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할렐루야교회
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할렐루야교회
- 본방 :
거듭났습니까?
- 방영일 : 2011-10-05
- 조회 : 17,887
할렐루야교회
김승욱목사
거듭났습니까?
방송일시 : 11. 10. 05
Pastor Daniel Seung-wook Kim
Hallelujah Community Church
If you think about the U.S,
it was founded and grew,
based on Christianity.
Thus, generally, you can
find the influences of Christianity
in the American culture.
Majority number of Americans
may say they are Christians.
But many of them don’t know
Jesus Christ personally and
didn’t accept Jesus as their
personal Savior.
They think they are Christians
because of their family tradition.
So, socially and traditionally,
they think they are Christians.
But there are people who want to
separate themselves from casual
Christians who became Christians
because of the American culture
and their family tradition.
They believe in Jesus Christ
and accepted him as their personal
Savior and received eternal life.
They call themselves, born again
Christians.
They are the Christians who were
spiritually born again.
They are God’s saints who were
born again.
The concept of this “born again”
is what today’s text deals with.
Jesus talked to Nicodemus
in verse 3.
He said, “You must be
born again.”
Jesus used the word “must” here.
He said, “You must be born again
if you want to go to God’s kingdom.”
Let’s me explain some background
here. Who is Nicodemus?
If you read verse 1, it says he was
a man of the Pharisees and
a member of the Jewish ruling
council.
He was like a congressman
these days.
As a Pharisee, he was a religious
leader and a political leader
who had an authority at that time.
There were 70 members
in the Jewish ruling council
and he was one of them and
that tells us that he was
a powerful leader. But Nicodemus
came to Jesus during the night.
According to verse 2, he tells
Jesus why he visited, saying,
“For no one could perform the
miraculous signs you are doing
if God were not with him."
He was very impressed by Jesus
and wondered if Jesus came
from God.
He had the expectation.
Above all, we see this in Jesus’
answer. If you read verse 3,
Jesus didn’t talk to Nicodemus
indirectly. He told him straight
and directly.
“You must be born again if you
want to go to God’s kingdom.”
What we can understand from
Jesus’ answer is that there was
one thing he struggled with
in his heart.
Though he was a religious leader,
a Pharisee, and an expert
who knew the laws well, and
who studied the laws and
lived a religious life hard,
he was not sure about his life
if he ended up his life on that day.
He was not confident about
entering God’s kingdom
after he died.
This question is not only
for Nicodemus indeed.
This is the question all religious
people have in their heart.
All religions seek one thing.
If there is God, they all try to
find out how they can come to
God. That’s why people have
religions by themselves.
Thus, this question is applied to
anyone who has a religion
in this world.
How can we enter God’s kingdom?
And the answer God gives is
what we must put our faith in it.
“When you do this, you can enter
God’s kingdom,” says Jesus.
He definitely and clearly says,
“You must be born again.”
He says we can enter God’s
kingdom if we are born again.
Then we must deeply think about
the meaning of “born again.”
What does it mean? I will speak
three things we must think of,
based on today’s text.
Firstly, born again process is
personally done by God.
This is what God does directly.
Look at verse 5. Jesus answered,
"I tell you the truth, no one can
enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water
and the Spirit.”
Verse 3 says, we can become
the people of God in his kingdom
when we are born again.
The concept of “born again” is
connected with verse 5,
“no one can enter the kingdom
of God unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.”
So, being born again is you are
born of water and the spirit again.
Then, what does it mean?
As you can see, Jesus speaks to
Nicodemus indirectly. He frankly
tells him what he really needs.
So, Jesus does not speak
allegorically in verse 5.
He knew the spiritual level of
Nicodemus and gave him
the answer he could understand.
Jesus was quoting a passage
from the Old Testament.
If you were a Jewish leader,
you must know what it is.
It was in Ezekiel 36:24 and
the following verses.
Here, God speaks to the people
of Israel according to its context.
The Israelites were scattered
throughout the world.
But God promised them this.
