Sermon by Neil Earle
1 John 5:1: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well."
There is a tremendous meaning for being born again. We never really addressed that subject. We would talk about being born again referred to a begettal, the Holy Spirit's place for conversion and then we began to grow inside the womb of the church and we are actually fully born at the resurrection. There is a tremendous meaning to the born again experience that we never really focused upon. Things we missed on the subject of being born again that leads us altogether in a different direction.
John 3:1-8,16,34-36: "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.' In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.' 'How can a man be born when he is old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!' Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is 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." The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit....For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life....For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.'"
This opens up our doctrines and teachings. When you are born in the resurrection you will be spirit. You must be born of the spirit to see the kingdom of God. At conversion you are born of the spirit. The book of John in particular stresses the second birth which is the spiritual birth. We all experience that at baptism by the laying on of hands when the Holy Spirit came into our lives. The people who are born of God have eternal life.
John 5:24: "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."
This tells us about being passed from death into eternal life in believing in the Son of God. This is what we missed.
John 6:47,54-55: "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.... Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink."
John's writings are pretty well focused on the subject of life and eternal life.
John 10:27-28: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."
The new life that is in Jesus Christ is everlasting life.
Ephesians 2:1-6: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."
Paul puts it differently, but it is the same teaching. We are to be born again out of our sins.
Colossians 3:1-4: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."
We should put on the new man.
1 Peter 1:3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
We share in Christ's resurrection life.
1 John 5:1-4,11-13: "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith....And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
This is sort of our implication of our correction on the born again teaching of the present possession of the eternal and everlasting life. You are born again by the Spirit and you have eternal life if you?e accepted Jesus atonement for your sins.
Sermon summary prepared by local Glendora church member Charlie Schreiner.