4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze1 serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you1 do not receive our testimony.12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.214 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.3
Footnotes
[1]3:11The Greek for you is plural here; also four times in verse 12 [2]3:13Some manuscripts add who is in heaven [3]3:15Some interpreters hold that the quotation ends at verse 15
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze1 serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you1 do not receive our testimony.12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.214 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.3
Footnotes
[1]3:11The Greek for you is plural here; also four times in verse 12 [2]3:13Some manuscripts add who is in heaven [3]3:15Some interpreters hold that the quotation ends at verse 15
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:
Hello, everyone. Awesome. Yeah, that was great. So, we're gonna be in Numbers chapter 21 tonight. So if you wanna go ahead and start making your way there.
Jeffrey Heine:
We're also gonna be in John chapter 3. If you have a Bible, I encourage you to, to open up. It is in your worship guide if you don't have a Bible with you. My name is Jeff, by the way. I'm an associate pastor here at Redeemer.
Jeffrey Heine:
If we haven't met before, I'd love to meet you after the service tonight. So we're gonna be in John chapter 3 later on in the service. And it might be helpful to kinda see what's before and after the section that we're looking at. And that's why I encourage if you have a Bible to go ahead and open up there there and also numbers 21. So today is Palm Sunday.
Jeffrey Heine:
As we, started off the service with a reading from Matthew and the shouts of Hosanna. This is the first day Palm Sunday marks the 1st day in what the church has traditionally called Holy Week. And today marks that that first day, Palm Sunday, where Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem. And when he is welcomed in he is welcomed in as as a king. It's very likely that the passage that we read at the opening scripture tonight, that the people that were there that were shouting out, that were laying the palm branches down, that they had heard about Lazarus being raised from the dead.
Jeffrey Heine:
They'd heard about this wonderful work of Jesus. They heard some of his teaching. They they were prepped for his arrival. And when he came he was welcomed with these shouts of hosanna. And they were laying down these palm branches, which might be an image that you have from your childhood, some of you, where there were palm branches.
Jeffrey Heine:
Kids would run-in with palm branches. In fact, at lunch today, my daughter June, who's 4, stopped me and said, daddy, I was supposed to get a palm branch today, and I didn't, and I'm frustrated. And, and I said, okay. Thank you for making me aware of this. And so if you've got a good Palm Branch guy, I'm supposed to come home with one later tonight.
Jeffrey Heine:
So just hit me up after the service. But that's the time when, you know, the kids in the palm branches and all that. It's to remember this time where Jesus came into the city. Now he was there to remember the passover. The story that we looked at many months ago when we started this study of Exodus.
Jeffrey Heine:
We started back in October. And you'll recall the plagues. God sent the plagues to Egypt because the people of Israel were enslaved. And he had set about this big deliverance plan. And part of it were these plagues that came.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the last plague was the plague of the death of the firstborn. And the way that the people of Israel were told that they would survive and endure during this plague was that they had to take a lamb, they had to kill it, they had to cook it, they had to eat it, And they had to put the blood of the lamb on their doorpost. And the destroyer destroyer, this angel of the Lord that would come through to take the life of the firstborn child of every home that did not have that blood over it. This plague came, and it was shortly after that plague that pharaoh let the people go, and they they went with Moses through the Red Sea and into the wild to worship God. And Jesus was going to Jerusalem to remember this, to remember that deliverance, but also to set about the great deliverance.
Jeffrey Heine:
He went into Jerusalem knowing that the cries of Hosanna would quickly and violently become the cries of crucify him. He knew that that was coming. But he gathered in that place to remember. And he gathered, with his disciples in that upper room to have that passover meal, to celebrate, to remember, but also to start some things new. To take some of that bread and to say that this is my body.
