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00:03 Good to start the next eight years with a sermon on being born again.
00:11 It's very common phrase, isn't it? Many of you have heard it. When you first became a Christian, a lot of people have
00:17 taken this phrase out of context. When the Dutson became the Nissan, it
00:23 was called the born again car. When the Land Rover redid itself, it was also
00:30 born again. Oh, Sunday school kids, uh, you you don't have to be born again.
00:36 You go back to the class and learn about being born again. All right. So, uh, and
00:41 and the teachers as well. Thank you so much. What is that? Oh, yes. That they're wondering about the Lord's
00:46 supper. We will do the Lord's supper after the sermon because it puts you in
00:52 the proper frame of mind. We're going to end with Moses uh you know looking at
00:58 the bronze serpent and then looking at Jesus Christ. How appropriate to have Lord's supper after that. And also so
01:03 you won't rush out and go home. Right. So so those of you planning to rush out, too bad. We're going to have
01:09 Lord's supper. So cool it. We'll do it right after the sermon so we're in the proper state of mind when we take the
01:15 Lord's supper. And we try probably do this more often. So as we're saying born again, uh many people have misunderstood
01:21 the phrase. Uh, you even have the daredevil, come back again as a as a born again daredevil. I came into
01:28 contact with this phrase reading Billy Graham's book, How to Be Again. Very instrumental in my life. I think it was
01:35 the 60s when he published this uh talking about a person being born again. After that, everyone's using the phrase,
01:40 you've got Mr. T who's born again. Charlie Sheen who've been born again. But I don't know whether they really
01:46 been born again because even the New York Times talk about Donald Trump being
01:51 born again. Would you believe it? Is James Dobson who actually testifies that Donald Trump is born again. But look at
01:58 his behavior. And I'm confused. All right. So here we have we're going through the book of John very slowly
02:04 now. And and if we can see in the next few chapters Jesus interacts with individuals. He's talking to someone at
02:10 the top echelon of society today. is Nicodemus. Two weeks from now, John chapter 4,
02:17 he'll be talking to the lowest end of the social uh strata. After that, he'll
02:22 be talking to a gentile ruler. After that, he'll be talking to a man who was paralyzed at the pool. So, therefore, we
02:28 want to focus in on the gospel, how Jesus deals with individuals. Three questions we need to answer today
02:34 from the passage. Very simply, why must we be born again? What does it mean uh
02:41 to be uh what does being born again mean? And how can we be born again? Three very simple questions. First of
02:47 all, let's look at why we must be born again. Let's look at a passage. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named
02:55 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
03:02 come from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly I truly
03:08 I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Let me put you context. Who is this? Is a
03:15 man of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were an elite group in Israel at the time of
03:23 this writing. There only 6,000 of them and they were totally committed to
03:28 obeying the law. They actually the word Pharisee comes from the Hebrew word feras which means set apart. There are
03:34 people set apart who really love God, who really wanted to obey every single
03:40 bit of the law. In fact, they're the ones who helped construct uh some laws that would protect the ten commandments
03:46 as it were. So, they were a special breed of people held with high regard to
03:51 be a Pharisee was something special in Israel at that particular time. And this
03:57 Pharisees name was Nicodemus. Actually means one who overcomes. And he's actually the ruler of the Jews. The rule
04:03 of the Jews means although the Roman governor ruled the land of Palestine at
04:08 a time, there were 70 of them who were in the Sanhedrin. This is like the parliament. They actually made up the
04:15 rules and control much of the religious life of the whole of Israel. So therefore, he wasn't just an ordinary
04:22 Pharisee. He was a elite Pharisee. He was a member of the parliament. He was a
04:27 ruler from the top echelon of society. And this man came to Jesus uh at night.
04:35 A lot of people wondering why the fellow come at night. Maybe he's embarrassed because here we have Jesus as an itinerant preacher. He's doing miracles.
04:42 And you know the Pharisees don't really like Jesus because he's like threatening their life bowl life rise bowl. So why
04:48 does he come at night? Some people say, "Oh, Nicodemus was shy. He was afraid to
04:53 be caught with Jesus." Which is possible. But if you actually look in the scripture uh you find that in John
04:59 7:50 says Nicodemus who has gone to him before is all the Pharisees were against
05:04 Jesus. And here we have Nicodemus who was one of them said to them does our
05:10 law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning of what he does. He stands up against all the other
05:16 Pharisees and say look got to give this guy a chance. Does this sound like a coward? Doesn't sound like a coward.
05:22 When Jesus died, uh, John 19, Nicodemus himself went, who came at night, all
05:30 right, to bring a mixture of myrr and allows about 75 pounds of where he was
05:35 not afraid to be seen at the tomb dressing Jesus up. This doesn't sound
05:40 like a coward, does he? If you look at the way John writes and you understand
05:46 why he writes Nicodemus who had come to Jesus by night
05:51 John uses the motifs of light and darkness. Here we have in chapter one in
05:57 him was life and the life of the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
06:05 John is trying to play with words. Darkness means unbelief and rejection.
