Sermon #9 @ St. Paris UMC (8.23.09)

Pastor Dave Kepple

Text: John 3:14-21 and Numbers 21:4-9

Title: “Look Up and Live!”

Date: Aug. 23, 2009 (12th Sunday after Pentecost)

Internet LinkS for primary scripture texts used in this sermon:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2021:4-9&version=31

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203:14-21;&version=31;

Today’s gospel lesson includes what is probably the best-known – and perhaps the most-treasured – verse in all of scripture: John 3:16 -- “For God so loved the world . . .”
It is so well known and beloved precisely because it captures the good news of God’s love and saving grace (in other words, the gospel) – in miniature form.
We like this verse, and the one that comes after it, too – John 3:17, where it states that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
This is all good news – no wonder we like it! But we also need to consider the other parts of this gospel lesson, too – or we might miss something important.
The passage I read for you grows out of a conversation Jesus is having with a curious Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. You may remember that Nicodemus, not wanting to be seen associating with Jesus, comes to him after night has fallen. Nicodemus wants to learn more about this remarkable rabbi who has been performing such miraculous signs.
So Jesus receives Nicodemus, and teaches him that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again . . . indeed, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
Not surprisingly, Nicodemus finds all this somewhat confusing. But make no mistake about it, he is hanging on Jesus’ every word . . . every life-giving word. He wants to understand. He wants to see this Kingdom which Jesus speaks of.
And from this conversation, Jesus segways into the part of John 3 which I read, starting at verse 14. Here Jesus alludes to this creepy Old Testament story about these killer snakes, taken from the Book of Numbers.
Jesus is harkening back to that 40-year period in which Moses and the Israelites were in the wilderness, trying to make it to the Promised Land. And as usual, the Israelites were muttering and complaining and grumbling, and they said to Moses:
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! Blah-blah-blah . . .”
It’s the same-old same-old. As they did so often, the Israelites were unable to see the Big Picture, and what God was doing to lead them into the place he was preparing for them. They were unable to recall the genuine suffering and anguish they knew as slaves back in Egypt. All they could focus on were the temporary hardships of life in the desert, and their “gratitude tank” was running on empty.
(I’m glad we never do that!)
Anyway, they evidently caught the LORD on a bad day, because He wasn’t in the mood for it. As much as the Most High God loved these people – the ones whom he had called into covenant relationship through their Father Abraham – the LORD could not abide their faithless hearts.
So God did something that I personally would rather He had not done. He sent venomous snakes among the Israelites, and those vipers bit people, and a great number of the Israelites died as a result.
After this fierce judgment by Yahweh, the hearts and minds of the people quickly turned to repentance. You might say they had an attitude adjustment. I suppose being overrun with poisonous snakes could have that effect. In any event, they came to their leader, Moses, and acknowledged their sinfulness in speaking against the LORD and against Moses. They begged Moses to intervene on their behalf with a prayer, and Moses did just that.
And so the LORD, in his mercy – because He is a loving God, and He is good all the time – provided a way out for His people. The LORD told Moses to forge a snake and lift it up on a pole. God told Moses that anyone who had been bitten could look at the bronze snake, and they would live. In other words, they would experience salvation. Though they were in the throes of dying, they would receive the gift of life.
And Moses did exactly what God told him to do, and it worked. Those Israelites who were perishing from the bite of the poison snakes could look up at the snake of bronze which Moses hoisted, and they were spared. Their health was restored. Their very lives were renewed. I suppose it was a little like being born again, in some ways. They had a new lease on life.
That’s a cool story, isn’t it? I mean, I could do without the snakes, but I like the part about God giving the people another chance – even though they didn’t deserve it. God overlooked their sin and in His mercy, he saved them.
And this is the story to which Jesus points in John 3, when he tells Nicodemus that “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.”
But why? What was the reason for this extraordinary sacrifice?
Verse 15 supplies the answer: “That everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Bible scholar Richard Donovan notes there are a number of parallels between the Moses story and the story of Christ. (1)
First, the people were in danger of death because of their sin. (2) And really, there are no two ways about it. Left untreated, sin is fatal. Whether in the Sinai desert of ages past, or the wilderness of life in the 21st century, sin will take us down. Sin will separate us from the God who loves us, and it will drag us away into darkness – eternal darkness – unless . . .
