JESUS WAS BORN SO THAT WE COULD BE BORN AGAIN

WHY WAS JESUS BORN?

WHY WAS JESUS BORN?

• At Christmas we celebrate that he was born, the question is, why was Jesus born? Here’s the answer: Jesus was born so that we could be born again.

1 Pedro 1:3

• Pasalamatan natin ang Diyos at Ama ng ating Panginoong Jesu-Cristo. Dahil sa laki ng habag niya sa atin, tayo'y binigyan niya ng isang panibagong buhay sa pamamagitan ng muling pagkabuhay ni Jesu-Cristo mula sa libingan at ito ang nagbigay sa atin ng isang buhay na pag-asa.

Juan 3

• 1 May isang iginagalang na pinuno ng mga Judio. Siya ay si Nicodemo. Kabilang din siya sa grupo ng mga Pariseo. 2 Isang gabi, pumunta siya kay Jesus at sinabi, Guro, nalalaman po naming kayo'y isang tagapagturong mula sa Diyos, sapagkat walang makakagawa ng mga himalang ginagawa ninyo kung wala sa inyo ang Diyos. �

•                3 Sumagot si Jesus, Pakatandaan mo: malibang ipanganak na muli a ang isang tao, hindi niya makikita ang paghahari ng Diyos. �

•                4 Paanong maipapanganak pang muli ang isang taong matanda na? Makakapasok pa ba siya sa sinapupunan ng kanyang ina para muling isilang? �tanong ni Nicodemo.

Juan 3

•   5 Sagot naman ni Jesus, Pakatandaan mo: malibang ang isang tao ay ipanganak sa pamamagitan ng tubig at ng Espiritu, hindi ito makakapasok sa kaharian ng Diyos. 6 Ang taong ipinanganak ayon sa laman ay laman, at ang ipinanganak ayon sa Espiritu ay espiritu. 7 Huwag kang magtaka sa sinabi ko sa iyo, kayong lahat ay kailangang ipanganak na muli. b 8 Umiihip ang hangin kung saan nito nais at naririnig mo ang ugong nito, ngunit hindi mo alam kung saan ito nanggagaling at kung saan pupunta. Ganoon din ang bawat ipinanganak ayon sa Espiritu. �

•                9 Puwede po bang mangyari iyon? tanong �ni Nicodemo.

•            

Juan 3

•     10 Sumagot si Jesus, Guro ka pa naman sa Israel, hindi mo nauunawaan ang mga bagay na ito? 11 Pakatandaan mo: ang sinasabi namin ay nalalaman namin, at ang pinapatotohanan namin ay nasaksihan namin, subalit hindi ninyo tinatanggap ang aming patotoo. 12 Kung hindi ninyo pinaniniwalaan ang mga sinasabi ko tungkol sa mga bagay dito sa mundo, paano pa ninyo mapapaniwalaan ang sasabihin ko tungkol sa mga bagay doon sa langit? 13 Wala pang sinumang umakyat sa langit kundi ang bumaba mula sa langit, ang Anak ng Tao.

Juan 3

•  14 At kung paanong itinaas ni Moises ang tansong ahas doon sa ilang, gayundin naman, kailangang itaas ang Anak ng Tao, 15 upang ang sinumang sumampalataya sa kanya ay magkaroon ng buhay na walang hanggan. 16 Sapagkat gayon na lamang ang pag-ibig ng Diyos sa sangkatauhan, kaya't ibinigay niya ang kanyang kaisa-isang Anak, upang ang sinumang sumampalataya sa kanya ay hindi mapahamak, kundi magkaroon ng buhay na walang hanggan. 17Isinugo ng Diyos ang kanyang Anak, hindi upang hatulang maparusahan ang mga tao, kundi upang iligtas ang mga ito sa pamamagitan niya.

