HARD TIMES

The New Testament describes the way we used to be before following Jesus. It is called our ‘old self’.

Rom 6.6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.

Ephesians 4. You were taught by him (as the truth is in Jesus) ²² to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, ²³ to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Colossians 3. ⁵ Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, ⁷ and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. ⁸ But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.

That ‘old self’ doesn’t give in without a fight. A big part of the Christian life is putting off (kicking out) our old ways of thinking and acting. This means disagreeing with ourselves and asking God to give us the specific new attitude that we need in each situation we face.

Our ‘old self’ also called ‘the flesh’ (our mind, body and emotions) has lived according to the sinful nature for a long time - therefore, it has natural habits, reflexes and responses that are its ‘go to’ responses. We have to unlearn all these.  We make steady progress in changing from being controlled by the discredited habits of our ‘old self’ and we choose to follow the advice of the Spirit (the Counsellor). 

Satan does his best to feed those old desires and responses.  He tempts us with our stubborn old familiar ways. For example, if we used to snap at people we found annoying and put them down with a rude insult – then Satan will make sure to put such people in our workplace.

When we fall to his temptations, we will feel incredibly stupid and discouraged (just what he wants). The next step is to get us feeling that we just don't have the faith to make it as a Christian and we might as well stop fooling ourselves and go back to the grog!  He tempt us in all our areas of weakness whether its anxiety, laziness or whatever he can pull from his bag of tricks.

This is spiritual war.  Not only are we ourselves at risk, but anyone we might have truly helped to find hope in God will also be discouraged by our backsliding.

Like any war, we need to be prepared to defend ourselves. We have to arm ourselves with spiritual weapons in the right hand and in the left (2 Cor 6.7). 

This isn't ordinary warfare: 2 Cor 10.3-5 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t for the faint-hearted. This is why Paul tells we need to put on spiritual armour.

Ephesians 6.10. Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. ¹³ For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. ¹⁴ Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, ¹⁵ and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God. ¹⁸ Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

This doesn’t mean that you just try harder – or just think nice thoughts!  Putting on this armour is to wrap ourselves in the truth and the promises of God.  For example: Temptation says, “Tell this muppet what you think of him!”  But now we arm ourselves with the truth of God, such as, “Love your enemies and pray for those who oppose you.”  Such truths disarm the enemy.

Don’t let discouragement cause you to dress yourself in the smelly, sweaty old clothes of your past failed life. Deliberately choose – by faith – to ask God for the new clean clothes he has for you.

1 Peter 4.² Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you.13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. ¹⁴ If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵ Let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or a meddler. ¹⁶ But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in having that name.

Fight on, with both eyes fixed on Jesus!  His help is on the way.

A Hard Teaching to Swallow

John 6.50-71  

People called the things Jesus taught in this passage, ‘hard sayings’.  But they are not hard in a judgemental and harsh way – they are full of generous love and promise. And they’re not hard - as in difficult to understand – he used no big words and he was talking about eating (something everyone can understand). No, Jesus’ words are hard because they are costly. If we are to receive them, we have to leave behind wrong things we have come to love too much. V60: Therefore when many of his disciples hard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

The chapter began with Jesus being followed by a huge crowd to a secluded spot on the shores of Lake Galilee.  In his typical concern for them, when they were hungry Jesus provided bread and fish for them by miracle. This resulted in the crowd becoming so excited by the miracle that they were about to rush him and carry him off to declare him as the new King of Israel. They didn’t have a clue about Jesus’ real mission.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum across the bay, they found him again and demanded more miracles. They became offended when Jesus bluntly told them that he knew that their real motivation was the free food - that they weren’t really interested in his mission. You’re looking for me, not because you recognised the meaning of my miracles – but because you ate the bread and filled your stomachs. Stop striving for food that goes off – strive for the food that sustains eternal life – the food I can give you.

In the discussion that followed, Jesus stated plainly that HE was himself the food they really needed. At this point the crowd got very argumentative. They were frustrated that Jesus seemed to be talking in riddles – when all they wanted was for him to stump up with some more food. They said, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

So Jesus explained what this meant – but his explanation fell on deaf ears.

