If you have your Bibles, please take them out and open them to John Chapter 3. We have spent close to 11 or 12 weeks in John's Gospel so far and we've only just got to John Chapter 3. So, we start a new chapter, we're going to spend probably the next three weeks in Chapter 3, then probably a couple of weeks in Chapter 4 and we'll be smooth sailing from then on in. So, if you have your Bibles, turn to John Chapter 3, We will be reading from John chapter 3 verses 1 through 15. It's Jesus talking to Nicodemus. So, if you have your Bibles, please be upstanding as we read the word of God together. If you do not have a Bible, the words will be available on the big screen there for you to read along. Let us read God's word and may God speak to us through his scripture. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound. but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you did not believe it, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. May God bless the reading of his word. Let's commit this service to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do thank you for this great passage of Scripture, this great encounter between Nicodemus and your Son. Father, we do pray that as we unpack the Scripture now, as we look to the Word of God, that you would illuminate it by your Spirit, that you would apply it to our lives, Lord, that we would see the command of you must be born again and Father, if we're not born again, may you by your Spirit cause us to be born again. Father, we do pray, Lord, for the Christians here, if we are already born again, may we take great joy and great encouragement in knowing that you have saved us. Father, I pray that you would take the word tonight, you would trim this message, Lord, to allow what you want to go forth and not what I want, that, Father, you would hide me behind the cross, that the cross of Jesus would be central to this message, that you would receive praise. We pray you'll do all these things for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated. Not so long ago I was watching television and one of the most annoying things about TV is the ad breaks. You know, you're getting into your show, you're really enjoying it and next minute there's a sale at A-Mart or something like that flashes across your screen. It's not something you really want to see when you're trying to work out what happens next in the show. And normally when ad breaks come on I do one of two things, either run to the kitchen to get a drink or something to nibble on then run back before the ad finishes or run to the toilet and do what I have to then run back again. I don't really pay much attention to the ads. But recently I saw an ad that caught my attention. What it was was a scene of this young lady on a beach and it wasn't the young lady that caught my attention but what was going on and she was walking towards the beach and she had on this pair of old patty denim jeans and the scene that was being presented was one of a religious scene. They had like the religious music in the background. You could tell that they were trying to make it look like a conversion or a church event. So, I watched and thought, what are they doing with this religious scene? Maybe it's an ad for a church or maybe it's an ad for some new atheist book mocking Christianity, so they're setting up the scene. What was this ad about? So, I watched and this girl walked into the surf and then she went backwards into the surf and it was a baptismal scene occurring in the ocean. I thought, what's this all about? Then she comes out of the water, her jeans are no longer tatty but they're brand new pair of jeans and the ad then said something along the lines of, denim is born again. I thought, wow, denim is born again. The term born again, it's something that's thrown out there, it's something that's used in society, you'll hear it tossed around quite regularly. You hear that Hollywood actors are born again after a drug rehab. You'll hear that old model cars are born again with a new release or a new paint job. Most recently I heard a news reporter say that Tiger Woods had been born again after sex rehab. Society, the world as a whole, uses the term born again. But what does it mean? What is this born again that they are referring to? Now, the world is not the only one who uses the term born again, you know, It's a Christian term, it's a religious term. So, we have preachers and religious people using the term born again as well. You know, I was on a street once and I saw this old preacher marching along wearing a sandwich board and on the sandwich board he had the words written, ye must be born again. Which is a true statement, you must be born again. But it didn't explain what it meant. And to make it even more confusing, it was written in year old English. But that was what he was walking around telling them, you must be born again, it's a true statement. But what does it mean? all the ads we have on TV that have denim being born again, the news reports and even preachers who wear signs, get their basis for saying you must be born again from this passage of Scripture. From John chapter 3 we see the term born again having its genesis, its beginning is here in John chapter 3. See, 2,000 years ago this word really came to the forefront of our theology, of our thought, of society. 