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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious
leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus.
“Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your
miraculous signs are evidence that God is with You.”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born
again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old
man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the
Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce
only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.” John 3:1-6
(NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a
new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17
(NLT)
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks
be to God.
On March 5th, 1960, a woman named Peggy gave birth to her
first child, a son that she, along with her husband Bob, named Robert Mark.
They would love, cherish, and nurture their son through his many years of
childhood, watching him crawl and take his first steps, transfer from a bottle to
foods using the teeth that came in, and finally getting on the bus and going to
school through his elementary and high school years. During this time, Peggy
would take Mark to church where he would attend Sunday School, become a member
of the church, serve as an acolyte, and even accompany the choir with his
trumpet from time to time. It was a great time of upbringing but eventually
Mark moved onto adulthood and into a new chapter of life.
It was in that adult stage that Mark realized his human
birth had not been enough to sustain him through life’s challenges. He joined
the Navy at 23 and this was right after he basically just gotten married and
had a young daughter to care for. Three years later, another daughter came into
the life of he and his wife so they were trying to make it with two children
now as Mark left shore duty and went to sea on his first ship.
Through this period, Mark had lost his spiritual
bearings. He never established a church home and failed to lead his family
spiritually. His relationship with his wife started to deteriorate and
eventually fell apart, his wife seeking love from another, seeking love she
wasn’t finding with Mark. The family was torn apart at the seams and it was
difficult for everyone involved. It was Mark’s toughest and darkest place he
had ever been in life as he had lost everything that meant anything to him.
But then something happened several years after the
divorce. In a chance encounter, Mark met a woman who would be interested in a
relationship but only if Jesus was at the center of it. Mark agreed that was important
but inside he was a ball of anxiety, knowing it had been more than 10 years
since those days when he used to go to church with his mother. He wondered
whether the Lord would want to take him back after the sinner he had been.
What Mark didn’t know was that he was on the brink of
rebirth, a day when he would have a new birthday which was actually more like a
rebirth day as he chose to give His life to Jesus.
Speaking of Jesus, He was speaking on the very matter of
rebirth as He exchanged dialogue with Nicodemus who the scriptures tell us was
a Pharisee, a Jewish religious leader. As we meet the Pharisee, he is seeking out
Jesus to talk to Him, acknowledging His prowess for teaching. We get a sense
that Nicodemus is looking for Jesus to share some instruction with him. And so
Jesus gives him what he wants, saying:
“I tell you the
truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Not assessing Jesus’ words from a spiritual perspective,
we find Nicodemus trying to make sense of it through worldly terms. He wondered
how someone could be born again when it would be impossible to reenter the
mother’s womb so she could give birth a second time.
In answer to the Pharisee’s confusion, Jesus provides
clarification:
“I assure you, no
one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans
can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual
life.”
Note here that just being born isn’t enough to gain
access to the Kingdom of God. One doesn’t get a key to heaven simply by
emerging from the womb. Rather, salvation comes through a rebirth when one
decides to be born of water and the Spirit for only the Holy Spirit can give “birth
to spiritual life.”
Go back and remember Jesus’ baptism for a moment. John
took Him under the waters of the Jordan and when Jesus emerged, the Holy Spirit
descended upon Him (Matthew 3:13-17). From that point on, Jesus would baptize,
not by water but by the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-34).
This is why Mark experienced his rebirth at age 32
because he decided to receive Jesus as Savior and was baptized by the Holy
Spirit before later being baptized by the water at church in a formal ceremony.
It was at that point, that point when Mark gave His life to Jesus and committed
Himself to the Lord’s will and way, a will and way that He changed forever.
Paul describes this kind of transformation in this way:
This means that
anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a
new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
Everything that had defined me before coming to Jesus was
left behind and I embarked on a new life, a life I have often defined by the
year AC or the year “After Christ”, the year or years after I gave Jesus my
life and became a new person, the year and years when new life had begun.
Today, I, Mark, sit here testifying to you on my 57th
birthday if you count the days from my human birth, but 25 years from my
rebirth, when I decided to change my life forever and put my old self aside.
Through this period of newness, God has blessed me immeasurably through Jesus,
His Son, and I’m grateful He uses me, an ordinary man, for extraordinary
purposes.
I’m not sure what my future holds but I do know this,
that Jesus will be with me every step of the way in this life and the one to
come, always continuing to make things new as I seek and carry out His will for
my life.
Thanks be to God for the gift of Jesus, the greatest
birthday (and re-birthday) gift I have ever received.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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