"New birth"

This has been automatically generated, and therefore may contain some unintended inaccuracies.

Right. If you'd like to take your bibles and turn to chapter three of John, page one zero six five. And we'll be reading the chap... Well, from one to 21. Okay.

So Jesus teach... Teaches Nicodemus. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, 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. 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. How can this be?

Nicodemus asked. You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus, and you do not understand these things. Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things, and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the son of man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. 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 God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Passage open in front of you.

John chapter three, so page 1,065. My name is Bart. I'm pastor here at Hope Church, and, it's great to be opening up God's word together. Let me pray for us, as we come to it. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, we pray, please, that you would teach us as we come to your word. We praise you that we have your word, that it is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword. And we pray, please, that you would help us therefore to come to your word expecting you to speak to us and to change us and to work in our lives. Father, please do that now in Jesus' name. Amen.

What's the difference between someone who's a Christian and someone who isn't? What's the difference? What's a core at heart? What is the difference between a Christian and a non Christian? Maybe you would think, well, there there could be all kinds of different things.

Maybe you think it's it's their morals, their ethics, what they think is right and wrong. Maybe it's their behavior. You say, well, Christians maybe don't swear or get drunk or that kind of thing. Maybe it's religious practice. Christians go to church on Sundays, If they're really keen, they go to gospel community and prayer meeting and that kind of thing.

They're committed to those things. Maybe you would say, and some people do say this, that it's just being from a western country. Particularly if people maybe come from Muslim countries, they might think, well, everyone in the West, Westerners, are Christian. You come from a western country, you're a Christian. Is that what it is?

Or maybe to be a Christian is to love Keish and country music, in which case maybe some are worried here because you don't like either. What is it at heart? This passage helps us to see what at heart a Christian is and the difference between a Christian and a non Christian. Nicodemus approaches Jesus. Now Nicodemus is someone we are told at the...

In the first verse who is a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council. And he approaches Jesus. It says he approaches at night, and that's significant in John's gospel, light and dark, day and night, it seems Nicodemus is in the dark. But he approaches Jesus and seems very positive. He says, we have decided, Verse two, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God for no one can perform the signs you're doing if God were not with him.

He comes to Jesus saying, we... That's probably him and some of his other Pharisee sort of friends. We've decided you're the real deal. We think you're from God. We think your teaching is right, and you're from God.

And what comes out of Jesus' mouth next must have shocked him. Jesus says, verse three, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Now the kingdom of God for Nicodemus, if he had the Old Testament in mind, he was probably thinking this is a future thing, a future kingdom where God's king will rule and reign. So it's a future reality for him. And if anyone was gonna be in this kingdom, was gonna see this kingdom, he would have thought it would have been him.

He would have thought for sure he was in. And yet Jesus is saying to him, Nicodemus, you are not in. You need to be born again. Indeed, no one, he says, can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again. So we could answer our question straight away and go home.

But we're not going to. But the answer could be, well, it's to be born again. The difference between a Christian and a non Christian is that a Christian is born again. Jesus is saying, that's what a Christian... A genuine Christian is, someone who's been born again.

It's not that there's this group which is all Christians, and within that, there's a subset which is the born again Christians who like the Keysian country music. No. He is saying it's exactly the same set of people. Genuine Christians, those who are born again, it's the same thing. You have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, to see the kingdom of God.

It has to be that you're born again. But we need to know more than that, don't we? So we're to think about three things this morning. We're going to think about what the new birth isn't, what the new birth is, and how do you know it's happened. Those are three things we're gonna see from the passage.

What it isn't, what it is, and how do you know it's happened. So first, what the new birth isn't. Nicodemus is very helpful for us on this because Jesus is saying to him, you need to be born again, but there are lots of things about Nicodemus that we might think they are indications that someone is a genuine Christian and therefore born again. So I'm gonna give you quite a few things fairly quickly that we can see in Nicodemus that are clearly not signs that he's been born again. Okay.

First one. Being the right nationality. If anyone was the right nationality, it would be Nicodemus. He was a Jew, from Israel. God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

So if if nationality was the key, Nicodemus could point to that and go, yes, that be me. I should be in. Jesus says, you need to be born again. So even being an Israelite was not enough to be born again. Second, okay, attending church, by which I mean doing your religious duty.

Again, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, member of the Jewish ruling council, if anyone was going to attend religious services, it would be him. He would be at everything. He'd be at all the temple services, all the festivals. He would be at absolutely everything. And yet Jesus says, you need to be born again.

So going to church, having a 100% record of attending church is not a sign you've been born again nor is going... Being totally committed to church activities. Getting to every activity that is run by Hope Church is not a sign that you've been born again. Getting to gospel community, prayer meetings, getting to all of them, they are not signs that you've been born again. They are good things to do.