06:10 Light means Jesus Christ the illumination and revelation of God. And you see the same chapter a few verses
06:17 down and this was a judgment. The light has come into the world and people who love darkness rather than light because
06:23 their works were evil. For everyone who does work wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light lest
06:29 his words works be exposed. So Nicodemus comes from the darkness. Nicodemus comes
06:36 from a place of unbelief. And this is really astounding. You know why? He's a
06:42 Pharisee. If anybody to be saved, he's a guy who goes to church, a member of the council, probably an elder. He's the one
06:48 who should be saved. He's the one who should see the kingdom of God. And yet he comes to Jesus and he says, "Rabbi,
06:56 at least he give chance to Jesus, call him rabbi, you know, like professor, you know, teacher rather than just an unschooled person. We know that you are
07:03 a teacher. I don't we is like uh a couple of us or you know we know that you're a teacher from come from God so
07:11 therefore he wants to come and discuss theology maybe we'll come and discuss whether you're a Calvinist or Armenian
07:16 or some deep theological issue right us two guys we're like professors we'll have a chitchat right uh but Jesus stops
07:24 him in his tracks you know what he says to him truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of
07:32 God now the Pharisees have Number one aim in life to see the kingdom of God to
07:37 be saved to be in heaven. First thing you come in and says you can't see the
07:43 kingdom. It's like doing a a funeral. You know we always do funerals and we're very polite when you come to your
07:49 funeral. Well, you won't know if it's a funeral of your friend John. He's
07:55 looking at us down from heaven. Imagine if a pastor come to funeral say ah John he's in hell. You want to join him or
08:01 what? Jesus comes right down to it and says, you know, with all your learning, with
08:07 all your Bible understanding, with all your spirituality, and they fast twice a week. How many of you fast twice a week?
08:12 Nobody. Nobody fast twice a week. You won't even see the kingdom of God. And
08:19 that's absolutely astounding. He drills right down. He cuts through all that protective layer of religiosity and he
08:26 tells them, "You aren't going to be saved." Paul, another Pharisee. He says, "If
08:32 anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence flesh, I have more circumcised eighth day of the people of
08:38 Israel, tribe of Benjamin, from which kings have come, Hebrew of Ephus, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a
08:46 persecutor of church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless." These are his qualifications. And yet on
08:53 Damascus road, God cuts him down. Ephesians chapter 2, he writes, "And you
08:59 were dead in your trespasses and sin in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the
09:05 prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once
09:11 lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, the mind, and were by nature children of
09:17 wrath like the rest of mankind." Paul says, "We're dead. You need to be born
09:22 again." Why? Because you're actually dead. You know, we actually have this term, some people say, "Well, but how
09:28 can we be dead? We're alive. We're walking around." You know, uh we have this term nowadays called brain dead.
09:35 You know why? Because when you're actually dead, you're not dead. Because it's we can keep you alive through medical science, right? We can put these
09:41 tubes, we can breathe for you. If you can't pass water, we'll put a tube and drain your urine for you. But but one
09:49 day, we might pull out the plug. And when you pull out the plug you actually die. So the state of human beings are
09:56 now got three stages very difficult. You can be awake and aware which I hope most
10:02 of you come into this category. Right? The second category is you are awake and
10:09 unaware. And what category is that? Some people here are awake but unaware.
10:15 We call this the persistent vegetative state. The the last category is unawwake and
10:21 unaware. What is that? What category is that?
10:26 Dead. But but not dead yet. If I actually plug you in to a respirator,
10:32 you are actually not necessarily dead. Because the idea of brain dead, your brain is already dead. And the fact that
10:38 the brain is dead is that you're not aware, you're not awake, you're not responsive. I come up and say, "Hey, you
10:43 know, John, slap, slap, slap a few times, nothing happens." you know, you you blow smoke up his ass so nothing
10:48 will happen. All right? He he, you know, he has no reflexes at all. In fact, we do reflexes. You know, we we grab your
10:55 head and you turn your head to left and turn to right. Usually, your eyes will stay in the midline. It's called the
11:01 doll's eye reflex, even though you're not a doll. All right? But if that reflex is gone, it probably means you're
11:06 dead and you're not breathing. But you know, be that as it may, if you actually have a person on life support like that,
11:12 within about a week, the the pacemaker cells of his heart will stop. You can't work the lungs. You can't control your
11:19 blood pressure. Your hormones are all and you will die eventually. All right? So,
11:25 the thing about it is dead people are very safe. You'll be safer in a cemetery
11:31 than the mall because the thing about dead people is that they cannot touch you. They're not responsive to you. If
11:38 you go to the mall, somebody might stab you. All right? So, you have situation when you're dead, brain dead, and within
11:44 a week, you will actually have physical death whether we keep you alive or not. And then you got spiritual death, it
11:50 takes a bit longer, 70 years before you actually die spiritually. So, when we
11:55 talk about spiritual death, it's someone who is not responsive to spiritual values. He's not even able to do so. And
12:03 there's no insight over the fact that he's actually dead. You see, dead people have no insight the fact they're dead.
12:09 They think they're still alive, but they're actually dead because they're not responsive. Okay? Uh it's a
12:14 different level of life. This is a very famous uh picture of a monkey uh from
12:20 Sula 2011. This monkey is this is the most famous monkey in the world. You
12:25 know why? He took a selfie. How many monkeys take selfies? And when he took
12:31 his selfie and the the chap who is basically who owns a camera called David Slater tried to sell this picture all
12:38 over the world to make a lot of money because the first monkey selfie. They had a big controversy because the animal
12:44 rights society people for the ethical treatment of animals actually sued him in California in in San Francisco. They
12:50 says the monkey owns the rights to the royalty.
12:56 But David Slater argued, "No, I set up the camera. is my camera. You know the fellow come and just press button and he
13:03 would. So this went to court and in the end what happened at the court was that
13:08 it ruled that the monkey cannot own the rights to a selfie because you need
13:14 creative mental processes that lie behind the pressing of the buttons. You got to be creative when you press the
13:20 button. I can train a dog to press the button too. But the point is there are various
13:28 orders of life. And the orders of life are vegetative, animal or human. And the
13:35 the reason why we divide them to orders of life. Each order of life has an appreciation of reality. If you will
13:41 have a piece of apple, you sit it down here today and you come here and you have Joanne Yo, the famous Joanne Yo in
13:48 her most beautiful dress and that very nice violin, right? She plays her lungs
13:54 out. You know the the apple. What will happen? Nothing will happen. I mean the
14:00 reality is Joanne you plays the best music in the world. But the apple cannot
14:06 appreciate it because it doesn't take in that reality. There's no reaction at all. The apple remains an apple. Doesn't
14:11 even change color. And then you actually have the monkey and you can monkey and
14:17 Joano comes inside and he she plays her violin. Okay. And Pet comes in and plays his
14:24 violin. You think the monkey can tell the difference between Pet and Jo?
