Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Read

The New King James Version.

(1982).

(Jn 3:14–15).

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Explain the Narrative.

Moses is leading the people through the wilderness towards the promised land.

He has just changed his mind about the route that they should take and the people become discouraged.

The people begin to complain against Moses and against God.

They start to complain about the food that God has provided.

To put it simply they started to rebel against the LORD.

This angered the LORD and so he sent serpents among them as a punishment.

This shows that God punishes sin.

The people were dying because of the snake bites and this caused the Israelite people to repent of their rebellion and they asked Moses to pray for them so that the snakes would go and the people who had been bitten healed.

Moses prays for the people and the LORD tells Moses to set up a bronze snake on a pole and everyone who looks at the serpent for healing will be healed.

Those who looked lived.

Maybe you are wondering why we have read this story from the history of Israel this morning.

What relevance would that have for us here today?

Well when we read some of the words of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament we learn that this account of the bronze serpent in the wilderness is a very good picture of what Jesus Christ came to do by his death for us on the cross and his resurrection on the third day.

This is what the Lord Jesus said about this account of the bronze serpent in the wilderness.

In the Lord Jesus says; “ 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 have eternal life.”

From the words of the Lord Jesus we see that there are parrallels between what happened there in the wilderness with the bronze serpent and what happened when Jesus Christ died upon the cross.

I want us to spend our time this morning just thinking about two of these parrallels.

The Lord referred to this account from the Old Testament to help Nicodemus, the man he is speaking to in , understand the purpose for his death upon the cross.

The two parrellels or similarities that I want us to see is that both were provided by God to deal with a problem, both required the same response for the problem to be dealt with.

I.Problem

II.

Provision

III.Response

I. Problem

Firstly then we see that both the bronze serpent and the death of Lord Jesus were provided by God to deal with a problem.

The problems they both deal with are very similar.

Both the bornze serpent and the Lord Jesus were provided by God to relieve his people of the punishment they deserve for their sin.

The Israelite people rebelled against God, they complained and they murmured against him.

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

The LORD was angered at their rebellion because he is a holy God and so he sent serpents among them to punish them for the wrong they had done.

God is a God of justice as well as a God of love.

The paralled for us today is the fact that we too have rebelled against God in one way or another, when we told that lie, or did that hurtful thing.

The Bible says “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

In the same was our rebellion against God means that we are deserving of his just punishment.

The Bible says “The wages of sin is death.”

Instead of being bitten by serpents the Bible says the punishment for our sin is much worst.

I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, but we must be honest about these things, the Bible teaches very plainly that hell is a reality.

So there is the first parrallel- The problem

If that was the bad news the next Parallel is the good news.

The provision.

II.

The Provison

God sent the serpents among the Israelite people, and this caused them to cry out to God for help.

Moses prayed for them and so God provided a way for them to be healed.

He told Moses to set up a Bronze serpent on a pole.

The promise was that all who looked to the bronze serpent in faith would be healed and not die.

The Lord Jesus said in that in the same way he would be lifted up and all who look to him by faith for forgivenss will be forgiven.

Here the Lord Jesus is clearly referring to his death on the cross and his resurrection for the dead.

When the Lord Jesus died upon the cross he died to take the punishment for our sin in our place, he paid the penalty for us on the cross and three days later he rose again for our justification.

The Lord Jesus says that just as people looked to the bronze serpent and were healed, so all who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The requirement for both was faith.

The Israelite people had to look by faith at the serpent in order to be healed.

The couldn’t pay for it, they couldn’t try and do better next time, their only hope was looking by faith at the bronze serpent, believing that God would heal them if they did so.

It is the same for us today, we need to look to Jesus Christ by faith in order to be forgiven by God for the wrong we have done and to be made righteous in God’s sight.

We cannot earn God’s forgivness by good works, we cannot rely on our selves to be good enough in the end, we must believe that Jesus died upon the cross for our sin and rose agin the third day and that by believing in him we are freely forgiven by God.

says “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth!”

Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth!

All you ends of the earth!

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

This is what we all must do.

I wonder is that some thing you have done?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Conclusion

So what are the parralels?

Problem- the Israelites rebelled against God and were punished.

We too have rebelled against God in our lives when we sin.

Sin makes us liable for God’s punishment.

Provision- God provided the bronze serpent and all who looked to it by faith were healed by God.

God has provided a Saviour Jesus Christ who died upon the cross of rour sin and rose again from the dead and all who trust in him for the forgivenss of their sin will be forgiven by God.

There is a hymn that has been written on this very theme of look and live I will quote it as I finish.

There is life for a look at the Crucified One,

  There is life at this moment for thee;

Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,

  Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

Look! look! look and live!

There is life for a look at the Crucified One,

  There is life at this moment for thee.

“ 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 have eternal life.”

Lets pray

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.