Transcript

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Words can't really express how much I've been looking forward
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to this time together, especially the beginning of this
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week. It's really a fascinating
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thought, if you think about it. Not just in this place right
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here, right now, but all over the world.
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There are millions of people who profess Christ, yes, and we
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trust that many have put their faith in Christ in a genuine
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way. But just imagine the sea of
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people this evening that are celebrating the fact that they
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are no longer condemned before God, that their eternal life is
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secure, that they have hope not just for tomorrow, but forever.
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And I am so glad that we can remove ourselves from the
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distractions of life, the responsibilities of life, all
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the noise and common focus as a family on what truly matters in
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this life. First, John 5 tells us that he
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who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of
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God does not have life. And as I've been praying about
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our time, my heart was drawn to a particular passage, more
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specifically a conversation that the Lord Jesus Christ has with a
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particular individual. He had many encounters with
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people, but this one stood out to me because Jesus in this
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conversation teaches a teacher, and he's no ordinary rabbi.
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This man that he converses with is one of the most prominent
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elite in structures in Jesus day.
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And in this conversation, the crux of it is that Christ is
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conveying to him how he and anyone really can attain eternal
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life. He references Scripture in the
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Hebrew Bible that moves me, and I'm praying that it will move
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you. You see, Jesus does not go to a
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clear prophecy about the Messiah, even though he fulfills
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hundreds of them. Nor does he point to the
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principle found in the sacrificial system that speaks
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of a component of the ministry of the Messiah to come.
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Instead, he reaches back to a particular episode in the early
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history of the people of Israel to show what it takes to be
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saved. And I'm convinced that if Jesus
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did not make this analogy between the miracle and His
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mission to the cross, very few would see how this scene points
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to the Savior, the Savior who we are worshipping and adoring
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tonight. And so this passage is what we
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are going to focus on. Many, if not all of us know John
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316 by heart. But I wonder if anyone knows
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what Christ said to Nicodemus immediately before.
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Here's what He said in John 314 and 15.
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As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up that whoever may believe in Him will
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have eternal life. What is it about their moment
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that shines a light on Christ and what He does and what He is
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able to do for us? Well, let's go there together.
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In Numbers chapter 21, Jesus clearly references to a tragic
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episode of the Israelites in their wilderness journey, and I
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want us to look at it more carefully to see what it reveals
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about our Lord. Numbers 21, beginning in verse 4
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from Mount Hor, they set out, by the way, to the Red Sea to go
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around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the
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way, and the people spoke against God and against Moses.
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Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
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wilderness? For there is no food and no
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water, and we loathe this worthless food.
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Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and
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they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died, and
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that people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we
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have spoken against the Lord and against you.
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Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.
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So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, make
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a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is
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bitten, when he sees it shall live.
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So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, and if a
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serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and
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live. I want to divide this real
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story, this testimony, into three main categories.
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Hopefully it will be very easy to remember.
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I want us to look at the people's sin, and then I want us
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to see the people sentencing. And lastly, we're going to
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consider and spend most of our time looking at the people's
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Savior. What did this people do, this
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covenant people of God, to warrant the Lord to unleash a
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band of fiery serpents to strike them?
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Well, we're clearly told here that their complaint was not
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merely toward Moses, their leader.
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It was toward God himself. So the first thing that we can
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see here, obviously, is that they were condemned for the evil
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of false accusation. Ever since the beginning, Satan
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has consistently and many times successfully persuaded
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individuals to question God, to question his character, to
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question his motives, to question his ways and his
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decrees. And we find that even in the
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garden with our first parents. How Satan the Evil 1 was
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successful in convincing both Adam and Eve to question the
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goodness of God because he prohibited them from eating from
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that forbidden tree. And now, many, many years later,
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we look at this people called Israel and they are echoing.
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They are following and continuing the legacy of our
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first parents because here they are also questioning God's heart
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and his dealings with them as he promised to bring them safely
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into the promised land, and yet they believe that he was going
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to kill them instead. This is what's before us.
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The sin that's being committed here is the mischaracterization
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of who God is and the rejection of the intent behind His word,
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suggesting that what He has to say is either untrue or it is
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something that He is doing with dishonorable motives.
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But that's not the only sin in view.
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Here we come and we realize that there is a shocking
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demonstration of ingratitude. Notice here that they complain
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one that there is no food or water, even though God is
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sustained with food and water consistently.
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But they also turn to what they call worthless food.
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Well, you just said that you didn't have food, So what is
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this food that you're talking about?
