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What is the New Birth?

David Sorn

Apr 27, 2025

John 3:1-8

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he MUST be born again. But what does that ACTUALLY mean and why is it so necessary?

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. (The New Birth Series Slide)
    2. Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.
      1. In just a few minutes we’re going to read a story in the Bible where a man comes secretly to Jesus at night.
        1. In part because he doesn’t want anyone to see him doing it.
    3. And for some of you, that was your story, or maybe it’s even your story right now.
      1. Maybe not a lot of people know you’re here…in a church.
      2. Listen, this was my story.
        1. When I was 18, I decided to actually read the Bible myself and see what it said.
          1. But I only read it in secret.
            1. Because I had a history of mocking Christians, and I certainly wasn’t a Christian myself, so I couldn’t have anyone seeing me reading the Bible of all things!
              1. So at night, in the secrecy of my room, I started to investigate who Jesus really was.
            2. And the great thing about Jesus, is He’ll answer your questions whether you come in the daytime or even the secrecy of the nighttime.
    4. Let’s take a look at this story.
    5. John 3:1-8
    6. Page 725
      1. This morning we are beginning a 5-week series where we will be teaching verse-by-verse through John chapter 3
        1. It’s one of the great chapters of the Bible.
        2. The great pastor, Charles Spurgeon once said this about John chapter 3
          1. “If we were asked to read to a dying man who did not know the gospel, we should probably select this chapter as the most suitable one for such an occasion; and what is good for dying men is good for us all, for that is what we are; and how soon we may be actually at the gates of death, none of us can tell.”  - Charles Spurgeon
    7. John 3:1-8
    8. Page 725
      1. You may perhaps have some familiarity with John 3:16 from this chapter…
    9. But I want you to see, today, the conversation that sets up that very famous verse.
      1. So let’s take a look
      2. (John 3:1-8) – NIV
      3. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 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.”
        3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
        4“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!”
        5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 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.”
  2. INTRO – PART 2
    1. (Title: What is the New Birth?)
    2. So this religious man, Nicodemus, comes to Jesus under the cover of night and acknowledges that Jesus must be from God…because of the miraculous signs that Jesus has performed.
      1. But then look at Jesus’ response in verse 3.
      2. 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
    3. There are a lot of spiritual terms here, and this is a Bible teaching church, so let’s break it down.
      1. So Jesus starts by telling Nicodemus that if he wants to see the Kingdom of God…
        1. …but what does that mean?
          1. The Kingdom of God = The dome in which God is King
          2. Or, life here on earth (and in heaven) where we live as if God is King and experience the goodness of God being King
  3. And so Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, “If you want to experience this truly amazing Spiritual Kingdom (both here on earth and if you want to go to heaven), you must be born again.
    1. But what does that mean? To be “born again?”
      1. Maybe you’re not familiar with that phrase, or maybe that phrase for you, it’s a loaded term…
        1. … and it makes you think of a certain type of Christian, like a politically motivated one, or maybe it makes you think of tent revivals or something like that
      2. My encouragement to you is if you do have any preconceived notions of this term, let’s just look at what the Bible says about it
        1. And the best way to do that is ask questions about it
    2. So let’s ask some questions (4 in fact) about this New Birth.
  4. #1: WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?
    1. And our first question is simply:
      1. 4 Questions about the New Birth
      2. #1: What is it exactly?
        1. What does it really mean (Biblically!) to be born again?
    2. This isn’t easy. Even Nicodemus doesn’t get it at first. Let’s look at verse 4 again.
      1. John 3:4-6
      2. Page 725
  5. (John 3:4-6) – NIV
  6. 4 “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!”
    5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
  7. 4 Questions about the New Birth
  8. #1: What is it exactly?
  9. Okay, but what does that mean?
    1. Jesus says you can’t enter the Kingdom of God until you are born of water AND the Spirit.
      1. You’ve already been born of water, right?
        1. Because your mother carried you in a sack of amniotic fluid, and right before you were born, her “what” broke?”
          1. Her water broke!
        2. So Jesus is firstly talking about a natural birth here (water).
