as we say “metaphorically.” And he took it literally, and he said, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

I suspect that it took some time for Jesus to explain to Nicodemus what he meant, and John gives us just a sketch of Jesus’s remarks, which included this:

“Truly, truly 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.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit” (vv5-8).

II. Now let’s look at how the idea of a new birth occurs elsewhere in the New Testament.

A. In the first chapter, John writes that Jesus came to his own people, the Jews, but they did not—as a nation—receive him. “But,” he writes, “those who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Here John is contrasting natural birth with a new kind of life, given by God.

In John’s first letter—near the end of your Bible—John writes this: “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him” (2:29), and “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (4:7), and again, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God (5:1).

Peter also uses the idea in the first chapter of his letter. He writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (verse 3), and, “You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God” (v23).

B. St. Paul uses different language to express the idea of the new life that God gives to the believer in Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul writes, “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

In Ephesians, Paul writes that by nature we were dead to God, but by faith in Christ, we have been raised with him to share the life of God. He writes, “You he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. …But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (2.1, 4-5).

And in Colossians 3, Paul writes, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (verses 1 and 3).

So Paul expresses the same idea of new life in Christ but uses different words.

C. So you see, “born again” is not a formula, or some kind of hoop one must jump through to become a child of God It is simply a picturesque way of expressing the idea that when a sinner invites Christ into his or her life, it is a radical change in the believer’s character, like having a new life, or being born again.

Jesus told Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (verse 8).

Maybe as Jesus and Nicodemus conversed outdoors under the stars, a breeze came up which gave Jesus a way of illustrating the spiritual awakening that occurs when the Holy Spirit of God enters into or lives.

The Spirit gives us a new way a new way of thinking. Like the wind, which comes from we know not where, what has happened to us when we meet Jesus seems mysterious and unexplainable—we can’t see it; we can’t touch it, but it is real and life changing—like being “born again.”

III. Now I want to talk about what “born again” doesn’t mean.

A. It doesn’t mean that if you haven’t had an earth-shaking experience that happened on a certain day and in a certain hour, you are not a child of God. And it doesn’t mean that if you haven't got a story about how you “got saved,” you are on your way to hell.

Some people have wonderful stories. But most of us don’t. We came to understanding gradually, often as children. But even as adults, sometimes God works slowly, and we gradually come to the realization of what it means to have Jesus in our lives.

Some people pass through a period of doubt—a lack of assurance—they want to believe but aren’t sure their faith is good enough.

One way to determine the reality of faith in your life is to look at the change Jesus is making in you. We are not saved by our good works, but real faith makes a difference in our lives.

If your faith is real, you may not feel much different, but you will notice that you are becoming more generous, less critical of others, more forgiving, more serious about your faith. You will be looking for ways to serve others.

You will probably feel a peace and joy and contentment in your heart. You will not be so afraid to think about death, because you can believe that death is the doorway to wonderful eternal life with Jesus and all God’s family, and with the saints and angels.

CONCLUSION

I have known people who had such an earth-shaking experience of meeting Jesus that they are eager to tell you how they were “born again.”

I remember my cousin Duncan. He was the genius of the family. When he met Jesus he was such a changed person that one friend who had known him before and after said, “If the new Duncan wasn’t wearing the same skin as the old Duncan, I wouldn’t have known he was the same person.”

I think of Linda, who worked with us at the mental hospital. After Linda met Jesus one of her friends said, “Linda’s changed so much, it’s scary!”

I think of my friend Jim, who I met when he was an inmate in the state prison in Mt. Pleasant. Jim was a hard-core, violent criminal, in his thirties, who was serving his ninth sentence. You wouldn’t have wanted to know Jim in his unregenerate state. He was outstandingly wicked. But while in prison Jim had met Jesus and he was a transformed man. He was mellow. The counselors loved to have him in their classes because he was so helpful and such a good example to the other inmates.

Jim has been out of prison now for more than 30 years and he has been a faithful husband and father. He has been active in his union, in his neighborhood association, and in his church. For years he conducted weekly Bible studies in a prison—separate sessions for men and women. He and his wife have given hospitality to released offenders who needed a place to stay while they got on their feet.

Jim has no doubt in his mind about at what day and hour he gave himself to Jesus and was born again.

I don’t have a salvation story, but I don’t need one. I didn’t see the sun rise this morning, but I know it is up there.

Jesus said that those who believe in Jesus have “passed from death into life” (John 5:24). The natural state of humankind is to be spiritually dead, but when Christ comes into a life we are alive with the life of God. That’s what Jesus meant when he told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”

So if you love Jesus, and you are living your life for him, and someone asks you if you have been born again, say, “Yes indeed, I have been born again. I belong to Jesus. He’s my Savior and Lord.”

One of the best definitions of a Christian is a person who has met God in Jesus Christ and is trusting him as Savior and obeying him as Lord.