Born Again | Andy Elmes | Sunday 10th April 2022

Family Church Online

Today, Pastor Andy speaks of the second birth identified in the Bible, a spiritual awakening inside our being which follows our physical birth. From the book of Genesis we know the story of creation and of Adam and Eve who ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus disobeying God and spiritually separating themselves from Him.

John 3; 1-7 (NIV) tells the story of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus a religious teacher - “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 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.’ Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ ‘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 answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”

This account plainly speaks of how human flesh can only give birth to more human flesh but God’s Holy Spirit can give birth to our inner spirit resulting in God dwelling inside us. This spirit rebirth is often referred to as being ‘born again’, and occurs when we give our lives to Jesus. We then become members of the Kingdom of God. This is made possible not by our actions or good works but is because Jesus died and rose again breaking the Kingdom of Death for ever. We can then know His life, His peace, His righteousness, His joy and everything else that's His for us in our lives. Why wait when we can invite Jesus into our lives right now, experience relationship with the God who made us and be daily blessed by Him in our lives?