John 3:1-8 Part 3 Bible Teaching

John 3 1-8 part 3
September 1st 2013
Communion

Welcome.

And let’s join together in our monthly memorial for our Lord.

Let’s begin with prayer.

I invite you to come forward and take these elements up into your hands – wine and unleavened bread.

Now typically we invite you to come forward and to take the elements and to ingest them as you are so move – on your own.

But I want to ask everyone if they would take the elements back to their chairs and then why don’t we break this open a bit and take a few minutes to openly share our gratitude and belief on Him.

This sharing is not mandatory – no guilt or compulsion – but we’ll open it up to you to publicly express your heart for Jesus (please make your expressions about Him and your relationship to Him).

And then we’ll take the elements together (as one) – as believers and members of His body and church.

So please – come forward and take these elements, then return to your chairs and wait to ingest them (if you would).

(MUSIC until all have received the elements.)

Sharing sentiments to the Lord.

Partaking the elements together.

Prayer
Music

PRAISE MUSIC

Alright, we have been in John 3:3-8 for the past two weeks.

As a reminder, these are what the passages say that moved us into our discussion:

John 3:3 Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

We’ve talked at length what the passages mean and say relative to water baptism, to rebirth, and to what rebirth looks like in the life of a person who has experienced it.

Last week, I said that it was my opinion that people who have had the Holy Spirit actually move in to their heart experience a number of things which contribute to them being able to say they have been born of the Spirit.

These signs are not limited to but include:

Being moved by the Spirit but not really comprehending how or why or where it is all headed,
Receiving some sort of new vision or visual clarity,
A reprioritization of life choices and interests, the
Natural re-assignment of our innate talents and interests from being focused on this world to being focused on the things of God, and we said the
the “coup de grace” or the sure sign of spiritual rebirth having occurred was possessing love from on high that was NOT present with us in the past.

Allow me to build on these principles here in the final and third part of our study of John 3:1-8 before we move on next week.

In addition to these specific experiences there are some other things to consider about rebirth I believe are necessary before we move on.

We noted two weeks ago that God told Adam that “in the day” that he ate of the forbidden fruit “he would surely die.”
But we know he lived for 930 years!

My point is Adam’s spiritual death was immediate.

How can I say this?

Look at what the Bible says:

First, they SAW that they were naked.

Just as rebirth brings new vision, so did spiritual death – and they saw the world through natural eyes.

At rebirth we are taken back to the state where we operate by all three of our faculties – and we begin to see with spiritual eyes.

Then how does scripture describe Adam and Eve?

It says they knew their guilt! And they acted how guilty people act – they went and made things to hide behind – a fresh new set of fig clothes and then they went and hid themselves.

At regeneration or being born from on high, we are relieved of our burden, and we are filled with joy (not guilt) and we are more transparent with our failures rather than spending time trying to hide behind camouflage!

It’s a complete reversal!

And then how did they act and respond when God called them out (remember, they were now spiritually dead)?

God came calling they are hiding and God asks: Where are you? And Adam says:

“I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

This is reversed at rebirth. We hear the Lord’s voice with a new heart and rejoice, and fear is removed (because guilt and shame are removed) and we desire to be naked and seen by God in honesty and truth – not through fig leaves and hiding places.

God asks Adam, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat?”

And Adam says:

“I did. I am so sorry. I made a mistake and foolishly made decisions without consulting you??? It’s all my fault.” NO? No.

No, Adam responded according to the dictates of his spiritually dead life, according to his own soul and body and puts a buffer between his guilt and God, saying:

“The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

When God turns to Eve, she doesn’t accept the blame immediately either, but instead says:

“The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

Upon rebirth, the Holy Spirit convicts, and brings us to a state (from within) of our culpability and guilt. Buck passing stops, and we realize that we are wholly responsible for our individual actions and lives – and like Adam and Eve – are either guilty of doing God’s will . . . or our own.

This state of being was immediate in Adam and Eve – and they went from being a man and woman operating by the Spirit to people operating on only two of their three attributes, their soul and spirit.

We cannot help but notice something interesting about Adam after his fall. He seems to deteriorate as a man.

