The Doorway

What if Jesus isn’t calling you to try harder, but to be made new? In this message from John 3, we explore what it means to be “born from above,” how grace goes first, and why following Christ is less about safety and more about a journey of transformation.

Transcript

Me to the Gospel According to John, chapter three. The Gospel According to John, Chapter three.

The good thing about preaching, maybe. Well, one good thing about preaching is it's more a monologue. So, you know, you can, like, agree, but if we have a discussion, that's not really the place for discussion, is in a sermon. Right. That's got to wait until afterward.

So when the kids get to asking their questions, I get nervous, you know?

And as you know, children's questions are piercing, aren't they? They can reduce you to ashes. You think you've got the world figured out, but that little question, why? Can reduce your entire worldview to nothing. Okay, you ever been there before where it's like, why?

Why? Why? And you finally just have to say, I don't know. That's just the way it is. Right.

And you give up on all logic. Right. So, anyway, once you found John, chapter three, go ahead and stand with me for our gospel reading this morning. Perhaps a familiar text. Nevertheless, let us hear it with ears to hear.

Let us see it with eyes to see. Notice these words as found in John chapter three. There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. Jesus answered him, very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.

Nicodemus said to him, how can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, you must be born from above.

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.

Yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Oh, Lord, thank you for this beautiful word. And we pray today that your Holy Spirit would join us in our minds, in our hearts, to give us light, to give us sight, to let us hear your voice. Today we pray in your name. Amen.

You can be seated.

I love to be challenged to weave together the four texts of our Sunday gatherings, you know, so in other words, I like to read the Old Testament one, which is typically then also an epistle reading and, and then also a psalm reading. And see, okay, what is interwoven here? What are these four scriptures? Because all of scripture is interconnected, right? I mean, we know that it's not going to contradict itself.

So all of it flows together in some way. And I love to discover those things. And today is quite a discovery. The first text we have is this Genesis reading, isn't it? And you know, this is like ground zero for salvation.

By the way, Genesis, if you've ever read the book of Genesis, you know that Genesis 12, the whole book pivots on what happens in those first three verses. And we read four of the first verses here in chapter 12. And it is of course the calling of Abraham, right? Or at this point, just Abram. Alright?

And of course we could go into long explanations of all of that. I'm assuming you know a little bit about Abraham, right? At least this part. He's the father of faith. He's the father of many nations, right?

He's our father, Abraham. Even to this day, Paul will reach back to Abraham, of all people, as the premier example of what faith is. That's going to. He's going to be his primary exemplar, Abram. All right, now why is that?

Because Abraham had nothing but a word from God. That's it. He didn't have a temple. He didn't even have anybody else to say, you know what? I heard from Yahweh and I trusted him.

And this happened. No, he didn't have that. He just had a word from God, specifically a promise. And a promise is not just a normal word, is it? No, it's a technical thing that animals don't do.

But that we do. We promise things. You know, there's something about us, in fact, that almost like from the inside compels us to do this. It's very interesting. Like when you look at your own human nature, you just kind of start from the subjective.

There's something about us that all of a sudden, that night, long ago, 23 years ago, you know, I came to a worship service, all right, and all of a sudden met a girl. And my world has never been the same because I met that girl. Because as soon as I got around her, something in me was just saying, like, I need to be around her more. There's something about her that I just, I want to be around her more. And then we got to the point where we were around each other and we're like, you know what?

We need to like do this all the time and in fact be exclusively like you and me kind of thing. You know, there's something about human nature that compels us to make promises to those we love. If you ever had a newborn baby, you're just thinking to yourself, I promise to love you and care for you all of your days, no matter what you do. You know what I'm talking about. You get around a good friend and you're saying, listen man, I'm going to be there for you, dude, up or down, we're in this.

There's something about our human nature that's more than animal, more than beastly, that's able to look into the future and say, no matter what happens tomorrow or 20 years from now, I'm going to be here for you.

That's something unique to humans, but it's unique to humans because we're created in God's image, right? And he's a promise making God. In other words, we picked it up from him in the beginning. Here he's making promises. Really Back to Adam and Eve.

But let's. We're on Abraham today. But Abraham, I promise to do these things. Abraham, now, you know what he doesn't say is, Abraham, I promise to do this if you will always follow me. As soon as you don't follow me though, I'm out, man.

No thanks be to God. God doesn't operate like us. He doesn't cancel people, okay? He doesn't give up on people. Never.

