December 23, 2024 • 33 mins
A Picture of Salvation (Numbers 21:4-9) -Sin & Consequences -Acknowledge they were dying -Look of Faith Motivation for Salvation Necessity of Salvation Be a disciple of Jesus by being the love that only comes from Him
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This is our final Sunday of Advent. We've spent the last three weeks looking at three different aspects that Jesus brings with him.
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It's the same themes that we look at every single year. However, the point is not that we understand these things,
but the point is that we understand that these things didn't stop when Jesus left the earth, but rather they should continue to be seen by us as his followers.
We are to be the hope, we are to be the peace, we are to be the joy that Jesus brought with him in his first coming.
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We're to bring that to a lost and broken world because when he comes again, he's not bringing those things.
He's going to come finish the war. He's going to come crush Satan. He's going to come bring a lot of destruction with him.
But right now, we are to carry the hope and love and joy and peace with him.
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This morning we're going to look at the love that God shows us through Jesus, and we are going to consider how we can be the love to a world that so desperately needs it.
Jeremiah, I don't know where Jeremiah is at. He's going to come and he's going to light our advent candles,
and he's going to read our passage this morning out of John chapter 3. The first candle he's going to light is the...
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Do you know how to do it? There you go, just click it. There you go. Good job, buddy.
The candle of hope. Jesus brings us hope with his first coming. Should we have practiced? Good job.
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Second one, here, you want me to hold your Bible?
Second one we're going to light is a candle of peace. You're cracking me up, dude.
There you go, candle of peace. Jesus brings us peace. We are to be the peace to the world around us.
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The candle of joy. We talked about last week. God fills us with joy. We are to be the joy to others and bring others.
And finally, the candle today of love. We're going to experience God's love and we are to take that love to the world around us.
Come on up here. He's going to read John chapter 3. If you're willing and able, if you'll stand as we honor the Lord's word together,
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He's going to start here in verse 13.
No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses slithered up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,
that whoever believes in him so not pairs but have eternal life. For God to not send his son into the world to condemn the world,
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but in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever believes, who does not believe is condemned already because he is not,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jeremiah. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for his willingness to dishonor you today as he reads your word.
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I pray, Father, this familiar passage will seep into our hearts today. I pray that we will understand the gospel.
I pray that we will understand the words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. And so we give you this time. Pray you speak through your text.
Your name you pray. Amen. Thanks, buddy.
So, John chapter three, here we are. We just read one of the most famous passages in the Bible. I don't know about you, but I memorized that when I was a kid.
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I memorized it in the King James version. So even though as I'm reading this, I still miss, do it because I know it in the King James. It's that well known to me.
But earlier in this chapter, Jesus has confronted Nicodemus with the momentous announcement that he even, he must be born again.
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Although he is a respected leader, although he's a really moral man, even a religious man, he is still lost.
Jesus is still talking to Nehemiah. He is responding to the question that Nehemiah asks him in verse nine. How can this be?
How are you supposed to be born again? What Nicodemus really wants to know is how does this new birth happen?
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And so Jesus answers with an illustration that Nicodemus would never forget.
Jesus ends his conversation with Nicodemus by telling him three things about salvation. The first is a picture of salvation.
He gives Nicodemus this picture in verses 14 and 15. It says,
And as Moses lifted up the servant and the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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And so Jesus is using an event from Israel's history to illustrate his teaching.
Jesus calls to mind a scene that we can read about in Numbers chapter 21.
In this passage, the people of Israel, they're journeying through the wilderness and have recently traveled from the Mount Orr area to,
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that's near the Red Sea, to the borders of Edom, which is where Petra is located.
It is without a doubt some of the most inhospitable territory on the face of this earth.
The Bible says that because of the difficulty of the journey, the people of Israel have become discouraged and they began to complain about,
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against God, they began to complain about Moses, because of their grumbling and because of their murmuring and because they weren't content,
because they didn't worship God anymore but started worshiping other things, God in response to that attitude sends poisonous snakes into their midst
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and many of the people are bitten and die from the snake bites.
Then the people repented and they cry out, we've sinned, we've messed up.
Then the Lord offered salvation through a very strange means.
He commanded Moses to make the image of a serpent from bronze and hang it from a pole.
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That's a weird image to me.
The people who were bitten and the people who were dying could be healed only by lifting up their eyes to the serpent that was on this pole.
They would be saved by inactive faith.
Those who looked up to the serpent were saved.
It certainly goes without saying that the remedy proposed by God through Moses sounds utterly absurd.
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It's a weird story.
The tales of this analogy though are remarkable.
First, this is a story of sin and its consequences.
Nicodemus understood that it was sin that had brought the judgment of God upon the people.
It was a result of their sin that they were dying.
I mean, that shouldn't surprise any of us.
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If you do something bad, there are going to be negative consequences that follow.
Not necessarily immediately, but eventually you will have to deal with your choices.
When my kids were younger, maybe some of you can relate to this.
They would sneak food into their rooms, which they knew was against the rules.
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Mainly because if you leave it in there, it attracts ants and all kinds of other things.
We didn't want that in the house.
At the same time, we tell our kids often at least once a week, hey, go clean your rooms.
You would think that that would be a great opportunity and a great time to maybe get rid of the wrappers
and all the food that they have accumulated in the room.
