A Note from the Pastor
When I was a young adult, still at my home church, our Sunday School teacher ask us “what do you think God looks like?” He shared that he always pictured God as this “little old man with a long beard.” For myself, I always pictured God as a “muscular Greek-god type figure where I could only see His right arm and hand.” Surely, both of us are wrong. The Bible reveals to us that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:24, ESV) and I Timothy states, “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen, (I Timothy 1:17 ESV). Colossians 1:15 shares that, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation,” (NIV).
However, the Bible seems more concerned of sharing with us God’s attributes of Holiness, Justice, Love, Mercy, & Truth. In fact, we know His Love in that He sent His Son to die for our sins. John 3:16 so eloquently states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” (KJV), which reveals every attribute of God in some way.
This morning, we are looking at Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus’ simply message to him is that he must be “born again.” Nicodemus struggles with this concept, as do many today. As sinners, apart from God, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, yet with Christ, we are new creatures and old things are passed away. Many today want to blame their failures on others, their sins on being born a certain way, or have deceived themselves into thinking that God will just ignore any rejection of His Son and His standard.
I Corinthians 6:9-11 reminds us all of God’s standard, but also helps reveal the true forgiveness we can have when we accept and follow Christ. The Bible states, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God,” (ESV). Simply, Jesus is bigger than all of our failures, and all of our sins, if we come to Him and are “born again.”
Pastor Chris
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