The Gospel Loves

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You made it.

Praise the Lord.

I'm so thankful for God's protection and provision.

How many of you spent some time in the basement last night?

Well, we don't have a basement.

So five people in a concrete closet was awesome.

With a dog and a son with buffalo chips.

Boy, that smell moved quickly.

So be in prayer.

Uh Walker County, I believe.

Kalera got hit pretty good.

There's a brother church in Kalera, Kalera Baptist Church.

Their roof was torn off.

So be in prayer for them and folks out there.

But I am so glad.

I think Satan hates this message, and he didn't want nobody here.

And it's been 316 all year long today.

And Southern Baptist Churches across our county and across actually our nation today.

We'll be joining with many who are going to preach what I'm going to preach or from the passage.

And so God planned out 316 to be today.

And glad you're here.

We're taking a break from the book of Mark this week to jump into this.

We'll jump back in it next week.

But anyway, I am just so happy that you're okay.

And praise God that everybody here is doing fine.

And we know it could have been different.

So take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And I thought that I was going to be preaching John 3.16, stamped right there.

But as I got into this this week, God took me through the chapter and told me something different, but John 3.16.

It's verse number 25,295 of 31,150 verses.

Yet it's the centermost verse of the Bible.

If we had to give a thesis statement to the research paper today of what is the point, if you read the book, what is the thesis statement?

I think that you could get to John 3.16.

And you say the very center, the very statement of the book is, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

And to get to a research, you've done this, those of you that have been in school, you go through what's called the scientific method.

You make an observation, you form a hypothesis, you conduct an experiment, analyze data, and then you form and draw your conclusions.

Or in other words, you do the who, what, where, when, how, and why.

And uh you do that every day.

It's called Googling.

Right?

For everything that you need to know, you do the who, what, where, when, and why on Google.

If it's for a person, you do what's called Facebook stalking.

Don't say you don't do it.

You look them up right after you meet them or get their name and you find out whatever you need to find out.

If you're too old to be doing that, it's the newest technology on the who, what, where, when, and why.

Okay?

Instagram, the kids today, they can they can be in a room with somebody, and in two minutes I hear everything about that person without their name.

I'm like, how did this happen?

Okay?

Well, in the 90s, research methods looked a little different.

I had a friend, she was a girl, she was not a girlfriend, uh, but she began to tell me one day about scientific methods amongst ladies, and she said, we go out at night and do ride-bys.

And I'm not talking about the gang-related shootings.

She's like, we go, if we like a boy, we go and find his house, we get his address, and we ride by.

I'm like, for what purpose?

She's like, in case we might see something, find something out, see if he has a girlfriend.

I'm like, this is a real thing all the time.

That's how we did it in the 90s.

You kids, you got a lot more technology, it's a lot easier, right?

You just pull it up on Instagram.

We had it cost gas to do information in the 90s.

Well, in this story in John chapter 3, we're gonna catch up with Nicodemus, who is on a research mission.

John 3 · chapter mention

He's on a research mission.

Point number one we'll hit is the research mess.

Look at John chapter 3, verse 1 through 4.

John 3:1–4

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born again when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Pray with me.

Father, we're asking this morning that your presence would fall.

Lord, that at the heartbeat of everything that you said to us, that we would catch this today and not leave without it.

God, we need the love of God in our life.

We need it more than anything we even know or understand.

And I pray today that that is not just background noise, that's not just church tradition, but that you would engage our hearts afresh and anew.

And God, if there is somebody here who needs this and has not received it in a real new way, I pray today may be the day of salvation.

Lord, speak to us.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Letter A is this the identity of the man on the research mission.

You have to know a little bit about this man to understand the question.

And the man's name was Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee.

We will find out, we've found out in Mark, but in John so far, there's not a lot about the Pharisees.

But the Pharisees would become sort of a thorn in Jesus' side.

They are a group of religious people who are seeking to keep power and not be usurped of their power.

And Jesus, they like his teaching, they kind of begin to follow him, but then they begin to see him as an enemy and they oppose much of what he's done.

But this man, Nicodemus, Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you see, we'll work that in, is a Pharisee of Pharisees.

He is a leader of the Pharisees, which most, you might could debate this, but most feel that puts him in a pact called the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin are the rulers of Pharisees and impose sort of Jewish law and tradition.

And so the Sanhedrin, you'll look in Mark later.

The Sanhedrin are found as Jesus is taken to Pilate.

They are the people that last have hold of Jesus before his crucifixion.

Just to give a picture of who and what Nicodemus was a part of.

He was a prestigious and prominent man, a man who would have known the law.

That's the first five books of the Bible, and would have taught and understood things about the law.

But his observation, right?

His research, his observation of Jesus and his own logic had put him at a crossroads where he goes, I've got to find out more.

Something about what was going on with Jesus made him go, I've got to see about this man.

And so he goes to Jesus, it says at night.

There's a lot of speculation about the wise one now, but he goes to Jesus at night.

He had already formed his hypothesis of who Jesus was, but decided no matter what anyone else thinks, or if I get caught, or if I get seen, I'm going to go to this man because Jesus might just have the answers to the questions that I can't figure out.

Let me say that again.

Jesus might just have the answers to the questions that I can't figure out.

Well, let's go on to his statement.

That's the identity of Nicodemus' letter B is the inquiry of the miracles.

Nicodemus makes a statement, and it's not really a question, but it has a question tone.

