Sunday 03/16/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Have you been spiritually re-born?”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 121
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
Gospel Lesson: John 3:1-17
Brothers and sisters,
welcome on this the Second Sunday in this season of Holy Lent. This is the
season where we prepare for the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In
this season we are challenged by God to prepare our hearts, our minds, and even
our bodies, for the death and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. In this season of 40-days of reflection, we are challenged to look at
ourselves, to look at our lives, to see where we are broken inside, and to see where
we are sinful. We are challenged to see what we can give up for Lent to grow
closer to God, but we are also challenged to see what we can give away to show
our love for God and for others.
So in this
season of Lent, let us seek to ask God to root out of us all that is impure,
all that is sinful, and all that separates us from him. Let us seek in this
season of Lent to be more like Jesus Christ, to repent of all the sins that we
have, and let us then seek as I said, to give away some of the love that God
has so freely given us.
You see at the
very core of this season of Lent is love, sacrifice, and resurrection. Jesus
Christ loves us so much that he is coming to die for us, and he will be
resurrected on the third day proving he is indeed the Messiah, the Savior, the
Living God.
Since on
Easter morning Jesus Christ will be resurrected and restored to life, let us
seek to be restored to life in this season of Lent, as well. In this way, the
title of message this morning is called, “Have you been spiritually re-born?”
When we come
to know Jesus Christ, and we receive the Holy Spirit, we go through a process
of spiritual “re-birth.” Some people as a result of this, refer to themselves
as “Born Again Christians.” For many of these mostly Protestant and Evangelical
Christians they can likely tell you the day and the year that came to know the
Lord. They will tell you how they were forgiven, and how Jesus washed them as
clean as snow. Being spiritually “re-born” then is what Jesus talks to us about
in today’s gospel reading.
Before getting
into our gospel reading however, I will first discuss the other scriptures that
we had for this morning. Our first scripture is one of my favorite Psalms,
Psalm 121. In this Psalm, the writer or the Psalmist begins by saying, “I lift
my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?” When we go through a
process of spiritual “re-birth,” we are often at the point of conversion, very
broken inside. Sometimes at the very point that we actually accept the Lord, we
are trembling before God, we feel lost, and perhaps as the Psalm says, were
lifting our “eyes to the hills” in hope. The next verse of this Psalm then
says, “My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
Spiritual “re-birth”
in the Lord. The process of dying to the old self and being raised up to new
life in Jesus Christ. This Psalm then continues to talk about how God is
faithful. That God “will not let your foot be moved,” that “The LORD is your
keeper,” that the “LORD will keep you from all evil.”
In the New
Testament reading from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or Letter to the Church in
Rome, the Apostle Paul asks the church in Rome, or the Romans, “What then are
we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh?” The
Apostle Paul asks this question, because he is trying to ask the church in
Rome, did Abraham gain favor and righteousness from God by just doing good
works? The Apostle Paul goes to say that we are not re-born and made righteous
by works alone, but by faith in God. In fact, the Apostle Paul goes on to say, “one
who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.” Then the
Apostle Paul says, “But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly,
such faith is reckoned as righteousness.” So while doing good works is a good
thing, and while they can be a way for God to bless us and grow us, true salvation
and true “re-birth” occurs only by faith in Jesus Christ. In this way, the
Apostle Paul then says that God’s promise that Abraham and his decedents would
inherit the world came to them through the “righteousness of faith,” not works.
Good works
then, loving actions, are things that we should do, things that can bring us
blessing from God, but real transformation, real “re-birth” occurs through
faith in Jesus Christ. For if we do a million nice things for others, but have no
real faith, and have no love, then we have nothing, and we are bankrupt.
