You Must Be Born Again

RICHARD TINKER | President, Life Assurance Ministries |

Editor’s Note: On May 3, 2026, Richard Tinker gave this sermon at Redeemer Fellowship. The subject of being born again is always current, and every one of us who leaves Adventism needs to be born again. I pray this will be a blessing to all who read or listen to it. 

Today we are going to walk through this important story of a night-meeting between two men, both seen as teachers, but one was able to do extraordinary miracles that made him different. We will also look at the message that the miracle worker shared with the other man, and then look at what it means to be born again.

If you aren’t sure if you are born again, this is especially for you.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” —John 3:1-8

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect of Judaism who emphasized piety—they promoted the teaching that Jews were required to keep all the laws of Torah plus more—over 613. Jesus spoke against their legalism often. They were a minority in the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews under their Roman authority. The majority were the Sadducees who taught, unlike the Pharisees, that there was no resurrection. Even though the Pharisees were a minority, they were popular among the people, which gave them control of the Sanhedrin. Another Pharisee of note was Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle to the gentiles and a writer of a large portion of the New Testament. 

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Nicodemus came by night. There is no reason given for his nighttime visit, though Christian teachers have speculated that he was fearful that someone would see him and report his interest in Jesus. Another commentator made the point that Nicodemus was a very busy man as a leader and teacher so that he had no time to meet Jesus except at night.

The word rabbi means “my master”, and during the time of Christ the title was used for someone with the reputation of teacher or wise sage. Jesus was called “Rabbi” throughout his life by his disciples, by Mary Magdalene, and by Judas when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss. So Nicodemus was using an accepted informal title for Jesus. It is interesting that Nicodemus declared that he knew that Jesus was a teacher who came from God—because of the signs in the form of miracles that He was doing.

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus’ response to Nicodemus wasn’t an affirmation or rejection of his declaration about Jesus. Jesus ignored those words and went to the real reason for the visit. Nicodemus needed to face the truth about himself. He was a religious leader that needed new life. He and all followers of Jesus must be born again. It’s not enough to know about Jesus—we all must be born from above to even see the kingdom of God. The kingdom that the Jews were expecting would have freed them from the Romans and would have brought everlasting peace to Israel, but Jesus revealed what His kingdom was like—a spiritual reality of spiritually alive believers. 

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 

Nicodemus’ response is the obvious response anyone might think to say. It’s wonderful that this response is recorded in the Bible—this is the question that anyone without any spiritual insight would ask in a scoffing tone. Anyone already knows that a person can only be born once. But this question by a leader in Israel was followed by Jesus’ wonderful explanation of the new birth that all Christians must experience.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus had already told Nicodemus the condition for seeing the kingdom of God—being born again and needing new life. Now He goes deeper and gives the condition for entering the kingdom—being born of water and the Spirit. 

I believe that water refers to spiritual cleansing. For example, Ezekiel 36:25 says: 

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 

Psalm 51:2, 7 says:

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Titus 3:5 parallels our passage today with this:

…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

We are saved by God’s own mercy by the “washing of regeneration” and “renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Regeneration is being brought to life spiritually, and renewal is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit of making us new. The Spirit that Jesus refers to in our passage is the Holy Spirit—God the Spirit—bringing renewal and life to what was dead. It is completely a work of God that one is born again.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

What is flesh and what is spirit? Flesh is what we see when we look in the mirror. It’s our human body and our human nature. As Adam was created from the dust of the earth and became human, so we are born in Adam’s race—human. We are part of the earthly family.

But what about spirit? “Born of the Spirit”, also stated as “Born Again”, or “Born From Above” are the ways that the Bible talks about our being saved. When we believe and trust in Jesus we are born again—or as this verse states, we are born of the Spirit. The part of us that is born of the Spirit is our human spirit, which is dead, and not alive in the Spirit when we are born. But when we trust and believe in Jesus, our spirit is alive we can worship God. As John says in chapter 4:24, 

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.’”

Why did Jesus say that Nicodemus should not marvel at His words? Because Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews, and he should know about this truth of the new birth. 

In Ezekiel chapter 36:25-28 we read, 

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

Nicodemus knew the words of the scriptures and Jesus chided him for acting dumb. And then Jesus adds these explanatory words concerning the Holy Spirit in verse eight of our passage:

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The Greek word for “wind” is the same word used to say “spirit”. So Jesus took this word and made a statement that compared the blowing of the wind to the actions of the spirit. Neither is visible, but both are powerful forces. So when someone is born of the Spirit, we can’t see the Spirit moving, but we see the results in a changed life.

