“You Must Be Born Again”
John 3:1-8
July 31, 2016 (Communion Sunday)
The book of John is all about belief and faith — John uses the verb “believe” 98x in his gospel. He asks questions like, “how does one come to believe in Christ?” And, “how does a believer in Christ live and act?” The book is one large petition and persuasive argument for genuine faith in Christ. [From that we can also deduce that many don’t have a genuine faith — even some at GBC.]
In attempting to persuade his readers to trust in Christ, John uses a variety of means — like the seven signs (first one was in 2:1-11) and the seven “I am” statements. He also uses the interaction of Jesus with individuals, some who are believers and some who are not, to demonstrate the necessity of belief in Him. In John 3, we have Jesus’ interaction with one of those who is not a believer (though he evidently later became a believer) — Nicodemus.
Through the interaction of their conversation, we see the significance of a doctrinal truth called regeneration — and how one becomes regenerate (we’ll define this in a few minutes).
The theme of the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus can be stated this way:
Because every man is a sinner, every man needs the new life of Christ.
- All Men Need Regenerating (vv. 1-3)
- What keeps all men from regeneration (vv. 1-2)
- What regeneration is (v. 3)
- How Regeneration Happens (vv. 4-8)
- Regeneration is a work of the Spirit (vv. 4-7)
- Regeneration is a gift of grace (v. 8)
- What Regeneration Does
Download the rest of this sermon from John 3:1-8.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website later today.
Words of Grace 