TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” John 3:3
Read: John 3:1-17
Listen: John 3
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Nicodemus sneaks off in the night. He’s heard about Jesus and maybe even heard Jesus teach. He wants to know more, but it’s risky. Nicodemus is a man of high position and prestige. He’s a spiritual leader and a good person. But Jesus is a different kind of rabbi than Nicodemus has ever encountered, and he wants to talk to him. Jesus completely upends Nicodemus’s perception of what it means to be good with God. It’s not about doing more or being better. It’s about being born again. Nicodemus doesn’t seem to have a category for what Jesus says. Jesus explains to him what he means. It’s about being born into the family of God through belief in Jesus. That’s what he must do if he wants real life. That’s the message of Jesus.
It’s the same for us today. We can’t earn our way to God. We can’t be good enough or follow some set of rules. We can only find real life through believing in Jesus. There’s something else that is true, though. We can be born again. Jesus would go on to say that he didn’t come to condemn the world but to save it. It isn’t just that we can’t be good enough—we don’t have to. We can be born again no matter what’s in our past or the size of our mistakes. Jesus wants a relationship with us. We must be born again and can be born again.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
Acknowledge that you need to be born again and that there’s no way to earn it. Thank God for Jesus’s death on the cross on your behalf. If you’ve already believed Jesus is the only way to real life and have accepted his gift, spend some time thanking God for the gift of life today. If you’ve never done that and would like to talk about what that looks like, reach out to us at btw@adabible.org.
2023 SPIRITUAL PRACTICES
Join us all of 2023 developing a different spiritual practice each month. SPIRITUAL PRACTICES are intentional regular activities to deepen our relationship with God and mold us to be more like Jesus.
July is SOLITUDE. Keep track of our spiritual practices at beyondtheweekend.org/spiritualpractices.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
