John 3:3–7 — Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 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?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
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Suicide. A dark word. A dark subject. How many people live with depression, live in isolation, and become suicidal, or look at life as meaningless? Too many to know. Some of you may have been that way before you met Jesus. Then you learned that He created you with intentionality, with purpose, and with a future. Sometimes we forget what we were without Jesus in our lives. But we cannot forget there are people around us who live day-to-day and think, “Why am I here? Why should I keep going?”
We who know Jesus know that Jesus creates with a purpose. He calls us to a purpose, for a purpose. He created His church—us, with purpose. Each of us has a purpose and meaning. God gives us meaning and purpose. I want to remind us that we have a purpose and meaning. It is given to us by our Master. I will use Scripture to show us how to remind ourselves of our God-given purpose. We must not forget.
Our text is from a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a religious leader of Israel. Jesus was teaching from a premise that many people reject. They reject His premise because it offends their pride. I’m referring to Christians and non-believers. They are offended by His premise.
Here is Jesus’ premise: Every person is born into this world alienated from God. Every person is unacceptable to God. As Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden by God, so every person remains outside of the Kingdom of God. A person must be born again—be radically transformed spiritually by the Spirit of God to enter the kingdom of God. Unless there is a divine change to the state of a person’s soul, he will perish eternally. That is the premise.
You may wonder where we see this in Jesus’ words? We start with verses 3, 5, and 7 of our passage of scripture. Look at John 3:7 again. Vs. 3 “Unless.” Vs. 5 “Unless” Vs. 7 “Must”.
Jesus says, “Unless a man is born from above, he will not see, he will not enter, the kingdom of God.”
“Unless” is like, “Unless a new engine is put in this car, it won’t start, and you are not going anywhere. The broken engine does not work. The car must have a new engine in it, or the car is condemned and thrown out.”
“Must” (Vs. 7) “You MUST be born again.” This means there is no exception. There must be a change to change your status and state before God, with God, or you will remain alienated from Him. Jesus did not say a person must be religious, be a kind person, or be a moral person. He said, “You must be born again.”
The term “born again” can also be translated as “born from above.” That means a radical transformation by God, specifically by the Spirit of God. Not by moralism, or a religious organization, or water baptism. The Holy Spirit of God changes the heart. He is the only one who can make a heart new. A person cannot change His own heart and state before God.
As it is written in Ezekiel 36:26, the Spirit of God will put a new heart in you. Without a new heart, which is cleansed of sin, you can not enter the kingdom.
Some clarity here. Being close to the kingdom is not in the kingdom. There are many people close to the entrance. As they say, close only counts with hand grenades and slow dancing. It does not count with the Kingdom of God. If you are IN the kingdom of God, then you have been born again. And if you have been born again, then you have been transformed and transferred from the kingdom you were a part of to a new kingdom. This new kingdom is the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ is the king of this kingdom.
Colossians 1:13–14 — He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The Spirit of God transforms us and transfers us to the kingdom of Christ Jesus. Those who have been transformed and transferred have been redeemed by Christ Jesus—we have been rescued out of spiritual darkness and have been forgiven of all our sins.
Here is how many people believe (but Jesus does not say): “Unless a person becomes a bad person—a really bad person, he/she is already loved by God and in His kingdom.” They believe a person is in the kingdom of God by default. If he/she becomes bad, then he or she will be kicked out of the kingdom of God. This is the “Opt-Out” warm-and-fuzzy belief. A person has to opt-out by personal choice. Many people believe that everyone will go to heaven unless they become really, really bad.
But this is the exact opposite of what Jesus is saying. And He is saying over and over. Jesus’ words: “unless” and “must” say we are not acceptable to God, and there needs to be divine change in us to make us accepted by God. “You must be born again.”
Before we move to another point, we can see this premise a few more times in John, Chapter Three. Look at Verse 16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Faith in Jesus Christ transfers a person from “perishing” to having eternal life. Look at John 3:18 — “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus says a person “is condemned already.” John 3:36 says this also. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” “Whoever” is every person. “The wrath of God remains on him.” Remains. That means it is already there and it is not going anywhere, unless.
