The Instrument of the New Birth


Sermon by David Strain on January 24, 2021 John 3:1-15

On Sunday mornings here at First Presbyterian Church we have been considering the teaching of our Lord in John’s gospel chapter 3 on the subject of the new birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” And so far we have considered the nature of the new birth – what it isn’t and what it is; the necessity of the new birth – it is necessary because, we said, it is a universal principle, an absolute rule, and an urgent need. And then last week we considered the agent of the new birth. It is, we saw, the sovereign work of God the Holy Spirit alone to give the new birth, to create new hearts within us. And now today in the fourth place we’re going to think about the instrument of the new birth. The instrument. The Spirit of Jesus Christ gives the new birth to dead sinners by His free, sovereign grace, but when He does, He uses means. He uses instruments. And so we’re asking, “By what means does God work the new birth into us?”

Before we try to answer that question, let me ask you, if you haven’t done so already, to open your Bibles to John chapter 3, verses 1 through 15, and then let’s bow our heads as we pray.

O God who spoke into the darkness, “Let there be light,” and there was light, we pray that You would now give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ as we read Your holy Word. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

John 3 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he 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. 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.’

Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 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.’”

Amen.

I read a story a few weeks ago about the three mile bridge in Pensacola Bay which had to close in October of last year in the wake of hurricane damage. The news reports featured complaints from workers who use the bridge on their daily commute from nearby towns, like Gulf Breeze, into Pensacola for their employment. Some of them actually lost their jobs as a result. Others have had to find rental accommodation and actually moved into Pensacola. And the authorities, aware of the disruption, were struggling to compensate for the loss of the bridge. They said they were offering free buses from Gulf Breeze and were considering even starting a ferry service across Pensacola Bay while the repairs were going on.

What struck me as I read all of that is how much we take things like bridges for granted until they’re not available to us. And then, as the folks who needed to get into Pensacola Bay make very clear, things get pretty frustrating indeed. And I relay that story because I rather suspect that for some people at least the Biblical teaching on the nature and necessity of the new birth is a bit like being stuck on one side of the bay without a bridge. You’ve got to get across, but there’s no way to do it. “You must be born again,” Jesus says, but then He insists that it is the work of God alone. You can’t accomplish it. We are totally unable to cause the new birth or create new life within ourselves. We must be born again, but we can’t be born again. We need a way to bridge that chasm. Don’t we? And the teaching of Scriptures on the means, the instrument that the Spirit uses to effect the new birth, I think, helps provide that very bridge for us.

The Relationship of the Word of God to the New Birth

And so as we look down again at John 3, I want to focus once more on the words of verses 9 through 15 in particular. As we have seen, Jesus has insisted that Nicodemus must be born again. He’s explained the new birth – that it is the mysterious and mighty work of the Holy Spirit alone. The flesh, we are told, profits nothing. And perhaps understandably, poor Nicodemus is stunned. He’s left reeling at the implications of our Savior’s message. And so he bursts out in verse 9, “How can these things be?” And look at Jesus’ reply in verse 10. “Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen and you do not receive our testimony.”

And for now, I simply want you to notice the various ways Jesus talks about verbal communication here. Do you see them? We were emphatic a few weeks ago, if you remember, that the new birth is not a matter of better information only. Just getting the data correct isn’t enough. Rather, we saw the new birth is nothing short of the radical creation of an entirely new self, implanted into the heart by God the Holy Spirit. It is a new creation. It is a spiritual resurrection. It’s much, much more than a matter of simply deepening our intellectual understanding. That much, I think, has been quite clear in our Lord’s teaching to this point. But as we look at verses 9 through 15 this morning, isn’t it equally clear that the communication of truth somehow, nevertheless, remains central to Jesus’ theology of the new birth. Do you see that? “We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” In Jesus’ mind, there is still a relationship, albeit a mysterious one from our point of view, between His speech, His bearing witness, His word of testimony, and the possibility for Nicodemus of being born again.

