High & Lifted Up

The Reflection of Nicodemus— (Vs. 9)

Nicodemus here is reflecting on what Jesus has just told him and he’s lost as last years Easter egg. He’s definitely not picking up what Jesus is putting down. Jesus has even went as far as explaining to Nicodemus how this must take place and he’s still not understanding.

Now, this is no wonder as Nicodemus at this point was a lost man and the Bible says in...

1 Corinthians 2:14 — But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Spiritual things of God are spiritually discerned and understood and a lost man does not have the Holy Spirit of God living within him thus the reason none of what Christ was telling Nicodemus here was making sense to him.

Notice The Response of Jesus.

The Response of Jesus — (Vs. 10-12)

Vs. 10

Listen this morning friend, you can be the brightest bulb in the box but if you’re not connected to a source of electricity, you’re brightness won’t do you a whole lot of good now will it?

Nicodemus was the brightest man in all of Israel when it came to the law but his knowledge wasn’t doing him a whole lot of good in this very moment because he wasn’t hooked in with the right power source!

He was hooked in with the law but the law had no power to provide salvation thus leaving him in the dark!

But praise be to God when you’re hooked up to Jesus you’re hooked into the light of world, Amen!

Vs. 11-12

He says here, “Nicodemus, I’ve explained to you the simple things and you don’t believe me! If you can’t understand and believe the simple things how will you understand the deep things of God that tell you?”

Look at what else He says here…Jesus said, “I’m telling you things I know w/o a doubt. I’m testifying to you of things that I’ve seen and experienced with my own eyes Nicodemus! Yes, I could tell you of Heavenly things because that’s where I came from before I was sent here but if you won’t believe the earthly things I’m telling you then there’s no way you would believe the Heavenly things I could tell you of!”

Then Jesus takes it a step further and gives Nicodemus a Revelation of Himself. Look what He says next to Nicodemus

The Revelation of Himself — (Vs. 13-14)

Vs. 13

Jesus said, “look Nicodemus, the reason I am able to tell you all these things and reveal to you how they work is because these are Spiritual workings that originated in Heaven and well, seeing as that was my humble abode before coming here, I know a thing or two about them!”

Now the Bible says something here that is often times overlooked but when you truly understand what it’s saying and let it settle in your heart dear friend, it will change your whole outlook on the God we serve this morning!

You see, every other religion in the world tells you what “you must do” to get to their deity or their god but notice what this verse tells us right here....Our God came to us!

Do you see that? God said there’s no way man can get to me on his own so God came down from Heaven to dwell with His creation and ultimately to deliver us from our short comings by sacrificing Himself for us and defeating the enemy that held us captive!

Romans 5:8 — But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The Creator delivered Himself unto death to save His Creation! No other god that I’ve ever heard of has sacrificed themselves to save their people!

God came down to us so that we might be able to go up to Him, Amen!

Notice I said, “that we “might” be able to go up to Him.” You see whether or not you go up Heaven or down to Hell depends on what you do with the one who came down for you!

Let’s look at what Jesus said next here to help us understand this point a little more clearly.

Vs. 14

What exactly is Jesus saying here you ask? Nicodemus, who was an astute theologian of the Old Testament, would have known exactly what Jesus was referring to here. But for us to understand, we need to go back to the Book of Numbers, Chapter 21 and look at verses 4-9.

God had led the children of Israel out from under the bondage of Egypt. They had seen the mighty hand of God in action time, after time, after time.

They had witnessed the 10 plagues, the parting of the waters of the Red Sea, they had seen the pillar of smoke and fire that led them through the wilderness day and night, they had seen God’s mighty hand lead them into battle and overcome their enemies over and over yet it was never enough!

So, here they are, wandering through the wilderness because of their unbelief in God’s provision and deliverance and they are on the verge of entering into the Promised land but the people begin to once again snicker and sneer against God and Moses.

Look at what happens here in these verses.

Numbers 21:4-9 — 4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. 5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much 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 thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

The Rebellion & Railing of the People — (Vs. 4-5)

The Reaction of the Lord — (Vs. 6)

Their Repentance from the Rebellion — (Vs. 7)

The Remedy of the Lord — (Vs. 8-9)

Listen friend, I hope you see the symbolism here between our sin and our need for a Savior. The Children of Israel sinned against God and because of that sin, God sent death through the serpents bite.

And what you need to know friend is that we’ve all been bitten by that fiery serpent of sin! When the Bible says it was a “fiery serpent” it reminds us of...

1 Corinthians 15:56 — The sting of death is sin;

And the majority of the time you see a serpent in the Bible it is representative of sin. Remember who it was who tempted Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden? A serpent right?

So, the people are us. We have all been bitten by the fiery serpent of sin and because of our sin, because all we like sheep have gone astray, we deserve death for the wages of sin is death.

Repentance is the mode that brings us back to God. Jesus said twice in

Luke 13 — “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”

We must repent. We must come to God on bended knee and admit that we have done wrong. We must understand that we have come up short of the lofty goal of righteousness on our own. We must understand that we have missed the mark of Holiness and that on our own there is no hope of obtaining it. That in and of ourselves we are hopeless.

