Jesus says You must be Born Again

A symbol of born again

“After dark one evening, [Nicodemus] came to speak with Jesus. ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.’ Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.’ ‘What do you mean?’ exclaimed Nicodemus. ‘How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?’ Jesus replied, ‘I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.’” (John 3:2-8, NLT)

This is one of the hard saying of Jesus. Nicodemus spoke as “we” and “us,” but Jesus looked him in the eyes and said, “Unless you’re born again.” Caught off guard, Nicodemus could only imagine one kind of birth – natural physical birth – the ludicrous picture of an adult receiving a second birth from his mother prompted Nicodemus’s question. Jesus replied was quite puzzling at first. He clarified by rephrasing and expanding his first statement. “Born again” was a new way to describe spiritual regeneration and conversion. “Born again” becomes “born of water and the Spirit.” Many see here a reference to baptism (in water) and baptism by the Spirit. But the immediate context supports the interpretation of physical birth and spiritual birth. The “again birth” follows the first birth that humans can produce. The change is so radical that it is equal in importance to our original birth. So, Jesus said, we shouldn’t be surprised by the standard: “You must be born again.”

Jesus equated “born again” with “born of the Spirit.” He was no longer speaking of the ultimate results of spiritual rebirth (citizenship in the Kingdom of God), but about how the Spirit works in someone’s life. The effects of God’s transforming power are like the evidence for the wind: You can hear it and see its effects, but you can’t see the wind itself. Now, we often explain our own conversion experience by focusing on what we did – prayed the prayer, raised the hand, knelt at the altar, wept in repentance – but those actions were a response to what God is doing.

Think about this: If you have experienced being born again, you have a story to tell. Whether that experience produced a radical shift in your life (like physical birth) or reflected more subtle and quiet changes (like the wind), life became different. This is what (real) conversion does – converts you to God’s way of thinking and living. Nicodemus had to question long held beliefs and re-examine his priorities. What has the Spirit been saying to you? How has the Holy Spirit produced spiritual life in you?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus, the Man whom Nicodemus was willing to Risk his Reputation

“After dark one evening, [Nicodemus] came to speak with Jesus, ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you’”

(John 3:2, NLT).

[CLICK HERE to read the context of this verse] Instead of asking a question, Nicodemus offered a compliment to Jesus. We don’t know if he wanted to make a good impression or whether he simply wanted to get to the heart of the matter. But as we see, Jesus responded with an answer to the question that Nicodemus was really asking but hadn’t put into words (John 3:3).

The Scripture mentions that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. The setting tells us Nicodemus wasn’t eager to be seen. He didn’t approach Jesus at high noon because he was a man trying to make up his mind about Jesus. He knew what many of his fellow Pharisees were saying about Jesus, but he wasn’t sure who Jesus was. (The “we all know” hints that he was not the only Pharisee who felt this way.) Nicodemus was close to the Kingdom, but he hadn’t stepped over the border yet.

Nicodemus used two phrases to describe how he understood Jesus: “God has sent you” and “God is with you.” This was about as far as an Old Testament Jew could allow himself to go in acknowledging divine approval over someone’s life and work. For devout Jews the question was, “If I believe in you, Jesus, how does that change my view of God?” Nicodemus was willing to recognize that Jesus’ words and works originated with God, but he wasn’t sure what to do with Jesus himself. Jesus responded to Nicodemus’s compliment by giving him an unexpected message from God (read John 3:1-21).

Think about this: Contrary to most of us, Nicodemus, the Pharisee, was risking his reputation and perhaps his life by being with Jesus, the Controversial Preacher. Our standards of privacy protect our freedom to believe, but they also make it very easy to hold beliefs that fail to change us or to change our lifestyles. Nicodemus knew that what he did about would change everything else. He just didn’t know how – yet.

But two things are sure of Nicodemus the Pharisee;

He wanted to know the truth about Jesus,

and he was willing to risk his reputation – his life to see Jesus in person.

Are you willing to be like Nicodemus?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus, Enti Nuan Deka

“Lebuh Jesus nurun ari bukit nya, mayuh amat orang nitihka Iya. Siku lelaki ke sakit lan datai ngagai Iya, besugang di mua Iya, lalu bejaku, ‘Tuhan, enti Nuan deka, Nuan ulih ngasuh aku tuchi.’ Jesus ngunjurka jari, negu orang nya, lalu bejaku, ‘Aku deka. Tuchi meh nuan.’ Orang nya lalu gerai tekala nya. Lalu ku Jesus bejaku ngagai iya, ‘Anang madahka tu ngagai orang, tang mansang nuan ngagai imam, minta iya meresa nuan, lalu beri piring ti diasuh Moses, kena mandangka ngagai orang mayuh, nuan udah gerai.’” 