More
specifically in this case, the Apostle Paul is saying that if we follow the Old
Law of the Ten Commandments, and if we follow all of the Laws of the Old
Testament or the Hebrew Bible perfectly, that this will not be enough to save
us, as we need true faith and “re-birth.” In this way, we are not spiritual “re-born”
by being perfect, but rather by having faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle
Paul therefore says to the Romans in reference to Abraham and his decedents,
which is all people by the way, that to be spiritually re-born, to gain
salvation that “it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on
grace and be guaranteed to all” of Abraham’s decedents”. So we are “re-born”
and we gain new-life not through works, but rather through faith.
In our gospel
reading from the gospel of John from this morning, a Jewish Pharisee named
Nicodemus had come to believe in Jesus. In fact, the gospel says that Nicodemus
“came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher
who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the
presence of God.” Then Jesus answered to Nicodemus and said, “Very truly, I
tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
After saying
this, Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?
Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Then Jesus
answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without
being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is
born of the Spirit is Spirit.”
Jesus then
said, “Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above”.
Jesus then goes on to tell Nicodemus that everyone must be “born in the Spirit.”
Nicodemus then seems confused of how this can truly be the way to heaven, and
how this can happen. Jesus then tells Nicodemus that until he has put his faith
in him, and until he receives the Holy Spirit, that Nicodemus will not
understand fully what he is really saying.
Jesus then
tells Nicodemus that “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Then Jesus said, that “whoever believes in him
may have eternal life.”
Then the next
line that Christ spoke in John 3:16 is one that for many of us is timeless,
when Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he have his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” So as
the Lord of life said, if we believe in him, we will “not perish buy may eternal
life.”
Now I would
ask you to listen very carefully to how Jesus then ends this gospel reading in
John 3:17. Jesus said, “Indeed, God did not the send the Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saves through him.” You
see brothers and sisters, Jesus came to bring us life, not death. Jesus came to
bring us hope, not sorrow, joy not pain, laughter not crying. Have we here been
spiritually “re-born” in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit?
Brothers and sisters I would like to
close this morning’s message with a story by an unknown author called, “Have You Tasted My Jesus?” Here is how it goes: “At the
University of Chicago Divinity School each year they have what is called
“Baptist Day.” It is a day when all the Baptists in the area are invited to the
school because they want the Baptist dollars to keep coming in.”
“On this day each one is
to bring a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area. Every “Baptist
Day” the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the
theological education center.”
“One year they invited
Dr. Paul Tillich. Dr. Tillich spoke for 2 ½ hours proving that the resurrection
of Jesus was false. He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He
concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection the
religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo,
because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who in fact, never
rose from the dead in any literal sense. He then asked if there were any
questions.”
“After about 30 seconds,
an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood
up in the back of the auditorium.”
“Docta Tillich, I got one
question, he said as all eyes turned toward him. He reached into his sack lunch
and pulled out an apple and began eating it.”
“Docta Tillich (CRUNCH,
MUNCH), My question is a simple question (CRUNCH, MUNCH). Now, I ain’t never
read them books you read (CRUNCH, MUNCH) and I can’t recite the Scriptures in
the original Greek (CRUNCH, MUNCH). I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and
Heidegger (CRUNCH, MUNCH)…” He finished the apple. “All I wanna know is: This
apple I just ate, was it bitter or sweet?”
“Dr. Tillich paused for a
moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: I cannot possibly answer
that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple.”
“The white-haired
preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up
at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, “Neither have you tasted my Jesus.” “The 1000
plus in attendance could not contain themselves. The auditorium erupted with
applause and cheers. Dr. Tillich thanked his audience and promptly left the
platform.”
Brothers
and sisters, while there are many facets to the Christian faith, such as baptism
and communion, Jesus teaches us that if we want to see heaven, all we must do,
is put our faith and trust in him. For the path of salvation is the path of “re-birth,”
where we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we receive the Holy
Spirit. While good works are things that we should do, as Jesus told Nicodemus
in today’s gospel reading, until we are “re-born” and made new, we will not
know eternity with Jesus Christ. Have you been spiritually “re-born?” Have you
tasted my Jesus? Amen.
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