Born Again: Pulling Up the Weeds Before the Harvest

Introduction

This second session in the "Workers for the Harvest" series tackles a simple but decisive question: before you can reap a harvest, you have to pull up the weeds. Pastor Sakurai draws on John 3 and the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus to show that no spiritual harvest is possible until the new birth has taken place in your heart. It is not knowledge, nor religious activity, nor regular church attendance that makes you a disciple: it is being born from above, of water and the Spirit. This teaching wants to help you check where you truly stand, grasp what really happens when you believe in Christ, and walk in the center of grace instead of clinging to its edges.

Outline of the teaching

1. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night (John 3:1-2)

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a teacher in Israel, recognizes that Jesus comes from God. Yet he approaches him by night, discreetly. He represents someone who knows a great deal about God, who respects the teaching, but who has not yet understood the essential.

2. Seeing the Kingdom: being born again (John 3:3)

Jesus cuts the compliments short: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The Kingdom is the realm God governs. Wherever God reigns, in a relationship, in a heart, in a community, the Kingdom is already spreading. The full Kingdom is heaven itself. But in both cases, you must be born again to gain access to it.

3. Born of water and the Spirit (John 3:4-8)

Nicodemus does not understand: how can a man be born again? Jesus explains that one must be born of water and the Spirit. Sakurai offers a simple reading: water evokes physical birth ("that which is born of the flesh is flesh"), and the Spirit evokes the new spiritual birth ("that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"). Being born of the Spirit is mysterious like the wind: you do not see where it comes from or where it goes, but you can see its effect.

4. The bronze serpent, an image of the cross (John 3:13-15; Numbers 21:4-9)

To receive eternal life, one must look to Christ lifted up, just as the Israelites looked at the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness. The serpent symbolizes sin; the bronze symbolizes judgment. The lifted-up bronze serpent said: "Sin has been judged." Christ on the cross does not merely symbolize that judgment, he accomplishes it. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

5. "God so loved the world" (John 3:16-17)

The cross reveals the love of God (1 John 4:9-10). It is not primarily in answered prayers that fit your own convenience that you measure the Father's love, it is at the cross. God did not send his Son to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. His love does not retreat one inch because of your failures.

6. Light and darkness (John 3:18-21)

Whoever does not believe is already condemned, not because God is out to get them, but because they refuse the light. People prefer the shadows when they do not know that forgiveness exists. Once you know you can be forgiven, you can come out into the light and live in the open.

7. Being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; Luke 11:13)

Sakurai closes with a pastoral warning: do not walk right up to the line. Do not test how far you can go before it becomes sin. Walk in the center. And be filled with the Spirit, not with other things that take up all the space. The Father gives the Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13).

Key takeaways

• No harvest is possible without first pulling up the weeds: the new birth is the first condition.
• Knowing Jesus intellectually, going to church, serving in the church: none of that is the new birth. The dividing line runs through this question: have you been born from above?
• If you have been born again, there is necessarily a "before and after": you become sensitive to your sin, you want to respond to God, you are frustrated when you fail to, and that alone is already a sign that the Spirit is present.
• The cross is the proof, fixed in history, that God loves you. That love does not depend on your spiritual performance.
• Do not aim for the minimum. Walk in the center. Seek to be filled with the Spirit every day, even if it is just a thirty-second prayer.

Personal application

1. When you look at your life, do you see a "before and after" Christ, even a small one, a desire to respond to God, an awareness of sin, a longing to forgive?
2. What do you base your assurance on: what you do for God, or what Christ did for you at the cross?
3. Is there an area of your life where you are walking "right up to the line" instead of walking in the center of the path? What is the Lord telling you to do about it?
4. Do you take a moment each day (even thirty seconds) to ask the Father to fill you with the Spirit?
5. Is there someone around you that you can pray for, that they might come to the light and meet Christ?

Verses cited

• John 3:1-21 · Nicodemus and the new birth
• John 3:16-17 · "God so loved the world"
• Numbers 21:4-9 · The bronze serpent
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Christ made sin for us
• 1 John 4:9-10 · Love revealed at the cross
• Romans 5:5 · The love of God poured out by the Spirit
• Romans 7 · Paul's struggle with his sin
• Romans 8:15 · The Spirit of adoption
• Galatians 3:2-14 · The Spirit received by faith
• Galatians 4:6 · "Abba, Father"
• Ephesians 5:18 · Be filled with the Spirit
• Genesis 2:7 · The breath of life
• John 6:39-40 · The will of the Father
• Luke 11:13 · The Father gives the Spirit
• 1 Peter 3:21 · Baptism, the pledge of a good conscience

FAQ

Is water baptism necessary to be born again?

Sakurai does not rule out that reading, but he does not hold to it. He points to the criminal crucified next to Jesus, who was never baptized and to whom Christ nevertheless says: "Today you will be with me in paradise." Baptism remains very important (it is a pledge of a good conscience toward God, 1 Peter 3:21), but it is not what saves you. It is faith in Christ crucified and risen.

How do I know if I am truly born again?

Sakurai offers a simple, pastoral test: are you bothered by your sin? Do you want to respond to God and feel frustrated when you fail to? That inner discomfort, that thwarted desire, is already the work of the Spirit in you. Before Christ, no one cares about pleasing God.

I'm a Christian, but I barely think of God during the week. What should I do?

This is not necessarily a problem of faith, Sakurai says, it is often a problem of "filling." Work, family, and hobbies take up all the space. Ephesians 5:18 says: "Be filled with the Spirit." Start with thirty seconds of prayer each morning: "Father, fill me with your Spirit, help me remember you today." The Father gives the Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13).