Please do come along to them, but they are not signs that you've been born again. Now we might think that they might be. If we think of someone else, and we think, oh, they are really committed. They get to everything. They get to all the prayer meetings, all the services, every event.

They even go to they're gonna go to both of the Carol... Street Carol service things and the Carol service and sun... And Christmas morning, and they'll even come the Sunday straight after Christmas. They're they're at everything. We might think what they're probably in.

We might think that about ourselves. I get to everything. Quite frankly, I hope Hope Church doesn't put on too many more things because then I'll have to get to them as well just to show that I really am in. But Nicodemus would have got to everything but wasn't born again. Next one, being fanatical.

Ah, we might think, okay, born again Christians, they're the fanatical ones. They're the ones who can't stop talking about Jesus. They talk about Jesus all the time. They're the really keen ones. They'll talk about religion when the the subject isn't about religion in conversation.

They'll somehow get it round to it. They're the fanatical ones. If anyone was fanatical, it'd be Nicodemus, Pharisee, member of the Jewish ruling council. He would have talked about religion a lot. But Jesus says you need to be born again.

It's not about being fanatical. It's not about having a church position. Again, Nicodemus had a position, a very high position, very senior position in Judaism. He was a Pharisee, member of the Jewish ruling council, so that means he was senior, which means just because someone's got a position in the church doesn't mean that they are born again. Might be an elder, might be a pastor, might be a gospel community leader, or from another denomination, you might be bishop, priest, pope.

Just having those positions doesn't mean someone is born again. Doesn't mean they're genuine. Okay? So having position doesn't mean that that you're there. Another one.

Okay. Those previous ones you might have thought, yeah. Okay. I'm not sure. I really thought those were things that necessarily meant someone who was genuinely a Christian.

Okay. What about these? Bible knowledge. Nicodemus would have known his bible very, very well. In fact, Jesus assumes that he knows his bible very well.

We'll see that a bit later. But Jesus still says, you need to be born again. So just because someone's read through the whole bible doesn't make them born again. Just because they know it really well better than the pastor doesn't mean that they're born again. Praying doesn't guarantee that you're born again.

Just because someone... Now... Okay. I'm going slightly outside the passage here. I haven't got evidence within the passage that Nicodemus prayed other than the fact he was a Pharisee, member of the Jewish ruling council.

He would have prayed. He would have gone to the temple to pray. And actually, you see elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says there can be hypocrites who pray standing on the street corners praying. They'd make a big deal of it. I'm sure they'd be very passionate.

They'd raise their hands when they pray even. And Jesus says of Nicodemus, you still need to be born again. So prayer in and of itself doesn't guarantee that someone is born again. Now... Okay.

Last... How does that fit with what I said last week? Last week, I said we talked about worship that deserves a whip because Jesus drove people from the temple, and we said that worship that deserves a whip is worship that doesn't have personal relationship with God at the core of it. And we thought actually part of that is prayer, that you do need to pray. How does that fit with what I'm saying here?

It does. No. It does because, what I'm saying there is Christians pray. If you don't pray, if you never pray, you got a question whether you're actually a Christian. But prayer in and of itself doesn't guarantee that someone is a Christian.

There are plenty of people who pray who aren't Christians. Just give you an illustration to confuse you further. Passports. I'm renewing my passport at the moment. Passports have to have a photo of the person whose passport it is.

If it doesn't have a photo, it's not a genuine passport. But, of course, there are plenty of other things that have photos on them that aren't passports. Okay? So prayer, yeah, if you're a Christian, you're gonna pray. You can't not pray.

But there are plenty of other people who pray who aren't Christians. So praying in and of itself doesn't guarantee that you're born again. Last one, being positive about Jesus. Now, Nicodemus was very positive about Jesus, wasn't he? He's saying, we've looked at the signs that you're doing, the miraculous signs.

And we've seen in John's gospel that the signs are really important. And he's saying, I've looked at them, and we have decided not only that you're a good teacher. We've decided you are from God. We think you're genuine. You're a real teacher.

You're from God. That positive about Jesus. And Jesus says, you need to be born again. You're not there. Now we might go, okay.

Each one individually doesn't show that someone's born again. But surely, surely, if someone's got all of them, put them all together, surely, that's a sign they are born again. If you've got someone who is attending everything, who's fanatical, never talks about anything other than religion, they've got a position in the church. They've got great Bible knowledge. They pray, and they love Jesus.