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But nope, that's not how their brain works.
They pick up the bare minimum, right?
So it looks like the room is clean.
And then mama goes in there one day and realizes that they just been throwing things in the closet,
throwing things under the bed, and so she goes into cleaning mode.
I don't know how it is at your house, but when mama goes into cleaning mode, you better watch out.
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Those are the days I tend to work a little later than usual.
So in the midst of cleaning, she will find the week's worth of food that have been in there,
and there's some punishment for that.
But there's also punishment because the rooms haven't been cleaned the way they are supposed to.
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Now here's why there are multiple wrappers in the room.
Here's why there's not just one, but there's multiple.
Because they didn't get caught the first time.
Because they didn't get caught the first time, they got more comfortable with their sin, forgetting that there are going to be consequences.
So here is Jesus is here with Nicodemus reminding him that sin has consequences.
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Second, the only people who were saved by looking at the bronze serpent were those who acknowledged that they were dying.
These were people who were perishing because of their sin and they knew it.
I believe this is step one for anybody that's going through recovery.
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The first thing you have to do is realize that you have a problem and realize that you need some help.
You can't fix anything where you're not realizing that there is a problem.
I would contend with you that no one is shocked to their core when divorce papers are filed.
There might be some shock that they actually followed through with it,
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but when you start looking at the situation and you start looking back, there were all these warning signs along the way.
And the divorce happens because all the warning signs were ignored.
We just learned to live with the red flags and only seek help when things get so broken that they're almost beyond repair.
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The Israelites had to acknowledge that they were dying.
They had to understand they had ignored all the red flags and that they were going through the wilderness.
They just ignored all the warnings, all the red flags that were given to them.
As they were complaining about God who had led them through the Red Sea on dry ground,
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forgetting that he had provided all these things for them,
they had to come to the realization that they needed some help and they had sinned.
Again, God didn't strike them down the first time they complained.
So it became easier to continue to live in sin.
It becomes easier to complain and walk in sin when you don't get caught the first time.
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But when they got busted, they had to acknowledge the error of their ways.
They had to acknowledge that they were dying.
Third, we dare not overlook the importance of the look of faith.
We have to see the look of faith.
It was by faith that those who were bitten looked at the bronze snake and lived.
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Moses lifted up the serpent in the camp and all of those dying Israelites,
all they had to do was look up at the pole and they would be saved.
No matter how horribly they were bitten, no matter how many times they had been bitten
or how sick they were, the opportunity for salvation was presented before them.
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Even the most degraded and miserable sinner who looks to Christ will be saved.
That is why Jesus used this wonderful illustration with Nicodemus.
Salvation didn't come to those who were just religious elite and did everything right.
This wasn't the morally superior people that were saved.
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It was those who had been bitten, those who were complaining,
those who doubted the goodness of God in unpleasant conditions.
It wasn't just looking at the serpent that saved them.
It was looking at the serpent and believing that if they did, they would be healed.
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It should be noted that it was not enough to know that salvation was offered.
Each man had to look for himself.
Otherwise, God's provision was useless.
Jesus is saying that being born again comes through the simple dependence of a look of faith.
Not by having perfect faith, but by having a little bit of faith.
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Even so, Jesus would be lifted up on a cross and all those who look unto him will be saved.
I'm sure most of us have a story of what that look of faith was for us.
Salvation comes to those who understand their sin has consequences,
who realize they were dying and then calling upon the name of the Lord for them to be saved.
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We each have one of those if we are in Christ.
When you accepted Christ as your Savior, what you were essentially doing
is what many of the Israelites did in the book of Numbers,
what they were doing in the wilderness.
Looking to something that made no sense and trusting that it would save you.
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Sometimes, we're running our lives to Christ, doesn't make sense.
Sometimes we need all the answers.
I know many people that needed all the answers before they can trust,
but faith isn't about having all the answers.
It's about trusting even when we don't understand.
Even when we don't have all the answers.
Even when it doesn't make sense.
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In the story about the Israelites in Numbers,
we don't read that there was a group of people asking
how in the world is looking at that serpent on the pole going to save us?
Nobody's asking that question.
They weren't looking for anti-venom.
I don't know if they had it out back there.
I don't know if somebody was sucking on their legs trying to get it out or what.
I don't know.
They weren't looking for a doctor in that moment.
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They were simply broken.
They were simply broken to the point where they knew they couldn't do anything else on their own.
So they looked up.
In the middle of their pain,
with a cloud of fear hovering over them,
they looked up and trusted it to be true.
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What does your picture of salvation look like?
What was your bronze serpent moment?
Now as Jesus continues, he not only gives us a picture of salvation,
but he gives us the motivation for salvation in verse 16.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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This is one of the best known verses in the Bible.
No doubt because it states the gospel so clearly.
It states the gospel so simply.
It summarizes what the Lord Jesus had been teaching Nicodemus concerning the manner in which the new birth is received.
But Jesus is not through turning Nicodemus' world upside down.
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Because in verse 16 Nicodemus is told that the love of God extends to the whole world.
Now in John's writing the world is not a reference to the physical world.
He's not talking about plants are going to be saved.
He's not talking about animals that are going to be saved.
We're not going to get into all dogs go to heaven this morning,
but that's not what he's talking about.
It's not a reference to the physical world.
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The world that John is referring to is humanity.
