Today:

• Our passage brings us to John 3
• John’s gospel seems to be more intimate, more personal. 
  • Conversations 
• Jesus having dialogue with Nicodemus - Leader, Educated, Religious 
  • Born again is not emotional
  • Born again is not uneducated and lowly
  • Born again is not religious

13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Such a rich text, let me break it down in three ways

• The NEED for New Birth
• The SOURCE for New Birth
• The REASON for New Birth

1. The NEED for New Birth
   1. John 3:1–3 (NLT) — 1 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 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.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 
   2. Nicodemus wanted to see the Kingdom of God bad! He had given His whole life to seeing it. 
   3. Jesus tell him that without being born again, he wouldn’t see, or get into, the Kingdom of Heaven. 
   4. Scuba at the bottom of vortec springs. 
   5. We need a new SENSIBILITY - “Without it you cannot see the Kingdom of God”
   6. We need a new IDENTITY - “Adam means earth, we are all sons and daughters of Adam”
      1. We need to be born of a new family line, a heavenly family.
   7. We need a new DESTINY 
      1. 1 Peter 1:23 (NASB95) — 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
      2. Your destiny with your current DNA is the grave, it’s a dead end.
      3. Your destiny if you’re born again is heaven! 
2. The SOURCE for New Birth
   1. John 3:4–12 (NLT) —4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” 9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. 10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  
   2. Nicodemus is confused/ this is a mystery
      1. Jesus confirms it is a mystery! 
   3. Born of WATER and SPIRIT
      1. Option A - Born from a natural birth and a spiritual birth
      2. Option B - Born from baptism and spiritual birth
      3. Option C - Born from the Spirit in both senses
      4. Option D - Born by the water of the word, and by the regeneration of the Spirit
   4. Born from the SPIRIT
   5. Born from ABOVE
   6. Born from the FUTURE
   7. We can’t explain the wind but we see and feel the reality of it. 
      1. When someone is born again you can see and feel that they have been regenerated, yet how we do not know. 
3. The REASON for New Birth
   1. John 3:13-21 (NLT) —13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. 18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
   2. Someone made this possible
   3. I’ve been to the birth of all my children, I can assure you someone gets the credit for those births... It’s Angie! 
   4. The SON loves the FATHER
   5. The FATHER loves the WORLD
      1. John 3:16 (NLT) — 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
      2. Billy Graham said if they Bible were condensed into one verse, it would be this verse. 

How do I go from natural birth to spiritual birth

• Come to the light
• Look to the Son and believe in Him
• Obey Him
• John 3:35–36 (NLT) — 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. 36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”