They're really positive about Jesus. Surely, they are genuine Christians. Jesus says to Nicodemus, you need to be born again. So none of those things even combined together are guaranteed indicators that someone is a genuine believer, genuine Christian. So what is?

Well, Jesus says, you need to be born again. It is essential. Every genuine Christian has been born again. What does it mean? What is the new birth?

It is a total transformation. That's what Jesus is saying, isn't it? To be born again must mean, he's saying to Nicodemus, you need to start all over. None of those things that you've got so far count for anything. You need to start again.

It is a total transformation that needs to happen. He's not saying, Nicodemus, you're doing pretty well in a whole load of areas, but there's this one area you just need to really improve on that, and then you're in. And he's not saying to him, you're doing pretty well, but increase everything by 10%, and then you're there. He's saying, nope. It's a start all over again, born again thing.

Now Nicodemus doesn't get this. Verse four, he says, how can someone be born when they're old? They can't enter back into their mother's womb. Good point. Jesus then responds.

Verse five, very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they're born of water and the spirit. Now what's Jesus talking about there? What does he mean by being born of the water and the spirit? There are a number of different, things people think is being said there. I think the most likely is that Jesus is referring back to the Old Testament, that the Old Testament is the background for this.

And particularly, Ezekiel 36 because there you get water and spirit mentioned. So there are a couple of verses, I'll put them on the screen. This is God speaking to his people. His people have rebelled against him and he says to Israel, to his people, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. You see, Jesus, the Lord is saying to his people, I'm going to do a massive transformation on you. I'm going to wash you clean from all your impurities and your idols. Idols, false gods.

He's saying, I'm gonna wash you clean from all that, all your wrongdoing. I'll wash you. And I'm gonna change your heart. I'm gonna transform your heart. I'm gonna put my spirit in you.

And it is that level that we are talking about here. God breaking into his people and saying, I'm gonna transform you from the inside. So I think being born of water and the spirit is a way of talking about the new birth. They're both part of the new birth. So Jesus is saying this is an inner transformation, and it is an inner transformation that only God can do.

Only God can do it. It's part of the imagery that he's using, isn't it, of new birth, of a baby being born. We've had, as a church family, there have been three babies born over the last few weeks, which is lovely. It's great as as a church family. Lovely for the families as well.

And, it's a shame we didn't have this passage last week because we had all three babies for the first time here. It could... Would fitted really well with the theme, new birth, babies here. But we didn't. It's this week.

But for each of those births, each of those babies that was born, none of the babies really did the work. Ask the moms. Did the baby do the work? No. So too with the new birth.

Inherent in that image is that it is not us who creates new birth in ourselves. It is God who does it. Now this is what Jesus then goes on to say. So have a look verse six. He says, flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

So it's the spirit who does this work. Flesh gives birth to flesh, that's natural birth, biological birth, physical birth. Spirit gives birth to spirits, the spirit who does it. Verse seven, you shouldn't be surprised at my saying this. In other words, he's saying, Nicodemus, you should have got this from the Old Testament.

Verse eight, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going, so it is with everyone born of the spirit. So this is something... He say it's like the wind, and we know we can't control the wind. Now that we're in autumn, we know we can't control the wind.

Storms are coming along, and we give them names, which is lovely, but it still doesn't change the fact that they destroy things as they come in. And we can't stop them. We can't control the wind. And Jesus is saying so too with the new birth with the spirit at work in people. We don't control it.

Spirit works as he pleases. God needs to do this inner transformation, this inner rebuild, like an old derelict building where he says that we're not just gonna improve bits of it. We're not just gonna renovate it. We're gonna knock it all down. We're gonna start again.

And it is only God who can do this in us. Now the main application we're think of as we go on is to check... Is to question our own hearts and to say, has this happened to me? And we'll think in a moment about how we know whether it has or happened... Hasn't happened to us.

But also be aware. Just think what this means for others. You know, maybe if you are a Christian, you say, I I long for others to come to faith. Those who are in my family, those maybe at work, think about those in your workplace or your neighbors. And maybe think about those who you might think, well, I've been trying for years to talk to them about Jesus.

I would love them to come to faith, and I long for them to. But it feels like it's impossible. They just seem so hard to the gospel. They just won't believe... I can't believe they won't believe it, but but they don't.

It feels impossible, and the answer is it is impossible. You can't change them. They can't change themselves, but God can. He can bring about that new birth, and therefore, no one is so far away that God can't transform them. He can.

So don't give up praying for them, looking for opportunities to talk about Jesus. But it is a work of God to do it, and he can do it in Okay. We've thought about what the new birth isn't, what the new birth is. The new birth is a total transformation that God alone can do. Third, how do you know it's happened?

