Nick at Night Part 1: Born Again

Today's message is called um Nick at Night.

Because it's Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night.

Who used to watch Nick at Night?

That's right.

Yeah, it's cute.

Alright, Nick at Night, part one, Born Again.

I know it's a long title, but I like my titles.

You know that.

And this week, this study ties with last week.

So if you remember last week, we learned about Jesus flipping some tables, right?

Jesus walked into the temple and flipped some tables.

And what was really interesting about that study is that it's used by some people in our day to say, well, Jesus may be like angry, or he may, you know, flip some tables in your life.

But I want you to notice Jesus never spoke with anger or frustration with someone who was seeking him.

He only did that with religious people.

People who assumed that they were right.

That's people who assumed I'm right with God because of what I do, because of how I was born.

That's the people that Jesus was really frustrated with.

And so when Jesus flipped the tables, he did it in the temple, and he attacked the religiosity of making God about performance and here, pay this, and then you'll be accepted.

And he didn't like that at all.

So he he's Jesus is establishing this new kingdom.

I'm calling it the new grace order, where he is tearing down the whole religious system of the day.

Okay, so there was a way to know God.

It was the religious system, it was sacrifices and the law, and he is like, we are done with that.

We're never going back to that.

I am bringing a complete, and he's not even afraid to talk to anyone about it.

He's very open that I am going to tear down this entire system and make something new.

And the Pharisees are watching and paying attention, and that's what we're going to get into what we're talking today.

We're going to see Jesus begin to explain to one of the curious men among the Pharisees named Nicodemus how dramatic and life-changing this new kingdom that he's bringing, how it's so different than what they're doing.

It's on another level, it's in another universe, it's completely different.

So in our minds, we kind of grow up thinking church is one thing.

But God's kingdom is something completely different than what we expect.

Usually it flips it completely upside down.

Now, there's one thing we must know before we go any further, and that's back in this day, the Jews had a big problem, and it was called Rome.

Okay, so Israel had come under had been conquered by Rome, so they existed, but they were really just under the oppression of Rome.

So there was governors and soldiers, and and everyone believed, all the Jews believed God was gonna deal with it somehow.

Okay, so there were several groups who had different views of how God was gonna deal with this problem.

They all believed he would use this messiah.

Okay, so they saw the promises in the Old Testament of a Messiah, and each person kind of attached a meaning of what that meant, each group.

Uh, why did they think God would do this?

Because they really believed they were God's chosen people.

That had kind of been ingrained into their identity.

So they had this national identity.

We are God's chosen people, we're the saved ones.

And Jesus, he comes on the scene and he says, I'm gonna save you, I am the Messiah, but he seems incredibly unconcerned with Rome.

Why is that?

Right?

They they couldn't, that that was so incompatible to them.

Um, and he's gonna say something incredibly offensive to his hearers as he as he goes along today, okay?

He's gonna tell them that they're they're not able to be saved in the way that they were thinking, that they're it's it's gonna be impossible, that they are gonna need something totally new, something dramatic, something almost magical to happen for them, something physically impossible.

All this thought that they had, all these plans that they had of how I'm gonna manipulate my life, and I'm gonna make sure I go to church all the time, I make sure I keep all the rules, I'm gonna make sure when I don't keep the rules, I'm gonna do sacrifices, I'm gonna make sure I do and be the person I'm supposed to be.

He's like, all of that is not gonna work.

We need something else here.

And so you'll notice as you're following along with us that last week I left two or three verses at the end of John chapter two, because they actually didn't fit with John chapter two, they fit with what we're talking about now.

So I'm gonna read those verses now.

Chapter two, verse 23.

He says, Now, when he was in Jerusalem at Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did.

But Jesus didn't commit himself to any of them because he knew all men, and he had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

Okay, what does that mean?

It's kind of confusing.

The question is, who's judging who here?

All these people are like, hmm, Jesus, what who are you?

What are you gonna tell me, right?

They're there they judged all prophets who came to the scene.

Let's see, is he following the law of Moses?

Is he, you know, and Jesus is like, You're not judging me here.

I know you, and I'm I'm the one that that's you know.

Men are all trying to figure out Jesus.

Is he the Messiah?

He says he's the Messiah.

Let me try to determine.

And he's not fitting into any of their boxes.

That's the crazy thing.

So I'm gonna give you some of the people.

They had the you had the zealots.

