You Must Be Born Again: Facing the Brutal Reality of Salvation

Have you ever had to face a brutal reality about yourself that you'd been avoiding? Recently I had to face a brutal reality about my own health. I had a come to Jesus moment with my wife where I basically said, hey, I can't pretend like I'm 20 years old anymore and eating like a 20 year old and acting like a 20 year old. I am in the middle ages and I gotta face the brutal reality of my physical condition. Sometimes you have to look right in the circumstance and realize it. Pretending like something isn't so doesn't make it not so. Are you with me? And there's one brutal reality that every person must face when it comes to eternal salvation.

The Stockdale Paradox: Confronting Hard Truths

There's a fantastic book that I read many years ago called Good to Great by Jim Collins. In that book, Jim lays out something he called a willingness to confront the brutal facts. The idea is that sustainable success requires unflinchingly facing the honest, often painful reality of a current situation without losing faith in the ultimate goal. One of the things that a good leader, a good husband, a good pastor, a good friend will do is to say what must be said when it must be said to the ones that need to hear it. If you're not willing to help people face the brutal reality of what's going on, the truth of it, that is not kind, it is unkind to not speak certain truths.

The Most Important Conversation Ever Recorded

In today's study, we are examining one of the most important conversations ever written down with the most important person who ever lived - Jesus Christ. And the conversation started out with a thesis: You must be born again. You must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. Let me set up the context. There's a guy named Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Nicodemus is a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee. His people are usually the ones that aren't really thrilled with Jesus. They think they have inside information, authority and understanding about the kingdom of God. But Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night - I believe he came by night because he knew that it was controversial for him to come to Jesus because all of his friends don't like that Jesus is speaking. Nicodemus says something like an admission: "We know, Rabbi, that you're a teacher that's come from God because no one can do the things you're doing unless God's with him" (John 3:2). But see, it doesn't go far enough because Jesus wasn't just from God. Jesus is God, right? Jesus gives them the brutal reality right from the beginning: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).

Jesus Christ: The Authority to Teach Salvation

Nicodemus is perplexed and asks in John 3:9, "How can these things be?" Jesus matches his perplexity with his own. Look at verse 10: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?" You're at the highest level of the highest people, and you don't even get salvation 101. You're still in kindergarten, bud. It is not kind to beat around the bush. Confusion is not needed when things are difficult. Clarity is needed. And I love how clear Jesus is about who has the right to speak to the Father's position on the kingdom of God.

Jesus Speaks From What He Has Seen

Jesus gives three reasons for his authority. First, because of what he has seen. In John 3:11-12, Jesus says: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" Jesus is saying, "I've been somewhere you haven't been. I know things you don't know because I am God."

Jesus Speaks From Where He's From

Second, because of where I'm from. John 3:13 says: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." His birth wasn't his beginning. His conception wasn't his beginning. That was just his incarnation. He has existed from eternity past. When Jesus says "Son of Man," Nicodemus would have understood this reference from Daniel 7:13-14, which describes one "like the Son of Man" who "came with the clouds of heaven" and was given "dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Who has the right to say who gets into the kingdom? The king. The king does. And that's who Nicodemus is talking to - the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Jesus Christ: The Way of Salvation

Here's where the conversation gets really important. In John 3:14-15, Jesus says: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Let me take you back to Sunday school for a moment. There's this story in Numbers chapter 21 where Moses was in the wilderness with the children of Israel, and they start complaining against God. Numbers 21:5-6 tells us: "And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died." This is the kind of snake that if you get bit, you die. But then in Numbers 21:8-9, "the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."

Look and Live

The message goes out: there's a way to be healed. There's a way to look and live. Look to the brass serpent and live because of what God said. Jesus explains to Nicodemus that he was going to be like that serpent on the pole. Whoever believed in him and looked to him would live. The life that Jesus would give would not be a sustaining of life after the bite of a serpent. The life he gives would be eternal life. This is further explained by Jesus in John 3:16, one of the most well known verses in all Scripture: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The greatest giver gave the greatest gift for the greatest need. That's Jesus. As John 3:17 says: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Jesus Christ: The Condemnation for Rejecting Salvation

Here's the brutal reality we must face. John 3:18 declares: "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Remember the snake story context. If you've been bit, you're as good as dead. The poison is already in your veins. If this was real, you're gonna die, right? You're condemned already. And if you refuse to look and live, you're dead. Are you with me? He that believes and looks is not condemned. But the one who doesn't has no solution. The poison is already in your veins. You're condemned already. You have rejected your only shot.

Why People Reject the Light

John 3:19-20 explains: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." Here's been my experience: if you really honestly look at the data, you look at the history, you look at the fulfilled prophecy and you take an honest look at it, you come away going, Jesus is who he said he was. But people don't often disbelieve because there's not enough evidence. They don't want to look at the evidence. Why? Because if I look at the evidence, then I have to admit that I'm a sinner and I have to stop doing what I'm doing.

The Ultimate Question

God sent Jesus on a rescue mission to save an already condemned world. To deny this reality is to deny your only hope of rescue. Jesus did not come to condemn the world. He came to rescue a condemned world. So my question for you and for me today is this: Are you in the light or are you in the dark? Have you believed in the only begotten Son of God? You can't reject Jesus and go to heaven. Don't get mad at me - you can't reject your only shot at forgiveness and go to heaven. What's amazing is not that there's only one way. What's crazy is that there's any way at all. We don't deserve it. What we deserve is condemnation. But Jesus did not get sent to earth for condemnation. He was sent to earth so that we could be saved.

Putting It Into Practice

Face Your Spiritual Reality: Just like I had to face the brutal reality about my health, you need to honestly assess your spiritual condition. Romans 3:23 reminds us that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Don't pretend your sin isn't real. Look to Jesus and Live: The message is simple - look to Jesus who was lifted up on the cross for your sins. Just as the Israelites had to look at the bronze serpent to live, you must look to Christ in faith to receive eternal life. Stop Hiding in the Darkness: If you're concealing sin and avoiding God's light, that's evidence you haven't truly been born again. "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" (John 3:21). Share the Message: There are people in the camp that don't know that the Son of Man's been lifted up on a pole. And if we look to him, we can live. We ought to tell them. The one who said what God said today rose from the dead. I'm going with him. For God so loved you that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever - and whosoever includes you - believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.