Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Forty percent of Americans claim to be born again. But I would suggest that while the majority of us have heard this term born again, Probably only a minority of us here understand what born again really means.
So I want. to explain to you. Using the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, what it means. to be born again. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe.
The Bible makes it clear that in order to get to heaven, you don't have to have a perfect record or leave behind some profound legacy.
So what are the requirements for entry into God's kingdom? John answers that question today as we explore the Gospel of John chapter 3 and our continuing study, encountering Jesus. And now with a message titled Being Born Again. Here's Pastor John Monroe. Last time we listened in on a private conversation Jesus was having with Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews.
Jesus shocks Nicodemus by saying, that unless he's born again, he will not see or enter the kingdom of God. Put aside any preconceptions you may have about this term. Perhaps you have met someone who claims to be born again. and they are one of the most obnoxious people you've ever met. I'm sorry you had a bad experience.
But don't allow yourself to be distracted. We want to listen to what Jesus is saying. Being born again is not an optional extra for a few fanatical Christians. Only those who are born again will enter the kingdom of God. This is the message of Jesus.
So let's listen. as we study this important exchange. I ask you to open your Bibles to John chapter 3. And we're going to read The first sixteen verses, and learn from Jesus what it means to be born again.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Ruling Council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, We know you are a teacher who has come from God. for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing If God were not with him. In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God unless He is born again.
How can a man be born when he's old? Nicodemus asks. Surely, He can't enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God.
unless he's born of water and the spirit 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. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. How can this be? Nicodemus asked. You're Israel's teacher, said Jesus. And do you not understand these things?
I tell you the truth. We speak of what we know, and we testify to what we've seen, and still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one.
has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life For God Soul of the world. that he gave his one and only son And whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal. Life.
That's Jesus' teaching on what it means to be born again. And we want to look at these sixteen verses a little closer. We see right there on the surface, even on a superficial reading, if you've never heard these words before, it is clear that Jesus is saying to enter heaven. You must. Be born again.
To enter heaven, you personally need to be born again. Nicodemus, you need to be born again. Verse 3: I tell you the truth. No one can see the kingdom of God. unless he's born again.
Verse five. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he's born of water and the Spirit. Verse seven. You should not be surprised at my saying you must. Be born.
Again. Does it mean to be born of water and of the Spirit? Water is a symbol of cleansing. The Spirit emphasizes that those who are spiritually dead are given new life by God Himself.
So the emphasis entirely is on what God does through his Spirit. in our hearts. You're spiritually defiled. I hope you agree with that. That's a great human dilemma.
We are spiritually unclean. What do we need? We need a spiritual cleansing. And it's only God who can do that. It's only God that can forgive our sins.
We need to be born of water and of the Spirit. Why? Because we're spiritually dead because of our sins. And so, what we need is not reformation of character, it's not a new lifestyle, we need new life.
So, this expression born of water and the Spirit refers to the supernatural spiritual cleansing and renewal which we need, which you need, and I need in order to enter God's kingdom. I'm saying, first of all, this morning to enter heaven, you need to be born again. Secondly, we're looking at the meaning of it. You say I'm not sure if I still don't get it. Perhaps an illustration, thirdly, an illustration of being born again will help.
And Jesus gives us the perfect one. Look at verse 14. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert So the Son of Man must be lifted up. that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Well, Nicodemus knew the story well. Found in the Old Testament in what we call the book of Numbers, chapter 21. There, the Israelites in the wilderness rebel against God. They rebel against the leadership of Moses. And God acts in judgment and he sends What the Bible says are fiery snakes among the children of Israel, and these snakes bite the people, and many of them die.
You can read it when you get home in Numbers chapter 21. There's this tremendous dilemma then. People are dying, these snakes are going around, and the people then finally, very wisely, come to Moses and they acknowledge that they're wrong and they ask God, they ask Moses to intercede with the Lord for help, and Moses does that, and the Lord said, Yes, this is exactly what you must do. You must make a snake of bronze. And I want you Moses to put it on a pole.
