Do You Still Want To Hear God’s Voice?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
Are you sure you want to hear the voice of God? How many have ever said; ”God talk to me, I want to hear your voice!” How many of us have cried out to God with those very words in a time of pain or anguish, in a time of doubt or question. How many of us have cried this out when we were sure God was calling us to a ministry opportunity but we weren’t really sure if we had heard His voice or if it was simply “we” listening to ourselves and hoping it was from God. How many have said those very words when we were at a crossroads in life, maybe contemplating if we should make a purchase, unsure about the selection of a spouse, or seeking a new job. How many have spoken or thought those words when we were faced with a turning point in our life, one of those things that we were sure would alter the direction of our life from that point on. When we were faced with something that could change the course of our personal history, we were just sure it was a call from God but we just wanted a little further conformation before stepping out in faith.
“Lord I’d like to hear an audible voice, that would be nice. An e-mail or letter signed “GOD”. That would do it. A phone call on a phone that’s not plugged in or a lighting bolt on a cloudless day that hits close… but not to close, just close enough to cook the hot dog in my hand but not touch me. .” “Let me go to bed with a head full of questions and wake in the morning with the answers scrolled across the ceiling, in gold, in big bold letters, in the vernacular of the King James Bible, then without question I’d know it was from you.” “Lord I want to hear your voice. Talk to me.”
If you’re one of the people who have asked this question you can rest assured that you’re not alone. Countless others before you, millions and millions have asked the same thing. They asked this question long before you ever had the thought, while you were having the thought and long after the thought has left you. God has heard this question rise up from this little place we call home countless times. This little point in the vast heavens has been the launching point for that very same question and even as I write this or you are reading it someone is asking God the same thing at this very instant. I have no doubt that it’s a question going heaven bound right now, maybe even from someone seeing this right now.
But now I have to ask you. Are you sure you want to hear the voice of God? The voice of the All Mighty, All Powerful, All Knowing God of all Creation? Are you sure you really want him to talk to you?
Before you answer my question lets talk about a few of those who did hear God’s voice and how it impacted their lives. Hosea is a good person to start with. He called out to God, he cried out to his Lord and said Lord use me; I want to hear your voice. And God answered him. He didn’t just answer, he made Hosea a prophet, and he put him in ministry. One of the greatest callings you can have, to be called to be a servant of the Living Lord. And what did God say to this servant? “Bless you my son, go now and have a perfect life, go and have all your dreams fulfilled beyond your wildest imagination. Go and have no more trouble for all your life”. I don’t think so! But what God did say was “go out and marry a prostitute!” “Surly no Lord, not I, you’re only joking right? This is just a test right Lord? I’m a prophet, I’m a preacher, you remember me, I’m the man of God, I’m the one who is following you and doing your bidding. You are kidding aren’t you Lord?” But God wasn’t kidding and he did want Hosea to marry a prostitute and even though it went against all that Hoses believed in and his faith but that’s exactly what Hosea did. Hosea married a woman that was just the opposite of what Hosea had dreamed of. The King James translation says that she was a wife of whoredoms. (Hosea 1:2) “The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.” The NIV translation says she was an adulterous wife; “ When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD." Whether we use the term prostitute, whoredom or adulterous wife, she was a woman of questionable character.
Hosea went out and married Gomer, by today’s standards just the name should make you wonder about her, I don’t think I’ve ever met a lady named Gomer, but what’s in a name? Actually when it comes to names and the Bible, names are very important, which we shall see. On with the saga of Hosea and Gomer! Then they had a son and God said name him “Jezreel because I’m going to punish the house of Jehu.” Jezreel, A nice charming name for your first born child, it just makes one feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Jezreel means, “Whom God soweth” in this instance God is going to sow punishment upon the house of Jehu.
Then they had a daughter and God said, “name her Lo-Ruhamah” which means, “Not loved”. Just what your daughter would want to be known as for her entire life. Not exactly what we would call a sweet term of endearment is it? According to the Bible, after Lo-Ruhamah was old enough to be on solid food a third child was born and this one God said to name Lo-Ammi, which means “Not my people”
Talk about your dysfunctional family. This group puts most families I’ve heard of to shame. This man of God, this prophet of God has a wife named Gomer, the prostitute, a son who’s name means someone is going to be punished by God, a daughter who’s name means she’s not loved. And another son who’s name means you are not my people. How would you like to invite this group to your next picnic? You want someone who knows how to get a good conversation going at the Christmas party? Hosea and his little group are just the ones you’d want to have around you. “My name is Hosea, this is my wife and children, they have some interesting names, let me tell you about them.” An interesting man and an interesting family, yes, but Hosea did what God told him to do even though it broke his heart. He heard God’s voice, followed God’s command, but it cost him … there was a price to be paid.
Jeremiah is another classic example of someone that heard God’s voice. Jeremiah also wanted to hear God’s voice and God did indeed speak to him. As a matter of fact God spoke to Jeremiah on a regular basis. God spoke to Jeremiah often giving him messages to deliver directly from God to the people of Israel. Is this what you’d like? Do you want to be God’s middleman and stand in the gap between God and the people? That’s what Jeremiah did and how did it go for him?
Jeremiah being the good prophet he was did exactly what God told to do and said exactly what God wanted him to say and of course the people loved him for his honesty and put him up in a palace where he had servants and a personal camel driver and hot and cold running water to his baptismal. The people said since you’re a servant of God we’ll take care of you for the rest of your life and you’ll never want for anything. That is what happened to Jeremiah isn’t it? I don’t think so!
What really happened was that the people hated him, they cursed him, they tossed him in jail for a while. Put him in chains for a while, tossed him down a few cisterns, allowed him to sit there in the darkness and the wetness. He was humiliated in public, placed in stocks in the marketplace, the Super Mall of the day. He was beaten senseless a few times and the people never did believe what he said or that it was from God to begin with. If you’ve never read the account of Jeremiah you owe it to yourself to do so, it’s a fascinating story filled with drama. Jeremiah heard God’s voice, he answered the call on his life and he did so at a cost. There was a price to be paid.
So maybe now you’re starting to wonder, do I really want to hear God’s voice? Lets press on a little further before you make a decision.
Isaiah was another that wanted to hear God’s voice. Isaiah was a prophet and a preacher. Isaiah had a vision; his lips were touched by a burning hot coal and when the Lord asked who would go and carry God’s message to the people Isaiah cried out that he was the one to go. “Send Me!” Reading from (Isaiah 6:5-8.) "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Once Isaiah heard that call, once he told God to send him what did God say to him? “Well done my good and faithful servant, go and live in peace, Coke and pizza from now on with no dirty dishes ever. A different camel to drive every day of your life and you’ll never have a camel payment or any late charges.” I don’t think so!
