A New Creation – Pt 4

Once again to John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel. We find ourselves
in chapter 3. John chapter 3. Several weeks
ago I introduced to you a basic outline. We haven’t deviated
from that at all. It is really quite simple. Jesus is having a dialogue with
a man named Nicodemus. There is, in those first few
verses, those first three verses, that initial confrontation where
he initiates this dialogue with Nicodemus. Then there is a clarification. Some of the things that Jesus
says are clarified in verses four through eight. And then
in verse 9 and following, the dialogue really intensifies. That’s where we find ourselves.
We’re in the midst of that intensified dialogue. And if you would, as
you know, the passage really begins back in chapter 2 verse
23. If you would, let’s pick up there
in our reading together. Now, when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing
his signs, which he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not
entrusting himself to them. For he knew all men, and because
he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself
knew what was in man. Now there was a man. named of
the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man
came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you
have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs
that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered, truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can
a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time
into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit
is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said
to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes
and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes
from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of
the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can
these things be? Jesus answered and said to him,
Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify
of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things
and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? No one has ascended into heaven
but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the
Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might
be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not
judged. He who does not believe has been
judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment. that light
has come into the world and loved the darkness rather than the
light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates
the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds
will be exposed. But he who practices the truth
comes to the light so that his deeds might be manifested as
having been wrought in God. Jesus engages Nicodemus. Nicodemus
comes to Jesus by night. We don’t know what his motives
were, and we stopped short of criticizing him for coming to
Christ at night. But he comes to Christ, and Jesus
knows his heart immediately and calls him to faith. He tells
him that he must be born again. That hits Nicodemus. very hard. Nicodemus doesn’t
know what to make of it, and he immediately begins to query
the Lord as to really the reference of being born again. And Jesus
clarifies. Jesus knew that he was there
for the kingdom’s sake. Jesus knew that he was wondering
whether he might be the Messiah. And Jesus goes right to the heart
of the matter. You must, Nicodemus, be born
again. The conversation intensifies. And in verse 9 we pick it up
and Jesus saw fit to, as we discovered last week, rehabilitate himself
as a witness. And the first thing he does in
verse 11 is remind Nicodemus that he stands already having
rejected the truth. He stands in that company of
people, the greater part of mankind that really had already rejected
God. He says, we speak of what we know
and testify of what we have seen. And you do not accept our testimony. Jesus knew his heart. Jesus knew
the hearts of all people. And so he calls Nicodemus to
that one fact, that Nicodemus stood already having rejected
Christ and His testimony. Jesus rehabilitates Himself secondly
by this astoundingly simple testimony. Look at verse 12. If I told you
earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe
if I tell you heavenly things? And we looked at those things.
Repentance from sin. How much more basic is that?
That all men are sinners in need of a Savior. That’s the earthly,
basic, bottom line truth that Jesus was driving home. But then
he says this in verse 13. In the course of rehabilitating
himself as a witness, He says that no one has ascended into
heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, and unquestionably
He confirms Himself as the only one. The only one who could ever
speak to these things. The only thing that has been
with God from eternity past and has come down to men. We began to consider what Jesus
had in mind by heavenly things, and that would certainly fit
that Jesus Christ was with God in eternity past but now has
come down. The very fact that Jesus was
there and talking with him as God in the flesh was a heavenly
thing. But Jesus has more to impart
to young Nicodemus and he does that beginning in verses 14 and
15. That this salvation that Jesus has already
informed Nicodemus of is secured by faith in Christ’s finished
work on the cross. It is secured by faith in Christ’s
finished work on the cross. As we begin to look at the nature
of this revelation of the Son of Man set forth in this verse,
Jesus, having already rehabilitated himself as a witness, now imparts
this new heavenly mystery. He’d already begun to open up
these heavenly truths to Nicodemus, but there is more heavenly revelation,
and we see it here in verses 14 and 15, where one called a
second divine Jesus very abruptly alludes to an incident from Israel’s
history here, an incident that is shrouded in mystery. As one called it, the fact related
in Numbers 21 is one of the most astonishing in sacred history,
and the Jews held it to be so. They didn’t know what to do with
Numbers 21. They didn’t know what to do with this episode
of the fiery serpents. One described it as a strange
Old Testament story. The Jews themselves were always
a little puzzled and perplexed by this incident, especially
in view of the fact that they were absolutely forbidden to
make graven images. In other words, this story never
made it to the top ten most endearing moments in Israel’s history. They’re going to help this off
as a really strange incident that seemed out of concert with
who God was. It was strange, seemingly out
of character with God, without precedent, without explanation,
without repetition. It was just this inexplicable
event. Jesus seizes upon that incident
in Numbers 21 to introduce one of the greatest truths in all
of Scripture. Tuck a finger or your bulletin
or something in John chapter 3, if you would, to Numbers chapter
21. Fourth book of the Bible, And if you would, find your way
to chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21. In the book of Numbers, where we find
ourselves here in chapter 1, we pick up the nation of Israel
in the midst of their wilderness wandering. They are near the
end. Moses will die soon. And they’re
closing in on the promised land, and expectedly, for any who had
company this week. Tempers are running high. Four
years in the desert? We can empathize with that. Look
at verse four. From Mount Hor, they, that is
Israel, set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the
land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way.
