Lifted Up (John 3:14,15)

Introduction

Scott’s leading of the songs this morning has been incredibly good, spirited, the theme of the songs certainly matching what I’m about to deliver from God’s word. The message, as I try to do every week, is relevant to you. It’s relevant to your circumstances today. It’s relevant to your future. And today only exists because of this message. Jesus said, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. John chapter 12, verse 32. A unique statement to the John narrative. But it is not the first time that he made such a reference. If you’ll go back with me to John chapter 3, you’ll see the first such reference to the Son of Man being lifted up in a discussion, a lengthy conversation that happens with the religious leader of the Jews, Nicodemus.

He spoke to Nicodemus about rebirth, which went over his head. He should have understood the subjects Jesus was addressing with him, but he struggled. Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus in John 3 by night, will be referenced later in John chapter 19, and the fact that he came to Jesus by night. But this time, in John 19, he would be accompanying Joseph of Arimathea as they make a request for the body of Jesus to prepare his body for burial. Nicodemus bringing a large quantity, an expensive quantity of spices to prepare Jesus’ body for burial. This is where, undoubtedly, two closet disciples, Joseph and Nicodemus, would come out of the closet. Though the New Testament does not say anymore about these men.

I don’t know how both of them played a role in that, but that he would be cast out of the Sanhedrin council and would ultimately be banished from the city of Jerusalem. It is in the midst of this discussion that Jesus says, verse 11, truly, John 3, 11, truly I say to you, we speak that which we know. We should take some assurance from Jesus’ assurance here. We speak that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen. And at least this juncture and other Jews like him, he says, You do not receive our witness. I ran across something unexpectedly here that I’ve never really tried to explain. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

And no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. Now we might say a lot about those two verses, but I think one thing that is being said is that Jesus uniquely descended from heaven to reveal heavenly things. He wants Nicodemus to know something about his unique identity. And then he says this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And whoever believes may in him have eternal life. Let’s not stray far from the main message of this text and the text of John 12. The Son of Man being lifted up in reference to what would happen in his crucifixion, was for the purpose of drawing men to himself.

That’s relevant to you. That’s relevant to me. We need to be drawn to the Lord. It summarizes what salvation involves and what it’s all about. It is about being drawn to the Lord. It will involve certain actions and activities as we have taken of this great memorial today of our Lord. But those things are merely the result of one who is drawn to him. That’s what real religion involves, being drawn to the one who was lifted up. But there is a curious reference here. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. We have some typology here, a type of something, and an old testament reference from Numbers 21. And by looking at that, we can better understand the reference to Jesus Himself. The meaning of his being lifted up and being drawn to him.

And so I take you to that old Testament text, Numbers 21. We’re going to start reading in verse 4. Then they set out from Mount Or by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient because of the journey. Boy, there’s a lot that could be said there. Becoming impatient in the journey. And the people spoke against God and Moses, as they did on more than one occasion. Have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? I think they said this right before the Lord delivered them through the Red Sea. And here they are, saying it again. For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Well, wouldn’t miserable food be preferable to no food at all?

Just a thought. And then my worst nightmare unfolds. Boy, am I glad I wasn’t an Israelite at this time. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people. This is the stuff of nightmares, as I’ve said previously. And they bit the people. A good reason not to go camping, I’m telling you. So that many people of Israel died. Many people. So the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you. They came to their senses as they would do on occasion. Intercede with the Lord, that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses, the great intercessor of the Old Testament, in the example of our Lord, did just that. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard.

Notice he did not remove the serpents immediately, but he makes a fiery serpent and set it on a standard. And it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard. And it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Now, I might have gained from the experience of having been bit and then looking upon the serpent on the pole and receiving healing. That might have been a positive thing. However, I think I probably would have tried to stay in the tent and to avoid the fiery serpents altogether. But as I look at this story, as Jesus references it in relation to his being lifted up, I want to make a few observations about this text that I think we can appreciate and will help us in our service to the Lord.

1. The Anatomy of a Complaint

I want to first talk this morning about the anatomy of a complaint. And as I look at Israel and they’re complaining so often throughout their history and their deliverance as they head toward the promised land, as they became impatient in the journey, as they make this complaint, I think about the very basis of most complaints and theirs. When we get upset and we start moaning and grumbling and complaining, not that we would ever do anything like that.

What are we actually saying in the complaint? And what we are inevitably saying is my circumstances should be better. I deserve better than this. My circumstances should be different than what they are. God obviously disapproved of disapproved of this grumbling. In fact, it is referenced in chapter 10. This whole portion of Israel’s history as they were baptized into Moses, it says, in the cloud and in the sea of 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 2, and then we are admonished not to do this in verse 9, nor let us try the Lord as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer, which might have been a reference to another incident in the book of Numbers specifically.

Major problem. Expecting our circumstances to be perfect, ideal, or as close to the ideal as possible. You know why that’s such a problem? Because we’re Americans.

