YOU CANNOT SEE UNLESS

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Main Point: From new life comes new perspective

Have you ever been to a 3D movie experience? Well, in order to enjoy the movie or truly share in the movie experience, you need to be wearing 3D glasses. There is a portion in John chapter 3 where Jesus has a conversation with a pharisee who is struggling with believing that Jesus really could be the Messiah, The Savior of the world. The pharisee’s name is Nicodemous and comes to Jesus at night so no one would know. In the midst of this conversation Jesus says to Nicodemous “unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” What Jesus is saying is that to share in what He’s doing you need to be spiritually born from Him. Jesus gives you a new spirit and a new way of interacting with God and the world around you. Like the 3D glasses, this new spiritual life allows you to see and participate in what Jesus is doing in the earth.

There is a part of us all that we were born with that ruins the experience that Jesus desires for us to have. Our perspective on life apart from Jesus is sinful and self serving. Jesus has made a way to fix this through His perfect work at the cross. At the cross Jesus becomes us, the nasty and sinful us. There He died for us in our place. God’s judgment is satisfied and then Jesus is raised to NEW life. He gives us this new life freely as we trust in Him. This new life enables us to see God in a new way, to see ourselves in a new way and see others in a new way. We need this life. In fact in order to live the life God intends for you, you have to have this life or in other words be born again. It’s from this new life that God intends for us to truly see Him, ourselves and the world as He sees it.

Deeper Focus:

What does being “born again” mean to you?

What’s something new Jesus has already caused you to see or you’d like for Him help you see?

There’s an ongoing struggle between being connected to the new life Jesus has given or being connected with all the concerns of our earthly life. What areas of your earthly life pull you further from Christ? Pray about these things and ask God for help with embracing new life in Him.