Okay, Jesus recruited one of the zealots to be his one of his disciples.

And these these were guys who were committed.

We should fight against Rome, use violence, we should all have guns and knives and cannons and throw tea into the harbor.

America.

Right?

So those were the zealots.

They believed in violence.

They they we should fight with all our lives, right?

Then you had another group called the Essenes, and the Essenes were they thought we should separate from Rome, the from the world.

They they were like, we just need to be holy, and and we should just go away and live in the desert and be completely separated from Rome.

Then you had the Sadducees.

There's gonna be a test on this afterwards, so you should.

Okay.

The Sadducees, they believed we should partner with Rome and just like, just yeah, just work with them.

Just they're not that bad.

They're just people like us.

Let's just partner with them and work with them.

Um yeah, that was the Sadducees.

You had the common people who they're like, they looked around and they're like, Well, this Jesus guy is like better than Rome.

So all the common people, they love Jesus.

You know, they saw his signs and they're like, I like this Jesus guy.

Yeah, I like what he how he speaks and stuff like that.

So they the common people, they didn't know what to do with Rome, but they were like, this Jesus guy is pretty awesome.

And then the last group we'll talk about is there was the Pharisees.

And the they thought that Jesus, if he's the Messiah, should destroy Rome with fire from heaven or some way like that, because we are more holy as Jews than they are, and they should all die.

So they were very excited about the Messiah, but for one purpose, they thought the main job of the Messiah was to destroy Rome with supernatural power, or leading a revolt or however he wanted, but it they need to die.

That's that was their their big thing here.

So Jesus knows how all these people think about him.

That's what that text means for us.

He doesn't care.

He also doesn't care what all these people think about him.

He's here to save all these different people, and he knows his mission, and he's not going to be influenced by any of their plans or any of their ideas.

He has his own plan of how he's going to bring salvation to them.

And that's what we talk about in chapter three, the plan that Jesus actually has.

Because it's so much different than the zealots and the Essenes and the Pharisees and the He's it's different.

I'm warning you, it's different.

So look at chapter three.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God was with him.

So again, the Pharisees are is this ultra-religious sect of the Jews, and they were they were the conservative response to God's difficult judgment on Israel.

So they had Israel had been under God's judgment for a long time.

They had gotten cast out and exiled into Babylon, and there was a couple responses to that.

Some of the people were like, well, let's just become Babylonians, I guess.

Other people were like, no, we need to remember our roots and go back to.

And that was the Pharisees came out of that movement to go back to their, it's kind of like the early Hebrew roots movement.

And these Pharisees trusted in two things, okay?

First thing, they believed they were saved because they were born Jews.

They really literally believed Abraham stood at the gates of hell to make sure none of his kids accidentally wandered there after they died.

He's like, No, no, no, you guys go here.

And then when a Gentile would come, he'd be like, this way.

That's what they believed and taught.

Okay, so get this.

He they believed they were saved by birth.

I want you to remember that.

Very important.

Their first birth, we'll remember that too.

And the second thing that they believed is that all Jews had to do good works in the law and sacrifices to be accepted by God also.

So they believed, yeah, you're saved by birth, but you're also saved by works, and they were kind of confused at which one was more important, but they believed in both of them.

Okay.

So of course, they know about Jesus.

They've been watching Jesus, they've been seeing him do miracles.

And it's pretty obvious he's it's kind of hard to miss when someone is breaking the laws of physics every day as he goes about his life.

And so Nick, we'll call him Nick, Nicodemus, has some honest questions for Jesus.

He's he's coming to Jesus with this: who are you?

What is your identity?

What are you, when are you gonna kill all the Romans?

That's basically his question.

He wants to know, and also he wants to know, you know, am I going to heaven?

How do I get to God?

I I'm I'm honest.

Jesus, it sounds like you got some answers.

I need to know how does someone get to heaven?

Have you ever wondered how someone gets to heaven?

I had a conversation right before church started.

Someone asked me, How do I know for sure if I'm going to heaven?

Well, it's a good idea good thing that you came today because Jesus is going to help us out with that.

Nicodemus, Nick, he's like, if Jesus, if you came from God, and then you must know how to do this whole God thing.

So how do we do this whole God thing?

Well, look at verse 3.

So Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Unless one is born again or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

So Nicodemus comes for religious answers, and Jesus gives him none.

Jesus gives him new birth.

What do I do?

Nicodemus was asking, and Jesus says, Be born again.

