Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. One of the things that God says about you and about me is that once you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you become a child of God. As Christians, what we often say and define ourselves as, we're believers or I'm a believer.
OK, I'm not against that. You know, I'm a believer. I believe in Jesus Christ.
And that has a certain clarity to it. But that's a lot different than understanding I'm a child of God. That's what Jesus says. And he says there's only one way to become a child of God.
You have to be born again. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.
Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. Some time ago, I read a book, a wonderful book. The title was Christ Esteem. It was written by Don Matsat.
And in the introduction, he wrote these words. Who am I? What is my personal identity? How can I develop a more positive self-image?
Why don't I feel good about myself? I am sure that all of you have heard these questions before. If you haven't, somehow you've been out of step with the thinking of this generation. People today are claiming that they are trying to find themselves and need to discover who they are. We are living in an age characterized by increased self-awareness and the expansion of the human consciousness. Our generation is facing an identity crisis. Later, he goes on and says, should I not ask the question, who am I? What is my personal identity?
What is my self-worth? Can you condemn me if I should concentrate on trying to find myself? He said it is not surprising that we are living in an age of self-indulgence, having been stripped of his previous identity.
Modern man discovers that all he has left is to try to focus on himself. The reason I read that is that's been my experience as a pastor with so many of you. There are so many Christians that are unhappy. They have self-doubt. They are plagued what modern psychology calls, they have low self-esteem. But if you think about it, a Christian trying to find themselves is an oxymoron.
It doesn't make any sense at all. I conclude that either we are completely ignorant of what the Bible says about us as our true identity, or we simply ignore what the Bible says, or we forget what the Bible says. I want to start a series this morning focused on that true identity. I titled the series, I am who you say I am. Would you open your Bibles to John chapter 3?
This sort of sets the stage for the first thing that I want to say. It's a famous passage. It begins by saying, now there was a man of the Pharisees, his name Nicodemus, and he was a ruler of the Jews. We are introduced to a man named Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee, but he's not just any Pharisee.
There were many of them. He's a Pharisee who is a member of the Sanhedrin. In other words, he's one of the Pharisees who rules the nation Israel. But he's not just a Pharisee who is a member of the Sanhedrin.
We find out a little later by the words of Jesus. He is considered the teacher of the Sanhedrin. When there was a theological issue that came up, he was the guy everyone went to because of his understanding of the scriptures. He comes to Jesus at night in verse 2. It says, this man came to Jesus by night and he said to him, Rabboni, or Rabbi, he said, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. Now, it's kind of interesting that this verse almost has a political aspect to it.
He's schmoozing. He's trying to say neat things about Jesus. He wants to tell Jesus, look, we know there's something great about you. You're a wonderful man. Now, it's kind of interesting because he says it, and I'm sure what he's thinking is that Jesus would say, well, Nicodemus, I've heard about you too. You're a Pharisee, a tremendous Pharisee. You're in the Sanhedrin. You're one of the great teachers.
You're a great man too. He didn't get any of that. Jesus ignores what he says completely, and Jesus says this, truly, truly, that means that's a lot of emphasis, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Just out of nowhere, first words, truly, truly, I'm going to tell you this. If you're not born again, you won't see the kingdom of God. Now, you've got to understand, Nicodemus is like, wait, I'm in. I'm a Pharisee. Everybody knows I'm in, and I'm in the Sanhedrin.
Come on. Jesus said, nope, unless you're born again, you won't even see the kingdom. Now, it's interesting, that word born again, the word again is the word anothon, and it means again, and it can also mean from above, and probably means both of them here, born again and from above. He said if you're not born again, you can't see the kingdom of God.
Now, what I want to describe here is this. One of the things that God says about you and about me is that once you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you become a child of God. That's an extremely important thing to understand, and I hope to beat it home today that you come away with some understanding here. As Christians, what we often say and define ourselves as, we're believers, or I'm a believer.
Okay, I'm not against that. I'm a believer. I believe in Jesus Christ, and that has a certain clarity to it, but that's a lot different than understanding I'm a child of God. That's what Jesus says, and he says there's only one way to become a child of God. You have to be born again. It's the only way you can become a child of God. There's no other way, and if you're not a child of God, you'll never see the kingdom of God. You'll never go to heaven. Jesus said that's abundantly clear. You have to be born again. What's interesting about that, Nicodemus said to him because he was offended by the words, how can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Now, he knows. Jesus knows.
That's not a legitimate question. That's Nicodemus using sarcasm to strike back. What, an old man gets back in his mother's womb and she has another baby? That's how this works?
