{"id":30644,"date":"2024-04-08T22:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T05:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-2_13-25-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-03-26T21:45:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T04:45:44","slug":"john-3_1-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-3_1-8\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Mean To Be \u201cBorn Again\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 3:1-8 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 3:1-8.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 3:1-2 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-2: \u00a0\u00a0Jesus\u2019 most vocal opponents and critics were the Pharisees, the religious elite of Israel.\u00a0 Yet even among the Pharisees, there were those who secretly believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God.\u00a0 One of them was Nicodemus, who was not only a Pharisee but also a member of the powerful ruling council of Israel (v1b).\u00a0 Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night (v2), perhaps because he did not want to be seen associating with Jesus.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t stereotype a certain group of people in society as being beyond hope or unreachable.\u00a0\u00a0 God can work anywhere and in anyone.<\/strong>\u00a0 Just as Nathanael doubted that anything good could come from Nazareth (John 1:46) and was proven wrong, so some of Jesus\u2019 disciples, upon seeing Nicodemus, may have thought, \u201cCan anything good come from the Pharisees?\u201d \u00a0The fact that Jesus was willing to speak with Nicodemus despite the great difficulties that the Pharisees gave Jesus shows you that Jesus\u2019 heart is full of mercy and compassion.\u00a0 Jesus is willing to reach all comers and all people no matter what their background.<\/p>\n

John 3:3-7 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-7:\u00a0 \u00a0Jesus, knowing that Nicodemus was honestly searching for answers to spiritual questions, tells Nicodemus,\u00a0“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (v3)\u00a0 What does Jesus mean?\u00a0\u00a0In order to be a part of God\u2019s kingdom (\u201csee the kingdom of God\u201d (v3) or \u201center the kingdom of God\u201d (v5)), you need to be born again.\u00a0 To be born again means that while we used to be dead spiritually because of our sin, we become spiritually alive through our faith in Jesus Christ.<\/strong>\u00a0 Jesus is not talking here about a physical rebirth that we accomplish by our own effort, but a spiritual rebirth made possible by the Holy Spirit working in our lives.\u00a0 Another word for this process of being born again is \u201cregeneration\u201d.<\/p>\n

As Titus 3:4-5 says:
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,<\/em>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,<\/em><\/p>\n

Or as Colossians 2:13 says:
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Praise God!\u00a0 That is why \u201cif anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:17).<\/p>\n

By the way, when Jesus says, \u201cno one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit\u201d (v5), what does he mean by \u201cborn of water\u201d?\u00a0 Different scholars have posited different interpretations for \u201cwater\u201d.\u00a0 Some have interpreted \u201cwater\u201d to mean the Word of God (Ephesians 5:26).\u00a0 Some have tried to say that \u201cwater\u201d here means baptism, although this interpretation would conflict with other verses in the Bible which say that salvation is through faith alone and that baptism is only a symbol of that salvation.\u00a0 Some have interpreted \u201cwater\u201d to refer to our natural birth as humans, which leads to the question, \u201cWhat about unborn babies?\u00a0 Don\u2019t they go to heaven?\u201d (And I believe they do.) \u00a0It would seem to me that the best interpretation is that \u201cborn of water\u201d is probably referring to the Word of God and that to be \u201cborn of water and the Spirit\u201d means that God\u2019s Word and God\u2019s Spirit have worked in your heart so as to create a new spiritual life.<\/p>\n

John 3:8 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The 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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 8:\u00a0 Here Jesus does a bit of a word play because the word in Greek for \u201cspirit\u201d is the same as the word in Greek for \u201cwind\u201d:\u00a0pneuma<\/em>.\u00a0 In this verse Jesus is communicating how the work of the Spirit is like the wind.\u00a0 We cannot control it (\u201cthe wind blows wherever it pleases\u201d).\u00a0 We cannot fully understand it (\u201ccannot tell where it comes from or where it is going\u201d).\u00a0 And yet we feel the impact of the Holy Spirit\u2019s work in our lives (\u201chear its sound\u201d).<\/p>\n

Thank You Holy Spirit for working in us, convicting us of our sin and of our need for a Saviour, and leading us to respond to Jesus and His saving work on the cross.\u00a0 Thank You that because of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, I am born again.\u00a0 I used to be dead in my sins, but now I am spiritually alive forever because of Jesus.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 3:1-8.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJohn 3:1-2 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 1-2: \u00a0\u00a0Jesus\u2019 most vocal opponents and critics were the Pharisees, the religious elite of Israel.\u00a0 Yet even among the Pharisees, there were those who secretly believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God.\u00a0 One of them was Nicodemus, who was not only a Pharisee but also a member of the powerful ruling council of Israel (v1b).\u00a0 Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night (v2), perhaps because he did not want to be seen associating with Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30647,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30644\/revisions\/30647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}