“'For I will take you out of
the nations; I will gather you
from all the countries and
bring you back into your own
land.” It is time to gather them.
The subject is God.
God says he will do it.
As God does it, the next verse
is important because they will
be sinful as they were before
if he just gathers them up.
If God brings them back to
their land again as who they are,
they will be the same as before
because of their sinful habits.
Thus, God says in verse 25,
“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.” God will
gather his people personally
and as he does that, he will
cleanse them with water.
God will purifies them and
that is done though the water.
God will cleanse us like
he washes us.
The next verse says, “I will
give you a new heart.”
He will give us a new heart.
“I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you.”
God will give you new man,
new identity, and new look,
God will give New spirit and
New heart to us and he says,
“I will remove from you
your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh.”
The Israelites were stubborn.
Though they saw God’s miracles,
they complained continuously
and they were stubborn.
God said they were stiff-necked.
Their hearts were hard
as stones and stubborn.
Whatever God said, his word
was bounced back from them.
Their hearts were hard as stones
but God gives them new heart
and new spirit and they will
have a heart of flesh.
So, they will have a heart of
flesh so that they can receive
God’s love well. And verse 27,
it is really amazing.
“And I will put my Spirit in you
and move you to follow
my decrees and be careful to
keep my laws.”
God will give us the Holy Spirit
and because of that, we will have
new man and new heart so that
follow his decrees and be careful
to keep his laws.” This is what
God promised in Ezekiel 36.
The important thing is that
God says, “I will do it.”
Because of their sins, they were
scattered throughout the world
but God said, “I will gather them
and cleanse them with water,
give them new heart, remove
their heart of stone and give them
a heart of flesh, and give them.”
God will give them the Holy Spirit
so that they will become the people
who obey God’s Word gladly.
God said he will do it and if you
look at the passage it talks about
the water and the spirit.
God will provide the water and
will give us the spirit so that
we can have new spirit, new body,
new man, new identity, new soul.
God says he will do it.
Jesus said, “unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.” So, it means
God will make us being born again
with water and the Holy Spirit.
It is God’s grace, not my efforts or
my money that I can buy things.
It is not the thing I am passionate
enough about it.
It is free from God. He gives us
his water and his spirit and
he will change us totally different
from who we were before.
Jesus said, “You must be born again.”
Then he asked, “What should I do?
Should I enter my mother’s womb
again to be born again?”
“No, it’s not. God will do it just as
you’re born by God’s will.”
When we are born again,
God gives us his water and
the Spirit, and because of that,
we can be born again.
There are the lyrics of a hymn
that we are familiar with.
Some day life's journey will be o'er.
And I shall reach that distant shore;
I'll sing while entering heaven's door,
"Jesus led me all the way."
If God should let me there review
The winding paths of earth I knew,
It would be proven clear and true
"Jesus led me all the way."
Jesus led me all the way,
Led me step by step each day;
I will tell the saints and angels
as I lay my burdens down,
"Jesus led me all the way."
One day, we will stand before
the heaven’s door and God will
open it for us. Then we say,
“Jesus led me all the way.”
“God did it and it was your grace.
Because Jesus kept me with
his grace, I could come here.
Now you open the heaven’s door
and I can walk into it.” We are
remembering God’s grace
as we are entering the heaven.
The reason we don’t go to
the wrong directions in our rough
life journeys and don’t give up
is that the Lord is with us always.
It is God’s grace that leads us.
Just like God leads us with
the pillar of fire at night and
the pillar of cloud by day.
God cleans us with his water
because of his unending love
and grace, and he gives us
the new spirit so that we can be
saved and live by his grace.
It is the promise of God for us.
You must know being born
again is what God does.
With his water, and the Spirit,
we have new spirit in us.
That creates new man and
new heart.
Secondly, we must know about
being born again is this.
It is done by the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 6, “Flesh gives
birth to flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to spirit.” It tells us
that spirit can be born
by the Holy Spirit. Also, verse 8,
“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."
Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit.
“Look at the wind. You can’t see it
but you can feel it. Like you don’t
know where it comes from and
where it goes to, so does
God’s spirit. You cannot control it.