But if you’ve been tracking with our argument over these weeks so far, that creates a dilemma for us. Do you see the difficulty? If we are dead in our sin and we can’t do anything to save ourselves, what’s the use of preaching to us? What possible difference can it make? It’s about as effective, surely, as talking to a brick! Right? And so now, all of a sudden, understanding the relationship between the teaching that Jesus offers here and the new birth that Jesus requires becomes incredibly important for us. How do we relate these two things?

Well let me direct you to two other passages of the New Testament. This is why it will always be helpful for you to bring your own Bibles with you on the Lord’s Day to church, so that you can find the text with me and see the context. The first passage is 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 23 through 25. First Peter chapter 1, 23 through 25. We’re going to come back to John 3, so keep your finger there, and turn forward to 1 Peter 1:23-25. Peter says:

“You have been born again” – so he’s clearly using the categories of our Lord in His conversation with Nicodemus back in John 3 – “You have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

Alright, so Peter, picking up on Jesus’ categories here about the new birth, shows us – do you see this – what is really implied in John 3. He shows us how the communication of the Word of God plays an instrumental role in bringing new spiritual life into a dead sinner’s heart. Do you see that in the text? “You have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through” – so here’s the instrument the Spirit uses – “through the living and abiding word.” And in case we’re in any doubt about what that Word is, he goes on to say, “And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” So the preaching of the Word of the Gospel is the instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit to bring new life into the hearts of the spiritually dead.

Then let’s look at the next New Testament passage that I think helps us understand the relationship of the Word of God to the new birth. Turn this time, still remembering to keep your finger in John 3 – we’re coming back to it – but turn this time to 2 Corinthians chapter 4; 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 3 through 6. Second Corinthians 4:3-6. Paul writes this time:

“Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Okay so here’s the scenario – Paul is preaching and he discovers, as he preaches, that in the case of many who hear his gospel is veiled in their experience, the God of this age, the devil, has blinded the eyes of some who do not believe so that they just don’t see it; they don’t see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. They’re in the dark. They get nothing out of Paul’s preaching. It’s just white noise, you know, in the background, to them. And yet still, verse 5, even so, knowing that that is the case, Paul says he continues to preach. “We proclaim not ourselves but Christ as Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

And our question then is, “Why do you keep preaching, Paul, if you know some people are blind to the message and can’t see it? Why keep preaching Christ to people who can’t believe it?” Well look at verse 6. He tells us why. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” That is stunning. The Creator Himself, who at the dawn of history caused the light to shine with a word – He said, “Let there be light” and there was light – now does something analogous to that in the sin benighted hearts of some sinners. As they hear the Gospel, He speaks again. He says, “See My glory in the face of My Son,” and the lights go on and they believe the Gospel.

That means that for some people sitting in the pew, listening to the same message, the Gospel just washes over them and there is no apparent effect. The call of God to trust in Christ to repent of sin comes to them just as clearly as it does to everyone else and they shrug and go back to their daydreams. But then imagine someone sitting right next to them, by any ordinary measure these two are very much alike – perhaps they are the same age, the same stage in life, they share the same background, have the same interests and hobbies, same education. But whereas one is utterly unresponsive to the message, the god of this age having blinded her eyes, in the heart of the other, as they both listen to the preaching of the Word, suddenly God says into the darkness, “Let there be light,” and she sees it at last. The light of Christ begins to shine in her heart for the first time. And in that instant, without any delay of time, she believes. She answers the call to come trust in Jesus. The Spirit works through the Gospel message – the Word proclaimed, making it mighty to raise the dead. She hears, like Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, her Savior call her name and tell her to come forth from her grave. And she is enabled, by the Spirit through the Word, to answer the call. She is born again.