The world here includes all of mankind.
Yet this does not mean that everyone is going to be saved.
A person must receive Christ and receive what Christ has done for him before God will give him eternal life.
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The idea that God is concerned with the whole humanity is an idea that Nicodemus would have found shocking.
The idea that God's love extended to those outside of the Jewish faith, Nicodemus would have found insulting if not just shocking.
This was an idea that was almost beyond comprehension for the Jews.
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Remember the prophet Jonah, remember his book?
He could not conceive that God's love included the Ninevites, who were not only just Gentiles,
but were vile and unlovable Gentiles.
Jonah ran because he thought God is going to save him.
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Couldn't comprehend it.
The disciples, John and James, they wanted to call down fire from heaven to torch a Samaritan village in Luke chapter 9.
It took a special vision from God to convince Peter that his plan called for including Gentiles into the church in Acts chapter 11.
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So God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Notice that word believe.
It's accompanied by that little preposition in which means that we have to believe in Christ.
That is we must trust him as the one who took the penalty for our sins.
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I mean this is a personal thing.
This is not your parents' faith.
This is your faith.
This is your choice.
We must each believe that he died in our place.
So if it helps you in your Bible for God so love scratch out the world and write your name.
Write the person that you think is unsavable.
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Write their name.
That means that you must believe that he died for you.
This is a personal thing.
There is no need for anyone to perish.
A way has been provided by which all can be saved.
But a person must acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
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When he does this he has eternal life as a present possession.
Jesus not only gives us a picture of salvation.
He not only gives us the motivation for salvation but third he gives us the necessity for salvation.
In John 3.17 he says,
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
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Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God.
Now when Jesus came the first time, little baby in the manger, when he came as a first time he didn't come as judge.
He made that very clear to the man who wanted him to give a judgment between himself and his brother.
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He said, man who made me judge or divider over you in Luke chapter 12. He didn't come as judge.
He came as savior the first time.
He will come the next time as judge.
But now he says that God did not send him into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved.
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Jesus did not come to condemn an already condemned world. What good would that do?
What good would it do to come judge an already condemned world?
He doesn't say that those who refuse the light will be condemned at a future date.
He says that they are already condemned. They are just waiting for their sentence to be carried out.
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Now if we were to take a trip to the nearest maximum security prison and we were able to get a tour of death row,
you would see inmates who are waiting for the carrying out of their death sentence.
They are not waiting to be condemned. They are already condemned living on borrowed time, just waiting for the sentence that has already been received to be carried out.
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That thought that in a very short amount of time they will die for their crimes should send a shiver down their spine.
But there is something even more horrible still. Every day, every single day,
you come into contact with a host of condemned men and women, condemned by their sin because they have never accepted Christ as their savior.
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They are not condemned to die by lethal injection, but they are still only waiting for the carrying out of a just sentence that their sins demand.
It's a sentence of judgment that people impose upon themselves. The only way to escape that condemnation, the only way to escape that sentence is to believe in Jesus.
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In Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul writes, therefore there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
as his verse so clearly states, in Christ, in Christ there is no condemnation.
Those who are not in Christ are already condemned. The world is lost. You and I live in a lost world.
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Our position is something like a man who is in prison. Ask whether or not he will accept a pardon.
That's the gospel. Will we accept the pardon? It's not telling a man that he is on trial. He's already condemned.
He is already in prison waiting for execution, but the gospel tells him a pardon is offered to him. That's what the gospel is.
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The point is, will you accept the pardon? How wonderfully clear that is. The gospel is to save those who are already lost.
The gospel is to save those who are already condemned. Beginning in verse 19, we are given man's reaction to the light.
We're given man's, our reaction to the light, but we're going to save that for Tuesday night. How about that?
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What we need to understand today is the picture of salvation.
We are sinners, and because of the fact that you and I are sinners, there are consequences.
There's no getting around them. Somebody's going to have to deal with those issues. It's either going to be you.
You're going to have to deal with the consequences of your sin, or someone who takes your place and gives you a pardon, but sin has to be dealt with.
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Then we need to understand the motivation for our salvation because the love of God, the love that God has for us,
the love that God has for those who come to church every single week, he didn't just send Jesus to die for a certain group of people.
He didn't just send Jesus to die so that a certain group of people could be saved, but so that everyone who trusts in him can be saved.
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That means that even if you are struggling to make it through life because you've been bitten by a snake, salvation is being offered to you.
You don't have to wait until you get better. You don't have to do anything except trust that his love for you is all that you need.
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And finally, as disciples of Jesus, we have to understand the necessity of salvation. It might sound arrogant.
It might sound arrogant to say that only those who are in Christ will be saved, but that is reality.
No one else is worthy to pay for the consequences of sin, and no one else is willing to lay down their life for you.
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All other religions on the face of the earth try to give you the power to earn your salvation.
They try to give you a list of things that you should do in order to be viewed correctly by God, but it's impossible.
And far too many people go through life thinking that because they're not robbing banks or murdering people, that makes them good people.
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And God is going to welcome them into his kingdom.
We have to be a disciple of Jesus by being the love that only comes from him.
We have to understand that necessity. When you love someone, you care about the state of their heart.
When you see someone walking in sin, you love them enough, you care for them enough to get them back on the right track.