I’m sure you remember another occasion when a rich, young leader (the trifecta of good fortune) came to Jesus - because he had a bad feeling about his life. He was scared of death. So, in love, Jesus gave him very specific instructions and promises – but the young star couldn’t stomach them - because they involved letting go of the things he had fallen in love with. He went away deeply grieved and disappointed.

This morning we are touching on one of the most challenging things Jesus taught - so challenging, that after he had spoken there were LESS people following him than when he started speaking!   

The hearers fell into 4 categories. It’s helpful for us to honestly work out which category of hearer we are:

1.     His audience was largely made up of ordinary citizens going about their lives as they thought best. But they were almost totally consumed with concerns about the mechanics of living (food, work, entertainment) rather than the purpose of life itself. Jesus aimed to disturb them from following lives that simply obeyed their appetites. Such people are described elsewhere as, ‘People whose god is their belly’.  This isn’t just referring to people who overeat. It refers to everyone who is trying to find meaning in life by following their appetites - Appetites for rest, or entertainment, or video games, or approval, or money, or sex, or laughs, or thrills etc. Things that only last for a moment.

2.     Also among the audience when Jesus taught these things were the religious ones. Those who were sticking to their religion to keep them ‘onside’ with God - and prove they were a better class of person than general ‘sinners’. Jesus was exposing their religious traditions to be just empty shells.  We are meant to be directly in touch with God. And Jesus came to be that connection point.

3.     The third section of the audience Jesus had in mind when he taught these things were disciples. Those who had begun to follow him – and within that audience there were three concentric circles of followers – the 12, the 70, and the semi-committed disciples.  You know who the 12 were. And the 70 were the wider group of men and women who followed and supported Jesus – they were the ones he sent out around the towns ahead of him to tell people about the Kingdom of God. And then there was a much larger group again who seemed committed but not all of them turned out in the end to be true believers.  Jesus’ teaching was designed to sift through these three circles of followers.

4.     And lastly there was one person in particular that Jesus was speaking to: Judas. His message was the most direct possible warning to Judas that he was the enemy of Jesus (even if he hadn’t fully decided in his own mind). Jesus was calling him to repent.

So, having thought about these four audiences. We have to decide this morning which of audiences we are in.

Let’s quickly deal with the last audience, first. I wonder if there is a Judas here this morning. You might be surprised that I would raise that question.  But think about it:  Everyone else, except Jesus, was completely unaware that Judas was in the enemy’s camp. In the same way I have no idea if there is a Judas here - someone who is about to put Jesus to shame. So I’ll just throw the challenge out there, as Jesus did: “Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there isn’t in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”  And. Today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart. There’s still time – there’s TODAY.

As to the others in the audience: Ask yourself: Am I living a shallow life that keeping me from seriously considering the deeper reasons for my unhappiness.  Am I just responding to my appetites with no certainty about what my life is FOR?

Or, Am I one of those semi-committed disciples?   Perhaps you’re still in a place where if a better offer came up – you’d be off!  If you fell for an attractive unbelieving person – or if a good money-making opportunity showed up - you’d ditch Jesus.

Or, Am I the committed disciple?  I know I have a long way to go, but I’m desperate to know Jesus more and better – to understand his expectations for my life. I’m ready to dive into faith, fully clothed – boots-and-all – holding nothing back.

Now, having decided where you fit into Jesus’ audience, let’s go ahead to see what Jesus said that caused many to abandon him - and some to become even more confidently anchored to him.  He said (verse 51):

 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The key to understanding this is to realise that it from two things that began to be revealed in the Old Testament: The Passover and the manna.

 The Passover was a one-off meal. And the manna was the daily provision of food for the Israelites as they travelled through the wilderness towards the Promised Land.

The first Passover meal was on the night Israel left Egypt. God was about to send the final plague to afflict Egypt and force Pharaoh to free the Israelites. To avoid being caught in the plague, the Israelite families were told to take a lamb, kill it, daub its blood on the door frame of their house - and then eat the sacrificed lamb together.  Then all the families were to met up and walk away from Egypt.