Then, once we repent we must look upon and put our faith in the provision that God has given us!

Here, He told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and whosoever would look upon it should live. So Moses made a serpent of bronze and did just as God had commanded and whenever a person was bitten by the fiery serpents, if they would but look upon the serpent of brass that was high and lifted up they would be healed and live.

Now, I hope by this point you are seeing this big picture unfold but if not, it’s ok, just hang in here a few more minutes with me.

Brazen Serpent — Symbol of Judgment

Moses made the fiery serpent that was to be lifted up out of bronze, right? Any time you see bronze in the Bible it is mainly speaking of judgment. The bronze serpent was judgment for the people. Whosoever would look upon it and believe that they would be healed would be but if they weren’t willing to turn their eyes to the sky then they would surely perish!

And so it is the same way today for the serpent was representative of Christ! All who will look upon Him and trust in Him and His finished work on Calvary shall surely be saved but for those who are not willing to look to our Savior, high and lifted up for all the world to see for salvation, they shall surely die!

Now, you may be saying, “Hold on preacher. You just said a minute ago that the serpent was a representation of sin so how is it now a representation of Christ?”

Well, you see, when Christ was lifted up on Calvary’s cross He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world for the Bible says in...

Romans 8:3 — For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

2 Corinthians 5:21 — For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Do you see it now? The serpent does represent sin and our sin was laid upon Christ Jesus! He bore the sin, shame and reproach of the whole world!

We were dead in our trespasses and sins just like the Children of Israel. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We’ve all been bitten by the serpent of sin and our only hope today of making it out alive is to do just as they did and look at the one who is high and lifted up for it is He and He alone who came to take away sins of whole world!

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up!

As I was sitting there yesterday putting this all down and studying, that phrase “brazen serpent” crossed my mind and I began to think about that word brazen and let me just give you what God gave me…if you think back to the garden of Eden and think about that old devil, that slimy, slithery serpent, who came in and beguiled Adam & Eve, you would think that’s pretty brazen, that’s pretty bold, isn’t it?

I mean, you’ve already been thrown out of Heaven because of your prideful, rebellious actions and now you’re going to come into God’s own garden, the place where He fellowships with His creation during the cool of the day and set in motion a plot to deceive the very ones He created? I mean that’s the very definition of brazen!

Oh but praise God, as I was thinking about that, I began to think about what our God did; the great God of all creation, the one and only true God who created Heaven and Earth and everything that lies therein, as brazen as that old serpent was in the garden of Eden, our God was more!

I want you to think of how bold a move our God made! You see, the devil came into His realm and deceived His people so God said let me repay the favor but without the deception part!

I’m not going to do what you did Satan and slip around do these kinds of things when no one’s looking....no I’m going to do a work in the wide open for all the world to see!

And that’s exactly what He did! He sent His one and only Son, and allowed Him to be born into the devil’s realm! He came onto Satan’s playground and stood in direct opposition to him! He allowed Himself to be sacrificed for all mankind and through His perfect sacrifice, He defeated the very thing that the devil created…sin! And not only did He defeat sin itself, then He took it a step further and overcame the very effect of sin which is death! The Bible says in

James 1:15 — Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

You see, Jesus took our sin upon Him, the sins of the whole world, past, present & future, the sins of all mankind were placed upon Him on that cross…so much sin that His own Father had to refrain from looking Him! And by taking that sin upon Himself, He also had to pay the penalty for our sin which was death!

But praise be to God, on that third and glorious morning, after defeating death, hell and the grave, He arose from that dark, damp tomb and walked out the mighty victor, Amen! He defeated sin! He defeated the effect of sin which is death! And by defeating sin and death, He in turn defeated that old devil, our adversary called Satan!

Not only did He defeat him but because of our Lord’s perfect sacrifice, now we too, all who will look upon and believe upon Him can also be victorious over our enemy!

Which leads us to the next point, The Reward of Knowing Him!

The Reward of Knowing Him — (Vs. 15)

Our sin brings about a sickness which ends in death but the reward of putting your trust in Christ brings about eternal life!

Have you made that move? Have you put your faith in the one who was lifted up and crucified for you?

If not, what are you waiting for?

D.L. Moody — You may say that the earth is a vast hospital. Every man and woman coming into it needs a physician. If you search you will find every one wounded. By nature we are sinners, and there is just one Physician who can come in, and that is Christ Himself. While in Belfast I learned of a surgeon who had a custom, when he went into the hospital and found a patient who had broken his arm or leg, or whatever the wound might be, of saying to that patient, "Now, take a good look at your wound," and after that was done he would say, "Now, take your eyes off the wound and look at me." And that is the way with the great Physician. He wants us to take a look at our wounds—at the badness of our heart—and then take our eyes off and fix them on Him. He has given us a remedy and directions how to take it. In the third chapter of John at the beginning He tells you what you have to get before you can enter the kingdom; and away down in the fourteenth verse He tells you how to get it: ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was Isaiah 45:22—"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation. The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. "A man need not go to college to learn to look," he shouted. "Anyone can look—a child can look!" About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, "Young man, you look very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ!" The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted. — BE Commentary

The Request He has for Us — (John 12:32)

John 12:32 — And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.