The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E32 - Snakebitten

Episode Date: May 25, 2020

Hey, church family, it is Devo Time. If you got your Bible, we're going to be in John Chapter 3. For many of us that have been doing Bible study for a long time, it's a very, very familiar passage, but sometimes one of the dangers when we study the Bible and we're very familiar is we can miss so much is because the moment we start out in 3-1, our mind jumps to 316.

And so let us not rush past God's inspired word for the verses before and after, maybe the most, currently the most famous verse. John chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Now, there was a man of the Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now, the Pharisees get a bad rap in the New Testament, and rightfully so.

But there are several Pharisees in the New Testament that come to put their faith in Jesus Christ. The word Pharisee in Hebrew, it simply means like separated one. And the idea is that the Pharisees would know the law of God so well, everything from Genesis to Malachi. They would know the old covenant so well. They would know all 613 laws so well

that they thought that it wasn't good enough to just obey the law, but they created laws about the laws about the laws. So the law says honor the Sabbath. and keep it holy. And so they would define exactly what does that mean. So they would come up with, you can't take more than this many amount of steps, because if we create that guardrail, then surely we'll never break the law. And so then they got too focused on the law by the time Jesus arrives and they're two feet away from the very son of God. They can smell his breath, but they can't sense that they are in the presence of Jesus. The reason that they were so law-driven is because

they thought if we can stay holy and separated from this polluted world, then we would be the first to recognize the Messiah when he shows up. Now, Nicodemus is one of these. I mean, he is steeped in the law, but he is curious about this one named Jesus. And so there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and this man came to Jesus by night, maybe because he didn't want his friends to know that he was just having a conversation with Jesus, came by night and said to him, Rabbi, it's a title of honor, so he is acknowledging that Jesus

is a teacher. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, you see, I know Jesus knows the heart and mind of every man, but Jesus is talking to Nicodemus at this like graduate school level. I mean, Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the one who's spoken to existence all things, inspired the word. He's talking to this highly trained Pharisee. And so he automatically goes to this. No one can be born again.

I mean, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. And funny enough, as smart as Nicodemus is, he still has his eyes focused not on the super, supernatural but only on the natural, and it just goes straight over his head. You ever been in church, and the preacher's preaching, maybe me, and I say something, and it just goes straight over your head. If that's the case for you, I've got really good news. You can make a great disciple. Because Jesus doesn't shame us when we don't get it on the first take, but oftentimes

he repackages it in such a way, not to change any of his content, but he changes his delivery to such a way that we can understand. I'll show you what I mean. So Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. By the way, if you've ever heard the phrase born again Christian, this is where it comes from. And then Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Don't think about that too much. It'll mess you up. And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. In other words, what Jesus is saying is this, is that there is a physical and a spiritual birth. And if you are only born physically, then you will die physically and spiritually. Hell could be defined as an eternal separation from God, which is an eternal separation from life, which does not mean you would be extinguished, but you would be forever dying and never die. But if we are born twice, if we are born both physically and spiritually, though this outer tent, though physically we may expire, spiritually we will live forever and ever and ever in the kingdom of heaven with Jesus. And he says, so don't marvel that I said to you.

you must be born again. Then he throws him a bit of a curveball. He said, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Here's what he's saying. He's like, Nicodemus.

So now he goes, you must be born again. Shump goes right over his head. Nicodemus is like, how can an old guy be born again? Does he have to physically be born again? And Jesus is like, no, no, no, that's not what I'm talking about. you're talking about flesh and I'm talking about spirit and then he says the spirit of God is like the wind you see you know that you can't see the wind

you can only see the effects of the wind and what he's saying is Nicodemus you're so focused on what you can see physically that you don't understand that there is an unseen force behind the things that you can see so Nicodemus pay attention and Nicodemus again he's going to ask a question he doesn't understand what's happening Nicodemus said to him how can these things be?

And Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. Why is Jesus speaking in the third person plural here?

Because right here, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he speaks on behalf of God because he is God. But God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons in the one God head. And so Jesus is saying, we speak of what we know. A part of what Jesus is doing here because he's talking to Pharisee is he's using some Hebraic teaching techniques, some kind of Jewish jiu-jitsu, if you will, in the Old Covenant. One of the things that teachers of the law would do is they knew that the first time a word was used in any significant way in the Old Covenant.

And the first time language like this was used in the Old Covenant, it was in Genesis when God Almighty says, let us make mankind in our image. And you say, who was Yahweh talking to? I thought there was only one God. And there is one God in three distinct persons. Now Jesus is using that same kind of linguistic trick to point to he is one individual but a but Part of the Godhead the Trinity He goes on to say if I have told you earthly things and you don't believe how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended no one has ascended into heaven except he who descends from heaven

The son of man now in verse 14 here's what I think's happening speculation on my part. This isn't in the Bible. This is me making stuff up, okay? I think Jesus goes straight at the like, you know, Ph.D. level theology, talking about being born again and Trinity and these kind of things, talking about his descending and ascending to heaven because he is the second person of the Trinity. And I think Nicodemus is looking at him like, I have no idea what you're talking about. So he uses three of those little Jewish jiu-jitsu tricks I was talking about, those linguistic rabbinical teaching men. methods that I was talking about. He says, we have seen, it's our testimony. That's to refer to

the beginning of Genesis at creation. And now in verse 14, he is going to use an illustration from the Torah, from the life of Moses, knowing that Nicodemus would fully understand exactly what happened in the life of Moses. In verse 14, he says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is the gospel to a Pharisee. All right. So back of the Torah in the first five books of the Bible, Moses goes to Pharaoh, the ten plagues come, Passover happens, he goes to Pharaoh and says, let my people go. Eventually he does. Pharaoh lets him go. Moses and what will be the nation of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry land.