Eating the lamb was a powerful way of identifying with the animal that was being sacrificed for the family’s protection from God’s judgement and for the forgiveness of their sins. By eating it, the sacrifice became part of them. What you eat becomes you! The elements and minerals in the food are carried by your blood into every tiny cell you are made of.

Having our sins forgiven is a close and personal business. God doesn’t just wave his hand over a crowd and say, “I’ve forgiven the lot of you.”  Each one must eat. Each one must have a personal connection to the sacrifice. (I KNOW you can see how this connects with Jesus’ sacrifice!)

But also, the eating of the sacrificed lamb, included fellowship – not only between those sinners who gratefully ate the meal in common - but fellowship with God himself.   (As an aside, the Lord’s Supper contains those two ideas, also.)

But Jesus wasn’t speaking about animal sacrifices and he wasn’t speaking about bread and wine. He said The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He was talking about HIS actual life sacrificed and given to sustain us.

Jesus’ death wrapped up all the Old Testament sacrifices. He finished them forever. But for his sacrifice to count for our forgiveness, we must identify closely with it. We must eat it. We must receive it into our lives.

Obviously, we don’t eat Jesus’ body. He still has his body. He was raised to life – many believers saw him alive, with a substantial, glorified body. So we don’t eat his body.

But neither do we return to symbols. Eating bread and drinking the wine can’t save us. (Those are for a different purpose - which we may be talk about later if we get time.)

Eating and drinking Jesus life is a spiritual reality.

Because we live in and interact with a physical world we tend to live as though physical things are what’s real and lasting - and that spiritual things are airy-fairy – a bit like a dreams or imagination. But actually, it is the physical things that are passing away (where are all the people who were alive 100 years ago? They passed away). What is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor 4.  

⁵² At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat? ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, ⁵⁵ because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 

When we tell God that we accept the promise that Jesus’ died for our forgiveness  - we are ‘taking Jesus in’ (eating the ultimate Passover Lamb).

True disciples, are those who daily depend on Jesus’ life to nourish and sustain them. This is what the Manna promised.  Each day, God sustains us with the Real Bread from Heaven – Jesus’ life in us.  We are speaking about spiritual life -  not just muscle and blood - though of course God sustains our bodies, too. 

Having Jesus’ life in us means a new spiritual character, new power - and a calling to go with it. We live out this new life by depending on His energy that he so mightily inspires within us.

⁵⁶ The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Eating is not experienced by ‘reading the menu’. You must taste and see that the Lord is good.

On the day Jesus spoke these things many people left him.  ⁶⁰ They said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?” ⁶¹ Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were complaining about this, asked them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³ The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. ⁶⁴ But there are some among you who don’t believe.” 

Perhaps  these words have made you feel uneasy – offended even. Jesus isn’t trying to offend us - he wants us to stay with him and grow. The ones who leave him are unspiritual. They can’t see past the flesh. And the flesh doesn’t help at all.

You eat and drink Jesus’ life by faith. It is life for your spirit not your flesh. The menu is the Bible – there we learn about everything Christ can be for us. We ask and receive. And the Spirit makes these things real and tasty in our lives. As Jeremiah said: Lord, your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart, for I carry your name!

And Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” He was referring to Judas, because he was going to betray him.

This is the day the Lord has made - for each of us to take Peter’s words for our words. “Lord Jesus, who else could I possibly go with? You have the words of life – eternal life!  Today, now, I believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. Feed me!”

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The man who was healed against his will

John 5.1-18 

We are studying John because he tells us that believing in Jesus is how we get LIFE. And throughout the gospel of John this theme of LIFE runs like a river. In fact Jesus says that he is the Giver of Living Water – and by this he was referring to his Spirit – who he gives to believers. It is the Spirit who makes a person spiritually alive and able to willingly drink the water of Life that Jesus gives. This eternal LIFE is not postponed until after we die – it is available HERE and NOW in the midst of this wilderness that we travel through in our lifetime.  Here is a poetic description of this Reality, in Psalms: 107. He turns a desert into a pool, dry land into springs.  And in Isaiah: 43 I will make a way in the wilderness. I provide water in the wilderness, to give drink to my chosen people.