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Or to even get them on the right track. You want them to experience all that God has to offer them.
If you could care less about somebody's eternal salvation, then you don't love them.
Don't say you love someone if you're not willing to share the love that Christ has offered you.
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It's amazing to me what love can do.
Now, I don't know how much you know about Philadelphia sports fans, but they are known to be a pretty harsh people.
They will boo their own team if they don't think they're good enough.
It has tough media. It's a hard place to coach. It's especially a hard place to play if you are not winning.
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Have you noticed how many coaches they've gone through? Last year, the Philadelphia Phillies signed shortstop Trey Turner to a $300 million deal.
That's a lot of money. He had a great career with the Nationals and the Dodgers leading up to this point,
but he started his first season with the Phillies last year batting 235.
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Now, that's better than I can do for sure, but I don't know if you know much about baseball. That's not a good batting average,
especially when you're getting paid $300 million to do that.
When you're paid that much money, there's expectations that come with that. There's a pressure to perform well.
Not only did he struggle batting, he struggled in the field.
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Now, the shortstop is arguably the most important position in the infield.
And Trey, $300 million Trey, struggled in the field. Many errors, many balls went right past him.
He was in a pretty bad slump. Now, when you're going through a difficult time,
he can really mess with your head. And baseball is a very mental sport.
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Then on top of that, you're going through a difficult time. On top of that, you're in Philadelphia,
and your own fans are booing you every time you strike out, every time you miss a ball.
Basically, any time they see you, you're getting booed.
When you don't have the right mindset, it can and it will affect everything that you do.
In the middle of summer last year, enduring Trey's slump, a fan by the name of the Philly captain,
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got on his social media and asked anyone that was going to the next game to give Trey a standing ovation.
He said, Trey needs some love right now. Not tough love, not Philly love, but real love because he's in his head too much.
So words spread throughout the city and the message was, let's show him some love.
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Trey didn't necessarily deserve it. He was hurting his team more than he was helping it.
He had probably earned the right to be booed, if not even benched, but the city of brotherly love actually tried to live up to that name.
So when Trey came up to bat, when he came onto the field, the entire stadium stood up and gave him a round of applause.
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We love you, Trey. There were signs of support for Trey. Beginning that game in August, Trey went on a 10 game hitting streak.
His batting average climbed to over 370. Home runs started coming. The errors in the field stopped and he even hit two home runs in one inning.
His season was completely turned around and it wasn't because of anything that he had done differently.
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He was practicing throughout the season. He was getting in the batting cage. He was doing field work all throughout the season, but it wasn't helping.
What turned his season around was a group of people showing him that he was loved, showing him that he was supported.
They even made a documentary about it. I encourage you to watch it.
Love can turn somebody's entire world around.
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That's the power of the Holy Spirit that God has put in each and every one of us.
You have a mandate from the Creator of the universe to love the lost world around you.
Tell them to look up.
Give them a round of applause.
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Love them well enough to tell them that God saved you when you were at your worst.
If we are to love the world around us, if we are going to say that we love the world around us,
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then we need to show it.
Sometimes that's a hard conversation, but the way you love somebody, the way you support somebody, the way you care for somebody,
can completely change the trajectory of their life.
We are supposed as a church, we are called to be disciples who make disciples.
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We cannot do that if we don't love people well.
We cannot do that if we keep our mouths shut.
We cannot do that if we cast judgment.
Do you notice verse 17, he didn't send Jesus to condemn the world.
He didn't send Jesus to condemn the world.
The world is already condemned.
But how many of us go through our daily walk with the Lord?
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And we want to experience him.
But still we offer so much condemnation to those around us because they don't live their lives the way we want them to.
I'd be willing to bet that we condemn more people every single day than Jesus ever did while he walked his earth.
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It's not our responsibility.
Our responsibility as disciples of Jesus is to love them well.
And if we haven't loved them well, we need to repent of that today.
So I'm going to pray for us.
I'm going to invite the worship team back up to lead us as we respond to whatever the Lord is calling you to do.
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But the challenge to each and every one of us is how are you going to love others?
How are you going to tell people to look up?
How are you going to stand up when somebody's at the worst and give them a round of applause and tell them they're still loved?
Father, I pray right now that as we respond to you, as we sing to you,
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as we listen to you, that your voice will be heard in our life.
I pray, Father, for those that are in this room that have never once acknowledged that they are dying,
never once acknowledged that they are condemned,
never understood the necessity for salvation.
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I pray, Father, that you speak to them.
I pray that they will call upon your name.
I pray that salvation will come to Cornerstone this morning.
And Father, for those of us that have trusted in you as our Savior,
I pray that we will love others well.
We will love others the way you have loved us, even when they don't deserve it.
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And so, Father, I pray that you speak.
I pray that your Holy Spirit will dwell in this room.
I pray that it will convict us and I pray that it will transform us.
As we respond, I pray, Father, that you will move to you.
Turn to me, pray. Amen.
This is our final Sunday of Advent. We've spent the last three weeks looking at three different aspects that Jesus brings with him.
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It's the same themes that we look at every single year. However, the point is not that we understand these things,
but the point is that we understand that these things didn't stop when Jesus left the earth, but rather they should continue to be seen by us as his followers.
We are to be the hope, we are to be the peace, we are to be the joy that Jesus brought with him in his first coming.