2000 years ago, on a dark night, Jesus told a man, a religious leader, that he was missing something. That something in his life was not right. The missing bit of his life was the fact that he hadn't been born again. A religious man, a leader of the Jews, came to Jesus and Jesus said, you must be born again. He spoke of the new birth. And since then, that topic, that word has been in our society and it should be the forefront of the Christian church. It should be the message that the Christians preach the most. You must be born again. But what does it mean? We can throw the term out there, but do we know what born again means? The message of be born again is just as relevant today, 2,000 years after Jesus said it, as it was back then. On that night 2,000 years ago when Jesus told Nicodemus to be born again, it is the same message that we must have applied to our lives today. The message of Turbanio and Nudgee, if Jesus could appear to us tonight and say would be this, you must be born again. That is the message of Jesus Christ. Since the statement of you must be born again is a confusing one and often misunderstood, Tonight we're going to go through this passive description, just look at what the term means. What does it mean to be born again? We're going to answer that question, look at ourselves and see are we born again and then how are we born again? We have three points to tonight's sermon. Verses 1 to 4, a visitor by night. Verses 5 to 8, we must be born again. And 9 to 15, how to be born again. My challenge to you tonight is this, if you are not a Christian, then this very evening you need to heed the words of Jesus Christ and you must be born again. This night you need to be like the man we'll soon be introduced to in the scripture, a man who had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus Christ, one who came to him and had the statement, you must be born again made to him. You need to be like Nicodemus tonight when at the end of the conversation, you hear the good news of salvation. You need to be like Nicodemus and look to Jesus Christ. But tonight, if you are a Christian, we can rejoice in a great truth. Tonight, if you're a believer, we can rejoice in this great truth, that if you have been born again, then you are saved for eternity and you can know that you have been saved and you can know that you have eternal life. See, the Christians rejoice in this passage when we look and go, if we're born of the Spirit of God, we become children of God. Therefore, we stay children of God and we can know that we have eternal life. This great passage of scripture should serve as a challenge to the non-Christian, but it should encourage the Christian. So, with that in mind, let's look at our first point, a visitor by night. Imagine this. Imagine you've had a hard week at work. Imagine, for instance, let's say you're a preacher, you've had a week of you're out there preaching to people, you're teaching people, you're doing signs and wonders, you're healing people like Jesus did, you're doing many great deeds in society. Now, imagine you've had a busy week doing all this and finally you get a night off. You have a night off in which you can sit back and relax. So, on the night off you decide you're going to chill out, it's a lovely night, you're just going to rest, maybe pick up a book, have a read, you know, not do much. But then imagine, on your night off, some bloke comes along and says, g'day. This guy comes along who's a kind of important man, he's a political leader, a religious leader. He comes, knocks on your door and says, g'day, I need to speak to you. Now, most of us would probably be pretty annoyed if that was your night off and someone comes to you and says, hey, I've got some questions I need to ask you. Or if someone comes to you and says, you know what, I need to pick your brain. On a night off, you don't really want to do that, you want to relax. And I was thinking, how would I respond to this? I would respond in the way of going, I'm probably annoyed but I'll still see you. And I think most of us would probably do that, we'd probably be, how dare you on my night off, but we'd still see the person. See, that is kind of what happened here with Jesus. Jesus had been ministering and all of a sudden Nicodemus comes along, a religious leader and says to Jesus, I've got something I've got to talk to you about. But Jesus responds differently to what we mostly would have. He responds in a message of love and in a message of hope and tells Nicodemus of his greatest need. Jesus probably didn't get annoyed at Nicodemus. Jesus had been out preaching all week, you know, he'd been preaching things the Bible said like, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He'd been doing signs and wonders and miracles, he'd been ministering to the people of Jerusalem. A few days earlier, he had overturned the tables in the temple, so he was well known to society. And the Bible says that on a certain night, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. The Apostle John, when writing this passage, makes something clear to us, Nicodemus is no mere man. Nicodemus isn't the man in the gutter, he's a man of political power, he is a man of religious authority. Nicodemus is one who had a political rulership over the Jews at the time and he was a member of what is called the Sanhedrin, which is a religious order. Now, a Sanhedrin is basically like this, it's like a member of parliament who has been put to the front bench, a minister in the parliament, you know, not your average politician but the ones who can spend more money and get us in more trouble. So, Nicodemus was your top-of-the-line Pharisee and he came to Jesus at night and he greets Jesus, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God. Nicodemus came secretly. Jesus says that in later on the Gospels that he'd been ministering openly but Nicodemus didn't go to Jesus in the open. Nicodemus didn't go say g'day to Jesus as he was ministering around Jerusalem. No, Nicodemus came under the cover of darkness. He came secretly to Christ. And perhaps tonight we have come secretly to Christ. Maybe we have secretly come to church and not telling our friends and family what we're up to. Maybe we're like Nicodemus in that sense. We're coming to hear from Jesus tonight but secretly. See, John doesn't tell us why Nicodemus chose this time of day to come. Maybe Nicodemus was just so busy he couldn't visit Jesus through the day. But most commentators seem to believe this. Nicodemus didn't want to be seen with Jesus. But, he was curious to know about Jesus. See, by this stage, Jesus had a reputation. Jesus was known to the Pharisees, you know, you want to get known to the religious leaders, go mess up their temple. Jesus went to the temple, overturned and took a whip. He is known to the religious leaders. So, Nicodemus comes to him at night time. Jesus wasn't a popular man. He was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. He was a man who was hated, despised and rejected by men. Nicodemus wouldn't want to be associated with such a man. In fact, any religious or political leader would not want to be associated with a man who was perceived to be causing trouble. And that's true even today. When I was in the US, I'd done some open air preaching in Kentucky and there was actually a guy in the crowd who was running for congressman. for the US and I thought, man, he's a top wig, you know, maybe one day he's going to be like some major US politician. And I was preaching in the US about freedom of speech and how the American soldiers gave the freedom for men and women to stand up and preach in the States. And he was on my side at that point. The moment I started speaking about Jesus Christ, the congressman wanted nothing to do with me and disappeared. See, political leaders don't want to damage themselves. So, they're not going to associate with someone who's saying something controversial or doing something controversial. So, that's probably why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Jesus was a controversial figure. He didn't want to be seen with him. So, Nicodemus came up to him secretly. You know, Nicodemus maybe wanted to be promoted to high priest one day. That wouldn't have happened if he got seen hanging out with Jesus Christ. So, Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Basically, it's a polite greeting. He's coming up being polite to Jesus, not saying, listen, you're a rabble rouser, I want to know what you're doing. No, he's polite to Jesus, he says, Rabbi, teacher, you are like us, you're also a teacher, we're teachers, we can all get on, let's form a union. You know, he's coming to them saying, I want to be polite to you, I'm going to greet you politely and I'm going to give you a bit of, you know, a praise, you've done some good deeds. Nicodemus is putting Jesus on the same level with him. He is being polite, he's being friendly, but notice what he says. Nicodemus says, we know. Nicodemus doesn't say, I know you're a teacher sent from God. He says, no, no, we know. Which leads us to believe there was probably other Pharisees who were interested in knowing who Jesus was and maybe even acknowledging him as a teacher. But Nicodemus is the only one who came to find out what Jesus was on about. So, Nicodemus is here, he's being polite to Jesus. Rabbi, teacher, how you going? We know you're sent from God, could you do good deeds? And Jesus replies. The Bible says that Jesus answered him and says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus has been polite here and Jesus doesn't even acknowledge him for his politeness. Nicodemus has complimented Jesus and Jesus doesn't even acknowledge the compliment. Jesus launches and says, truly, truly, I say to you, you must be born again. He answers the question. He says Jesus answers what the text says. The problem is Nicodemus hasn't asked the question. Nicodemus at this stage hasn't even asked the question of Christ, but Christ gives him an answer. See, Christ knew what Nicodemus was there for. Christ knew the heart of Nicodemus. Christ knew the question that was on his heart. Last week we looked at the end of John chapter 2 which says that Jesus knew the heart of all men, he didn't need anyone to tell him what was in their heart. Jesus knew what Nicodemus was on about, he knew why he was there. So, Jesus doesn't enter into this polite dialogue, oh how are you, how are the kids, how's the cat? He doesn't care, he just goes, you need to be born again. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Jesus knew what was in a man. Jesus knew the heart of Nicodemus. Now, Nicodemus must have been taken aback at this, you know. He's rocked up, said, hello, politeness and Jesus goes, bang, here's your answer. Nicodemus is probably going, hang on a second, I haven't asked any question here. How can this man answer my question? Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Truly, truly. Now listen carefully. What I'm about to tell you is the fair dinkum truth. That's basically what Jesus is saying. When you say truly, truly, he's emphasizing something here. What I'm about to say is 100% true and you can trust it. Unless one, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You will not be a friend of God. You will not be a part of God's eternal reign. You will not get to heaven unless you are born again. Notice Jesus uses the word, unless, which shows a necessary condition on one getting to heaven. We don't just get to heaven because of who we are. Nicodemus thought he would have been, you know, the top dog, he would have got straight in, he's a religious leader, he's a political leader, he would have walked straight into heaven. But Jesus says, no, unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God. So, we can't get there based on who we are. We can't get there based on what we have done. We can only get to heaven based on what Jesus has done. There is a condition, unless you are born again. Now, that born again is something that is a gift from God. In 1 Peter it says that God has caused us to be born again. So, unless God sovereignly, supernaturally saves you, you won't see the kingdom of heaven. See, we can't get to heaven by living a moral life. I spoke to a lady yesterday who told me that she is a good person. That that's why God's going to let her into heaven because she is good, she is morally upright. You can't get to heaven by being morally upright. Jesus said there's none good, no not one. So being moral, being good, doing good deeds won't get you to heaven. Going to church won't get you to heaven. Being baptized won't get you to heaven. Only being born again gives you access to God. A command has appeared in the scripture here. Unless you are born again, you won't see the kingdom of God. Revolution. Nicodemus didn't get it. Can't blame him, you know, Jesus has just made a statement, you've got to be born again. Nicodemus didn't get it. And that leads us to our second point, you must be born again. Now I'm going to emphasise this time and time again because if you forget everything I say tonight, I want you to remember those words, you must be born again. Forget everything else, remember those words, I'll be happy, okay? You must be born again. So our second point, you must be born again. What does it mean? If I walk up to someone on the street and say, you must be born again, People probably go, what? In fact, I've done that. I tried on a guy who's probably going to do the debate here, an atheist agnostic guy who's going to come to the debate and I said, you know what, Wayne, the Bible says you must be born again. He goes, no I don't, I was born right the first time. That was his response. I spoke to a telemarketer once and he said, what about this born again theology? And I said, well, Jesus said you must be born again. He goes, no, I'm a born against Christian. So, people in the world don't have a concept of what it means to be born again and you know what, I'll even go a step further. The world might not know what it means to be born again, I'd have a good bet that many in the church don't have an idea what it means either. What does it mean to be born again? Look at Nicodemus' response to the statement. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Nicodemus is not questioning and, oh please, I want to know more. Nicodemus, in the context of what's going on here, in the context of the Greek structure, is being crass, he's being rude, he's being offensive to Jesus, he's mocking Christ, he's basically saying, how can I as an old man be born again? I'm already here on this earth, so how dare you say I must be born again? Am I supposed to go back to my mother and get popped out a second time? What are you on about? Don't be an idiot. That's basically what Nicodemus is saying. He's ridiculing Christ. Born again, don't be stupid. Nicodemus isn't genuinely seeking answers here, he's mocking. Now, rest assured, it's not the case. Nicodemus got it wrong here, okay? If you want to be born again, you don't have to go into your mother a second time, alright? Nicodemus missed the point completely. And I'm sure all the mothers are really grateful for that fact that you don't have to go back into your mum when you want to be born again. I know my mum must be really happy about that because