What God did say was; ”Okay servant, take your clothes off and walk around the city naked as a jay-bird for a while, at least until I tell you to get dressed.” And what do you think Isaiah said in response to this strange command? “ But God it’s cold, have you checked the acue-weather report lately? Everyone is going to laugh at me, or worse yet they may stone me.” And can you imagine what the neighbors said when they asked our friend why he was walking around in his birthday suit and nothing else. When asked he answers them with “Oh a little voice told me to do it!” Or “I’ve heard the voice of God and he told me to do it.” So Isaiah, the original streakier, walked around the streets of Jerusalem naked as commanded, and do you know how long God allowed this? Three years! Never saw this in the Bible, look at the wording of (Isaiah 20:1-4.) “ In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it- at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, "Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet." And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot. Then the LORD said, "Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt's shame.” Look at the interest payments he saved on those charge cards by not buying any clothes for three years. I doubt Isaiah was thrilled about his situation but he loved his Lord and he did what he was instructed to do regardless of the outcome. Isaiah wanted to hear the voice of God, and he did but it cost him. There was a price to be paid.
Fast forward to the New Testament, and the Apostle Paul. Paul heard God voice and what was his reward? (2nd Corinthians 11:21-29). “To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! What anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.”
How would you like to have that on your job resume? Although Paul wrote most of the New Testament he isn’t the only person that followed Jesus and paid a heavy price for that devotion. Look at what happened to the twelve apostles and Mark and Luke as well.
Peter Crucified at Rome under Nero. Crucified up side down at his request because he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified like Jesus.
Andrew Crucified at Patræ, Achaia [southern Greece].Hung alive on the cross two days, exhorting spectators all the while.
James Killed 10 years after the first martyr, Stephen. His accuser was converted by James courage and the two were beheaded together.
John The only apostle who did not meet a martyrs death. Banished by Roman Emperor Domitian to Isle of Patmos where he received The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book in the Bible.
Phillip Crucified about 54ADPreached the Gospel in Phrygia which was in the Roman Province of Asia near Ephesus [Turkey].
Bartholomew [Nathaniel] Crucified by the idolaters of India. Preached the Gospel in Mesopotamia [Iraq], Persia [Iran] and India.
Thomas [Didymus] Thrust through with spear in India. Preached the Gospel in Parthia [Iran] and in Kerala, [southern India] where yet today the Mar Thoma Church exists.
Matthew Killed with a sword about 60AD.Preached the Gospel in Ethiopia.
James [son of Alphaeus] Stoned by Jews at his age 90, and ended up with his brains bashed out with a fuller’s club [used in dyeing clothes].
Jude [Thaddeus] Crucified 72AD at city of Edessa [Turkey].
Simon [The Canaanite] Crucified in Britain in 74AD.Also preached in Africa.
Judas Iscariot Suicide “And Judas cast down the 30 pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went out and hanged himself”. Matthew 27:5
In addition to the original 12 apostles: Mark was dragged to death, Luke was hung on an olive tree. All of these people died serving Jesus Christ, all of these people died serving their God. The all heard the voice of God and they all answered that call.
But you know my friend despite all that you’ve seen today, despite the beatings, the hardships, and the humiliation endured by these saints of days gone by. Despite all of these things there is no record of any of these people ever saying that it wasn’t worth it. No place do they say, “Enough is enough, that’s it I’m finished, it wasn’t worth it”. I think the thoughts of Paul as recorded in the 12th chapter of 2nd Corinthians sums up the mind set of these mighty people of God the best. Look at what Paul has to say, “9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul knew where his strength came from; the others knew where their strength came from. They knew that it didn’t originate within themselves, they knew that it didn’t come from the law or the temple. They knew that it came from God and that my friend hasn’t changed to this very day. When the Lord said to Paul "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." He did so with the intent for those precious words to hold the same power for us today as they did so many years ago when first they were spoken.
Friend, these people we’ve just looked at didn’t loose faith, they didn’t turn away, all of them hung in there in the face of danger and pain. They hung in there in spite of public opinion, each and every one of them were faithful to the end. Why? Because they knew the promises of God! They all knew that regardless of what happens here on this earth in this life we now have there is something on the horizon that is far better than anything we can ever experience here on this place we now call home. They may not have seen the promise as found in (Revelation 21:1-4). “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." All of these people didn’t have the opportunity to read those words because they hadn’t been given to the Apostle John while in prison on the island of Patmos until after most had either passed away or had left the area. They didn’t have the Holy Scriptures. They didn’t have the Bible as we do today so they didn’t physically see this promise. But they knew of it, there were other recorded writings that conveyed the message and there were the prophetic words that many of them heard with their own ears as God issued them.
But all praise be given to God in the most high, today we have the recorded words of God. We have the Bible and we can look at those words of promise and know with full assurance that if it’s in the Bible it is going to happen just as God has promised. Although it was men that recorded the words, the words didn’t originate in the mind of men, the words originated from the mind of the Holy Spirit. (2nd Peter 1:20-21) “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
And so in closing I want you to know that although there is a battle going on out there and each of us has been called to do our part and fight the good fight for the Lord. The Scriptures are there to assist us in our times of need when we start to feel as if it’s just not worth it when if fact it is. Search them out, pray them over yourself and call upon God to refresh and restore you in those times of low spirit. Wonderful verses like (Romans 15:4-6) “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. And from (2nd Timothy 4:18) “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen”. And it is my prayer that each of us will be able to say the same words Paul used when he was talking to his friend and student Timothy. (2nd Timothy 4:7-8) “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing”. And so I ask you one last time, do you still want to hear God’s voice? I hope the answer is yes and regardless of what the distance between us my be, whether a mile or a nation, we can stand together and say, “I’m a soldier in the army of Jesus Christ. My final thought {actually it isn’t my thought it was someone else’s but I don’t know who} comes from an article I saw once in a United Methodist Men’s magazine. Read this over and tell me, are you in it with me and do you still want to hear God’s voice?
SIGN UP!
A Few Good Men Are Needed in God’s Army
I am a soldier in the army of the Lord. Jesus Christ is my Commanding Officer. The Holy Bible is my code of conduct. Faith, Prayer, and God’s Word are my weapons of warfare. I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, trained by experience, tried by adversity and tested by fire.
