I tell you the truth… being born again – a conversation with Nicodemus.

Message for September 19: Tim Kelly
Study Overview

Very few Christians these days use the phrase ‘born again’ to describe their faith. The phrase is now in the domain of other areas such as the health industry (born again trainer) and is almost always used somewhat self-consciously or even ironically. The reticence to use the phrase is connected to a certain mode of behaviour that many regard as excessively extraverted or excessively pious. It raises the bar of expectation too high. Yet the passage from John in Jesus’ exchange with Nicodemus is a key one in which Jesus uses the phrase ‘I tell you truth’ three time before getting to the famous words of John 3: 16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whomsoever believe in Him should not die but have eternal life. It would seem that being ‘born again’ is pretty important.

Reflection

• To what extent the use of born again as a descriptive phrase dependent on making a faith decision on a particular identifiable day?
• What does it mean for those who feel they have grown up in the faith and it has always been a part of them?
• For you personally, how meaningful is the phrase?

Exploring the Readings: John 3: 1-8

• Read the passage and imagine that you are Nicodemus. What are you expecting from Jesus as you go to visit him at night?
• Notice that Nicodemus begins with an observation (“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…”) and Jesus responds to that observation in an unexpected way. What do you see as the link between Nicodemus’s opening remark and Jesus’ response?
• Why do you think that Jesus uses the phrase ‘I tell you the truth’ three times in the passage leading up to John: 3: 16?

It was suggested in the message that Nicodemus understood that Jesus was not speaking literally when he makes the comment ‘that no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ Hence Nicodemus’s reaction is to seek more information and to stall for time. Either way, it is clear that this remark has made Nicodemus uncomfortable. There are two key reasons for this discomfort:

1.       Jesus’ remarks are at odds with Nicodemus’s own religion

2.       They are also opposed to the natural logic of humans which is to believe that we ‘see the kingdom of God’ through our own efforts, action and membership

This notion of membership is central to the reading. The John 3: 16 passage (For God so loved the world…) is the culmination of this exchange with Nicodemus. Membership of the kingdom of God is dependent on belief in Jesus as God’s son not on membership to a church or group. There is no inheritance here only relationship with God through Christ. This is such a radical notion that to Nicodemus it is astonishing; as astonishing re-entering his mother’s womb. Nicodemus is an old man and he feels that what Jesus is asking of him is beyond him. He had been a solid member of the ‘Jewish ruling council’ for years yet here Jesus was telling him that he was yet to see the kingdom of God. For more on this notion of membership you could look at John the Baptist’s words in Matthew 3: 7-14

Jesus makes a clear distinction between the old Jewish way and this new life through the metaphor of flesh and spirit.

• What do you understand by Jesus remarks that flesh gives birth to flesh while spirit gives birth to spirit?

Further Reading: Galatians 5: 20-26

In this passage we see a direct connection between Jesus’ remarks about flesh and spirit and Paul’s writings in this section in Galatians.  We are to understand that being born again will have both a visible and internal effect on us.

The STAND series took us through the four pillars of Lutheran Christianity: Christ alone, Grace alone, faith alone and Scripture Alone. From there we asked what does the Christian faith now look like?  In terms of prayer, one of two things happens.

1.       We make a prayer of repentance asking for Jesus to come into our lives. This is the prayer of conversion, of new life, of rebirth. It is a prayer that asks God to remake us from the spirit of Jesus.

2.       We pray continually for the remaking of our nature taking us away from the aspects of the flesh towards the aspects of the spirit. This internal, remaking of our nature should move us towards an engagement with the wider world. Jesus, as always, is the model for this.

Make sure you take time at the end of the session to pray one of these prayers.