4 Radical Awakening
John 2.23 – 3.21
A sermon preached at Geraldton Anglican Cathedral 27th February 2022
Something new is about to happen: this is the message in each of the incidents we have examined so far in John’s account of Jesus’ early ministry. “You will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until last.” “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it.” God is about to do something radically new: a new world is coming. In today’s passage we learn that people are going to be born again: we must be born again, if we are to be part of the new order.
Some years ago I was involved in a mission with the minister of the church in the Wheat Belt of Western Australia. One night we had a dialogue meeting in one of the small villages. The storekeeper and his wife bravely opened their home and invited their neighbours. I kicked things off with a very short outline of what Christianity was all about: five minutes, no more. Then we threw it open for anyone to ask questions, or to raise an objection to Christianity. There were about six issues that mostly came up in meetings like this: How do we know God is real? How can God allow suffering? What about other religions? Is the Bible true? Is hell real? Don’t all good people go to heaven? I had got reasonably good at answering them in a way that made the gospel clearer. There was silence at the beginning, as there usually is; then the storekeeper’s wife said she would like to ask a question. “What’s born again?” she said, and I was stunned for a moment, because this was new, and I had no idea what lay behind her question. She explained that they were a small community: “We know each other, and we know each other’s children.” One of their young men had gone on a world trip. When he got to Thailand he sent back a card to his parents, and it did the rounds of the community: “Dear Mum and Dad, here I am with my friends in Bangkok”—written on the back of a photograph of a room full of smoke and young people, and a table covered with beer bottles. Later came another card, this time from India. “Dear Mum and Dad, here I am in Delhi with my friends,” on a photograph similar to the last one: young people, smoke and liquor. And so it went on until a letter came from Israel: “Dear Mum and Dad, I’ve been born again.” “He’s coming home soon,” she said, “and the whole community is scared. We don’t know what it means.” The first thing I was able to say was that this didn’t mean some dangerous sect; this was something Jesus spoke of.
Turn in your Bibles to John 3.3 and Jesus’ words to Nicodemus.
Except someone is born again they cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now look back at the end of chapter 2.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
Remember that Jesus has just done a remarkable sign, clearing the merchants from the Temple. Instantly he became something of a hero. People believed in him. But John points out that although they believed in him, he didn’t believe in them. He didn’t trust them, so wouldn’t put himself in their hands, as people often do who become known and get a following, and then get a group of minders around them, who take over their lives. Jesus knew all men, says John. He didn’t need anyone to tell him about a man, for he knew what was in a man.” He then goes straight on to tell us;
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Nicodemus is one of these people who believe, but their belief cannot be relied on; it is not true faith.
Jesus knew people; three times in two verses John uses the word anthropos, which means a human being; it doesn’t mean a male, though it is often translated as “man.” Nicodemus is one of these people. He believes in Jesus because of the things he is doing. He believes that Jesus must come from God, and this must be bound up in some way with the coming of the promised kingdom.
Jesus says to him,
I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
Nicodemus is puzzled. “What’s born again?”
How can a person (anthropos again) be born again when they are old. Surely they cannot enter their mother’s womb again and be reborn!
Jesus is not speaking literally, but what does he mean?
He goes on: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
People disagree about the meaning of this. Some think he is referring to baptism when he speaks of being born of water. This is possible. Jesus would then be saying, “Except someone is born through the forgiveness of their sins and the coming of the Holy Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom.” However, I think it is more likely he is referring to physical birth. Whether the thought is of male semen, or of the breaking of the mother’s waters at the time of birth, to be born of water means to be born naturally. Nicodemus asks whether someone can be reborn naturally. Jesus says they must be born naturally and spiritually. What is born physically is of the flesh; it remains physical. To be born again means to be born by the Holy Spirit; this makes you spiritual.
A lot of people tell me they are spiritual people. Sometimes they are interested in the occult, sometimes they practise some form of meditation, or read books about psychology. The Bible would say they are of the flesh—still in the world of nature and out of touch with God—until they receive new birth from God’s Holy Spirit.
Nicodemus is religious. He is also well-disposed towards Jesus, but Jesus tells him he will never understand the kingdom of God and what is going on around him unless he is born again.
This raises an important question for us today: what is a true Christian? Many believe that the church is a kind of guardian of God’s blessings. It dispenses these through the sacraments. You become a Christian by being baptized, and you stay a Christian by coming to church and taking Communion. Nicodemus believed he was one of God’s people by birth and circumcision. He kept his membership current by participating in the Temple rituals and by doing what the law required. Jesus said that something much more radical was required: a new birth from the Spirit of God. It is the same for us. You can have all the marks, and be a member of the Church outwardly, but if you haven’t experienced this inner transformation of rebirth, you remain in the flesh.