We are going to see from the rest of the passage that was read two signs, two things that indicate that the new birth has happened. And the first is you look desperately to the cross. You look desperately to the cross. We're gonna skip down just a little bit to verse 14, so you'll need to turn the page if you've got your bibles open. I gonna leave it to you to read through verses 10 to 13 in your own time and work out what they mean.

But we're gonna go to verse 14, where Jesus says, just as Moses was lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Now just notice that he says, everyone who believes may have eternal life, eternal life, be in the kingdom, see the kingdom of God, same kind of thing. So he's saying, yeah, everyone who's gonna be in the kingdom, who's gonna have life, needs to be born again. And now he says, everyone who's gonna have eternal life is gonna what? Believe in the son.

Now he uses an image here. He talks about Moses and a snake being lifted up. Now for that, you've got to go back to Numbers chapter 21 in the Bible, which we're not gonna turn to, but let me just describe what happens there. So this is hundreds and hundreds of years before. The people of Israel have been rescued from slavery in Egypt by God, brought out wandering in the wilderness, but they rebel against God.

They turn against God. So God sends amongst them venomous snakes that are biting people, and people are dying. So the people of Israel approached Moses and plead with him. They said, please talk to God and ask him to take away these venomous snakes. But God says to Moses, make a bronze snake, an an image of a bronze snake, and put it on a pole and put it up so that anyone who looks to that bronze snake won't die.

And that's what Moses does. He makes this bronze snake and lifts it up on a pole. Those who look at it are saved. And Jesus is saying, I am like that bronze snake. He says, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man, that's Jesus, must be lifted up.

In other words, he's talking about his death. He's talking about the cross when he will be lifted up, nailed to the cross to die. He's talking about his death, and he's saying I'm gonna be lifted up so that everyone who believes in me may have eternal life. If you believe in Jesus, you have life. So do you see the parallels?

Jesus is saying, Moses lifted up the snake, so Jesus will be lifted up. The people looked at the snake and didn't die. We can... Well, not look at the cross in the same way. It's not that you've got to go to Jerusalem and find the cross and Jesus on the cross and just look at him, but rather he said, no, you've got to believe in me.

And if you do, you have eternal life. And Jesus goes on to say in verse 16 for a few verses, the difference between what happens if we do believe and though if we don't. So have a look. Verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. Do you see the two possible futures Jesus lays out for us? There are two possible futures.

Clearly, he says, there's perishing or condemnation on the one hand, or eternal life on the other. Now, this is scary. I I mean, if you're listening to this, if you're reading Jesus here in this passage, this is scary stuff, isn't it? This is eternal life, eternal condemnation. That's what he's talking about.

Which is why I say it is a desperate look to the cross. It's a desperate look. Imagine you're back in that Israelite camp with Moses and the snake on the pole, and you've got snakes around that are biting people. Imagine that you are one of the people who's been bitten. What will you do?

You've heard about this snake, this bronze snake that you can look at. What do you do? Do you say, well, let's let's wait and see. See what happens. See if see if I feel better tomorrow.

Do you wait? Do you wait fifteen minutes? Do wait five minutes? No, you go straight away, don't you? You would go straight to that pole within view of it and look at it to be safe.

Jesus is saying he is like that snake. And if we see our position before God, that we are sinners, that we are condemned. Jesus says, didn't come into the world to condemn the world. No. We're already condemned for our disobedience, for our rebellion against God.

But Jesus said, I came to save. And if we will, with desperation, look to the cross of Jesus and see that there is our salvation. There we can have the cure. There we can have the antivenom. There we can have life.

Then we will look at the cross with desperation and with joy that there is a way to be saved. We won't think of the cross as merely the symbol of Christianity or as a a thing that we could wear as jewelry, although not bad to do that. And we won't think that it's just a theoretical idea. Oh, yeah. People can have their sins forgiven through Jesus.

No. There will be a desperation to it of saying, need the cross. There is my life, And without it, I am condemned forever. Is that how you view the cross? If you don't, can I say, with concern and love for you, that means you're not born again because those who are look desperately to the cross as the only means of having life?

And if you've realized you're not born again, you're not desperately looking to the cross, you can start looking to the cross. If you see that there and there alone is your way to be saved, look to the cross. Come to Jesus, and don't delay. Someone who's born again looks desperately to the cross. Second sign, how do we know it's happened?

You look desperately to the cross. You come into the light. Jesus says, those who are born again are those who come into the light. And we know from John's gospel that the light is Jesus. In other words, you come to Jesus.