Seems a strange curve, isn't it? But it was God's provision. He was going to test the humility of the people and their faith. And the Lord says now When you put that snake bronze snake on a pole. I want you to tell the people that everyone who is dying from the snake bite, if they look to that snake on the pole, they will be cured.
They were to accept God's provision. There was no natural cure, no human cure, nothing that these people could do to stop the venom. going through their veins and eventually killing them. Nothing to do but to look at a snake on a pole. And the ones who looked in faith.
We're cured.
Now did you get the story? That's number twenty one. Jesus summarizes it. Just in half a sentence, verse 14. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.
What does it mean that the Son of Man must be lifted up? When was Jesus the Son of Man lifted up? That's Good Friday, isn't it? That's the cross. He is lifted up.
On the cross. This lifting up That Jesus refers to in John 3, verse 4 refers to his own death, his own crucifixion on the cross. Our Lord Jesus is lifted up. as the saviour of the world. Why do we need a Saviour?
Because we all have been bitten by a snake. a snake the Bible calls Satan. the serpent. We all have sinned. And the wages of sin is death.
There is no cure found in ourselves. No cure in all of the universe. For sin. Not good works, not a religion. What we need is new life.
We need a cure. Not from this universe, but a cure from above. We need to be born from above. And it comes. How does it come about?
Jesus says, verse 13: No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. This is God's divine solution. Here we are on planet earth dying because of our sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven. He is God.
He comes to this earth. He leads a sinless life. Spite of his sinlessness, he is crucified. We thought of that on Good Friday. He's lifted up on a cross to die.
Now says Jesus to the Nicodemus, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him. Whoever looks to him We'll have everlasting will have eternal Life, how wonderful. You're dying. From sin, my dear friend.
You must look to Christ. The living Christ That's why we get excited about Easter. That Christ has risen from the dead. We must look to Christ and to Christ alone. and live.
You need new life You need a new birth, you need to be born again. And this is the only way into heaven. You say, well, John, I come from a different tradition. Nicodemus was Jewish. You may be Jewish.
You may be a follower of Muhammad. Our Buddha You may be Hindu, you may have no religion. You may have just embraced a superficial cultural Christianity, but no real life. Doesn't matter who you are. The call goes out by Jesus that whoever Whoever Whoever you are.
The youngest child, the oldest person here, whoever you are, if you look to Jesus Christ, Who died on the cross for your sins and who rose again. If you look to him, He will forgive your sins, He will change you, and He will give you eternal life this morning. Will you do that? Will you receive Christ? and be born again and receive eternal life.
Have your sins forgiven? Will you invite Christ? into your heart And your life. To enter heaven, you must be born again. That is the meaning of being born again.
And the illustration of being born again. Finally, those who are born again live forever. verse fifteen that everyone A wonderful listen to this, don't miss this. That everyone. Everyone who believes in him may have.
Eternal life, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish. Yeah, apart from Christ, you will perish. But those who believe in him will not perish. What, says Jesus? They will have.
Eternal Life. Those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life. Martin Luther said, Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf at springtime. Don't you love spring? I do.
We'll look at these trees during the winter. And we see them cracked and wizened and you think this thing is dead. Nothing is going to come from this old tree. And our Spring comes and from that which appears to be dead. It becomes a bud.
The flower, the blossom that we enjoy so much, the leaves. and the fruit. The miracle of new life is round about us. An illustration God has given us of the resurrection, that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ there is hope for all of the nations, as we were singing. There is a new beginning, there is new life.
Why? Because Christ has conquered death. And he's alive. And if you wish to be spiritually alive, you must trust him. Without Him, there is no life.
That's why it's so important to be born again. Apart from Jesus Christ, you'll never defeat death. Apart from Jesus Christ, you will never get into heaven. The story is told of the man who opens a newspaper and discovers The date on the newspaper is six months in advance of the time he lives. He begins excitedly to read through the newspaper and discover stories about events that have not yet happened.