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Complaining has a way of blinding us to our blessings,
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but what they are highlighting is nothing more than the manna,
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this heavenly substance that God granted to them on a daily basis
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for decades. Now, I want you to understand
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something. What would it sound like to you,
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if you think about this more carefully, of a people who
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consider something worthless that they didn't work for, that
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they didn't pay for, that they didn't travel for something that
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was brought to them right before their tents day in and day out.
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This is a complaint, yes, but it's also a violation of God's
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goodness. It vandalizes his character.
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Even though he showed incredible patience toward them and their
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parents, they still slapped them in the face and they still
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charged him, and they still refused to acknowledge that he
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was good. I will never forget being struck
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by the words of Jude in the New Testament.
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And you don't have to turn there where he tells his readers and
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he warns them really of the Lord's coming and final
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judgement on the earth. And he says this word over and
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over, the ungodly, the ungodly, the ungodly.
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And finally he categorizes what the ungodly are and who will be
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judged. And the first one on the list in
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Jude's short epistle are grumblers.
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Grumblers. Now, why am I bringing this to
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your attention? Very simple.
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I want to show that what we have before us in this story is
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another sobering reminder of the sins that invite God's
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judgement, the sins that make us guilty before a holy God.
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You and I may not view it as serious, but we have to remember
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God is infinitely more holy than we are.
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Impatience toward God, accusations against God,
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murmuring about his dealing with us and in the world, these are
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the very crimes that made this people guilty.
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And the standard of our righteous and holy Creator only
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becomes more clear when the Lord Jesus Christ arrives on the
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scene. And he teaches there on the
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Sermon of the Mount that it's not only our deeds, it's not
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what we say out loud, but even the thoughts and the intents of
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our heart make us guilty as though we've actually committed
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them. I can't tell you the amount of
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times that I've talked to people who do not believe in Jesus
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Christ. And as I take them to the Word
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to show them what it means to truly be righteous with God's
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standard, they deflect. And their knee jerk reaction
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was, I am a good person. And they're absolutely certain
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that if they were to stand before this God, that they would
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be granted eternal life, enjoying His presence because
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they earned it. It's as silly as looking at a
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blank wall. And here you have bow and arrow
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in hand, and you shoot it at this empty wall.
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And then you run up to that wall wherever you hit the mark, and
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you take out a red marker and you draw a little circle around
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it and you say, I hit the bullseye.
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That's how silly we look when we say that we actually attain
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righteousness before God, when in reality, God did set a bull's
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eye mark. And every man, whether they
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realize it or not, attempt to make that mark.
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And we do not just miss the mark.
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We don't even hit the wall. Paul says all have fallen short
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of the glory of God. And so we see the sin of this
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people. Does it remind you of anybody?
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But now we come to their sentencing.
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What do we find here in verse 6? Let's read it again.
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Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and
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they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.
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This principle isn't difficult to grasp, is it?
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What the Lord made known in Genesis with a serpent in a
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garden, He reveals again in a wilderness with serpents.
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Sin leads to death. Sin produces the cessation of
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life, primarily life towards God in our spiritual man, and
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ultimately the cessation of this body and a second death, which
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is really eternal separation from God.
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Death did not exist in Genesis 1 and 2, but it entered into a
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world because we made the choice to disobey God.
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It's the fruit of our distrust and a God who has nothing else
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but good in mind for us. And that's what we find here.
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We find this repetition, this theme that's consistent in the
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Bible and redemptive history. And for centuries, man has
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attempted to reverse this accursed condition.
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Even today, there are popular podcasters, are there not, who
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want to try to live immortal, to pump all these pills and to do
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all these different tricks to try to live on.
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And when they realize they fail and every generation does learn
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that they can never come close to succeeding over the
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sentencing man then tries to explain, explain death apart
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from the truth and all these philosophies and all these ideas
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and all these notions that contradict what God says about
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it. But there's more here than just
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being faced with the wages of sin being death.
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All the Bible is so specific. We're also reminded here that
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sin brings pain. Isn't that interesting in verse
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6 that the serpents that were released we're no ordinary
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reptiles? We're told that they were fiery.
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Now there's debate among some if this description is meant to
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show what they look like, or if it's what the venom produced
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when fangs were struck and sank into the flesh of these rebels.
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I believe the latter is more likely fiery serpents, the
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inflammation that would race through the veins, the pain that
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would cramp in the sinews, in the muscles, this invisible heat
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that would consume the organs and shut them down.
