4th February 2026

4th February 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 3:1-13 focus v4-8)


Message (Alan Burke)


There is much that I could say about our ever-increasing individualist culture and how it is impacting everything, but that’s for another time, and these devotions aren’t for me to have a little rant, no matter how much I’m tempted to make them that. Instead, they are about God’s word. Individualist cultures are characterised by, well, individualism, people to whom it is more important being an individual than being part of the community, traits like autonomy, self-sufficiency, independence, uniqueness, as individuals prioritise themselves over the collective group. Here is where I’m going with this: no matter how individualist you are, or anyone is, no one is foolish enough to think that their own choices and decisions impacted the fact that they were born. No matter how individualist we are, we know that our coming into this world relied on the actions of another; it wasn’t our choice; we didn’t will it to be; it was 100% dependent on another. Jesus had told Nicodemus that “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again,” and of course, he is using figurative language to convey a spiritual truth, and it was lost on Nicodemus. 


Part of Nicodemus’ problem was not his knowledge of the scriptures but his understanding of what he knew. He found this concept, the necessity of new birth, difficult because he believed that as a Jew, he was already part of God’s kingdom because he was a descendant of Abraham. Nicodemus thought he would have been confident that he would have entered the kingdom of God, for who he was, he was a Jew, not only that, a Pharisee; he was a stickler for keeping the rules. This would have been like a slap on the face for Nicodemus. Yet the inheritance of God's promises to Abraham was not based on ethnic lineage but on faith in the Christ to come and whom Nicodemus was before (See Gal 3:29 and Rom 9:6–8).


In response to Nicodemus, Jesus responds saying; “I tell you the truth”, literally, “truly, truly”, that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”. Jesus says what he has just said in v3 in a different way, to help to prompt Nicodemus to remember the scriptures. To be born of the water and the Spirit is a picture of spiritual cleansing that comes when we are born again. The water the Jesus speaks of here is not that of baptism; rather, this is Jesus restating what he has already said to Nicodemus but in a different way to try and help and understand what he has just said. It is to the Old Testament that we must look, that which Nicodemus was steeped in, that he would have known from the prophet Ezekiel 36:24–27.


The Lord through the prophet was speaking of what would come, how he would gather his people from the nations, bring them back; he would sprinkle clean water on them, they will be clean; he would cleanse them from all their impurities; he would give them a new heart and put his Spirit within them. Nicodemus would have known this. While natural birth gives physical life, spiritual birth gives birth to spiritual life. Here we are confronted with how none of us are the children of God by our nature. In truth, by our nature, we are his enemies; what is needed is the supernatural work of God; we need God to work in our hearts so that we might believe the gospel. 


Nicodemus should have understood this. That is why Jesus said in v7 you should not be surprised at my saying. For all of us, what is required to see the kingdom of God is that we would be born again by the Spirit. While we cannot see the Spirit move, we can see its effects on the lives of those whom the Spirit has worked. It produces fruit. We are told in Galatians 5 of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of those who are born again. The fruit produced is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Ga 5:22–23). How do we know that we are the children of God, that we are born again? Well, it is because we see those things in our lives, the fruit of the Spirit’s work. Sometimes we will see that fruit clearly, but sometimes we won’t, but we should always be looking to God and that he would work in us by the Holy Spirit, that as he gives new birth, that we would know the fruit in our lives.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q89 How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.
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