- Jesus challenged Nicodemus to think outside his religious box.
- In a similar way he challenges us, not to live ordinary lives limited by the expectations of this world,
- but to embrace the amazing reality of the age to come, now in the present.
Sermon Outline - Born from Above
Goal:
- To allow Jesus to completely change our thinking.
The story so far…
- The extraordinary poem hidden in the first 18 verses of John [1:1–18]
- In our modern, organized minds, we want the truth laid out in 7 simple steps. But what the Bible often gives us is a Michelangelo painting
- Why the very first believers were so drawn to Jesus [1:19–51]
- A Different Take on turning Water into Wine [2:1–11]
- Anger and Love in the Temple
Born from Above
- The night-time conversation
- Jesus wants us change our categories today
John 2 (end of last week)
- Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, many people believed in his name because they saw the miraculous signs he was doing.
- But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.
- He did not need anyone to testify about people, for he knew what was in people.
John 3:1–15
- Now there was a man, a Pharisee, named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council,
- He came to Jesus at night and said to him,
- “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.
- For no one could perform the signs that you do unless God is with him.”
- Jesus replied,
- “Truly, truly I tell you, unless a person is born from above,
- they cannot see the kingdom of God.”
- Nicodemus said to him,
- “How can a man be born when he is old?
- Surely he can’t enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
- Jesus replied,
- “Truly, truly I tell you, unless a person is born of water and Spirit,
- he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
- What is born of the flesh is flesh,
- and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Do not be amazed that I said to you,
- ‘You must all be born from above.’
- The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear its sound,
- but do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
- So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?”
- Jesus replied,
“Are you the teacher of Israel
- and yet you don’t understand these things?
- Truly, truly I tell you, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen,
- but you people do not receive our testimony.
- If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe,
- how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
- No one has ascended into heaven
- except the one who descended from heaven
- —the Son of Man.
- Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
- so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
- so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
- For this how much 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.
NET
anothen “from above” or “again”?
Elsewhere in John:
- John 3:31 He who comes anothen [from above or again] is over all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is over all.
- John 19:11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you anothen [from above or again].”
- John 19:23 Jesus’ garment woven anothen “from the top”
John 1
- But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
- who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of humans, but of God.
Ezekiel 36
- I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
- And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
- And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Contrasting pairs
- Main point: you need to change your entire way of thinking
- Old to new, earthly to heavenly!
Born from Above
- The night-time conversation
- Jesus wants us change our categories today
2. Jesus wants us change our categories today
- If you are not a follower of Jesus, allow him to challenge you
- What if you are wrong about this material existence being all there is?
- Can you be stretched today?
- You may have a framework where “Jesus is just a good teacher”
- Maybe your framework is wrong?
If you’re a follower of Jesus
- Jesus still wants to blow away your categories, your framework for life
- We define our own limitations
Spoiler alert: John 17
- I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
- They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world…
- As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.…
John 17
- [I ask] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
- The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
- I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Ellen Langer (Harvard 1981—)
- Did many experiements which demonstrated how we think within our boxes, sometimes shockingly
- Everything we see, we interpret within our categories
- It is a challenge for us to be open to a new framework for thinking
- E.g old age
If you’re a follower of Jesus
- Jesus still wants to blow away your categories, your framework for life
- We define our own limitations
- Jesus challenged Nicodemus to think outside his religious box.
- In a similar way he challenges us, not to live ordinary lives limited by the expectations of this world,
- but to embrace the amazing reality of the age to come, now in the present.
Updated on 2019-10-13 by Andrew Fountain