You already know this premise from Romans 5:8. “… while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When did God show his love for us? What was our status when Jesus died for us? It wasn’t while we were innocent and acceptable to God. It was “while we were still sinners.” Sinners. That is our state before the living, holy God.
A one-word reminder of our mission from John 3:7: Must. The first way we can remind ourselves of our God-given purpose is to remember that a person must be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit and made clean by the blood of Jesus. Or else, he/she will not enter the kingdom of God. Everyone is outside and needs to enter. And the only way to enter is to put your faith in Jesus as Savior and be born again by His Spirit.
Another way to remind ourselves of our divine purpose in a single word is, “Were.”
In Titus 3:3, it says, “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” Underline is added. (Also see 1 Cor. 6:9-11.)
We have this in Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” And by Peter in, 1 Peter 2:10, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” In Ephesians 5:8, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Romans 11:30, “For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy,”
We should remind ourselves where we were and what we were and who we were before the Spirit of God opened our hearts’ understanding and filled us with a love for God and knowledge of Jesus. 1 Corinthians 6:11 says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If we remind ourselves that we once were without Christ and spiritually lost; if we remind ourselves that we needed someone to walk us to Jesus, then we should remember that others need us to help them hear and see Jesus.
Not many conversion stories make it to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, but Dr. Marvin Overton’s did. A June 6, 1994, article by Robert Johnson shows how true it is that when a person is transformed by the Spirit of Christ, the heart is transformed.
Dr. Marvin Overton is one of the finest brain surgeons in the nation and a past president of the Texas Association of Neurosurgeons. In 1992, he began attending a small church in Burnet, Texas, and had a spiritual awakening. He was born again. Before his conversion, he was a skeptic and a rationalist who believed in the power of science. Before his conversion, he was, by his own description, coldhearted. “I was a good surgeon,” said Overton, “but I was coarse. I couldn’t shed a tear. My attitude [toward patients] was ‘tough.’ ” Now he writes notes to friends, notes containing encouraging quotes from Scripture, and he cares enough about patients to ask those scheduled for surgery, 'If something goes wrong, are you comfortable that you know God and that you’ll go to heaven?”
Before Overton’s conversion, his god was wine. Not that he was an alcoholic; rather, he owned one of the finest wine collections in the country, over ten thousand bottles of every important vintage made between the late 1700s and 1930. His collection was valued at more than $1 million. Dr. Overton threw wine-tasting banquets for which French chefs and hand-carried bottles were flown in by a Concorde jet. “Wine had become my idol,” said Overton. “I worshipped the god Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fertility, festivity, and ritual madness. He said, “I was an excellent heathen.”
After Overton’s conversion, he sold his wine collection, giving much of the proceeds to charity. Before his conversion, Overton was a Fort Worth socialite. Now he is one of the leaders in his small-town, blue-collar church in Burnet, Texas. He even goes door-to-door to tell others about Christ. From who we were to who we are now.
As Christians, we should never forget how and when and from what the Holy Spirit transferred us. It was from the kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of Christ.
Review: How to Remember our Mission? People are not born into this world with a ticket to heaven. By default, we are alienated from God because of our defective heart and alienation from God. A person must be spiritually transformed by the Spirit of God, or they will perish. Also, we should remember that we were once spiritually lost and without God in this world. This helps us have compassion for others who are lost and need to be saved.
A third way we can remind ourselves of our divine purpose is in the word, “how.”
Romans 10:13–17 says, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Verse.13 begins the statement of how to be saved and enter the kingdom of God. Then four “how” questions. Then we read verse 15, “Is it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Sitting in church is great. We need that to properly prepare to do verse 15. There is the reminder of our purpose and mission. We are supposed to have beautiful feet. Meaning, feet that take the saving gospel to those who need to hear it.
We can be nice to people all day long, but niceness does not communicate the need for Jesus. It doesn’t communicate the serious condition of mankind. It doesn’t communicate how to enter the kingdom of God. It doesn’t communicate the only way to enter the Kingdom of God. We must communicate the Gospel. We can communicate in many ways, but we must communicate.
Many people think they know the biblical Jesus; they think they know the Gospel of Grace—that a person is saved by grace and not by good deeds. The truth is, they do not either. If they knew Jesus and the gospel of grace, they would run to Jesus. That is, if they knew these in the heart.
