John 3: 1-17 Grace, mercy and peace from God our Heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text is from the Gospel: AS

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Ella Jennings
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1 John 3: 1-17 Grace, mercy and peace from God our Heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text is from the Gospel: AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE DESERT, EVEN SO TO BE LIFTED UP IS NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN, IN ORDER THAT ALL WHO BELIEVE IN HIM HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, IN ORDER THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. FOR GOD DID NOT SEND THE SON INTO THE WORLD TO JUDGE THE WORLD, BUT IN ORDER THAT THE WORLD BE SAVED THROUGH HIM. This is the Word of God. AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE DESERT, EVEN SO TO BE LIFTED UP IS NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN- Yeah, I get it, serpent on a pole = Jesus on the Cross. Neat analogy. MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT. You know the story. The Old Testament Lesson reminds me of this great horror movie from the fifties: Fiend without a face. An invisible thing was attacking people and killing them. Toward the end of the movie, which, by the way, is worth watching because it was so poorly done it s hysterical, anyway, the killing monsters became visible: brain monsters with spine tails, and once they could see what was killing them, they could fight back. That camp of Israel was crawling with sins, deadly sins, that were killing them, but their hearts were already too numb to know they were dying inside. A lot of venom works by paralyzing the victim.

2 2 When the seraph vipers (as Moses called them), fire-snakes bit the people, it was as if their sins that were biting them all along became visible, by the mercy of God. Otherwise they all would have gone on denying their mortal sin, ignoring their invisible killer. And what was the sin that was killing them? The Original. Lying about the Lord. THEY SPOKE AGAINST GOD AND AGAINST MOSES AND SAID, WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT US OUT OF EGYPT TO DIE IN THE DESERT? THERE S NO BREAD! THERE S NO WATER! And it was all lies. It wasn t any more black and white than our own situations. Even though the Lord Himself was with them night and day, the desert was a hard place to be. And they drank WATER FROM THE ROCK it poured out for them miraculously. But there were long, thirsty walks from one miracle to the next. And the Lord fed them MANNA, bread from Heaven which was impossible, but it was there every day. Every day. Manna pancakes, mannacoti, bamanna bread. And it wasn t wrong for them to want something more: the Lord promised them MILK AND HONEY and everything good when they reach the Promised Land. It wasn t wrong to want more than the desert. But to lie about what they already had was sin. To make up false things that they weren t really suffering; to exaggerate their burdens till they said, THERE S NO BREAD. When there was. Till they said, THERE s no water. But they were reinventing history. Till they said, GOD BROUGHT US OUT OF EGYPT but it was all His plot to kill us. IS THE LORD AMONG US, OR NOT? They lied themselves to death. Then they also made Egypt sound easy, just to add insult to injury! WE STOOD AROUND POTS OF MEAT AT NO COST! What?

3 Were they forgetting the lash? The hours? The quota? Were they forgetting what God did among them? The plagues, the Red Sea? Pillar of fire? Glory Cloud? Ever reinvent your own history when you know better? Ever gargle the venom of insult against the Lord? Life was easier before I was a Christian. I always have to pay for my sins. Did He bring me to this place in my life to kill me? If God really loved me, He s cut me a break. But the Lord, blessed be His name, doesn t respond in kind. He doesn t treat us as our sins deserve. He still gave the Israelites a way to repent, and be cured. The only cure was to LOOK, really to gaze at the sign- (the way God looked and saw Abraham sacrifice his son, so that the place was named, The Lord Saw ); the way you look at a miracle as a signal that God gives telling us that it s really Him: Isaiah said, IN THAT DAY THAT THE NATIONS WILL RESORT TO THE ROOT OF JESSE, WHO WILL STAND AS A SIGNAL FOR THE PEOPLES; AND HIS RESTING PLACE WILL BE GLORIOUS. And the SIGNAL for the Israelites was the SNAKE LIFTED UP; the SERAPH to focus on, as if LOOKING AT IT would work, and the BURNING would stop, that death would back off. We ve been bitten by something pretty potent, or tell me why we re all dying. If there is no real venom running its course, tell me why half the world is starving and the rest is war torn. And tell me what fever infects that none of us can go a day without having to confess sin, again. And although there are a million things to distract us from the infection, and plasters and dressings and treatments and therapies that claim to stop the BURNING, none of them can satisfy the just wrath of God for human rebellion against Him. It turns out we re in THE DESERT, too. And we can t just pick whatever sign we want 3