14:29 I challenge you. You cannot. They've taken a monkey to to pick a stock market
14:34 and the monkey actually wins against a man. All right? Because to the monkey, there's no appreciation of the finer
14:40 points of the violin and and the timber and the tone and the pitch and whether I'm or not. You know, the monkey doesn't
14:47 care. You know the the monkey cannot take in that real the reality is that Joan Yos plays beautifully isn't it but
14:55 the monkey cannot appreciate that reality and the same thing with human beings human beings have a physical side
15:02 an instinctual side but they also have a spiritual side when you're spiritually dead I could come to tell you about the
15:09 gospel of Jesus Christ die and you will tell me so what a lot of people die every day people die I don't know why
15:14 you fussing about someone who died 2 years ago so how many people Right? You see what I mean? Because they are not
15:21 spiritually alive. They cannot respond spiritually. You see Jesus said at this
15:28 chapter before after chasing people out of the temple when he was in Jerusalem over the
15:33 Passover feast, many believed in his name when he saw the signs he was doing. The word is pitio, have faith. But Jesus
15:40 on his part did not believe himself to them. Same word. because he knew all people and needed and needed no one to
15:47 bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. You can say you believe you signed on the dotted line
15:53 the sinner's prayer and you said that a couple of years ago it may not mean you are actually born again. Jesus even knew
15:59 that. So we know why we must be born again because we're separated from God.
16:05 When you're separated to God you actually have no propensity for God. You have no sensitivity to God. You don't
16:10 appreciate his grace. So what does it mean to be being born again? Now let's
16:15 look at being born again. Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his
16:23 mother's womb? The mother will die of heart attack and be born." And Jesus
16:28 said, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven of
16:35 God, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and born of spirit is spirit. Do you not marvel what I said to you?
16:40 You must be born again. The wind blows whether it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from, where it goes. So it is with everyone
16:46 who's born of the spirit. It's not physical. So ladies, chill. All right?
16:53 Nobody's going to come at you. All right? It is not physical. It is something to do with a spiritual nature.
16:59 It's like presenting a lion with a salad or a steak. What do you think the lion
17:05 will choose? He will not touch the salad at all. Why? because it's in his nature. It's a different nature. Give a boy
17:12 this. Those of you have kids, no need to guess which will choose, right? It is his in nature. What about us? Do we use
17:20 God or do we serve God? It is our nature to use God. Most religions go into offer
17:28 sacrifices and you can find I've been counseling people in church too, you know, whenever they come, you know, to
17:33 give a big tithe or something because they want something from God, right? It is our nature to use God rather than to
17:39 serve God. And this is what Paul writes. When we're spiritually dead, we follow the course of this world. And as a
17:47 prince of power, darkness is behind it. All right? And we all lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
17:53 desires of the body and the mind of by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. He describes who we are. And
17:60 so therefore, we're talking about we are once live in the passions of our flesh. The trouble is when we actually talk
18:06 about flesh. The Greeks have this idea of flesh means your physical body. And they seem to think they divide sins of
18:13 the flesh. Some are worse. If you murder, rape, robbery, violence, that's really bad. And not so bad. If you're
18:19 hypocrite, you you gossip a bit. You're a bit of a hypocrite or you're full of pride. But actually, that's not true.
18:25 What he means by flesh is uh Paul writes, "For the mind that is set in the
18:30 flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. In fact, it cannot
18:35 for those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You see, why did Jesus come
18:42 and when he talked to the Pharisees, he said to them, you know, I know you you say you don't commit adultery, but if
18:47 you look at a woman, you already committed adultery. Under those standards,
18:54 you think anybody will pass. Nobody will pass because it shows you
18:60 that a mind connected to the flesh cannot please God no matter how holy you
19:05 are. This is going back to Genesis when the serpent said to the woman, "You shall not die." And God knows that when
19:13 you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God in knowing good and evil. The passion in the flesh is
19:19 that the issue is the whole issue boils down that we want to be like God. We
19:24 want to de God out of every aspect of our life. Right? Uh the flesh is
19:30 therefore the aspect of your life that wants to be God. So we're talking about carrying out the desires of the body and
19:37 the mind in order not to serve God. All right? It see what you actually have is
19:44 natural and desirable. For example, all of us need food, we need comfort, we
19:50 need sex, we need to be useful and competent. We have love and affection and we need power. When the Bible talks
19:57 about natural desires, these are the things that we naturally need. All of us need. In fact, if you look at the garden, uh if you look at other
20:03 religions, if you look at the Buddhist, they got it completely wrong. You know why? It says all desire is evil. That
20:08 one fell soup, they say desire for good, desire for whatever it is is all evil.
20:15 So therefore, we must empty our minds. Emptying a mind is a devaluation of the human nature of the beauty of humanity
20:21 which God has given us. I can't buy into that. If you look at the same garden of Eden in chapter 1 to three, he tells man
20:29 to have dominion. When you tell man to have dominion means he wants man to have what? Power. When he tells man to work
20:35 in the garden, he's talking about food and comfort and competency. When he tells man to relate to each other, we're
20:41 talking about love and affection. These are natural desires built into human beings that make us human. But when you
20:48 come in the flesh, normal desires for comfort, sex, competency, love, and
20:54 affection, they are all subverted to strategies of a life without God. We use
21:00 normal desires, the desires to be loved. Who doesn't want to be loved? It's made it's it's a
21:07 holy desire. But if you do it in order not to love God, it's a strategy to live
21:12 a life without God. I look at the BBC recently and they've got this new disease. All right, we keep up with all
21:18 the new disease. This called selfieitis. Those of you who take more than six
21:23 selfies a day, and I know who you are on first Facebook, you have selfieitis.