He doesn't. His grace is open. No matter what you've done. If you can hear his voice, then his grace is open for you. His promises are available to you.

So Abraham does not initiate this whole thing? No. We're dropped into chapter 12 here in Genesis. And God interrupts Abram's life, doesn't he? I mean, Abram's at the.

You know, what do they call it? Sunset years? Or. I don't know, isn't that what it's called? Like, sunset years, where your life.

You know, you don't have many more years to go. I mean, you know, this. It's like, maybe 20, 30 would be a lot, you know? And this is where Abram and Sarah are, aren't they. They're old.

If you don't know, just put it plainly. They. They're old, okay? And they've never been able to have children. And here's God saying, hey, I'm gonna make you a nation out of you.

In fact, later he goes, look at the stars. Can you count those? No, no, of course I can't count the stars. And he's like, okay, that's how many children you're gonna have. He's like, God, you do realize, like, we're old and we've been at this a while.

And, you know, Sarah's womb is dried up, and I'm not able to either. So how's this going to happen? And yet, that's exactly what happens. The child of promise comes. He tries to do it his own way, but then the child of promise comes.

And that's because God's promises, they never fail. They never fail. You can trust Him. That's the point here. You can trust God.

Like you can. We have this suspicion of God. Sometimes. I understand. Bad things happen.

We're thinking, is he really on our side? Why did he let this happen? So on and so forth. I get it. We've all asked those questions.

You should ask those questions. But understand, no matter what he is for you, he is with us. And his promises are true. And he is good and only good. Like, there's not even a possibility that he could be bad.

He's only good and forever.

And so us too. If you've heard his voice, you know it comes in the dark of night. It doesn't come when we have it all figured out. It comes to interrupt our life. His calling always interrupts our life.

But that's a good thing, because he's calling us to another life, dear brothers and sisters. He's calling us further in and higher up than we've ever imagined before. And so there's a principle here that we need to understand. Is that grace, God's grace always precedes. Precedes our response.

So Abraham does respond here, you know, he leaves his country Right? I mean, that was the call. Abraham, leave your father's house. Go to a country that I will show you. That's a promise.

You see, it's saying, hey, something in the future is going to be yours. Okay, but you got to trust me. It's not happening today. It's the same way that we make promises again, right? I say.

I say, you know, hey, I'll meet you Tuesday at 10 o', clock, which I think I actually do have a meeting at 10 o' clock on Tuesday.

Now, when that comes, I may have other things going on in my life, but if I'm going to be true to my promises now, I've obligated myself now to something in the future. Everybody with me, which is the same way with God. He's oblig. I mean, this is God and he obligates himself to us for future things. I'm going to do this.

You just watch. You just watch it unfold. But you got to trust that. And of course, this is providence. This is what we mean by providence.

It's God's plan that we can't fully see. You know, it's the kind of thing where if you've ever looked at a construction site before, it's an absolute mess, isn't it? You look out there, I mean, they're building a house right beside us, and it's like this just looks like a disaster. Who knows what's going on? Well, the architect does, that's who.

And even though it looks messy right now, there is an order to things. First it's the foundation, then it's the wood structure, then it's the brick, right? Then it's this, then it's that someone is directing this process, even though it looks like an absolute mess. Anybody hear me? Your life might look like, oh, I don't know that we even got it together, man.

I got 20 tools over here and things over there. This is a really muddy mess over here. It's okay. The architect sees. Keep listening day by day to what's next.

That's how we live our life, by faith. That's how Abraham lived his life, by faith. And it was counted to him then as righteousness. The scripture says so. This divine summons where God is summoning us out out of our darkness, out of our normality, out of our domicile life.

Come out of your house, Abraham. Get out from under your father's house. Let's go, man. We got a journey ahead of us. This kind of summons is not our doing.

Just like we mentioned with Emily A minute. She didn't just, like, one day in high school be like, you know what? I think I just want to be a missionary. I don't know where it come from. I think it's just my fault here.

No, no, no. God broke into her life. Like, talk to her about it. And that's not the only time God has broken into her life. It's not the only time God has broken in my life.

When I heard his initial call at 5 years old, I want Jesus in my heart. I remember that distinctly in my life. That's all I knew. But that's okay. He works with what we know.

You don't have to become me and I don't have to become you. He works where you're at, but is unwilling to leave you there. Yes, we come as we are, but he does not ever leave us there. No, no. He's always calling us out, summoning us deeper in and further up to the high country, to that country.

