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Text: John 3:3-5

I. The first miracle reveals God’s power

A. Life is created by God

1. God’s almighty power in the creation of man

2. His power revealed in every new life (no exceptions to this, even when that life is a result of rape or results in some handicap)

B. Life, therefore, belongs in God’s hands

1. Man is not to usurp that right (God has placed certain rights concerning life and death in the hands of the government, but the government must use those rights only as God has directed)

2. God wants us to defend people’s lives

II. The second miracle reveals God’s grace

A. Here again, God alone can give us this life

1. We cannot earn it

2. A child is not born with it

B. God works this life through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament

1. Baptism brings this life to little children

2. This second miracle is the reason we also want to defend the first miracle (Both are important: the first birth needs to take place so that the child can be born again in Baptism; the second birth needs to take place so that the first birth may not end in eternal death.)