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What we're being reminded here is that sin also brings torture,
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not just to our bodies, in our world, in our relationships and
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how we perceive and how we deal with one another.
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And as I was looking at this the other night, I was thinking
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about Genesis 3 when we opened the door to sin to come in
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originally. And you don't have to turn there
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again, but let me read these words to you as the Lord walked
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in the cool of the day and he found Adam.
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And then after pointing out that they have sinned, he turns to
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the serpent, and he says something to the serpent.
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He turns to Eve and he turns to Adam and he pronounces
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judgement. Listen to what he says to Eve in
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Genesis 3/16. To the woman he said, I will
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surely multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain, you shall
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bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to
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your husband, but he shall rule over you.
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Notice what he says in the next verse.
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Genesis 317 And to Adam, he said, Because you have listened
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to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which
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I commanded you, you shall not eat of it.
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Curse is the ground because of you in pain.
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You shall eat of it all the days of your life.
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I want to remind you that every ache in your bones, every sting
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from someone's unkind words, every sense of betrayal, every
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natural disaster, every terrorist attack, every school
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shooting is a loud and clear reminder that sin brings pain.
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It wasn't part of God's original plan.
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Pleasure was God's original plan.
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Life, everlasting life, was what He desired for us.
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And so we see the sentencing. It's true for us as well.
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May look different, but it is true for us.
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And I want to say something to you.
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Sometimes the effects of man's evil are sudden, and other times
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they leak in slowly. Sometimes sin makes things
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explode and other times sin erodes.
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But one thing is certain, sooner or later the consequences of sin
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will be felt in this life one way or another.
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Now we come to the people Savior.
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This is where I want to spend most of the time.
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It's at this particular point Christ captures and then
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provides the true interpretation to Nicodemus.
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And it's so plain to us, isn't it?
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In the same way that this bronze serpent was lifted up so that
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those who would behold it would be redeemed and rescued from
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their poison. As Christ was lifted up, whoever
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would look on him with the eyes of faith will also be healed and
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rescued from the poison and the penalty of sin.
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But there's so much more, so much more in this if you just
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look at it carefully. And I want to bring up some
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thoughts that I hope will stir your heart to worship the wisdom
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of God in this awesome book before us.
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First, I want you to see how precise the Bible is.
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Moses was not commanded to take one of the serpents that shot
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out of the sand and then to place it on the pole.
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Was he told to do that? God told him to make a bronze
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serpent. Why is that significant?
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Well, it makes more sense if you believe that this points to
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Christ. It reminds me of what Paul says
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to the Romans in Romans 8. Three, that God sent his Son in
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the likeness of sinful flesh. In the likeness of sinful flesh.
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The Holy Spirit guided Paul very carefully in his wording here.
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What Paul is saying is that although Christ in his
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incarnation is fully and truly man, he was not sinful as every
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man is. That's why he says in the
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likeness of sinful flesh that once again Christ did become
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every part man. Where he stopped short is
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inheriting A sinful nature. And when we come to the story,
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we realize that this was previewed in Numbers chapter 21,
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that the serpent on the pole was made in the likeness of these
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fiery serpents, but it did not possess any poison.
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In other words, the bronze serpent identified with the
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other serpents in a substitutionary sense, as though
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it represented them, and it was bronze saying why is that
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important? Because bronze as a material in
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the Old Testament, especially even in the new, is a consistent
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pointer to judgement. So this bronze serpent, this
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material that speaks of judgement, is not corrupt.
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It's not intrinsically contaminated like these other
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serpents that are Slytherin around all this, even this
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points to Jesus Christ. But then we come secondly, what
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do we notice? Consider how the raised serpent
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became the sole source of this people's salvation, and consider
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how simple it was to receive its healing power.
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The people were not told to look to anything in the Tabernacle.
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The people were not told to even look at Moses, for that matter.
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God singled out this icon, set it apart, raised it up.
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It says this and this alone shall you look upon.
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And this thing which moves me was detached from anything with
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the law. All the Lord was asking for from
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this people was their faith. Just believe I've prescribed
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this. I'm asking you now to trust me
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in it. But there's more.
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He lifts it up. Why is that important?
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He lifts it up so that it can be visible to everyone.
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Now you know what the Lord could have said.
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All right, you guys all rebelled against me.
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Crawl. Go touch it.
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Drag your poisoned body, and hopefully you'll make it.
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Or he could have let the serpent just be on ground level.
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Right? All right.
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This will benefit those who are closest to this thing.
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No, He raises it up as a banner. Why?