          1. You can see this in verse 6 too, where Jesus says, “Flesh gives birth to flesh”
        3. But He says, if you want to be born again, you need to be born of water AND the Spirit.
  10. And this is in part because of the condition we’re all in as humans (we talked about this a bit last week at Easter)
    1. Because of Adam & Eve’s original sin in the garden of Eden, we’re all born with a sinful nature, which means “the car of our life” is out of alignment…
      1. …our nature keeps pulling us into the ditch of sin.
        1. But when we believe in Jesus as our Savior, that He died on the cross for our sins…
          1. …we are born again and given a new nature…and a new life.
  11. The Bible says this earlier in John chapter 1:
    1. (John 1:12-13) – NIV
    2. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
      1. So those who believe that Jesus died for their sins will be born again.
  12. But like, how?
    1. What does that even mean? What’s actually happening inside of you when you trust in Jesus as your Savior.
      1. By the way, this is a message where we’re diving deep into the theology of Salvation (it’s called Soteriology), AND we’re also answering questions for seekers at the exact same time here!
        1. Which is easier said than done, but I will try!
    2. Here’s what the Bible teaches:
      1. It says: Because of our natural sinful condition (remember we’re out of alignment), we need someone to come in, and realign us, and empower us to drive straight.
        1. And the Bible says that as you believe in Christ for your salvation, that the Holy Spirit (who is also God, part of the Trinity {The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit}) comes and dwells within you.
      2. (Ephesians 1:13) – NIV
      3. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit
        1. So as you believe in Jesus for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes inside of you and makes you born again.
          1. In our passage today, this is verse 6, when Jesus says, “Spirit gives birth to Spirit”
        2. And the Spirit not only is a seal, marking & guaranteeing your passage to heaven (He’s your passport to get in), but the Spirit also begins changing you from the inside out.
    3. 4 Questions about the New Birth
    4. #1: What is it exactly?
  13. I heard Pastor Timothy Keller explain it like this once.
    1. He said: Imagine you had a peach orchard, but you decided there are so many toddlers drinking those applesauce pouches now, that you wanted to go into the applesauce business.
      1. So how are you going to get apples out of your peach orchard?
        1. What if someone said, “Just go out there and prune it!”
          1. “Do the work to cut it back with your shears and you’ll start to get apples!”
            1. That’s not gonna work, right?
        2. What if someone said, “Maybe you just get some apples from the grocery store, and just glue them on there”
          1. “And then, before you know it, you’ll have a whole orchard of apples growing!”
        3. Those are ridiculous ideas, but this is what most people do when it comes to Christianity.
          1. We say, “I need to be a better person for God, so I’ll just prune back my drinking, my swearing, and my bad habits, and that’ll allow me to start growing good apples in my life!”
            1. But that doesn’t work anymore than pruning a peach orchard to get apples.
          2. Others say, “I don’t know if I’ll go to heaven, and if I’m growing apples like God wants, so I’ll just start doing good things for the community, and thinking positive, and speaking affirmations, and maybe do some prayers, and that’ll change my life”
            1. But that’s just glueing apples onto your peach orchard.
      2. If you want different fruit, you have to have a different nature, a different root system for the orchard of your life.
        1. You’d have to literally dig up the roots of the peach orchard, and replant and apple orchard if you want apples.
    2. And the teaching of the Bible is that when you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior & Leader, the Holy Spirit implants Himself at the base of your heart.
      1. And that seed germinates and it starts to empower you to live differently, and it starts to produce fruit (the Bible says in Galatians 5, like patience, gentleness, self-control)
    3. And so Jesus says to Nicodemus in v.7, “You must be born again.”
      1. Not only because that’s the only way to be saved, but because…
        1. The power to really change your life isn’t found in you, it’s found in God in you.
          1. And not knowing that truth right there is why a lot of Americans get so stuck in life.
            1. They’ve been wrongly told that they just had to work hard, think positive, and believe in themselves, and they could do anything.
        2. But at this point in your life, many of you are starting to wise up, and the question the whole premise of that idea.
          1. Because you were told you could do anything, but that hasn’t been true in your life, so you start thinking, “So what’s wrong with me?!”
        3. And I’ll tell you, nothing is wrong with you, you’re just human.
          1. You’re not God.
