Speaker: Cass Kwakye, Plunge Coach
Scripture: John 3
Whenever you become pregnant, a lot of
anticipation comes about what your baby will be like. Human kind had been
created in the image of their parents. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit
gives birth to Spirit. If that is correct, what does your offspring look like?
If God was to remove His Holy Spirit from you today, what would remain unchanged,
and what would be dramatically changed? What will you no longer say no to? What
ministry would cease to exist?
The greatest danger to the church today is
not ISIS, Trump, etc. The greatest danger is Christians, trying to accomplish
for themselves things that could only be achieved through the Holy Spirit.
Passover John 2:23
Jesus was about to go to Samaria to the
woman at the well. Jesus was actually setting up for us a new way of knowing
God such that we have never experienced in our life time before. To the
religious institution, there is a bucket and there is a well, to drink and be
filled, Jesus put inside every believer a new stream of water that never dries. Jesus “did
not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”
John 3:1 A Pharisee named Nicodemus, a
teacher of the law, probably the one who shapes the theology of Israel, came to
Jesus at night. He is a member of the Sanhedrin, so he has political and
judicial influence too. He is a representation of the religious institution
itself. His name means “the victory of the people”.
3:2 He came to make a statement: coming
with his credential and own appraisal of Jesus’ ministry.
3:3, 5-6 Jesus’ counter statement: “very
truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again…
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Human effort:
utterly void when entering the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is one of the blind,
amongst the many blind. No human effort can give us access to the kingdom of
God.
Morling College consists of men and women
of different backgrounds that are religious professionals, spending all their
lives spreading the gospel. Nothing compares to having God in our lives doing
it with us. It’s nothing if it’s not done with Him. Everyone here had a point
in life when we were in the darkness, we were blind, did not know Jesus, and
lived life without Him, with a craving for something new.
Jesus likens God to a woman in labour. It
is not a glorious image of a queen, but an unsanitised image of a pregnant
woman about to give birth. This is the only image that will convey the reality of
how a human being cannot do what God can do: A new birth.
John 1:12 Children of God: “not born of
natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
Nicodemus should know what a new birth is
about because he’s read Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 36: This tells us what a new birth
is about. “For I will take you out of the nations… I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit in you… I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Wow, I was just translating these verses from Hebrew right before going to
chapel… so this feels pretty profound!) The first birth is done by a
physical labour, the second by a spiritual labour. The baby has done nothing to
exist: this life inside a pregnant woman is completely passive in the process.
Life was chosen for him, he didn’t choose life. The new life I bring through
the Holy Spirit, you do nothing to get it. This new era is an era where the
Spirit of God moves amongst humanity in an unprecedented way. A new Spirit
created in God’s image. It can say no to sin, and death cannot crush. This
image of being born again is not a one-time occurrence, it is throughout our
whole life and ministry. Spirit gives birth to Spirit is the foundation of our
ministry.
John 3:7-8 “The wind blows wherever it
pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes or where it is
going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit wants to
give birth through us. As Christians, every one of us has the Holy Spirit in us, anticipating
new creation. How do we know how the Spirit wants to give birth through our
life? Through listening for the labour pains: the groan. There are 3 groans in Romans
8: The groan of creation, to be loosened from the bondage of decay. The groans
of the children of God, as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the
redemption of our bodies. The groan of the Holy Spirit, interceding for God’s
people in accordance with the will of the Father. You will find the birthing of the Spirit in
the place where these three groans meet. Cries of creation that wants to be
reborn.
Augustine, one of the Early Church Fathers, was a rascal as a young man who stole pears from his neighbours and had promiscuous relationships with women. After his conversion, he was so radically
changed that one day he was travelling and one of his former girlfriends came
to him, calling out “Augustine, it is I.” To which he replied, “Yes, but it is
not I”. The change in his attitude towards life and self was so profound that he
has changed to another person.
Our call is to continue to partner with
God, and say Spirit gives birth to Spirit.
Speaking of which, there is a new book by Michael Frost and Christiana Rice that seems very relevant:
No comments:
Post a Comment