Jeffrey Heine:
And to take some of that wine, the cup of salvation and say this is my blood just poured out for the forgiveness of many. And he also got down on his knees and he washed the feet of his disciples. We will remember that ourselves this coming Thursday night in our Maundy Thursday service. And also that night, he gave them a new commandment. A new commandment I give to you that you would love one another.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's from that commandment, Latin, mandatum, that we get mandi. This is the day that a new covenant was established, and also the day that a new commandment was given. And so as we are celebrating, we're in the the midst of our own deliverance remembrance. We come to the text today. We turn our attention to God's word.
Jeffrey Heine:
And last week, Joel talked about how Israel had gone they'd been so the deliverance out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, they're out into the wilderness, they get to Mount Sinai, they receive the law, life with God. They keep, they build up the tabernacle, they get those rules or regulations for how they're going to worship God and live with God. They make their way to the edge of the promised land where everything has been leading and progressing. And they get to the edge of the promised land, and because of their fear and their disobey their their, disobedience, they don't enter in. They're scared.
Jeffrey Heine:
They see the walls, they see the people, they they get scared, and they don't go. They disobey God. And their judgment, the judgment of God on their disobedience and their failure to enter into the promised land is that they're no longer permitted into the promised land. And that judgment comes, and so now they wander. They wander for a long time.
Jeffrey Heine:
40 years they will wander because that generation, including Moses himself will not be permitted into the promised land. And that's where we find ourselves in the Exodus story tonight. They have been wandering and wandering and wandering, at times getting closer to the promised land and then further away because they can't enter in. And so we come to numbers 21. They've been wandering for some time.
Jeffrey Heine:
The way has been difficult. The terrain has been rough, and they are out in the desert, in the wild, in the wilderness. And that's where we find ourselves. Look with me in numbers 21 starting with verse 4, and let us listen carefully for this is God's word. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God, and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.
Jeffrey Heine:
And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole.
Jeffrey Heine:
And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the truth that it speaks into our lives, and in our hearts. And whether we know it or not we are in desperate need of you.
Jeffrey Heine:
So I ask that in our time together that you would speak to us by your spirit, that you would give us eyes to see Jesus, and that we would trust him. We pray these things in his name. Amen. So bizarre story. Right?
Jeffrey Heine:
We can we can admit that. So as they're they're wandering, they're making their way around, around, they begin to grumble. Now, if you've been with us for the study so far, if you've been with us for all these weeks since the beginning of October, as we've been looking at the Exodus, you might be feeling like, I've heard this story before. The people grumbled. There was judgment.
Jeffrey Heine:
They got scared. They said, Moses, you better pray for us to this God, and and then he does. It's something that we've seen before. But this is the the last and the most severe complaint that Israel makes about their nomadic living conditions. They complain, and they say this, why did you make us leave Egypt?
Jeffrey Heine:
Why did you make us leave slavery in Egypt just to die in the wilderness? The road had been really hard for them as they've been journeying around here. In fact, one of the ways that this can be translated from the Hebrew is, is when it comes to the people became impatient on the way. That can really be read the way was hard, and it made the people hard. The way was rough, and it made the people rough.
Jeffrey Heine:
They were in a difficult season as they were in this difficult terrain, and they grumbled. They complained, why did you make us leave Egypt? You know that short term memory, like like that that was those were the good old days back in slavery in Egypt. But that's the thing about grumbling, it doesn't have to be true. And we we know that.
Jeffrey Heine:
Right? I mean, think about most of our our own grumbling. It doesn't have to be true, and actually it gets gets worse from here. But they're complaining that God has he made them leave Egypt, Moses along with him. They made us leave Egypt, and now it's just to die in the wilderness.
Jeffrey Heine:
But this time, they're a little bit closer to the truth, aren't they? Because before they were brought out of Egypt, they were brought out of this slavery into the wilderness with the plan of the promised land. But now because of their fear and their disobedience and the judgment of God saying that they cannot, they are not permitted to enter into the promised land, now they're right. They will die in the wilderness. And so now not only are they wandering, but they're wandering knowing that they will die in the wilderness.
