THE LIFTED UP CHRIST John 3:9-15
We were recently discussing I Corinthians 1:23- “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks.”
Our lesson today may be the beginning of that attitude of Jews in regard to Jesus. Living with him, questioning him, arguing with him… were in one category. But to be told that the long awaited Jewish Messiah would be a born in a barn and raised by a carpenter, would have a servant’s life and die young, and that at the hands of the enemy, was too much to swallow. Now, to add insult to injury, if you are one of the proud people eagerly awaiting your big day, and you hear that you can only be saved by believing in that Messiah who will be lifted up to die on a cross with common criminals, this would be a test of whatever faith you have.
The meeting of Nicodemus and Jesus resulted in a conversation that impacts us today. But Nicodemus has trouble fathoming the story line. He remarks, “How can this be?”-9 Jesus is disappointed, but probably only in the fact that the Jewish religion has gone so far in the wrong direction. See v. 10- Jesus surely has reason to believe that a Teacher of Israel SHOULD know about these things. He indicates to Nicodemus that if they continue on in the same vein, Nicodemus will not gain anything-12.
So Jesus becomes more helpful. He knows if He mentions the Scriptures, Nicodemus will know exactly where they were going. They would then be on the same path, heading in the identical dirction.
In His last hope of success, Jesus says, “Even as Moses…” “Ah, interrupts the Ruler, “now you’re speaking my language.” Jesus continues, “lifted up the snake in the desert.” “Right,” says, Nicodemus, “That’s Num. 21. This is part of my ancestors’ troublesome trip from slavery in Egypt to freedom in their promised land.”
Numbers 21:4-9
They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
The answer for the snake bitten people in the first case was a brass snake lifted up on a pole in sight of all. The answer to all sin-bitten people today is the Son of Man lifted up for all to see.
THE ABSOLUTE, IMPERATIVE NATURE OF THE CASE
The ONLY chance of reversing the deadly venomous bite was a look at the uplifted snake. Can you imagine what some might have said? “This is crazy. We are not kids; you don’t need to humor us.” Or, “Do you think we are mentally deficient? Do you expect us to believe that a look will mean life?”
Immediately we clue in to the fact that what is involved here is believing or having faith. This illustration called up from the Old Testament writings was designed for a purpose, the same purpose Jesus has already spoken of when he said, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”-12 . Nicodemus needed to become a believer in Jesus, in the fullest sense, if he is to experience new birth from above. The people in the camp of Moses would have to believe that someone greater than a fake snake had power to heal. Of course they did. They requested that Moses “pray to the Lord” for them. The Lord is the one who could give them their lives back.
Now it is the Ruler’s turn. Jesus uses the “just as…so” technique to drive home this point. As it was with the case of Moses and the snake-bitten people, so it is with all those suffering from sin poisoning. It would be for their benefit that “the son of Man must be lifted up.” The promise of the next verse is centered in the cross-event, not some general posture of faith. It requires one to believe that “there was one who was willing to die in my stead, that a soul so unworthy might live.”
This concept of the “lifted up Jesus” is not limited to this place in Scripture or to this person. John chapter 8 is a section filled with confused minds, some think one thing and some another. Jesus just wanted them to believe Him! The problem of not understanding Jesus shows up here as well-v.27. Then Jesus states, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. “ The unexplained phenomena at the time of Jesus’ death would cause many to believe and understand.
A more telling verse is found in this same letter, John chapter 12. A reading of verse 23 and following will verify that Jesus is predicting his death which will be his glorification. Jesus says plainly,
“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” -32. John is helpful and explains, “He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.” -33. There is still lingering misunderstanding- v. 34
THE MERE MAGNET OF IT ALL
“I will draw all men to myself”
Isaiah has pointed out that “he has no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”- Isaiah 53:2. This informs us that the “attraction” we are advocating comes in other forms.
This is more than a declaration that a killing was going to take place. It went beyond saying that after he was dead, Jesus would be a drawing attraction. This “lifted up” Christ will be a magnet by virtue of the fact that this type of ignominious execution was reserved for criminals and was not the normal way for Jewish people to punish offenders. In his death on the cross, Jesus was identifying with people who have broken the law and need divine help. “He was numbered with the transgressors”-Mark 15:28. Those who have come to realize the power of the gospel to save us from sin, find it easier to see the significance of this Pagan practice used on our Lord. He had come from heaven to be among us. It was his purpose to identify, in the fullest way possible, with sinful mankind. In spite of the fact that Jesus never committed even one sin of any kind, he was counted with sinners so that we could go free. What better way to imprint this on our hearts than the Roman crucifixion?
The magnetism is seen in another way. For sincere seekers of salvation, it becomes clear that what we had coming to him, Jesus took. The cross says, “Someone must pay for you disobedience. I have chosen to blame it on my Son! You now have the opportunity to go free. Do you believe?” Object lessons always go further than mere words. This is one lesson we won’t soon forget.
It is also a lesson not too late for the learning. Read and heed: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed”- I Pet. 2:21-24
This, in part, is the profound beauty of the cross that is so attractive to seekers.
Henry Ward Beecher said something truly helps us here. “If one should give me a dish of sand and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it and now would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings, only the iron in God’s sand is gold!”
“But I was not there,” you say, “I didn’t have opportunity to live when Jesus was lifted up.” No worry. To people who had never set foot in Jerusalem and had never seen Jesus with their eyes, Paul wrote, “Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.”- Galatians 3:1. This is what happens when the good new is preached to us. We “see” with the “eyes of our heart.”-Ephesians 1:18. Does anybody really believe that Fanny J. Crosby, blind as a small child, never saw Jesus? Her hymns surely rang with the confidence of one well acquainted with the uplifted Jesus. She wrote
Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace;
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace.
When you look to Jesus - when you believe and in your mind’s eye look to Jesus on the cross - the devil’s poison in you is taken away - the devil’s work in you is destroyed. You have to believe and you have to obey.
What do you have to believe? This is not about the degree of faith, i.e, strong, weak, lukewarm, but in the object and nature of belief. You must believe that “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away.” This is faith in Jesus our Sin Offering.
How do we obey? Keep in mind that our text is written to describe a time before the cross took place. These were the days of John the Immerser, who “came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”- Mark 1:4. We learn later that “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.-Acts 19:4
Since we live after the cross we obey what Jesus said after he was crucified. “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned”-Mark 16:15,16
Our obedience will include repenting of sins of commission and omission, being immersed into Christ our Sin Offering, and committing to a life of following Jesus.
This is the way to have the promised “eternal life.”
We can go to heaven without lots of thing, but never without seeing the Son of Man lifted up.