Someone may be asking: How do I drink? First, you have to realise that you are spiritually thirsty.

• ·       Spiritual thirst is restlessness – a feeling of dissatisfaction, feeling we haven’t found our place.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is unease – a feeling of foreboding – a sense that things aren’t right and that everything is about to go wrong.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is loneliness – a feeling that nobody REALLY understands us.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is frustration – a feeling that we can’t put things together in our lives – we can’t achieve ‘flow’ so that one thing leads to another smoothly.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is bitterness – a feeling that others have wrecked everything for us.
• ·       Spiritual thirst is guilt – a feeling that we done bad things and we are powerless to fix them up.

You get the picture! Jesus quenches all that thirst – and more.

Today’s study is warning and encouragement. Warning not to miss the grace of God when he makes it available. Encouragement to receive the fresh start, the purpose and excitement of the life Jesus offers.

In chapter 5 we read that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast.  Inside the walls of Jerusalem was the pool of Bethesda fed by a natural spring. The pool has been excavated and you can see the remains of it in Jerusalem, today. Around the pool complex were covered walkways – colonnades – and there were steps down into the pool, cut from stone. 

In those days there was a superstition that the waters had healing properties.  This attracted crowds of sick and disabled people to gather there in hopes of a cure. It seems that whenever the spring became more active and the water bubbled up, people thought it was a sign.  They jostled to be the first into the water – because they believed that the first people in got the healing.

John describes crowds of broken people there: the blind, the lame, the diseased – people hoping for a possible miracle.

This was not a spa where people came to pamper their bodies – this was a sink-hole of human misery. - Abandoned and damaged humanity clung to its edge.

If you were fit and well, this was a place you avoided. Those coming up to Jerusalem for the feast wouldn’t be seen dead there. But Jesus would.  He came into a world of misery to be ‘seen dead’ here. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, said Isaiah the prophet.  He carried our illnesses and diseases.  And in 1 Peter 2.24,25. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree (wooden cross), that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.   

There’s no ugly, shameful problem that you can’t open up to Jesus. He carried your misery into the grave - and to exchange it for his own clean life.

You can stop soaking in the festering pool of your miseries. He has come with his spring of living water – his spiritual life - to bubble up lively within you.

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On the day Jesus visited that pool, a crippled man got healed. But getting the use of his legs back was not an end in itself. Jesus’ healing miracles are signs—they point to something far better than the physical healing itself.

Jesus heals the cause of the damage in the minds and bodies of people.  But this man doubted.

Later, Jesus searched out the man and told him plainly the purpose of the miracle. It wasn’t just about disfunctional legs – it was about his heart!  Jesus said: “Look, now you are well. Stop sinning—so that nothing worse happens to you!”

From what we observed of this man his sins included: Blaming others and making excuses for himself.  In a word, he was unwillingness to take responsibility for his life. 

Did you notice how the man responded to Jesus’ question when they first meet?  Jesus: “Do you want to get well?”  

Now, you’d think a man in his position would have replied: ”Oh, I long to be well! I dream of being well! Yes, of COURSE I want to be free of this disability!  I want a proper life! For too long I’ve have lain around unable to move and live!  I want to work! I want to make something of my life.”

But no. He had a different response: Blame.  “I can’t be healed because no one will help me down into the pool.  They’re all so selfish around here—they me push aside so I can’t drag myself down into the pool while the water is bubbling. By the time I get there it’s stopped.” 

So, this much we know about this man—he was further down than down—because not only did he have paralysed legs - but he had bitterness with it.

There IS a lot of sadness in our world. There are a myriad of personal human disasters in and around us.  But something worse than these sad conditions is when bitterness and blame take root.

Heb 12.15: See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

Deuteronomy 29.¹⁸ Be sure there is no man, woman, family, or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of the nations. Be sure there is no root among you bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.

Of course this poor invalid was to be pitied—he had been paralysed most of his life and presumably had to crawl or drag his lifeless legs on crutches (it doesn’t seem that he even had a relative who cared enough to push him around in a cart.)  Of course he was to be pitied.  And Jesus took pity on him. But even more than legs that worked, he needed to repent of his sins. 

