Rabbi Schneider — Born Again
I believe God's gonna change our lives through His Word today. I've got a special word. Father God, we pray that Your Word would transform us through the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus's name, in Yeshua's name. Amen.
We are in the midst of an exciting series that I'm calling Mysteries in the Gospel of John. We're going through each chapter one by one, and we're continuing today in chapter number 3.
I encourage you to get this entire series. I'm not gonna take time to review. Let's continue now, chapter 3, verse 1: 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 have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.
Notice that it was the supernatural miracles that Jesus was doing that attracted Nicodemus. And it was because of the miracles that Nicodemus came to the conclusion that Jesus was from God. And I want to simply make the point as I've often done that God is still doing signs and wonders today to prove Himself to people.
In fact, we read here in Mark, chapter 16, verse 17: These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison it will not hurt them; and they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
The point is, what attracted such large crowds to follow Jesus in his day was the miracles that He did. And it's true often times today.
In fact, I've read autobiographies, beloved ones, of missionaries, for example, that have gone from the United States to India feeling like the Lord called them to go to be missionaries to India. And they went to India, began to preach the Gospel, and after years they had almost no fruit at all.
They came back to the United States whipped and beaten, discouraged. They felt like failures. And then as they were in the United States still recovering, just trying to get their, their excitement back about Jesus and the Gospel, they were exposed to signs and wonders.
And they were brought then into experience the reality that God is still in the business of doing miracles. Then they learned to operate in it, just simply by having faith, praying for people, and believing God to back up His, His Word. And they started seeing miracles happen.
Get this now. Then they went back to India, preached the Gospel, but this time they also prayed for people, laid their hands on the sick, spoke to people that were possessed by demons, and miracles started manifesting. And they won hundreds of thousands of people to Christ because people witnessed the miracles.
So that's what happened with Nicodemus. That's what happened with the Jewish people of Jesus's day, and beloved, it's still happening today; because sometimes what happens is when you're sharing the Gospel with people, they just think, well you know what, you know that's what you think. You know, this is what I think.
And such and such, and so and so has their opinion. And they think that one opinion, you know, is the same as another person's opinion, that everybody kind of has their own religion, so to speak. But when God starts backing up your witness with miracles; in other words, maybe you share the Gospel with somebody. You just tell someone, you know what, I really believe that God's gonna reveal himself to you, you know.
Jesus loves you. And I believe that something's gonna happen in your life and you're gonna know that Jesus is real. And then you walk away. You go to your car or whatever. And you know what happens? That person that you just told, you know, Jesus loves you and I believe He's gonna do something in your life to make you know that He loves you and to make you know that He's alive, you know what happens?
God cooperates with your witness that you just gave that person. To prove Himself then, He does a miracle in that person's life that you just witnessed to. And that person becomes a believer. So let's not stop believing in miracles. Let's not stop expecting miracles. And let's understand that God attracts people to himself today, often times the same way he did it in the Bible.