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We're to bring that to a lost and broken world because when he comes again, he's not bringing those things.
He's going to come finish the war. He's going to come crush Satan. He's going to come bring a lot of destruction with him.
But right now, we are to carry the hope and love and joy and peace with him.
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This morning we're going to look at the love that God shows us through Jesus, and we are going to consider how we can be the love to a world that so desperately needs it.
Jeremiah, I don't know where Jeremiah is at. He's going to come and he's going to light our advent candles,
and he's going to read our passage this morning out of John chapter 3. The first candle he's going to light is the...
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Do you know how to do it? There you go, just click it. There you go. Good job, buddy.
The candle of hope. Jesus brings us hope with his first coming. Should we have practiced? Good job.
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Second one, here, you want me to hold your Bible?
Second one we're going to light is a candle of peace. You're cracking me up, dude.
There you go, candle of peace. Jesus brings us peace. We are to be the peace to the world around us.
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The candle of joy. We talked about last week. God fills us with joy. We are to be the joy to others and bring others.
And finally, the candle today of love. We're going to experience God's love and we are to take that love to the world around us.
Come on up here. He's going to read John chapter 3. If you're willing and able, if you'll stand as we honor the Lord's word together,
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He's going to start here in verse 13.
No one has ascended into heaven except he who has descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses slithered up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,
that whoever believes in him so not pairs but have eternal life. For God to not send his son into the world to condemn the world,
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but in order that the world might be saved through him, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever believes, who does not believe is condemned already because he is not,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jeremiah. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for his willingness to dishonor you today as he reads your word.
(03:29):
I pray, Father, this familiar passage will seep into our hearts today. I pray that we will understand the gospel.
I pray that we will understand the words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. And so we give you this time. Pray you speak through your text.
Your name you pray. Amen. Thanks, buddy.
So, John chapter three, here we are. We just read one of the most famous passages in the Bible. I don't know about you, but I memorized that when I was a kid.
(03:56):
I memorized it in the King James version. So even though as I'm reading this, I still miss, do it because I know it in the King James. It's that well known to me.
But earlier in this chapter, Jesus has confronted Nicodemus with the momentous announcement that he even, he must be born again.
(04:17):
Although he is a respected leader, although he's a really moral man, even a religious man, he is still lost.
Jesus is still talking to Nehemiah. He is responding to the question that Nehemiah asks him in verse nine. How can this be?
How are you supposed to be born again? What Nicodemus really wants to know is how does this new birth happen?
(04:43):
And so Jesus answers with an illustration that Nicodemus would never forget.
Jesus ends his conversation with Nicodemus by telling him three things about salvation. The first is a picture of salvation.
He gives Nicodemus this picture in verses 14 and 15. It says,
And as Moses lifted up the servant and the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
(05:10):
And so Jesus is using an event from Israel's history to illustrate his teaching.
Jesus calls to mind a scene that we can read about in Numbers chapter 21.
In this passage, the people of Israel, they're journeying through the wilderness and have recently traveled from the Mount Orr area to,
(05:34):
that's near the Red Sea, to the borders of Edom, which is where Petra is located.
It is without a doubt some of the most inhospitable territory on the face of this earth.
The Bible says that because of the difficulty of the journey, the people of Israel have become discouraged and they began to complain about,
(05:58):
against God, they began to complain about Moses, because of their grumbling and because of their murmuring and because they weren't content,
because they didn't worship God anymore but started worshiping other things, God in response to that attitude sends poisonous snakes into their midst
(06:19):
and many of the people are bitten and die from the snake bites.
Then the people repented and they cry out, we've sinned, we've messed up.
Then the Lord offered salvation through a very strange means.
He commanded Moses to make the image of a serpent from bronze and hang it from a pole.
(06:44):
That's a weird image to me.
The people who were bitten and the people who were dying could be healed only by lifting up their eyes to the serpent that was on this pole.
They would be saved by inactive faith.
Those who looked up to the serpent were saved.
It certainly goes without saying that the remedy proposed by God through Moses sounds utterly absurd.
(07:12):
It's a weird story.
The tales of this analogy though are remarkable.
First, this is a story of sin and its consequences.
Nicodemus understood that it was sin that had brought the judgment of God upon the people.
It was a result of their sin that they were dying.
I mean, that shouldn't surprise any of us.
(07:34):
If you do something bad, there are going to be negative consequences that follow.
Not necessarily immediately, but eventually you will have to deal with your choices.
When my kids were younger, maybe some of you can relate to this.
They would sneak food into their rooms, which they knew was against the rules.
(07:56):
Mainly because if you leave it in there, it attracts ants and all kinds of other things.
We didn't want that in the house.
At the same time, we tell our kids often at least once a week, hey, go clean your rooms.
You would think that that would be a great opportunity and a great time to maybe get rid of the wrappers
and all the food that they have accumulated in the room.
(08:17):
But nope, that's not how their brain works.
They pick up the bare minimum, right?
So it looks like the room is clean.
And then mama goes in there one day and realizes that they just been throwing things in the closet,
throwing things under the bed, and so she goes into cleaning mode.
I don't know how it is at your house, but when mama goes into cleaning mode, you better watch out.
(08:44):
Those are the days I tend to work a little later than usual.
So in the midst of cleaning, she will find the week's worth of food that have been in there,
and there's some punishment for that.