Well, how do I do that?

And he says, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.

And the word see in the Greek means to be acquainted with by experience.

So I can tell someone how awesome the beach water park is.

Right?

It's it's great.

It's fun to go around there.

Lazy river, it's a great design.

I love that place.

But unless you experience it for yourself, you don't really know.

You haven't seen it for yourself.

Well, with salvation in view, Jesus is saying, you know, he's talking about this real experience of regeneration or what we call salvation in the church, getting saved, being born again.

So here's this vital cultural question that I want to just bring up for us to think about.

Is this everyone?

Everyone in the world is commanded to be born again.

Jesus says, if you want to get saved, you have to be born again.

Well, what if someone likes the way they were born the first time?

What if we have that I don't I don't really need God?

I like everything about me.

I was born this way, I don't need to be anything other than the the thing that I am.

So what do we do with this?

Well, it's true.

We were all born one way.

All of us are descended from Adam, and so we inherited something from Adam.

And every single one of us is a human, which means we all look generally the same.

We have arms, we have legs, we have you know, beards for men, you know.

But we inherited something else, and that is sin.

A nature that we inherited this rebellious that we we were born in it, that we rebel against God.

So it's true, we were all born in Adam with this one thing, and Romans teaches us that we were born with this shared problem, and it's not about one specific behavior.

So we're not pointing out someone's sin.

All of us had one nature that expresses itself through all kinds of behaviors, whether it's pride or sexual immorality, or you can name whatever sin or expression of self-living that you want.

It doesn't matter which expression it is because they're all sinful.

And that's what Jesus is addressing.

It's not about which sin you like or you're attracted to, it's about all men have a sin nature.

And Jesus says, That's why I've come.

That's the new birth that needs to happen in every single person's life.

Every person.

Every single person.

Romans 5, 2, just to show you guys this, says, Sin entered the world through one man and death spread to all.

So that's talking about Adam.

Adam, it's like he had a disease, and we're all born with this genetic disease to sin.

And then Ephesians 2, 3, we were by nature children of wrath.

We were by nature, and it notice the first verse said all men, and this one says we.

So we're never saying that we are better than anyone else.

Any human is better than another human, but we're all collectively in this same thing.

So when someone says I was born this way, I agree.

Yes, we were born with a fallen nature in Adam, and that's not unique to any sin specifically, but it's universal.

But one struggle doesn't define our whole spiritual story, and that's what Jesus is bringing here: a new twist to our spiritual story.

So it doesn't prove, just because you were born a certain way, it doesn't prove how God is gonna rewrite your destiny or rewrite your life.

So even if there's a temptation in our life, the Bible is gonna give us what a new life is gonna look like.

It's gonna be Jesus' own character written on your heart and in your mind by being born from Him, not the way we were born the first time.

See, the Bible constantly makes a division between who you are in Christ and how you feel, or whatever strategies you may have learned to cope with all the things that you experienced.

We call that our flesh.

We call those patterns flesh patterns that we learned, ways that we learned to cope with pain and shame and our own stuff that we had to deal with as we were growing up.

Our flesh learned different ways to deal with that.

Maybe we got angry and bitter and we said, I don't want to deal with people anymore.

People suck.

Or maybe you're like, people is where I find my peace and healing.

So you get overly connected with people and dependent on people, and you you start manipulating people to give you love, and you try to find your meaning in relationships, and it doesn't matter what, but you're constantly sucking people dry for for to meet your needs, which again is not how it's supposed to be.

And so we have the Bible's telling us there's there's who you are in Christ, which you are holy and loved, and if you're born again, this is the reality of who you are, and then there's the way we've learned, and the Bible helps us to discern which way we're thinking because what's true, what Christ says is true about you is true, but our brain doesn't always think the right way.

Our brain doesn't always work the right way, and we come to church and we learn the word of God so that we can start putting into practice the way that we're supposed to believe and think about the truth that Jesus has given us.

As a believer, once you're born again, you are no longer defined by what you're tempted by, but you're defined by what Jesus says about you.

That defines you, and that's so such good news for us.

So, what is this new birth all about?

Well, Jesus is birthed in me and I am birthed in him.

We call this our union with Christ.

That's what's crazy about this.

Look at Galatians 2.20, and I'm gonna move over to the new living translation for the next few verses just to change it up and be weird.

Just kidding.

I like the new living, it's really great for reading and stuff.