I was born at 10 pounds 13 and she thought that was bad enough. If I had to get born again now, I think she'd kill me. So, Nicodemus got it wrong here, you don't have to go back into your mother to be born again and what Nicodemus doesn't get, he mocks. Nicodemus didn't understand it so he mocks, he ridicules Jesus and he's actually showing his pride and arrogance here. He shows his ignorance, a teacher of Israel not understanding what this other teacher is saying. When people don't understand things they often mock and they often ridicule. Talk to an atheist. They don't understand the Bible. What do they do? They mock and they ridicule the Bible. We saw that last night on the streets, we've done witnessing. Had an atheist who didn't understand what a Bible verse said, so what did he do? He cursed and abused and said, ha ha, I win. No, just because you may not understand something doesn't give you grounds for mockery. Nicodemus mocks. But Jesus doesn't entertain his crassness. Jesus doesn't reply to the rude statement that Nicodemus has said. Jesus doesn't rebuke Nicodemus for being rude and disrespectful to him. But rather Christ reinforces what he has said. Christ says, in more depth this time, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. The second truly, truly in this passage, you know the second in the Greek, Amen, Amen. The second statement of absolute truth in this passage is Jesus reinforcing what he's saying. Jesus once again stresses it and says, here's the truth, you must be born again. He doesn't get into an argument with Nicodemus because he doesn't understand, he stresses it and expounds on it. And in expounding on what it means to be born again, he actually starts slamming Nicodemus' theology. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying you must be born of the water, that is natural birth. You must be born naturally. In the Jewish culture, it wasn't just at the time of delivery that you're born, but in the Jewish understanding, the water occurred when the male seed went into the woman, that is the water. So, Jesus is saying you must have a mum and a dad if you want to get to heaven. Pretty basic. If you want to be born again, you must be born the first time. Secondly, he says you must be born of the Spirit. First is natural birth, second one is supernatural birth. If you experience both of these, both natural and supernatural, then Jesus says you'll go to heaven, you'll experience the Kingdom of God. Now, since I'm talking to a room full of born people today, I can say this, you all must experience the supernatural birth. We all must experience the supernatural birth. That is saving that comes from God. God saves us, that's the supernatural birth. And if God does not do this, if you do not experience a supernatural birth, then you will not experience heaven but rather you'll be damned. It's quite a big thing. You must be born naturally and you must be born again of the Spirit of God. If you're not born of the Spirit of God, then there's consequences for your actions. Jesus continues and says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Jesus hits at the heart of the Jewish righteousness here. The Jews believed, especially the Pharisees, that they will get to heaven because of who they are. They believe because they were Jews, because they were born into Israel, that automatically gives them a passport to heaven. They automatically get access to heaven because of who they are. That is what Jesus of Nicodemus believes. And Jesus hits that and says that which is born of flesh is flesh. You can't be born in right standing with God. That's what Jesus is saying here. If you're born naturally, guess what? You're natural, you're not spiritual. If you're born naturally, you don't know God necessarily. And Jesus is hitting at Nicodemus' pet righteousness, the thing he was relying on to get him right with God, who he was and what he has done. The Jews relied on their national heritage. They relied on, well, the fact that God blessed Abraham, we come from Abraham, therefore God's going to like us. That's what the Jews relied on. And Jesus said, no, that's not the case. If you're born of the flesh, you are quite simply flesh. You are not born of the Spirit automatically. There's no way the Jews could get spiritual birth by default and you know what? There's no way we can get spiritual birth by default. We cannot inherit salvation from our parents. Just because our grandparents were Christians or our parents were Christian doesn't mean we automatically become Christians. That's why Jesus says you must be born again. We are all born naturally so we all have sinful natures in us, we are all fleshly, we all have worldly desires and our flesh and our sinful desires demand that we be punished by God. But God has provided a way in which we can have forgiveness and that's Jesus Christ who died on the cross for sinners to take the punishment for us. We might have been born in a professing Christian nation. We might be born in a Christian family. That doesn't mean we're born of the Spirit of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. At some point in our life we must have a