There’s nothing you can do.
The Holy Spirit is God and he has
the authority, character, and
personhood as God himself.
He comes to us and does what
he has to do with his authority.
It doesn’t matter what kind of
plans we have. He does what
he wants to do. The Holy Spirit
comes to us like the wind and
because of this breath of life,
we can have new life and
we can be born again.”
That’s what Jesus says to us.
This is important. Being born again
is only possible by God’s grace and
this tremendous work of being born
again is like creating something
from nothing. We didn’t have
spirit before but we have new spirit
in us because of the work of
the breath and the power of
the Holy Spirit. It is only done by
God’s grace and the power of
the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit
works so powerfully, it is beyond
our logics, thoughts, and minds.
Last Wednesday, we had pastor
Bang Jee-il as our guest speaker.
He was attending Phyong-yang
Theological Seminary,
the first seminary in Korea.
He learned Greek and Hebrew
from professor Angel there.
He was talking about him and
interestingly, our elder pastor
Kim knows him also.
He told me how he could know
him and I was touched by his words.
Pastor Angel was the one who
led pastor Kim’s grandfather to
Jesus Christ long time ago.
There was a huge tree in
his grandfather’s village and
you know our ancestors usually
worshiped those trees.
So, all people bowed down
before the tree but one day,
pastor Angel was passing by
the village and saw the people
bowing down before the tree,
then he asked pastor Kim’s
grandfather, “Why do you bow down
before the tree? You must bow down
before God who created the tree.”
Because of this one sentence,
he saw the new world spiritually.
He was caught up by the superstition
succeeded from his ancestors and
only knew he had to worship
the tree and bow down before it.
That was his life before but now,
he realized something different.
He thought, “He’s right. Why am
I bowing down before this tree?
I must bow down before God
who created the tree.”
Then he began to believe in God.
Just imagine, one person passed
by and said, “Don’t believe in the
tree but believe in God who made
the tree instead.”
Have you ever seen someone
believe in God because of
these kind of simple words?
This can’t be done by any
human knowledge or anything.
No matter how wonderful
your voice is like mine,
it does not work.
It is absolutely possible.
The wind of the Holy Spirit is
truly essential here and he can
powerfully change human words
into the breath of life and when
it goes into our hearts, it becomes
the new life in us.
Now, pastor Kim’s grandfather
decided to believe in God and
brought a saw out to cut the tree.
He told the people in the village
to remove the tree and they were
surprised. They disagreed with him.
But he realized the truth powerfully
and cut the tree by himself.
From that day, he believed in God
and all his nine children, his wife,
and even his housemaids went to
the church, wearing white clothes.
They had to walk across the field
and all other people in the village
saw them passing by and wearing
white clothes on Sundays.
It is an amazing story and
it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He comes to us like the wind and
applies God’s Word into our hearts
with the power of life.
Not long ago, we read Ezekiel 36,
but you turn to chapter 37,
you will find he had a vision.
He saw dry bones in the valley.
The dry bones represented
the people who were spiritually
dead because of their sins.
There was no hope in them.
They had no hope but God told
Ezekiel, “Speak to the bones.”
Thus, he spoke what God asked
him to speak to the dry bones.
The bones began to connect
with each other and form.
Then God said, “Breathe on them.”
It was the breath of God,
the Holy Spirit. When the wind
of the Spirit was put into them,
those dry bones became
the living army of God.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
With God’s Word, as the Spirit
puts his breath into us like the wind,
the Word becomes alive and
gives new spirit and new soul to
us whose hearts were dry and
dead spiritually in the past.
This is what the Holy Spirit does.
I want to ask all of you. How could
you become Christians?
It was because the Holy Spirit
came to you with God’s Word
and it became the living word of
God in your heart, and it was
the power for you to believe in
God and become his people,
and also born again in Christ.
There is one more important
thing to know.
Being born again is only possible
by faith. It is our faith.
If you read today’s text, Jesus told
Nicodemus several times.