So I thought I'd give a new I do these verses a lot, so I thought it would make a good little um different way to look at it.

So he says, My old self has been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

So I will live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So there's this specific new life that Jesus is offering.

This is a definition of what the new life, the born-again life, looks like.

It's the life of Jesus living in my earthly husk of a body.

So we had a different life inside us, our self-life, the life that came from Adam, which was dead spiritually, and Jesus says, I want to replace that life with a new life, me, myself, living in you.

And that's what's the truth about every single believer is Jesus Himself lives in them.

Look at Galatians 4.19.

He says, Oh, my dear children, I feel as I'm going through labor pains for you again, and will they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives.

So Paul, he's talking to his beloved church in Galatia, and they've fallen away from Jesus towards legalism, and they've become all religious, and and they thought they were gonna please God by all their rules.

And so Paul writes them this whole letter, and by the end of it, he's like, guys, I love you so much.

It's almost like I'm giving birth, I'm in so much pain for you.

Guys, I love you so much.

And you know what?

You need, you need, you need is Jesus to be born in you.

He wants to see the life of Jesus expressed in them and through them.

That's that's his greatest desire.

So he's explaining what he's desire.

It's like a woman in labor.

He's like, oh is that the sound they make?

Something like that.

So Jesus is almost like physical birth, but also completely not.

It's spiritual what he's talking about here.

So the Bible talks a lot about being born again.

First Peter, the book of First Peter talks about being born again with God's mercy.

Look at this in 1 Peter 1:3.

1 Peter 1:3

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is by his great mercy that we have been born again.

Because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, now we live with great expectation.

So being born again is the resurrection life of Jesus being stuffed into our bodies and living through us.

That's what this born again experience is described.

Peter calls it that.

It's we could you could call it resurrection life.

Man, you're different since you met Jesus.

Yeah, because I have resurrection life inside me.

So we can actually have hope of what our life should look like and will be, an expectation of Of what we're gonna be as people.

Not all the things we'll do, because you're all you're gonna fail and you're gonna trip up, you're gonna make mistakes, but you don't have to ever not be loved or accepted or know that you're a child of God and have that safety and security of being a child of God.

Those are the things that we can know, every single believer, no matter how much of a failure you may be, you are loved and accepted.

And that's the identity of someone who has resurrection life.

So that a little later in that same chapter, 1 Peter says this in chapter verse 22 you were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth.

Not a law, but the truth of what Jesus did, right?

So now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.

Love each other deeply with all your heart.

Is this a law or is this a description of our identity?

That's actually what it is.

He's not giving us a new law.

It's like a new law, but it's a law like you're a bird, you need to fly.

Is that a law?

Well, it's more of an identity thing.

Birds fly.

So if a bird doesn't fly, they're a penguin.

Or a turkey.

Turkeys can fly sometimes.

You're a turkey.

So he says, love each other deeply with all your heart, for you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end.

Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God.

That's amazing.

Our new life, our resurrection life, our eternal life started the moment you believed Jesus died for you on the cross.

The moment you believed your eternal life started.

The clock started right then.

And it will never end.

So it mentions a couple things that are true about us.

Number one, we're forgiven of what is say, all our sins.

Guys, I tell you this every week, and I'm gonna keep telling you every week longer.

You are forgiven of all sins the moment that you believe.

Past, present, and future.

God knows what he's signing up for when he says, You're gonna be born again as my child.

You cannot lose your salvation by sinning.

You can't.

Because that sin was already forgiven.

Now, what does this mean to our lives?

How many of you do this?

Every time you sin and you get that conviction from the Holy Spirit, how many of you say, God, forgive me again?

We do that, but you know we gotta stop.

We have to understand that God is like, I've already forgiven you guys.

We're good.

I don't need you to ask and beg and grovel for your forgiveness.

My forgiveness, you have forgiveness.

Now, what you did was stupid and not according to your identity.

So you need to repent, which means change your mind, change your behavior that lines up with who you really are, your new identity that I've given you.

I've already forgiven you guys.

We're so past that.

Just come, let me pick you up and let's keep walking, right?

That's how it works with God.

So we've been, that's why it's so vitally to unvitally important to understand you are fully forgiven.

And you can kind of test yourself, do I really believe this?

Or am I constantly saying, God forgive me again and again and again?

And then you have pastors teaching you, did you ask God to forgive you today?

