John 3 - July 3, 2005 Born Again

I remember when Carter was running for President, my husband's grandmother said, "What is Jimmy Carter talking about? He keeps saying he is born against!" I remember trying to explain to her what born again, minus the t, meant. Today as I was reading John 3, it hit me that perhaps the first person to ever hear those words born again was Nicodemus. Nicodemus was very educated and a highly respected leader of the Jewish people. As he heard that this man Jesus was opening blind eyes and healing the sick, Nicodemus, who had spent his life studying the scriptures, had to wonder could this man be the Messiah? He arranged a night meeting with Jesus, probably so that he would not be seen. Jesus certainly was not popular with Nicodemus's circle of friends. How those words born again must have sounded to Nicodemus. He had spent his life adhering strictly to the many codes of Jewish law. He was a good man and by now up in years. He had assumed that was the way to God's Kingdom, and here Jesus was telling him, I asure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God. John 3:3 Nicodemus must have been stunned. I mean, who had ever heard of such a thing...born again? He asked Jesus, "What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? And again Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3:7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' I like what the Touch Point Bible's New Living translation says in one of its footnoots.... a physical birth of a baby takes place in blood & pain, and is followed with joy beyond compare. In spiritual rebirth, the blood is the blood of Jesus, the pain is recognizing and confessing our sins, and the joy is the assurance of Eternal life. Jesus goes into much more detail and Nicodemus is the first to hear John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have Eternal life. From scriptures that follow in other chapters we know that Nicodemus does get born again. He finds what he has spent his lifetime searching for....THE WORD OF GOD! We each stand with the choice Nicodemus had, believe what Jesus says and accept His invitation into the Kingdom. Good works won't get us there....bad lives won't keep us out either, just realizing what Jesus did on the cross and believing John 3:16 will give us that ticket into the kingdom and the joy of knowing Eternal life. He paid for it in full with His blood. John 3:16 Amp For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.. This weeks lesson was about a religious person who thought his good works and religious training were what allowed him to enter the kingdom....next weeks lesson, John 4, is about someone who thought they weren't good enough because of the mess they had made of their life. The same Jesus invites all to partake in Eternal life and His way is easy....He already did the hard part....He left His home in Glory, was born of a woman into a body of flesh, dwelt among, and then went to the cross and rose from the grave. Dear one, if you have never accepted His invitation, today is the day. Cry out to Him, accept what He did for you, confess your sins, and invite Him into your life. Only you can make the choice....and He says to you today, CHOOSE LIFE!! CHOOSE ME!