And if you turn back now to John chapter 3, doesn’t that explain why Jesus does not end His conversation with Nicodemus with His discussion of the necessity and the supernatural nature of the new birth? He doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t just leave Nicodemus stuck, as it were, on one side of Pensacola Bay without a bridge. “I must be born again but I am powerless to cross the gulf to get there. How do I get across? I can’t get across!” He doesn’t leave him there. Look at what Jesus does. As soon as He makes Nicodemus’ powerlessness and spiritual inability clear to him, He strips Nicodemus of all confidence in himself for his own salvation. He shatters all hope in self-deliverance for Nicodemus. Then He turns immediately, in verses 13 through 14 – do you see this – in verses 13 through 14, and says, “No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 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.” You see what Jesus is doing, don’t you? He tells Nicodemus of his soul’s great need for the new birth. He works to shatter all hope of obtaining the new birth by any mechanism of his own creation. And then, when Nicodemus feels utterly stranded, utterly helpless, stuck on one side of the bay without a bridge, then He begins to preach the good news to him because He knows, Jesus knows it is through the living and abiding Word of the good news that is preached that we are born again.

Jesus’ Message to Nicodemus: The Gospel

And if you will allow me, I want to linger over what Jesus says here because it just doesn’t seem right to me to explain the way God works to give the new birth through the preaching of the Gospel and then fail myself to preach the Gospel. Okay, so let’s look at Jesus’ message to Nicodemus. In verses 13 through 15, you’ll notice in verse 13 first of all He says God has come down in person on His rescue mission. Jesus is the Son of Man who descended from heaven. He’s no mere man, you see. He is Himself the Lord of glory, come to seek and save the lost. God did not send someone else. He loves sinners so much He came in person. And then verses 14 and 15, He tells Nicodemus about the cross. Do you see that in verses 14 and 15? That’s what all this business about Moses lifting up the bronze serpent is really all about in verse 15.

Now you can read the story Jesus is talking about in Numbers 21. You may remember the story. The people of Israel have been led out of Egypt by Moses and they’ve begun to grumble because life in the wilderness is hard and they’re looking back on Egypt through sort of rose-tinted spectacles forgetting its hardships and longing to return to their slavery. And in their sin, God sent poisonous snakes as a judgment upon them. And we need to understand the snakes are not an arbitrary judgment. It’s not as though the Lord had said to Himself, “Well you know I’ve tried everything else. Let’s change things up. Let’s see what’s snakes will do.” No, remember, a snake was a symbol of Egypt. Think about the pharaoh’s crown with a cobra on the front of it. A potent symbol of Egyptian power. And by sending these snakes amongst them – the text calls them “fiery serpents,” probably alluding to the red-hot pain of their bite – God was saying to them, “You really want to go back there? Let me remind you of this sting and bite of life back there back then.” But more than that, remember, this snake, this serpent is a symbol of Satan himself in the form of a serpent. He came to our first parents, Adam and Eve, and deceived them in the garden and so now here in the wilderness God is reminding Israel, in the bite of these fiery serpents, of what they had clearly forgotten. He was showing them the potency of Satan’s deceptions and just how deadly their sin really is. It was, no doubt, a dreadful judgment upon them.

And when they finally cry out for mercy, God tells Moses, “I want you to make an image of a serpent out of bronze and lift it up on a pole.” And the promise was simple. Anyone who looks at that image in faith in the Lord to deliver them will be healed of the agonies of the serpent’s bite. Now again, this pole, it’s not just any old stick. It’s another Egyptian symbol, this time a symbol of the deity. And so by lifting up the serpent on the pole, Moses was saying, “Here is the victory of God over this judgment that is upon you. And if you will look to the one who conquers and triumphs over the devil and over your sin, he will deliver you.”

And now in John 3:15 – look at this. This is so beautiful to me. Here in verse 15, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “The God Man, I Myself, the Lord Jesus Christ, I will one day be lifted up on a pole just like that, at the cross.” The one who knew no sin would be made sin for us. At Calvary, like the bronze serpent long ago, the Lord Jesus would become the embodiment, the very image of the divine curse poured out on our sin, but falling on His shoulders, that all and any who look to Him hanging there, in faith, believing the promise of God for mercy, might not perish under the Satanic bite of their sin. “But instead, Nicodemus, instead you will live.”

You see what Jesus was doing? He was preaching the Gospel to Nicodemus, wasn’t He? He was offering him the only path available to any of us that leads to pardon and to life. And why does He do it? He does it because it’s in this message, in this word, that the Holy Spirit is pleased to give new life and make the dead live.

