Cleansing and renewal your greatest need

Text John 3:4, 5 Time 16/09/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We have begun to look at John 3, the chapter where this man Nicodemus visits the Lord Jesus Christ one night and is told that he and everyone else needs to be born again. We have already spoken of Nicodemus's apparent advantages – his being a Jew and a Pharisee, a teacher and a well respected member of society. More than that, in coming to Jesus he had come to the right person. However, as we noted, none of these things were enough to lead to eternal life for not only was it night but there was darkness in Nicodemus's heart too.

This is clear from the speech that he begins in verse 2 that for all its high sounding piety was very far short of the mark. Like so many others, instead of asking Jesus to help him, he relied on what he thought he knew. Yes, Jesus is a teacher who has come from God and one who did great miracles and who had God with him but that is to say very little indeed. Jesus has to cut across Nicodemus and say very plainly (3) I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Now what follows in verses 4 and 5 is Nicodemus's unsatisfactory response to what Jesus says and the beginning of Jesus's further explication of what he says about being born again. The teaching in these two verses then is very similar to what we had in the previous verses. On the one hand, you have first the typically worldly response of Nicodemus and then by way of contrast the clear teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this day we are constantly being presented with both sorts of teaching – the false and the true. Clearly it is imperative that we follow the true teaching not the false. So we say

1. Note these five ways of thinking about finding eternal life that you must avoid

In response to Jesus's statement about the need to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God Nicodemus replies How can someone be born when they are old? … Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born! People generally assume that these words are spoken in a rather incredulous way – don't be crazy, that's impossible how can someone be born when they are old? On the other hand, it may be that Nicodemus, who we get the impression is an older man is being wistful. He's saying something more like How can someone be born when they are old? … Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born! If only they could.

We cannot be sure then in exactly what tone Nicodemus speaks but his statement highlights a number of possible mistakes that people make when they try to think about the need to be born again and about anything indeed to do with becoming a Christian. So we say

1. Avoid being materialistic

At the very least Nicodemus is being rather materialistic in his thinking. When Jesus talks about being being born again it is surely pretty obvious that he is using a picture one would think but no, however exactly Nicodemus reacts he does come up with this extraordinary idea of entering a second time into their mother’s womb to be born! He knows that cannot be what Jesus is saying but he is clearly thinking very much in materialistic terms.

We live in a pretty materialistic age. Communism is pretty much in decline these days but it has had its effect and materialism has dominated the way of thinking of many. Materialism basically holds that the only thing that is matter or energy; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions. Nicodemus certainly wouldn't have taken that view – he believed in angels for example. However, when the idea of being born again is raised he has a very materialistic approach to the subject. It's like those professing Christians who give you the impression that Christianity is all about this life, all to do with health and wealth and such things.

It is too easy to get into a materialistic way of thinking so that spiritual realities are lost on us. They talk of people who are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good but there is an equal danger of being so earthly minded that they are of no heavenly good. Are we being careful not to think in purely material and this worldly terms.

2. Avoid being unspiritual

This is the other side of the coin. Nicodemus is being both materialistic and unspiritual. He is forgetting that he has an eternal soul and that God is an invisible God who undoubtedly works among his people in ways that are often invisible. This is why he is so flummoxed by this idea of new birth.

This is the mindset that is being fostered in our schools and universities. Everything must be explained without reference to God. Almost no attempt is made to keep in mind that we are all body and soul not just bodies.

We must be very careful that we do not get into this unspiritual way of thinking. Is that your danger?

3. Avoid being cynical

Nicodemus is being, perhaps, quite cynical. We can think of cynicism as a jaded negativity that refuses to be positive. Today it is very easy to be cynical. We have had the report this week on what happened in the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 when 96 Liverpool football fans died. It has taken 23 years to get to the bottom of this and the report has revealed a cover up by the police and others on a large scale. Such revelations encourage one to be cynical. We have made the distinction before between scepticism and cynicism. The words are used in different ways but a case can be made for being sceptical but not cynical, if we say that scepticism is having genuine doubts but being willing to consider, while cynicism is refusing to take seriously what is suggested. Nicodemus does seem to be a little cynical. He poo poos the idea that a fresh start is really possible. Perhaps you have similar tendencies. “This talk of being born again is all very well” you say “but it's not really possible to start all over again.”

Beware of cynicism. It can so easily creep into our thinking. Of course, we don't want to be naïve or gullible. Isn't that the thing that Christians are always accused of? But we need to watch against cynicism too.

4. Avoid being unbelieving

If Nicodemus was not being cynical, he was certainly failing to have faith. Given what he had just been told by Jesus, surely his reaction should have been more like “If that is what you say needs to happen, I need to be born again, then help me trust in you for it to happen” but no he is straight back with his How can someone be born when they are old? … Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born! I am not suggesting that it is by faith we are born again. No, faith is a gift from God. However, this is one of the biggest problems that those who are not born again have – their lack of faith. And even those who are born again can fall into a lack of faith and fail to trust the Lord as they ought to. Remember how in Nazareth Jesus could do only a very few miracles. Why? Because of their lack of faith. These people just could not get their heads around the idea that their own boy had grown up to be the Teacher and miracle worker that he had.

See also then the need for faith. In Hebrews 11:6 the writer observes that without faith it is impossible to please God. If you come to God you must believe at the very least that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. How we need faith to come to God more willingly and readily. What a difference it would make if we were more ready to trust in the Lord.