But there's also punishment because the rooms haven't been cleaned the way they are supposed to.
(09:06):
Now here's why there are multiple wrappers in the room.
Here's why there's not just one, but there's multiple.
Because they didn't get caught the first time.
Because they didn't get caught the first time, they got more comfortable with their sin, forgetting that there are going to be consequences.
So here is Jesus is here with Nicodemus reminding him that sin has consequences.
(09:33):
Second, the only people who were saved by looking at the bronze serpent were those who acknowledged that they were dying.
These were people who were perishing because of their sin and they knew it.
I believe this is step one for anybody that's going through recovery.
(09:54):
The first thing you have to do is realize that you have a problem and realize that you need some help.
You can't fix anything where you're not realizing that there is a problem.
I would contend with you that no one is shocked to their core when divorce papers are filed.
There might be some shock that they actually followed through with it,
(10:16):
but when you start looking at the situation and you start looking back, there were all these warning signs along the way.
And the divorce happens because all the warning signs were ignored.
We just learned to live with the red flags and only seek help when things get so broken that they're almost beyond repair.
(10:37):
The Israelites had to acknowledge that they were dying.
They had to understand they had ignored all the red flags and that they were going through the wilderness.
They just ignored all the warnings, all the red flags that were given to them.
As they were complaining about God who had led them through the Red Sea on dry ground,
(11:02):
forgetting that he had provided all these things for them,
they had to come to the realization that they needed some help and they had sinned.
Again, God didn't strike them down the first time they complained.
So it became easier to continue to live in sin.
It becomes easier to complain and walk in sin when you don't get caught the first time.
(11:24):
But when they got busted, they had to acknowledge the error of their ways.
They had to acknowledge that they were dying.
Third, we dare not overlook the importance of the look of faith.
We have to see the look of faith.
It was by faith that those who were bitten looked at the bronze snake and lived.
(11:50):
Moses lifted up the serpent in the camp and all of those dying Israelites,
all they had to do was look up at the pole and they would be saved.
No matter how horribly they were bitten, no matter how many times they had been bitten
or how sick they were, the opportunity for salvation was presented before them.
(12:11):
Even the most degraded and miserable sinner who looks to Christ will be saved.
That is why Jesus used this wonderful illustration with Nicodemus.
Salvation didn't come to those who were just religious elite and did everything right.
This wasn't the morally superior people that were saved.
(12:35):
It was those who had been bitten, those who were complaining,
those who doubted the goodness of God in unpleasant conditions.
It wasn't just looking at the serpent that saved them.
It was looking at the serpent and believing that if they did, they would be healed.
(12:57):
It should be noted that it was not enough to know that salvation was offered.
Each man had to look for himself.
Otherwise, God's provision was useless.
Jesus is saying that being born again comes through the simple dependence of a look of faith.
Not by having perfect faith, but by having a little bit of faith.
(13:21):
Even so, Jesus would be lifted up on a cross and all those who look unto him will be saved.
I'm sure most of us have a story of what that look of faith was for us.
Salvation comes to those who understand their sin has consequences,
who realize they were dying and then calling upon the name of the Lord for them to be saved.
(13:48):
We each have one of those if we are in Christ.
When you accepted Christ as your Savior, what you were essentially doing
is what many of the Israelites did in the book of Numbers,
what they were doing in the wilderness.
Looking to something that made no sense and trusting that it would save you.
(14:11):
Sometimes, we're running our lives to Christ, doesn't make sense.
Sometimes we need all the answers.
I know many people that needed all the answers before they can trust,
but faith isn't about having all the answers.
It's about trusting even when we don't understand.
Even when we don't have all the answers.
Even when it doesn't make sense.
(14:32):
In the story about the Israelites in Numbers,
we don't read that there was a group of people asking
how in the world is looking at that serpent on the pole going to save us?
Nobody's asking that question.
They weren't looking for anti-venom.
I don't know if they had it out back there.
I don't know if somebody was sucking on their legs trying to get it out or what.
I don't know.
They weren't looking for a doctor in that moment.
(14:54):
They were simply broken.
They were simply broken to the point where they knew they couldn't do anything else on their own.
So they looked up.
In the middle of their pain,
with a cloud of fear hovering over them,
they looked up and trusted it to be true.
(15:15):
What does your picture of salvation look like?
What was your bronze serpent moment?
Now as Jesus continues, he not only gives us a picture of salvation,
but he gives us the motivation for salvation in verse 16.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
(15:37):
This is one of the best known verses in the Bible.
No doubt because it states the gospel so clearly.
It states the gospel so simply.
It summarizes what the Lord Jesus had been teaching Nicodemus concerning the manner in which the new birth is received.
But Jesus is not through turning Nicodemus' world upside down.
(16:00):
Because in verse 16 Nicodemus is told that the love of God extends to the whole world.
Now in John's writing the world is not a reference to the physical world.
He's not talking about plants are going to be saved.
He's not talking about animals that are going to be saved.
We're not going to get into all dogs go to heaven this morning,
but that's not what he's talking about.
It's not a reference to the physical world.
(16:23):
The world that John is referring to is humanity.
The world here includes all of mankind.
Yet this does not mean that everyone is going to be saved.
A person must receive Christ and receive what Christ has done for him before God will give him eternal life.