Jeffrey Heine:
And they will raise their children and tell them of their great sin of distrust, and the great promise that God has made of this land, of this place, of a future and a hope for them that they themselves will not see. So they speak against Yahweh and they speak against Moses. This is a this is a new low in their grumbling. And so they speak these things and very quickly there is judgment. The Lord sent fiery serpents.
Jeffrey Heine:
That that's the quick so they they speak against God, they speak against Moses, and then these snakes come out. Now this is a common, this was a common problem for nomadic tribes in this area, this part of the world. There are lots of testimonies, written testimonies of tribes in these different areas that had snake attacks, where hundreds of people would die in one day and in one night, where they would have to carry lanterns and hit bushes to try and scare the snakes out, so they could catch or kill them, because because it was a real threat. But this, these fiery snakes, called fiery snakes probably because of their color, and what it felt like when you were bitten. You would get bitten, and this fire in your foot, fire in your leg, fire in your hand, and then you would die.
Jeffrey Heine:
And this started to happen with many people. There's kind of a play on some of the language here in the Hebrew of, there were many snakes, many bitten, many died. And this came, this judgment quickly came. And there are 2 quick asides here that I think are worth noting. First, just a question to all of us.
Jeffrey Heine:
Do you ever feel like you fall into the same sins over and over? Do you feel like you fall for the same temptations, the same dumb trap You fall into it time and again. Have you ever felt that way? Because it seems to me that that is the story of the people of God. As as we've been reading through the story of Exodus, and the story of the people of God, following Yahweh into the wilderness, they seem to make the same mistakes time and time again.
Jeffrey Heine:
It's hard to learn to resist those temptations. It's hard to learn to resist sin. It is difficult, and what we see with the people of God is that they seem to make these same stupid mistakes over and over again. But the second aside is this, while they seem to have a hard time learning not to sin, not to fall into these same traps, they do seem to be learning about repentance. Look at verses 6 7.
Jeffrey Heine:
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And so Moses prayed for the people. So quickly.
Jeffrey Heine:
I mean, the the this unfolds so quickly that they grumble against him. This judgment comes. The judgment comes, people start dying, and they go to Moses quickly, and they say, we have sinned. They didn't say something's amiss, strange things are afoot. No.
Jeffrey Heine:
They say, we have sinned. We know what we did, and we know that it was wrong. And we know that we have to ask God for forgiveness. We we are going to confess this to you, and we need you our mediator. We need you to pray to God, to take away these snakes.
Jeffrey Heine:
See, true repentance leads to true change. The people of Israel really needed to turn from their speaking against Yahweh, and their speaking against Moses. They needed to really change. They needed to turn from that, And that's what repentance is. Repentance is turning away from sin.
Jeffrey Heine:
And this is the last time that we have a recorded grumble, a recorded complaint by Israel in the wilderness like this. And in light of their repentance, God made a provision for them. Now think back to those plagues. Think back to those plagues of the hailstorm, the darkness, the frogs, all those things. They would they would end.
Jeffrey Heine:
The the death of the first born, it would it would end. And so they're saying, pray to God that he would take these snakes away. Take take the snakes away. That that's what we that's what we're asking you, Moses, to pray to the Lord for us, and so he does. He goes to the Lord and he prays, and he prays what these people have asked.
Jeffrey Heine:
But what God does in providing a way for them is not according to what the people ask. The people said, take the snakes away. God doesn't do that. Instead, he makes a way for healing. He establishes a way that requires humility and obedience.
Jeffrey Heine:
Look at verse 8 and 9. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. So the snakes are still out there. Kind of terrifying, but the snakes are still out there.
Jeffrey Heine:
People are still getting bitten, but what God has done is he has made a way. He has made a way for healing. And like I said, it requires humility and obedience. Humility to say, this is a judgment on me because of my sin, and I turn from that sin, and I'm going to I'm going to look and believe. So what what God told Moses to do was to make a fiery serpent.