21:28 This chap actually takes about 200 pictures a day. 200 pictures a day. And
21:34 in fact, he he he puts it up there in the first minute or two, I go back 100 likes and I love it. My phone goes
21:41 crazy, you know. And any picture of his that get 600 likes or less, he delete.
21:48 Everything must have more than six. Why? Because it's a it's a normal desire to be wanting to be loved, isn't it? But it
21:54 goes overboard because his whole life is focused on this. So therefore, he doesn't have time for God. It's a normal
21:59 desire, but it's subverted. And this is what he writes years ago. I would read this. I never used to look like this.
22:05 Well, I don't know what he looked like before. I used to be quite natural, but I just think with the obsession with
22:11 social media, I want to upgrade myself. So, now it's a 2.0. Junite is smile. I I had my teeth veneered, chin filler,
22:18 cheek filler, jawline filler, lip filler, Botox under the eyes, and on the
22:23 head, tattoo eyebrows, and fat freezing. I don't know what fat freezing is for the life of me. Some of you find out
22:30 what fat freezing, please tell me about it. All right. So some of these selfies can be dangerous. You can see take felt.
22:37 Do you know there are more people killed a year by selfies than sharks
22:43 oneird more. So be careful. Some of you who are going all the dangerous places and taking selfie but selfies is
22:48 basically comes out of a normal desire to be recognized to be loved to be cared for to be popular to and then it's been
22:55 subverted to a life without God. So you actually have work, career, business, performance, everything else that God
23:01 has given us is right and true. But what is the flesh? The flesh is we use these
23:06 things to live apart from God. We fight over them. We're obsessed with them. Uh
23:11 this is Leticia, right? How many of you watch the latest hit movie? What do you call that thing? H the panther. Okay.
23:19 Black Panther. I'm going to watch it Monday. That's what But she's this one of the stars. Her name is Shuri. And you
23:25 look at Shot Shuri wrote, I was going through a lot very difficult time in my life. I just needed to take a break from
23:31 my acting because I really idolized it. So I came off from it. I went to a
23:37 journey to discover God and my relationship with God and became a Christian. It just really gave me so
23:42 much love and light within myself. I felt secure and I felt like I don't didn't need to validation for anyone
23:48 else or getting a or for getting a part. My happiness wasn't dependent on that.
23:54 It was a dependent on my relationship with God. This is precisely on the dot.
23:59 The same desire for recognition and love now comes from God. Because if we
24:05 continually focus to get our recognition and self-esteem from another person and
24:10 from a job or from your even your family, they're going to let you down one day.
24:17 What about Nicodemus? Very religious, isn't it? But Jesus is telling I mean Paul says you are even
24:24 though you're religious you're hostile from God. Religious people are like this. That's why people get turned off
24:30 coming to church. All right. You've got religiosity but actually this flesh inside is a wolf inside. Uh and and you
24:37 know we're proud of our self-righteousness. We're very moral. We're all hardworking. We're not like other people cheating on their taxes you
24:44 know putting money overseas you know uh in slush fund this fund that fund. You
24:50 know we've got integrity, we've got good works and then whenever you try to criticize these people first thing you know what you get the first symptom
24:57 defensiveness. What I got they'll react because they are actually protecting
25:02 their self-esteem which is built on religiosity. And then what happens to people like this? They actually look
25:08 down at this. They gossip they criticize because the more you gossip about other people the better you feel about yourself because it's a it's a ranking
25:14 system isn't it? I rank higher than you if I feel happy by putting you down or or for example other people's not good
25:20 enough, they're not hardworking enough, they're not successful enough and they form relationships based on these
25:26 things. Uh and this is basically uh religious ways of avoiding God. You see,
25:32 so you actually have a man who is full of himself and self-righteous and a
25:37 prostitute who walks on the streets. They're actually the same goat because he uses morality to save himself. Right?
25:45 And she used sex to save herself to be independent of God. They're both in the same boat as it were in bondage. Okay?
25:52 So now what is the solution? You need to be born again. And here the word is called born of this water and the
25:59 spirit. Okay. Now if you look very carefully in the verses to understand what born of the spirit uh and water
26:06 mean. Very people have got this confused. You see there are two parallel verses here. Oh my my arrow went wrong
26:12 way. Huh? PowerPoint. These are the ones that are Can you see these two verses? They're exactly
26:19 parallel. And when John writes it parallel, you have to understand why he does that. Look, parallel verses. Truly
26:27 I say to you, unless one is truly I say to you, unless the Greek is exactly the same. And then there's the blip there
26:33 and then there's a blip there and then he cannot see the kingdom of God and he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So
26:39 these are exactly parallel. So if you exactly parallel verses then you take the two squares one is born again and
26:44 one is born again of the water and the spirit they mean the same thing and the
26:50 first thing I talked to you about being born of the water spirit everybody think what is born of water what
26:55 anybody know baptism right yeah but the problem is that
27:01 there's a bit of a anacredism because when the time of Jesus talking about being born of water baptism wasn't
27:08 instituted in the church as a regular feature until years after Jesus died. At
27:13 the time of Jesus when they were actually baptized was Kumran community out in the sticks and they baptized
27:19 people who wanted to become Jews and that was very rarely done and then you got the baptism of John which is the
27:24 baptism of repentance. It was a small period in time you talk about water they don't understand. So it's very unlikely
27:32 to be baptism. All right? Because if you look at the historical writing of the
27:37 gospel. Now the other water the more scientific reason born of water is what all the women will tell you. What
27:44 what happens when you get born or you give birth women? Huh? What happened? Is
27:50 it a very nice affair or a messy affair? Messy affair. Right. First thing that happen your water break comes out. He
27:56 thought wow lightly it's amniotic fluid and then when the
28:02 baby comes out it breathes. So water and air. All right. So the trouble is if you
28:07 look in ancient literature you never see anywhere born of water referring to
28:13 amniotic fluid. Okay. So therefore uh that's not likely. That's not likely. The most likely is to look at old
28:19 testament reference. The clue is given verse 10. Jesus thoros necodemus. you