“Don’t you still understand it?”
asked Jesus.
He said, “You are supposed to
understand it but still don’t get it.”
You can feel how Jesus had
pity on him in today’s text.
Verse 11 says, “I tell you the truth,
we speak of what we know, and
we testify to what we have seen,
but still you people do not accept
our testimony.” If you see verse 13,
Jesus said he is the only one who
knows about the heaven exactly
because he was from heaven.
But Nicodemus tried to understand it
with man’s paradigm and knowledge.
So, Jesus had pity on him and
emphasized faith in verses 14 and 15.
Why don’t you think like this?
Suppose we have the frame of
triangle as humans. But God has
the frame of square and tells us.
Including Nicodemus, we all
belong to the world.
Our thoughts and paradigms
all belong to the world.
Not only those, but we have
our corrupted knowledge
because of our sins and we see
everything in the frame of triangle.
But what if God tells us the truth
through the frame of square?
We cannot understand the frame
of square with our frame of triangle.
We cannot see anything at all.
To understand the meaning that
God gives through the frame of
square, we have to jump in
our faith.
We have to jump from the frame
of triangle to the frame of square.
When we jump into the frame of
God and receive God’s Word
with faith, we can finally realize
what it means.
Our spiritual eyes can be open
and can see God’s plans.
We can see God’s perfect
works and designs in our lives.
That is the faith. We don’t
believe because we know it.
Rather, we believe because
we want to know it.
We believe not because we know
everything. We believe because
we can know everything with faith.
Nicodemus didn’t have faith.
He couldn’t understand though
Jesus explained to him much.
It is only possible by faith.
The concept is totally different.
If you can’t break what you have,
you can’t accept another concept.
It is not possible.
That’s why God tells us that
we must believe.
When we believe, our stereotype
or human concept can disappear
and we can see things with
God’s concept and understand
his word and truth. Go to verse 14
in today’s text.
It says, “Just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the desert,
so the Son of Man must be
lifted up” What it means is that
the people of Israel traveled
in the desert in Numbers 21.
They were bitten by snakes
and dying. They cried out for help.
Moses asked God to save them
desperately and God gave them
a way to be healed. They had to
make a bronze snake and put it
on a stick and lift it up. God said,
“whoever sees the snake will live.”
Does it make sense to you?
They were dying because of
snakes and now another snake
had to be lifted up.
They could have many questions
but God didn’t explain why.
God simply said, “Just do what
I said to you. Then you will survive.”
What God asked them was
their faith.
God would save them if they
showed their faith in him.
They had to do whatever
God said to them although
they couldn’t understand it.
When they believe it with
their faith, they could survive.
Verse 15 says, “that everyone
who believes in him.”
Jesus was about to hung
on the tree and he said,
“that everyone who believes in
him may have eternal life.”
If you believe that Jesus died
on the cross for your sins,
not based on your concept,
but based on God’s concept
with your faith, God will see
your faith and save you as
you are born again.
Your faith is the key.
Being born again is like this.
It is God’s gracious work and
it can be done only by
the Holy Spirit,
and it is only possible by
our faith.
That is being born again.
So, don’t think that being born
again is difficult thing just like
you solve a riddle. Because it is
what God does, we just need to
believe in it with our faith and
accept the Lord confidently.
Then God will do the rest.
Alright? Live by faith.
No matter how hard the world
is shaking, if we have faith,
we all know we will be righteous.
Whatever shakes us, whatever
heresies and things shake our faith,
if we steadfastly keep our faith
and only trust in Jesus Christ,
God will save us no matter what.
Jesus Christ is not the object of
our investigation.
He is the object of our faith.
If God is truly God, we must not
investigate him. He is the one
we must believe.
God’s Word shouldn’t be what
we examine and investigate
with our human knowledge
and concepts.
The Word of God is what
we have to believe.
When we have faith,
we can be born again,
When we live by faith, only
trusting in God’s promises,
we will overcome the world
no matter how it shakes us.
Dr. Sang Bok David Kim
Hallelujah Community Church
김상복 목사
Beloved members, have you been
experienced the presence of God?
