What Do You Mean? (2)

Scripture: John 3:9-17 (Click link for scripture in Bible Gateway)

9 “What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked. 10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:9–17 NLT)

Jesus said, “Nick, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God. Nick said, “What do you mean?” Jesus said, “The wind blows and you hear it and feel it, but you can’t see it. Same with the Spirit. You hear, feel, believe, but don’t understand it and you can’t explain it!” Nick said, “What do you mean?” When God is preparing to take you somewhere you’ve never been yet, do you ever feel like Nick did that night? “What do you mean!?”

Nicodemus believed in the Kingdom of God, but he didn’t expect he’d have to be “born again” to get in. Nicodemus believed in the Kingdom of God but he thought it was only for Jews. He didn’t understand that it was personal (not private) and that people of all nations and races and ages of history would be part of it. So when Jesus said, “this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him”, he did another hard reset. Did you get that? “loved the world”; “everyone who believes”; “into the world”; “not to judge the world”; “to save the world”!

In God’s Kingdom, everyone gets in the same way, by a spiritual rebirth. And we’re going to be rubbing shoulders with a lot of people who don’t look like us, who don’t talk like us, who don’t have the same customs, habits, and practices. And who don’t have the same politics, either! Can you be OK with that?

Prayer:

Father, May your Kingdom come and your will be done in earth as in heaven. Amen!