The New Birth

So that is a brief overview of our passage. We know that Jesus was speaking with a leader of the Jews at night, and that Jesus turned the conversation to a most important topic: the new birth. And Jesus reminded Nicodemus that he should know about this spiritual birth already, as taught in the scriptures. Let’s look more at the new birth, or otherwise called, being born again.

Peter, the most outspoken of the disciples, also wrote about the new birth. In 1 Peter 1 he writes in verses 3-5:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Here Peter states that our God and Father causes us to be born again to a living hope. This hope is not the “I hope so” kind of hope. The Greek word used here for hope means “an eager confident expectation.” It’s not “I hope so”, it’s “I know so!”. As born-again believers, we know for certain that we have an inheritance kept in heaven and guarded through faith—as it says—“a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

How To Be Born Again

Let’s walk through the story of human sin, and how we can become born again. Adam and Eve were created by God as living beings. Genesis 2:7 says,

“…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Literally God gave Adam and Eve a spirit of life. That living spirit of life died when they sinned, and they became spiritually dead, unable to please God and do His will. They were lost and bound over to decay with the rest of creation. This “living death” was passed on to all their descendants which includes the whole human race.

Paul tells us this in Ephesians 2:1–3.

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, … and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

And in Romans 3:10–12, Paul quotes from the Old Testament and describes how unable we are to please God.

“as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME WORTHLESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

Not only are humans dead in sin by nature, but God has bound all creation to decay. Listen to Paul’s words in Romans 8:19–21.

For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

My Story

I was a Seventh-day Adventist for 43 years. As an Adventist, I did not know the truth about our condition before saving faith. Instead of being taught that humans are born dead in their sins, the doctrine of original sin, I learned that we had only inherited “propensities” to sin. My genetics were tainted by sinful desires, but I wasn’t a sinner until I sinned—and that sinning didn’t really count until I reached the “age of accountability.” I’ve learned that there are even respected Christian denominations that teach this idea that babies are born with a blank slate and are not counted as sinners.

But we learned from Ephesians 2 that we were by nature, children of wrath. And Romans 3 stated that none are righteous. So what is the solution?

God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born alive spiritually. He was born into our “domain of darkness” in the form of one of us, but without the curse of sin and death. He was God and Man, and he came into our world to save us from our sins.

Because He was qualified to shed sinless human blood for human sin, Jesus’ death was sufficient to break our death sentence. God knew we had no hope on our own, so He sent us a Substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin! When we trust Him, He brings us to life. 

Listen to Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:4–6.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

God doesn’t just decide to forgive us our sins because He is soft hearted. He is just, and our sin had to be paid for. Jesus death as a sinless man who is also God the Son offered the only infinite, sufficient sacrifice that could satisfy the justice of God. Paul summarized this gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Paul further explains how God reconciled us with justice in 2 Corinthians 5:18–21.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He took God’s wrath on the cross and the Father counted our sins against His Son so He could reconcile us to Himself. Notice that God was in Christ as Jesus took the Father’s wrath for our sin! Jesus took our imputed sin so God could reconcile us to Himself and we could receive His imputed righteousness.

Jesus our Savior opened the way, through his bloody cross, for us to pass from death to life. Listen to the writer of Hebrews explain the blood of Jesus as His flesh.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” —Hebrews 10:19–22 

How Can You Be Born Again?

Our passage today told the story of Nicodemus and his night time meeting with Jesus when Jesus taught Nicodemus the truth about the new birth. But there’s more. The passage that follows is often seen at football games, on billboards, and even tattooed on a few Christian believers. It’s John 3:16. This is how you can be born again. Let’s say it together:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. —John 3:16

But there’s more. I’ll continue reading through verse 21:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” —John 3:17–21

Believe in Jesus. Believe that He, the God-Man, died in you place and paid for your sins. Believe that you are a sinner and confess your sins to Him.

Notice that those who have not believed are already condemned, but those who believe will not be condemned! This belief is not just a knowing that Jesus lived 2000 years ago. It’s belief that you can trust in Jesus.

If you believe in the fact that there is a Golden Gate Bridge, but are not willing to travel over that bridge, your belief isn’t going to get you to the other side. But true belief will trust in the bridge.

That’s the belief in Jesus that brings you life and salvation. Trust Him right now, and be born again!

And for Nicodemus, there is more. When Joseph of Arimathea offered his tomb for Jesus’ body, guess who was by Joseph’s side—Nicodemus. NIcodemus helped in the burial, and even brought a very large supply, 75 pounds, of spices to put on Jesus’ body. There they were, two members of the Sanhedrin doing what even the disciples didn’t do—caring for and burying Jesus—showing their love and respect for him, and I believe demonstrating new birth. †