Starting Over Pt 1 - A New Birth

January 8, 2006

John 3:3-5; 1 Peter 1:3-6

(music) (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon

It will be just like starting over

We’re still early enough in January to experience its newness; the sense of beginning all over again—of starting fresh.

In a sense, staring over is like having a new birth, or being born again.

In the action leading up to our scripture lesson today Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of the law, decides one night to find Jesus and have a few words with him.  Nicodemus is amazed at the teachings of Jesus, and at the miracles that Jesus does.  He says to Jesus, “We know that you are a teacher come from God. For no-one could perform the miracles you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replies to Nicodemus by saying, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

But Nicodemus just can’t figure this out: “Born again? You mean I’ve somehow got to crawl back into my mother’s womb?!” Put yourself in Nicodemus’ shoes. What else was he to think?

Well, in effect Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, “You’ve got to start all over again.”  You see, Nicodemus was trying to reach heavenly places with earthly actions.  He thought that following a set of laws, and going through the right motions, would get him into heaven. 

Jesus was telling him to forget all about that—he could never earn his way into heaven.  What Nicodemus needed was a complete new start which is the equal of a new birth—to cast off the old ways and to start over; to die to the old and live in the new.

In other words, Jesus was saying, “Stop kidding yourself.  The only way to heaven is through a spiritual relationship with me.”

Now, I want to make sure that you understand what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, because what Jesus had to say in the midst of a night 2,000 years ago impacts us today. The message is still true, still relevant, and you know, it still confounds and annoys many good ‘religious’ people today.

You see, there are plenty of good church people who go through the motions, who know what makes a good church service, who know what the churches ought to be doing, but at the mention of being born again, of a personal relationship with the Living Christ, they lose interest at once.

They give a look like my dog Starbuck gives when I speak to her.

We are all born. We all have ‘life’. However, it is a life which is finite. The one certain event in our life’s future is our physical death. ‘Life’ as we know it will come to an end. As the scripture said, ‘Flesh gives birth to flesh’.  And one day our flesh will fail.

But there is another from of life. This is something quite different, a spiritual life. It is a life that only God can give; we only have this life as God’s Spirit breathes it into us.

If you have seen the Narnia movie, you may recall the scene where Aslan, who represents Christ, breathes life back into those who were killed by the evil queen.  This is everlasting life.  This is being saved and rescued from the traps that this world sets for us.  This is the result of being born again—not attending church—but living a Spirit-filed life.  It is something that we receive when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Consider that Jesus concludes his discussion with Nicodemus with the best-known and best-loved Gospel verse of them all, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.  And the next verse is just as important, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (NIV)  These verses are the key to eternal life, a key to the ‘new birth’.

As John Wesley, the founder of Methodism described it, "Our old [self] is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." "Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

John Wesley, The Marks of the New Birth. 1872

Getting rid of our old life, and enjoying a new life in the blessings of God.

Perhaps it will make more sense to you with this story:

Are you feeding the Caterpillar by chris summers

Once was this caterpillar, we’ll name him George. Well one day he was just eating leaves just like all the other caterpillars. He just kept on eating whatever leaf he could find. Then one day he felt something—a change about to take place. He climbed up a tree saw a really nice branch. One that he knew would protect him from the elements and from predators.

He walked down the branch and started to surrender his body to this change that was happening. Soon a cocoon was made encasing George in it. He was starting to change. Some time later he felt it was time to break from this imprisonment from the cocoon. As he fought and struggled he finally was able to break free.  As he crawled out he noticed he was different somehow. He went in as a caterpillar and now he, he had wings.  He had wings! He wondered if he could really fly.  Soon after his wings had dried he tried them out.

He flew around going here and there he started to get hungry, so he landed on an old leaf like such as he used to eat, from but somehow he just didn’t want it.  He wanted something more. He flew around and landed on a flower. Hungry and not knowing were to eat he sat there thinking about his hunger. As he was thinking he turned around and looked at this funny stuff in this flower, it was nectar. He started taking a taste and WOW this was great! So pure and sweet, he couldn’t believe it.

He ate and ate and as he did it nourished his new body. He no longer had a taste for what he had been eating, he no longer wanted to go were his old places were. He no longer wanted to feed like a caterpillar, to live like a caterpillar, to be like a caterpillar, he only wanted what he is now.

Well George lived on as this beautiful butterfly and flew and flew and flew all over and lived happily ever after.

You see, George as a caterpillar is like us when we are living in this world without Christ. We do the things of this world, we eat the things of this world. We are just like all the other caterpillars. We are blind to the freedom of new life.

Then as we live and get the calling to come to Christ, we may not know exactly what it is, but we start to look for Him. We feel the hunger.  Then when we get to that branch to surrender our hearts to Christ, we see that there we will be protected from this world, from the death of this world.

We surrender our life and our heart to Jesus, and as we have accepted Him as Lord of our lives we break free from our old shells, our old body, and just as the caterpillar we are born again.  We no longer are satisfied with the things of this world, for we have experienced the freedom and joy of being able to live in eternity in light of the love of our Lord Jesus.

Are you tired of what this life offers?  Are you hungry for a new life?

(Just Like) Starting Over- John Lennon

Our life together is so precious together
We have grown, we have grown
Although our love is still special
Let's take a chance and fly away somewhere alone

It will be just like starting over

Wesley concludes his discussion regarding our new birth with a reference to our baptism, in that while God is at work in our lives when we are baptized, giving us a fresh start, for many of us that happened long ago, probably while we were an infant, and we don’t even remember it.

Like Nicodemus, we may be going through the motions, never having made that decision, that connection with Jesus at our baptism or our confirmation.

But that’s okay, because like Nicodemus, we also have the opportunity to start over.

Today in the church calendar year, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  In being baptized, Jesus sets for us the example of submitting to God, and starting over with a new birth.

Today, I invite you to join with me in a reaffirmation of our baptism, and the new beginning offered to us through Christ.

(Has anyone here never been baptized?  Would you like to be?)

(Come to the altar to pray for renewal and/or to ask Jesus into your life at end)

BAPTISMAL REAFFIRMATION- UMH 50