김승욱목사
거듭났습니까?
방송일시 : 11. 10. 05
Pastor Daniel Seung-wook Kim
Hallelujah Community Church
If you think about the U.S,
it was founded and grew,
based on Christianity.
Thus, generally, you can
find the influences of Christianity
in the American culture.
Majority number of Americans
may say they are Christians.
But many of them don’t know
Jesus Christ personally and
didn’t accept Jesus as their
personal Savior.
They think they are Christians
because of their family tradition.
So, socially and traditionally,
they think they are Christians.
But there are people who want to
separate themselves from casual
Christians who became Christians
because of the American culture
and their family tradition.
They believe in Jesus Christ
and accepted him as their personal
Savior and received eternal life.
They call themselves, born again
Christians.
They are the Christians who were
spiritually born again.
They are God’s saints who were
born again.
The concept of this “born again”
is what today’s text deals with.
Jesus talked to Nicodemus
in verse 3.
He said, “You must be
born again.”
Jesus used the word “must” here.
He said, “You must be born again
if you want to go to God’s kingdom.”
Let’s me explain some background
here. Who is Nicodemus?
If you read verse 1, it says he was
a man of the Pharisees and
a member of the Jewish ruling
council.
He was like a congressman
these days.
As a Pharisee, he was a religious
leader and a political leader
who had an authority at that time.
There were 70 members
in the Jewish ruling council
and he was one of them and
that tells us that he was
a powerful leader. But Nicodemus
came to Jesus during the night.
According to verse 2, he tells
Jesus why he visited, saying,
“For no one could perform the
miraculous signs you are doing
if God were not with him."
He was very impressed by Jesus
and wondered if Jesus came
from God.
He had the expectation.
Above all, we see this in Jesus’
answer. If you read verse 3,
Jesus didn’t talk to Nicodemus
indirectly. He told him straight
and directly.
“You must be born again if you
want to go to God’s kingdom.”
What we can understand from
Jesus’ answer is that there was
one thing he struggled with
in his heart.
Though he was a religious leader,
a Pharisee, and an expert
who knew the laws well, and
who studied the laws and
lived a religious life hard,
he was not sure about his life
if he ended up his life on that day.
He was not confident about
entering God’s kingdom
after he died.
This question is not only
for Nicodemus indeed.
This is the question all religious
people have in their heart.
All religions seek one thing.
If there is God, they all try to
find out how they can come to
God. That’s why people have
religions by themselves.
Thus, this question is applied to
anyone who has a religion
in this world.
How can we enter God’s kingdom?
And the answer God gives is
what we must put our faith in it.
“When you do this, you can enter
God’s kingdom,” says Jesus.
He definitely and clearly says,
“You must be born again.”
He says we can enter God’s
kingdom if we are born again.
Then we must deeply think about
the meaning of “born again.”
What does it mean? I will speak
three things we must think of,
based on today’s text.
Firstly, born again process is
personally done by God.
This is what God does directly.
Look at verse 5. Jesus answered,
"I tell you the truth, no one can
enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water
and the Spirit.”
Verse 3 says, we can become
the people of God in his kingdom
when we are born again.
The concept of “born again” is
connected with verse 5,
“no one can enter the kingdom
of God unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.”
So, being born again is you are
born of water and the spirit again.
Then, what does it mean?
As you can see, Jesus speaks to
Nicodemus indirectly. He frankly
tells him what he really needs.
So, Jesus does not speak
allegorically in verse 5.
He knew the spiritual level of
Nicodemus and gave him
the answer he could understand.
Jesus was quoting a passage
from the Old Testament.
If you were a Jewish leader,
you must know what it is.
It was in Ezekiel 36:24 and
the following verses.
Here, God speaks to the people
of Israel according to its context.
The Israelites were scattered
throughout the world.
But God promised them this.
“'For I will take you out of
the nations; I will gather you
from all the countries and
bring you back into your own
land.” It is time to gather them.
The subject is God.
God says he will do it.