conversion. It has been said if you do not have a conversion story then you most probably do not have a conversion. We must have a point in our life, we may not know the exact day, minute or hour that we're converted but we must have a point in our life where all of a sudden we realise we've gone from following the desires of the world, following our sins to following Christ. There's a point in our life when we are converted and that is the moment we are born again. See by nature we're all born in sin. Wayne, my friend, who said he was born right the first time, actually got it wrong. The Bible says we are brought forth in iniquity. We are born with a sin nature. We are evil from birth as such. The Bible says that from the womb we go astray, speaking lies. We are born sinfully. It's the doctrine of original sin. We have sin in our life. We are born with a sinful nature. You know, because we are sinful at heart, we do sins. You know, we tell lies because at heart we are liars. We steal because at heart we are thieves. We lust and commit adultery and fornication because at hearts we are perverts. We are sinful by nature and our sinful nature outworks in the things that we do. We are sinful. We have been born in sin. That's why we need to be born again. We need to be born the second time but this time not with a sinful nature. When we come to God, when we come to Christ, repenting of our sins and trusting in the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we do not get given a cleaned up sinful nature. No, we get born again, we get born anew, we have a new birth and we become a new creation. We no longer have that sinful desire, we no longer have that desire to drink in sin as if it is water, but rather we desire to serve and love and obey God. That is the heart of one who is being born again. We need to be born of the Spirit. We need to be born of the Spirit because without it, we're facing hell. If God does not show mercy and kindness to us and we continue in our flesh, we will die in our flesh. But if God is kind and loving and if we look to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for sinners and rose again from the dead, if we'd look to him turning from our sins, then the Bible says we are born of the Spirit. But notice with Nicodemus here, Jesus says very plainly, very clearly, you must be born again. Now people have said that that was specifically for Nicodemus. That's not the case. Jesus, in the Greek which the Bible, New Testament was written in, the word you there is a plural. It's all of you must be born again. It's not just you alone must be born again, it's everyone must be born again. When I was doing Greek class we got told that we could either translate that ye, meaning you plural, write you plural or write y'all. I didn't really want to write y'all must be born again. But that's what it's basically saying, you all must be born again. It's a command to everyone. And when we share the gospel with people we need to stress to them the fact that they need to be born of God. They need to have a new nature, they need to have God come and save them. It's a message we must preach but it's a message that's not popular. Each and every one of us at some point in our life must be born again. I do pray that the Christians here have experienced that and you're not just living in deception. If you're not a Christian, tonight come to Jesus Christ, turn from your sins and be born again, born again to the Spirit of God. It's vital and I'll say it again, you must be born again. People ask what tonight's sermon is about, just say that, you must be born again and you're witnessing. But that's what tonight's about, you must be born again. George Whitfield is a hero of mine, George Whitfield is a guy that was used mightily of God in the First Great Awakening or the Evangelical Awakening in Britain and the USA. And George Whitfield was an open air preacher. It's said that he preached to crowds of 30 to 40,000 in the open air. He had a voice that could be heard at over a mile away. So, he was a loud fella, you wouldn't want to be standing right next to him when he started to preach. But his message was, you must be born again. It's a message George Whitfield preached and one day when he was preaching it, this man in America got really angry at him for saying it. The man went up to George Whitfield and said, Mr Whitfield, you're always saying you must be born again. I've heard you speak multiple times saying you must be born again. Why do you keep saying you must be born again? To which Whitfield replied, quite simply sir, because you must be born again. And it's quite true for all of us. The message of Jesus is clear. You must be born again. He said it like two or three times in different ways in this passage. You must be born again. So tonight you must be born again. Why do you have to say it again? Because you must be born again. Remember that, we must be born again. We need God to come to us to show mercy and kindness and love to us, to save us when we are the most unlovely, to save us when we are enemies of God, alienated from God. When God comes and saves us via His Spirit, we are born again. Now, you