He will show us just like. Just like Abraham. And so this is why Jesus, when he comes, he says this. You did not choose me. I chose you.

That's grace. That's his voice. And I'm telling you, when you hear his voice, it's unmistakable. No one will convince you otherwise. You know, yesterday was February 28th, and for some of you who know me, that was the night where I received the call to preach.

Okay? Now, that has looked very different over the 27 years that have expired, which seems crazy, okay? But nevertheless, it has looked different than what I had in my head. But that's okay. I didn't have to understand all those things.

I just need to know that I was hearing his voice and I needed to leave the things I was doing at the time to. To follow him, to get on journey with Him. Have you heard his voice like that? Because let me tell you, it's not unique to pastors.

His voice is for everybody. We all hear his voice. If we'll listen, if we'll listen, if we have ears to hear. And by the way, the. That's grace too, isn't it?

It's not like, oh, well, I'm just doing it better than you. No, no, we're all given grace for the next step, for the next move.

We can also stymie that grace. We can stall it out. We can, the scripture says, quench the Holy Spirit's work in our life. We can grieve Him. God help us not do that.

We want your way. We want to hear your voice. Do you want to hear His Voice. Because let me tell you something. If you want to hear his voice, just speak his name.

Just whisper it in the depths of your Jesus. I want to hear you. That may not happen like you want it to happen, because he's not on our dimension. He's not our employee. You must do it this way.

I need to hear it in the sky. I need to hear that booming voice. Some people hear it in Irish tone. I don't know, right? I mean, in our own head, we hear it.

I mean, we probably hear it in country, right? Or I mean, right, like country slang or southern slang, you know, in Hebrew, in Greek, in all the languages. Why? Because he supersedes them all. He.

He can speak to the heart. He's not limited by human language. He speaks directly into the soul. And we have that capacity to hear Him. And dear brothers and sisters, Lent is a wonderful time to practice hearing him.

Remember what the voice booming from heaven said at his baptism? Well, at his transfer. Listen to him. The transfiguration. Remember?

Listen to him. Are you listening? Abraham was. Abraham was. And he entered a great journey that.

Guess what? Today in this room, just look around real quick. You're all sons and daughters of Abraham. That's what Paul says, literally. Because you're sons and daughters of God.

You're therefore the true Israel. The true Israel is the church. That's the elect. Grace always comes first because you did not choose me, but I chose you. Jesus says, isn't that a good thing?

Like, just really. I mean, you know, sometimes I don't even know what to do to try to emphasize something, but, like, just really stop and pause, like he says your name. The living God, the one who spun everything into existence all the way down to quartz and, you know, like beyond atoms and all the way up to stars and whatever's out there that God speaks your name and calls you by name.

Yes, the journey begins because God speaks His word. And you know what? We have his word. We have his word. God never speaks to me.

Have you listened?

Have you heard? He has spoken his word. This is his holy image. Inerrant, infallible, unmistakable word of God. The Bible is okay now in this call, he's always summoning us out of the familiar, out of security, out of what identity we've tried to piece together about ourself.

I mean, at 5, I didn't have much identity, right? At 17, though, February 28, 1999, I had tried to piece some things together. I wanted to be this or I wanted to be that. But the Lord said that Night. Nope.

All that goes on the altar, buddy. We're going to start over. Give it all to me, and I'm going to sanctify it. I'm going to make it holy. And if you get it back, it'll be because it's now holy.

If you don't, it was because it was dross, right?

And would be burned up in my cleansing fire.

No, Abram didn't have a map. And none of us do either. This is our map. His voice, his word. That's our map.

It's day by day. It's enough light for our feet. Remember, A light unto our path, a lamp unto our feet, and a light for our path. That's the way we walk. There's no spotlight.

It's day by day.

Now. It's interesting. What we do here in worship is like a mini exodus, if you will. It's like a mini experience of leaving the familiar every single week. At the beginning of the week, you leave your house.

Think about it. You leave your house and you join in this sanctuary, this sacred space. And by the way, this place in here, this does not look like, I dare say, any other workplace this week for you, does it? Any business you go in, it's not going to be set up like this. Any school you go in.

Not like this.

Your house? Not like this. No. No. This is an odd place for a reason.

It reminds us that this is not our home down here. Our niceties, our comforts. That's not all there is to life. Instead, we come in here and are surprised to find a portal to another world, if you will. A meeting place of the divine.

