REBORN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with Him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

John 3:1-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A reading of the four Gospels found in the New Testament might lead one to believe that all Pharisees were enemies and opponents of Jesus. But as we see in today’s scripture passage from the opening verses of John, Chapter 3, there was at least one Pharisee who was actually a part of Jesus’ fan club, a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Look again at these verses:

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with Him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.  John 3:1-11

Nicodemus wasn’t just some fringe member of the Pharisaic community. Rather, He was a member of the Jewish ruling council, a position of great significance within the Jewish religious community.

Note here that he came to Jesus at night, possibly to conceal the fact he was meeting with a man who his peers disliked greatly, a man who his peers would eventually kill. After finding Jesus, Nicodemus honors Him with words of praise saying:

“Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with Him.”

Think about the compliment Nicodemus paid Jesus because his reputation and a part of his work with the Israelites was to instruct them on the scriptures. And yet, Nicodemus was elevating Jesus to a special plain by acknowledging that He had surely come from God because “no one could perform the signs” Jesus was performing, unless they had God aiding and abetting them in the process.

How did Jesus respond to these accolades?

With a statement that obviously drove Nicodemus into a state of confusion. For we find Jesus telling the Pharisee leader:

“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Huh?

Nicodemus may have been asking himself why Jesus would have made such an assertion out of the blue when he had not even asked about the “kingdom of God”. And what was all this talk about being reborn? We get a sense Nicodemus was trying to process it all in a worldly vice a spiritual context as he asked Jesus:

“How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Perhaps anyone, not versed in the matter of becoming a new creation in Jesus would translate what Jesus was saying in the same way. It all was very confusing for Nicodemus as a whole and so he needed enlightened as to what Jesus was getting at; he needed advisement from the teacher he had lauded earlier and so Jesus accommodated him with the hope of clarifying His comment:

“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Of note here, Jesus doesn’t say anything about the physical act of childbirth. There was no reference to anything that Nicodemus had mentioned in his questions. Rather, Jesus cut to the chase as to what He was talking about and that was spiritual rebirth. If a person was interested in entering the kingdom of God, in other words, entering into heaven for all eternity, they would need more than mere birth by water. They would need baptized by the Holy Spirit and that came when someone accepted Jesus as Savior, a commitment which caused one to be “born of the Spirit”, also referred to as being “born again”. Paul would later write these words:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

In other words, a person is reborn when they receive Jesus as their personal Savior. They become a new creation.

Well, Nicodemus didn’t quite get it still and so he asked Jesus another question, “How can this be?”, one that drew the chastisement of Jesus who answered:

“You are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

Herein was the big rub between Jesus and the Pharisees. For as Jesus brought a new teaching, one that didn’t serve to replace the law but rather take it to a whole different level of producing righteousness within believers, the inflexible thought process of the Jewish religious leaders refused to invite the notion that Jesus could teach them a new thing or two, a new thing or two that would bring them into a closer relationship with the God they served. In the end translation, the Pharisees were not interested in trying to understand what Jesus was trying to share with them, consistently rejecting the testimony of Jesus and His disciples.

And so, we find the Pharisees for the most part moving on with never having been reborn. They had the chance for eternity right in front of them and they were too stiff-necked and stubborn in their ways to even consider for a moment that Jesus was telling them the truth and they needed to change their ways. Instead of listening to Jesus, the Pharisees decided to eliminate Him and in doing so, would see for themselves that He was valid in talking about rebirth because of His resurrection from the tomb three days after His crucifixion.

Given the content of this devotion, I’ll close with a few questions for you:

Are you like Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees, refusing to trust Jesus and seek His truth regarding life, now and forever?

Are you rejecting the notion of being born again in Christ Jesus and in doing so, pass up being born of the Spirit?

or

Are you all in for Jesus, placing your full faith and hope in Him as your personal Savior and becoming a new creation, receiving His promise of salvation?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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