28:25 teacher of the of teacher of Israel is professor emiritus he's a professor of
28:31 Israel and you still don't know these things he says and the professor will know there are passages in the old
28:37 testament that actually have water and the spirit together and that gives you a
28:42 clue and look at that Ezekiel 36 I will sprinkle clean water on you shall be
28:48 clean from all your uncleanliness and from all your idols I will cleanse you I will give you a new heart a new spirit I
28:55 will put it within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my
29:01 spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. This is a passage he should have
29:08 known this passage. It is there. There are other passages as well. Value of dry bones. Ezekiel prophesy to the to the
29:15 breath. Prophesy son of man and say to the breath thus says the Lord God come from the four winds. Oh breathe and
29:21 breathe on this slain that they may live. So I prophesied. He commanded me on the and the breath came to them and
29:26 they lived and they stood on their feet. And for the young people remember the
29:32 story the movie called mummies don't remember mommies go mommy one
29:37 mommy two mommy three yeah all the bones they actually take it from here probably and the wind comes and all mummies get
29:44 and flesh and they come out but but if you're a bone can you do anything about it? You absolutely cannot do anything
29:49 about it. It's done for you. So there there's this metaphor of the wind as
29:56 well. So the go so we're talking about born of the spirit and water is a time when God will come and God will cleanse
30:04 and God will pull his spirit. You look in Ezekiel is always I I I the I refers
30:09 to God. It is a work entirely of God. Do we have any part? We cannot have any
30:14 part because we already like bone dead. To reemphasize this, it says don't
30:19 marvel at what I said to you. You must be born again. The wind blows where it blows. And when you hear a sound, you do
30:24 not know where it comes from, where it goes. So it is with everyone who's born of spirit. So being born of spirit is
30:30 uncertain. You can't see it. You probably can feel it and see the effects, but you cannot predict it. And
30:35 it is a work of entirely due to God. So if you want to be born again, it is a
30:41 work of God. You can't decide that you want to get born again and then order
30:46 God to make you born again because you're dead. Dead people can't respond. Dead people can't initiate any action.
30:54 And he says, "Truly I say to you, unless one is born again of water and spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of God."
31:00 And the kingdom of God is uh basically for them is basically heaven. All right.
31:06 Now, uh here is KL Marx. You know why? Uh what
31:13 is born of flesh is flesh. What is born of spirit is spirit. So what is he
31:19 saying that if new birth is something that only God can do
31:24 which means you can't do anything on your own because what is born of the flesh is flesh what is born of spirit
31:29 spirit and in fact you have one of the greatest uh socialists or communists around is basically KL Marx KL Marx was
31:35 absolutely right I don't know why people taro him all right Karl Marx actually wrote it is the opium of the people the
31:42 abolition of religion is the elus as the elucory happiness of the people is
31:48 required for the real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion and its condition is the demand to give up a
31:55 condition which needs illusions. Very profound. Think about it a bit more. Bit harder than than Bible. Let me work this
32:01 through. He's telling us that religion created by man is an illusion to because
32:07 man is so needy. He needs to create an illusion. Life is like crap, isn't it? It's horrible. It's unfair. Your taxes
32:14 are going up. you no control the s stock market drops what can you do there's no
32:20 control so therefore I must go to church and sing song and feel happy and and and
32:25 car marks thinks that's an illusion but it's an illusion that you need but if you get the illusion that's a big
32:31 problem because the demand to give up the illusion and his condition is the demand to give up condition we needs illusion that means your condition
32:37 actually needs illusions so human beings are in a terrible state you've got religion also bad you don't have
32:43 religion also Which is right because Jesus says what is born of the flesh is of the flesh.
32:50 What is born of the spirit is of the spirit. So God can come into your life. There are no hopeless cases. You could
32:56 be amazed at some of the worst people in the world. You never expect to become Christian. Suddenly one day they walk
33:02 in, they tell you they're Christian. Hey, have you seen that? I've seen that in so many people's lives. Uh and then
33:08 this is Nicodemus saying to him, "Hey, how can this be? Here is a professor now." And the professor says, "I please
33:15 I don't believe." He's questioning Jesus. How can this be? And Jesus throws him again. Jesus answered, "Are you the
33:22 teacher of Israel?" And yet you don't understand. This basic 101. Truly I say
33:27 to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you don't receive our testimony. If I
33:33 told you earthly things and you don't believe, how could you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has gone up
33:38 to heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the son of man. So what is he he's telling him? Oh you don't believe you know has anybody gone up to
33:46 heaven talked to God and come down go none. There's only one person who is it
33:53 the son of man. The son of man comes from heaven and he comes down. The son of man is a term which Jesus uses for
33:58 himself. You don't believe me? Are you kidding? Have you gone up? Have do you know anybody gone to heaven and find out
34:04 and then come back? None. So those I used to know a patient of mine who regularly goes to this church in
34:11 Jalanito. Maybe some of you come from that. I don't know. Every week they got people go to heaven.
34:16 Yeah. They got orthopedic surgeons and all these sort of people. They're like slain in the spirit. When they slay in the spirit they take a trip to heaven
34:22 and they come back. But interesting enough didn't come and tell you anything new or anything different. I don't know
34:29 whether they actually went to heaven. But Jesus is saying no one has gone to heaven and come back. He's absolutely
34:34 telling you that. I know that's not a good church to go to because you don't go to heaven, come back. Jesus said
34:39 that. But the one from heaven has come down and tells you and he tells you about how to be born again and you don't
34:45 believe then how man isn't it? That's exactly what he's saying. The born again
34:51 concept is revelation not discovery. Going back to God is God revealing. It's
34:58 not you discovering because you cannot discover. You cannot respond. You know why? You are dead. That is why you need
35:05 to be born again. This is Exodus, the time of Moses when he actually got the
35:11 children of Israel out from Egypt. Okay? And they were there. All right? And um
35:18 every day, what do they eat? Mantau, Chinese for uh you know the bread. Okay.