Every single week we do it, every single week. We remind ourselves that we're not created just to produce. We're not just created for utility. Your work thinks so. Doesn't just demands production, it demands utility.

And as soon as you're not worth it, you're fired, right? You're no good. So see you later. You're replaceable. No, this place, this sacred space is for worship.

Now, follow me. Worship is not a means to an end in this way. Worship is not practical because practical things get you somewhere else, right? So, like you say, I gotta eat. It's like, well, but we got a baseball game here in 30 minutes.

It's like, well, then we need to go buy fast food. That's the practical solution, right? Rather than going home, fixing a meal being impossible, right? The practical solution would be this. To get us somewhere else.

Listen, worship, the reason we're here right now is not because it's leading to us having some improved life. Hear me, listen to me. It's not to reach the world is the reason we worship. It's not for church growth.

Worship is the end of all things. It's the destination. It's what we do. Because worship has to do with God alone.

Now, God is the most impractical thing in the world because he's the end of all things, practical things. You're moving from means to end, right? Everybody still with me on this? No, it's okay. Just think about it later.

And I think maybe the Holy Spirit can help us all. It's not some means to an end. That means we're done with that, right? Are we ever done with worship?

No. Overwhelmingly. Like, that's us bending the knee to the Creator, to the king.

So our culture is trying to draw us in, to say, you know what? You're just as good as your production in this place. We say, absolutely wrong. Absolutely wrong. The world wants to pull every squeeze, every little bit of production out of you.

That may be what businesses are for. Who knows? But that's not what worship's for. Worship is to come face to face with the divine, face to face with our Lord. In other words, we're not doing it so we can get something else beyond him.

There is nothing beyond Him.

He's not a means to an end. To my end, like, oh, I want to improve my life because. No, no, no. We bump into God and love him because he's lovely. We want the truth because he is truth.

We do it because it's good and for no other reason.

Maybe you don't understand the illustration. Here's one more, just for the road. Okay. You ever notice door frames, how they're, like, decorative and stuff? Like in a house, you know, like, there's a little frame around that that's.

There's nothing practical about door frames. You know that, right? Like, behind there is the practical part, the frame around it, the little beautiful thing, you know, like, just look through our hallway here. There's not one that I'm seeing in this room, unfortunately, but it's just to cover it up. You know that, right?

Like all the things in a house. Like, you ever seen a house built. Crown molding is just to cover up the fact where it joins and there's a little space between there. That's just lop it on there so it looks beautiful. It has no practical bearing at all.

Like, you could literally have a house with no crown molding. Totally fine. Right? Why do we do crown molding? Because it's beautiful, that's why.

Why do you decorate your plate if you're having a fancy dinner? That's just because it's beautiful. We could all eat hamburgers all the time. Be practical, I guess. Probably unhealthy, but nevertheless.

Right? No, no. You see, worship lifts us out of practicality. Everybody hear me in this. To the end.

Of all things, who is God? Who is good and only good, who is absolute truth, not half truth, Not. Yeah, I think we can trust this. I don't know. I'm getting this news report.

Maybe it's true. No. Absolute truth right here. Absolute goodness, absolute beauty we come face to face with in worship.

And another thing our culture wants to do is not only squeeze out productivity, but they also want to say, hey, safety is most important. Being safe, that is the most important thing. And I think part of our anxiety in our children is that kind of mentality. I really do. I've got to make the right decision.

If I make the wrong decision, I do that, then this. And they're calculating every little thing that's not meant for a 10 year old. I've got to determine my identity for the rest of my life.

Like, why are we placing that? Listen, this place. Worship brings structure to reality, to our identity. When we are looking up rather than down or in, that's where order comes from.

That's where identity comes from. Our Creator.

No, the faith journey is not safe. Jesus told us as much, didn't he? You will have trouble, right? So if you're looking for a life without trouble, don't follow him.

In fact, he says you'll be persecuted. So again, safety, productivity cannot be the greatest thing to pursue in life. So why do we pursue them? Because they're distractions, they're lesser goods. There's something good about safety.

But you know what? Some of the most fun I've ever had was not really all that safe. You ever been mountain biking? Ain't that real safe, you know, Bob, can I get an amen? Justin, you know, couple, We've all had wrecks, you know, but you know what?