            1. And the truth that people haven’t been telling you is that what you need to rely on…is not you, but God in you.
              1. You need to be born again.
              2. You need a new nature, a new root system for the orchard of your life.
            2. Or if you’re already a Christian, you need to start relying on God again, not yourself.
              1. You need to plant yourself more deeply in the vine of Jesus Christ.
  14. #2: IS IT NECESSARY?
    1. Okay, this leads us to our second question about the new birth, about being born again.
      1. 4 Questions about the New Birth
      2. #1: What is it exactly?
      3. #2: Is it necessary?
  15. Why does one have to be born again to experience true spiritual life on earth and to go to heaven?
    1. Why can’t we just be good people?
  16. And this question is significant because of WHO Jesus is talking to here.
    1. He’s talking to Nicodemus.
      1. Let’s actually look back to verse 1 here.
      2. John 3:1
      3. Page 725
  17. (John 3:1) – NIV
  18. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.
  19. 4 Questions about the New Birth
  20. #1: What is it exactly?
  21. #2: Is it necessary?
    1. The Pharisees were the experts in Biblical law.
      1. They followed it to the nth degree, and had even developed 613 additional laws that good religious people should follow!
        1. They were incredibly religious, and they thought they would be saved by obeying the rules.
    2. And Nicodemus wasn’t just a Pharisee, verse 1 says he was also a member of the Jewish ruling council.
      1. This was called the Sanhedrin.
        1. It was a group of 70 leaders, who were kind of like a combination of a Supreme Court & Congress for the Jewish people.
    3. So Nicodemus is a big deal.
      1. If there were EVER a guy that society would say, “Oh, he’s a good guy! God’s taking that guy to heaven!”
        1. It was probably Nicodemus
    4. So what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? Does he give him a religious trophy or a pat on the back?
      1. No, he looks him right in the face, and in verse 7, Jesus says, “You must be born again.”
    5. And I think God, in His sovereignty, has Nicodemus of all people, come talk to Jesus to set an example for the rest of us.
      1. It doesn’t matter that you were in NHS, or that you served the poor, or visit the elderly, or give to the Red Cross, or whatever…
        1. If you want to enter the Kingdom of God (v.3), if you want to go to heaven, you MUST be born again.
          1. It’s not optional.
        2. Jesus didn’t say:
          1. “I recommend being born again”
          2. “Being born again…4.7 stars on google”
            1. He said, “You MUST be born again”
      2. And I don’t think I’d wager my entire eternity on the fact that Jesus is lying.
        1. If Jesus Christ said “You must be born again,” maybe the biggest question of your life is, “Am I truly born again?”
  22. #3: HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE BORN AGAIN?
    1. And this leads us to our third question:
    2. 4 Questions about the New Birth
    3. #1: What is it exactly?
    4. #2: Is it necessary?
    5. #3: How do you know if you’re born again?
      1. Well for one, have you truly believed that Jesus Christ is your Savior and died for your sins?
        1. Have you truly repented of your sins (which is a sign of true belief)?
          1. Repentance is to turn away from your sins and let God be the King of ALL of your life?
    6. If you have done that, then God will come into your life.
      1. And listen, I feel like I have good empirical evidence for this, because I’ve watched hundreds of people accept Christ as their Savior & Leader over the last couple of years, right here in this room.
        1. And they will tell you that it truly feels like they’ve been born into a new life.
      2. When I meet with new believers right after each service, I always tell them at the end, “If this is real for you, and you walk this out, and you start reading your Bible, you start talking to God, you let someone disciple you…”
        1. “God is so real, that even 6 months from now, you will not recognize yourself!”
          1. And I can’t tell you how many people come up to me in the lobby and say, “Pastor David, it’s been 6 months, and you said I wouldn’t recognize myself, and I just want to tell you, I didn’t really believe you then, but it’s been 6 months, and it’s unreal what God has done in my life!”
            1. That is being born again!
              1. That’s new life inside of you, changing you from the inside out.
            2. And no amount of hard work, or grit, or therapy, or positive thinking can do that.
              1. And settle down, I’m not against therapy or hard work.
                1. But nothing can truly change without God inside of you.
              2. Jesus said, “You MUST be born again”
          2. Check this out: Just in the last 3 weeks, I’ve had multiple people tell me that they were either separated from their spouse or weeks away from getting divorced, but now that they’ve both accepted Christ here, and their marriage has been saved, and they’re falling back in love.
            1. What could possibly do that but a changed heart?
