Sand Mountain Sermonette 70
Revelation 22:20
Have We Forgotten: “Ye must be born again!”?
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20
Nancy and I began our ministry as a pastoral family at Beymer Memorial United Methodist Church in Winter Haven, Florida, in 1989. While serving there, I was invited as a young minister to present a Sunday evening vesper’s service at one on the high rise assisted living facilities near the church. I remember enjoying being with some of our own church folks who lived in that facility and being showered with their kindness and receptivity to my being there, but I will never forget the question posed by a sweet little old lady who walked up to me following the service—words I have often pondered since that day. She asked me, “Brother Mabrey, why don’t Methodist preachers, preach “Ye must be born again, anymore?” And I remember vividly her question’s finding the quickest route possible to the deepest recesses of my heart the moment she asked me that question. I didn’t really have an answer for her regarding other ministers, but I knew deep within that I must never neglect my calling as a minister to preach the gospel message with clarity and with sincere and passionate commitment towards keeping the main thing the main thing in the future! And that being keeping the main thing the main thing: Christ and Him crucified, risen, returning, and the only way to the Father. Scripturally speaking, this dear lady was referencing John, Chapter Three, where Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus at night inquiring as to His true identity because he had a heart which was open to know Jesus as God’s true Son. And, in refence to a discussion Jesus and he were having regarding physical and spiritual birth, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [literally, “born from above”], he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Why should we preachers and teachers never neglect “Ye must be born again in our proclamation of the gospel? Because John the apostle tells us in today’s verse that Jesus is coming back and when He does, He’s not coming back to be the Savior as He entered the world to be at His First Coming, He’s coming as the sovereign King and Judge of all people as appointed by His Father! Jesus loves you! Have you experienced the new birth?
Pastor Louie