You Must Be Born Again

The Red Pill and a Question of Experience

Pastor Scott opened with honesty about his own spiritual experiences, and what he expected from life as a pastor. He recalled moments of God's presence, not all equal in intensity or frequency. He shared a pivotal story:

"In early 2001... however long, I guess it was 10 or 15 minutes of experiencing Him in a powerful way in my life. It was like the red pill. He revamped how I thought about things in the world."

This awakening didn't just clarify faith, but changed how he saw money, success, and the point of life. Yet he noted, not everyone gets a moment that feels so clear. His son once asked why he hadn’t had such an experience even after growing up in church. This honest question prompted Pastor Scott to reflect on how we can know so much about Jesus and still not have met him personally.

Criteria and the Limits of Religious Knowledge

Growing up in the church, it can be easy to think belonging or knowledge is enough. Pastor Scott explained that salvation isn't just about "meeting benchmarks." It's something deeper:

“It is honestly between you and the Lord if you’re born again, because it’s not by human decision. God’s the initiator.”

He explored John 3, where Nicodemus, a religious leader, a man who knows all the right answers, comes to Jesus by night. Despite all his credentials, Nicodemus does not understand what it means to be born again, or how God’s Spirit works. This, Pastor Scott stressed, is not about rule-following or passing a test, but about receiving what only God can give.

The Context: John’s Gospel and the Story of Israel

Pastor Scott walked us through the setting of John’s Gospel, painting a picture of the Jewish context, worship at the temple, the history of God’s people failing and craving human kings, and Jesus entering the scene as the king they didn’t expect. He tied the language of water and Spirit to Israel’s redemption through the Red Sea and the cloud, a baptism from slavery to freedom, and a journey led by the Spirit.

“You need to be baptized. Because somehow with Jesus saying this, when He says very truly, I have to say to you all this morning, when Jesus says very truly, that means this is something you really need to pay attention to.”

For Pastor Scott, baptism isn’t just ritual. It marks our entry into God’s family, a visible response to God’s invisible grace. But he’s careful, baptism alone isn’t magic: “You can go down a dry sinner, come up a wet sinner.” The point is to be born new by grace.

The Work of Grace: Receiving, Not Achieving

Much of the morning’s weight landed here: We cannot just decide one day to make ourselves new. We cooperate, we respond, but the Spirit moves first:

"You must be born again. You have to receive the Spirit... You don’t, how do you do that?... You can’t by human decision just simply say, 'I want the Spirit.'"

Pastor Scott challenged the tendency in Western churches to reduce being born again to head knowledge or checking a box. Wholeness does not come from our manipulation, but as a gift. When we’re ready to receive, “the teacher shows up,” again and again, through the Spirit. This led him to share stories of people who try to buy or bargain with God, as in Simon’s story from Acts, or the marketplace in the temple, but real transformation is not for sale.

The Spirit and Heavenly Knowledge

Returning to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Pastor Scott highlighted how “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Human effort can take you to the water, but only God makes new life. Earthly wisdom cannot give us heavenly eyes.

He recounted how Jesus pushed Nicodemus: a religious teacher, yet missing the most basic spiritual reality. Personal knowledge, the kind that can’t be argued or borrowed, is the sign: “when I start testifying about things that the Lord has done for me.”

“Personal knowledge begins when I start testifying about things that the Lord has done for me... if you have personal knowledge of how God operates and how in His power and His grace, all these things, then the kingdom of God is at work in you.”

Looking to the Lifted One

Pastor Scott turned to the story of Moses lifting the bronze serpent in the wilderness. Israel’s people, wounded and desperate, looked to what God provided for healing. In Jesus, lifted up, we are called not just to look but to entrust ourselves for new birth. Being bitten by the world’s brokenness is a reality, but healing comes by looking to Jesus.

"If you’re born again while this world’s doing those terrible things to you, if you’re looking to Jesus who’s been raised up on the cross, let me tell you something. You’re born again because of the Holy Spirit revealing to you the heavenly things."

Living It Out

Being born again isn’t a one-time transaction or a matter of reciting facts. It is the daily posture of openness to God’s renewing grace, of surrendering our criteria and being honest about where we need new life. If we have knowledge but not the Spirit, we are not truly alive. God’s invitation is to receive, to respond, and then to let the world see the difference.

Discussion Questions

1. Pastor Scott talked about having “personal knowledge” of God’s work rather than just information. Where have you recognized God at work in your life in ways you could never have planned or manufactured?
2. What do you think it means to “see” the kingdom of God, as Jesus told Nicodemus? How might God be inviting you to notice His work in seemingly everyday moments?
3. How does the idea that being born again is God’s action, not something we earn or decide on our own, challenge or comfort you this week?