•               

•  18 Hindi hinahatulang maparusahan ang sumasampalataya sa Anak. Ngunit hinatulan na ang hindi sumasampalataya, sapagkat hindi siya sumampalataya sa kaisa-isang Anak ng Diyos. 19Ganito ang paghatol ng Diyos: naparito sa sanlibutan ang ilaw, ngunit inibig pa ng mga tao ang dilim kaysa liwanag, sapagkat ang kanilang mga gawain ay masasama. 20 Kinasusuklaman ng mga gumagawa ng masama ang ilaw, ni hindi lumalapit dito upang hindi mahayag ang kanilang mga gawa. 21 Ngunit ang namumuhay ayon sa katotohanan ay lumalapit sa ilaw, upang maihayag na ang mga ginagawa niya ay pagsunod sa Diyos.

• While on the earth, Jesus was out preaching and teaching, and he met a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a devoutly religious man. He’d studied the Scriptures, he knew quite a bit.

• What he’s talking about is that we are born physically and we celebrate that. That’s why we have birthdays and we celebrate our birth. But in addition to being born physically we need to be born again spiritually. We need a second birth of our soul. The first birth is of our body, the second birth is of our soul.

• We are born in sin. It explains why the world is not the way that it should be. It explains why we are not the way we should be. It explains even why our relationships and sometimes those difficult moments during the holidays, why our families are not the way they should be. Something’s gone wrong.

JESUS IS OUR SAVIOR

• Why was Jesus born? Well, his name indicates the reason that he came.

• The name “Jesus” literally means he is our Savior, he is our Savior. And so Jesus is born, conceived in the womb of Mary. He does not have an earthly father, he does not have an inherited sin nature, he’s not a biological descendant of Adam, our first father, and he is born. And that’s what we celebrate at Christmas.

• Jesus lives without sin, and he goes to the cross, and he dies in our place for our sins.

• And then he rises three days later, actually on a Sunday. That’s why Christians worship on a Sunday. It’s the day of Jesus’ resurrection.

JESUS IS OUR SAVIOR

• Death is the consequence for sin, and because Jesus had no sin, death could not hold him. And since he died for our sin, his resurrection is our victory.

• Here’s my question to you: Have you been born again?

• That’s what it means to be born again. It means to be born again in Jesus Christ.

•That takes two things: REPENTANCE AND FAITH.

• REPENTANCE is where we see ourselves as a sinner in need of a Savior.

•FAITH is where we trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

EVERYTHING CHANGES

• When you become born again: Everything changes.

• For some it changes a little bit at a time, for some it changes a lot at a time, but you begin to change.

• That means you’ll never be the same, and for the rest of your life you’ll grow to be more and more and more like Jesus, if you’ve been born again.

1. NEW LORD.

• All of a sudden, if you’re born again and if you have been born again, the most important person in your life is not you; it’s Jesus.

• The highest authority in your life is not you; it’s Jesus. The greatest goal of your life is not your will, but his will be done. A new Lord.

A couple of things that this includes:

2. NEW PERSON.

• You’re a new person. You get a fresh, clean start and total forgiveness.

• Here’s the big idea: You can’t meet Jesus and not change.

3. NEW IDENTITY.

• You no longer identify yourself by what you’ve done, or what others have done to you, what successes, failures, achievements you have throughout the course of your life.

• Now your identity is in Christ.

• “He loved me, he forgives me, he saves me, he’ll never leave me, he’ll never forsake me. Whatever I go through is an opportunity to become more like him.”

• It changes our entire understanding of who we are, where we come from, why we’re here, and where we’re going.

4. NEW POWER.

• What happens with sin is that it becomes very powerful, and in the face of it we feel very powerless.

• Here’s the truth: Apart from God’s power, we cannot live a new life. We may be able to make some changes, but we’re ultimately not changed.

• And some of you have besetting sins. What that means is you’ve tried, and you can’t stop. Maybe the pattern is every day or every week or every month or every quarter or every year, but you’re stuck. You may try to excuse it, blame someone else for it, manage it, control it, deny it, hide it. In Christ you can be rid of it because there’s a new power if you’re born again.