When you're cruising through and the wind's blowing through and it's like, man, it's beautiful nature. You're doing it together. It's like a journey. And there's something beautiful. Jessica and I's relationship, when I met her that night, when we joined together, there was nothing safe about all that.

And for the 22 years that we've been married, nothing safe about it. There's been some real precarious Times where we had to trust each other and trust God and that's about all we had. But that's okay. That's okay. It's better than just playing it.

Say, I'm not going to get my heart broken, so I'm not going to get involved anymore. And that's a real danger for us. We are all going to receive heartbreak even from within the church. Can you hear me?

That is not an excuse to say, you know what? I'm going to close up shop, play it safe. I'm not letting people. I'm not letting people get in. No.

Because I'm not doing that again. No. We're still on journey, brothers and sisters. We got to come out of hiding, come out of what we think is our safe place because God is with us and that's what matters.

Now, could I give you just a real simple illustration that I love maybe I haven't done this in a long time so I feel very at liberty to do this. Okay. Which is bring up Lord of the Rings, Okay. Particularly the Hobbit. Do you remember what happens?

Like, if you've ever read the book, you know the full story. Of course, if you've watched the movies, you know most of the story, right? But basically, Gandalf, you remember the wizard, right? He comes by Bilbo's house and you know, the Shire is a place of safe. Like, everybody's doing the safe thing.

It's like being down in the country, you know, like, there's not much violence that's happening in the Shire. It's a peaceful place. Ain't much going on, right? And all of a sudden, Gandalf shows up, right at Bilbo's door and everything changes. And if you remember, he actually puts an invisible mark on his front door.

You remember that? That's how the Dwarves all know, like, oh, we're having supper here tonight. You remember? They start showing up. He's like, hang on, what are we doing?

You know, he's freaking out and all this kind of stuff. And ultimately, long story short, because it is a long story. Beautiful one. They all come, Gandalf included, and they invite him on a journey. But, you know, he plays it safe.

His family's always played it safe. I'm not doing that. Why would I do that? Why do I need to be in the affairs of other people? I'm just going to stay around here and play it safe.

But the next morning, he wakes up and he says, hmm, interesting. Got this little contract. He remember he had a contract. All this stuff. It's hilarious.

And he starts running after him, remember? And he joins the party. And before they get going, Gandalf tells him this, says, listen. Listen, Bilbo, if you go on this journey, I can't promise you safety. I can't.

I can't even promise that you'll ever come back to the Shire.

But I can promise you this. You'll never be the same. Transformation. You'll never be the same if you start this journey and he wasn't. And then it fed into Lord of the Rings.

Right? Properly speaking. So listen. Are you hearing anything today? Because I hope it's not my voice.

I hope you hear the Creator himself, who comes to put his mark on us in baptism. That's invisible to everybody else, but we're marked. And who calls us on a journey where the promise is not for safety. No, that's too low of a mark. But transformation.

This is why Jesus says, nicodemus, you must be born again. Born from above. Born of water and the spirit. Not of your own doing, but of God's. It's not Nicodemus.

Try harder. It's not Nicodemus. Produce more. No, it's you must be born again. And being born Again, as C.S.

lewis reminds us beautifully, I think in mere Christianity, he says, it's not like teaching a horse to jump over hurdles. It's more like giving a horse wings. You're a new creation. You're no longer just Marshall. Improved.

But Marshal, with the Holy Spirit, his power at work in our life. Have you been born from above? Been born again. Because you must be born again. Once isn't enough.

We've all been born once. That's not enough. We must be born again according to Jesus. And by his power. You see, grace summons us out, out of the darkness.

Notice Nicodemus comes to him in darkness, right out from underneath familiarity. And we respond with faith. And the journey begins.

Abraham was summoned out. Bilbo leaves the Shire.

Nicodemus steps into the light.

What about you? Have you started the journey?

Have you gotten wayward? Maybe you started, but now you're lost again. You're off track. That happens on journeys, doesn't it? Happens in Lord of the Rings a couple times.

And it'll happen in our life. Hear his voice again. Get back on the narrow way, because this is not optional. We must be born again. It is the doorway to new life.

It's the doorway to the greatest journey you ever take. And a hope that inside you're just welling up to say, let's get back on the path. And let's grab some other people and say, hey, come with me. Let's go. Let's do this together.

Because thanks be to God, we don't have to do it together. I don't want to do it together. Do you? No. Let's go.

Let's go. As the scripture says elsewhere, it says, come, let us be going. May it be so. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.