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LESSON 16 5/1/03
THEME SCRIPTURE: John.3: 1-8
YOU’RE THOUGHTS: What does the cross mean to you? Do you think that you are capable of bad things? What does the concept, born again mean to you?
MY THOUGHTS: I love the Bibles that have Jesus’ words in red letters, because every word that comes out of His mouth is extremely important for us to grasp and savor in our minds and hearts. The red letters makes it simple for us to isolate His words from others. There is one quote from Jesus that is located in John 3: 3 that is the theme of this lesson, which quotes “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This quote was addressed to a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. His response to that quote is similar to the kind of response that people are giving today. We are looking at this concept of being born as something that already has occurred. How can you be born again, that’s impossible? I could see this type of response to somebody that had no knowledge of the laws of God or lived day by day relying solely on things that are tangent or things that you can see or touch. Nicodemus wasn’t that kind of person; he had a reputation of a man that was well schooled on Gods laws. Having this knowledge triggered a curiosity in Nicodemus that drove him by night to find out what this man Jesus was all about. Jesus knew what Nicodemus was all about and He didn’t hesitate in getting to the point, hence the quote mentioned in (John 3: 3.) What Jesus was pointing out to Nicodemus and to us today is that no matter how much knowledge you have or how many times you read the Bible or how good you are to the people, you need to be born again in order to spend eternity with Him. There are many statements that were mentioned by Jesus in the New Testament that fall into the category of being a hard saying, a saying that is hard to except or to live with. I believe this is one of them. People are so set in their ways that even though they might not admit it, they fear change Jesus makes it clear further into His discussion with Nicodemus that we must be born of water and of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God (John.3: 5).Do you notice that Jesus mentions water in this verse? Water represents the act of cleansing. The first process that occurs after the commitment to be born again is this cleansing. Born again, be cleansed. What does that mean? The first thing that we need to understand is that -because of Adam and Eve’s confrontation with the serpent in the garden we are separated from God. Their disobedience has closed our spiritual eyes to the wonderful attributes that God possesses. He’s there, but we cannot feel His presence. So what do we do? The big question is what did Jesus do? Even though He was sinless, He took all of mankind’s sins to the cross. He became the ultimate sacrificial lamb and suffered pain, humiliation, a grieved, broken heart and worst of all, a brief separation from our loving father. (Mark.15: 34). Then in submission to His Father He chose to give up the Ghost (Luke.23: 46). Oh, but it’s not over. Our hero and our Savior conquered the one tool that the father of deceit had on us and that is Spiritual death. Jesus breaks the iron grips of death by rising from the grave. We must go to the cross with Jesus and die to self-pride and all that keeps us from entering into the presence of our Lord. We must put away our old sin- scared self and allow the cleansing power of the blood and water that was discarded from Jesus’ side caused by the spear of a soldier (John.19: 34) cleanse us as fresh as new. Then we must open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter that Jesus promised to leave behind to guide us into all truth. This is being born again. We all know that physical death is certain and we have no control, but spiritual death we do. So let’s open our eyes and look far off to that hill called Golgotha and we will see a empty cross stained by blood of our Savior Jesus Christ and let us rejoice! He has risen. Amen Scripture ref: 2Cor.4:16, 2Cor.5: 17, 1John.5: 6-8, Titus. 3:5 Just for fun: Look up these verses and you will see born again described in other words (its neat). Gal.6:15, Rom.6:4, Eph.2:1- 5, Col.2:12, 3:1, Ezek.36:26, Ezek. 11:19, Rom.7:6, Eph.4:24,
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