He had been paralysed for 38 years and he’s been at the pool a long time - long enough that he’d given up. Hanging around the pool had become his normal. He’d made a nest there.  He’d come to terms with his misery.

There are bars like this. The same group come week after week to replay the same old opinions and complaints. Originally they went there to cheer themselves up - but time passes, nothing changes - and finding no joy, they rely on the alcohol to dull the pointlessness of their lives.  

Some don’t even make it as far as the pub. Their crowd is a virtual crowd—their only friends are the characters on Coronation Street, or their avatars in their computer games.

They are people together, alone.

It is a terrible thing to get into a rut. We were never meant to have boring lives.  We are meant to use up our lives for a good purpose – and that purpose is to join Jesus in building his Kingdom.

Do you remember another disabled man – Bartimaeus, the blind man at Jericho? We meet him sitting on his ragged coat, begging at the side of the road while the mainstream of life flowed on by him. Then Jesus came by! Bartimaeus heard the commotion of Jesus, his disciples and a lively crowd approaching. Bartimeaus cried out – loudly - persistently: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped. He called Bartimaeus over to him. Bartimeaus threw off his coat, jumped up and ran in the direction of Jesus’ voice.  Jesus asked him: What do you want me to do for you?  Bartimeaus replied Teacher! I want to see!  Jesus restored his sight, telling him, Your faith has saved you.

Suddenly, Bartimaeus was no longer a ragged spectator—he left his mat and joined Jesus’ followers. He was no longer on the sidelines—no longer sitting in the dark. Now he was at the centre of God’s work.  He had a reason for living.

That is where Jesus wants you and I. Jesus said to people whose pointless lives had crushed them to weariness: “Take up my work and learn from me—for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my work is a good fit for you and it will not crush you.”

This was the possibility that Jesus put to the man in our chapter.  He walked into the midst of the tangled mess of broken people by the pool - he stepped up to this man - One Particular Man.

Jesus does his work one life at a time. He doesn’t sweep crowds into the kingdom – he works new birth in individuals – LOTS of individuals who become a great cloud of witnesses.

This man was healed against his will--or at least without any faith on his part.  It is not at all clear that he went on to be healed of heart. There is nothing that comes out of the man’s mouth that indicates he believed in Jesus.

When the religious authorities challenged him for carrying his mat on the Sabbath (one of their ridiculous rules) the man got straight back into excuses and his blaming others: “I didn’t ask to be healed, a man did it, then ORDERED me to pick up my mat and walk.”

After Jesus had found the healed man again and told him to ‘stop sinning’, he didn’t stop--he carried on with his blaming:

He hurried straight back to the authorities to report Jesus. This man was offended that Jesus had laid on him the responsibility that his new-found mobility would bring. He was now expected to do something with his life.

As a result of the man narking on him, Jesus came under strong attack from the religious authorities for healing on the Sabbath. Jesus’ response was to talk about his WORK. 

V17 Jesus said, “My Father is still working; and I am working also.”  This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking their Sabbath but he was even calling God his Father, making himself equal to God.

Application

Each of us must lay aside - repent - of our reluctance, our excuses, our blaming of others, and all our bitterness – so that we can be a Bartimaeus who jumps up ready to engage with Jesus in his work – not be like the man by the pool who settled down into his miserable excuses and blaming.

Jesus is calling each of us here this morning to leave our soiled mats cast off our ragged coats and be clothed with his new life.

JOHN STUDY

Meeting at 6:30pm Friday 6 July

Our over-arching aim is to understand how it is that we get LIFE – not just a life or a tolerable life, but eternal life. This passage explains the connection between God making a person spiritually alive (new birth) and Jesus dying on the cross.  Those two things are inseparable. The first is only possible because of the second.