cannot be a Christian unless you have been born again. They go hand in hand. If you're born again, you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, you're born again. You can't be a Christian without being born again and you can't be born again without being a Christian. They work together. But some would say this, some says, well, there's Christians and then there's, you know, there's born again Christians. You know, the distinction you'll see people make all the time. I think that term is redundant. The term is redundant because on this grounds, you must be born again to be a Christian. It's like saying this, imagine I said, I'm an unmarried bachelor. It's a redundant statement. If I'm a bachelor therefore I am unmarried. It's pretty simple. If I say I'm a Christian therefore I must be born again. If you're a Christian you must be born again. If you're not a Christian you must be born again. You see, being born again is not an option. It's a necessity if you want to see heaven. You can't just say, I'm going to take that amount of the Bible, I'm going to ignore this born again stuff, I don't want it. You can't see God, you can't see heaven unless you are born again. Jesus says clearly, you must be born again. See, being born again is a sovereign work of God. It is something God must do. In 1 Peter 1.3 it says very clearly, God causes us to be born again. It's a work of God and God's not going to muck up the fact that he's saving people. God chooses those who will be saved and God causes us to be born again. See, the new birth, the being born again is something that God shows in kindness to those whom he predestined from before the foundation of the world. It's an act of love. God knew that we'd be born in sin, but he has caused some to be born again. He has got some in the world from every tribe, people, nation and tongue and even Banyo and Nudging, this nation, that he has saved for his great name's sake. Why does he save some and not the others? We don't know, but Jesus answers it in this passage. He says, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who's born of the Spirit. We don't know where the wind goes and why it goes certain angles and why it always seems to blow my notes when I'm trying to do something. We don't know why the wind does that. It comes from who knows where and it goes to who knows where. It affects some, it doesn't affect others. And so it is with the Spirit of God. God moves and saves people for some unknown reason. He saves some of the most vile of the vile people, people that we would say should go straight to hell, but He saves them. Why? For His glory. Why does He choose that person, not that other person? I don't know. The Spirit blows where it wills. God does what He wants, when He wants and with whom He wants. God's saving grace, God's unconditional election is love. We don't deserve to be saved but he saves us. If anything God's spirit should send us all straight to hell, he should cast us all straight into hell but he doesn't. He's merciful and he's kind and he saves the people unto himself and when Nicodemus is confronted with this statement he's no longer crass. Nicodemus is no longer rude but rather Nicodemus is speechless, he doesn't go off, he asks Jesus, how can these things be? How can I be born again? Which is our third and final point, we'll quickly look at it, how to be born again. verses 9 through 15. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered, are you the teacher of Israel? Yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, How can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." Nicodemus didn't understand why and how God could save him. And Jesus questions him and says, don't you get it? You're a teacher of Israel, you're the theologian of the nation, but you don't get this. If Nicodemus had spent time thinking about the Old Testament, that which he preached and taught, he would see that God has moved graciously and kindly throughout history. God in history saved people who didn't deserve to be saved. He showed mercy. Throughout the Old Testament, God is described as a God of kindness, a God of mercy, who shows kindness for generation after generation. But Nicodemus didn't understand. Nicodemus should have understood. As a teacher of Israel, as a theological teacher of Israel, he should have known what Jesus was getting at. But since Nicodemus didn't get it, Jesus lays it out perfectly plain and clear. For the third time he says, truly, truly. Again, listen here, what I'm about to tell you is the absolute truth. I know what I'm talking about because I'm the son of man. I've ascended into heaven and I've descended from heaven. I am God is basically what Jesus is saying here. And I have authority to say this to you. You must be born again. Jesus says, I'm telling you the truth. This is why I'm telling you the truth. This is how I know it's true. Be born again. then Jesus goes to the Old Testament, something Nicodemus would have been familiar with. He goes to Numbers 21, 4-6 and he references how Israel had rebelled against God in the wilderness and as a result God sent snakes to punish the people and people were being