That's not preaching the gospel.

That's not.

That's preaching a man-made, religious, law-based, performance-driven religion, not gospel.

Be careful who you listen to.

Be careful that you're listening to the gospel.

Okay?

Be careful that you're reading it, the gospel.

So you're forgiven of everything.

And now Jesus loves you and he's gonna live through you how by showing you how to love other people.

That's how he expresses his own life through you is always by love.

Do you see what he said?

He says, So now you must show love to each other as brothers and sisters, so love each other with all your heart.

So the word, it says the word of God is like a seed that's planted in your heart that grows into this new life that's just loving everybody.

I love that in this church we have a lot of loving people.

If I go, if I go to get a tattoo at Peggy's, Russell is gonna be a big ball of love.

I know that, right?

You guys all know that.

Because we've all gotten tattoos there.

You know, it's like there's just so much love that God is working through us, and yet there's so much more that we hold back from him that we could love more.

We could be generous in our love to all kinds of people.

So that's how Peter talks about this new life.

Now let's look at James.

James speaks of God bringing forth by the word of truth.

Look at James 1.18.

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word.

And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

So being born again works like this.

It's really simple.

You hear a word and you believe it.

That's how it works.

The moment you believe, you are born again.

And guess what?

God even helps you to believe it.

So if you have in your heart said, I believe, not just your mind, and definitely not just with your mouth, but in your heart said, I truly believe Jesus was sacrificed for me, I'm forgiven by his blood, then you are born again and his spirit dwells in you.

That's what happens.

It is by believing and believing only.

It's literally that simple.

Titus, another letter that Paul wrote, speaks of this language of washing.

It says in Titus 3:5, he saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy, and he washed away our sins, giving us new birth and new life through going to church all the time and reading the Bible so much.

Titus 3:5

Oh, wait, it didn't say that.

Nope.

It says by the Holy Spirit.

Well, how does this work?

It's confusing, right?

Well, we're gonna we're gonna spend some time with Nicodemus over the next couple weeks.

Because he's gonna wrestle with this.

And it's weird because he thinks of things in an earthly sense, and Jesus is gonna try to help him understand what the Holy Spirit is like.

So when you're born again, the Holy Spirit has drawn you, the Bible says.

So if you have it in your heart, I want to believe in God, I want to believe in Jesus, you didn't put that desire in there.

You didn't subfigure this out.

The Holy Spirit said, I have chosen you and I love you, and I'm gonna put in your heart.

And you may wrestle with this.

You may spend a long time saying, I don't know if I believe.

But just know that the whole God put that initial desire inside you that maybe I want to believe.

He's drawing you already.

2 Corinthians says it like this in 517.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

Kind of like being born again, right?

The old life is gone and the new life has begun.

The old life is gone.

So that's the other thing about being born again.

The old life is gone.

And you know that's how this practically plays out.

All the old sinful things that you used to do before you were Christian, when you try to do them again, guess what?

They're not fun anymore.

I mean, they're fun for a little bit of time, but your soul, your heart cannot rejoice in them anymore because that old part of you that loved sin got nailed to the cross and died.

And the new part of you that loves righteousness and always wants to do the will of your heavenly father, it hates sin.

It hates it, it recoils against it.

And and we call that the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit doesn't leave you when you're sin.

The Holy Spirit says, ew, gross, why are you taking a bath in mud?

I'm not gonna leave you.

I love you, but we don't do sin.

My father is righteous, and now you are righteous because guess what?

I've already forgiven you of all your sins, remember?

So you're righteous, you're messing around in the mud right now.

You don't need to do that to be happy.

I know your brain's telling you you need to do that, be happy.

You don't need to do that to be happy.

You need me to be happy, and I have given you everything you need to be happy.

Look at Galatians 6.15.

Says, it doesn't matter whether we've been circumcised or not.

What counts is whether we've been transformed into a new creation.

This one's really cool.

What was it was like a law that they would keep that was an outward expression.

They cut off a little piece of the body to express that they were a good person on the inside.

Right?

Well, if you come to our church, you do this.

If you really want to follow God, you'll do that.

It's these outward expressions of what was going on on the inside.

And what does the Bible say?

The Bible says, stop doing that stuff.

It doesn't matter.

It literally doesn't matter.

Stop thinking that God looks on the outside of you to determine if you're a good person or not.

He's not looking at the outside.

He's only gonna judge, are you born again?