John 3.14-21

¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will 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. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Higher learning isn't high enough
Nicodemus was perplexed. Jesus had taken his thinking into new, unfamiliar territory.  Usually Nicodemus felt he had mastery of his subject – the Scriptures – but suddenly a flood of doubt and incredulity over-whelmed his self-confidence. Again, Jesus tells Nicodemus (v12) that he isn’t equipped to understand spiritual matters. No matter how high his intellect he couldn’t reach into heaven and know the mind of God. Rather, Jesus says, the Son of Man has descended to bring God’s Life to people.

People speak of going to University for ‘higher learning’ – meaning knowledge that is high above what the ordinary person can understand. But that is not how we know God. And it is not how we get the Life of God into us. We must be born of water and the Spirit. Then we can put our faith in what God will show us and do in us.

Two wrong directions
The apostle Paul wrote something that fits Nicodemus’s situation perfectly.

Romans 10.6-8

⁶ The righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down ⁷ or, “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. ⁸ On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim.

Paul had in mind two wrong directions to go in seeking to be righteous. One is what Nicodemus was trying: Riding his soaring intellect to measure the thoughts of God. There is a Greek myth about a foolish mini-god called Icarus. In the myth, his father made him some wings with feathers glued on with wax.  His father told him to stay at low altitude – but Icarus was so exhilarated by his powers of flight that he went up and up high above everyone else but got too near the sun. The heat melted the wax, the feathers fell off and Icarus plunged into the cold sea and drowned.

Such a great illustration of pride in our intelligence. We will never soar into God’s presence and know the thoughts of God by approaching him on our terms. Our ideas will turn out to be dead feathers and melt in the presence of God.

Paul says that we must not try to fly high on our own cleverness (nor should we dig down deep into our own misery) to find the Truth. No, the Truth comes to us. The Word is near you.  Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man has come to us. The Word became flesh and lived among us. He brings understanding – he brings LIFE to us.

How does he bring it and where is it found?  Paul says the Word is spoken to us by the Spirit so that we can confess it (that is, speak the YES of faith to it).  The Word is near you. In your mouth and in your heart.

Nicodemus needed to lay down his theological, cultural and traditional ammo - to stop his arguing and debating, and just listen. Be quick to listen and slow to speak. (James 1)

Learning new things from old snakes

Then Jesus takes Nicodemus back to an event in Israel’s history. Something that Nicodemus would have known inside out. But while he knew the words and the background and the outcome of this event – he had never understood what it MEANT. He thought he had – but Jesus was about to show him the astonishing meaning that Nicodemus had never grasped.  In fact, no Israelite had ever grasped what this event really meant – until this moment when Jesus tells Nicodemus what it means.

Jesus only had to mention the incident about the snake and Nicodemus’s mind would immediately fill with all the details - he’d known them since he was a child.

There are things that you and I have known from the Bible since we were little children. But we may have totally missed their meaning. When we are born of the Spirit, he comes to fill those empty shells with the living revelation of Jesus. It’s more astonishing than CGI that colourises a black-and-white picture and then animates it.  The Spirit makes the Word so alive we can feel and taste its effect in our lives.

 Numbers 21 ⁴ Then they set out from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to bypass the land of Edom, but the people became impatient because of the journey. ⁵ The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!” ⁶ Then the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died. ⁷ The people then came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord so that he will take the snakes away from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. ⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake image and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered.

Jesus told Nicodemus that this event was a foreshadowing of something Jesus would do very shortly. A foreshadowing means an indicator of something that hasn’t happened yet.  The business with the snake was speaking forward to something that Jesus would do.

Fresh meaning

We’ll unpack what Jesus said.  First, remember that John the Baptist and then Jesus, came to announce the arrival of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is its king – the Messiah (God’s One and Only Chosen Leader for Humankind). Nicodemus was expecting a messiah and was wondering if Jesus might be him. But he and all who were expecting a messiah at that time thought he would come in power to overthrow the Roman Kingdom and establish Israel as the kingdom above all kingdoms.

So, it was a shocking thing for Nicodemus when Jesus who claimed to be Messiah (Son of Man v.14) and Son of God (v.18) likened himself to the snake on the pole! 