35:27 What do they eat for meat? Roast quail. Nowadays, a delicacy, isn't it? And the
35:32 fellows are complaining we don't like this stinky uh you know food everyday
35:37 same no change in menu they don't know how to fry different way we would have made panin or something of a Chinese
35:43 right but they didn't know how to be be more creative with every day cook the same go boil the same you know anyway so
35:49 they complained to God and and when Moses went up to the mountain to get
35:55 revelation the ten commandments they got busy they actually said uh he received
36:00 gold from their hands, fashion it into a graving tool, and made a golden calf.
36:06 And they said, "These are your gods, oh Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he
36:13 built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation. Tomorrow shall be the feast to the Yahweh.
36:21 He put a cow there and call it Yahweh. You think they were worshiping? They
36:27 were worshiping Yahweh, which means their heart was in the right place, but the method was wrong. Isn't it? We don't
36:33 like to wait for revelation. We want to discover God on ourselves. You look at
36:40 the picture of Jesus, it looks like this. You go to any Western church, you go to another church, it looks like
36:46 this. You go to Japan and it looks like this. We like Jesus in our color, right?
36:53 We like to make Jesus in our own image. Um in fact you actually if you first
36:59 baptist isn't lo located in the affirming church directory. The affirming church directory is a church
37:04 if you go in the directory means you accept gays homosexuality is not a sin. So they decided to reinterpret scripture
37:11 according the way we want to see it. So we look at all sorts of religions. This
37:17 is the kind of god that I can believe in. And often what the problem is with
37:22 Nicodemus is that he comes judging God. You have a discussion. I decide whether
37:30 this God is correct or this God is wrong. The whole idea of be born again
37:35 is basically is revelation. It is not discovery. This is Jesse Gollum writer
37:41 for Huffington Post. She was a very staunch Christian youth leader and she
37:47 actually had a very bad experience. Uh she was a bit silly. Someone she accepted an invitation from a friend to
37:52 go up to Vancouver and then she stayed with a friend and the friend is male and
37:58 he raped her and ever since that she left the faith and this is what she writes after years of being Christian
38:04 leader. Our eternal life is wholly dependent on us loving God. There's no choice. How can this be true love? Love
38:11 God or go to hell. How cruel is that? Doesn't matter to me whether God exists or not. It matters as to why he didn't
38:20 do anything when I needed him. When she was there on the bed being raped, she
38:25 cried out to Jesus repeatedly and Jesus didn't lift a finger. That's why she's
38:32 no longer a Christian today. Uh look at what she writes. I no longer want to feel like I'm incapable or inherently
38:39 flawed or unable to do things without God. It feels more empowering a great and wonderful to believe in myself and I
38:47 know I can do things because I can and that I'm not a product of sin but a human being with wishes, hopes and
38:54 dreams. I have infinite possibilities and not because of a God who allows it
38:59 to be so. You see, this is a woman who's made God in her own image. If I'm in
39:05 trouble, I got police catching me, God must answer on the spot. So, it's our it's not revelation. It we
39:13 decide what our God is going to be like. All right. Um and so therefore,
39:18 Nicodemus says, "How can these things be?" She's echoing Nicodemus. This is
39:24 Lydia. She was in Philippi and and Paul and Luke writes, "One who heard us was a
39:31 woman named Lydia from the city of Thotira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshshiper of God. The Lord
39:37 opened her heart to pay attention of what was said by Paul. After that, she was baptized in the household as well.
39:43 She is going on. So what happens in the born again process? The born again process is that God you preach the
39:50 gospel and God opens her heart and when God opens her heart then suddenly she believes. It's not the other way around.
39:56 You know you listen and then you decide to believe. No actually you need to God open her heart first. Otherwise, you sit
40:04 in in church, you'll be like this law. You know, Mr. Bean, I don't know whether
40:09 he's born again, but he's really trying hard, isn't it? He keeps his eyes open. Oh, Jesus died for my sin. Oh, so
40:16 so poor thing. You know, maybe I should believe a bit more. You pray play pray another song. I feel very emotional. You
40:22 can't conjure up emotional feelings. You can't conjure up fe faith. The Lord has
40:29 to open up your heart. And so therefore in this church when we do alpha when we invite non-Christian friends we're just
40:35 given opportunities to come in the kind of environment where the gospel is preached but we in the end it's done by
40:41 prayer we get on our knees and ask the Lord to open up their hearts because of
40:47 all you could do the best presentation the gospel we got Billy Graham here as well but if God doesn't open up their
40:53 hearts nothing will happen. I actually had the great privilege of actually witnessing Billy Graham when I was
40:60 young. I don't know whe you heard him in in he's a bit younger than me. Uh it was
41:05 in Sydney Randwick the race course. They filled the whole raceourse and I went there in a very cold wintry dark night
41:13 and could you be surprised he preached the most simple sermon in the world. I I think this one is a bit better. It was
41:20 very simple but the power of the Holy Spirit. And when he gave a call and they sang
41:26 the song just as I am, I see hundreds of people streaming down in the bitter
41:32 cold. And then I went downstairs. You know what I saw? I saw a room, a prayer
41:38 room all the time. He's praying. He's preaching. The people there upholding
41:44 your prayer because they recognize that this is spiritual exercise that only the Holy Spirit can make people born again.