As God does it, the next verse
is important because they will
be sinful as they were before
if he just gathers them up.
If God brings them back to
their land again as who they are,
they will be the same as before
because of their sinful habits.
Thus, God says in verse 25,
“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.” God will
gather his people personally
and as he does that, he will
cleanse them with water.
God will purifies them and
that is done though the water.
God will cleanse us like
he washes us.
The next verse says, “I will
give you a new heart.”
He will give us a new heart.
“I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you.”
God will give you new man,
new identity, and new look,
God will give New spirit and
New heart to us and he says,
“I will remove from you
your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh.”
The Israelites were stubborn.
Though they saw God’s miracles,
they complained continuously
and they were stubborn.
God said they were stiff-necked.
Their hearts were hard
as stones and stubborn.
Whatever God said, his word
was bounced back from them.
Their hearts were hard as stones
but God gives them new heart
and new spirit and they will
have a heart of flesh.
So, they will have a heart of
flesh so that they can receive
God’s love well. And verse 27,
it is really amazing.
“And I will put my Spirit in you
and move you to follow
my decrees and be careful to
keep my laws.”
God will give us the Holy Spirit
and because of that, we will have
new man and new heart so that
follow his decrees and be careful
to keep his laws.” This is what
God promised in Ezekiel 36.
The important thing is that
God says, “I will do it.”
Because of their sins, they were
scattered throughout the world
but God said, “I will gather them
and cleanse them with water,
give them new heart, remove
their heart of stone and give them
a heart of flesh, and give them.”
God will give them the Holy Spirit
so that they will become the people
who obey God’s Word gladly.
God said he will do it and if you
look at the passage it talks about
the water and the spirit.
God will provide the water and
will give us the spirit so that
we can have new spirit, new body,
new man, new identity, new soul.
God says he will do it.
Jesus said, “unless he is born of
water and the Spirit.” So, it means
God will make us being born again
with water and the Holy Spirit.
It is God’s grace, not my efforts or
my money that I can buy things.
It is not the thing I am passionate
enough about it.
It is free from God. He gives us
his water and his spirit and
he will change us totally different
from who we were before.
Jesus said, “You must be born again.”
Then he asked, “What should I do?
Should I enter my mother’s womb
again to be born again?”
“No, it’s not. God will do it just as
you’re born by God’s will.”
When we are born again,
God gives us his water and
the Spirit, and because of that,
we can be born again.
There are the lyrics of a hymn
that we are familiar with.
Some day life's journey will be o'er.
And I shall reach that distant shore;
I'll sing while entering heaven's door,
"Jesus led me all the way."
If God should let me there review
The winding paths of earth I knew,
It would be proven clear and true
"Jesus led me all the way."
Jesus led me all the way,
Led me step by step each day;
I will tell the saints and angels
as I lay my burdens down,
"Jesus led me all the way."
One day, we will stand before
the heaven’s door and God will
open it for us. Then we say,
“Jesus led me all the way.”
“God did it and it was your grace.
Because Jesus kept me with
his grace, I could come here.
Now you open the heaven’s door
and I can walk into it.” We are
remembering God’s grace
as we are entering the heaven.
The reason we don’t go to
the wrong directions in our rough
life journeys and don’t give up
is that the Lord is with us always.
It is God’s grace that leads us.
Just like God leads us with
the pillar of fire at night and
the pillar of cloud by day.
God cleans us with his water
because of his unending love
and grace, and he gives us
the new spirit so that we can be
saved and live by his grace.
It is the promise of God for us.
You must know being born
again is what God does.
With his water, and the Spirit,
we have new spirit in us.
That creates new man and
new heart.
Secondly, we must know about
being born again is this.
It is done by the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 6, “Flesh gives
birth to flesh, but the Spirit
gives birth to spirit.” It tells us
that spirit can be born
by the Holy Spirit. Also, verse 8,
“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."
Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit.
“Look at the wind. You can’t see it
but you can feel it. Like you don’t
know where it comes from and
where it goes to, so does
God’s spirit. You cannot control it.