All we know about him is he knew his wife and she bare him children.

We do not hear of him pursuing the Lord, we do not read of him repenting, or any praise from Adam’s lips of God – we only read of Eve responding this way.

After they were kicked out of the garden, Genesis 4:1 says:

Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man from the LORD.”

She assigns the birth of her first Son to God. She recognized Him in her life.

Later, at the birth of Seth, we again hear from Eve, where she essentially says the same thing, giving honor to God for the gift of her son.

But we hear nothing from Adam. He is not mentioned in the positive throughout the remainder of scripture – only the negative in the New Testament and it is note worthy that he is not mentioned in Hebrew 11, known as Faith’s Hall of Fame.

I would suggest that Adam, like all natural men and women, was deteriorating in his soul since falling spiritually.

The Greeks defined soul (psuche) as mind will and emotion and for natural man, this is a steady decline over the life of man not an improvement – let me tell you why.

At birth the mind will and emotions are raw and if influenced by the presence of the Holy Spirit they grow not in opposition to God but in harmony of His perspective.

But a human being who “grows” in mind, will, and emotion” without the influence of God is only adding corruption upon corruption – it’s not that we don’t learn, and mature, and accumulate elements to our person that will aid us, but those “things” – those perspectives, and objectives, and opinions, and world views are incomplete, and need to be renewed once the Holy Spirit ultimately moves in and begins to work.

This is why scripture says of people born from above, “all things become new.” There would be no need for all things to become new if some things were fine and good the way they stood in fallen man.

So no matter how we try to twist it, men and women, from birth, are actually in a state of soulish decline until reborn.

Adam was created in God’s image with a body, a soul, all being tutored and molded by His ever-present Spirit, but when sin entered in, Adam’s everything began to decay – including his soul.

In other words, without the governance of the Holy Spirit Adam was headed, in greater and greater measure, toward death, which is the wages of sin.

Then Adam ultimately died in his flesh.

So, first immediate Spiritual death.
Then, a progressive death to the Soul, and
Finally, the ultimate death of his body.

Here’s the gig (and its radical). Upon rebirth, being born from above, we see the renewed and regenerative effects taking place in the exact opposite order.

What do I mean?

When the Holy Spirit moves in, we are immediately born of the Spirit. We know something has happened but we are not sure of where, how, why, or what it means.

Are we perfect? In spirit, yes. And if we were to die (thief on the cross) it is this justified and sanctified existence that goes to God.

But if we live (which most of us do, by the way) we are progressively made alive in our souls – in our psueche, our mind, will, and emotions!

We go from being babes in Christ to being mature, feasting upon meat, and putting away childish things and attitudes.

What does the goal look like if we are allowed to tarry? I mean we are born from above, and our soul progressively progresses, what is the picture of a mature man or woman mind, will, and emotion?

This is gonna sting a little folks – but I present it in the only way I know how – from the example of our King.

I would strongly suggest that the picture of a mature believer, in body, soul, and spirit would best reflect the picture scripture gives us of our king – who was ultimately matured.

It’s really pretty simple, when you think about it.

The most truly devout, honestly confirmed, matured tried and tested Christian life (regenerated in Spirit, Soul, and Body) will look like . . . the life of our King.

What do we know about Him?

He was FREE of worldly pride.
He had no beauty that men would desire Him (Isaiah 53:2)
As a Nazarene, He was of absolutely NO reputation. (Matthew 2:23)
He had no means or wealth (Matthew 8:20)
No recognized rank (Matthew 13:55)
Was a servant – John 13:5
All that was in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life was refused by Him.
He spoke the truth to the point they killed Him for it.
He was meek, and lowly, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
He liked a good party, and attended them.
He took time with the lost and miserable and despised.
He turned the other cheek.
He was a living sacrifice for others.
He loved as no other.

All signs of a spiritual man matured in mind, will and emotion.

Finally, as the ultimate result of Adam’s spiritual death came physical death, the ultimate end for every believer is a glorious resurrection unto life.

LISTEN –

Adam, by the Fall, experienced . . .

Immediate spiritual death,
Progressive death of the soul, and the
Ultimate death of the Body

But listen, when people are born from above or born-again, we EXPERIENCE an exact reversal!