41:51 Before Billy Graham comes to your city, you have to pray for two years before he comes. So how can he be born again? You
41:58 born again is a work of God. You don't have any I mean
42:04 how many of you have any hand in getting born? Huh? Did you convince your father to
42:10 make love to your mother and so therefore you get born? You weren't even a twinkle in your father's eye. You cannot control. That's
42:17 why Jesus uses this metaphor and and you know the metaphor of birth is a crisis
42:23 for women in those days not today. Today you all go hospital timing 12:00 follow
42:28 the the calendar I get born and then we have a function very good right the women have any hardly any pain they
42:34 can't have no memory in those days birth is a crisis and and it describes a
42:41 battle and the women are actually warriors because it's a life and death struggle which every woman goes through
42:47 and she survives and the baby is so not quite so happy it's a struggle a crisis
42:53 for both the comes out spit sitting in amniotic fluid. Uh it is a crisis where
42:58 you actually actually actually have to leave your old life. The life where you live in as God and then give up your
43:06 life to it is a crisis. This is Pyongyang in North Korea 1907 and it
43:12 describes spiritual rebirth suddenly coming upon them in a revival. And let
43:18 me read to you. Man after man would rise and confess his sin, break down and weep and then throw himself in the floor and
43:24 beat the floor with his fists in perfect agony or conviction. My own cook tried to make confession and broke down in the
43:29 midst of it and cried to me across the room. Pastor, tell me if there's any hope for me. Can I be forgiven? And he threw himself on the floor and wept and
43:35 wept almost screamed in agony. When the Holy Spirit comes and makes you born again, you're not going to say, "Okay, I
43:41 got sin. I decided to take Jesus Christ." No, you will be acutely aware
43:47 of your sin and the pain in your soul. It isn't an emotional reaction. It is a
43:53 crisis because now you're going to hand over your entire life to somebody else.
43:59 And that is a work of God. How do we get born again? My last question before we
44:05 end the last 10 minutes, we get born again. Jesus says, "Just as Moses lifted
44:11 up the serpent in this wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." So,
44:16 whoever believes in him may have eternal life. And you look in this passage, he
44:23 looks back at Moses and the people spoke against Moses, God, and Moses. And why
44:29 have you brought us out of Egypt to die? There's no food and water. We loa this worthless mana which they don't like.
44:37 Right? And so uh they murmured against God. And so therefore God sent a plague
44:44 of serpents and the serpents killed thousands of them. And in a sense their
44:51 situation and Nicodemus situation is exactly the same. We know why. They both
44:56 stood in judgment of God. Nicodemus say how can this be so? You tell me born
45:02 again. I think that's kissing crazy stupid. The people of Israel at that time says, "How can it be so? You bring
45:08 us out to the wilderness. No food, no Wi-Fi, no astro. I'm going to die."
45:15 You see, they complain. And then they said, "I don't like the salvation that God is giving. Why? Why must come
45:20 through desert? Why can't we go through the sea there, you know, can catch some fish and prawns and all that?" They don't like that. And so therefore, uh,
45:29 Numbers, Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it out on Paul and everyone who has been bitten." when he
45:35 sees it, he shall live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the pole and as a serpent bit anyone, he will
45:42 look at it and a bronze serpent and live. So why would he put a serpent up?
45:49 He put a serpent up because when you are actually dying, you're dying of thirst, your your your skin is burning up from
45:55 where the bite is, you look up at the serpent and you see
46:02 your sin. The reason he puts a serpent up there is a serpent you will when you
46:07 look up there you look at the cross you see your sin. It is your sin that puts
46:13 you there. So every time you come to God the first thing you need to see is what?
46:19 Your sin. It puts up the serpent so their awareness of the poison in their soul. Second thing is that the thing
46:26 that kills you will save you. Wow. Can you imagine you I mean if you look at
46:32 the s that actually cause you to die you never want to look another s for the rest of my life your life I remember
46:38 many years ago uh I I actually had a routine chest x-ray before going to uh
46:44 uh uh Scotland that was my early 30s oh behold palm a lump in the chest and I
46:50 and I was diagnosed later on I thought it was cancer but it turned out to be t tuberculosis right but for years later
46:56 on I never take another chest actually because I'm scared every time you the chest X-ray, you find something, isn't it? So therefore, you never look at the
47:03 chest X-ray anymore. I never look at my own chest X-ray anymore. You would never want to look at the same thing that
47:09 kills you. And here he's asking you to look at the thing that will that that
47:14 actually kills you will actually save you. You got to face up to your sin. You got to face up to your spiritual death.
47:20 And he just said what? Look. Anyone can look. You're dying also. You
47:28 can look. It doesn't take any skill to look so that whoever believes in him may
47:34 have eternal life. So you actually those who looked at the serpent knew they were dying. I'm dying because spiritual
47:40 poison and I look at the serpent. Those who look at Jesus knew they were dying. I'm dying because of sin and I'm looking
47:46 at Jesus who actually pays for your sin. What a beautiful picture. Both are
47:52 lifted up. Charles Spurgeon was a young man and uh
47:57 he he was actually uh uh going to church for a long time but he was never really converted and one winter uh morning he
48:04 actually stumbled upon a church where there's only 14 people there because it was so snowed out and nobody was there
48:10 and the preachers so didn't turn up so I got this scrawny little fellow who who stood up there these are the his own
48:16 words of Spurgeon you know Taylor or something and he you know Spurgeon wrote the testimony hey he was most stupid
48:21 fellow cuz he wasn't wasn't theologically trained. So he looked down at the lay preacher like most people look down lay preachers. So and the lay
48:29 preacher only had one verse in it and he preached on this verse. Look unto me and
48:34 be ye saved all the ends of the earth. And he said it doesn't take a rich man
48:40 to look. You don't have to be rich to look. You don't have to be strong to look. You don't have to be very clever to look. All you have to do is just
48:48 look. No point looking at yourself. You need to look at God. And there's one
48:53 verse itself, the spirit of God came, opened up Spurgeon's heart, and he
48:58 became a Christian right on that spot. You see, the point is when you actually
49:04 have that bronze serpent, there's no work involved. All it takes for you to
49:09 do is just look, right? And you look at the bronze serpent. The bronze serpent doesn't save
49:16 you. It's a means of faith. It is God's grace that saves you. The only difference between the bronze serpent and Jesus Christ is that we can look at
49:24 Jesus Christ directly and believe in him directly because the people at that time they mistook the means of grace as to be
49:31 the grace itself which means they actually started to worship the bronze serpent. So later on they had to order
49:36 the bronze serpent to be destroyed for us. We look at Jesus and we look and
49:42 believe in him directly. Here is a cross the reason for our salvation. the re our
49:49 sin that brings Jesus there and this is the way we are saved. And this paradigm
49:55 changes us completely. You know why? Because we cannot save ourselves. The
50:00 only thing that we can do, we're totally hopeless and helpless. We're dead. When
50:05 the Lord opens up your heart, all we have to do is look. And with this
50:11 dynamic, it changed the whole economy of man's existence. What is up is down.
