By Pastor Greg
The fifth grade class was studying the ocean. Pointing to a picture of a whale, the teacher
said it was physically impossible for them to swallow a human because even
though it was an enormous mammal, its throat was very small. A little girl raised
her hand and stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a
whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "Well when I get to heaven I will ask Jonah." "What if Jonah went to hell?" the
teacher replied. "Then you ask him," said the little girl.
The kid certainly
is honest. We can’t argue about
that. She’s blunt and to the point . . .
kind of like Jesus. He had a tendency to make rather direct statements as well. You didn’t have to guess what He was
thinking. Take the whole conversation He
has with a Pharisee named Nicodemus.
First, He says that if a person wants to see the Kingdom of Heaven, they
must be born again (or born of the Spirit.
They both mean the same thing).
Then He says that there is only one way to be born again, only one way
to receive eternal life.
14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness,
so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who
believes in him will have eternal life. 16 “For God loved the
world so much that he gave his one and only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God
sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world
through him. 18 “There
is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not
believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only
Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light
came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for
their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and
refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But
those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are
doing what God wants.”
[1]
Continuing in this
dialog about seeing the Kingdom of God, Jesus reminds Nicodemus of a time when the nation of Israel disobeyed
(again). While Israel was wandering in
the wilderness, the people began to grumble and complain (again), so God sent
poisonous snakes as a form of punishment.
As the people started to die, the Lord
instructed Moses to make a bronze snake, lift it on a pole, so that anyone who
had been bitten by a poisonous snake could look at the bronze one and be healed
(see Numbers 21:4-9).
Jesus is quite
blunt here. He insists that even people like
Nicodemus are just as sick and destined to die as those during the time of
Moses. People may not have been bitten
by a snake, but they certainly have been bitten by sin, destined to die (which
is why they needed to be reborn). Jesus
looks at Nicodemus and says, “My friend, you are just like these people who
were dying in the desert. Your sin is
killing you. Nick, you need some One
to keep you from dying, which is why God sent His only “begotten” Son” (By the
way, that word “begotten” means “the one and only” or “unique; one of a kind”). In other words, Jesus tells Nicodemus that
there is only one person who can save him from death, and that is God’s one and
only Son. There is no other way.
There are three
basic lessons Jesus teaches here. He explains that everyone has been bitten by sin
and is destined to die (not merely physically, but also to spiritually die and
never see the Kingdom of God, or in other words, to never experience
Heaven). He teaches that God sent one
person to rescue people from this separation – this spiritual death. There will not be another. Also,
Jesus teaches why a person comes to Him
looking for healing in the first place, which is a point that is often
overlooked here.
In this answer,
Jesus explains to Nicodemus why he came to talk in the first place. I believe Nicodemus knew something was not
quite right. Perhaps he had a sense that
the sacrificial system was nothing more than a band-aid; it never actually dealt with a person’s guilt (compare Hebrews10:1-2).
So Nicodemus was drawn to Jesus because in
Him he saw truth and light. I
think that’s why you are drawn to Jesus as well.
Let me ask you
this: why have you come to this place today? I think you’ve come because you recognize your
need for healing. You’ve sensed that
there is something not quite right with this world and are weary of the
self-centered, self-reliant attitude you see all around you. You know there is something wrong, and you
can’t do a thing about it. So you have
been drawn to Jesus, just as Nicodemus was.
You didn’t come here today because you are in love with religious rituals
or because you are in love with the building.
Sure, you probably like the other people in this place, but I suspect
you are here because you believe all your answers can be found in the Man named
Jesus, the One God sent to save us from death.
In the incident
with the poisonous snakes, the people wanted God to remove the snakes (Numbers 21:7). But
God’s solution was to deal with the snakebite! Oh, the people knew there was a problem, but
they were looking down and around, not up.
They wanted to get rid of the problem rather than trust in God. I wonder how many people actually had the
faith to look at the Bronze Snake on that pole.
How many people needlessly died while the solution to their snakebite
was right there in front of them? In the
same way, many people today look down and around for ways to deal with their
snakebite – their sin – instead of looking up to the cross of Christ. I wonder how many people die still separated
from God even though the solution to their sin – their snakebite – stands right
before them.
At some point after
this conversation, Nicodemus did turn to Jesus in faith and find eternal life
(see John 19:38-42). And so I say to you, you are here today
because you have been drawn to Jesus. In
Him, you see life and light. Do not
waste this moment. Do not turn away from
the One God sent to save you. I believe
if you loved the darkness and were truly an evil person, you would not have
come to this place. But you are here
today, and I believe you suspect something.
You suspect Jesus can shed light
on your life, grant you eternal life, and permit you to go to Heaven when you
die. The question is, what will you do
now that you are here.
As a gesture of
mercy, God provided a way for the faithful Israelites to escape His
punishment. “At just the right time I heard you,” says God, so He had Moses make
the Bronze Snake. And those who had
faith looked at the Bronze serpent and were healed. In the same way, God has provided a way for
you and me to escape the punishment for
our sin. If we have faith in God, we
only need to look at Jesus and believe that in
Him we will find healing and life.
“Accept
this marvelous gift of God’s kindness,”
says the Apostle Paul. “The right time is now.
Today is the day of salvation” [2] (2
Corinthians 6:2).
No comments:
Post a Comment