Why Did Jesus Have To Die? (Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-15)

Introduction

Last night we answered the question, “Why Are We Here?”

Through looking at Genesis 1, we saw that God has created us in His image to have a relationship with Him.

We were made to represent Him, and worship and enjoy Him forever.

This morning during your LifeGroups, you tackled another question, “How Did We Get Here?”

We learned that even though everything God had made was perfect originally, it did not stay that way, because Adam and Eve chose to rebel against their good and loving Father.

Instead of worshipping the Lord and finding their ultimate joy in Him, they bought the lie of the serpent and sought to find joy in worshipping themselves as gods.

Like Adam and Eve, we have all followed in their footsteps, and rejected God and chose to worship ourselves instead of our good and loving Father.

Because of our sin, the world has been completely turned upside down and has been cursed.

Natural disasters, diseases, cancer, murder, racism, sexism, genocide, high crime, drug addictions, suicide, etc. can all be traced back to our sin and rebellion against our holy and righteous creator.

Essentially, We ruined a perfect relationship with God because of our sin…and we are now facing the consequences in our world today.

But praise God, that we know there is hope for us, even in the midst of our depravity.

God promised Adam and Eve that there would be one to come from Eve’s offspring that would crush the head of the serpent, who would once and for all defeat sin and death and make all things right again.

We know that this promise found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus, through His life, death, and resurrection.

We know this to be the good news of the gospel....But what I want to focus on tonight is answering the question, why did Jesus have to die? Why did he have to go through the excruciating and inhumane torture of crucifixion to provide us forgiveness of sins?

Was there not another way that we could have been forgiven and our sins paid for?

Was there not something that we could have done to wash away our sins so Jesus did not have to die?

Here is the Main Point I want you to know from tonight: Our only hope in salvation, is through looking with faith upon Jesus, who was lifted up on our behalf.

Our text tonight will be from John 3:14-15, but we will look at Numbers 21:4-9 first to provide some background information. So, turn with me to Numbers 21:4-9 and lets read this passage together.

Numbers 21:4-9 “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 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 we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And 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. And 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.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Let’s Pray...

Moses Lifted Up The Serpent (Numbers 21:4-9)

Now, the context of this passage is that Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years because they had doubted God’s promise that he would give them the land of Canaan.

While in the desert, the Israelites complained against God and Moses.

Up to this point, Israel had already grumbled against God and Moses six other times, and this instance in verse 4 was number seven.

Essentially, like Adam and Eve, they doubted God’s goodness, that he would provide for them.

In these verses, we also see that they rejected the good food that he had provided through the manna, by calling what God called good, “worthless food.”

They had forgotten the miracles God had done in delivering them from slavery to Egypt.

Verse 6 says that as a result of Israel’s sin, God sent poisonous snakes, which bit them, as a sign of judgment.

Essentially, the result of their sin would lead to death, as many Israelites were bit by these poisonous snakes and died.

This shows us that because God is holy and righteous, he must punish sin.

Remember, God has already delivered Israel from slavery, and patiently put up with their six other complaints since delivering them when He did not have to.

This act of judgment was not a knee-jerk reaction, but a righteous and calculated act.

Now after the serpents start biting the Israelites, and many began to die, the story starts to get very interesting...

The people realize their sin and run to Moses to intercede for them.

After Moses prays for the people, God tells Moses to place an image of a snake on a pole, and when someone was bitten, looking at the snake’s image brought healing.

So the image and sign of judgment- (the snake)- would actually be the image and sign of healing and salvation for the people.

This where we get our modern image to represent paramedics: the snake on the pole.

So, to summarize, Israel sinned against God. God righteously judged Israel’s sin by sending snakes to kill them.

But in His grace, through the intercession of a mediator, God provided salvation by telling Moses to lift up the snake on a pole; and whoever looked at the bronze snake after they were bitten, was healed and recovered.

Now, how does this have anything to do with Jesus’ death you might ask? Let’s fast forward to John 3:14-15 to find out...

Now Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus and answering the question of how someone can be born again. In verse 14, he uses an Old Testament example to help Nicodemus understand how someone can be born again because Nicodemus was an expert in the law. So Jesus “gets on his level” by saying...

John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,”

Jesus Was Lifted Up (John 3:14)

In this passage, Jesus compares the Israelite’s situation with Nicodemus’…and we can compare it as well to our situation today.

Just like Israel, we have all sinned against God.

If you thought to yourself in this morning’s session that you were free of sin, just stop and think how many times you complain during the day?

How many times do you complain about the good things God has given and provided for you?

How many times do you complain when you have something difficult arise in your life?

Every time we complain we are telling God that He does not know what He is doing and that we know better.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Do not think it is a light thing to murmur against God or to complain of his providential dealings with us. No, it is really setting up our fallible judgment or our self-will against the infinite wisdom of the Most High. It is high treason against the King of Kings.”

So even though we do not think about it as treason, grumbling against God is sin, and a serious offense in questioning God’s character and goodness.

Just like Israel, God has pronounced his righteous judgment on our sin, which is death.

Romans 3:23 makes clear that the wages of sin is death.

Again, because God is holy and righteous, he will not let our sin go unpunished. Because He is good, he must punish evil.

Because He is our creator and He owns everything, he sets the consequences of rejecting him, which is death and eternal judgment in hell.

We have all been bitten by the poisonous snakes and we will all die unless someone intervenes on our behalf.

Just as the Israelites could not heal themselves from the snake bites, we cannot cleanse ourselves from our sins through the things that we do.

However, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up on behalf.

