Bible Passage: John 3:14-21
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: March 14, 2021

Bulletin March 14, 2021

¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸The one who believes in him is not condemned, but the one who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. ¹⁹This is the basis for the judgment: The light has come into the world, yet people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰In fact, everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, or else his deeds would be exposed. ²¹But the one who does what is true comes toward the light, in order that his deeds may be seen as having been done in connection with God.”

Look at the lifted Son of God and live!

1. Lifted in love
2. Looked at by faith

Dear fellow redeemed, in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God,

I don’t know exactly what Nicodemus was expecting when he came to meet with Jesus that night. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, and he acknowledged that even though the Sanhedrin opposed Jesus, they knew that he was a teacher sent from God. They might not have liked him, but they had to admit he was doing signs that could only be done if God was with him. Maybe that night Nicodemus came to Jesus hoping to see some more of these signs. Or maybe he came hoping to hear from Jesus some kind of clever and inspirational message. But whatever reason he had for coming to meet with Jesus, Nicodemus was about to receive an invitation far greater than anything he could have expected.

You know, it was the same for you, and it was the same for me the first time we met with Jesus. Maybe your parents brought you to a font like this one. Or maybe a friend asked you, “Why don’t you come with me to church?” Then at the font or in the pew, you met with the Savior, and whatever you were expecting, Jesus offered you much more. This morning, as sit with Nicodemus and as we listen to these well-known words of Jesus, we get to hear once more the gracious call our Lord extends. He invites Nicodemus, and he invites each one of us, to Look at the lifted Son of God and live!

As our text begins, Jesus recalls for Nicodemus a history lesson he would remember from many Saturdays in Synagogue. And Jesus relates for Nicodemus how this history lesson points to him. He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” [14-15]. That’s the same history lesson which we read just a few minutes ago. It was in our Old Testament reading, telling how the Israelites grumbled against God. The LORD had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He sent the ten plagues. He opened the sea. He performed all these wonders out of love for his people. And if freeing them from the grasp of Pharaoh wasn’t enough for them already, God filled their hungry bellies, sending down bread from heaven. God quenched their parched throats pouring out water from a rock. In love, God gave his people everything they needed to survive and flourish. Yet, when the people opened their mouths, they did not thank him. Instead, they grumbled.

So the LORD sent venomous snakes into the camp of his thankless people. The snakes bit them. Many of them died, and the Israelites repented. They called on the LORD. They begged him to save them once more. God looked on the poor, dying people with mercy and with love. And God so loved the Israelites that he gave a solution for their deadly predicament. God instructed Moses to fashion a snake and to lift it up on a pole. God promised that any snake-bitten person who looked at the lifted snake would live. In such merciful, such forgiving, such undeserved love, God saved many people from the venom of the snakes.

Now Jesus wants Nicodemus and you to know about God’s salvation from a much more terrible venom. A toxin far worse than what dripped from the snake fangs coursed through the veins of the Israelites in the wilderness. It was the toxin that caused them to grumble in thanklessness. It was the poison that we call original sin. Original sin makes people thankless for all the wonders God has done. Though we are fearfully and wonderfully made, though our bellies are filled with daily bread, though we are shielded from countless dangers both known and unknown to us, the sin within each one of us still finds reasons to complain. And this venom has contaminated our human bloodline ever since our first parents succumbed to the lie of the serpent. In the midst of a garden paradise they believed that God hadn’t given them enough.

Adam’s sin was a deadly one. In fact, it brought death to us all as the Scriptures say. It would have landed us in hell if God had not given a solution. But God still looked on poor, dying humanity with mercy and with love. To save us from this far more terrible venom, God gave us an infinitely more powerful cure. “God so loved the world the he gave his only-begotten Son,” [16]. How could anyone possibly begin to fathom a love like this love of God? To save his thankless creation, God gave his uncreated Son. He sent him down to us from the throne. He clothed him in our flesh and called him to live humbly, like one of us. And then in a loving spectacle, to which no other gesture of love can compare, God lifted his Son on the wood of a cross. There, suspended between heaven and earth, Jesus drew all men to himself. He absorbed all of sin’s deadly venom, both the original sin that infects us, as well as every thankless thought, word, and deed that emanates from it. And God promised that any of us guilty, infected sinners who look on his Son with faith will live.

Now we’re not told, but the possibility is left open that perhaps there were Israelites who were bitten who refused to look at the snake on the pole. Perhaps some of the Israelites thought that the whole proposition was rather silly. “Look at a snake on a pole? How is that going to save anyone?” Perhaps they said, “No, Moses, we believe in science. We’ll get out our tourniquets, and we’ll search for some antivenin, but we’re not going to look at a snake on a pole.” Perhaps some of the Israelites were ashamed of the solution. “It was snakes that caused the problem. How could a snake bring the cure?” And perhaps there were Israelites who didn’t want to admit that they had been bitten. Instead, they’d rather return home bleeding, acting like nothing was wrong.

I suppose there’s no good reason to look at a snake on a pole, unless the LORD promises that doing so will save you from a painful death. When the LORD attaches a promise to something, then it’s a time not for reason but for faith. That’s true if you’re Naaman, and the LORD promises that washing in the Jordan will take away your leprosy. It’s also true if you’re alive today and the LORD promises that Baptism washes away sin. The promise of the LORD carries the power to save, even if we think God attached his promise to something very common or strange. The history bears out that those who looked at the lifted snake did not die from their snakebites, just as the Word of the LORD promised.

All who look at the lifted Son of God will also live, and the way that we look at him and receive eternal life is by faith. Now there are plenty who think that this is a silly proposition. You can find a plethora of voices on tv and on the internet mocking Christians for trusting that if they believe in Christ they’ll live forever. Then there are plenty of people who don’t want to admit that they’re sinners. They’ll go home denying their sin even as it oozes out in open acts of wickedness. There are some who are afraid to admit that they’re sinners. Some claim the name of “Christian” and think that Jesus did come, but they think that he came as a judge and not as the Savior for sinful people. And then, there are plenty who just love their sin and would rather not be parted from it, even by the God who would save them. But whatever kind of argument a person might give against faith in Jesus as the Savior from sin, the people who make such arguments are still in the dark.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus calls himself the Light of the World. While unbelievers wander in darkness, all who trust in Jesus walk in his light. This light will kill your pride, though. You can’t just step out of the shadows and argue that you’re fine when you’ve got the grime of sin plastered to your hands and staining your clothes. In the light of the lifted Son of God, we confess that we’re infected sinners. We own up to the fact that we can’t save ourselves, and we stake our souls and our eternal future completely on God’s promise. And even though this exposure to the light kills our pride and reveals our helplessness, it comes with a glorious freedom. As we hear in another of the Apostle John’s writings, “If we walk in the light, just as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin,” [1 John 1:7].

There’s history, also, to show that faith in Christ is not misplaced. After three days in the tomb, he came out alive, never to die again. The same Son of God who conquered hell and broke out of death, will keep you out of hell and will break death’s hold on you. Believe in him and eternal life is yours.

I don’t know what Nicodemus was expecting, but I know what invitation Jesus extended, because he’s extended the very same gracious invitation to you and to me. God lifted his Son for us in love. By faith we look at him and live. There’s no need to cower in the dark. All we will ever need has been freely given. Trust in God’s promised. Look at the lifted Son of God and live.

Amen

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