Jeffrey Heine:
Now this area where they were traveling and camping was an area known for its copper mines. And so it's likely that he he fashioned this copper snake, that that actually looked like the red snakes, the fiery snakes that were out there. And so he made this large snake, and he set it on a pole, and he set it up to where people could see it. And he instructed them that if you are bitten, if this judgment comes to you, this righteous judgment, it's God is not wrong for doing this. If this if this judgment comes to you, God has provided a way.
Jeffrey Heine:
You look up here at this way that he has provided, and he will give you life. Now think about the relief that that would bring to the people. And also think, what would it take to refuse? What what kind of ignorance mixed with arrogance would it take to be bitten by one of these fiery serpents, to have that fire in your in your bloodstream, and in your bones, and in your body in this pain, and to not look. So this is it.
Jeffrey Heine:
This is this is the whole story. Six verses. Sin, judgment, repentance, and healing. Now this story kind of lies dormant for about 700 years, and it comes up again. It comes up again in 2nd Kings 18, actually, where king Hezekiah has now taken the throne, the king of Judah.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's taken the throne, and he is, doing a lot of purging. He's purging false worship from the people of Israel. He is trying to strengthen fidelity of worship to Yahweh. And one of the things that is going on in Judah at that time is that there are people who have started going to this bronze serpent that Moses made, and worshiping it as an idol. See Moses followed this instruction from Yahweh to make this as a provision of healing to the people of Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:
And now it's been kept around, and there are people that are worshiping it as an idol. And so he takes it and he destroys it. Because he knew that it wasn't this bronze snake on a stick that was healing people, it was Yahweh. God was doing this healing. This was just bronze.
Jeffrey Heine:
It was this look, this turn, this repentance and look of faith, and God giving healing. That's what was taking place. That was the transformational act that was going on here, not this not this bronze snake. And so king Hezekiah destroys it. And then the story lies low again.
Jeffrey Heine:
It lays low for another 700 years or so, and it's brought up again by Jesus in John chapter 3. If you would look with me in your bibles or your worship guide. Now, a quick word, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Nicodemus was a Pharisee.
Jeffrey Heine:
He was a teacher of Israel. He knew very well the history of Israel. He knew the stories of Israel, and he would have known the story of Moses and the bronze serpent. And so Jesus is talking to him, and telling him that if he were to see the kingdom of God, anyone who wants to see the kingdom of God, the fullness of God's glory, and rule, and reign, and eternity, if anyone were to see that, they must be born again. And Nicodemus is baffled by this.
Jeffrey Heine:
He has no idea what this means. And so he responds in John chapter 3 verse 9. These are the words of Nicodemus to Jesus. He says, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
Jeffrey Heine:
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. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. 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.
Jeffrey Heine:
Here Jesus references the story of Moses and the bronze serpent. To explain to this wise teacher of Israel who knew well the stories of Israel, he points out this image, this story from 6 verses in the middle of the book of numbers. He points to that to say this, just like the serpent was lifted up, I must be lifted up. And whoever turns in repentance, whoever looks and believes, I will give them life. See as John is trying to explain this to this wise teacher, he pulls this story from the the history of the people of God, and he says, just like that serpent was lifted up, I have to be lifted up.
Jeffrey Heine:
And just like in humility and obedience, the people of Israel, the snakes of judgment were still out there, because God was righteous in his judgment against them. But when they are bitten, they looked and they found healing. So must the people look to me to repent and look with faith at the son of man. You see, we too are under God's righteous judgment and in need of healing, in need of life, and God has made a way. We are called to repent, to look and believe with faith, looking to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
And just like the people, they knew their wretchedness. They knew that they were sinful. They knew what they had done. They were honest with themselves. They were honest with one another.
Jeffrey Heine:
They were honest with God, which is required. We have to have a sober look of our own life. We know the weight of our sin, and we turn from our sin. And in turning away from our sin, we turn and look to Christ. You see, just as it wasn't enough that there was a bronze serpent, it wasn't the people are being bitten, there are people dying, so I will put this up here.