(16:44):
The idea that God is concerned with the whole humanity is an idea that Nicodemus would have found shocking.
The idea that God's love extended to those outside of the Jewish faith, Nicodemus would have found insulting if not just shocking.
This was an idea that was almost beyond comprehension for the Jews.
(17:07):
Remember the prophet Jonah, remember his book?
He could not conceive that God's love included the Ninevites, who were not only just Gentiles,
but were vile and unlovable Gentiles.
Jonah ran because he thought God is going to save him.
(17:28):
Couldn't comprehend it.
The disciples, John and James, they wanted to call down fire from heaven to torch a Samaritan village in Luke chapter 9.
It took a special vision from God to convince Peter that his plan called for including Gentiles into the church in Acts chapter 11.
(17:50):
So God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Notice that word believe.
It's accompanied by that little preposition in which means that we have to believe in Christ.
That is we must trust him as the one who took the penalty for our sins.
(18:15):
I mean this is a personal thing.
This is not your parents' faith.
This is your faith.
This is your choice.
We must each believe that he died in our place.
So if it helps you in your Bible for God so love scratch out the world and write your name.
Write the person that you think is unsavable.
(18:37):
Write their name.
That means that you must believe that he died for you.
This is a personal thing.
There is no need for anyone to perish.
A way has been provided by which all can be saved.
But a person must acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
(18:58):
When he does this he has eternal life as a present possession.
Jesus not only gives us a picture of salvation.
He not only gives us the motivation for salvation but third he gives us the necessity for salvation.
In John 3.17 he says,
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
(19:22):
Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God.
Now when Jesus came the first time, little baby in the manger, when he came as a first time he didn't come as judge.
He made that very clear to the man who wanted him to give a judgment between himself and his brother.
(19:45):
He said, man who made me judge or divider over you in Luke chapter 12. He didn't come as judge.
He came as savior the first time.
He will come the next time as judge.
But now he says that God did not send him into the world to condemn the world but that through him the world might be saved.
(20:11):
Jesus did not come to condemn an already condemned world. What good would that do?
What good would it do to come judge an already condemned world?
He doesn't say that those who refuse the light will be condemned at a future date.
He says that they are already condemned. They are just waiting for their sentence to be carried out.
(20:34):
Now if we were to take a trip to the nearest maximum security prison and we were able to get a tour of death row,
you would see inmates who are waiting for the carrying out of their death sentence.
They are not waiting to be condemned. They are already condemned living on borrowed time, just waiting for the sentence that has already been received to be carried out.
(21:01):
That thought that in a very short amount of time they will die for their crimes should send a shiver down their spine.
But there is something even more horrible still. Every day, every single day,
you come into contact with a host of condemned men and women, condemned by their sin because they have never accepted Christ as their savior.
(21:27):
They are not condemned to die by lethal injection, but they are still only waiting for the carrying out of a just sentence that their sins demand.
It's a sentence of judgment that people impose upon themselves. The only way to escape that condemnation, the only way to escape that sentence is to believe in Jesus.
(21:52):
In Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul writes, therefore there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
as his verse so clearly states, in Christ, in Christ there is no condemnation.
Those who are not in Christ are already condemned. The world is lost. You and I live in a lost world.
(22:17):
Our position is something like a man who is in prison. Ask whether or not he will accept a pardon.
That's the gospel. Will we accept the pardon? It's not telling a man that he is on trial. He's already condemned.
He is already in prison waiting for execution, but the gospel tells him a pardon is offered to him. That's what the gospel is.
(22:45):
The point is, will you accept the pardon? How wonderfully clear that is. The gospel is to save those who are already lost.
The gospel is to save those who are already condemned. Beginning in verse 19, we are given man's reaction to the light.
We're given man's, our reaction to the light, but we're going to save that for Tuesday night. How about that?
(23:11):
What we need to understand today is the picture of salvation.
We are sinners, and because of the fact that you and I are sinners, there are consequences.
There's no getting around them. Somebody's going to have to deal with those issues. It's either going to be you.
You're going to have to deal with the consequences of your sin, or someone who takes your place and gives you a pardon, but sin has to be dealt with.
(23:39):
Then we need to understand the motivation for our salvation because the love of God, the love that God has for us,
the love that God has for those who come to church every single week, he didn't just send Jesus to die for a certain group of people.
He didn't just send Jesus to die so that a certain group of people could be saved, but so that everyone who trusts in him can be saved.
(24:08):
That means that even if you are struggling to make it through life because you've been bitten by a snake, salvation is being offered to you.
You don't have to wait until you get better. You don't have to do anything except trust that his love for you is all that you need.
(24:31):
And finally, as disciples of Jesus, we have to understand the necessity of salvation. It might sound arrogant.
It might sound arrogant to say that only those who are in Christ will be saved, but that is reality.
No one else is worthy to pay for the consequences of sin, and no one else is willing to lay down their life for you.
(24:56):
All other religions on the face of the earth try to give you the power to earn your salvation.
They try to give you a list of things that you should do in order to be viewed correctly by God, but it's impossible.
And far too many people go through life thinking that because they're not robbing banks or murdering people, that makes them good people.
(25:21):
And God is going to welcome them into his kingdom.
We have to be a disciple of Jesus by being the love that only comes from him.
We have to understand that necessity. When you love someone, you care about the state of their heart.