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Because He wants to make it as available as possible.
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How do we make sense of this? Well, it's not Christ.
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Equally gracious that no matter how far the poison of sin has
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spread in your life, no matter what kind of destruction it
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brought about, no matter how weak it has made you, Christ has
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ordained that man can be saved simply by looking to the cross
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and believing with your heart that he loves you.
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And he's willing to remove the penalty and even the power of
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sin from your life. No matter where you are, you can
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see him and you can receive from Him.
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Certainly this is a statement of the grace of the Lord Jesus
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Christ, but I argue it's more because what Jesus offers in the
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New Covenant is far greater than what's happening here.
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Let me give you 1 instance of why.
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Look again at verse 7. And the people came to Moses and
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said we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and
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against you, prayed to the Lord that he take away the serpents
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from us, and then the Lord gave the solution to Moses.
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Is that how it happened with you and I on this side of the cross,
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the God the Father send the Son only when you and I as the human
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race were sick and tired of what sin was doing in our world, so
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we collected our faith and cried out to the heaven and says
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please save us. Is that what we did?
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Is that when the Lord said now it's time they've humbled
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themselves, go and fetch them. No, this is what we learned
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according to Romans 5 and verse 10.
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For while we were enemies, for while we were enemies, we were
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reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
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When your back was towards Him, when you were loving your sinful
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life, when you were consciously disobeying the will of God, it
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is that posture of yours and mine that we offer to Him as
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Adam's race. And yet still the Father sends
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the Son, and the Son willingly goes to rescue us while we were
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enemies. That being said, I think it's
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very important to establish that we are not universalist.
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That just because Jesus Christ tasted death for everyone does
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not mean that every person, no matter what they do or what they
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believe, will automatically be saved.
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That is untrue. And we see instances of personal
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responsibility even here in this story.
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Notice that no one could look for another.
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Everyone was responsible to plant their eyes on the bronze
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serpent for themselves. And in like manner, please
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listen carefully. You can't depend on your mom's
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faith or your father's faith. Salvation is not a family
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package. It doesn't matter if your older
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sibling, who might have invited you tonight, looked upon Christ.
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It doesn't matter if your spouse looked upon Christ.
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Have you? Did you make a conscious
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decision of placing your full trust in the finished work of
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Jesus Christ for your salvation? He already made it so simple for
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us, but you also have to respond as you're moved by the
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simplicity and the richness of that invitation.
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Besides that, you might consider this that there are some who
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would look to this story and think it's absurd.
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What is a bronze serpent being lifted up have to do with
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healing? How is that logical?
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How does that make sense? Interestingly, that same kind of
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attitude is anticipated when it comes to the gospel message.
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Do you remember what Paul said in First Corinthians 118?
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That the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
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perishing? Where's my effort in this?
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What is a Jewish man who claimed to be God being crucified by the
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Romans and the Pharisees have to offer me?
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If God is real and heaven is real and hell is real, how does
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this line up? You know, if you actually had
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more or less than self-righteous religionists write this story
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for themselves, they might change it up a little bit.
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Instead of the idea of looking upon something and believing
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that it is enough to redeem you, there might be the instruction
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for every Israelite for himself. Exterminate those serpents.
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Team up and get rid of them. So that sounds silly.
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They were already bitten, yes, But that's what we're doing
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today in society, is it not? What are we doing here as a
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culture? What have we been doing since
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the beginning of time? Dealing with the consequences of
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sin? With human philosophy, man made
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ideology, being told by others? Suppress, reform, resist in your
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own strength. Here's another school of thought
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that can bring enough self esteem here.
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Here's another idea that could bring inner healing.
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Here's a way for you to attain Christ's consciousness.
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All these different concepts and all we're really doing is trying
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to swat away these serpents that have already successfully
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poisoned us. So if you struggle as a skeptic
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with this story, not just with the account itself, but with the
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idea that looking at something is actually going to help me.
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More importantly, looking at Jesus with the eyes of faith and
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receiving him is actually going to save me.
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Can I remind you that this is God's idea did not originate
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with man? Was it Moses that went to the
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Lord and says, Lord, you know, I have an idea.
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Why don't we take a bronze serpent and why don't we lift it
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up on a pole? That wasn't from Moses, it was
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the Lord's. Equally true, the plan of
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salvation was determined from eternity past.
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Men did not conjure it up. Bunch of disciples in Jerusalem
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thousands of years ago didn't think about this idea so that
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they can gain popularity in their unique movement.
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No, in fact they all died for this movement.