So the image has changed here. We're now no longer thinking about Moses in the wilderness and snakes and that kind of thing. We're now thinking about light, light and darkness. And Jesus says, 19, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. You see, we might think after that previous point, surely, everyone would come to Jesus. I mean, if it's about... If you're talking about life and death, eternal life, eternal death, surely everyone's gonna look to Jesus... To the cross.

And Jesus says that isn't the case. In fact, lots of people don't. Lots of people will run away because there's this imagery as well of light. Light has come into the world, he says, and people love darkness. They love darkness, he says, because their deeds are evil.

They don't want to be exposed. I once, had an experience, it wasn't in this country, it was in another country, it was quite a long time ago. Where I think what had happened was, as I try to recollect it, was that there was a power cut, which is why we were going around in the house with torches. And went into the kitchen of the house to get some food, opened up a cupboard, shone the light into the cupboard, and saw loads of cockroaches. But as soon as the light of the torch went on that cupboard, they ran.

They scrammed. And within less than a second, I reckon, they just gone. And Jesus is saying he is like that in coming into the world, that he comes into the world as light, but people love darkness and want to hide. Why? Because he says their deeds are evil, and they don't want him to expose their deeds.

Remember, if you were here last week, we saw Jesus confronting people at the temple, getting the... Getting them to leave the temple, driving them out. He was confronting people, and he confronts people here. He confronts the world, and he exposes our evil thoughts and deeds. He says to us, he shines a light on our lives, and it is very uncomfortable.

He will shine light on our behavior and on our thoughts. He'll say, you know, worshiping other gods is wrong. And living together with your partner while you're not married is wrong. And watching porn is wrong. And same sex relationships, he he says, are wrong.

And getting angry with your family is wrong, and living for your own pleasure is wrong, and envy and and arrogance and and all these kind of things. They are all wrong. The bible says that, and it exposes us, and we hate that. Mankind hates it. We'd rather hide.

Oh, yeah. There are intellectual barriers that people might have to putting their trust in Jesus, but there's also this, that we don't want someone saying to us, you know, your deeds are evil. Your heart is evil. But see the contrast, those who come into the light. Verse 21.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. Now, that translation is, it is a tricky verse to translate. That end bit is probably better that what they have done has been done in God or by God. Don Carson, who's a biblical scholar, says this about this verse. He says this strange expression makes it clear that the lover of the light is not some intrinsically superior person.

By which he means, those who come into the light, who say, yeah, love the light. I wanna come into it, are not better than those who flee from the light. That's what he's saying. You say, that's not the difference. It's not that light comes into the world, and, everyone who does evil runs from the light, but those who love the light are really good people.

They never do anything bad. That's why they're happy to come into the light. No. Why do they come into the light? So that it may be plainly seen that what they have been...

They have done has been done in or by God. In other words, those who come to the light are saying, I want the world to see. I want others to see what God has done in my life, that he has changed me, he has washed me, he has changed my heart. I want people to see what God has done, not how amazing I am. Which is why a Christian testimony is going to be one which points to God.

It is not filled with the great things that a person has done. If someone is saying, this is how I became a Christian. This is how I started following Jesus. It will never be filled with, this is what I did, the fantastic things I did, the amazing work I did, the incredible things. No.

It is all about God and what he has done in washing us clean. So the person who is born again comes into the light, not denying the evil that they have done, the evil in their hearts, not hiding it, but bringing it to Jesus out in the open before him. Here it is. Here is how bad I am. I need you to wash me and change me.

So there you are. Two signs that the new birth has happened. Is this true of you? That you look desperately to the cross and you come into the light. With all your badness, come before Jesus with it.

And therefore, the person who has been born again is never gonna be arrogant. There's gonna be a humility there because you can't do those things with arrogance because you're desperately looking to the cross and you're coming into the light. But there is a humility, and there is a joy. Jesus says, you must be born again. What's the difference between a Christian and a non Christian?

Christians, genuine Christians, have been born again. It's not about what we do. It's about God working in us. And those who have looked desperately to the cross and come into the light. If you want to talk to someone about this, maybe you're concerned for yourself.

You wanna take this step. You wanna put your trust in Jesus. You wanna talk further about this. Maybe you're concerned. Do you talk to myself?

Talk to one of the other elders, after the service? Let me lead us in prayer. Heavenly father, we praise you that Jesus came to this world, and he confronts us. And, father, it is very uncomfortable because many of the things that we look to and think of as things that show that we might be born again are, in fact, things that don't. But, father, we pray, please, that you would work in our hearts today.

Bring people to new birth. Father, I pray there might be some even here now in whom you are working to bring about that new birth. Father, bring them to the cross of Jesus to look desperately at him and bring them into the light. Be at work in all of us, we pray. Amen.