He turns to the sports pages and there are Scores of games not yet played. He turns to the financial pages and Discovers a report on the rise and fall of various stocks and shares and mutual bonds and so on, and realizes that the knowledge he is now finding out as he reads this paper with a date six months from the date he is alive could make him a very wealthy man. He could bet on the sports teams, make a fortune. He could make tremendous investments. He knows which stocks are going to go down and which ones are going to rise, and he realizes he's going to be a very wealthy man, and he's congratulating himself, and he's so pleased with himself, and he's continuing to read through the newspaper until he comes to the obituary column.
And there he sees his own picture. And he sees his own story. And that knowledge The knowledge of his own death changes everything. Doesn't it? Have you faced your own Mortality?
Would you face the fact that one day you're going to die? Here in Charlotte, over these last few days, we've been reminded that life. for all of us is very uncertain. Police officers 134, 135. Gun down.
Life over.
Someone killed in a car accident.
Someone dies of a heart attack.
Someone dies of a terminal illness. Children whether you're thirty-four or fourteen or forty four or sixty four or eighty four makes no difference. Life at best is very brief, is very uncertain. And if we're wise, we face our own mortality and the Christian can. Why is that?
and how wonderful Wonderful to know that these two slain officers. were believers in Jesus Christ. And while we mourn them. And while we extend our condolences and our sympathies to their widows and their Families and to the Chief of the police and the police force. We rejoice.
that they were born again and so will live forever. How wonderful. Why is that? Because the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead guarantees, yes, guarantees. that those who are born again will live forever in heaven.
Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of our own resurrection.
So Alastair McGrath writes, Jesus made that journey through death in order to lead us through that same death to the glorious world that lies beyond. That's it. Jesus said to his disciples, and just to his disciples, not to everyone, but to those who believe in him, because I live, you shall live also. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is alive, because he has defeated death, you shall live also. And so I can say not because I'm a naturally religious person, I'm not.
Certainly, not because I'm a pastor. But because I am a believer in Jesus Christ, that when I die, I will go to the middle. to heaven To enter the kingdom of God, and I will live forever. Why? Because my life.
is united with the life of Jesus Christ. The one who raised who has been raised from the dead. That I have trusted in him, that I have placed my whole life in his hands and invited Jesus Christ into my life as my Savior and as my Lord, and so all those who trust Christ will live. Forever. And just as Jesus Christ was bodily raised, so we too who die trusting in Jesus Christ will be bodily raised.
Our bodies will be transformed into glorious resurrected spiritual bodies, and we shall live forever. Just as it would be impossible for a common caterpillar to imagine becoming a beautiful butterfly, so it's impossible for us to understand all that will be involved in that future resurrection. But this we do know, that those who trust Christ. Those who have looked to Christ. We'll live.
Forever. In heaven. And we will be with Christ forever. What is today's message? It is a very simple one, it is a very direct one.
I hope you hear it. You must. You must. be born. Again, you will not enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again.
You'll not get into heaven unless you're born again. Don't trust in your baptism, don't trust in your religion to get you into heaven. The only one who can get you into heaven is the one who's conquered death. He's the only one who can unlock the gates of heaven and let you in. He came from heaven to earth and has gone back to heaven.
And he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me. He's the only way in, he's the door. He's the way. There is no other way.
Therefore, trust him with all. Of your heart. And as you do that, a miracle will happen. He will forgive your sins. You'll be born anew, there'll be a new beginning in life.
I meet people who say to me, I really blew it, Pastor. I wish I could start all again. And I can say to them, that's exactly what the Gospel does: it tells you that you can't start all again. Because in Christ there is a new beginning. And God is the God of the second chance.
