You are Born Again by the Holy Spirit

“It’s your birthday!” Kids, you get so excited when you hear that it is your birthday. Your birthday is filled with special food like cake and ice cream, and even a special meal out at a restaurant or your favorite meal at home. Your birthday means presents. Your birthday means special time with friends and family. Your birthday may mean a trip to your favorite park, amusement park, zoo, the movies, etc. With all the gifts and special things that happen on your birthday, you say, “Thank you” a lot, but there is one “Thank you” that we often forget. On each of your birthdays, it is good to thank your parents for giving you the gift of life.

A man named Nicodemus had seen his fair share of birthdays. Nicodemus lived at the same time as Jesus. In our Gospel reading from John 3, we hear a description of him, ¹ Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. From this description, we learn that Nicodemus was Jewish, meaning he was an Israelite descended from the great nation God promised to Abraham, who we read about in our Old Testament reading from Genesis 12. Nicodemus was also Pharisee, which meant he had dedicated his life to studying, teaching and living by God’s Law. And, he was part of the Jewish ruling council or Sanhedrin, giving him more responsibility and respect. He wanted to know more about Jesus as we read more from John 3, ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Nicodemus and the other religious leaders recognized Jesus had to be from God because of his miracles, but most were suspicious of Jesus. So he went at night in secret to see him.

Jesus was ready to teach Nicodemus what he and the other religious leaders had been missing. We hear from John 3, ³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” ⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus began teaching Nicodemus about the kingdom of God. He used earthly illustrations, which Nicodemus did not understand. He could not see through Jesus’ physical illustration to understand his spiritual point. Then, ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” Jesus linked his illustration about birth to baptism. John the Baptist had been baptizing for a while, and Jesus now taught Nicodemus the need for baptism. Jesus taught him that all need to be born again through baptism, the ‘you’ in ‘You must be born again,’ is plural. Jesus made the obvious point that everyone is born physically, thus Jesus saying, “Flesh gives birth to flesh.” Then he shared the problem with that first birth. The problem is the sin passed down from every parent to every child. Sin is a problem because it has separated us from God and leads to eternal death in hell. But God wants all people to be part of his kingdom, so there is a second birth that takes away sin and gives eternal life in heaven. This birth is spiritual, not physical, and it is done by water and the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus went on to say, ⁸ “The 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.” The Spirit gives rebirth and brings someone into the kingdom of God through faith, which the Holy Spirit gives through baptism. The Holy Spirit and faith are invisible in baptism, but like the wind, the results of the Holy Spirit’s power like faith, peace, hope, joy and love are seen even before a believer enters eternal life in heaven.

Only with the Holy Spirit can you understand Jesus’ teachings. Nicodemus still did not understand what Jesus was teaching him. We read in John 3:

⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. ¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

John 3:9-12

Jesus used universal illustrations like birth and the wind to explain the kingdom of God, but Nicodemus still did not understand. Unlike Nicodemus who struggled to understand Jesus, Abraham believed. In our Old Testament reading from Genesis 12, we heard God call Abraham to move away from his homeland to a new place. What God asked did not make sense. Abraham was 75 years old and wealthy. He was looking to retire, not start a new life, but God promised he would be blessed and a blessing to the world by moving, so Abraham went. Once he arrived, we read, ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. God’s call to Abraham was difficult enough to understand, but God’s promise revolved around his offspring of which he had none. Plus, he was too old to have children. Yet, God allowed Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to have a child. God pointed Abraham and Sarah to himself as the giver of life. And from the nation God made from Abraham was born Jesus.

You struggle with Jesus’ teachings like Nicodemus. Like Nicodemus and all people, we were born disconnected from God. Born to only see this world, to live by our conscience, our sense of right and wrong, which sounds good, but it has been corrupted by sin, so sometimes it fails us and other times it does tell us what is right, but we ignore it to do things we later regret or are punished for, sinful things that we look back on and do not understand the person who could do such things. We are born and then we die, and there are all these emotions, thoughts and philosophies connected to life and death, and we try to reason out meaning for our short lives because we are sad for loss and afraid of our own end and suffering. When things like birth and death happen, we get exciting or curious, afraid or anxious. Even with the Holy Spirit, with the gift of faith as baptized children of God and members of his kingdom, we struggle to understand. We struggle to see Jesus as the answer to our sins, we avoid repentance and remain in our shame because we think God would not want us or forgive us, and we hide our apathy toward sin and God’s grace in the business of our lives. But God did not create us as sinners. He did not want us to die. He did not want there to be a hell. But there is sin, we are sinners, we are going to die and hell exists. Like Nicodemus, we were born sinful flesh, and our only hope for life is spiritual rebirth.

Jesus gave Nicodemus a gift the night he came to visit him. We read from John 3, ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” Jesus pointed Nicodemus to the Old Testament to Numbers 21 where God sent poisonous snakes to punish the Israelites for sinning against God. And after confessing their sins to Moses and Moses praying to God for them, God told Moses to put a bronze snake up on a pole and anyone who looked at it was healed. Then, Jesus said, ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus told Nicodemus that God loved the whole sinful, condemned world that he would save them not with a bronze snake, but his own beloved Son. And it would be through faith, looking to Jesus alone who was hung up on a cross to die for our sins, that whoever believes would never see hell, but have eternal life in heaven. This was the gift. Nicodemus heard the saving truth of Jesus’ sacrifice to give life to the world and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he believed. Later in John 19, we hear that a follower of Jesus named Joseph of Arimathea, not Jesus’ father, was there to take Jesus’ body down from being hung up on the cross and, ³⁹ He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus was faced with another struggle to understand holding Jesus’ lifeless body, but the Holy Spirit was with him to keep his faith in his Savior. And after the resurrection, he praised God for the gift of Jesus and eternal life.

You have the gift too. The Holy Spirit’s born again birthday gift to you is faith in Jesus who saved you. Through your baptism, God washed away your sins, brought you into his kingdom by faith and gave you life. Your rebirth is a true gift as we heard in our New Testament reading from Romans 4,

³ What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

Romans 4:3-5

Abraham did not work to create the physical nation of Israel, God did. Nicodemus did not enter his mother’s womb again to be saved, the Holy Spirit gave him spiritual rebirth. You have not obeyed God’s law, Jesus did. You will not suffer in hell because Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You are not condemned because Jesus rose from the dead. You have been saved as Jesus said in John 3, ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Your birthday brings many gifts. All those gifts are the result of your parents, and it is good to thank them for those gifts, especially for the gift of life. Your second birth, when you were born again of water and the Spirit also brought you many gifts. All those gifts are the result of God’s love for you. Give thanks to God for his gracious gift of life through Jesus because you were born again by the Holy Spirit. Amen.