4 4 to stare at. That s why Jesus said, EVEN SO TO BE LIFTED UP IS NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN. We have to fix our gaze on the SIGN that Jesus said is NECESSARY. But unlike the Israelites, we have more than a SIGN to LOOK at, a bigger MIRACLE, a hotter SERAPH FLAMING, and more potent CURE. It s JESUS the Atonement. + LOOK at your sin and your Savior at the same time, because He s LIFTED UP while dying in it. That s ridiculous, what good will it do to look at that hideous spectacle? Ah, + LOOK at the whole sinful human race being exalted and the Holy Blessed God being humiliated, all at once, because the God-man had absorbed the venom, and it s in absorbing that venom that THE SON OF MAN IS GLORIFIED, AND GOD IS GLORIFIED IN HIM. + LOOK! Behold, the SERAPH, that Angel of the Lord on fire, burning instead of you, cursed instead of you, LIFTED UP, on the cross, and BELIEVE, + LOOK at your own sin nailed, LIFTED UP, + LOOK at what bit you burning up THE SON OF MAN, and say, for me. BECAUSE GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON- How much love are we talking? He was one substance with the Father. Do you have any idea how happy the Father was with His Jesus? None of us can imagine. He gave that Joy of His own eternal life away- to become the sin. Jesus put his lips on our wound to draw it all out until He was burning and sweating blood, BITTEN 5 TIMES WITH IRON FANGS and LIFTED UP in the FLAMING FEVER of Judgment! HE BECAME SIN FOR US, one substance with the Serpent that bit you, and was lifted up cursed for you to look at. BEHOLD, MY SERVANT

5 SHALL DEAL PRUDENTLY; HE SHALL BE EXALTED AND EXTOLLED AND BE VERY HIGH. Isaiah 52:13 HIGH and on fire for you to look at- punished and going down in flames. + Look at the Cross! Do you have any idea how angry the Father was with that cursed sin on a stick? None of us can imagine. But take the imagination God gave out for a spin. Imagine the forces of evil trained on that volunteer SERPENT, and let your mind run wild, and we won t begin to come close to the horror, or the love that plunged into that horror. But look! What tremendous crisis called for this dread solution? St. John spells it out. Notice how he words these verses: God has goals for all His trouble. TO BE LIFTED UP IS NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN, IN ORDER THAT... GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, IN ORDER THAT... GOD DIDN T SEND THE SON INTO THE WORLD TO JUDGE THE WORLD, BUT IN ORDER THAT... IN ORDER THAT...YOU! IN ORDER THAT YOU WHO BELIEVE IN HIM HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. IN ORDER THAT YOU WHO BELIEVES IN HIM NOT PERISH, IN ORDER THAT THE WORLD BE SAVED THROUGH HIM. You were His goal. You are THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM. Do you have any idea of how gone your sins are? None of us can imagine. But trust your Father in Heaven that Jesus was enough. Heb. 1:3 Do you have any idea of how over your warfare is? None of us can imagine. But believe Jesus your Savior when He says IT S 5

6 6 FINISHED. John 19:30 Do you have any idea how happy your Father is with you? None of us can imagine. But listen to the Holy Spirit crying Abba Father in your heart. Gal. 4:6 It will lead to the highest joy we will know this side of Heaven. Which we need, since everyone still sins in this desert. And of course since we belong to Him, our own sins that still hang around really disappoint us. Did you know that God didn t take the biting seraph vipers away? The whole time the miracle healings were going on, they were still being bitten. Our Father in heaven would never have allowed them to be bitten if it were not NECESSARY for them to be driven to look at that SERPENT ON A POLE. Martin Luther said, God delivered me from many sins, but, oh, so many stayed. He left them as my servants to drive me to the Cross. So as long as you re driven there, look at the Cross, and live. It is necessary for you. And I ve been saying that all along because it s obvious, but did you catch it? That s not what the text says. Jesus said, TO BE LIFTED UP IS NECESSARY FOR THE SON OF MAN! Why necessary for Him? Because God so loved YOU. Amen.

March 10, 2019 K-1st Grade

March 10, 2019 K-1st Grade The Bronze Snake BIBLE PASSAGE: Numbers 20:1-20; 21:4-9 MAIN POINT: God told His people to look at the bronze snake to be healed. KEY PASSAGE: Joshua 1:9 BIG PICTURE QUESTION: Whom can we trust? We can