              1. That’s not pruning the branches, it’s not gluing apples on…that’s uprooting everything…that’s being born again.
    7. This is what verses 7 and 8 are talking about
      1. John 3:7-8
      2. Page 725
  23. (John 3:7-8) – NIV
  24. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.”
  25. 4 Questions about the New Birth
  26. #1: What is it exactly?
  27. #2: Is it necessary?
  28. #3: How do you know if you’re born again?
    1. The Holy Spirit is like the wind
      1. I can’t see the wind, but I can see its effects. I can see it blowing the branches on the trees.
      2. I can’t see the Holy Spirit, but I see Him in the lives of all of these new believers.
        1. You can see it in the testimonies we hear constantly up here.
    2. And you should see it in your own life.
      1. Listen, this is a hard word, but just because you prayed the prayer one time, or you knelt beside your mom’s bed when you were 5 and accepted Christ, doesn’t mean you are saved.
        1. Because, if you really meant it when you accepted Christ, and you were really born again, you should see the effects of the wind, of the Holy Spirit in your life.
          1. You should be able to point to change.
            1. And it might not be miraculous, and you might still have some areas of significant struggle (because you’re still human!), but there should be places where you look at your life and say, “That’s God!”
        2. You should have some sort of testimony of God’s movement!
  29. BAPTISM
    1. (Baptism slide)
    2. Speaking of testimonies, yet again, we have some more people getting baptized this morning.
      1. Another 6 people this morning!
  30. So,, at this point I want to call out Baptismal Team on stage.
    1. As we are going to celebrate a baptism at this service
  31. Baptisms are a visual reminder that God’s Son, Jesus Christ has paid for our sins.
    1. And by our faith in Him, we were forgiven, washed clean.
      1. And not only that, that God has raised us up from the dead and given us new life.
      2. Baptism doesn’t save you.
        1. But it is such an important symbol of his love.
      3. Every person you see baptized at Renovation Church is baptized by sponsors (people who’ve had a spiritual impact on them)
  32. #4: HOW CAN I BE BORN AGAIN TODAY?
    1. Thank you for your testimonies.
      1. They lead us into our 4th and final question:
    2. 4 Questions about the New Birth
    3. #1: What is it exactly?
    4. #2: Is it necessary?
    5. #3: How do you know if you’re born again?
    6. #4: How can I be born again today?
      1. The good news is that it’s not hard.
        1. You don’t have start by pruning…and cleaning your life up.
        2. You start by just putting your faith in Jesus as your Savior & Leader
          1. And then God comes in, and cleans you up, from the inside out.
      2. Let’s look to the verse that is the center point of our entire chapter & series because, in many ways, it’s an answer to Nicodemus’s questions about being born again.
        1. (John 3:16) – NIV
        2. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
          1. And you will not perish, you will not go to hell because you’ll have believed Jesus has taken the punishment for you…
            1. …and that will take it off of you.
              1. And you will be forgiven, and get to go to heaven.
      3. But it’s not just that.
        1. We get to start experiencing the Kingdom of God now.
          1. Because when you believe in this, you will be born again, become a new Creation, because the Holy Spirit will come inside of you when you believe and start to change you, and walk with you, and guide you.
            1. And it’s pretty amazing.
    7. But it starts in faith
      1. Do you want to do this? Are you ready?
        1. Let me give you an opportunity to do this right now.
  33. Let’s have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head.
  34. If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the Leader of your life…to accept His gift of Eternal life…and be born again.
    1. In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand up
      1. No one’s going to be looking at you at all, it’ll be like when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.
    2. But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…to say, “God, come and save me. I want to be born again.”
  35. If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven.
    1. Then I invite you to stand where you are right now (and keep standing).
  36. The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.
  37. Repeat after me
  38. Dear God
    1. I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
    2. But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
      1. And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
    3. And now I commit, to following you, with my life.
  39. Amen, you can have a seat.
    1. For those of you that stood up…
      1. Important decision, need resources, what to do next.
    2. I’m going to pray and close the service in a second, but for the TWO/THREE of you that stood up, come see me after.
  40. Let me pray

Copyright:

David Sorn

Renovation Church in Blaine, MN

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