Immediate spiritual rebirth (overcoming spiritual death)
Progressive regeneration of the soul (repairing the death of soul) and the
Ultimate restoration of the Body (or overcoming physical death).

Radical huh?
All because of Christ.

So in our coverage of being born from above the big question that remains is why are some “born from above” and others are not?

There are a number of postulations alive and well out there that have been offered to answer this question.

Some are good. Some hit on truth. Some are horrible. Most are at least loosely based on what the Bible has to say in none way or another.

For starters, we could probably divide the room and the Christian world into two groups relative to this topic – those who say there is a limited number whom God elects to rebirth and those who say God is attempting and calling and drawing all.

The first group says that anyone and everyone who is born again is born from above ONLY because God has elected or chosen them to receive His Holy Spirit.

This group states that the individual has no part in rebirth, does not choose it or decide to receive it but it is solely up to God and His sovereign prerogative.

The premise is He chooses and we do not because if we did we would think we were special or better than others for having made the choice.

There is scriptural support for some aspects of this position.

Ephesians 2:8 says:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

2nd Timothy 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The LDS state that God calls according to an individual’s “pre-existent merits” but listen to Romans 9:11!

Romans 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

How about a show stopper?

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Because of these passages (and others) the Calvinist go so far as to say that God, by and through His sovereign will, elects some to salvation and others to an eternity in hell.

I find the position reprehensible and outside the character of God being a God who is love.

(beat)

Then, on the other hand, scripture presents us with another point of view – that God would have all men be saved, that Jesus paid for the sins of the entire world, and that the reason some are saved and some are not is because, as Jesus says later in this very chapter of John 3 (which by the way is inextricably linked to the topic of being born-from above with Nicodemus).

Anyway, this is what Jesus says:

John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Now listen, scripture plainly teaches us that Jesus has saved every soul on this spinning globe! The question is, will men and women receive this while on earth?

In John 12:32 He says, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth” (which He was), “I will draw all men unto me.”

Romans 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

1st Timothy 4:10 says:
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that believe.

Then 1st Timothy 2:3-4 says plainly:
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

What can we say?

We have passages that plainly state that God has called and does the calling, according to His own good will and pleasure, and that salvation is by and through His grace, not of anything that we can do lest any man should BOAST . . . but at the same time we have passages of scripture where it says, “God would have all men be saved,” that Jesus is “the savior of all men, especially them that believe,” and that “He will draw all men to Him?”

How to reconcile all of this?

I think we can, from scripture, safely state the following:

That God wills and desires that all will come to Him.

That God so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son to save it.

That the work has been done by the author and finisher of our faith, and it is offered to all.

The by and through His foreknowledge of each and every one of us God ensures that those who are His will receive the message in this life.

And that because some people love darkness more than light they will reject the message freely given while alive.

Jesus said it here in John 3

“that Light is come into the world and that men love the darkness more than light.”

Speaking of his own position as an apostle, listen carefully how Peter describes him obtaining his position in 1st Peter 1:1:

1st Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

From this passage we know that prior to God creating Peter He had foreknowledge of what he would be like – and placed him where he was placed to perform as he would perform.

For me, this allows us, to some degree or another, to balance God’s sovereignty with free will – our choosing, but God knowing what our choices would be, and using the situation to bring about His ultimate good.

Even when it comes to the fate of Jesus, Luke said to a gathering of Jews in Acts 2:22-24

“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”

Does God desire that all would come to Him, certainly, and He also (through foreknowledge) knows those who are His and knowing His sheep, calls them according to their freewill choices of receiving the call in this life.

While this might give us some insights into the predetermination argument, the question remains, what is it about those who receive His universal call?

We can say, using the words of the Lord Himself, why some do not receive the invitation – He said they love the darkness more than light.

I’m standing on this – no matter how painful it is to utter.

Show me someone who does not receive the open universal loving gift of salvation which produces being “born from above” and I will show you someone who loves “the darkness more than the light.”

I know this sounds really harsh, but darkness does not always mean black evil with horns, but in some cases it could just mean elements of this world over Him.