I am a volunteer in this army, and I am enlisted for eternity. I will either retire in this army at the rapture or die in the army, but I will not get out, sell out, be talked out or pushed out.
I am faithful, reliable, capable, and dependable if my God needs me, I am ready, willing and able. If He needs me in Sunday school, to teach children, work with the youth, help adults or just sit and learn I am available. He can use me, because I am there.
I am a soldier, I am not a baby, I do not need to be pampered, petted, primed up, picked up or pepped up. I am a soldier. No one has to call me, remind me, write me, visit me, entice me, or lure me.
I am a soldier; I am not a wimp. I am in place, saluting my King, obeying His orders, praising His name and building His kingdom. No on has to send me flowers, gifts, food, cards, candy or give me handouts. I do not need to be cuddled, cradled, cared for or catered to.
I am committed. I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around. I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside. I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit. When Jesus called me into this army, I had nothing. If I end up with nothing I will still come out ahead. We will win. My God will supply all my needs.
I am more than a conqueror. I will always triumph. I can do all things through Christ. Demons cannot defeat me, people cannot disillusion me, weather cannot weary me, sickness cannot stop me. Battles cannot beat. Money cannot buy me, governments cannot silence me.
I am a soldier. Even death cannot destroy me. For when my commander calls me from this earthly battlefield, He will bring me back to this world with Him.
I am a soldier in the army and I’m marching, claiming victory. I will not give up, I will not turn around, I am a soldier marching heaven bound. Here I stand! Will you stand with me?
Guess what? If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior you’re already enlisted. The ultimate question remains, are you on duty or are you AWOL?
What is you current military status?
Active duty: serving the Lord faithfully, daily and on duty at all times?
Reserve Status: serving when called upon or twice a year, Christmas or Easter?
Guard Status: backing up the active duty group?
AWOL: absent without the Lord?
Think about it!
Grace & peace
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Is Home Really Where the Heart Is?
Is Home Really Where the Heart Is?
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
John 3:3 “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”.
What is in the human nature that is such a powerful force to draw us to the place we call home? We see storm ravaged areas, places where hurricanes blow in almost on a yearly basis and cause such destruction and havoc that it is unconceivable to think anyone would want to live there. In a 14-month period, from the start of the hurricane season of 2004 until the end of 2005 the state of Florida was hit with no less than 8 hurricanes and each seemed to grow in intensity and destructive force. Why would anyone want to live there if on a yearly basis you know in an instant your home and everything you own could be blown to the four corners of the earth never to be seen again?
Look at the people of California, every year they face the fear of earthquakes, mudslides and forest fires that consume everything in their path. Homes, businesses, entire communities left as nothing but charred ash and yet the people keep rebuilding in the same exact location knowing it can happen again with-in a matter of years. In the hills of California as soon as the brush grows in the potential is there for another fire. And then there are the mudslides. Why in the world would anyone want to build a home in a location where half a mountain is going to turn into a huge moving mass that carries everything in its path to the floor of the valley below with nothing on the face of the earth able to stop it just because it rained a little to much?
The middle of our nation, tornado alley. Ominous black funnels of swirling winds that shred homes and everything else in their path like cabbage going through a food processor. Winds that throw things for miles and miles away from where they first started. Cars have been known to be sucked up into a tornado and deposited miles away in a crumbled heap. And yet every so often one side of a street will be destroyed and the other side is untouched. Isn’t God amazing?
Look at the area in which I live, the northeast of this country. Freezing cold temperatures, ice and snow that makes travel dangerous, staying warm really hard and should you be trapped outside for any length of time death can and on occasion occur. The only good thing I can say about the snow we experience, it will melt at some time. No matter how deep it gets and where I live that can be mighty deep, give it enough time and it will melt. Maybe not until almost the end of May but it does eventually melt.
Pouring rain, punishing winds, scorching heat, freezing cold uncontrollable flooding, earthquakes, title waves, blinding sandstorms, avalanches and drought. Whatever the weather, whatever the terrain, whatever the elevation level of danger, it doesn’t matter. If this is where man wants to live then they are going to call it home no matter what! About the only place on the face of the earth that man doesn’t live on a regular basis is at the South Pole and that’s because in the summer it goes up to about 20 below zero and in the winter it plunges to 90 below with 100mph winds. But there are men and women looking at it down there too, why I can’t tell you, but they are. If you want to put in a garden down there the only thing you can grow is snow cones!
And then there is another thing that draws us to the places we call home. We want to be where we were raised or grew up. We want to be where our family roots are, where dad and mom are. We want to be where our friends are, where employment is or where the opportunity for recreation is. With the advent of our transportation means and the way we are able to communicate with each other we ignore the disadvantages of climate or geographical and move to locations that we would have never dreamed of in years past. And sadly with the advent of transportation and communication advances the draws of closeness to family are not nearly as strong as they were once.
Do you realize that it is quite possible that in his entire life our sweet Lord Jesus never traveled more than one hundred miles from his place of birth? When you have time see if you have an atlas or any maps in your Bible, look at them and then check the scale of miles on them. You’ll see that if it lists the places where Jesus went he really didn’t travel all that far in his short time on this planet. He is responsible for changing the entire world and the way things in history are recorded, all record of time is recorded as it either happened before his birth or after, BC or AD. Everything is constructed around a man that changed the world he never saw as a human. Granted Jesus created the world but as a human, as a theophany, as the visual appearance of God in human form Jesus never saw more than a few miles of his homeland. I’d venture to say that for some of us we travel more in a day than Jesus traveled in his short years on this earth. Jesus may have made many trips moving back and forth between towns and villages but in no single trip did he travel more than one hundred miles away from where he was born. Travel of that distance was impossible on land at that time. I know for myself; while working in corrections on a daily basis I traveled almost one hundred miles round trip each day. My daily commute was forty-eight miles each way. And when I worked at Sing Sing correctional facility in the New York City area and my family remained here in the western end of New York state I drove over four hundred miles just to get there and then I’d stay until my days off and then drive home again. I did that for five years and racked up several hundred thousand miles on my car. That would be the equivalent of walking around the world a few times.
