Look To Jesus..and Live...

Look to Jesus..and Live

John 3:14-21

13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[b] have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Earlier in John chapter three Jesus has confronted Nicodemus by telling him..that even he must be born again.

Jesus is here talking to Nicodemus, responding to the question Nicodemus posed in verse nine, “How can this be?”

What Nicodemus really wants to know is, this new birth you talk about...how in the world can you be born again?

And so Jesus answers with an illustration he will always remember

Jesus ends his conversation with Nicodemus by telling him about salvation.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder-ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus reminds Nicodemus of Jewish history..He reminds him of a historical passage that he already knows about..but just needed to be reminded of

We find it in the book of Numbers 21:4-9 NKJ

4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.

5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”

6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

7 Therefore 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.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.”

9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Now what we find here..is the people of Israel are on their journey to the promised land

There are no amenities..no star bucks..no drivethru's..

just some of the roughest terrain on the earth.

TBS that because of the difficulty of the journey the people became discouraged and began to complain against God and His servant Moses

And because of their grumbling and complaining..

God in response sends poisonous snakes into their midst and many of the people are bitten and die from the snake bites

There's only one thing to get your attention When you're in a situation...

And that's a bigger situation that suddenly happens with worst consequences..

then the one you're going through and complaining about in the first place

We as adults and parents… Sometimes tell our kids the same thing.

If you want something to complain or cry about..

I'll give you something to complain or cry about..

has anyone ever heard those words before?

TBS..Then the people repented and cried out, “We have sinned”

And God responded and made a way of salvation…

What he did was..He commanded Moses to make the image of a serpent from bronze and to hang it from a pole.

And all the people who were bitten and were dying could be healed only by lifting their eyes and looking at the serpent.

Nothing else would work to make a way for salvation…

Except by doing what God told them to do..