(Matthew 8:1-4, Bup Kudus Baru)

Orang lelaki ke sakit lan tu meh tik amat sinu: nadai orang peduli ka iya, idup sunyi ngau nadai pangan bukai. Tang nadai orang tik amat sinu ngau amat tusah tik ulih ngaga kitai jauh ari Tuhan. Ngau Tuhan Jesus, kitai bisi pengarap. Lelaki ke sakit lan tu datai, bersugang lalu bejaku – “enti Nuan deka” – disaut Jesus enggau jaku tik lantang ngau ati ti deka nyelamat ka ia: “Aku deka.”

Besampi kitai: Aku deka dituchi Nuan, Tuhan Jesus, sama sebaka lelaki ke sakit lan nya. Tapi nitih ka cara Nuan, ka peneka Nuan. Aku deka pengidup aku diubah Nuan ukai nitihka peneka aku empu tang nitihka pengasih ngau pengerindu Nuan. Amen.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Yesus, Tuhan yang Berbelas Kasihan

Gambar hiasan saja oh... 

“Aku tidak datang untuk memanggil orang yang menganggap diri mereka baik,

tetapi untuk orang yang dihina masyarakat” (Markus 2:17, BM).

“Aku datang bukan untuk memanggil orang yang benar, tetapi orang berdosa”

(Markus 2:17, KSZI).

Apa yang berada dalam fikiran Tuhan Yesus apabila dia berfirman sebegini? Apakah rancangan atau rencana-Nya? Kita tidak mungkin dapat mengetahui sepenuhnya fikiran Tuhan. Cuba kamu bayangkan perbuatan ‘aneh’ Tuhan yang suci dan benar ini apabila dia tidak melayani mereka yang cuba untuk menyucikan diri sendiri atau “menganggap diri mereka baik” tetapi datang dan menunjukkan kasih karunia kepada mereka “yang dihina masyarakat” dan “berdosa.” Cuba kamu bayangkan misteri Tuhan yang mencipta kita umat manusia (walaupun dia tahu yang kita akan berbuat dosa terhadap-Nya) semata-mata untuk menebus kita semula. Cuba kamu bayangkan kebijaksanaan-Nya apabila dia berkata bahawa orang yang berdosa dan dihina masyarakat apabila mereka sedar akan kesalahan dan mengakui dosa mereka, mereka akan diampuni. Siapa yang tahu fikiran Tuhan?

Kita tidak boleh memahami sepenuhnya sebab-sebab kenapa Tuhan berbuat begitu. Selama berabad-abad, ahli-ahli falsafah dan para cendikiawan (malah guru-guru agama) tidak dapat memikirkan kenapa Tuhan membenarkan kejahatan berlaku dan membiarkan kita dosa. Ada yang cuba untuk menjawab, namun, tidak ada yang betul-betul meyakinkan dan pasti. Apa yang pasti ialah sebelum dunia diciptakan, Allah Bapa, Allah Anak dan Roh Kudus sudah menentukan rencana-Nya. Kita tahu (saya tahu) melalui pembacaan Alkitab bahawa Tuhan mencipta kita supaya Dia dikenali dan disembah oleh kita. Tetapi, bagaimana Dia ingin kenali? Jika semuanya sempurna, dunia yang sempurna, dia boleh menunjukkan kekuasaan-Nya, kesucian-Nya, kebijaksanaan-Nya, dan kreativiti-Nya, semua ciri-ciri ketuhanan-Nya, kecuali satu, iaitu – belas kasihan-Nya. Bagaimana kita boleh mengenali Tuhan yang penuh dengan belas kasihan jika dunia sempurna? Tidak boleh. Dunia yang tidak sempurna harus ada supaya kita mengenal dia sebagai Tuhan yang penuh dengan belas kasihan.