As I said before, until the advent of modern travel, the vast majority of people never traveled more than one hundred or so miles from their place of birth. Think of travel before the airplane or the automobile. When travel was primarily done by horse and buggy people didn’t go very far. It really wasn’t all that far back in our past. My father was born before the first flight of a plane and my grandfather was born before the first car was invented. My wife can attest to the fact that she remembers talking to her grandparents and they told her that a trip to Batavia and back by horse and wagon took the entire day to make. And that’s only 30 miles round trip from where their house was to the city and back. We live in the same house they were in and we think nothing of going to Batavia sometimes more than once a day, for something as simple as a doctor’s appointment and then later for a trip to the grocery store. That of course is changing what with the rising gasoline prices. In talking to my own grandmother who was born in Ireland but moved to New York City as an infant, when she met and married my grandfather and moved to Buffalo N.Y. she was terrified of the move. For one it was a huge distance for her home, all the way across the state, and she was afraid of the Indians! When my grandmother moved west from the coast to Buffalo they were still fighting the Indian wars in this country. Can you imagine being afraid of something like that in Buffalo today? And now reflect back to the huge sacrifice the founders of this great nation made by coming here. They crossed an ocean to come to a place they had only heard of and even in that what they had heard was about only a small part of the country. Like my grandparents, they came to a land they didn’t know, left all that they did know, family, friends, and places that were well known to them. And they did this just so that they could worship God without fear of reprisal and live in peace.
So to this point we’ve looked at home from two different perspectives, from a geographical basis, home is where we were raised, where we are familiar with regardless of climate or condition. Or home is where our family ties are derived from; we want to be close to dad and mom, close to grandpa and grandma. But is this where man first developed his draw, his compulsion to be home? How far back do we have to go before we see what true homesickness is? Now it’s time to look at this subject from a Biblical perspective.
“I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. I think hidden in this verse we see a true glimpse of what “home” we are really seeking to find. In the spirit of man we aren’t looking for a home of location we are familiar with. We aren’t looking for a home that is filled with familiar faces and friends. What man’s spirit really is seeking is “home” as to be in proper relationship with our God. Our spirit wants to be in close proximity to our God. This is what we are looking for in our desire to be “home”. There is no one here on this earth, at least no one that I know of, that has seen heaven or has actually seen the kingdom of God. There may be some that has had a near death experience, there may be some that has seen a slight glimpse of what heaven is like, but have any of them ever seen heaven, really seen it? I don’t think any of us have really been “given the tour”. I don’t think any of us here really knows what heaven is like.
I think it’s a safe bet to say if we were to speak to one hundred different people we would get one hundred different stories of what heaven is going to be like. I think each of us has a preconceived notion of what heaven is going to be like; be it streets of gold and no more labor. Or just closeness to our God in worship and adoration of who and what He is. The book of Revelation tells us of the streets of gold and pearl gates, we read of precious stones used for building materials like common bricks and it sounds beautiful. When we read the Revelation conception of heaven we see or can envision beauty beyond comprehension. Just a little side note, in reading what the Bible says about the construction of heaven and materials used. There is one material that we as man find to be the most coveted and yet God doesn’t even use it. Diamonds! Man will do just about anything to get their hands on diamonds and God doesn’t even use them. God used them in the breastplate of the priest’s robes for temple duty, and they were found in the Garden of Eden as rocks that covered the ground. But they aren’t listed as anything God wanted in his heavenly kingdom. Interesting little fact don’t you think? But if we go beyond the streets of gold and the pearl gates, then what do people think heaven is going to be like?
For some heaven is envisioned as a place of rest and beauty, beauty beyond compare. There are some that see heaven as a tropical island, warm sun and sand and a beautiful beach. Heaven can be a wooded forest, cool breezes and the colors of autumn. Maybe heaven is a place where animals lay side by side with each other and there is no fear of other animals or even man. How about heaven as a palace where there’s fruit on the tables and artwork on the walls, it never rains and there is beautiful sunlight all of the time except when you go to bed. There may even be a few that see heaven as NASCAR on the television and the Buffalo Bills actually winning the Super Bowl… every Sunday. I think you have an idea of what I’m trying to say by now don’t you? Talk to one hundred people and you get one hundred ideas of what heaven is like.
I used to wonder about the god of the radical Islamic belief. What do they tell these people heaven is going to be like to get them to strap a bomb on their body and run into a place filled with other humans and then touch that thing off blowing up yourself and everyone around them? You have to sell one powerful image of heaven to get that kind of commitment from someone. So I got a copy of the Quran and read it for myself. And take my word for it, I’m not making this up, what I tell you is the truth. What we call chapters in the Bible, they call sura’s and in the 37th sura it tells the reader that in heaven they will get to lay on a couch and eat fruit fed to them by women and that they can have intimacy with these women when they want it and anything else they want as well. Now I know how they get the men to blow themselves up in little pieces but I still don’t understand what they have to offer the woman to become walking bombs, it doesn’t sound like that cool a deal for them. But the harsh reality of it all is that unless you become born again in Jesus Christ no one is going to see the kingdom of God. Wearing a bomb isn’t going to get us in the kingdom, but knowing Jesus as Lord will. Blowing ourselves up along with innocent men, women and children won’t get us into the kingdom but knowing Jesus as Lord will. And we have to tell everyone including the Muslim of this King and his kingdom.
“I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. I haven’t been able to figure out if heaven and the Garden of Eden are one and the same place. But I think not. It seems as if the kingdom of God is a place of constant worship and the garden is a place of peace, a perfect garden like a really nice back yard on a beautiful home. But that is my own thoughts on that matter and I can’t prove it to anyone. 2nd Timothy says; “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels”. And to get into an argument over whether one is a garden but not heaven or heaven isn’t the garden isn’t worth spending the time on.
One of the things I should say about the Garden of Eden and it may be something you have never really spent any time thinking about. But the truth of the matter is that man may not have seen heaven but he has seen the garden. Think about that for a moment. Man has walked in the Garden of Eden, he has set foot on the soil of the garden when it was a paradise before the fall of man and sin came into the world. There was a time when man walked in the garden, that time was of course was before Adam and Eve were put out to fend for themselves. And we’ve been trying to get back inside ever since. If we’ve inherited our sin nature from Adam we have also inherited our drive to return to the garden as well. I think that although we’ve never seen the garden, through our connection to Adam we have a desire to be where he was before sin entered man and cost us paradise. Again this is hypothetical on my part and there isn’t anything in the Bible to base this presumption on. If you look at the history of man, we have always held a desire to return to the place of the origin of our ancestors. How often have you heard people say that they would like to visit the place where their grandparents or great grandparents came from? Man has this built in drive to know where he originated from and many times we don’t have any idea as to why we want it. And if we truly can trace our heritage back to Adam and Eve then we are simply seeking to see where they started.