If we find ourselves grumbling, what we’re saying is, my circumstances should be better. And that’s all they were saying. Why do we expect that? Why do we demand that in our circumstances? There’s certainly something to think about here. There’s a supplemental problem to this. And that is, woe is me that I’m not faring as well as others. Let me caution you here. What others are dealing with, you may or may not know. There may be people who are struggling with as severe issues and circumstances as you are that you may know nothing about, and they may not be complaining as you are, saying, woe is me for my particularly troublesome, undesirable circumstances. We need to learn something here about the anatomy of complaint and learn not to try the Lord as they did.

We live in a world where the circumstances of most people are worse than yours. You don’t know my circumstances. You just said you don’t know my circumstances. That’s right. But I’m just going to go out on the proverbial limb here. This is not a very tenuous limb that I’m standing on.

When it gets really hot tonight and you’re trying to sleep, you might just have the comfortable temperature of 72 degrees. Actually, I like it cooler than that. I set the thermostat on 67. But that’s just me. We have such cushy, comfortable lives. My pillow a stone. Really? I bet your pillow is not a stone tonight. Pretty sure about that. We have incredible circumstances. You know what? I bet food is about 20 minutes away. 30 minutes at most. And we’re not even hungry. You’re not even hungry right now. We have such incredibly plush and comfortable circumstances, and yet if the least little thing goes awry, we get totally out of shape. And I’m not preaching at you. This is a problem that most of us struggle with.

2. The Anatomy of Salvation: Turning to God in Implicit Trust

So we learn something here about the anatomy of complaint. The second thing that we learn in this story is the anatomy of salvation, how it works. And that is turning to God in implicit trust. One thing God is teaching, one thing he knows he’s going to use later in Jesus’ ministry in John 3 and John 12, is this illustration of the serpent on the pole, where God heals his people when they respond, believing to his provision. How many times have we talked about this story in Numbers 21 and said, you know, you could be bit by the serpent, and when that happens, that’s a death sentence. And some of them died before this remedy was provided. But you could be saying, you know, I just really don’t know about this means of saving people.

You know, God has the power to just zap it out if he wanted to. What about this means of looking at the pole? I mean, I’m just looking at an object, a wood object. What is that going to do? Well, what is dipping seven times in the Jordan going to do? Well, if the prophet says by doing that you’re cleansed of leprosy, then that’s what’s going to happen because this is God’s instruction, and that’s what Naaman finally learned and did. And so he says, if you look at this serpent on the pole, then you will be healed of what would have killed you. I don’t know. I just don’t see it. I’m going to stay in my tent. Now, how many do you think reason like that?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say zero. Who were bit by the serpent were that stubborn and foolish that they stayed in their tent and died. If they had no one to take them, I want to guarantee you they crawled in the direction of that serpent on the pole. And if they looked in implicit trust that this was going to save them, if they looked at the serpent that was lifted up, they were healed. And that’s how salvation works. We look to God and the provisions that he has left and trust that they will save. That’s what we’ve been talking about in Romans. He who believes in him will not be disappointed. We look to Jesus in implicit trust. He’s the Savior of the world.

3. The Anatomy of Service in God's Cause

He died on the cross for my sins. And not only do I believe that truth, which the New Testament instructs me, I believe everything that the New Testament is telling me about how life is to be lived. I trust the wisdom of God’s provision. I look to it constantly as a pattern for my life. That’s how salvation works. I turn to God in implicit trust. And there are so many things in our time and in our culture that militate against doing that. To question this. To suggest there’s a better way to live than this. Or that this really isn’t the answer. Or that something else is. Salvation has always worked this way. Turning to God in implicit trust. And once you have done that, I think there’s a lesson to be learned about the anatomy of service in God’s cause.

And that is that once we have been saved by turning to God in implicit trust, that everything that we perform thereafter is a result of what the Lord has done. Once healed, you are in the status of health and well-being because God put you there. And I thought of a number of passages that talk about this as being so. The passage that talks about the chief cornerstone that was rejected. The stone that was rejected that became the chief cornerstone. It says, This is the Lord’s doings. I love that. I love verse 23 and 24. This is the Lord’s doings. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it. This day of salvation, I didn’t make it, you didn’t make it, the Lord did.

This is his day. This is his product. It is the Lord’s doing, and it’s marvelous in our eyes. We beseech thee, do say. That’s Hosanna, by the way, as I’ve mentioned a number of times, Psalm 118, 25. Everything that we are and become in Christ is a result of what God has done. And we should never forget that. Interesting as I thought about this verse, I thought about a verse in the Psalms of Ascents, just a few psalms over, in Psalm 127 and verse 1. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. That’s an interesting expression, isn’t it? For a home to function as God intended and made it to perform, we must listen to him and let him direct. And I thought about this point, the anatomy of service and being product of the Lord’s doings.

I think it could put everything in a whole new light. If we saw what we did in our worship, in our service, in the way that we’re going to function Monday through Saturday in our lives, not just what we do on the Lord’s Day, but if we saw everything as we are the product of what God has done. This isn’t about my excellence or achieving or what I am capable of doing. This is about what the Lord has done. This is the Lord’s doing, and it’s marvelous in our eyes. What does the New Testament say on more than one occasion? We are vessels, to be vessels of honor, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Just as Paul was God’s instrument to the Gentiles, we are instruments in his hands.