Fikirkan: Tuhan ingin kita mengenali dia (juga) sebagai Tuhan yang berbelas kasihan. Bukan hanya berbelas kasihan, tatapi penuh dengan belas kasihan.  Belas kasihan yang tidak boleh dibandingkan. Belas kasihan yang di luar pemikiran kita. Belas kasihan yang sangat besar sehinggakan mereka yang melihat atau merasai atau mengalaminya akan sentiasa bersyukur dan tidak berhenti-henti menyembah-Nya. Adakah kamu mengenali Tuhan seperti ini? Jadi… Mari kita duduk bersama-sama dengan “pemungut cukai dan orang yang dihina masyarakat” (Markus 2:16) di meja dan makan bersama Yesus. Biar “orang Fasiri” terus merungut, memerhati dan tertanya-tanya. Kita fokus kepada Yesus, Tuhan yang datang sebagai manusia untuk menunjukkan kita belas kasihan-Nya yang nyata. Melalui Yesus kita boleh memahami fikiran Tuhan.

“Aku tidak datang untuk memanggil orang yang menganggap diri mereka baik,

tetapi untuk orang yang dihina masyarakat”

THINK BIG. START SMALL .GO DEEP.

The Jesus Who Always Transcended Our Expectations

“There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee”

(John 3:1, NLT).

The Pharisees were the cultural and religious traditionalists of Jesus’ day. Like Jesus, they took God’s Word seriously. In their zealous efforts to live by God’s Word, they had identified so many minute standards of obedience that they obliterated the spirit of God’s instructions. Joyful obedience was replaced by legalistic and crushing rule-keeping. The Pharisees were control-driven people. They defined their relationship with God (if any) to the smallest detail, and they imposed their standards on others (Malaysians, sound familiar?). In fact, one of the charges Jesus levelled against the Pharisee as a group was, “You are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things” (Luke 11:42). Jesus confronted their focus on minutiae while ignoring major points of obedience to God. Jesus’ point wasn’t to ignore the disciple of tithing but to show the Pharisees that God was more concerned for justice and love.

In Jesus’ day, the line between religious and political authority was certainly blurred. Frustrated by the rule of the Roman Empire, leaders among the Jewish people tended to come from religious groups. Alongside the Pharisees were the Sadducees, people who treated the Law of Moses primarily as a governmental document rather than a spiritual one. They operated within a civil form of religious in which God was little more than a figurehead (Malaysians, sound familiar?). The Pharisees and Sadducees competed for power in the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish governmental body under Roman control. Nicodemus was a member of that body.

The Pharisees could also be described as the group most officially in favour of the coming Messiah. The fulfilment of this promise would not only expel the Romans from the Promised Land, but it would also place the Pharisees firmly in power as the religious leaders of God’s people. Publicly, the Pharisees could not accept Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah. Not only did Jesus fail to fit their notions of who and what the Saviour would be, he also offended them by treating lightly the very traditions they felt made them unique – primary their highly ritualized observance of the Sabbath. Privately, individual Pharisees demonstrated a hunger for righteousness that drew them to Jesus. Some sensed hypocrisy in themselves that Jesus confronted. And so the Pharisee named Nicodemus arranged to meet Jesus one evening.

Jesus unsettles people. If you read the whole encounter of Nicodemus with Jesus in John 3:1-21, you’ll find that Jesus unsettled Nicodemus – and he continues to unsettle us. Just when we think we have Jesus figured out, he surprises us. Jesus tells us the things we need to hear, even when we don’t want to hear from them. Nicodemus didn’t know what to expect when he approached Jesus that night. Think about this: The Living Lord Jesus smashes stereotypes and glib descriptions. Jesus comes personally and speaks personally – right to your needs, your hang-ups, your heart. Ask yourself these questions: When has defending a tradition kept you from seeing the real Jesus? How has Jesus overcome stereotypes you’ve had of him? How has Jesus transcended your expectations of him?

Come, express your willingness to be surprised by Jesus – to be unsettled and changed by him.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

                                                                                                                                  Reference: Life Application Study Bible Devotional: Daily Wisdom from the Life of Jesus (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2011)

Yesus mendakwa Diri sebagai TUHAN

Yesus mengampuni seorang perempuan pendosa. Gambar hiasan saja ba.

“Bapa dan Aku satu” (Yohanes 10:30, BM).