Unless we receive the antidote.
The second parallel Donovan cites between the Moses story and the story of Christ is that in both cases, it is God that provides “the agent of salvation” – the bronze snake in the first story, and the Son of Man in the second. (3) Just as the bronze snake which Moses forged was the antidote for the people’s sin in the Book of Numbers, so the Son of Man is the antidote for our sins.
Third, Donovan points out that in both cases, the source of salvation was lifted up. (4)
In the Old Testament story, it was that bronze snake which God instructed Moses to raise up on pole. In the New Testament, it was the very Son of God of himself, lifted upon the cross of Calvary.
Finally, Donovan notes, the people are ultimately saved by looking at – or believing in – “God’s agent of salvation.” (5)
That bronze serpent served a purpose out in the desert, and it did save many people who were dying – the ones who had the faith to look up at the snake, to look up and live. But that little scene in the desert 3,400 years ago was only a warm-up act. God’s greatest and final act of salvation was yet to come – in the person of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son.
And so we come to the heart of the matter – that God loves this world so much, that he loves everyone so very much – that he is not content to let us die in our sins. He has sent His Son – Jesus – to be the antidote that restores our souls.
It’s when we look up to Christ on that cross and acknowledge our sins, profess our faith in His saving grace, and believe in the promise of the Resurrection, that we are set free from the law of sin and death.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:17)
God longs to give us this salvation. In fact, he already has given it to us – but he will not force us to accept it. For in his great love, the LORD also created us with the gift of free will. If we are to turn to Him, it must be of our own volition, or not at all. The Lord God doesn’t take hostages.
As John’s gospel continues in verse 18: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Those are definitely words of judgment – but here’s the kicker. We are the ones who render the judgment on our own lives.
As Rudolf Bultmann, a German theologian, put it: “Unbelief, by shutting the door on God’s love, turns his love into judgment.” (6)
Many others echo this view.
For instance, Bible scholar F.F. Bruce, who wrote that “the separation between those who accept his forgiveness and those who refuse it is inevitable; but the latter are self-judged. The responsibility for their self-judgment cannot be laid at the door of ‘the Savior of the world.’ ” (7)
New Testament professor Andrew T. Lincoln adds that the way people respond to Jesus “constitutes their judgment.” In other words, our judgment on Jesus is at the same time a judgment on ourselves. (8)
And finally, there’s Maxie Dunnam, the well-known United Methodist pastor who now serves as chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.
In his book “Living the Psalms,” Dunnam tells us that the amazing truth of John 3:16 is no less than this: “That there is a place in God’s heart that only you can fill!” (9)
If we personalize that for a moment, it means:
There is a place in God’s heart that only Peggy Caudill can fill.
There is a place in God’s heart that only Rose Ann Zerkle can fill.
There is a place in God’s heart that only Weston Bloomfield can fill.
And so on . . . and so on.
Dunnam says he doesn’t “know of a more exhilarating truth” than this.
He goes on: “If you love someone, you need that someone to return that love, don’t you? Sure you do! So it is with God.
“God loves you and needs your love,” Dunnam adds. “God will not allow death to destroy you. If you are forever separated from God, it will be your choice, not God’s.” (10)
Every last one of us of has been attacked by the deadly toxin of sin. As human beings, there isn’t one of us immune to this life-draining poison.
But God has provided the perfect antidote in the person of Jesus Christ, the One who died for our sins.
And all we have to do is believe.
All we have to do is place our faith in Christ, and his redemptive power. God will not only restore us and make us whole. He will grant us eternal life.
Not because we deserve it. But because He loves us.
Remember: “In God’s heart, there is a place that only you can fill.”
So what will your choice be?
Will you look up at that man on the cross -- the One who laid down His life for you and for me?
Will you look up and live?

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1. Richard N. Donovan, Sermon Exegesis, John 3:14-21.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. D. Moody Smith Jr., Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: John (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999)
7. F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983).
8. Andrew T. Lincoln, Black’s New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to John (London: Continuum, 2005).
9. Maxie Dunnam, “Living in the Psalms: A Confidence for All Seasons.”
10. Ibid.