5. Avoid being unimaginative

If Nicodemus was simply being wistful and only regretting that he could not start again then he is still guilty at the very least of a lack of imagination. He cannot grasp any way in which God may restore to him those lost years, those wasted years and enable him to begin again. Children are often born with a wonderful imagination. However, that generally goes as you grow older and whereas if you told a child about being born again he may take it in a matter of fact way, someone Nicodemus's age will usually have a host of hang ups that prevent him even thinking in such terms. Born again? What do you mean born again? How can that be?

We need to learn to think big. Away with small ambitions. Let's at least entertain this very powerful idea of new birth, of the possibility of starting all over again. Let's not rubbish the idea before we have even looked into it. Christianity has not been tried and found wanting as G K Chesterton once put it but it has not been tried and it is not wanted.

So that is the deconstruction, if you wish – a warning against materialism, unspirituality, cynicism, unbelief and a failure simply to use one's imagination for a moment. We are in danger I suppose of being thought rather negative and so I want to come now to something much more positive.

2. Understand how Jesus says you can enter God's Kingdom

When we come to Jesus it immediately becomes a lot more positive. Gone is a materialistic, unspiritual and cynical approach and it is replaced by one that positively encourages faith and imagination. Although it has to be said that what Jesus says may not be immediately clear. What he says is this Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. He has spoken of seeing the kingdom of God and the need to be born again to do so and now he speaks of entering the kingdom of God, again coming under God's direct rule. You enter God's kingdom he says by being born of water and the Spirit.

People have long debated exactly what Jesus means by these terms. The first term – born of water – has been the most difficult. Could Jesus in some way be referring to baptism or is it a reference of some sort to natural birth so that the first part could be paraphrased born naturally, the second part referring to being born spiritually. In order to be sure what Jesus is saying we need to assume that it would have been something that Nicodemus himself would have understood or at least could have understood. This makes it likely that Jesus is alluding to Ezekiel 36:25-28 where God says to the people I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Paul takes up the same double reference in Titus 3:5, 6 when he says that God 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.

There are two elements then in being born again - the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. From one point of view it can be described as being born of water and from another as being born of the Spirit.

We are aware that one of the concerns of these recent Olympics has been urban regeneration over in East London. What exactly will be achieved we are yet to see but certainly the aim was stated in terms both of cleaning the place up and of renewal. So for example it was committed not only to

• Create 9,000 new homes in the Olympic Park alone, with nearby schools and health and community facilities, including the largest new London Park since the Victorian era

but also to

• Clean up the urban wasteland of the Lower Lea Valley.

The Olympic Park again included not only

• New land bridges across rivers, new roads and railways

but also what they call land remediation as

• The area was contaminated, as a result of being used as a brickyard, gas works, wharf, mill, distillery and electricity generator at various times in the past, leading to cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, selenium, lead and naphthalene pollution.

In light of what we find in Ezekiel we say of the new birth,

1. It is by water – you need to be washed clean

In Ezekiel 36:25 God says I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. That is the first part of the promise. In Psalm 51:7, aware of his sin against God, David prays Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. That cleansing comes initially when one is born again. The Word, as it were, washes us clean so that Paul can speak in Ephesians (5:26) of the washing with water through the word.

So first we need to see that we are unclean, defiled and so unacceptable to God unless we are washed clean. $The illustration is often used of an old fashioned tramp. If he has been on the road for some time, the first thing he needs is a good bath to wash away the grime and dirt that has attached itself to him since he last saw water. We too are begrimed with the dirt and dust of sin and it is not merely skin deep but exists deep within our our deceitful and wicked hearts. Not only that but worse than the dirt on any tramp we are born dirty, as it were, we are steeped in sin from birth. It is only a new birth, birth by water, that can cleanse us from such guilt and wash away our sin. We need to go to God and ask him to sprinkle clean water on us that we may be clean. He alone can do it. Not ritual will bring it about – not baptism or anything else. He alone can wash away the guilt of sin.

2. It is by the Spirit – you need to be renewed

Besides the washing of rebirth, there is renewal by the Spirit, not that these are different things in fact but they are different ways of speaking about the same thing. Ezekiel's idea of God sprinkling clean water on his people so that they will be clean his cleansing them from all their impurities and from all their idols is also like God giving them a new heart and putting a new spirit in them, what is called there removing from you your heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh. It is God putting his Spirit in them and moving them to follow his decrees and be careful to keep his laws.

Hence David prays in Psalm 51 not only (7) Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow but also (10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me and indeed Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. It is only the Holy Spirit within that can guarantee us both cleansing and renewal.

To go back to our old fashioned tramp. It is not enough to give him a good bath. You need to burn the filthy clothes he has been wearing and give him anew set of clothes. It is only then that he will be transformed outwardly in the way that is desired. So too we need not only cleansing but a complete renewal within so that we are delivered not only from its guilt but also from his power.

Surely it is obvious to all of us that merely to have all our sins washed away, as great a favour as that is, would never be enough. What guarantee that we would not sin the very next moment and so be undone. We need something more than cleansing from guilt. We need a total transformation. We need to be renewed within. We need a new nature so that we turn from sin and start to the good that God requires. That will come about only by being born again, something that God alone can do.

I would say to you then, if you are born again, to be thankful and to realise that God has both removed your sin and given you a new nature, one that desires to serve him. Still we sin and will often need to pray like David for cleansing and for the renewal of a steadfast spirit.

If you are not born again, then see that is your need – to be cleansed and to be renewed, to be washed and to be new created in Christ. Only God can do that for you. He alone can take away the pollution that clogs the territory that is your heart. He alone can build you anew to be what you ought to be in Christ. Plead with him to do it. Let's all pray that they will be regenerated and that many more in this area will too.