Jeffrey Heine:
It wasn't just that it existed, they had to look. They had to look with faith and to trust really a pretty foolish thing. A snake on a stick. It appeared foolish. It was foolish to anyone and everyone except those who were healed.
Jeffrey Heine:
Those who were healed, that was life. To everyone else, copper snake on a stick. But to everyone who was healed, well, it sounds like the wisdom of God. Now there are 2 things that are implied here, that he must be lifted up and that we must look. God has designed this healing act, this transformational act to be participatory, something that we engage in.
Jeffrey Heine:
The serpent was lifted up and the people had to look. And Jesus clarifies this in verses 14 and 15 of John chapter 3. That so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes, whoever looks with faith may have eternal life. And this is the setup for a verse that I'm sure many of us grew up hearing as children, or at least seeing in football players, makeup. We can call it makeup.
Jeffrey Heine:
Right? I'm okay with that. That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. The story of Moses and the bronze serpent, that is the soil in which John 3 16 grows out of. This is what he's talking about.
Jeffrey Heine:
He's talking about turning from sin and looking with faith to that folly of the cross, and that we would look and believe and find life. So what do we look at? What do we see when we look at Jesus? A few weeks ago I was preaching out of Colossians 1, and during that time we talked about how Jesus is before all things, that all things were created by him and for him, and he holds all things together. We see his his authority and his glory over all creation.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's one thing that we see when we look to him. The son of man who is lifted up, that's one of the things that we see. That he is before all things and in him all things are held together. And we see his incarnation. We see God in flesh tabernacling among us.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's one of the things we see. We're 270 days away from Christmas. Found that out this week. It's the annunciation of the blessed virgin Mary, which means that she has just found out that she's going to have a baby. So go ahead, you got 270 days for your shopping.
Jeffrey Heine:
People get ready, it's almost Christmas. So we get that. We see the incarnation when we look at Jesus. What else do we see? We see his holy life.
Jeffrey Heine:
We see his perfect obedience to the father. That at every turn, even when he prays to him, may this cup, if it can pass, pass from me, but otherwise I will drink it. If it cannot pass from me, I will drink it to the dregs. That perfect obedience to the father in every aspect of life, that holiness, that's one of the things that we see. We see his love and care for the disciples, rebuking them, teaching them, leading them, caring for them, weeping with them.
Jeffrey Heine:
We see him entering in on Palm Sunday to the city of Jerusalem knowing that the cries of Hosanna become the cries of of crucify him. He knows that. We see that. We see him in that upper room with the disciples washing their dirty feet. We see him sharing the passover meal with them.
Jeffrey Heine:
We see him telling Judas that what he has to do to do quickly. We see him praying in the garden. And as the sweat of blood, the beads of blood on his brow, as his disciples are falling asleep and they can't watch with him for 1 hour. We see him betrayed in the garden. We see him taken to his trial.
Jeffrey Heine:
We see him beaten and flogged. We see him on the cross. We see the water and the blood pouring out from his side. We see him drawing his last breath. We see him giving up his spirit, and into his head into the father's hands he commits his spirit and he dies.
Jeffrey Heine:
And we see the body of Jesus, God incarnate, lifeless, carried and laid in a borrowed tomb, borrowed because he gives it back, and we see his body laying there motionless. The silence of the tomb, and that silence broken by his lungs being filled with a deep breath of resurrected life. We see him in the stone rolled away. We see him exit the tomb. We see the disciples running.
Jeffrey Heine:
We see him meeting with the disciples behind closed doors. We see Thomas touching his wounds and believing. We see him reconciling with Peter at the seashore. We see him ascending to the right hand of God the father. These are the things that we see, all the things that we see when we look at Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:
And a few weeks ago, I asked you the question, do you see this glorious Christ when you look at him? And there's a presupposition there, a presupposed question there, and that is one that I want us to deal with now. And that is, have you looked at him? I would imagine that would be the first question that comes, when a family member had been bitten by one of those fiery snakes. Have you have you looked?