50:18 What is down is up. And all of us as Christians, if you're really born again, this is the kind of life that you live.
50:24 You want to go up, you go down. You want to glorify God, you serve. You want to
50:29 live a good life, you sacrifice. What is up is down. And finally, when we come to
50:36 the Lord's supper, this is why I do the Lord's supper after that because it's most because if it
50:42 weren't for Jesus being lifted up on the cross, we would not have this day. Now,
50:49 why did God give his son? The most famous verse in the world. For
50:58 God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believe in him
51:05 should not perish but eternal life. So some of us here I'm going to have a word
51:12 of prayer. We just bow our heads in a word of prayer. Some of us here
51:18 today, the Lord's word tells you
51:24 and maybe you've been attending church for many, many years of your life, but
51:29 you may not have come to a situation where the cross seems beautiful,
51:35 this grace of God seems wonderful, the experience of his word is exhilarating.
51:42 Maybe maybe maybe we're not born again. And if that's the situation, let me
51:49 challenge you. Not a moment emotionalism, but a a decision to maybe
51:55 explore this. Come and join us. Alpha starts at the end of March where we will
52:02 give yourself 13 weeks to take in the gospel. Give yourself time and during
52:08 that time God's spirit will touch your heart and change how you think, change
52:14 how you feel. It will be a miracle and then you can just raise up your hands
52:20 and look close your eyes and then look and believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. for the rest of us.
52:28 Oh Lord, we pray and praise you that you so love the
52:34 world that when we're dead, we can't lift a finger. We're totally
52:39 insensitive. We were like beasts before you. You came into the world and you
52:45 gave your son so that we might live. We
52:50 just praise and thank you for this for Jesus' sake. And so therefore let us
52:56 take up our elements. The bread
53:03 represents the body of Christ. The blood of Christ is represented by
53:11 the wine or the grape juice. The bread in partaking the bread. Are there
53:17 somebody here please? Who needs anybody else who needs the elements over in front here please?
53:26 Let me invite uh in front here there are five people here.
53:33 Those of you who are born again, you need to take this with us. Those of you
53:39 who are not yet born again and not quite sure, please come and see me afterwards. We can talk to you and perhaps uh try to
53:46 get you into alpha. Uh it's not something you could do yourself. It's the Holy Spirit coming into your heart
53:52 and the Holy Spirit come and touches your heart right now. You see, God works in your heart. If you think if you're
53:59 like Mr. Bean and you got to keep your eyes open, I think don't think the uh the spirit of God working in you. But
54:04 the spirit of God is working in you and you feel uncomfortable. Maybe this is right. Maybe there's
54:09 something more to this and you want to explore, come and see us afterwards. Now, I tell you what, that is God
54:16 working. I became a Christian when I was 17 years of age and I sat in through multiple evangelistic meeting. Each time
54:21 I sat in it make me very uncomfortable. The Holy Spirit makes you uncomfortable because it's starting you know get birth
54:28 you got birth pains makes you very very uncomfortable. It may be starting in your life. Don't don't brush it aside.
54:35 Don't don't walk outside and after that you you forget about it. Take the opportunity listen to the spirit and
54:41 come and see us. Join us in Alpha uh next week. So we're going to take the bread. This represents his body. When we
54:48 take it, we symbolize, we memorialize, we remember that this body was given for
54:55 us. And all we have to do is to look, but look and believe because the Holy
55:02 Spirit has quickened and regenerated us. Let's take this. This is my body given for you. Jesus said, "Do this in memory
55:08 of me.
55:14 This is the wine, the blood of the new covenant. Whenever they had a new covenant, a new promise,
55:20 you know what the new covenant is? The new covenant is Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36.
55:27 It says, "I'm done with the old ways of obeying the law. I'm going to come." And
55:33 Ezekiel 36 is God, I'm going to clean you. I don't care what you have done before in the past. What sin you could
55:38 be murder, it could be whatever it is. I'm going to clean you up water and I'm
55:45 going to put my spirit inside you. So therefore, it's a new covenant. So we don't worship in a temple. We don't have
55:52 sacrifices. We don't have blood offerings. But they had blood offerings whenever they had a new covenant. So
55:58 therefore, when we take of this, we're actually symbolizing and sealing a new covenant. New covenant is in his blood,
56:05 his death. So we don't need to kill pigs and and go into the holy holies and and
56:10 splatter it on the on the the holy place. The veil is torn.
56:17 We come into God's presence, beautiful presence because of this blood.
56:25 Let's take it in gratefulness.
56:34 Let's pray. Father God, we just praise you. We're a people
56:41 that are born again and then nothing will keep us down. We have a new nature.
56:48 We have a new power. We have a new confidence. You know why? We Lord, because we're living for you and by you.
56:55 And we pray as we conduct ourselves during the week that your power, your spirit will surge within our hearts and
57:02 cause us to live holy lives to look with other people with the eyes that you have
57:08 with love. No matter who they are and where they come from that we will love them as you have loved us. We praise you
57:16 for Jesus' sake. Amen.