That snake business was a grim event in Israel. Their rebellion against God had run so deep that it attracted God’s direct judgement. A plague of poisonous snakes poured through the Israelite camp. People were bitten and dying from the snake poison. A delegation went to Moses – they understood the connection between the plague and their rebellion. They didn’t regard this as a freak event.  They asked Moses to confess their sins to God on their behalf and plead with him to withhold the judgement.

God instructed Moses to make a bronze model of a snake and impale it on a pole in the middle of the camp. Anyone suffering a poisonous bit could go there, look at the bronze snake and recover.

Before we go on to see why Jesus said this illustrated him – let’s work out what was happening back in the Israelite camp all those years before. The metal snake had no power to heal (obviously!). It was not set up as an object of worship. Looking at the snake was not just seeing the snake. To look was to realise and acknowledge that their sin was the cause of the judgement.  A person looking at this metal snake was saying something like this in his heart, “God, I know you are against me because I have abandoned you and sinned against you. This is the reason the snake poison in my blood is slowly killing me. God, I confess my sin – heal me as you have promised.”

Now we can see how appropriate it was that Jesus identifies himself with the snake impaled on the wooden pole. He knew he was shortly to be nailed to a Roman Cross for the same reasons.

Poisoned blood
All men and women have snake poison in their blood – our sinful nature – and it is slowly killing us. Death is our Creator’s judgment because we have chosen to use our lives and his resources against him and waste them on our own reckless and destructive pleasures.

Jesus was lifted up on the cross – a vivid confirmation that God was dealing with our inward plague (our poisonous sinful nature) by judging his Son instead of us.  As the metal snake impaled on the pole was a representative of all the poisonous snakes – so the Son of Man is the Representative of all of us who should be judged but by God’s grace are forgiven and healed of our sin. God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5.21)

The same kind of ‘looking’ that temporarily saved those Israelites is required by us who would be forgiven and restored from sin’s poison. “God, I have a sinful nature that is slowly killing me and will abandon me to hell. I’m looking at Jesus on the cross and I confess my sin put him there. Heal me and restore me to become a true child of yours – just as you have promised.”

Love finds a way

¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

The apostle John gasps in amazement at this love. He wrote in his letter, 1 John 3

This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God – and that is who we are!

Billions of vulnerable campers
There are 7.6 billion souls camped briefly tonight on the surface of the earth – all poisoned by a sinful nature and slowly (some quickly) dying. God in love has bought time and opportunity for us to seek him. He paid for that opportunity by the death of his Son. But the payment must be received. It is not a blanket forgiveness. A major plank in the Enemy’s strategy is to deceive people into thinking that because Jesus died on the cross we all go to heaven! Everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus was lifted up a little way and above everything
First, he was lifted up on a cross – we have the accounts of it here in the Gospels. But now he is lifted up to a throne in heaven far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given. Everything is under his feet. Eph 1.20ff. From this impregnable position he continues to make his offer to humanity:  “Look and Live!”

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Jesus came as the Rescuer – or, using the old word, Saviour. He is still in rescue mode. He could have come to condemn the world and end it in Nicodemus’s time. But he hadn’t come to condemn but to save. And that is still his programme until he takes human history to its last day.

At his first coming, he fully completed everything needed for ANY person who is thirsty to drink his life. Whosoever wills, may come. Revelation 22.17.  Both the Spirit and the bride (Church) say, “Come!” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

We see Jesus still gathering people
It’s our turn to live, seek, find and be rescued for we are the ones alive and camped in the world. And right at the heart of humankind – in the centre of the camp - we see Jesus. We recognise him as the One who was crucified and who drank the poisonous cup for us.  We see him now as the glorified King. The King of Love who for a time is still welcoming people everywhere to come and drink his Water of Life freely. The price is paid.

 Hebrews 2.8/9 For in subjecting everything to Jesus, God left nothing that is not under him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. ⁹ But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death.

Jesus stood with Nicodemus that dark night 
Jesus said to Nicodemus:¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Nicodemus, you came under cover of darkness to debate with Jesus. But there is a greater darkness - it is in your own mind and heart. Look, the Light is standing in front of you. Come into the Light. Bow to your King. Look and Live.

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