Introduction: Today we are dealing with the subject of “being born again.” Being born again is the answer to the questions: How to begin the Christian life? How to enter the Kingdom of God? Jesus our Lord said, “No one can see [enter, experience] the kingdom of God unless he is born again?” (John 3:3,5)
Problems we struggle in our Christian life are connected to whether we have had a proper spiritual birth. In Christian counseling, instead of discussing the problem people bring to you, from the beginning try to ask, “Tell me, how you began your Christian life?” This will reveal whether the person has had a proper birth, whether they had good or a bad mid-wife. Whether everything that needed to be done at their birth were done or not? Whether they were really being fully born again? If we can go back and set the beginning right, solving the problem becomes easier and sometimes the person will say, “You know, I think now I can deal that problem myself!”
Birth affects life. A bad birth can produce an unhealthy sickly baby. Long, protracted and painful birth is to be avoided, if possible. Some people lost a lot of years until they had a full and proper birth. But it need not take several month or days or hours. If you have an experienced midwife a proper birth can be given in several minutes. When you lead someone to Christ, what we do to them at that point is going to affect whole of their Christian life. The Christian life is like driving car with four cylinders and the problem a person has is because s/he is driving only on two cylinders. If that is the case, as long as you are driving on the plane or going downhill, it is Ok. But if you try to go up hill with only two cylinders, probably we will not make much progress. There are four steps of a proper Christian birth and if not all the steps have been taken care at the birthing, we encounter problems [staggering along] in our Christian life.
Four steps or aspects of new birth of a Christian. Interestingly, it parallels with the four steps of the physical birth. 1. The fetus emerges from the mother’s body, 2. The cutting of the umbilical chord, 3. The baby breathes in cries out 4. Giving bath. It is debatable as to when or what point the baby is born. But what is important is all Four STEPS taken care well so that the baby gets a proper birth and lives fully. Their equivalent needs to be done at the spiritual birth.
1. Cutting of the umbilical chord: repentance
2. Giving bath: baptism
3. Making the baby cry: laying on of hands
New Testament language and thinking about the new birth. We are using languages and expressions that are not found in the New Testament. For example we will not find, “receive Jesus”, “open your heart to Jesus,” “making a commitment for Jesus” in our New Testament. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5) Remember, “born of WATER and the SPIRIT.” Now, how many of us heard a sermon on what does it mean to be born of water? And Jesus made it very very clear that both water and the Spirit are EQUALLY important at the Christian birth. We really need to get back to the New Testament and get our language and thinking. In fact this is a burden that God has placed in my heart. I go to churches and congregation and see expression in their traditions, songs and even hymns that do not agree with the New Testament scriptures.
Where do we start? We cannot find the full gospel in the four gospels! For example, faith in Jesus in the gospel is not same as faith in Jesus in the epistles, because Jesus had not yet died and risen. So, it could not yet be faith in a Risen Lord! Likewise, baptism in the gospel could not be Christian baptism. It was a baptism of repentance in the gospel, but when it reappears in the epistle, it is a baptism of burial and resurrection! Those who had been baptized before Jesus’ death were re-baptized after his death. Similarly the epistles do not tell us how to be become a Christian (or to be born again) because the epistles are written for those who are already Christians or already born again. So we are left with only the book of Acts that tells us about what the early Christians meant by being born again. And the book of Acts tells us that being born again is a process involving four steps.
Four steps to being born again. We repeatedly find in the book of Acts the stories of people who got converted. One such classic case is when on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and preached to a large crowd explaining what was happening to those who had been filled with the Holy Spirit. He also challenged the crowd that they could have the same experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, if they so desired. To this the crowd said, “What shall we do to have the experience of the Holy Spirit? What shall we do to have Jesus as our Lord and Christ? What shall we do to be saved? What shall we do to have the same experience you (disciples) are having? What shall we do enter the kingdom of God?” Peter told them the four steps of how to become a Christian, how to be born again, how to enter the kingdom of God, how to be forgiven, how to be saved, how to receive the promised Holy Spirit, and live and grow and mature in the Kingdom of God. Let’s see the passage in Acts 2:36-41
Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. [39] The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." [41] Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
First, repent or your sins toward God. Second, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Third, be baptized in water. Fourth, receive the Holy Spirit. We realize that the apostles preached about the Trinity from the very beginning and the converts were introduced to all three Persons of the Godhead from the very beginning of their Christian life. Unless we have gone through the four steps, we are like a car that is running on one or two cylinders instead of all four. The book of Acts tells us what gospel the Apostles preached and what they did to help people have a proper Christian birth. Let us look at some examples. Our first example is Peter and John were sent to Samaria to help the Christians there receive the Holy Spirit, when news came that Samaria had accepted the word of God (Acts 8:1-17).