Jeffrey Heine:
Have you looked to the bronze serpent? Have you looked? Because there's healing there. And it's true that in our own lives that we there is judgment, there is death, there is the there's the grave. And we must ask ourselves, and really we must ask one another, our our family members, our co workers, strangers, have you looked?
Jeffrey Heine:
Have you looked to him? Have you found healing in him? And if you have looked, are you still looking? The author of Hebrews in chapter 12, he writes these words. Since, therefore, we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, meaning the saints of old, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.
Jeffrey Heine:
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. When we look to Jesus, we see the author and finisher, the founder and perfecter, the starter and completer of our faith. You've heard me say it before. It's a wonderful Tim Keller quote.
Jeffrey Heine:
It is not the quality of our faith, but the object of our faith that matters. Your faith might seem frail and weak right now. You might feel like the people of Israel falling into the same sin over and over and over again. But hopefully, you are learning the road of repentance. A quickness to repentance, to turn from that sin, to call it what it is, and to turn and look.
Jeffrey Heine:
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher, the founder and perfecter, the beginner and completer of your faith? Have you looked at him? Have you looked to him, and are you looking to him day in, day out as you go about your regular life, as you leave your home, as you come back to your home, when you wake up from your bed, when you lie down in your bed, when you go into your cubicle, and when you walk out of your cubicle, are you looking to him? Because there are many different reasons why we don't. There are many different reasons I don't.
Jeffrey Heine:
And if if you're anything like me, and unfortunately you are, you don't always look. There are lots of different reasons. Sometimes it's shame, shame of our own sin. We don't look to him. That's like the shame of the snake bite not looking to the healing of the bronze serpent.
Jeffrey Heine:
That's why you need to look. That sin is why you must look to him who heals and saves. Sometimes it's shame, sometimes it's fear, sometimes it's competing saviors. You know, it's like looking for a bronze serpent in the middle of Times Square. There are all these things that say, I can save you, I can make you feel complete, I can make you feel whole.
Jeffrey Heine:
That can be a job, that can be someone that you're dating. If it's someone you're dating, have a serious talk with them, and then break up. Like it's just just do it. Okay. Moving on.
Jeffrey Heine:
But there are all these things that say, I can save you. I can heal you. I can make you feel better even if it's for a short time. I I can be all these things to you, and they can't. They were never created to do that, and they never will do that.
Jeffrey Heine:
But Christ came for that. So there are lots of reasons we don't look, but to those who look and those who believe, that is where we find life. And I know that it's hard to look. I know that it's hard as the author of Hebrews says, to fix our eyes, to set our eyes, an immovable gaze upon him. That's what we want.
Jeffrey Heine:
And it's not just us that want that, the spirit of God wants that for us. And he moves and and does work to that end to lead us, to guide us, to help us, to call us out when we're not, to fix our eyes on Jesus. See the son of man has been lifted up and and this week we celebrate all that he has promised. We celebrate all that he has accomplished. So what better time to ask these fundamental questions.
Jeffrey Heine:
Have you turned and looked to him? And if the answer is yes, yes, I have turned for my sin and I have trusted in Christ, the question comes, is your gaze fixed on him? Are your eyes set on him? Have you turned your eyes upon Jesus and looked full in his wonderful face? A good litmus test, or the things of earth vibrant or growing strangely dim.
Jeffrey Heine:
This week, we enter into the darkness of holy week to see the brilliant light of resurrection Sunday. And so this is a time for us to pray and reflect and ask these questions. If you have not turned your eyes to him and looked to him before, do not delay. Look to him. Look to him.
Jeffrey Heine:
Look to him. Let's pray. Father, I pray that by your spirit, you would help us to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Help us as we go into this holy week too. To think honestly about our own lives.
Jeffrey Heine:
To speak honestly with the people around us, in our family, in our workplaces. That we might look to Jesus and that others may too. That in looking to him, we would find life and healing. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.