Now two quick words of application and then we’re done. Suppose you’ve listened to these messages on the new birth over these weeks together and there’s been a growing concern swelling in your heart. You’ve begun to wonder, “Since God requires the new birth of me if I’m ever to enter the kingdom, what if I am, in fact, not born again? And what’s worse, if I’m not born again, what can I do about it? After all, you tell me I’m dead in my sin, I’m lost and I’m helpless, I’m utterly without hope, aren’t I? Unless God comes and makes me alive, if I’m not born again is there any hope for me?” Well yes, there is hope. But you won’t find it by focusing first of all on the question of whether or not you have already been born again. If you wish to have comfort and assurance that you are born again, it is not to the new birth that you must first turn your attention. You must turn your attention where Jesus points Nicodemus – to the Gospel invitation. He calls you to repent of your sin and to believe on Him. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” That is the summons of Holy Scripture to you. The new birth, remember, comes through the living and abiding Word. It is as the Gospel is preached that God gives new life. So what should you do as you hear the preaching of the Word? Don’t look at your heart to determine if you’ve been born again. Look at Christ and live! Look up in faith from your sin at the serpent on the pole, lifted up that you might be delivered. Look at the cross, where Christ endured the condemnation sin deserves. Believe on Him and you will not perish. That’s His promise right here in our text. You will not perish. You will live! Stop inquiring into the secret things of God that you cannot have any knowledge of until you believe. And instead, right now, look to Christ crucified and live. That’s God’s promise to you. All who hear and answer His call and invitation are born of God. So hear and answer His invitation.

And then finally, suppose you are a believer, but you’re terribly burdened for unbelieving loved ones, children, parents, siblings, colleagues and friends. I want you to see the great encouragement this teaching provides for you. Think about Ezekiel 37. You remember Ezekiel 37? God took the prophet, put him down in the valley of dry bones, and asked him, “Ezekiel, can these bones live?” Ezekiel sort of scratches his head, “Lord, You know.” And remember what God told Ezekiel to do as he looks around at these white, bleached bones, everywhere as far as the eye can see. He’s recoiling in horror. And He tells Ezekiel to do what? He says, “I want you to prophesy to the bones and then I want you to prophesy to the wind.” The wind, of course, just like in John 3, is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. And I am convinced Ezekiel must have felt pretty stupid as he started to preach. You know, all these empty eye sockets, brainless skulls, grinning up and him as he begins to preach. He’s prophesying to them saying, “You need to live.” A defibrillator isn’t going to do it. A month on the Whole-30 will make no change in their condition. A vaccine will be useless in their case. Right? They’re dead. And Ezekiel is to speak to them. “What am I thinking of?” I’m sure he didn’t preach with his usual fire. He must have felt pretty foolish.

And then, then he begins to prophesy to the wind. In other words, he calls on the Spirit of God to come. And as he preaches, the wind begins to blow. And bone joins to bone and soon they’re covered in sinew and flesh and skin and can stand on their feet. A mighty army for the Lord, living! Now did Ezekiel make them live? No! But was Ezekiel’s inability to make these dead bodies live an excuse for inactivity in Ezekiel? Of course not! What does Ezekiel do? He preaches the Word and prays down heaven, and by the Word, in answer to his prayer, God made the dead live.

What should you do for your unbelieving child, that teenager who just rolls his eyes or her eyes every time you say, “Okay, let’s go to church,” and they sit there restless and every ten minutes they make an excuse to go to the restroom. “I’m sick today. I can’t come.” What do you do? Your heart is breaking. What do you do? You keep bearing witness. You keep pointing them to Jesus. You keep pleading with God. He makes the dead live. There is no one who is a lost cause because God by His Spirit works by His mighty word and causes Lazarus to come from the tomb when He calls.

Let’s pray together.

O our Father, how we pray for those in our congregation, in our community who do not know Jesus Christ, who still languish in spiritual darkness, whose hearts remain dead. They are in no better a state than the bones, the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. But oh how we plead with You that the wind of the Holy Spirit might blow to give new life. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.

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