AC 8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria… 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. [5] Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. [6] When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. [7] With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. [8] So there was great joy in that city… [12] But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. [13] Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
AC 8:14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. [15] When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, [16] because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. [17] Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Note, that Samaria accepted the word of God. There had been signs and wonders and miracles as Philips preached the gospel there. People experienced personal deliverance from evil spirits and diseases as they believed in Jesus as their Christ. They were also baptized in water. It says that there was a great joy in that city. Yet, something was still missing for which Peter and John had to be sent. They had not received the Holy Spirit yet. To be fully born again, to fully enter the kingdom of God, to be fully living out the Christian life, they must also receive the Holy Spirit.
Our second example is the conversion of Paul (Acts 9:1-22).
AC 9:1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples…[3] As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. [4] He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5 "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. [6] "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." … [9] For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
AC 9:10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. 11 The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. [12] In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight." … 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. [16] I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."
AC 9:17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." [18] Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized… [20] At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God…. [22] Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.
After the Risen Jesus met him on Damascus road and struck him with blindness, it says that Paul was fasting and praying for three days. He surely repented of his sin and now believed that Jesus was indeed the living Christ. But that was not enough. He must be baptized in water by Ananias and be filled with the Holy Spirit when Ananias places his hands on Paul and prayer. With all the four steps of being born again done properly, verse 23 tells us that Paul grew more and more powerful. He was not just born into the kingdom but now was living and growing.
Our third example is when Paul re-baptized and introduced the Holy Spirit to a group of 12 disciples in Ephesus.
AC 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples [2] and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied.
AC 19:4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." [5] On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. [6] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. [7] There were about twelve men in all.
The twelve men Paul met in Ephesus had been disciples. They had been baptized. But they had to be re-baptized into the name of Jesus and they had to receive the Holy Spirit to have a proper Christian birth and live out their Christian life in the way God wanted them to.
Repeatedly we see how the Apostles helped people to be Christians through the four steps of being born again. But as we see the Church today, we have turned away from the apostolic early Christian way of helping by emphasizing selected few steps but not all the four steps of how to be born again. As a result we are producing Christians who are not firing on all four engines which they should, but probably on two or three only, hence backsliding, earthliness, powerlessness and ineffectiveness is inevitable.
Having established the importance of the four steps of the process of being born again, now let us observe some facts about those steps.
1. A) Almost invariably, the four steps are in the same sequence or order. Repentance (or our sins toward God or the ) followed by faith (in the Lord Jesus Christ), followed by Baptism (in water), followed by Receiving (the gift of the Holy Spirit or being baptized by the Holy Spirit).
B) RBBR: For the sake of ease to remember let us remember the English word RUBBER. When we strike out the vowels we get RBBR where R (stands for repent of your sins toward God), B (stands for believe Jesus as your Lord), B (stands for be baptized in water) and R (stands for receive the Holy Spirit)
C) There is only one exception to this order as we find in the book of Acts in the case of the conversion of the household of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48). But the context makes it quite clear that Peter the Jews would not have baptized them (the Gentile believers) in water until he saw that they received the Holy Spirit just as he had.
AC 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. [45] The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. [46] For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, [47] "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." [48] So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
2) Both the words “conversion” and “regeneration” are used in the New Testament to describe what we know as being born again or entering the Kingdom of God. Let us see how they describe our four steps (RBBR) to being born again.
MEN
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Repent Sins
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Believe in Jesus
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Be Baptized in Water
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Receive Holy Spirit
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GOD
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Conversion
Regeneration
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A) Conversion is man oriented. A man converts himself, a man believes Jesus as his Christ, A man undergoes baptism. This is not to say that God has nothing to do with conversion. The Bible makes it clear that God gives us repentance and even helps us repent, faith is a gift from God. God does something miraculous in the physical act of baptism
B) Regeneration is mostly from God’s side. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God. We can ask, in fact go on asking until Jesus pours out and baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
References: For a more detailed study on the subject refer to David Pawson’s book The Normal Christian Birth (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Normal-Christian-Birth-David-Pawson/dp/0340489723/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313116694&sr=1-1)
and his audio sermons on the subject http://davidpawson.org/resources/series/the-normal-christian-birth
