What Does Being Born Again Have To Do With Prayer And Pentecost And God’s Politics?

Good Morning Friends,

Today on the journey from Easter to Pentecost we look at scripture that describes an event that happened before the crucifixion with a man named Nicodemus, a religious leader, and an event with the disciples that happened after the Holy Spirit event of Pentecost. Hopefully, they open our eyes to the greater possibilities of experiencing God and the role of the Holy Spirit and leadership in this process. In the post Pentecost event, the apostles Peter and John had just faced the first persecution against the first-century church by the Jewish authorities. Unable to legally punish the apostles, the Sanhedrin let the apostles free, warning them not to preach the gospel anymore. The apostles went and joined some of the other believers and, after sharing their recent experience with them, they all looked to God in prayer. The prayer of that first-century church is an extremely reassuring prayer. It changed people, maybe even Nicodemus in his role on the Sanhedrin and it guides us, with companion scripture to a better understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit. And this prompts a question for us today that may have nudged Nicodemus. So, What Does Being Born Again Have To Do With Prayer And Pentecost And God’s Politics?

Scripture Summaries

• Acts 4:23–31 — After Peter and John are released by the Sanhedrin, the believers pray together, recalling how rulers opposed Jesus and asking God for boldness. “When they had prayed, the place…was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
• John 3:1–8 — Nicodemus visits Jesus at night seeking understanding. Jesus teaches that entering God’s kingdom requires being “born from above,” born of water and Spirit, like the mysterious wind.
• John 19:39–42 — After the crucifixion, Nicodemus publicly honors Jesus by bringing about 100 pounds of spices for His burial—an act revealing courage and devotion.
• Romans 8:26 — The Spirit helps us pray when we cannot find the words, interceding “with sighs too deep for words.”
• Psalm 2:1–9 — Earthly rulers resist God’s authority, but God establishes His anointed King and promises Him the nations as His inheritance.

Message: On the road from Easter to Pentecost, Scripture gives us two windows into the work of the Holy Spirit: Nicodemus seeking Jesus before the crucifixion, and the disciples praying after Pentecost. Together they show that being born again is inseparable from prayer, the Spirit, and the way God reshapes our lives—even our politics, loyalties, and leadership. After their first persecution, the disciples didn’t retreat; they prayed. Their prayer acknowledged God’s sovereignty, remembered how rulers opposed Jesus, and asked for boldness. And God answered by shaking the place and filling them with the Holy Spirit. Their courage came not from strategy but from surrender. Nicodemus, a logical man and a leader, struggled with Jesus’ teaching that one must be “born from above.” Yet something changed in him. The man who came by night later carried an enormous amount of burial spices in broad daylight. His actions suggest that after wrestling with Jesus’ words, he awakened to the truth of who Jesus was—and stepped into costly discipleship. Following Jesus is never a private, nighttime hobby. It is a whole‑life commitment that interferes with our comfort. Prayer is part of that surrender. It nourishes the life of God within us. Too often we treat prayer as a way to get things, but Scripture shows prayer as the way we come to know God and discover who we really are. Without prayer, we starve the very life Christ plants in us.

And So, the disciples prayed and were filled with the Spirit. We need that same filling today—not because the world is uniquely bad, but because our hearts are uniquely resistant. The Spirit softens what is hard, awakens what is dead, and empowers us to speak God’s word with boldness and love. This is how the Kingdom comes: through people reborn, praying, and surrendered to God’s transforming grace.

Pray that our places of worship encourage prayer everywhere we go. Pray that we grow in the Spirit, knowing God and knowing ourselves. Pray that our prayers spark holy uprising against the world’s confusion. Pray that we are reborn in thinking, loving, and living. Pray that we proclaim God’s Word with Spirit‑given boldness. Pray that we wrestle with literalism and enter the mystery of faith. Pray that we receive the challenge of God’s love. Pray that we recognize Pentecost as an ongoing gift. Pray that we know who we pray to and who we pray for as God’s people.

Blessings,

John Lawson