When you see someone walking in sin, you love them enough, you care for them enough to get them back on the right track.
(25:49):
Or to even get them on the right track. You want them to experience all that God has to offer them.
If you could care less about somebody's eternal salvation, then you don't love them.
Don't say you love someone if you're not willing to share the love that Christ has offered you.
(26:11):
It's amazing to me what love can do.
Now, I don't know how much you know about Philadelphia sports fans, but they are known to be a pretty harsh people.
They will boo their own team if they don't think they're good enough.
It has tough media. It's a hard place to coach. It's especially a hard place to play if you are not winning.
(26:39):
Have you noticed how many coaches they've gone through? Last year, the Philadelphia Phillies signed shortstop Trey Turner to a $300 million deal.
That's a lot of money. He had a great career with the Nationals and the Dodgers leading up to this point,
but he started his first season with the Phillies last year batting 235.
(27:05):
Now, that's better than I can do for sure, but I don't know if you know much about baseball. That's not a good batting average,
especially when you're getting paid $300 million to do that.
When you're paid that much money, there's expectations that come with that. There's a pressure to perform well.
Not only did he struggle batting, he struggled in the field.
(27:28):
Now, the shortstop is arguably the most important position in the infield.
And Trey, $300 million Trey, struggled in the field. Many errors, many balls went right past him.
He was in a pretty bad slump. Now, when you're going through a difficult time,
he can really mess with your head. And baseball is a very mental sport.
(27:54):
Then on top of that, you're going through a difficult time. On top of that, you're in Philadelphia,
and your own fans are booing you every time you strike out, every time you miss a ball.
Basically, any time they see you, you're getting booed.
When you don't have the right mindset, it can and it will affect everything that you do.
In the middle of summer last year, enduring Trey's slump, a fan by the name of the Philly captain,
(28:20):
got on his social media and asked anyone that was going to the next game to give Trey a standing ovation.
He said, Trey needs some love right now. Not tough love, not Philly love, but real love because he's in his head too much.
So words spread throughout the city and the message was, let's show him some love.
(28:45):
Trey didn't necessarily deserve it. He was hurting his team more than he was helping it.
He had probably earned the right to be booed, if not even benched, but the city of brotherly love actually tried to live up to that name.
So when Trey came up to bat, when he came onto the field, the entire stadium stood up and gave him a round of applause.
(29:09):
We love you, Trey. There were signs of support for Trey. Beginning that game in August, Trey went on a 10 game hitting streak.
His batting average climbed to over 370. Home runs started coming. The errors in the field stopped and he even hit two home runs in one inning.
His season was completely turned around and it wasn't because of anything that he had done differently.
(29:37):
He was practicing throughout the season. He was getting in the batting cage. He was doing field work all throughout the season, but it wasn't helping.
What turned his season around was a group of people showing him that he was loved, showing him that he was supported.
They even made a documentary about it. I encourage you to watch it.
Love can turn somebody's entire world around.
(30:04):
That's the power of the Holy Spirit that God has put in each and every one of us.
You have a mandate from the Creator of the universe to love the lost world around you.
Tell them to look up.
Give them a round of applause.
(30:28):
Love them well enough to tell them that God saved you when you were at your worst.
If we are to love the world around us, if we are going to say that we love the world around us,
(30:54):
then we need to show it.
Sometimes that's a hard conversation, but the way you love somebody, the way you support somebody, the way you care for somebody,
can completely change the trajectory of their life.
We are supposed as a church, we are called to be disciples who make disciples.
(31:18):
We cannot do that if we don't love people well.
We cannot do that if we keep our mouths shut.
We cannot do that if we cast judgment.
Do you notice verse 17, he didn't send Jesus to condemn the world.
He didn't send Jesus to condemn the world.
The world is already condemned.
But how many of us go through our daily walk with the Lord?
(31:42):
And we want to experience him.
But still we offer so much condemnation to those around us because they don't live their lives the way we want them to.
I'd be willing to bet that we condemn more people every single day than Jesus ever did while he walked his earth.
(32:04):
It's not our responsibility.
Our responsibility as disciples of Jesus is to love them well.
And if we haven't loved them well, we need to repent of that today.
So I'm going to pray for us.
I'm going to invite the worship team back up to lead us as we respond to whatever the Lord is calling you to do.
(32:25):
But the challenge to each and every one of us is how are you going to love others?
How are you going to tell people to look up?
How are you going to stand up when somebody's at the worst and give them a round of applause and tell them they're still loved?
Father, I pray right now that as we respond to you, as we sing to you,
(32:47):
as we listen to you, that your voice will be heard in our life.
I pray, Father, for those that are in this room that have never once acknowledged that they are dying,
never once acknowledged that they are condemned,
never understood the necessity for salvation.
(33:10):
I pray, Father, that you speak to them.
I pray that they will call upon your name.
I pray that salvation will come to Cornerstone this morning.
And Father, for those of us that have trusted in you as our Savior,
I pray that we will love others well.
We will love others the way you have loved us, even when they don't deserve it.
(33:33):
And so, Father, I pray that you speak.
I pray that your Holy Spirit will dwell in this room.
I pray that it will convict us and I pray that it will transform us.
As we respond, I pray, Father, that you will move to you.
Turn to me, pray. Amen.
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