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So we see something clearly here about Jesus and what he offers
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us in the simplicity of it and how demands our humility in
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order to benefit from it. Let me make a final point.
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I want you tonight to consider the efficacy of God's provision
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in Christ that outshines what we see in this account.
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This is not the last time that you and I read of the bronze
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serpent. And for those who come on Friday
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night Bible studies, you remember this from our recent
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study that you see it appear much later on.
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We're talking 800 years after this moment, long after the
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people of Israel were established in the Promised Land
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and a Kingdom arose and different kings that most of
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them failed to uphold God's standard of righteousness.
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We do come to 1 king by the name of Hezekiah, and he's a
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righteous man and he longs to bring spiritual renewal and
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revival to his people. So what does he do?
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He starts a campaign to consecrate everything and part
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of that campaign was to destroy idols, idols that the same
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people who experienced the true and living God we're now
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worshiping. And here's what we read in
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Second Kings 18 verse 4, as this is our final verse for tonight.
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He, being Hezekiah, removed the high places and broke the
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pillars and cut down the ashra, and he broke in pieces the
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bronze serpent that Moses had made.
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For until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to
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it. It was called Nehushtan.
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So obviously this symbolic serpent meant a lot to the
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people of Israel. They preserved it for centuries,
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but like many good things, they made it into an object of
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worship. And at this point, it became a
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regular event for these citizens of Israel to offer things to
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this bronze pole and to worship it.
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But here's what's so astounding to me.
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There is no evidence whatsoever that it could do anything for
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the people, that the only healing virtue that flowed from
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it was available on this particular awful day in Numbers
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chapter 21. So they memorialized something,
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but it was just that it was a memory.
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No matter how many sacrifices they made before, it could not
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heal anyone. No matter how long they stared
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at it, it could not heal them. But then remember, this points
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to Christ. And we know that Christ was
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lifted up in our calendar today, around 2000 years ago.
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Here's the difference. You today, sitting in that Pew,
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if you're a Sinner, if you know that you are not saved, you can,
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with the eyes of faith, look upon the gospel message, Believe
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that He died for you. Believe that if you repent and
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trust them, you can be saved and you will be saved.
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It will work. What Jesus Christ did on the
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cross 2000 years ago still has power.
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It can transform you right here, right now.
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Isn't that why we've gathered here?
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We're not here out of ritual. We're here because we want to
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sing and we want to honor Christ for what He's done in US.
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And I'm sure if we take the next hour or two and open this pulpit
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up for people to come up and share what Christ has done for
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them, you would realize that what He did 2000 years ago still
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has power in 2025. And that's where I want to
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conclude before we break bread. Are you in sin?
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Do you know down deep in your heart you don't believe in
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Christ? He's not your Lord, He's not
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your Savior. It's very possible that you're
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here and you've heard all these truths before you.
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You've probably even heard a sermon out of Numbers 21, like
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what you just heard in this past 30 minutes.
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But it hasn't moved you, hasn't convicted you.
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But perhaps even now in the sound of my voice, there is
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there is a feeling you've never known before, and that is
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conviction. And your eyes are beginning to
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open up and realize there's something here.
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There's something here if you are experiencing that conviction
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for sin, if you realize in this moment something about the love
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of God, don't silence your conscience.
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Scripture says today if you hear His voice, today if you hear His
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voice. And so if you hear His voice
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today, I want to invite you to make the most important decision
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that you can make in this life. And that is to renounce your sin
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and to recognize that God loves you and that every vile thing
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that you have done, the poison you've allowed in your life, the
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poison that you have brought to other people's lives, anything
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and everything can be forgiven if you in this moment want to be
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forgiven. Do you see Him?
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Is this truth real to you in this moment?
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Do not take that for granted. That's a supernatural act of
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grace, and it's your moment to acknowledge that Christ is
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calling you home and that you can be born again.
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Do you realize that when Jesus shared that analogy from John
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chapter 3, it's in the context of him teaching about what it
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means to be born again? What does it take to be born
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again, to be new, to be spiritually revived?
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What does it take? Look, look upon him.
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What do you mean? Like, what am I looking at?
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Like a screen? No, no, no, in your heart of
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hearts you behold His love, you understand the implications of
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His sacrifice on the cross, and you respond to that message.
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Thank God we don't have to go anywhere.
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Thank God we don't have to jump through hoops.
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Thank, thank God there isn't this elaborate process before we
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get God's attention. He has already lifted up His
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Son. All you have to do is look upon
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Him by faith.