Are you new on the inside?

I ask people, are you going to heaven?

And you can tell everything by the answers.

Some people say, go to church.

Stop it.

Outward.

That's like circumcision.

It's like a Jew pulling down his pants and showing us that he was circumcised.

Stop it.

It's weird.

Did I ask if you were going to church?

No.

Are you going to heaven?

Have you been born again?

Well, I I do my best to follow the Ten Commandments.

Well, I I was baptized.

Guys, none of those things matter.

It's all outward.

Now, they're good things.

We can talk about what those things are and the what expressions they are, but as far as are you going to heaven, there's one answer.

I believe in Jesus Christ.

I believe he died on the cross for me.

I believe he rose from the dead and shares his new life with me and lives inside me.

Do you believe that?

Then you are saved, you are forgiven, you have new life.

Right?

Amen.

Like a tiger inside you.

It's a tiger or a wolf.

We'll go with tiger.

He says, it doesn't matter if you've been circumcised or not, only being a new creation.

Have you been transformed?

Well, I don't feel a lot like a new trans new creation.

Yeah, because it doesn't happen in your feelings.

Well, I don't know if I understand my new creation life.

Yeah, because it didn't happen in your brain.

Where does the new creation happen?

In the spirit.

The spirit is the invisible part of you that's like an organ, like your liver or your heart or your heart, but it's the invisible organ that we have that connect directly to God.

It's our eternal spirit.

That's like how we experience God, that we alone, of all his creation, have an eternal spirit.

And that's what that is.

Look at Ephesians 4 22.

He says, gives us some instruction.

He says, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.

Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, put on the new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

So this as a Christian, this is our life.

You get a choice every day.

People who are not yet born again do not have a choice.

They have one source of life, and it's the flesh.

They just have to get life however they can find it.

And usually they choose sinful things, always.

But for us, we get this choice to throw off our old way of thinking.

Because the old man has already been crucified.

Our old nature already died with Jesus on the cross.

So we have to throw off this old way of thinking that's already dead.

You know what someone's doing that's carrying around something that's already dead?

It's like carrying around a carcass.

Just carrying it around with you.

Why do that?

It smells, is disgusting, and has nothing to do with your new life.

That's what our old way of thinking when we return to sinful living after we're born again, it's because our old way of thinking, we're just carrying that around with us.

But Paul says, just throw it off, just drop it and walk away.

Back away slowly, right?

It's all about the new life that we have.

We drag this old life through keeping our old thinking patterns.

The only way for me to get through this is to anger my way through it.

The only way for me to get through this is to drink my way through it.

The only way for me to get through this is to get people to love me more.

All these things that we choose that are fleshly patterns.

So he says we just gotta renew our minds and attitudes into what?

To our new nature, which is already true, which he says, what's true about you?

You're holy and you're righteous, you're good, you are new, you are totally what God wants you to be in the spirit.

And we just have to convince our brain, we just have to start thinking that that is actually true about us.

Nicodemus, he's this respected religious leader, right?

And he acknowledges that Jesus is doing all these signs, but Jesus bypasses his whole question of how do I get closer to God?

How do I, you know, and he asks the deeper question: how does someone enter the kingdom of heaven?

How does someone see it?

And he doesn't answer Nicodemus by saying, try harder, follow the law, make better New Year's resolutions.

None of that matters.

He says simply, you must be born again.

Nicodemus is thinking in religious categories.

He's saying, How can I do the right thing to make get God's approval in my life?

And Jesus reframes everything that he's thinking, saying, you need a new origin.

You need God's spirit to give you a spirit life that actually works inside you.

So being born again is what happens when God gives you new life from above.

It's not something you make up or work up or you improve yourself or you repeat certain words or mantras or anything like that.

It's a spiritual birth you receive, and he says it's whoever believes receives this eternal life.

Fast forward, you guys who know we're gonna get to John 3.16.

Well, look at verse 15.

He says, Whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

So new birth, being born again, is God's response to anyone who will put their faith in Jesus.

What does that mean?

Do you believe in what Jesus has accomplished?

Who Jesus was?

Do you think Jesus was God?

Because he was.

That he came from God, was God's Son, he was.

And that God he gave himself and was crucified for your sins as your substitute because he was, and that he rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted his sacrifice because he did, and that he wants to share his resurrection life with you.

The gospel is very simple.

Do you believe Jesus died and rose for you?

