JESUS: GOD’S SON
DECEMBER 23, 1999
JOHN 3:14-17

      We often talk about lifting Christ up in praise, but have you thought about the significance of Christ being lifted up for you? 

Most of you know John 3:16- you probably memorized it in one of your first Sunday School classes or maybe somewhere along your path to salvation. It is a verse that says it all. God gave His only son to die on the cross that we might have life everlasting. Salvation in a nut shell. Praise God for simplicity! What I find interesting are the verses that precede. I can’t tell you how many times I have read these verses, but failed to read the words and understand their meaning. 

John 3:14 refers us back to the Old Testament and the days of Moses (Numbers 21:4-9). At the time, the children of Israel had grown discouraged and they spoke out against Moses and God. God sent down fiery serpents; and many were bitten and died. Realizing their sin, they went to Moses confessing and asking him to pray to the Lord that He might take the serpents from them. God instructed Moses to construct a serpent and erect it on a pole. Those who were bitten by serpents and looked upon the image would live. At that time, to look upon such an image erected on a pole would be considered repulsive; most would look away. But for the Israelites to be rescued from death, they had to look upon the image of the serpent.

        So what does that have to do with Christ’s crucifixion? The Jews looked at crucifixion as a sign of a curse. To look upon such an image was also thought to be repugnant. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to save his people from death, we must look at the uplifted Son of Man to be saved.

        Christ couldn’t just die. He had to die the death of a sinner, lowly and cursed. Lifted up on a pole, He was an image many found repulsive. He could have just come down and said,  "Not today!" But he stayed. He died a death of pain and shame for sins he never committed. So as you lift Him up during this Christmas season, remember how the King of kings and Lord of lords was so humbly lifted on a pole for you. Will you look away from the cross? Or will you look to the cross and the outstretched arms of the savior as you continue life’s journey?
 
 

John 3:14-17  “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

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