NEW POWER

• It’s not your power living a life for God; it’s God’s power living a new life in you. That Jesus will send the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, the same power that allowed him to live a sinless life and to live in victory over temptation, he will send through the new birth the Holy Spirit to live in you.

• Now there’s a new power. You don’t have to do what you used to do. You can act differently. And it’s not by your power. What we’re not talking about here is more self-discipline, more self-condemnation, more self-motivation; we’re talking about the life of Jesus in you, and all of a sudden, you’re a different person, and you’re able to live a different and new life.

5. NEW MIND.

• You start to think differently. Things you used to be ashamed of, you’re now proud of. Things that you used to be proud of, you’re now ashamed of.

• The way you used to see God and the world and yourself has changed and all of a sudden you see God as good, and yourself as sinful, and the world is in need of him.

• Your mind changes. How you view your identity, your relationships, your finances, your work, your family, your spouse, your kids, your whole mindset changes.

• The longer you live the new life in Christ—someone who’s been born again, you’re thinking through the renewing of your mind and the Word of God, it just keeps changing.

6. NEW COMMUNITY.

• The church then becomes a family. God is the Father, Jesus is the saving big brother. That means that the church becomes a new family. That ladies are like sisters, and men are like brothers, and leaders are like big brothers and big sisters.

• What holds us together is not just that we’re blood relatives, but the blood of Jesus Christ in our place for our sins. You get a new community.

• For those of you that have godly family, you’re doubly blessed; you get to be part of the church. For those of you who don’t have godly family, you’re not abandoned; you still have the church family. It’s your new community.

7. NEW DESIRES.

• And if you’re not a Christian you may be shocked by this, but what happens when you’re born again is you get new desires.

• You want to do things you never wanted to do and you don’t want to do things that you always used to want to do.

• When you’re born again spiritually you’re hungry for the Word of God. It’s the nourishment that sustains your soul. All of a sudden, you start to get new desires.

• It’s like, “I want to read the Bible. I want to learn how to pray. I want to serve other people. I want to get to know Christians. I want to look at my possessions and my time. And I want to look at my life and figure out how to steward that, to manage that in a way that is most effective for God’s glory and others’ good and my joy.” New desires.

• What new desires has God given you?

• You don’t want to do what you used to do, you want to be more like Jesus, not because you have to but because you want to.

• He says that sin fights to keep us from doing “what we want to do.” He’s saying that Satan and sin are always trying to get us to not do what we really want to do.

• If you are not a Christian your deepest desire is for sin. If you are a Christian and you’ve been born again in Jesus Christ, your deepest desire is for the will of God.

• So for those of you who are Christians, let me give you a secret, live a very passionate, devoted, committed life and don’t settle for lesser desires, they tend to be sinful. Strive for the deeper desires, the deepest desire of your heart because if you’re born again, your deepest, strongest desires are God’s desires placed in you through Jesus.

7. NEW DESIRES.

THE GREAT GIFT EXCHANGE

• In closing, this is the season of gift-giving and gift exchanges.

• Christianity is about a gift exchange. Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer and Bible teacher, he called it, “the great exchange.”

• Here’s the great gift exchange. Here’s what I want you to give Jesus, I want you to give Jesus something for Christmas. Probably not what you were thinking you would give him; give him your sin. He doesn’t need anything. He’s Creator God, right now ruling and reigning over all.

• Here’s what he wants for Christmas: what Jesus wants for Christmas is your sin.

• That’s what Jesus put on his Christmas list. “Give me your sin.”

• And then he’s got a gift for you: born again, born again.

• He wants to give you himself as your new Lord. He wants you to be a new person with a new identity living by a new power with a new mind as part of our church family, a new community, with new desires. This is the great exchange.

• Jesus invites you to give him your sin and to receive from him his resurrection life in you so that you can be born again.

THE GREAT GIFT EXCHANGE