There was a time when man and God did actually have verbal fellowship with each other on a regular basis. If you look in the book of Genesis we read that there was a time when man and God had open and audible communications with each other. And I think it’s this place, this home if you will; that we are trying to reach out to again. Call it heaven; call it anything you want but man still wants to have that close intimate relationship with his God and to be in fellowship with him. Look at cultures and civilizations that had no knowledge of Jesus Christ and Father God. Even without knowing Jesus or Father God these civilizations developed a form of worship to a deity that they didn’t know existed. Even without formal knowledge as we know it, man had always had a desire to be with his God. It’s locked in our spirit and that is in the spirit of every single person on the face of the earth. And yes that includes those who don’t want to acknowledge the existence of God or a Higher Deity than themselves. And how are we to develop this relationship with God? Jesus tells us in his statement. “I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. Jesus tells us that in order to come into the presence of God we must be born again. Jesus is telling us that like it or not, agree with it or not. It doesn’t matter, to enter into the presence of God we must be born again. I personally like the phrase “Born from above” since the only way we can acknowledge Jesus as Lord is by inspiration of the Spirit who comes down from heaven, but no matter how you say it the meaning is the same. We will go into a little more detail in a moment. We have to believe in Jesus Christ, we have to be born of the Spirit, and there is no short cut we can take, there is no slipping in the back door. There’s one way and one way only, and it’s the path through Jesus Christ and his introduction of us to his Father.
If we were to go on reading beyond the end of our verse we would see that Jesus and Nicodemus are having a conversation and Nicodemus realizes that we can’t become a child again and re-enter our mothers womb. He realizes that it would be impossible for us to become a small child again and be born of the flesh after the fashion of the first birth. But our Lord goes on to explain to Nicodemus that he’s not talking about a physical rebirth, but a spiritual rebirth. A Jesus goes on to explain that he is talking about a spiritual rebirth or a new spiritual awakening we call “regeneration”.
This regeneration, this transformation if you will, what we call “born again” may be better understood if we use the term I just used a few moments ago. “Born from above”. When we say born again it does have the connotation or implication of a physical rebirth. And to the unbeliever that may sound as confusing to them as it did to Nicodemus so long ago. When we say born again it does sound like we are talking of a second birth through the flesh. But “born from above”… ah, now that we can visualize in the mind's eye as a rebirth or regeneration coming down from above. Coming down from the heavens, coming down from the heavens and carried along by and through the Holy Spirit to give us a new spiritual life like we’ve never known or experienced before. When we say, “born from above” we can in the mind’s eye visualize a spiritual re-connection to our God that was severed when sin entered the world through the actions of man. And I believe this second birth, this born from above, or born again experience can then be understood as to have nothing to do with the physical rebirth but as a totally spiritual experience of rebirth. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives this understanding; it’s by His leading that we then understand the experience, as we should. It’s by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that we come to the understanding that this experience has nothing to do with the union of man and woman in the flesh, that it’s not the result of mans physical union or that it’s origin comes from man’s desire.
John 1:12-13 says; “yet to those who received him, to those who believed in his mane, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands will but born of God”.
It was through the union of my parents that I received my first birth. With the blessing of God I was conceived and my physical being came to be. As a physical being I was born complete having all that I needed to sustain life. But my inner man, my spirit man knew that I wasn’t truly connected to “home”, as I should be. My physical man had made the connection with my physical surroundings and family and in the flesh I knew that I was home. It was my spiritual man, that little something deep down inside the inner me. It was that inner me that knew something was missing. It was that inner me, that spirit man; that longed for a connection of some type to a home that I didn’t know or hadn’t experienced because there was in my spirit a inner me that knew I lacked inner peace and contentment. In my spirit I knew that I wasn’t complete, I knew that I wasn’t “Home” yet. In my spirit I knew that there was a void of some type, that there was something missing, that there was a hole in my spirit and that that hole could only be plugged by a spiritual plug. And that plug is to be born from above in Christ Jesus. And in Jesus Christ alone!
And so although my physical man is content in its situation, content in it’s location and climate, my spirit man is not. While my physical man knows that I’m home, that I’m at ease in where I live and whom I live with. But my spirit man isn’t quite as comfortable, my spirit man that lives inside me knows that something is missing, that I’m not complete or whole until I accept Christ as my savior. Until I have a born again or born from above experience and have the connection to my God that my spirit thirsts and hungers for. My spirit knows when something is missing; it can sense it even when in my physical being I feel as if I have all that I need. When I feel the empty void in my spirit but know fulfillment in my physical being all of me is uneasy and incomplete. My two persons, my physical person and my spiritual person are not both in the same place at the same time. Consequently there is upheaval in my life and that condition is going to remain there until I have a “born from above” experience to bridge the gap between the two and the connection is made between my spirit and the Spirit of God. Until that connection is made I will never feel whole or complete. Have you ever wondered why you can see a celebrity or a person of wealth and they are always on drugs or alcohol or chasing something that is unobtainable as if they can’t find real contentment in their life? By worldly standards they have everything but their life is a constant up and down ride that has no peace in it. Their spirit man knows that there’s a void that isn’t filled, their spirit man knows that there is a gap between their spirit and the Spirit of God. And until that connection of the spirit is made, there can be no real peace. Likewise you can see someone that although by worldly standards don’t have all the little toys and do-dads of life but they are content in their situation and we sometimes question how or why they appear to be at such ease. It’s because their spirit is in connection with their God, and when that connection is made they are experiencing peace in both their physical and spiritual being. There’s no void, there’s no gap to be bridged, they are complete and they know it. My friend each one of us whether we want to acknowledge it or not feel the same thing. Each one of us has a physical man and a spiritual man within us and until the two are in connection with their God there is no real sense of completeness. Until the spiritual man is in communion with God there is going to be felt a feeling of emptiness and an unsettled condition about us.
This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we come to the saving knowledge that Jesus Christ went to the cross for us while we were yet sinners. This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we acknowledge that Jesus died for us and for our sins even though he was sin free. This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we acknowledge that Jesus went to the cross in our place, that he suffered pain and death on the cross in our place; and that he has broken the power of death for us through the glory and might of the Father by his resurrection from the grave.
1st Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
There it is in black and white, okay so it’s in blue and white; you will just have to deal with it. God’s mercy applied to me a sinner. God’s mercy given to me a sinner, giving me new birth in my spirit through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the power of death and the grasp of the grave. At last our spirit has a home, at last our spirit has a place of comfort and peace and can feel contentment and completeness. As our physical man was at home in a location now our spiritual man is at home in our connection with our God. We could have searched forever and forever and not found peace or a place called home. But once we meet Jesus Christ, once we believe in his name, then and only then can we find rest and peace.