The Lord wipes out Pharaoh's army that was chasing them, and now they're wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses receives the law. The people are grumbling and complaining and idol worshiping because church people were different back then. And at one point, because of their grumbling and complaining, they wake up one day and all of the nation of Israel is snake-bitten by these poisonous snakes.

They wake up and they are, snake bitten. And so Moses goes before the Lord and pleads and says, God, how could you let this happen? Would you please save us? And he says, here's how I will save you. Take a bronze serpent. And the word bronze in Hebrew and the word for poisonous are almost the same. And so he says, take the very thing that bit you and cause this problem. And I want you to put it on a stake or a pole and I want you to lift it up high. and anyone who would trust and surrender to me by looking up at this bronze servant lifted high, then it will be antidote to the poison on the inside of you. You see what he's saying here, what Jesus is teaching Nicodemus,

he's saying, Nicodemus, listen, man, the thing about being born again or this thing about the serpent being high and lifted up, you see, every single one of us, we have a sin problem. We have sin running through our veins. and an outside in approach just will not be enough. You can't follow enough rules. You can't rub an ointment on the outside. Something has to change from the inside out.

And do you remember when the Israelites were snake-bitten and poisonous and they needed God to do for them when they could not do for themselves? And just as that snake was lifted up, anybody that trusted in God in that moment would be healed. There is coming a day very soon. when I, the son of man, will become sin, will become the snake bit poison, I will be crucified, lifted up on a tree. And whoever believes that word is Pistuo in Greek, it means to trust, to commit to, to surrender, not to believe that, but to believe in. Whoever trust that

when I died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, in him they may have eternal life. You see, at this point, I think the lights are starting to come on for Nicodemus because he understood that old coming event that happened. And then with that in mind, Jesus is going to do that Jewish jiu-jitsu rabbinical teaching trick for the third time. So the first time was about God talking about let us create mankind in our own image. This second one here is he's just doing a straight reference to an event that happened in the life of Moses.

And now, first 16, 316, one of the most. famous verses, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now, I think the moment Nicodemus hears this, his mind immediately goes to the first time these words are used in the Bible. It was talking about the love that a father had for an only begotten son and that there was a sacrifice, and at that time of sacrifice, there was a substitute that was anointed and appointed by God. We know it as Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was given a promise that he would have a son.

Eventually he does. He has this son of promise. He calls him his only begotten son. It means the word begotten doesn't just mean one and only. It means of the same essence. And so Jesus is saying here, I am of the same essence of the father. And as Abraham loved the promised son, Isaac,

the heavenly father of Yahweh has loved the promised son me and just like Isaac was taken to the top of the mountain and regardless of what like your Sunday school felt bored kind of storybooks told you Isaac was old enough to carry the wood and carry the fire and help build the altar so he's not like a little tiny kid he's probably a teenager and Abraham is old old old I mean he's 100 years old And so Isaac has to willfully submit to his father and lay himself on the altar. And just at the moment where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, because that's what God had told him previously. God sends an angel to show up and say, no, no, no, let's not use your boy. We'll use mine a four thousand years later.

And in the thicket is a ram, a male ram. And you know a lamb grows up to be a ram. and they use that ram instead. And so when Jesus quotes this verse that we see at the Jags games, really what he's talking about, this is the third time now he is referred to the old covenant to get this Pharisee on board with what it means to have eternal life. For God so love the world,

that he gave his only son that whoever believes trusts, believes that when Jesus died on the cross that counted for me. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. And then we know, because of what happens later in the book, that at least at some level, Nicodemus, he could see, his heart was made soft, and he became a follower of Jesus Christ.

So be careful when you're doing Bible study, especially when you get to something like John 316, think, oh, I know this. This is super familiar. Oftentimes, when we study the scripture, it's like looking into a diamond, and the more we stare into it, and the more we turn it in light hits and refracts in different ways, the greater understanding we have of God's revelation to us. So I hope you know that for God's so loved you, you, not just whosoever in the world, but you, that he loved you enough, that he sent his one and only son who lived a perfect life,

and by his own submission and will, he died a sinner's death, and he became sin that we might be cured from the inside out for anyone who would believe that when he did that, it counted for us. And my friends, that is good news. Let's pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you

that we can love you because you first loved us and you sent your son, Jesus Christ, as a propitiation, the payment that satisfies. That God, fundamentally, every single one of us are snake-bitten on the inside. And there's no amount of hard work that we could do to take that away. There is simply submitting to you on the cross

and receiving the free gift of grace. And so, God, we thank you that you loved so you gave. And that if we believe, we can receive eternal life. We prayed in Jesus' name. Thank you.