You must be born again

Jesus told a religious leader, a good man by any human measure, that unless he was born again he could not even see the kingdom of God. The word Jesus used means both "again" and "from above", and your Bible prints "from above" so you do not miss the second half: this is a birth God does, not one you arrange. Nicodemus took it literally and asked how a grown man could go back into his mother's womb. Jesus answered with the two things this whole chapter is about: water and Spirit. "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."

But something happens before the water. Look at how it happened to you, because it is the same pattern as Acts 2. First you heard. "Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ." Somebody preached, or a friend spoke, or you read something, and God's word reached you. Then it convicted you. The crowd at Pentecost were "cut to the heart". That feeling of being found out, of being seen right through, was the word of God doing its work.

Then you believed. Faith is being fully persuaded that Jesus is who he says he is and did what the Bible says he did. Then you confessed, which means two things: you agreed with God's verdict that you were a sinner, and you owned Jesus as Lord out loud. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." And then you repented. Not just regret. "Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death" (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance is a turn: your mind changes, your heart breaks, your will decides, and your feet go a different way.

Peter's answer to "what should we do?" is the answer for everyone: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." That is the new birth Jesus described to Nicodemus, in the order the apostles gave it. The next two sessions take the water and the Spirit one at a time.