George Whitefield was a Church of England minister about the time Captain Cook discovered Australia. He experienced the new birth himself, and began to preach it. He spoke about the gospel of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus, but also taught that there was a real supernatural experience involved in becoming a Christian. For this, many churches shut him out; they believed it was enough to be baptized and be a member. I was once invited to preach at St Philips Church in Charleston South Carolina. It is one of America’s very old churches. Someone at the door told me George Whitefield had preached there. I felt important. When I got back to Cape Town I looked up Whitefield’s journal. He certainly attended there, but was condemned from the pulpit on three successive Sundays. He was accused of “enthusiasm”, as was his friend, John Wesley. He took to preaching in the fields from his horse. Tens of thousands came to hear him. England experienced revival—so did America. He had an extraordinary voice which could be heard over a kilometre away. One day he was walking in the countryside near Bristol when black men started emerging from the ground. They were miners coming off shift; the coal dust turned them black. Whitefield had a great love for ordinary people. He raised his voice and spoke to them of the Saviour who would take away their sins and give them a new heart. White streaks began to appear on many faces as the tears washed away the coal dust. These were people the church of the day had forgotten.
Jesus continued:
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
We learn here that the Spirit cannot be controlled by humans. No institution has a monopoly on the Spirit. There is nothing anyone can do to receive the Spirit, or to impart the Spirit—no sacrament or ceremony, no laying on of hands, not even by a bishop, no emotional meeting. Christian-believing is a supernatural thing that comes at the command of God. It is as unpredictable and mysterious as the wind: invisible, but powerful, and it effects things. We begin to believe; we understand the kingdom of God, we repent of our sins; we find that we love God—whereas before we were hostile or indifferent. We are drawn to God’s Word—the Bible begins to make sense to us. Worship becomes exciting, and associating with other Christians—we used to avoid them. And we begin to want to do God’s will. All this comes from within. We are born again, and our heart and mind are becoming new.
In the 1980’s a small revival took place at a church in Perth. The Spirit moved in a wonderful way. Many came to life spiritually and this led to an explosion of church life. There was a university sociologist in the congregation who asked if he could do a study. He set up teams which went around interviewing people, asking all sorts of questions about why they came to church and what it meant to them. It was all written up as a proper sociological study. But people were unhappy, because it seemed not to touch the heart of things. It was about the outward business of church involvement, not what was deepest and most real to them. A sociological study could not make sense of the supernatural, of what it meant to be born again.
George Whitefield sailed to America. When Sunday came the sister-ship drew alongside, and, with his magnificent voice, he was able to preach to people on both ships. In America he was a sensation. When he was in Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin figured he could be heard by thirty thousand people in the open air. One farmer swore he could hear him clearly a mile away. In American history they speak of “the Great Awakening.” If you study Christian history you will discover that there have been a number of such awakenings. God is real, you see, his Spirit is powerful, and he comes and goes as he wills—like the wind—though never without the gospel.
Nicodemus is bewildered, as no doubt some of you are: “How can this be?” Jesus tells him he shouldn’t be surprised; he is a teacher and should know that this is all there in the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied that in the latter days God would write his law on his people’s hearts. They were unable to be obedient because their minds were twisted. Ezekiel promised that God would take away people’s stony hearts and give them hearts of flesh. And now, says Jesus, the time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. The coming new age is breaking in. Jesus is calling people to belong to his kingdom, but they can neither see it, nor enter it unless they are born again.
This raises a troubling question: what can I do, if the gift of eternal life is in God’s hands? It is his Spirit who decides whom he will awaken and whom not. The wind blows where it wills. Does this mean I must just wait and hope that I am one of the lucky ones?
Logically, yes, but actually, no! The first thing to understand is why it is like this. Paul tells us that God wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2) God is not trying to keep people away from his kingdom; quite the opposite. Jesus came to save, not to condemn. But people resist; they are afraid of God, suspicious, indifferent, hostile. We are much more damaged than we realize. We are sick and need a physician. Our hearts are not right; we need a new heart. The Bible goes so far as to say we are dead in our sins, and we need to be made alive again. We cannot make ourselves alive; only God can do that. That is why the new birth is necessary. If we want it, and ask for it, it is ours; but who wants it? “Keep away from me God; I will do things my way.” That is the first thing to understand.
The next thing is to pay attention to what Jesus says in verses 14-15.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
There was a time in Israel’s wilderness wanderings when they were so disobedient and rebellious that God sent a plague of snakes, and many died. They cried out to him, and he told Moses to make a bronze serpent and hoist it on a pole. Whoever was bitten and looked at it would be healed. Jesus uses this as a picture. We have all been bitten by the serpent; we are all dying. If something is not done, we will die eternally. God sent his Son into the world to be its saviour. He will exhibit his Son by hanging him on a pole. Whoever looks to the crucified Son of Man and trusts will be saved.
So, the question to ask is not, “Will the wind of the Spirit blow in my direction?” We should rather look to Jesus crucified for us, and believe in him. If we do, the Spirit is doing his work; God will heal us of the serpent’s bite and give us eternal life. If we don’t, we only have ourselves to blame that we perish everlastingly.
We must not forget the backdrop to all this. Jesus is the new Moses who will remove all evil from the world: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” The Baptizer was clear, Messiah was coming to carry out the great separation of the righteous and the wicked: “His winnowing fork is in his hands; he will clear the threshing-floor. He will gather the grain into his store-room, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” The problem is that we are the chaff, not the grain. This is why what John says next is so important:
For God did not send the Son to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned; those who do not believe are condemned already, because they do not believe in the name of the one and only Son of God… For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
So simple! So why do we hold back? Pray that the wind of God would blow through this Cathedral, that those who are not already, would be born again and be saved. Pray that God would transform you—and not just us, but that he would send his Spirit through this whole community of Geraldton—to awaken and bring many to life.Í