“Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’”-John 3:5-7
Was coming to accept and live for Jesus everything you thought it would be? Have you been surprised by anything along the way? Things ever get difficult and you find yourself saying something like, “I thought coming to Jesus was suppose to make my life better, not harder.”?
In my devotional time I came across a few passages that I found interesting. All of them used the phrase, “Don’t be surprised” or a variant of it. Jesus and some of His disciples used this phrase to cast light on some things that should be expected by those who follow Jesus.
A surprised reaction is a startled response caused by an unexpected event. So with that in mind, the passages that we will look at focus on things that should not catch us off guard or seem unexpected to us as we pursue following Jesus.
Jesus begins right here in John 3:5-7 telling Nicodemus, a Pharisee, that following Christ requires that he be born again; not of water, but of the spirit. Humans can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. We were all dead in our sins, until we repented of our sins and received Christ’s forgiveness. It as as this point that we a made new creations in Christ and are born again spiritually.
There are some people out there that are going to be surprised to find out that Jesus truly is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one gets to the Father except by Him. They are going to be shocked to discover that being a good person is not enough and that going to church is not enough, but rather you must have a personal relationship with Jesus if you are going to make heaven.
That “Don’t be surprised” moment takes on even greater significance when we read what Jesus says in John 5:25-29:
“And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
Jesus emphatically states that we should not be surprised to hear that the dead will someday be raised and stand in judgment before God.
There are some people out there that are convinced that God is a God of love, however they will be shocked to find that He will also, one day, judge the world as well. They will be surprised to find that He is as equally just as he is loving.
Scott Burr
Dayspring Community Church
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