Some of you thought you knew Jesus, but looking back, you realized that you did not. It wasn’t until the Spirit of Christ enabled you to perceive the true Jesus and the true saving Gospel.
The three ways we can remind ourselves of our God-Given Purpose and Mission: Must-Were-How. Every person born into this world needs Jesus. Every person must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. Otherwise, they will remain under the wrath of God. They will perish in sin. Remembering that you once were perishing. You were spiritually lost. You needed someone to help you come to the truth. Others need you to help them hear the truth.
We have to presume that people who are not seeking Christ and His kingdom either haven’t heard the true Gospel of salvation or haven’t heard it with the Holy Spirit.
This is where I am calling everyone at Muddy Creek to respond to our Mission. Our mission is to be in missions.
When I speak of “be in missions,” I am thinking of the multitude of activities that God’s people can engage in, by means of which they participate in God’s mission. Not everyone can do anything or everything. Some people are limited physically, by home responsibilities, age, health limitations, etc. But none of those excludes each of us from being in missions in some form or another.
“People are like buttons, unattached, useless. Attached, indispensable. People, unattached to a goal, useless. People attached to a goal are purposeful. We are to be attached to the purpose of reaching others with the true Gospel that they may believe and be saved. “Being in Missions” is being attached to something eternal.
“If there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervor at a white heat, it is concerning missions. If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is in the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world.” —Charles Spurgeon
It has been said, “Missions are a must, not a maybe.”
Jesus gave us a mission to take the kingdom of God to others. Near and Far. He tells us (Acts 1:8), “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Muddy Creek Baptist has a Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and beyond. We have mission opportunities in Powhatan and Cumberland counties. We reach farther out across the state and into Kentucky with the Hills and Hollers ministry. We reach around the world with other ministry partnerships.
As the children’s song goes, “Hide it under a bushel, NO! I am going to let it shine!” This is what we are to do, and we need to remind ourselves that Jesus didn’t commission us to be inward, but outward.
Campus Life magazine told the conversion story of singer Kathy Troccoli. She grew up with an overprotective mother, and as Kathy got older, she rebelled, abusing alcohol and suffering eating disorders. Kathy said in the article, “Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, ‘We are as sick as our secrets.’ I was real sick.”
While Kathy started out rebelling against an overprotective mom, she wound up rebelling against herself—and at the expense of her own health and how she saw herself as a person. Into this swirl of rebellion and alcohol and unhappiness, Jesus came—in the form of a nerd.
At the time, Kathy was partying with her friends and singing in clubs by night. By day, she worked her summer job at a community pool, and Cindy was her prissy co-worker who read the Bible every day at lunch. To quote Kathy, “Cindy was the embodiment of a girl that I would not hang out with. I hung out with harder girls. Tougher. Cindy was kind of frilly. Pink—she was like a pink girl. And when she started telling me about Jesus, I made fun of her. And yet, somewhere deep down inside, I admired her. I was intrigued by her boldness. I liked it that she didn’t seem to care what people thought about her. I even suspected she was right, and that I was on the wrong path.”
Kathy knew that the truth of Christianity hung by a thin thread called faith. She knew there were unanswerable questions, and day after day she fired those questions at frilly Cindy, the Jesus nerd. Finally, one answer, one statement from the pink girl got through. “She said, ‘You know, Kath, Jesus is Lord whether you accept him or not.’ “I went home thinking about that,” says Kathy. “I had this growing sense that if Jesus was real, I had to check him out.” Cindy obliged, giving Kathy a small New Testament. “My other friends thought I was weird,” says Kathy, “because I was taking this Bible home, but I did, unapologetically. I read the Gospel of John, plowing right on through, despite a few unanswered questions.
Hear Kathy’s last words in her story. “When I got to the end, I knew I had to make a decision. If Jesus was who he said he was, I would have to respond. Everything would have to change.” On August 5th [1988], it did. Everything changed. Or rather, the changes began.
Christian brothers and sisters, we need to remember our Christ-Given Purpose—let others know the truth about Jesus and about the true saving Gospel of Grace.
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