Verse 14 says the Son of Man MUST be lifted up.

If the price for our sin is death, then someone must die for forgiveness to take place.

The phrase, “Lifted Up” refers to Jesus dying on the cross...and Jesus says that He must do this so that we can be forgiven.

We could not take on the wrath of God and survive...only Jesus could pay the eternal price of sin to an eternal God…for Jesus is God in the flesh.

The law also demanded a perfect sacrifice, which is something that we could not do either because, as we have seen, we are sinful.

Only Jesus could be our perfect sacrifice and represent us being fully man because He was perfect and never sinned.

So, just as Moses lifted up the snake, Jesus was lifted up and placed on the cross on our behalf so that we could be healed.

To give you a picture of what Jesus did for you and me, I want to read some lyrics from Shai Linne’s song, The Cross....

We're now in the realm of the sublime and profound With God at the helm it's about to go down The Father's wrath precise will blast and slice The priceless Master Christ as a sacrifice Willingly, He's under the curse To be treated as if the Son was the worst scum of the earth The scene is the craziest Jesus being treated as if He is the shadiest atheist How is it the Messiah is in the fiery pit As if He was a wicked liar with twisted desires? The One who's sinless and just Punished as if He was promiscuous and mischievous with vicious lust The source of all godly pleasure Tormented as if He was a foul investor or child molestor How could He be bruised like He was a goodie two-shoes Who doesn't think that she needs the good news? He's perfect in love and wisdom But He's suffering as if He constructed the corrupt justice system We should mourn at the backdrop Jesus torn like He's on the corner with crack rock with porn on His laptop What is this, kid? His gifts are infinite But He's hit with licks for religious hypocrites He's the Light, but being treated like He's the seedy type who likes to beat His wife He's treated like a rapist, treated like a slanderer Treated like a racist or maybe a philanderer Jesus being penalized like He had sin inside Filled with inner pride while committing genocide I could write for a billion years and still can't name All of the sins placed on the Lamb slain But know this: the main thing the cross demonstrated The glory and the holiness of God vindicated

Jesus substituted himself for us. We deserved to die on that cross because of our sin, yet Jesus became sin for us, he took our place, He died for us, so that we could be healed.

Those Who Look To Christ Will Be Healed (John 3:15)

Just as the Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent that was lifted up were saved from death, whoever looks to Christ, who was lifted up, will be saved from death.

We can view the words, “believe” in the same way we think about “looking” or “turning” to something.

Believing in Jesus means turning away from your sin, turning away from looking upon yourself for salvation, and fixing your eyes solely on Jesus for your salvation.

This means you are looking to Christ and Christ alone and placing all of your confidence on what He has done for you.

Because Jesus paid the price for our sin, if we look to him in faith, we will be healed.

The great Baptist Preacher, Charles Spurgeon, was saved in the preaching of this text. I want to read an excerpt from that sermon when Spurgeon was saved that communicates the simplicity of faith that is required to be saved from a country methodist preacher...

“This is a very simple text indeed.  It says, ‘Look.’  Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. 

It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look.’  Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. 

You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. 

A man needn’t be worth a million dollars a year to look. 

Anyone can look; even a child can look.

“But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’

Ay! many of you are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. 

You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. 

Some of you say, “We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.”

You have no business with that just now.  Look to Christ.  The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ ”

Assuming the perspective of Jesus, the preacher continued:

“Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. 

Look unto Me, I am dead and buried. 

Look unto Me; I rise again.

Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven.

Look unto Me; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand.

O poor sinner, look unto Me! Look unto Me!”

Who Are You Looking To?

We have all been bitten by the snakes because of our sin; and as a result, we will all die and face God’s judgment for eternity in Hell.

We all need a savior to look upon to be healed.

So, who are you looking to for your salvation, for victory over sin, for strength to endure difficult times? Yourself, your money, your possessions, your friends, your family, or Jesus?

If you have never looked to Jesus before, if you have never turned from your sin and put all of your faith in Him alone for salvation, look to Him tonight and be healed.

John 3:16 says that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9 says that whoever confesses with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, will be saved. This is a promise from God.

If you are dead in your sins tonight I plead with you to look to Christ and be healed!

For those of us that have looked to Christ for our salvation and have been saved from our sin and death...Our command is the same…we too must continue to look to Christ.

We must not stop trusting in Him just because we have “already done that.” We need Jesus everyday.

Christian, what are you struggling with right now? What sins are festering in your life that you cannot shake off?

Are you struggling with being loved, thinking that you will never be good enough for God?

Look to Christ and see His great love for you that He was willing to die for you so that you could live.

Are you struggling with selfishness, pride, jealousy, or anxiety?

Look to Christ who is the perfect example of humility and selflessness, He will give you everything you need and you will be satisfied in Him.

Are you struggling with sexual immorality or porn addiction?

Do you think that there is no way God could forgive you for what you have done or that there is no way of escape from this addiction?

Look to Christ and see his nail pierced hands, he has already paid for your sexual immorality on the cross, the work is done, it is finished.

Look to Christ and see his beauty and majesty displayed, that there is fullness of joy and endless pleasures in his presence, so much more than the temporary pleasure that sin offers.

We must never grow weary of looking with the eyes of faith upon the beautiful majesty of our crucified and risen savior.

This is where forgiveness is found.

This is where the power over sin is found.

This is where eternal life is found.

This is where fulfillment and satisfaction are found.

This is where peace and rest are found.

Jesus says, “look to me and be saved.” I pray we would all look to Christ and be healed from our sin tonight.

So who are you looking to? The choice is yours...

Let’s Pray....