[Baca Yohanes 10:22-33 sebagai konteks ayat]. “Yesus tidak pernah mendakwa dirinya TUHAN.” Itulah ayat yang selalu digunakan oleh orang yang tidak percaya dengan kepercayaan orang Kristian tentang keilahian Yesus. Tetapi kenyataan ini merupakan kenyataan yang mudah disangkal kerana melalui pengajian Alkitab, terutama sekali melalui Kitab-Kitab Injil, Yesus memang mengakui bahawa dia Tuhan. Benar, dia tidak pernah berkata, “Saya Tuhan,” tetapi dia memang sangat jelas mendakwa diri-Nya Tuhan. Ayat diatas, “Bapa dan Aku satu”, contohnya, merupakan kenyataan yang jelas walaupun ada yang memutar-belitkan kenyataan ini. “Dia hanya menganggap dirinya mempunyai hubungan dengan Bapa, bukan sama seperti Bapa,” kata mereka. Tetapi (konteks ayat) orang Yahudi yang mendengar Yesus berkata begitu beranggapan sebaliknya. Mereka dengan jelas faham bahawa Yesus sedang menyamakan dirinya dengan Allah Bapa. Oleh itu mereka ingin merejam Yesus dengan batu dan berkata, “Kamu hanya manusia, tetapi kamu mahu menjadikan dirimu Allah!” (Yohanes 10:33). Jadi, Yesus memang mendakwa dirinya Tuhan.

Setiap kali Yesus mengampuni dosa, setiap kali orang menyembah dia tanpa halangan, setiap kali dia berkata, “Akulah…”, dia mendakwa dirinya Tuhan. Tidak mungkin ada orang yang keliru sekiranya mereka memahami konteks ayat apabila mereka membaca Kitab Injil tentang Yesus. Tidak ada orang semasa zaman Yesus yang memahami Alkitab orang Yahudi berani mendakwa dirinya boleh mengampuni dosa orang terhadap TUHAN. Tetapi Yesus berani. “Dosamu sudah diampunkan” (Matius 9:2-3; Markus 2:7; Lukas 5:21). Tidak ada orang yang beriman membenarkan orang berlutut dan menyembahnya atau menbiarkan orang berkata kepadanya, “Ya Tuhanku! Ya Allahku!” (Yohanes 20:28). Tetapi Yesus kerap kali berbuat begitu (Matius 14:33; 28:9, 17; Lukas 24:52; Yohanes 9:38). Tidak ada orang yang berani menggunakan nama TUHAN yang suci untuk dirinya sendiri [Allah berfirman kepada Musa, “Aku adalah AKU!” (Keluaran 3:14), Yahweh]. Tetapi Yesus selalu berkata begitu, contohnya, “Apa yang Aku katakan ini benar: Sebelum Abraham dilahirkan, AKU sudah ada” (Yohanes 8:58). Cubaan untuk merejam Yesus kerana mengufuri Allah seringkali berlaku juga. Orang Yahudi dan musuh-musuhnya faham benar tentang setiap kenyataan Yesus tentang dirinya.

Fikirkan: Lain kali apabila ada orang yang mengatakan kepada kamu bahawa “Yesus tidak pernah mendakwa dirinya TUHAN” – jangan layan mereka. Atau jika kamu yakin, ajar mereka. Dan apabila kamu membaca Alkitab, jangan baca sambil lewa. Ingatkan diri kamu bahawa Yesus bukan hanya memberi nasihat yang baik atau menganggap bahawa dia hanya seorang guru rohani yang hebat, Dia ialah Anak Allah yang setara dengan TUHAN. Firman-Nya ialah Firman Allah. Yesus ialah TUHAN yang menjelma sebagai manusia. “[Yesus] datang sebagai manusia, dan hidup sebagai manusia” (Filipi 2:7). Yesus datang untuk kamu dan saya. Inilah TUHAN kita!

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Is Singing All that There is to Worship?

Not at all. Joining with God’s people to proclaim the wonder of Jesus is important. But probably the most sincere worship is how we live our life after we disperse from the church building.  Romans 12:1 makes this point: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Apostle Paul tells us to use our bodies to do latreia, worship or service. The word can mean doing religious rituals, but it is also doing acts in the world that make God’s character concretely visible. The word is used to refer to a monetary gift that was collected for the Jerusalem Christians when famine hit, and also for Epaphroditus’s delivery of the gift for Paul from the Philippians. So when you serve people out of compassion or grace or love or kindness or justice, you are doing worship. You are glorifying God, making God’s glory, his character, visible.

In the Book of Isaiah chapter one, the Lord got angry with Judah. They were going to church, singing songs, spreading their hands in prayer, even giving tithes. But the Lord wouldn’t receive their adoration. The rest of their life wasn’t glorifying to him. They needed to do whole life worship and not just a few hours one day a week. So God commanded them to remove the evil of their deeds from before his eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’s cause as acts of true worship. God is right – serving people in the name of Jesus and in the character of Jesus is the most satisfying form of worship ever.

From Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions

By Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

(Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois), 2007. Page 178

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.