He makes us and he recreates us. Do you wish to be born again? Listen carefully as I close. There is something to believe. and there is some one.
to receive. First something to believe. I'm not asking you to join this church. I'm not asking you to get baptized. I'm not asking you to sign up for a religion.
I'm not asking you to try and clean up your own life. No. But there are things to believe. You must believe that you have sinned. Yes, you personally have sinned.
and that your sins will keep you out of heaven. and that you deserve eternal punishment. You must believe that Jesus is God, that He is the Son of God, and that when He died on the cross, He died on the cross for your sins. You must believe that. You must believe that he was buried.
You must believe that he rose from the dead and that he is alive. and that he loves you. And he wants to save you, he wants to give you eternal life, you must believe these things.
Now I spoke to a woman after the first service who said to me So I want to clarify this. She said to me, Well, I've always I've always believed these things.
Well, I always believed these things as well. I was brought up in a Christian home, as many of you have. I heard these truths. I never doubted that Jesus Christ died on the cross. I never doubted that he was raised from the dead.
But these were things. to believe While there are things to believe, secondly and very importantly There is a person. to personally receive. That's a different thing. If you wish to be born again, You must believe certain things, but there is someone to receive.
And that someone is Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
Some things to believe which affect our heads, that's true. but someone to receive Which affects our hearts, into our heart. If you believe with your heart. That Jesus Christ died. for your sins.
and on the third day rose from the dead. If you believe that with all of your heart and receive Christ, you will be saved. Merely to say you've always believed is not sufficient. You must ask God to forgive your sins. You must look to Christ dying for your sins.
You must look to the living Christ as he comes out of the grave.
Now receive this Christ. Into your heart. And into your life as your Saviour and your Lord. Will you do that? It's time today.
to be born again. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will. be saved. If you wish. to be born again and to be saved by God's grace.
What you I'm going to lead you in a prayer. Mechanically saying this prayer won't do you any good, but if it's from your heart. Perhaps the Lord will use it.
so that you would receive eternal Life. Oh Lord. I admit that I'm a sinner. but I have blown it many, many times. I've turned my back on you.
I've gone my own way. I confess that sin. Thank you. that you died on the cross for my sins. And I know I ask that you'll come into my heart.
and into my life. that you will forgive all of my sins. I also believe that you are God. That you are God the Son. and that on the third day you rose from the dead and that you are alive.
as the living Christ will come.
now into my heart and my life. Cleanse me and wash me. Help me to live for you. I ask it. In Christ's name.
This is the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. and the conclusion of an important message titled Being Born Again. It's part of a series we've started called Encountering Jesus. whose lives were forever changed. Be sure to stay with us, because John'll be back in just a moment with his closing remarks.
Today's lesson reminds us of how important it is to place our personal trust in Jesus Christ. And yet Sometimes in the moments we need him the most, we struggle to trust in him. That's why John wrote a booklet titled Trusting God in Tough Times. It addresses real questions like How do we cope when things are so uncertain? Why should we trust God?
And how can our perspective on God make a difference in real life? The answers to these questions are essential. and that's why we'd like to encourage you with this helpful resource today. Just go to our website at theverdict.org. and request your free copy of Trusting God in Tough Times.
And if you're looking for ways to impact others for the gospel, Will you consider playing a part in this radio ministry by making a one-time donation? We've made it quick and easy to give through our website at theverdict.org. And don't forget to subscribe to the Verdict podcast for easy access to this entire series on encountering Jesus. You'll also receive John's weekly Avizandam commentary, offering biblical insight on current events. Find us on all major podcast platforms or visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with closing remarks for today's lesson.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you understand what Jesus is saying about being born again? Just as we all received physical life, through a physical birth. We must all receive a spiritual rebirth if we're going to live in the kingdom of God. This is not something we can do for ourselves.
by observing certain rituals or rules. This is supernatural. Salvation must be received. as a gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Have you received this gift?
Don't miss next time as we look at a fascinating encounter Jesus has with a Samaritan woman. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
