My key verse:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. – John 3:3 KJV
Introduction
On this, my birthday, I want to talk about being born again. We, as Christians, will proudly and quickly tell anybody that listens that we are baptized and born again! Most people are familiar with baptism, but not all people have an understanding of what it means to be born again. There are many of us, as well, that say the rhetoric of being a born again believer, but we do not understand what it means to be born again escapes us. So I want to focus on what it means to be born again.
The first birth
Jesus told Nicodemus, the Pharisee, for one to see the kingdom of God he would need to be born again – this baffled the Pharisee. Nicodemus responded to Jesus by asking Jesus a couple of questions: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus being a Pharisee was a man that was likely in study; he was an intelligent man that was completely baffled with Jesus’ answer because Nicodemus only understood the world’s knowledge about birth.
You see, the world’s knowledge of birth is limited only by what we see and understand. Birth is essentially the same among most life forms on this world. The male and female comes together. The fetus, the child, is then conceived in the mother’s womb. After months of carrying the child, the child is then born into this world – a new creature enters into this world.
We are very resilient creatures aren’t we? Women being able to carry a child for over nine months; the child being able to get nourishment while being carried around in the mother’s womb; the child is then been into this world, learns, and grows to be an adult; we learn to live with disabilities and handicaps; we grow to have lots of talents and skills: writing, music, athletic ability, and art. We are resilient and also very smart! We have the ability to gain wealth and even build up businesses and empires – again resilient and smart. However, none of these things, no matter how resilient and intelligent we are can get us to see the kingdom of God. Jesus tells us that we must be born again! Flesh and blood cannot enter nor inherit the kingdom of God!
The second birth – the new creature
It takes a new creature, one that’s been born again, to enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus says (John 3:5), when talking about seeing the kingdom of God, “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.” In the following verse (John 3:6), “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” To be born again means to be born of the Spirit – it is a spiritual birth, not a birth of the flesh! Nicodemus wanted to know what it meant to be born again, and now we know the answer to that question – being born of the Spirit!
The new creature, being of the Spirit, should grow and mature in the Spirit. As a child must learn how to crawl, how to walk, how to eat, the born again believer must learn also how to walk and what to eat. As a child must be taught life lessons by their parents, and then go to school to be educated, the born again believer must also takes steps to grow and mature in the Spirit! The born again believer cannot remain an infant! How does this happen?
For the born again believer to grow and mature, they must learn to put off that old man – the older self. The born again believer must move away from those old ways – I hope you’re understanding this. You see, that new creature, that new being now has new needs that cannot be satisfied by those old ways – ways of the flesh! Paul says (Romans 12:2), that the new creature has been transformed by the renewing of the mind.
When you are born again: your mind has been transformed from the old ways; your mind has been transformed into a new mind that is above old man’s ways! You see, being a born again believer should lead one to focusing on this of the Spirit because it is those things that can and will satisfy the believer! You should begin to focus on the Spirit. As Paul once said, you should begin to study both in season and out of season – your spirit thirst’s for the Spirit!
When you are born again you are, most importantly, born into the Lord. We are certainly born again believers but we are also His children! This is why we say we’re the children of the Lord – you are washed and cleansed of sin! When you are born again, you have a right to now inherit the kingdom of God because you have believed on His only begotten Son!
Entering the kingdom
As resilient, as smart as we are, we cannot enter into the kingdom of the Lord no other way but through faith in Christ Jesus! As resilient as we are, our flesh is in constant decay – one day it shall pass. You see, this flesh and blood is not worthy of the kingdom, because of sin. Our flesh is defiled and polluted by sin because we are born into sin.
When we say we are born again, you are letting the world know that you are a BRAND NEW CREATURE – you ways have changed! You are not about the passions of old man, you are not caught up in the riches of old man – those things don’t do anything for you! You are a new creature, with new tastes, and with new goals. Our goals, our values, all of those change in born again believers. We realize that there is nothing of the world that can help us achieve our spiritual goals!
We have a heavenly a goal! We know that there is absolutely nothing of the flesh that can help us achieve our heavenly goal! You see, the veil has been lifted from our eyes and we now see of the Spirit. Being born again is not simply a rhetorical phrase that you should go around saying. Being born has real value – it means something! I hope that you have learned what it means to be born again, and will share this message with somebody somewhere.