bitten and they were dying. And Moses said, how do we fix this? And God said, well if you make a bronze serpent and hold it up for all to see, all who look upon it will be healed from the poison. That's what God told Moses to do. And then Jesus says, as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man. If you look to me, you'll have eternal life. Jesus reveals the way in which Nicodemus can be saved, the way in which the people of the world can be saved, is by looking to him. He is the source of being born again. You need to look to the Son of Man. You need to look to Jesus Christ, the one who was lifted up on a cross for all to see. The one who was lifted high and suffered the cruelest of cruel deaths. The one who was whipped, beaten, mocked, spat on and cursed for our sin. The one who had the wrath of God poured out upon him. Look to the one who on the cross became sin for us. Look to the one who was taken down and buried in a borrowed tomb. Look to the one who rose again from the dead three days later. If you'd look to Jesus Christ, you would have eternal life. That's what Jesus is saying here. If you look, you will have eternal life. If you'd look to Jesus, you would be born again. The way in which we are born again is when we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone. And that's what Jesus would say to us tonight. look to me, look to the cross of Christ, look to the empty tomb. Just like Israel had been bitten by the poisonous snake and they had to look to the bronze serpent in order to have God's wrath removed, we too have been bitten by the poisonous snake of sin. Sin runs in our veins, we do sin naturally, we do sin all the time, we lie, we steal, we cheat, we fail to give God the glory that he deserves. And Jesus would say to us, just like that serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man. And whoever looks to the Son of Man will have eternal life. Would you do that tonight? Would you look to Christ if you're not a Christian? Would you look to the Son of Man who was lifted up, who took the punishment for the sins of his people? Now the Bible doesn't tell us here what Nicodemus did. It kind of just finishes here, then we get a summary of the Gospel in the next section. Nicodemus just seems to not say anything more and for a few more chapters in which he kind of defends Jesus. But in John chapter 19 we see Nicodemus being a part of the burial party for Jesus. He was now prepared to openly associate with Christ, to take his body from the cross and bury him. Nicodemus, without a doubt, looked to Jesus Christ. If he hadn't looked to Christ he certainly would not be associated with the crucified Messiah. Nicodemus was prepared to bury him and it says he even brought stuff to wrap the body in. Nicodemus looked to Christ. Tonight if you're a Christian, if you've looked to Christ, if you've looked to the cross, if you have been born again, then know this, you are a child of God. God's love is upon you. You can know for sure if you're born again that you're a child of God. You can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life. Because God gives us the promise that whosoever believes in Him will know that we have eternal life. Jesus says if you look to Him, you will have eternal life. And to call God a liar, to say, well I don't know now, Jesus says, if you look, you know. If you've been born again, you know that you have been saved, that you've passed from death to life. But if you're not a Christian tonight, I want you to remember these words, the words of Jesus, you must be born again. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the immense privilege we have of being born again. Father, we don't understand why you would save us. We did everything against you, we rebelled against you constantly but in love you saved us. Father, we do thank you for that mercy, we do thank you for that kindness that you've caused us to be born again. That our salvation rests not on anything we have done but it rests on the fact that Christ has done it all. That Jesus paid it all for us. Lord, we thank you for the cross. We thank you that Jesus Christ became sin for us that we might be made into right standing with God. We thank you that Jesus poured out his blood and as a result the blood of Christ is able to cleanse us from all sin. Lord, we thank you for everything you've done, for every good gift that you've given us. Lord, may we as Christians rejoice in the fact that you have saved us. May we have great joy in knowing that we've been born again and as a result we have eternal life. Father God may you assure us of our salvation, may you give us beyond a shadow of a doubt the knowledge that we will go to heaven one day. Father I do pray for those here that may not know you. You know the hearts of all men. You know those who are yours. You know those who are playing the game. Father, we do pray that you would convict them. That you'd cause them to be born again. That this very evening they'll be rejoicing in heaven as sinners repent and trust in you. Father, we pray you'll do this for your glory and for your glory alone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.