Do you remember what we saw in John 1:12? “Yet to all those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God”. In the book of Acts when the jailer is terrified and he calls out “what must I do to be saved?” what was he told? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ”.
My friend, there is nothing complicated about this, there is no great mystery to be solved. There are no hidden parts of a puzzle to be unearthed. If you feel in your spirit that you aren’t home yet, if you feel like there is something missing in your life, I invite you to come to know our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to see the kingdom of God, if you want to be born again or born from above, come to the altar today and meet Jesus Christ. There is a home for all of us out there and it’s already been prepared for us by Jesus, he’s given us his word on it. It’s a home of rest, a home of peace, a home of comfort and contentment. If this is what you’ve been searching for then search no more. Today is the day to bridge the gap between God and us. Now is the hour, now is the time to change our lives forever, and my friend, forever is going to last a long, long time. Now is the time to come to the altar and meet our God.
Grace & peace
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted
John 3:3 “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”.
What is in the human nature that is such a powerful force to draw us to the place we call home? We see storm ravaged areas, places where hurricanes blow in almost on a yearly basis and cause such destruction and havoc that it is unconceivable to think anyone would want to live there. In a 14-month period, from the start of the hurricane season of 2004 until the end of 2005 the state of Florida was hit with no less than 8 hurricanes and each seemed to grow in intensity and destructive force. Why would anyone want to live there if on a yearly basis you know in an instant your home and everything you own could be blown to the four corners of the earth never to be seen again?
Look at the people of California, every year they face the fear of earthquakes, mudslides and forest fires that consume everything in their path. Homes, businesses, entire communities left as nothing but charred ash and yet the people keep rebuilding in the same exact location knowing it can happen again with-in a matter of years. In the hills of California as soon as the brush grows in the potential is there for another fire. And then there are the mudslides. Why in the world would anyone want to build a home in a location where half a mountain is going to turn into a huge moving mass that carries everything in its path to the floor of the valley below with nothing on the face of the earth able to stop it just because it rained a little to much?
The middle of our nation, tornado alley. Ominous black funnels of swirling winds that shred homes and everything else in their path like cabbage going through a food processor. Winds that throw things for miles and miles away from where they first started. Cars have been known to be sucked up into a tornado and deposited miles away in a crumbled heap. And yet every so often one side of a street will be destroyed and the other side is untouched. Isn’t God amazing?
Look at the area in which I live, the northeast of this country. Freezing cold temperatures, ice and snow that makes travel dangerous, staying warm really hard and should you be trapped outside for any length of time death can and on occasion occur. The only good thing I can say about the snow we experience, it will melt at some time. No matter how deep it gets and where I live that can be mighty deep, give it enough time and it will melt. Maybe not until almost the end of May but it does eventually melt.
Pouring rain, punishing winds, scorching heat, freezing cold uncontrollable flooding, earthquakes, title waves, blinding sandstorms, avalanches and drought. Whatever the weather, whatever the terrain, whatever the elevation level of danger, it doesn’t matter. If this is where man wants to live then they are going to call it home no matter what! About the only place on the face of the earth that man doesn’t live on a regular basis is at the South Pole and that’s because in the summer it goes up to about 20 below zero and in the winter it plunges to 90 below with 100mph winds. But there are men and women looking at it down there too, why I can’t tell you, but they are. If you want to put in a garden down there the only thing you can grow is snow cones!
And then there is another thing that draws us to the places we call home. We want to be where we were raised or grew up. We want to be where our family roots are, where dad and mom are. We want to be where our friends are, where employment is or where the opportunity for recreation is. With the advent of our transportation means and the way we are able to communicate with each other we ignore the disadvantages of climate or geographical and move to locations that we would have never dreamed of in years past. And sadly with the advent of transportation and communication advances the draws of closeness to family are not nearly as strong as they were once.
Do you realize that it is quite possible that in his entire life our sweet Lord Jesus never traveled more than one hundred miles from his place of birth? When you have time see if you have an atlas or any maps in your Bible, look at them and then check the scale of miles on them. You’ll see that if it lists the places where Jesus went he really didn’t travel all that far in his short time on this planet. He is responsible for changing the entire world and the way things in history are recorded, all record of time is recorded as it either happened before his birth or after, BC or AD. Everything is constructed around a man that changed the world he never saw as a human. Granted Jesus created the world but as a human, as a theophany, as the visual appearance of God in human form Jesus never saw more than a few miles of his homeland. I’d venture to say that for some of us we travel more in a day than Jesus traveled in his short years on this earth. Jesus may have made many trips moving back and forth between towns and villages but in no single trip did he travel more than one hundred miles away from where he was born. Travel of that distance was impossible on land at that time. I know for myself; while working in corrections on a daily basis I traveled almost one hundred miles round trip each day. My daily commute was forty-eight miles each way. And when I worked at Sing Sing correctional facility in the New York City area and my family remained here in the western end of New York state I drove over four hundred miles just to get there and then I’d stay until my days off and then drive home again. I did that for five years and racked up several hundred thousand miles on my car. That would be the equivalent of walking around the world a few times.
As I said before, until the advent of modern travel, the vast majority of people never traveled more than one hundred or so miles from their place of birth. Think of travel before the airplane or the automobile. When travel was primarily done by horse and buggy people didn’t go very far. It really wasn’t all that far back in our past. My father was born before the first flight of a plane and my grandfather was born before the first car was invented. My wife can attest to the fact that she remembers talking to her grandparents and they told her that a trip to Batavia and back by horse and wagon took the entire day to make. And that’s only 30 miles round trip from where their house was to the city and back. We live in the same house they were in and we think nothing of going to Batavia sometimes more than once a day, for something as simple as a doctor’s appointment and then later for a trip to the grocery store. That of course is changing what with the rising gasoline prices. In talking to my own grandmother who was born in Ireland but moved to New York City as an infant, when she met and married my grandfather and moved to Buffalo N.Y. she was terrified of the move. For one it was a huge distance for her home, all the way across the state, and she was afraid of the Indians! When my grandmother moved west from the coast to Buffalo they were still fighting the Indian wars in this country. Can you imagine being afraid of something like that in Buffalo today? And now reflect back to the huge sacrifice the founders of this great nation made by coming here. They crossed an ocean to come to a place they had only heard of and even in that what they had heard was about only a small part of the country. Like my grandparents, they came to a land they didn’t know, left all that they did know, family, friends, and places that were well known to them. And they did this just so that they could worship God without fear of reprisal and live in peace.
