37. Born Again: Jesus and John's Gospel Part 6

When we were first born, we were born into a huge family. Unfortunately, that family has a very big problem. Jesus says that what we really need is to be born again. What can that possibly mean? Join Dave as he explores John chapter 3 to find out.

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G’day, and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids. My name’s Dave. Dave Whittingham. All my family have the last name Whittingham. My children have it… my wife has it… my parents have it. It’s the way my family shows that we’re in the same family. Not all families do that… but it’s the way we do it.

Of course… there are other ways to tell if someone’s in a family. Sometimes they look similar… their face is similar… or they all have red hair… or they all have five noses…

How can people tell that you and your family are in the same family?

I’m going to tell you something… a bit weird. You may not have thought about it before… but its true. You and I… we’re actually in the same family.

RECORD SCRATCH/CAR CRASH/DEEP BREATH/CRICKETS

Wait wait come back! Hear me out. I know it sounds weird. I know you probably don’t have the last name Whittingham. But… believe it or not… we’re in the same family.

In fact… you’re in the same family as every single person listening to this podcast.

And unfortunately… our family has a really big problem.

Don’t know what I mean? Well you’re about to find out.

Get ready for our next episode… or Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

MUSIC

At the end of our last episode… people in Jerusalem were starting to believe in Jesus. They saw all the signs he was doing… the miracles… and they started to get pretty excited.

As John’s writing his Gospel though… he gives us a bit of a warning. He says that even though these people are starting to believe in Jesus… he doesn’t believe in them. He doesn’t trust them. Because he knows that people have a big problem of sin. Of selfishness… and making ourselves the boss of our own lives instead of letting God be our boss. So even when people start saying great things… it doesn’t mean Jesus can trust them.

After giving that warning… a man comes to Jesus and says something really great.

His name is Nicodemus. He’s one of the religious leaders who’s meant to tell people about God and explain the Bible. He’s what’s called a Pharisee.

And in John chapter three he comes to Jesus at night. He says to Jesus in verse 2:

“Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do the miracles you do, unless God is with him.”

That sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Isn’t that what you want him to say? Its completely true so… full marks for Nicodemus.

But remember… just because he’s saying these words… it doesn’t mean he really understands who Jesus is. It’s a good start… but we need to see if he’s willing to stick with Jesus.

Now… if someone comes up to Jesus and says, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do the miracles you do, unless God is with him”… how do you expect Jesus to respond?

Maybe he’ll say… “Oh, I’m so glad you’ve worked it out. Come and hang out with me.”

Or… “Well done! Can you go and tell some other people that?”

Or even… “hey dude… totally awesome. You’re rockin’ it.”

Or something like that. Well here’s what Jesus actually says in verse 3:

“I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

RECORD SCRATCH

Ummm… say what now?

Unless you are born again, you cannot be in God’s kingdom.”

Nicodemus wants to be in God’s kingdom. The Pharisees think they’re going to be in God’s kingdom by doing lots of good things to please God. But now Jesus is saying that… to get into God’s kingdom… you’ve got to be born again.

I don’t think Nicodemus has any idea what Jesus is talking about. So he asks what sounds like a pretty obvious question. In verse 4 he asks:

“But if a man is already old, how can he be born again? He cannot enter his mother’s body again. So how can he be born a second time?”

You know, you used to be in your mum’s tummy. But have you ever seen pictures of yourself just after you were born? You were tiny! If you were inside your mum now, she’d explode!

Jesus doesn’t back down though. He replies to Nicodemus:

“I tell you the truth. Unless you are born from water and the Spirit, you cannot enter God’s kingdom.”

Car crash sounds in the background of this.

What? Born from water and Spirit? What on earth does that mean? I don’t know what’s going on! This is all getting so weird! What’s gonna happeeeeeen!

Ok ok ok. I think we need to take a deep breath… slow down… and try and work this out.

Breath

Aaahhh. That’s better.

Now. Do you remember how I said back at the beginning that we’re all in the same family? Well… its not the Whittingham family. It’s a bigger family than that. We’re all in the family that comes from the very first humans, Adam and Eve. No matter who you are… where you live in the world… what colour your skin is or what your last name is… if you’re a human… you come from that family.

There are lots of great things about being in the human family. But there’s also something terribly sad. All of us… everywhere… love to sin. Ever since Adam and Eve first said to God… we don’t need you… we want to be like God ourselves… and they ate the fruit that God told them not to… that’s how humans have lived. Wanting to live our own way, not God’s way. Wanting to be in charge of our own lives… not let God be in charge. You can tell we’re all in the same family because we all sin.

Another way you can tell… is that we all die. Life comes from God… and because we try to live apart from God… God says that we all deserve to die. We all do die. God warned Adam and Eve that that’s what would happen… but they did it anyway. Its like saying… huh. I hate air. I don’t need air to live. I can live better without air. Its craziness.

The thing is… we can’t stop sinning. We love it too much. We love being in charge too much.

Plenty of people have tried stopping. In fact… in the Old Testament when God chose Israel to be his special people… he gave them his perfect law. He told them how to live perfectly. And for about a thousand years… time and time and time again… they failed. Because… humans just love ourselves more than we love God. The sin is built into us… even when we’re born as cute little babies.

In the Old Testament… after people had been trying and failing for about a thousand years… God gave them some hope. He told them how things were going to get better. It wasn’t going to be because they were going to somehow change themselves… it was because God was going to change them. He said he was going to wash them clean from their sin with water. Give them new hearts that didn’t want to sin. Put a new Spirit inside them that would want to listen to God. In fact… he’d put His Holy Spirit inside them. Here’s what God says in Ezekiel, chapter 36, verses 25-27. He says:

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and your idols. Also, I will teach you to respect me completely. I will put a new way to think inside you. I will take out the stubborn heart like stone from your bodies. And I will give you an obedient heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you. And I will help you live by my rules. You will be careful to obey my laws.