There’s nothing you can do.
The Holy Spirit is God and he has
the authority, character, and
personhood as God himself.
He comes to us and does what
he has to do with his authority.
It doesn’t matter what kind of
plans we have. He does what
he wants to do. The Holy Spirit
comes to us like the wind and
because of this breath of life,
we can have new life and
we can be born again.”
That’s what Jesus says to us.
This is important. Being born again
is only possible by God’s grace and
this tremendous work of being born
again is like creating something
from nothing. We didn’t have
spirit before but we have new spirit
in us because of the work of
the breath and the power of
the Holy Spirit. It is only done by
God’s grace and the power of
the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit
works so powerfully, it is beyond
our logics, thoughts, and minds.
Last Wednesday, we had pastor
Bang Jee-il as our guest speaker.
He was attending Phyong-yang
Theological Seminary,
the first seminary in Korea.
He learned Greek and Hebrew
from professor Angel there.
He was talking about him and
interestingly, our elder pastor
Kim knows him also.
He told me how he could know
him and I was touched by his words.
Pastor Angel was the one who
led pastor Kim’s grandfather to
Jesus Christ long time ago.
There was a huge tree in
his grandfather’s village and
you know our ancestors usually
worshiped those trees.
So, all people bowed down
before the tree but one day,
pastor Angel was passing by
the village and saw the people
bowing down before the tree,
then he asked pastor Kim’s
grandfather, “Why do you bow down
before the tree? You must bow down
before God who created the tree.”
Because of this one sentence,
he saw the new world spiritually.
He was caught up by the superstition
succeeded from his ancestors and
only knew he had to worship
the tree and bow down before it.
That was his life before but now,
he realized something different.
He thought, “He’s right. Why am
I bowing down before this tree?
I must bow down before God
who created the tree.”
Then he began to believe in God.
Just imagine, one person passed
by and said, “Don’t believe in the
tree but believe in God who made
the tree instead.”
Have you ever seen someone
believe in God because of
these kind of simple words?
This can’t be done by any
human knowledge or anything.
No matter how wonderful
your voice is like mine,
it does not work.
It is absolutely possible.
The wind of the Holy Spirit is
truly essential here and he can
powerfully change human words
into the breath of life and when
it goes into our hearts, it becomes
the new life in us.
Now, pastor Kim’s grandfather
decided to believe in God and
brought a saw out to cut the tree.
He told the people in the village
to remove the tree and they were
surprised. They disagreed with him.
But he realized the truth powerfully
and cut the tree by himself.
From that day, he believed in God
and all his nine children, his wife,
and even his housemaids went to
the church, wearing white clothes.
They had to walk across the field
and all other people in the village
saw them passing by and wearing
white clothes on Sundays.
It is an amazing story and
it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
He comes to us like the wind and
applies God’s Word into our hearts
with the power of life.
Not long ago, we read Ezekiel 36,
but you turn to chapter 37,
you will find he had a vision.
He saw dry bones in the valley.
The dry bones represented
the people who were spiritually
dead because of their sins.
There was no hope in them.
They had no hope but God told
Ezekiel, “Speak to the bones.”
Thus, he spoke what God asked
him to speak to the dry bones.
The bones began to connect
with each other and form.
Then God said, “Breathe on them.”
It was the breath of God,
the Holy Spirit. When the wind
of the Spirit was put into them,
those dry bones became
the living army of God.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
With God’s Word, as the Spirit
puts his breath into us like the wind,
the Word becomes alive and
gives new spirit and new soul to
us whose hearts were dry and
dead spiritually in the past.
This is what the Holy Spirit does.
I want to ask all of you. How could
you become Christians?
It was because the Holy Spirit
came to you with God’s Word
and it became the living word of
God in your heart, and it was
the power for you to believe in
God and become his people,
and also born again in Christ.
There is one more important
thing to know.
Being born again is only possible
by faith. It is our faith.
If you read today’s text, Jesus told
Nicodemus several times.
“Don’t you still understand it?”
asked Jesus.