So to this point we’ve looked at home from two different perspectives, from a geographical basis, home is where we were raised, where we are familiar with regardless of climate or condition. Or home is where our family ties are derived from; we want to be close to dad and mom, close to grandpa and grandma. But is this where man first developed his draw, his compulsion to be home? How far back do we have to go before we see what true homesickness is? Now it’s time to look at this subject from a Biblical perspective.
“I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. I think hidden in this verse we see a true glimpse of what “home” we are really seeking to find. In the spirit of man we aren’t looking for a home of location we are familiar with. We aren’t looking for a home that is filled with familiar faces and friends. What man’s spirit really is seeking is “home” as to be in proper relationship with our God. Our spirit wants to be in close proximity to our God. This is what we are looking for in our desire to be “home”. There is no one here on this earth, at least no one that I know of, that has seen heaven or has actually seen the kingdom of God. There may be some that has had a near death experience, there may be some that has seen a slight glimpse of what heaven is like, but have any of them ever seen heaven, really seen it? I don’t think any of us have really been “given the tour”. I don’t think any of us here really knows what heaven is like.
I think it’s a safe bet to say if we were to speak to one hundred different people we would get one hundred different stories of what heaven is going to be like. I think each of us has a preconceived notion of what heaven is going to be like; be it streets of gold and no more labor. Or just closeness to our God in worship and adoration of who and what He is. The book of Revelation tells us of the streets of gold and pearl gates, we read of precious stones used for building materials like common bricks and it sounds beautiful. When we read the Revelation conception of heaven we see or can envision beauty beyond comprehension. Just a little side note, in reading what the Bible says about the construction of heaven and materials used. There is one material that we as man find to be the most coveted and yet God doesn’t even use it. Diamonds! Man will do just about anything to get their hands on diamonds and God doesn’t even use them. God used them in the breastplate of the priest’s robes for temple duty, and they were found in the Garden of Eden as rocks that covered the ground. But they aren’t listed as anything God wanted in his heavenly kingdom. Interesting little fact don’t you think? But if we go beyond the streets of gold and the pearl gates, then what do people think heaven is going to be like?
For some heaven is envisioned as a place of rest and beauty, beauty beyond compare. There are some that see heaven as a tropical island, warm sun and sand and a beautiful beach. Heaven can be a wooded forest, cool breezes and the colors of autumn. Maybe heaven is a place where animals lay side by side with each other and there is no fear of other animals or even man. How about heaven as a palace where there’s fruit on the tables and artwork on the walls, it never rains and there is beautiful sunlight all of the time except when you go to bed. There may even be a few that see heaven as NASCAR on the television and the Buffalo Bills actually winning the Super Bowl… every Sunday. I think you have an idea of what I’m trying to say by now don’t you? Talk to one hundred people and you get one hundred ideas of what heaven is like.
I used to wonder about the god of the radical Islamic belief. What do they tell these people heaven is going to be like to get them to strap a bomb on their body and run into a place filled with other humans and then touch that thing off blowing up yourself and everyone around them? You have to sell one powerful image of heaven to get that kind of commitment from someone. So I got a copy of the Quran and read it for myself. And take my word for it, I’m not making this up, what I tell you is the truth. What we call chapters in the Bible, they call sura’s and in the 37th sura it tells the reader that in heaven they will get to lay on a couch and eat fruit fed to them by women and that they can have intimacy with these women when they want it and anything else they want as well. Now I know how they get the men to blow themselves up in little pieces but I still don’t understand what they have to offer the woman to become walking bombs, it doesn’t sound like that cool a deal for them. But the harsh reality of it all is that unless you become born again in Jesus Christ no one is going to see the kingdom of God. Wearing a bomb isn’t going to get us in the kingdom, but knowing Jesus as Lord will. Blowing ourselves up along with innocent men, women and children won’t get us into the kingdom but knowing Jesus as Lord will. And we have to tell everyone including the Muslim of this King and his kingdom.
“I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. I haven’t been able to figure out if heaven and the Garden of Eden are one and the same place. But I think not. It seems as if the kingdom of God is a place of constant worship and the garden is a place of peace, a perfect garden like a really nice back yard on a beautiful home. But that is my own thoughts on that matter and I can’t prove it to anyone. 2nd Timothy says; “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels”. And to get into an argument over whether one is a garden but not heaven or heaven isn’t the garden isn’t worth spending the time on.
One of the things I should say about the Garden of Eden and it may be something you have never really spent any time thinking about. But the truth of the matter is that man may not have seen heaven but he has seen the garden. Think about that for a moment. Man has walked in the Garden of Eden, he has set foot on the soil of the garden when it was a paradise before the fall of man and sin came into the world. There was a time when man walked in the garden, that time was of course was before Adam and Eve were put out to fend for themselves. And we’ve been trying to get back inside ever since. If we’ve inherited our sin nature from Adam we have also inherited our drive to return to the garden as well. I think that although we’ve never seen the garden, through our connection to Adam we have a desire to be where he was before sin entered man and cost us paradise. Again this is hypothetical on my part and there isn’t anything in the Bible to base this presumption on. If you look at the history of man, we have always held a desire to return to the place of the origin of our ancestors. How often have you heard people say that they would like to visit the place where their grandparents or great grandparents came from? Man has this built in drive to know where he originated from and many times we don’t have any idea as to why we want it. And if we truly can trace our heritage back to Adam and Eve then we are simply seeking to see where they started.
There was a time when man and God did actually have verbal fellowship with each other on a regular basis. If you look in the book of Genesis we read that there was a time when man and God had open and audible communications with each other. And I think it’s this place, this home if you will; that we are trying to reach out to again. Call it heaven; call it anything you want but man still wants to have that close intimate relationship with his God and to be in fellowship with him. Look at cultures and civilizations that had no knowledge of Jesus Christ and Father God. Even without knowing Jesus or Father God these civilizations developed a form of worship to a deity that they didn’t know existed. Even without formal knowledge as we know it, man had always had a desire to be with his God. It’s locked in our spirit and that is in the spirit of every single person on the face of the earth. And yes that includes those who don’t want to acknowledge the existence of God or a Higher Deity than themselves. And how are we to develop this relationship with God? Jesus tells us in his statement. “I tell you the truth, no man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. Jesus tells us that in order to come into the presence of God we must be born again. Jesus is telling us that like it or not, agree with it or not. It doesn’t matter, to enter into the presence of God we must be born again. I personally like the phrase “Born from above” since the only way we can acknowledge Jesus as Lord is by inspiration of the Spirit who comes down from heaven, but no matter how you say it the meaning is the same. We will go into a little more detail in a moment. We have to believe in Jesus Christ, we have to be born of the Spirit, and there is no short cut we can take, there is no slipping in the back door. There’s one way and one way only, and it’s the path through Jesus Christ and his introduction of us to his Father.