That's what you're saying? Jesus doesn't flinch at all. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. There's a lot of disagreement about what's water mean. Someone said, oh, I think it means water baptism.
No, I don't think so at all. What Jesus is saying is this. I believe when he talks about water, he's talking about physical birth. And then when he's talking about the Spirit, he's talking about spiritual birth. Unless you're born physically and then you're born again spiritually, you'll never see the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus is saying, no matter what Nicodemus wanted to do with that. And it's interesting that he says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
And that sort of emphasizes what I just said. Jesus says you have to be born this way, of the Spirit of God. Now, whenever you're born physically, I think most of you know this, it takes two parents. You have to have a mother and a father, and then you're born.
It takes two parents. Whenever you're born spiritually, you're born because of two also. Here, Jesus says it's the Spirit of God that causes you to be born again.
Listen to what Peter writes in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23. He says this, for you have been born again, same phrase. You have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is the living and enduring word of God.
So who are my parents? The Spirit of God and the word of God. In a sense of being born again, what is the word of God? The gospel. It's what we call the gospel. Somebody told you or you read the gospel. That's the word of God. The Spirit of God then convicted you, see, of your distance from God and your need for the gospel, or the good news of Christ. And when you put your faith with the Spirit of God and the word of God, you were born again into the family of God.
He says that's the way this works. It's interesting that this is kind of all of God. Look back to chapter 1 of John for just a moment in verse 11. Talking about Jesus, John writes this. He said he came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. That's the Jews. But as many as received him, to them he gained the right to become what? The children of God, even to those who believe in his name. That's how you become a child of God. And then it says, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
You see, what's the whole problem with religion? I'll earn it. I know how to do this. By my own will, I'll earn this. Jesus says you can't earn it. No one can earn it. It's not you. You're born of the spirit and of the word of God.
All you can do is receive it. And that's what John says in John 1. There's something else here that I find really fascinating. Nicodemus in verse 9 says, how can these things be? No one ever taught me this.
What are you talking about? And Jesus answered and said, are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things? The teacher. By the way, it shows you how religion can blind you. Here's Nicodemus, Pharisee, Sanhedrin, the teacher. He doesn't even know what Jesus is talking about because he has a religious orientation. He said, I can't believe you can't understand this. Jesus says then, truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know. He said, and testify to what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe when I tell you heavenly things? He said, no one is ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven is the son of man.
And then Jesus says, starts saying in verse 14, it's intriguing. Ladies, you understand this, men, not so much. If you've been a child under certain circumstances, you've been told this. Having a baby is nothing, right?
It's just nothing. You just sit down, baby comes out, and you say hello. Now, babies are born in what? Pain. A lot of pain. And if you had a mother that was in labor for 24 hours or something, she's told you that probably through your whole life.
I labor 24 hours for you. You know, I mean, that's kind of the way it works. But you're born in pain, and you're born again in pain.
It's exactly the same. Notice what the next verse says in John. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. He uses the analogy that when they were bit by snakes and they were dying, that if they looked on the image that Moses put up the serpent, that they could live. And he was pointing to the cross of Jesus Christ. We were born again because of his pain.
Not ours, but his. It caused them in the Garden of Gethsemane to agonize where he was sweating droplets of blood. It caused them to scream out on the cross, Eloi, Eloi, Lamash, the botany, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He bore our sin. And we can be born again on the basis of his pain. He goes on then, and he says this. Verse 15, so whoever believes in him will have eternal life.
Could anything be any simpler than that? And these aren't somebody's work. These are Jesus speaking. You believe in him, you have eternal life. It's amazing to me that you would have in religious Christendom people say, no, no, no, no, that's not how you get eternal life.
You have to belong to our organization, do what we tell you, and there's a lot of things you have to do. And then maybe you can get it, and maybe you can't. Jesus doesn't speak lies. They do, but he doesn't. That's what he said.
You believe it. Then there's what else he said. Very famous verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Can't be too much clearer than that. What was God's motive? Why did God want us to become children of God?
Because he loves us. By the way, that's what you hope for earthly parents. We live in a day and age where children are conceived without love. But you want your parents to be in love, and the product of the love is the child. And here we are a product of the love of God. He said that's the way this works. We are so loved by God. Wow. You and I are children of God because we have been born again into God's family.
It's just that simple. And I want you to begin to think of yourself that way instead of only thinking of yourself, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. I want to understand you're a child of God.
We get a lot of significance from being children of certain people, right? I mean, you could meet somebody and, you know, I forgot to tell you, that guy, he's a Rockefeller. He's a Kennedy. He's a gate. What's that mean? You know his family that he comes from? Do you know the family that you come from?