Are we there yet? But they have bigger complaints
than that. And the people spoke against
God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out
of Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food and no
water, and we loathe this worthless food? So the people begin to
complain, perhaps murmuring under their breath at first, but then
growing and erupting into this vocal rebellion. And from our
perspective, it’s easy to be critical of them. But if you
listen to the description of this area and what God is doing
in taking them through this desert, I think we can begin to empathize
with them a little bit. Here’s one description. The low-lying
plain of the Ereba, which runs between the steep mountain walls
from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea, would be most likely to
furnish the Israelites with very little food. except the manna
which God had given them. For although it is not altogether
destitute of vegetation, yet on the whole it is a horrible
desert with loose sandy soil, drifts of granite and other stones,
and the want of food might be very frequently accompanied by
the absence of drinking water. Now for those of us who don’t
care much for camping and sleeping in the dirt, at least three of
us, You can begin to empathize. They’re out there, wandering,
and sometimes it just seems purposeless. Moses has this plan, and they
just keep wandering. For 40 years! God has them precisely where
He wants them. chastised and utterly dependent
upon himself. He has led them around these
40 years through this formidable desert. He has been their provider,
and yet still they bristle, they complain, where is God? They wonder. When they complain
about this worthless food, that’s what they’re talking about. That
word worthless speaks of something that is just utterly vile. How
can God continue to feed us this stuff? Well, as you know, God
sees it. God sees everything. And He hears
it. And God responds. Verse 6. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people and they bit the people so that many people
of Israel died. God heard their complaints and
He judged it as sin and responded accordingly with severe chastening. Arguably, the only judgment that
I could think of that was worse than this was the response to
the rebellion of Korah where thousands were swallowed up by
the earth that day. This was a severe judgment. God
sends what are identified here as fiery serpents, snakes. And we don’t know exactly what
the term fiery refers to here. There have been several explanations. One said the snakes had red heads. I suppose that’s possible, there
are such snakes. Another suggested that it was
the glistening of the sun off of their scales that rendered
them kind of hard to look at. That’s a little bit of a stretch
for me personally. The third suggestion was that
This fiery referred to the pain and the burning that the bite
rendered. But when these snakes bit, the
venom as it began to course through their body was painful to the
degree of being described as fiery. It was inflammatory. Note the graphic descriptions.
The people in the wilderness, bitten by the fiery serpents,
the virus spreading through their veins, causing burning pain and
death. This was a terrible, dreadful,
awful judgment. It was for a purpose. And it
quickly served its purpose. Look at verse 7. The people came
to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He take away the
serpents from us. You imagine this, this scene where people
are all beating a path, can’t wait to get to Moses. Please
go in to your tent and start praying right now because these
things are nasty. Sin brings judgment. Judgment
brings this remorse. Perhaps this remorse is only
due to the consequence that they are experiencing. But they do
acknowledge their sin. They have offended both God and
Moses by their complaining. Their acknowledgement of their
sin intends to serve as their repentance. And they immediately
plead with Moses to plead on their behalf, intercede to God
for them. And Moses graciously consents. Look at the end of verse 9. So
Moses prayed for the people. And God not only hears Moses’
intercession, but he provides a remedy for the consequence
of their sin. And it’s important to note, it’s
absolutely crucial for you to acknowledge that God does not
take away the consequence. God doesn’t take away all the
snakes. God doesn’t take away their inclination
to bite sinful humanity. He could have, but He doesn’t
drive away the snakes. The snakes will remain as the
sinners remain, but He does provide a remedy. Strange as it sounds,
the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set
it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall
live. Now we have very little information
here on this, but God tells Moses to make a snake. And it’s obvious from what follows
that Moses was not merely ordered to stab a snake with a spear,
a real snake, and hoist it into the air. Instead, he was to fashion
a snake and place it on top of a polar standard. That’s what
happens in verse 9. So Moses made a bronze serpent,
and either Moses sensed that he had the prerogative of the
Lord to choose this material, or God blessed the material that
Moses chose. The material that he chose was
bronze of some sort, perhaps brass or copper. Some said that it was because
of the color of that metal when the sun was shining upon it.
But it was called a brazen serpent. And it was placed upon a pole
and placed, perhaps even carried throughout the camp. Some of the people, as they were
bitten, repented. But the implication of the passage
seems to suggest that not everybody appreciated this new method.
Not everybody felt like God was being reasonable here. Let me tell you a little history
about this brazen serpent. You may know this. The brazen serpent ultimately
was very carefully preserved, even after this incident. So
carefully preserved that it became an object of idolatry. And Israel
hung on to this brazen serpent. And in 2 Kings we read in the
third year of Hosea, king of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah
the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was 25 years
old when he began to reign and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in
the eyes of the Lord according to all that David his father
had done. He removed the high places, broke
the pillars, cut down the Asherah. He broke in pieces the bronze
serpent that Moses had made. For until those days, the people
of Israel had made offerings to it. It was called Nehushatan. They sinned even in God’s provision. And you know what? The sin really
continues. We are told that a church in Milan, Italy, a Roman Catholic
church, still claims to possess the original brazen serpent. Let’s go to the purpose of it,
should we? As we begin to look at this passage, Jesus alludes
to that incident in Numbers 21. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. So that whoever believes will
in Him have eternal life. In what way or in what sense
did Moses lift up the serpent? In what way can it be said that
Jesus and His participation in God’s plan of redemption mirrors
that? Jesus’ words in John 3 suggest
what I would point to as five redemptive parables with Numbers
21. First of all, the redemptive
mystery of Christ is seen in the likeness as obedience to
God’s command. Obedience to God’s command. It’s
really simple in Numbers 21. The Lord said and Moses obeyed. The Lord told him what to do
and he did it. The first similarity, the first
likeness that we observe in these parallel passages, and they’re
parallel passages, we know they’re parallel because Jesus Christ
himself declares it so. The first thing that we notice
is that in the episode of the fire… in the same way in obedience
to God’s command. He is submitting himself to God’s
plan of redemption.