If we were to go on reading beyond the end of our verse we would see that Jesus and Nicodemus are having a conversation and Nicodemus realizes that we can’t become a child again and re-enter our mothers womb. He realizes that it would be impossible for us to become a small child again and be born of the flesh after the fashion of the first birth. But our Lord goes on to explain to Nicodemus that he’s not talking about a physical rebirth, but a spiritual rebirth. A Jesus goes on to explain that he is talking about a spiritual rebirth or a new spiritual awakening we call “regeneration”.
This regeneration, this transformation if you will, what we call “born again” may be better understood if we use the term I just used a few moments ago. “Born from above”. When we say born again it does have the connotation or implication of a physical rebirth. And to the unbeliever that may sound as confusing to them as it did to Nicodemus so long ago. When we say born again it does sound like we are talking of a second birth through the flesh. But “born from above”… ah, now that we can visualize in the mind's eye as a rebirth or regeneration coming down from above. Coming down from the heavens, coming down from the heavens and carried along by and through the Holy Spirit to give us a new spiritual life like we’ve never known or experienced before. When we say, “born from above” we can in the mind’s eye visualize a spiritual re-connection to our God that was severed when sin entered the world through the actions of man. And I believe this second birth, this born from above, or born again experience can then be understood as to have nothing to do with the physical rebirth but as a totally spiritual experience of rebirth. It’s the Holy Spirit that gives this understanding; it’s by His leading that we then understand the experience, as we should. It’s by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that we come to the understanding that this experience has nothing to do with the union of man and woman in the flesh, that it’s not the result of mans physical union or that it’s origin comes from man’s desire.
John 1:12-13 says; “yet to those who received him, to those who believed in his mane, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husbands will but born of God”.
It was through the union of my parents that I received my first birth. With the blessing of God I was conceived and my physical being came to be. As a physical being I was born complete having all that I needed to sustain life. But my inner man, my spirit man knew that I wasn’t truly connected to “home”, as I should be. My physical man had made the connection with my physical surroundings and family and in the flesh I knew that I was home. It was my spiritual man, that little something deep down inside the inner me. It was that inner me that knew something was missing. It was that inner me, that spirit man; that longed for a connection of some type to a home that I didn’t know or hadn’t experienced because there was in my spirit a inner me that knew I lacked inner peace and contentment. In my spirit I knew that I wasn’t complete, I knew that I wasn’t “Home” yet. In my spirit I knew that there was a void of some type, that there was something missing, that there was a hole in my spirit and that that hole could only be plugged by a spiritual plug. And that plug is to be born from above in Christ Jesus. And in Jesus Christ alone!
And so although my physical man is content in its situation, content in it’s location and climate, my spirit man is not. While my physical man knows that I’m home, that I’m at ease in where I live and whom I live with. But my spirit man isn’t quite as comfortable, my spirit man that lives inside me knows that something is missing, that I’m not complete or whole until I accept Christ as my savior. Until I have a born again or born from above experience and have the connection to my God that my spirit thirsts and hungers for. My spirit knows when something is missing; it can sense it even when in my physical being I feel as if I have all that I need. When I feel the empty void in my spirit but know fulfillment in my physical being all of me is uneasy and incomplete. My two persons, my physical person and my spiritual person are not both in the same place at the same time. Consequently there is upheaval in my life and that condition is going to remain there until I have a “born from above” experience to bridge the gap between the two and the connection is made between my spirit and the Spirit of God. Until that connection is made I will never feel whole or complete. Have you ever wondered why you can see a celebrity or a person of wealth and they are always on drugs or alcohol or chasing something that is unobtainable as if they can’t find real contentment in their life? By worldly standards they have everything but their life is a constant up and down ride that has no peace in it. Their spirit man knows that there’s a void that isn’t filled, their spirit man knows that there is a gap between their spirit and the Spirit of God. And until that connection of the spirit is made, there can be no real peace. Likewise you can see someone that although by worldly standards don’t have all the little toys and do-dads of life but they are content in their situation and we sometimes question how or why they appear to be at such ease. It’s because their spirit is in connection with their God, and when that connection is made they are experiencing peace in both their physical and spiritual being. There’s no void, there’s no gap to be bridged, they are complete and they know it. My friend each one of us whether we want to acknowledge it or not feel the same thing. Each one of us has a physical man and a spiritual man within us and until the two are in connection with their God there is no real sense of completeness. Until the spiritual man is in communion with God there is going to be felt a feeling of emptiness and an unsettled condition about us.
This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we come to the saving knowledge that Jesus Christ went to the cross for us while we were yet sinners. This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we acknowledge that Jesus died for us and for our sins even though he was sin free. This unsettled condition will remain in our lives until we acknowledge that Jesus went to the cross in our place, that he suffered pain and death on the cross in our place; and that he has broken the power of death for us through the glory and might of the Father by his resurrection from the grave.
1st Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
There it is in black and white, okay so it’s in blue and white; you will just have to deal with it. God’s mercy applied to me a sinner. God’s mercy given to me a sinner, giving me new birth in my spirit through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the power of death and the grasp of the grave. At last our spirit has a home, at last our spirit has a place of comfort and peace and can feel contentment and completeness. As our physical man was at home in a location now our spiritual man is at home in our connection with our God. We could have searched forever and forever and not found peace or a place called home. But once we meet Jesus Christ, once we believe in his name, then and only then can we find rest and peace.
Do you remember what we saw in John 1:12? “Yet to all those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God”. In the book of Acts when the jailer is terrified and he calls out “what must I do to be saved?” what was he told? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ”.
My friend, there is nothing complicated about this, there is no great mystery to be solved. There are no hidden parts of a puzzle to be unearthed. If you feel in your spirit that you aren’t home yet, if you feel like there is something missing in your life, I invite you to come to know our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to see the kingdom of God, if you want to be born again or born from above, come to the altar today and meet Jesus Christ. There is a home for all of us out there and it’s already been prepared for us by Jesus, he’s given us his word on it. It’s a home of rest, a home of peace, a home of comfort and contentment. If this is what you’ve been searching for then search no more. Today is the day to bridge the gap between God and us. Now is the hour, now is the time to change our lives forever, and my friend, forever is going to last a long, long time. Now is the time to come to the altar and meet our God.
Grace & peace
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