Spiritual and mysterious but don't be surprised you need it

Text John 3:6-8 Time 23/09/12 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

We have begun to look at that famous chapter John 3 where a rabbi called Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and is told that he and everyone else needs to be born again or born from above or, as we considered last week, born of water and of the Spirit. He needs to be cleansed and renewed and only God can do it.

So far we have looked at the first five verses of the chapter and basically what we have been doing is to contrast Nicodemus and Jesus and their statements.

On the one hand you have Nicodemus who seems to have a lot going for him – he is a Jew and a strict 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, 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.

In verse 2 Nicodemus speaks and at first what he says seems good. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. He calls Jesus Rabbi, my teacher, he says he is from God and God is with him and that he does miracles. This is all true but it is not saying anywhere near enough. Much more needs to be said about Jesus and if Nicodemus thinks he can be a disciple simply by observing good things about Jesus he needs very much to think again.

When Jesus tells Nicodemus about being born again he once more lets himself down. It is difficult to know his tone exactly in verse 4 but if we are cynical and unbelieving as he clearly is then we will certainly get nowhere.

Jesus by contrast speaks of seeing or entering the Kingdom of God and makes clear that it cannot happen without being born from above. He goes on to explain something more in the verses we want to look at this week, verses 6, 7 and 8. What Jesus says here can be tied together in more than one way. So, for example, you can link verses 3 and 7 by noting that

Verse 3 ends with Jesus saying I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again as does verse 7 where Jesus says You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ in between are verses 4 and 5 where first Nicodemus says that new birth is impossible - How can a man be born when he is old? … Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born! And Jesus answers I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Alternatively, if you go from verses 5-8 then in verse 5 Jesus says I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit while in verse 8 he says The 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. Between come verses 6 and 7 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

We will take the latter parameters and say three things

1. Do not be surprised that you need to be born again

Let's begin with verse 7 where Jesus says to Nicodemus You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' Nicodemus clearly has been surprised but Jesus says he should not have been, given who he was and his background and no doubt his knowledge of his own heart.

Surprises can be nice or they can be unpleasant, usually they are simply surprises.

Do you know that little joke children do. Do you like surprises? Yes. Boo!

If you enjoy classical music you may know that many of Haydn's symphonies have nicknames and one is called the surprise symphony (94). It gets that name because of a little joke at the beginning of the second movement where it is all very quiet when a rather loud bit suddenly comes in.

If you read the Gospels they are full of surprises. In Mark 1:27 the people are amazed and ask each other What is this? A new teaching - and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.

People were surprised at what he did. When Jesus calms the storm on Lake Galilee they say What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him! There was a similar response to all his miracles (Mark 7:37) People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

The Pharisees were often surprised at Jesus. One day he went to a Pharisees house and didn't engage in ritual hand washing. That was a big surprise. When they saw him eating with tax collectors and sinners they were surprised. Later in this Gospel Jesus actually gets down and washes his disciples feet, which amazes them.

People were surprised at what he said. Mark 1:22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. When he says to a man your sins are forgiven they don't say anything but they are astounded. In the Sermon on the mount Jesus says For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. I'm sure that amazed everyone. He also says Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Remember how amazed they were when they asked him that trick question about giving taxes to Caesar and he answered so brilliantly.

The biggest surprise of all was his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus in turn is also surprised – in Nazareth he is amazed at their lack of faith, he was more than once amazed at the slowness and dullness of his disciples. Here he says to a surprised Nicodemus that he should not be surprised.

Why should he not be surprised? Well, here us a man who believes in God, a man who knows his Bible, who has read of the creation of the world, the flood, how god brought his people our of Egypt an through the Red Sea and through the desert and into the Promised Land. He knows of the miracles in the time of Elijah and Elisha. He knows how God brought his people back from exile in the time of Nehemiah and Ezra. He has read Ezekiel's prophecy about the dry bones raised up. So why should Jesus talking about being born again surprise him?

And you shouldn't be surprised either. You ought to know that nothing short of a new birth, an inward God wrought cleaning and renewing is going to be enough. You know you need God in your life. You know that he alone can make the difference an if he doesn't change you then there is no hope. It is obvious. And yet how slow we are to admit it.

2. Understand that being born again is a spiritual matter

Now to expand on this let us make two points about being born again or born from above. In verse 6 Jesus says to Nicodemus Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. This is partly in answer to Nicodemus's question about going back to be in his mother's womb. Two things then

1. Being born again is not a matter of the flesh

Flesh gives birth to flesh. Now once you say this it is obvious. Here is a woman who is clearly expecting. What is she going to give birth to? A baby, of course. I know there are stories of women giving birth to rabbits and monsters and so on but it will be a baby, it will be human flesh. It is the same throughout the animal world. Cows give birth to calves, pigs have piglets, horses foals, sheep lambs. A chicken egg will produce a chick, a duck's egg a duckling, a swan's egg a cygnet and so on.

