Introd: Someone has wisely said that “You can’t get into heaven until heaven gets into you.” Question is: How does heaven get into you? The answer is given in our text today – it is through the New Birth. The experience of the new birth is actually the life of heaven entering into you through the Holy Spirit when you surrender your life to Jesus as Lord and Savior. This miracle of all miracles was made possible by the miracle of the Virgin Birth on that first Christmas.
Let us now observe four astounding truths we must understand in order to understand the new birth:
The Means of the New Birth – John 3:5
- Water – Jesus referred not to literal water here, but to the need for “cleansing” (e.g., Ezek. 36:24-27). When water is used figuratively in the OT, it habitually refers to renewal or spiritual cleansing, especially when used in conjunction with “spirit” (Numbers 19:17-19; Ps. 51:9, 10; Is. 32:15;44:3-5; 55:1-3; Jer. 2:13; Joel 2:28, 29). Thus, Jesus made reference to the spiritual washing or purification of the soul, accomplished by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God at the moment of salvation (cf. Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5) required for belonging to His kingdom.”[1] See also 1 Peter 1:23.
- Spirit – The Holy Spirit who enters when one is cleansed by the Word and surrendered to Jesus.
The Marks of the New Birth:
- The New Birth is a Spiritual experience, not a physical one – a birth in the heart, not in the body as Nicodemus thought.
- The New Birth is a Mysterious experience. No one can explain it. Jesus compared the experience to the wind, saying “no one knows where the wind comes from or where it is going,” so it is with the Holy Spirit entering one’s heart. No one understands physical birth, not even the most brilliant obstetrician, and no one understands how God can create a new life on the inside of a dead person through the new birth.
- The New Birth is an Instantaneous experience. It happens the very moment you surrender to Jesus. Many events may take place in your life before it occurs. That was true with me, but when it occurs it is immediately. Illus.: Many say to me when I ask if they have been born again, “Well, I am working on it.” Wrong.
- The New Birth is a Lasting experience. You can no more lose the new birth than you could lose your physical birth. Illus.: I once spoke to the Convention of a denomination which believes one can lose the new birth. I asked the President this question, “Do you think God would withdraw the new birth from one to whom He had given it?” He replied, “No, I don’t think Christ would do so, but I think one can take himself out of Christ.” Then I quoted the words of Jesus in John 10:28-29 and pointed out the words, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” and that includes you does it not?” He replied, “I had never thought of that.”
- If a Lasting experience, it is a Present experience. It is significant that when the Apostle gives the evidence of eternal life or the new birth in 1 John, every evidence is stated in the present tense.
- It’s a heavenly experience – “again” in John 3:3 and 3:5 is “anothen,” meaning “from above.”
The Manifestations of the New Birth
- The New Birth is a Living Relationship with the Living God. Before the new birth, one is dead to God because of sin, ( Ephesians 2:1) but when born again his sins are removed and a personal relationship begins with the Living God.
- The New Birth is a Loving Relationship with our fellow man. Listen to 1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
- The New Birth is a Liberating Relationship in regards to sin. Listen to 1 John 3:9 (NIV) “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” This truth is repeated in 1 John 5:18. “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.”
- The New Birth is a forward looking Relationship toward heaven. I love 1 Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who are kept by the power of God through faith until salvation ready to be revealed in the last time
The New Birth is a Miraculous experience. Miracles cannot be explained, but they can be observed at times, and when this is possible the miraculous becomes even more wonderful and understandable to us.
Illus.: So to illustrate the new birth, let’s observe the caterpillar. A caterpillar is a ugly critter – a very weak and pathetic creature. It moves only on the ground It crawls around rocks or stones or water ponds because it cannot crawl over them. But then one day you find it up a tree, where it is spinning a cocoon around itself. At this time, the caterpillar is dying. It is about to receive a new life, entirely different from its original life. And so it does – it suddenly becomes a beautiful butterfly. Rather than being a struggler on the earth, it is now able to fly in freedom. It is born again.
Illustration: A young man came to his pastor, saying, “I have just gone through my marriage, flunked out at the university, failed in several businesses, and it just seems I was born wrong.” The pastor replied, “All of us were born wrong, but you can be born right – You can be born again.” The young man was describing his “caterpillar existence,” and the pastor told him how he could become a “spiritual butterfly.” And he did. Have you?
Finally, the Must of the New Birth. Since God is holy and man is sinful, man must be changed before He can enter the Kingdom of God on earth and eventually the Eternal Kingdom (Heaven). So Jesus said to Nicodemus twice in one setting, “You must be born again” (John 3:3,5).
Illus.: John Wesley preached 3000 sermons on the new birth.
Illus.: Mabley Owen preached on “You must be born again” to an audience of Pastors at Duke University. The faculty scolded him and asked, “Why?” He replied, “My answer is simple. “You must be born again. Have you?
[1] John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary, Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Reference and Electronics, 2005, pp. 1357-1358.