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Book: John
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John 3:4 How Can A Man Be Born Again?
I. What is it to be born again?
A. When God first created man, He created him a three dimensional
being. Spirit, mind and body, sort of a inferior trinity.
1. Man was essentially a spirit dwelling in a body,
possessing a consciousness.
a. Plant life is one dimensional, body. It grows,
and feeds on the nutrients in the soil, or in
the atmosphere, and in some cases such as the
Venus fly trap, on insects. Plants reproduce
through the genetic codes within the seeds.
b. Animal life is two dimensional, body and
consciousness. They feed on the plants, or on
other animals. They are mobile, they again
reproduce by the genetic code within the seed
that is often fertilized by the male sperm.
Because of the addition of the consciousness
and mobility, the animal kingdom is a quantum
leap superior to the plant kingdom.
c. Man was created spirit, soul, and body. He
feeds on the plant and animal kingdoms. He
reproduces through the genetic code that is in
the seed and the sperm. It is in the dimension
of the spirit that man can know God and
fellowship with Him. Jesus said, "God is a
Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Man because of the
dimension of the spirit is a quantum leap
superior to the animal kingdom.
d. It should be noted however that man whose
spirit is dead is living in the animal plain
of existence as is proved over and over again
on the front pages of your newspapers every
day.
B. When man was first created he lived in an ideally pure
environment in a strong healthy body with no inherited genetic
defects. His spirit was alive and he thus lived in conscious
fellowship with God.
1. There was just one question, did man live in fellowship
with God because he loved God, or was it because there
was no other alternative?
2. To determine the answer, God placed a tree in the
middle of paradise that was extremely desirable because
of its attractiveness, he then forbid man to eat of it
on the threat of spiritual death, and the resultant
loss of fellowship with God.
3. Man succumbed to the attractive alternative, he ate of
the fruit, and his spirit died.
4. Man was now existing on the animal plain of existence a
two dimensional life body and consciousness.
5. Like the animals, his consciousness was primarily
occupied with his body appetites, he was ruled by the
lusts of his flesh.
6. There was no way man could resuscitate his spirit.
3. When Jesus said that unless a man was born again he could not
see the kingdom of God, he was referring to the rebirth of the
spirit of man.
1. Paul writing to the Corinthians said, The things of
God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God; that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things
with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are
spiritually discerned.
2. If these things sound like so much foolishness to you
it is because your spirit is dead, and you need to be
born again.
C. Jesus was basically saying to Nicodemus, that you were born
once by the flesh, but you need to born again by the Spirit.
Your body is alive, but your spirit is dead.
1. If any man wants to see the kingdom of heaven, he must
have a spiritual birth.
2. Otherwise you will never see it or understand it.
II. How is a man born again? How can you have a birth of your spirit?
As Nicodemus said, "How can these things be?"
A. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life."
1. Numbers 21 tells us the interesting story of the
serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness.
2. The people had begun to again complain against God and
against Moses accusing them of bringing them out of
Egypt that they might die in the wilderness.
3. God in response to their complaints sent fiery serpents
among the people and many died of the deadly bites.
4. They came and repented before Moses, who in turn prayed
to God to deliver them from the plague of the fiery
serpents.
5. God instructed Moses to make a likeness of a serpent
and put it on a pole in the midst of the camp and
whenever a person was bitten, if they looked upon that
serpent on the pole, they would live.
6. So Moses made the serpent of brass and placed it on a
pole in the middle of the camp, and it came to pass
whenever a person was bitten by one of these serpents,
when they would look on the brass serpent on the pole,
they did not die.
7. This story is full of symbolism. Brass is a metal that
in scripture is associated with judgment, and the
serpent is a symbol of sin. Lifted on the pole is a
symbol of being lifted on the cross.
8. The brass serpent lifted up on the pole is thus a
symbol of our sins that were judged on the cross. There
Jesus took upon Himself our sins, and there He died
receiving the judgment of God for sin.
9. Thus if you dying by the deadly bite of sin will look
in faith to Jesus as He is lifted up on the cross for
you, you will have a spiritual birth or be born again.
The sin that brought death of the spirit will be
forgiven, and you can now have new spiritual life with
the subsequent fellowship with God.
10. The natural man whose spirit is dead is living at best
at only 2/3 rds. capacity, there is something missing
and he is only aware of an emptiness, that he seeks to
fill with things. We note in the world around us all
the things man is doing to try to fill this inner void.
11. Man was created to worship and he will worship
something, some of the things man worships are
destroying him. Using the words of Jesus, man is
perishing, but if he will believe that Jesus died for
his sins, he will be born again and have eternal life.
12. You may object saying, "That is so simple, I do not
understand how that works, how can my just looking in
faith to Jesus, bring the forgiveness of my sins and
eternal life?"
a. What if a person in Moses day was dying from
the bite of the fiery serpent, and a friend
would drag his dying body to a spot where he
could look at the serpent on the pole. As he
was in convulsions, his friend was urging him
to look at the serpent on the pole, but he
objected that it was to simple, he did not
understand how just looking was going to
change anything. His friend insisted that
though he did not understand the process, yet
when he was dying he looked and was healed,
and all around him people who were dying were
being healed as they looked, yet he refused to
look and died.
b. What would be your reaction? You would probably
say, "Fool, you didn't need to understand the
process, you only needed to look."
B. Jesus went on to explain, "For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish but have everlasting life."
1. I think again of the Israelites wandering in the
wilderness blaming God for their woes, murmuring and
complaining against God for their misery. In reality
their misery was of their own doing, God had not failed
them, they had failed God, but they want to blame God
for it. It was the purpose of God to bring them into
the fertile land that they might enjoy its benefits,
they were the ones who turned back.
2. How typical that is of man today, living in the misery
of sin which is of his own making, yet trying to blame
God for his miseries.
3. How they misunderstood the love of God. The purpose of
the fiery serpents was not to destroy them but to turn
them back to God, so that God could help and bless
them.
4. Without the assistance of God they could not have
survived two weeks in that wilderness, yet God
preserved them for forty years.
5. Many of you as they have turned your backs on God and
are taking a dangerous path that is leading to your
destruction. You cannot survive without the protecting
hand of God, yet you are seeking to fault God for all
your problems. In spite of your rebellion against Him,
He still loves you more than you could ever know, and
in love for you, He sent His Son to die on the cross
for your sins that are in the process of destroying
you.
6. The wonderful promise of God is that if you will
believe in His Son, you will not perish but have
everlasting life. Everlasting life is not just
quantity, but a quality of life. Quantity without
quality is hell.
7. That is how a man's spirit is born, and he is born
again, by believing in the provision that God has made
in love for the forgiveness of his sins. Simple, but
how very profound, simple enough for a child to
understand and perceive, so profound that we cannot
fully comprehend it, but must simply believe it.
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