If you do, you are born again.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says it this way God saved you by his grace when you went to church.

It doesn't say that, does it?

When you believed.

And you can't take credit for this.

It's a gift of God from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

I love it.

It's always a free gift.

So again, here's our simple breakdown.

You were born again when you hear God's truth about Jesus and you trust it or believe in it, then you receive his life by faith.

And the Spirit makes you completely new.

The Spirit takes the old nature out of you and he transports it through time and he puts it on in Jesus Christ's body on the cross as he's nailed to the cross and it's killed there, dead.

And I want you to remember that.

I want you to see that when Jesus died on the cross, it was you.

It was your old nature that died with him.

So now what's your new nature?

God takes the Holy Spirit, Jesus rises from the dead, and he shares it with all of us.

So that's what's replaced inside us that God took out.

We're not left empty, he replaces it with the Holy Spirit.

You're washed, you're set apart, your whole life is set apart to serve God.

Your whole life, morning, night.

What you do the first thing when you wake up and the last thing you do before bed, and every word and every motive, all between there, it's all for God's glory.

And you will never be happy doing anything for yourself ever again.

Now, our brain thinks we'll be happy, but we're learning as we grow in Jesus that we're just never gonna be happy.

It just doesn't work that way because our new identity is Jesus lives through us.

That's how we become a new race, a new humanity, a new being.

Nothing about our old life is supposed to continue.

Even this very body that is falling apart is gonna eventually die and be replaced with new.

It's all new life.

Eventually it'll all line up.

Your mind, your will, and your emotions will line up perfectly with the truth God says about you.

Now I want to just tie one thing back to our beginning.

We we mentioned the zealots and the Essenes.

The gospel says, I'm gonna fix things, but not with your efforts like the zealots.

The zealots are like, we gotta fight!

And Jesus is like, Yeah, I'm gonna fix you, but it's not through fighting, and it's not through separating from the world like the Essenes.

Oh, I don't go to those parties.

I don't go to those restaurants, I don't go.

He says, That's not, yeah, maybe you shouldn't go, but that's not where life is gonna come from.

Just because you don't go to parties, you're boring, but Jesus party.

It's not that's not that's not how his his life is gonna work.

Don't be like the Essenes.

And like the Sadducees, right?

It's not going with the world that also works.

That's not what Jesus said.

Jesus is like, I don't want you going with the world either.

Don't try to avoid the world, but don't say, yeah, let's get as worldly as we can be.

Let's party.

That's not it.

All right, Jesus, thanks so much for not just I can end it right there.

And it's not like the common people, right?

Just being basically like just go with the flow of whatever's happening because you have no strength, the weakness.

God's not saying that either.

And he definitely isn't saying, like the Pharisees, it's not through religious traditions and efforts and legalism and law that our life is found either.

Jesus doesn't use a single one of these identities, he only gives you a brand new identity called new birth, where everything lines up with him and his character.

So he says he works by new birth.

So today I just want to ask you this one question: Do you believe in what Jesus has done?

If you do, God put that inside you, and because you believe, the Holy Spirit has made you alive again in him.

If you don't yet believe, it's okay.

But you must believe.

Jesus says all men must believe.

This is the only way.

There is no other way to the Father.

There's no other way to heaven, there's no other way to have sin forgiven.

This is the only way.

God has prescribed one prescription.

Take the pill.

Take two of these and call me in the morning, right?

It's one prescription.

And it's Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And if you think there's another way, I'll fight you in the alley.

There's one way.

And there's I'm gonna be as clear as possible.

It is believe in Jesus Christ, and He will set you free.

And what?

Yeah, I do have that announcement.

Um, I'm gonna pray first, though.

Let's pray for one minute.

Okay, Jesus, I just I bring all these these hearts that are so precious to you before you.

Lord, everyone's going through different things.

Some are sick, some have been in the hospital this week, some are doing just great.

And there's a lot of confusion about what the future holds for all of us.

But Jesus, we can know that our life is in you and you will be in us.

You are in us when we believe.

And Father, I pray for any person out here who has yet to believe, I pray that today they would make the decision to believe that Jesus Christ, you are God, and you became man and you gave yourself as a substitute for our sin.

And I pray that all in this room and everyone who hears us on the internet, and everyone who we talk to this week and share this gospel across this entire world, Father, please save more people.

Please bring people to know your Son Jesus Christ.

In your name we pray.

Amen.