Those men are nothing. You're a child of God. You see, that should have an enormous effect on you.
It should fill us with joy. Go with me now to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8.
It's amazing what happens here. The apostle Paul was trying to tell us what we have in Christ. And he gets down to verse 14 and he said, For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, this is the children of God.
Anyone led by the Spirit of God, they're the children of God. He said, For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear. The first thing he tells us, if you're a child of God, you are free from the slavery of sin. You're free.
That's a very important thing. He talks about that in Romans 5. He says, look, sin does no, I don't have to be a slave to my sin anymore. I can be free of that. That's a very important thing for the Christian life, to understand I'm free of that.
Before Christ, I couldn't do anything about it. He says, You're free from the slavery leading to fear. He said, But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.
Wow. We are adopted children of God. He adopts us.
That's interesting. We're adopted into God's family. If you ever notice something about being adopted in an earthly family, whenever you're adopted into an earthly family, they can be wonderful parents, right? But you don't have their nature. You don't have their genetics. You don't have their DNA.
You don't. You've been adopted. You see, into the family. We don't share with our adopted parents. But when you're adopted into God's family, God sets up residency in you. He gives you his Holy Spirit. And he says, Now we'll share this. You're my child.
You're not only adopted, but now you share the most important element that you have with your Heavenly Father. And notice, he said, when you get an idea of what that means, he said, As sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. And Abba, and you've heard this before, it's an Aramaic word. It's not Greek. Everything else there is Greek, but this is not Greek. It's Aramaic, Abba. And in Aramaic, it means Papa, Daddy.
We cry out Papa, Daddy. Now, I'm sure when a Jewish Christian heard that in Rome, they probably almost fainted. The Jews would never presume something like that. They never spoke the word Yahweh. You don't speak that word.
And if you wrote the word as a scribe, you had to clean yourself as soon as before you wrote the word and after you wrote the word. Every time you wrote the word, you never talk about God that way because he's big. Paul says, But you have to understand, you're a child of God. And you cry out, Papa, Daddy.
The intimacy of the relationship because you're a child of God. You can walk with him. You can talk to him through your prayer. The writer of Hebrews says, You can come boldly, boldly into the holy of holies and ask God to give you mercy and grace. Remember, the high priest only went in once a year. He says, Yeah, I know.
You know why? He's not my child. You're my child. You come right in here, crawl up on my lap, and you call me Papa or Daddy. That's what it means to us to be a child of God.
It's amazing how this works out. He says, Not only do I do that, he said, But I'll feed you. I'll feed you so you grow spiritually.
I'll feed you the word of God. The word of God in the scripture, by the way, is called milk if you're a newborn babe in Christ. It's called meat. You see, it's called milk. It's called meat. It's called bread. It's called honey.
A full course meal. He says, Yeah, it's the word. I'm going to give it to you to help you grow so you become more conformed to the image of my son. Wow, that's just amazing.
And he's not done. He then says in verse 16, The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God. Does the Spirit of God within you testify that to you? I mean, if you ever just wake up in the day and say, You know, I'm a child of God.
That's who I am. I'm not just a believer in God. I'm a child of God.
Notice the next verse. And if children heirs also. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
Wow. You're a child of God. In Philippians chapter four, it says this. My God will supply all that you need according to his riches in Christ Jesus.
That's for now. God says, Look, you're my child. I'll give you everything you need to succeed now in life.
You'll be able to cope with being a sinner living in a fallen world. I give it all to you. But even better than that, he said, You know what I'm going to give you eventually? Everything. Everything that I create is yours. See, what does Jesus Christ inherit?
Everything. He inherits everything. And you're his child. He says, And you inherit everything.
Wow. I'm amazed how we get all wound up about our inheritance on the earthly plane. And by the way, no matter what you inherit, it's only temporary because you're not taking it with you.
And then somebody else gets to grab it, and everyone's real excited about that. How could you not be excited that in the end you inherit everything? Everything that there is, he said, is yours. You're a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
It's an amazing thing when you think about it. He said, Look, how come you're not more joyful? I don't understand, he said.
I just don't get it. You have freedom from sin. You're no longer a slave to sin. He said, You're joint heirs with Christ. You've been adopted as sons. He said, These are all tremendously wonderful things for you.
And there's more. This is hard for us sometimes. Of all the good things God gives you, he said, there's something else I'm going to give you as my children, each other. You're all family now. In that way, we're all siblings. We're all children of God.
He said, Yeah, isn't that great? I'm going to give you all these other people are yours. You're part of that family. There's no such thing as a Christian who's an only child.
We have a big family. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com.
That's oneplace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is, as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. Be well.
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