This is illustrated in the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler, with riches in that mans case representing whatever it is the unsaved hold out as having eminence over Him.

Might be materialism.
Might be intellect, our will over God’s, you name it – whatever it is – I mean WHATEVER IT IS – it is something that takes precedence over the desire to know God.

(Long long beat)

And it will not allow us to bow (from the heart) before God and cry out for salvation.

By appealing to the life and ministry of the Lord we are (once again) given examples (right there in the narrative) of what made some people come and fall before Him while the majority of the masses passed Him by without a second thought.

So in closing let’s look at why some found themselves at His feet.

In the first examples, some had absolutely no other hope in other words, they were in utter desperation for help.

In Matthew 15:30 we read:

“And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them.

Certainly this attitude of desperation plays a role in the heart that kneels before God.

We can also find in them some level of suffering.

In the woman with the issue of blood we find another picture of the human heart that will go to any lengths for salvation.

She had a situation she had tried (for twelve years) and through all available means, to seek relief. To now avail.

She had spent all her living on a cure. She was a social outcast – we are talking about a life of suffering, a life of desperation, and nothing else she tried worked – except Him.

Suffering
Desperation
Inability

All characteristics of those in the New Testament who bowed to Jesus . . . and He healed them.

In addition to physical suffering, we see that parents are often broken by the things their children suffer and come to Jesus in humble desperation.

Mark 5:22-23 tells the story of Jairus, the ruler of a synogogue with a very sick child coming to Jesus.

It says:

“And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet.”

In Mark nine a man brings his son to the Lord who threw fits, casting himself into fire, and water, and he asked the Lord to heal him. And the Lord said to him:

(listen to the picture here)

“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”

Desperate, suffering parents, brought to their knees and to tears to the Lord.

Sin also has an ability to bring a person to the knees of an honest heart.

In Luke 7:37-38

“And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

We had a man email us this past week who pushed and pushed for a face to face meeting with me.

I sat down with him near the point of the Mountain and learned his story.

He was raised in a good LDS home, chose to not go on a mission, wound up in Los Angeles and got addicted to methamphetamine.

After nine months of solid use, he was totally broken and tired of the lifestyle but could NOT stop the drug.

One night, in absolute desperation, he said he cried out to God to save Him, forgive him and help him stop the drug because he could not do it on his own.

And he said he actually felt God move in, and he has not done the drug since – and it has been over 9 years.

This is the applicable part. He then went on to defend Mormonism as he returned to full activity and has now been married in the temple, and is living the Mormon life.

I pointed out to him that Mormonism had failed him, that it was actually his rebellion to the Mormon way of life that actually lead to his being saved – that that is part of the problem with Mormonism, they work so hard at living outward clean lives they are never able to truly see the condition of their heart.

In almost every case of spiritual regeneration, people come to see themselves as sinners in need of redemption, and this evidence lead them to also fall to His feet and cry for salvation.

Sometimes, however, its not the presence of overt sin or suffering, but a desire to know the truth, that gets people to lower themselves to the feet of the Lord.

In Luke 10:38-39 we read:

“Now it came to pass, as Jesus and His disciples went, that He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.”

In a world of deception, true seeks will find, and when they do they too will sell all they have to obtain all He has to give them. In this pursuit of true people come to recognize who He compared to all they know they are, and they crumble before Him.

In the Revelation of Christ we read John’s reaction to seeing Jesus in chapter 1 verse 17 where it says:

Revelation 1:17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.

Ezekiel had the same response, fell flat on his face.

So did Daniel, and Isaiah, and Peter, who upon witnessing Jesus fill the nets with fishes

“fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
(Luke 5)

Whether it is seeking for truth, needing healing, suffering, worry and anguish over a family member, or personal sin, the end result brings all of those of a humble and broken heart to His feet.

I would suggest that this is another universal element present in all who come to know Him, who are born from above, and who at one point or another fall at His feet – humility.

In every case mentioned, those coming to the Lord were humble enough to seek Him, ask Him, trust Him – and not themselves.

Proverbs 22:4 says By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honor, and life.

Isaiah 57:15
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Matt 18:4
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

1st Peter 5:5
“ . . . for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

Amen.

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