He said, “You are supposed to
understand it but still don’t get it.”
You can feel how Jesus had
pity on him in today’s text.
Verse 11 says, “I tell you the truth,
we speak of what we know, and
we testify to what we have seen,
but still you people do not accept
our testimony.” If you see verse 13,
Jesus said he is the only one who
knows about the heaven exactly
because he was from heaven.
But Nicodemus tried to understand it
with man’s paradigm and knowledge.
So, Jesus had pity on him and
emphasized faith in verses 14 and 15.
Why don’t you think like this?
Suppose we have the frame of
triangle as humans. But God has
the frame of square and tells us.
Including Nicodemus, we all
belong to the world.
Our thoughts and paradigms
all belong to the world.
Not only those, but we have
our corrupted knowledge
because of our sins and we see
everything in the frame of triangle.
But what if God tells us the truth
through the frame of square?
We cannot understand the frame
of square with our frame of triangle.
We cannot see anything at all.
To understand the meaning that
God gives through the frame of
square, we have to jump in
our faith.
We have to jump from the frame
of triangle to the frame of square.
When we jump into the frame of
God and receive God’s Word
with faith, we can finally realize
what it means.
Our spiritual eyes can be open
and can see God’s plans.
We can see God’s perfect
works and designs in our lives.
That is the faith. We don’t
believe because we know it.
Rather, we believe because
we want to know it.
We believe not because we know
everything. We believe because
we can know everything with faith.
Nicodemus didn’t have faith.
He couldn’t understand though
Jesus explained to him much.
It is only possible by faith.
The concept is totally different.
If you can’t break what you have,
you can’t accept another concept.
It is not possible.
That’s why God tells us that
we must believe.
When we believe, our stereotype
or human concept can disappear
and we can see things with
God’s concept and understand
his word and truth. Go to verse 14
in today’s text.
It says, “Just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the desert,
so the Son of Man must be
lifted up” What it means is that
the people of Israel traveled
in the desert in Numbers 21.
They were bitten by snakes
and dying. They cried out for help.
Moses asked God to save them
desperately and God gave them
a way to be healed. They had to
make a bronze snake and put it
on a stick and lift it up. God said,
“whoever sees the snake will live.”
Does it make sense to you?
They were dying because of
snakes and now another snake
had to be lifted up.
They could have many questions
but God didn’t explain why.
God simply said, “Just do what
I said to you. Then you will survive.”
What God asked them was
their faith.
God would save them if they
showed their faith in him.
They had to do whatever
God said to them although
they couldn’t understand it.
When they believe it with
their faith, they could survive.
Verse 15 says, “that everyone
who believes in him.”
Jesus was about to hung
on the tree and he said,
“that everyone who believes in
him may have eternal life.”
If you believe that Jesus died
on the cross for your sins,
not based on your concept,
but based on God’s concept
with your faith, God will see
your faith and save you as
you are born again.
Your faith is the key.
Being born again is like this.
It is God’s gracious work and
it can be done only by
the Holy Spirit,
and it is only possible by
our faith.
That is being born again.
So, don’t think that being born
again is difficult thing just like
you solve a riddle. Because it is
what God does, we just need to
believe in it with our faith and
accept the Lord confidently.
Then God will do the rest.
Alright? Live by faith.
No matter how hard the world
is shaking, if we have faith,
we all know we will be righteous.
Whatever shakes us, whatever
heresies and things shake our faith,
if we steadfastly keep our faith
and only trust in Jesus Christ,
God will save us no matter what.
Jesus Christ is not the object of
our investigation.
He is the object of our faith.
If God is truly God, we must not
investigate him. He is the one
we must believe.
God’s Word shouldn’t be what
we examine and investigate
with our human knowledge
and concepts.
The Word of God is what
we have to believe.
When we have faith,
we can be born again,
When we live by faith, only
trusting in God’s promises,
we will overcome the world
no matter how it shakes us.
Dr. Sang Bok David Kim
Hallelujah Community Church
김상복 목사
Beloved members, have you been
experienced the presence of God?