Its like God’s promising to make them into new people. Like he’s saying that they’re not going to live like the family of Adam and Eve. Its almost like they’re going to be… born again!

GASP

That’s it! That’s what Jesus is talking about! We’ve got to be born again to be in God’s kingdom and family!

But wait. How do we do that?

I mean… I had nothing to do with being born the first time. It just kind of… happened to me. And everything that Ezekiel wrote about was about what God was going to do to his people. That’s completely different to what Nicodemus is trying to do. He’s trying to get rid of his own sin. And so he doesn’t understand Jesus at all. In fact, he says to Jesus in verse 9:

“How can all this be possible?”

Jesus is really frustrated. He replies:

“You are an important teacher in Israel. But you still don’t understand these things?

I mean… if the teacher doesn’t get it… what hope has everyone else got. Imagine if you go in to school tomorrow… you sit down… there’s a maths problem on the board. The teacher looks at it and says… “Man. I don’t get that at all!” That’d be bad, right?

Thankfully… there’s a much better teacher than Nicodemus. A teacher who’s come from God. Who’s able to speak exactly what God means. And that’s Jesus, God the Son. And he tells Nicodemus how he can be born again. How he can move out of the family where everyone dies and into a family of life. Life forever. God’s family.

Its by believing in the one who can give God’s Spirit. Believing in the one who can give you new life. Its by believing… in Jesus. Jesus says that if you believe in him… you’ll have life forever. Eternal life.

In verse 16 we’re told this. It says:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.

Just think about that for a moment. The whole human family is guilty of sin against God. He gives life but we think we can do better. We don’t treat him as our king and our life. It’s so bad. And God could just punish us. Let us die and not care about us. That’s what we deserve.

But he loves us so much. Not because we deserve it… but because he’s so kind and loving and faithful. And if you want to know how much he loves us… you just have to look at what he does to give us new birth into his family. Eternal life in his kingdom.

He sent his one and only son… who he’s loved since before the world began… to come and die in our place. To take our death so that we can have eternal life.

And to get that life… all we need to do… is admit that we can’t do anything. We have to believe in Jesus. Believe that he’s the best. He’s the one who gives life. He’s the one true king of our lives.

We have to stop believing that we can give ourselves the best life. Stop believing that we can do things better than God’s way of doing things. Give up believing in ourselves and start believing in Jesus.

If we do that… we’ll have new birth… a new life in God’s family. He puts his Holy Spirit inside us to teach us how to live God’s way. To make us want to live God’s way. He gives us life forever. Not that we won’t die here on earth… but just like Jesus died… we’ll come back to life. In fact… the New Testament doesn’t even call what we do dying. Do you know what it calls it? It says we sleep. What’s the big difference between death and sleep? When you sleep… you wake up. And when Jesus comes back to take all his family home to be with him… everyone that’s been born again… he’ll wake us up and take us home.

This is the best news in the world.

INTERLUDE MUSIC

As well as being the best news in the world… its also the most important news in the world. Believing or not believing in Jesus is the most important decision you’ll ever make.

A little while after this conversation with Jesus… some of John the Baptist’s followers come up to John. They’re feeling… a bit frustrated. A bit angry. They’ve discovered that more and more people are going to see Jesus than John. And they’re like… hang on a second… sure Jesus might be pretty great… but John came first. Surely he’s the more important one.

But John doesn’t let them get away with that sort of thinking. He’s like… um… this is exactly what I told you. I told you I was getting people ready for someone… and now that person’s here. He’s the most important one.

In fact John’s worried for them that they might miss out on Jesus. He tells them just how important it is that they go to Jesus as well. It’s a matter of life or death. If you believe in Jesus he gives you new birth into eternal life. If you don’t… you’re still stuck in sin… God’s still angry with you because of your sin. Jesus hasn’t taken your death… so you need to take your own. In verse 36 we’re told this:

He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son will never have that life. God’s anger stays with him.”

So what about you? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you want him to give you this new birth?

I know for lots of you… you already believe in Jesus as your king and saviour. He’s the boss of your life. And that’s so fantastic. You need to know that no-one can take that away from you. You have eternal life. No-one can take it away because its Jesus who gives it. And no-one’s stronger than him.

If you don’t believe in Jesus yet… why not start now? You don’t suddenly shrink and become a baby. The new birth isn’t like you’re old one. In fact… you won’t look any different at all. You might not even feel any different. But you will be different. God will put his Holy Spirit in you to teach you how to be kinder… more loving… more caring. Your sin will be forgiven completely, because Jesus will take your death for you. You’ll have eternal life and you’ll be in God’s family forever. Jesus will make it all happen.

If that’s what you want… why not speak to God and ask him for this new life? Let me read out a prayer. You think about whether they’re words that you’d like to say to God. Afterwards… I’ll say it again and you can say it with me. This is what I’m going to say.

Dear God.

I know I’ve sinned.

I know I’ve tried to life with me in charge instead of you.

But now I believe that Jesus can save me.

Please forgive me for sinning against you.

Please put your Holy Spirit inside me and help me live your way.

Please give me eternal life in your family.

Thank you for sending your Son Jesus.

Thank you for giving me new birth.

Amen.

If that’s something that you’d like to pray… then I’ll read it again slowly. At the end of each line… I’ll leave a gap for you to say the same words to God. Let’s pray now.