And so it is not, in a sense, us doing it, but him doing it. And if we saw our lives and our service, we’re the result of what God has done. We are completely dependent upon what he has done to make something of the mess that I created. If we saw our lives, if we saw our examples as we leave this place and live before the world, I’m God’s instrument. I’m his vessel.

What the results are going to be down the road a thousand years. But it could be something far more dramatic and meaningful than I ever could know.

Oh, I’m sure God uses preachers in that way. Or God uses elders in that way. No. He uses you in that way. How beautiful are the feet of those, as we saw this morning, who bring good tidings of flat things. I mean, if we live the Lord’s will in our lives, who knows what the result of that is going to be? I love what my friend David Osteen said this week. He said, choose to do good. You may not think it does anything. But at least it honors God. And we always know that. But at least it honors God, and that is enough. But it is that and more. We are instructed to not grow weary in well doing. For in due time we shall reap if we do not be faith.

And as we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto others, especially those of the household of faith. And so as we pursue the Lord’s will for us and our His instruments, who knows what the result of all of that is going to be. And so as we plug away against the tide and against the current of popular thinking in our world, as we refrain from the kind of vices and immorality that so grips our time and culture.

As we live differently.

Who knows what impact that could have? The souls that could be reached. I think about this all the time. The one soul that is brought into the Lord from the world. Just the one person. It’s so exciting. It’s always exciting when young people grow up and they obey the gospel and it’s what parents have instructed their children to do. And that’s special. It’s always special when someone comes to the Lord. But when that person comes to the Lord from without, it seems to me incredibly even more special.

Just one. Look at now the number of lives that one can affect. I think so often because we can’t see ourselves doing great things that we do not see the significance of what might be small things that in reality in God’s plan are great things because of the impact that they will have. On not just this one individual’s life, but the individuals they will affect and how that will affect generations. I think about that as we plug away week after week singing these songs and studying the will of God and hearing these lessons, the impact this has, not just on today, but on the rest of time. And if we saw, each of us saw ourselves as instruments that the master is using. I mean, me as a single instrument is going to be of lesser impact than engaged with 200 such instruments.

We are what we are because of the provision that God has made. And it will always be so.

4. The Anatomy of False Religion

Equipped and helped to be God’s instrument, his vessel. And then there is the anatomy of false religion. I just have to mention this briefly. We don’t hear anything else about this serpent that was erected on the pole to provide healing from the one who was bit by the poisonous snake until the days of Hezekiah. And now it has the name Neushtag. And Hezekiah, in his reforms, has to destroy this symbol that once provided salvation because it had become an object of false worship for the people. And so this is how false religion works. Something that is once powerful or contains power is corrupted into something that God never intended. I think of passages like those who hold to a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.

5. The Anatomy of a Life Well Lived

They think just on the basis of the fact that we’re religious and we invoke the name of Jesus that everything’s good. When religion is altered or changed to become something that is not real, that is not consistent with what God has taught. And so what once had power no longer has power. And is corrupted into something that God never intended. So many biblical examples of that truth. And then one final point. I think we learned from this story in the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. The anatomy of a life well lived. And that is a life that is drawn to the Lord. This is the time of year when another group of students is graduating, whether it be from high school or college.

Look, you may just be heading out of kindergarten and graduating there. That’s huge, too. Next step, next level. I feel cheated. I didn’t get a big graduation ceremony after I completed kindergarten. What was up with that? Well, we have to make a way for ourselves in life, and we get an education, and that’s supposed to assist us. Hope it continues doing so. And we’ll embark on a certain vocation and hope that brings in enough revenue to pay for prices, and college tuition, and perhaps a house and a car to drive, of course, that had their condition. And that stuff becomes the stuff of life. But if you think about it’s really quite empty without the Lord. You know, a hundred years from now, they’re not going to be saying about you, but you remember that Corvette they drove?

That was good stuff. They might even be saying, What’s a Corvette? A hundred years from now. That stuff doesn’t matter. You know, he lived in a pretty good neighborhood. He amassed a pretty large bank account. He took a lot of exotic trips. 100 years from now. What’s that really going to matter? And what’s that really going to matter among the people who are still here? I want to tell you about being drawn to the Lord. It is about living your life to its fullest potential. All these other things are important and have their place as we make our way through life, but that’s all very temporary. This is about something that transcends the temporary. This is about something that has an impact in all the people who come in contact with me.

Conclusion

Children, grandchildren, all the people that we influence for the gospel. If we are drawn to the Lord, folks, that’s living well. That’s a life well lived. And that’s why Jesus says, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. Don’t never forget that. In the midst of life’s pursuits. A lot of those things are so temporary and so have an end in and of themselves. This has implications that are forever. And so if you are not drawn to the Lord, this one who was lifted up.

It is far less. And of all that I do in life, the most important things will always be. When I see my role and fulfill my mission as his instrument. And when I engage as his instrument with his other instruments to praise his great and matchless name.

He lifted us up, as we say. Because he was lifted up. And without him, we would be nothing. Let us stand and sing.