:: Second Chance: The Message Behind the Song ::

John 3:1-21 and 4:4-26
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a
member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night
and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from
God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing
if God were not with him."

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the
kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked.
"Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to
be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the
kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh
gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should
not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind
blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell
where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone
born of the Spirit."

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not
understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we
know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do
not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things
and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of
heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one
who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up
the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that
everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but
to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not
condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and
only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but
men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were
evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into
the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives
by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that
what he has done has been done through God."

New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Second Chance: The Message Behind the Song

I’d like to tell you about a lesson I learned a couple of
years ago at one of our family reunions at thanksgiving. I
was playing football and got about half way through the
game and for some reason there seemed to be no oxygen
in the earth’s atmosphere. As I hit the ground for about
the one hundredth time, I decided I would stay down for a
minute or two or three…or four and as I looked around at
everyone who was happily running around I came to a
shocking realization; there were people on this field that
were about one-third my age.

When did this happen?

The lesson was simple. I’m not that age anymore. As I lay
on the ground trying to decide if my leg was still attached
or not, I had a decision to make. I could get up and
pretend that numb legs were normal or I could retire
from football with what little dignity I had left.

I remember playing football when I was growing up. There
was no Internet or video games so my friends and I played
a lot of sports. Now every now and then a small child
would show up and whenever that happened, there
seemed to be a special rule that applied to small
children.   It was called a “do-over”.

Do you know what that is? It means that a small child
would get more than one chance to hit the baseball or
another chance to put the basketball in the rim.   That’s
called a do-over. The skills and abilities of a small child
could never come close to what the older kids could do,
so, there was a do-over.

I got to thinking about that and thought how cool would it
be if there was an adult do-over? Whenever I said
something that hurt someone or did something that
caused someone pain, I could get a do-over. Come to
think of it, there are large sections of my life that I’d love
to go back and get a big do-over.

I think that’s what Jesus was offering Nicodemus in John
3 when He said, “you must be born again.” In other
words, what you need is a second chance to start all over
again, this time with My help.   I think that’s what He was
saying to the woman at the well when He told her that He
was the Messiah.

Jesus is saying the same thing to us today. He is offering
us a do-over, a second chance to get right, to start all
over again, this time with a wisdom not your own. It’s like
being born again.

I call it God’s version of a do-over, a second chance; or in
my case a third chance, and a fourth…

John 4:4-26
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given
to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about
the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the
town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For
Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he
would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never
thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you
now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that
the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet
a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind
of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society