Here we find one of the most famous verses in the Bible: John 3:16 AND a phrase that has entered our cultural life but usually misunderstood, the phrase, “born again”. If we can see what Jesus Christ actually meant by this phrase and if we can liberate it from its misuse AND see how the phrase is used here in this amazing conversation, it could put the whole spiritual life in a new and wonderful LIGHT for you.

This famous dialogue aims to change the locus or the source of spiritual confidence i.e. what’s the reason that you feel ok about yourself?… And we may find that we’re looking for peace in all the wrong places!

So let’s look at:
1) The Placement Exam
2) The Remedial Instruction
3) The New Way of Knowing

Sermon Series: Red Letters | The Sermons of Jesus
Sermon Title: Out of Night, Into the Light (The Exam)
Sermon Text: The Gospel According to St. John (CH 3, vv.1-21)
Delivered by: Pastor TJ Campo
Park Road Presbyterian Church

A Reflection Before the Service
The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers, whether Jews, ...or Pagans, a sense of guilt. ... Thus the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy.

The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (1948) included in God In the Dock (Eerdmans, 1970 pp 242-244) (The "dock" is the place where the accused stands in British courtrooms)


The Call To Worship: Romans 11:30-36 (NLT)
30 Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. 31 Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share[a] in God’s mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.

33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

34 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?[b]
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?[c]

36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

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