Nevertheless, it is amazing how often people give the impression that you can do something physical that will provide a spiritual result. Our great need is to be spiritually washed and renewed, to have our souls cleansed and changed. How will that happen? Can it be done by going on a diet or by a regime of physical exercise or by living in another country or another place? Say I could go back to my mother's womb and start all over again would it make any difference? No! Why? Because flesh gives birth to flesh. And that word flesh, you know, has a sting in it for the word flesh also reminds us of a our fallen sinful state.

It should not surprise then to know that a physical, a fleshly change cannot really change us or bring about what is really needed.

2. But being born again is a matter of the Spirit

That is the negative side. With that Jesus says but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. We cannot renew ourselves. We cannot transform our souls. We are not able to bring about a spiritual effect. But our spirits can be changed by …. well, do we simply put spirit here with a small s? Surely not. When John talks about the spirit he is talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who is able to enter a person's heart and transform that person spiritually in a way that no amount of impact on the flesh possibly can. God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and you cannot enter it or even see it unless you are born of the Spirit, born of God, born from above, born again.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. This is the same thing as we have already had in John's Gospel back in Chapter 1. In verses 11-14 we read of Jesus that

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

You have problems of one sort or another. Things are not what they could be or should be. What is your greatest need? You think you need money, perhaps, a make over on your home, some new clothes, a few more friends, a bit more respect, a bit more influence. No, your great need is spiritual need. You need God's Holy Spirit to wash you and cleans you and make you brand new within. And he is the only one who can do it. He alone can touch your very spirit, your very soul and transform you. You must look to God.

3. Understand that being born again is a mysterious matter

So do not be surprised that your greatest need is to be born again. This new birth is something spiritual, something that God alone can bring about. Because it is spiritual, it is also mysterious. The way Jesus gets this over to us is by drawing an analogy or using an illustration. The illustration suggests itself because of the very word that Jesus uses for Spirit. In Hebrew and Greek and in other languages the word used for spirit is the same one that is used for breath or for the wind. It is obvious when you think about it how this happened. The same qualities that breath or wind have are the most obvious characteristics of a spirit or a ghost. As a general rule in language abstract words only exist by analogy. After a while the analogy is forgotten but that is its root. So take the English word law for example. Originally it meant what is laid down. It is the same with this word spirit, it comes from the word for wind.

So Jesus says here in verse 8 The 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.

There are three obvious things to say about the Spirit and about spiritual rebirth then

1. It is unseen

You cannot see God because he is a spirit. The Holy Spirit is unseen. He is invisible. That is why the new birth is invisible. Now some people want to say that they do not believe in God because they cannot see him but that is a very foolish argument as there are many things we cannot see such as the wind and the air itself. This is something children find difficult. You say, wash your hands before the meal and they say but my hands are clean, look. And so you say but there are germs on your hands and they say I can't see any germs. I used to encourage my older boys to wash the germs off and imagine them all going down the sink – whether it helped I don't know. Certainly somehow we have to get used to the idea that there are things that exist that we can't see – oxygen an carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and x-rays and electricity, etc, etc.

There are also spirit beings, angels and demons who are active all the while even though we cannot see them. We also have spirits or souls that will never die and God himself is a spirit who is able invisibly to transform our spirits so that they are changed and born again.

Such matters can only be accepted by faith. We must ask the invisible God to open our minds and hearts to these invisible truths that we may may,a it were, see the unseen.

2. It is unpredictable

Another thing that seems to be implied here is the unpredictability of the Spirit and so of just who will be born again next. The wind blows wherever it pleases he says. In the same way the Holy Spirit does as he pleases in whom he pleases. You hear the sound of the wind sometimes as at various speeds it rustles the leaves in the trees or blows of a dustbin lid or rushes along a valley or between buildings. But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. There is an unpredictability about the wind that not even the best meteorologists can really master. And so your hat may be unexpectedly be blown off or if you are in a sailing boat you may suddenly have move your sails around. What begins as breeze may become a hurricane.

And so with the work of the Spirit. You do not know who he may save next. You do not know when it will happen. You do not know how many he may save on one day – 3000 at once as on the Day of Pentecost or just one here and one there as so often happens today. The spirit is sovereign, he moves where he will. This si why we must look to God rather than to ourselves. He does the work that counts.

3. Yet effective

Wind,a s you know, can be very effective. There is a big debate at the moment about how much its power can be used to generate electricity. When you see what a hurricane can do you need be in no doubt about what the wind can do. Be in no doubt either about what the Spirit of God can do. He can transform lives including yours and mine.