John 3:1-8
Jesus Teaches Us About Being Born Again
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He 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."
3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
2 Corinthians 5:17
Born and New Again in Jesus
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Revelation 21:5
Born and New Again
5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”
John 8:21
I AM the Light
12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 3:21
Coming into the Light
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
Nicodemus questioned Jesus because he knew He came from God...Nicodemus has seen the good things Jesus was doing, the way He talked about God, and then the miracles and the miraculous things He was doing -showed him that God was with His Son...Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and it took strength to look for faith in God from Jesus, because of his background...Jesus teaches him about the mystery of man...Man must be reborn or born again to get and see the Kingdom of God...Jesus' knowledge and His teaching of this wisdom about God, shows us He knows about the complexities, the very mysteries, and the very details of God's Plan and how man can enter the Kingdom of God...And as a part of this, we must be born again...
Nicodemus in is his conversation with Jesus, I can very much relate to...As I journey toward faith and Jesus I see there are many things I do not understand and that is a mystery...The more I seem to learn, the more God's wisdom and knowledge grow...There are more questions fro Him...Nicodemus probes for the answer of how can we all be born again...St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, helps us with this a little...St. Paul tells us that when we have the right relationship with Jesus, we are a new creation, we are in a way born again...The old has gone, the new has now come...When He is with us and in us, we are different...How can this be?...It is because Jesus has the power to make all things new...He is the One who is the Truth..His words are therefore, faithful and true...
Nicodemus was looking at the Light of this World, and was seeing it only very dimly...Nicodemus still had days he was walking in darkness, not understanding...We as believers must get to the Truth, so we may have the Light of Life...When we live the the Truth, we come into the Light, and then we can easier see what Jesus has done and is talking about...The things He did and does are being done through God...Was Nicodemus different now after meeting Jesus?...Are you different after following Jesus?...What were we like before and what are we like now after accepting Jesus...Jesus wants us to be different...He wants change, good change...
Nicodemus, being a Pharisee, followed the Laws of Moses literally...The first five books of the Bible, the Laws of Moses, were very important to them, if not the most important...They thought the Law of Moses should be followed strictly...They were almost like a political group, who felt this was the proper, if not only way to view the Bible, and get closer to God...As Nicodemus questioned Jesus about the Kingdom of God, it was like, we can see God growing -there are and were more and more questions Nicodemus could come up with as Jesus tells him of God...
As we journey through life, and our faith grows, as it was for Nicodemus, and it is for many (of us)...We get closer to God, yet He may seem a little further away, as we age...God keeps getting bigger, as we know more about Him...As our faith increases, He increases...The more faith one, has the bigger God is... Every time, like Nicodemus, I learn and understand something about God, another question arises, another mysterious door gets opened...
If we can hope in the LORD, and trust in the LORD, then we can believe He does make all things new...Those who get to know Jesus, understand the failings of their own heart and their own ways...They understand this need for Him, this need of obedience, and the need to be born again...We understand that it needs to be His will be done and not ours...We can be reborn or born again, by having Him in our daily lives...We are different after accepting and believing Him...The more He is in our lives the more light and truth we have in our lives...And the more Light and Truth we can see -and the longing for more Light and more Truth to happen...