He says, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God.

No one can do these signs unless God is with him.

It's not a question.

It was a statement that seems to have a questioning tone.

Are you from God?

These people would have believed in prophets, but if you go back to chapter 2, verse 11, this is what had kind of brought this on.

And it says in chapter 2, verse this was the beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

So the water, the changing the wine or the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana was the first thing that we see Jesus break into miraculously.

And it was an amazing sight to behold.

And there was talk continued after this.

In verse 18 of chapter 2, Jesus comes into the temple.

He drives all of these sellers out of the temple because this is God's house.

And they go on and later in the chapel says, if any man's going to do this, we must see signs of him.

And so the talk of Jesus miracles was kind of buzzing.

Miracles.

And I believe the same happens today.

If a miracle happens, we go, what in the world is going on?

Adrian Rogers, I was given this book by David Wilson, and I read it.

Awesome book.

It's called Believe in Miracles, but Trust in Jesus.

I was reading that book on the balcony of a high-rise condo and looking out at the ocean.

As I was reading Believe in Miracles, Trust in Jesus, my mother-in-law dropped her iPhone off the balcony.

Five stories.

Bam! Hits the ground.

One of the kids goes down.

Believe in miracles, trust in Jesus.

She gets back upstairs.

Nothing is wrong with the iPhone.

Believe in miracles.

I'm like, this is a miracle.

Literally, I'm reading.

I was telling her about the book, and she slides off her leg.

Phew! Believe in miracles.

Trust in Jesus.

Church, I believe that Jesus does miracles.

I believe that Jesus, somebody texted me, some angels have no problem with moving the wind as the tornado hits.

I believe in miracles, and I don't believe that they ceased as some do believe.

God can and does do miracles.

Now I'm not going to a man for a miracle.

No man's gonna come here and push my forehead.

I'm going to pray to a God of miracles, and I do believe in him and his miracles.

But Nicodemus has a questioning statement.

And Jesus gives what I think is an even more perplexing response.

Nicodemus says something along the lines any man could see that you must be of God if these things are happening.

And Jesus responds is you must be born again.

Is that not bizarre?

How does Nicodemus respond to this?

We're gonna see.

Second point this morning is a rebirth message.

Let's read there again what Jesus says.

Unless God is with him, certainly these signs don't happen.

Jesus answered and said, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

For many of you, it was junior high health class.

It was a very weird scenario.

Am I correct?

Junior high, whoever picked that out.

But anyway, you sat there and best you could, you kept your face together and you were turning red, and it was a mess.

Well, I grew up in a Christian school, Fairwinds Christian school, and they didn't believe in teaching us that.

And now that I think about it, I'm like, this is funny.

We're just gonna skip that and leave them to their animal senses.

Just gonna skip it.

Right?

Because we're a Christian school.

We're gonna skip that part.

And not only your animal senses, but worse than that, they left me to my dad.

And my dad pulled me into a room one day and began to explain things to me.

And all I want to tell you is that I left there feeling very awkward and very unsettled.

Okay?

And Jesus says, to be of God, you've got to be born again.

Letter A is the correlation to a birth.

Let's read verses four through seven.

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?

And Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

So Nicodemus is a teacher of teachers, a leader of leaders, very educated man and would understand Old Testament law.

He was very well educated.

And even more ludicrous is his response to Jesus' weird statement.

Shall my mother be pregnant again?

Shall I go into my mother's womb?

Like, wait a minute.

So what you need to understand about this back and forth, it's an identity question.

Identity question about birth.

Have you ever listened to well-meaning people tell you about your kids?

They'll say, you know, they look just like many people will come up to me without ever seeing Heather, and Callie will be around and they'll say, She looks just like you, and I'm like, No, she doesn't.

You've got to see her mother.

Well-meaning people say things like this.

They must have got that from you.

They'll see somebody do something, and and you know, well-meaning, but they'll say, This came from this, or this came from that.

I have yelled recently and laughed, and I'll look around and go, Oh my soul.

I sound just like my father.

I hear it.

But what you need to know is our lives are a probe for identity.

We're on the search in our life for identity.

Nicodemus was trying to understand who Jesus was, and who he was was going to base an opinion of who Nicodemus was going to see himself as.

How Jesus identified himself, and Jesus doesn't identify himself.

He says, You must be of God.

I want to tell you, Nicodemus has a vital question.

Who is Jesus to you and me?

Nicodemus, you and I have a huge issue, though, because by identity and nature, we were born a sinner.

Jesus is getting to this with his strange response.

The problem for you and me and everyone is Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

You didn't even get a choice.

If you had a choice, you would have done it, but you were born into it.

Everyone sins.

Everyone you know sins.

The best person you know sins.

The best pastor, the best people, your grandma, everybody sins.

Billy Graham, sin.

Romans 5.12 says, By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin.

Before sin entered, Eden was perfect.

The world was a perfect paradise.

And everyone in human history has failed and fallen in sin.

And the problem with that is Romans 6.23, which says, For the wages of sin is death.

So this identity that Jesus is getting ahead of, a step ahead of, is being in question.

He wants to know, how is this possible?

And Jesus steps ahead of him, but look at verse 5.

He says, Don't get hassled about this.

But Jesus says, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

So Nicodemus says, Do I need, does my mom need to be pregnant again?

He says, No, no, no, listen, listen, listen.

Water and spirit.

He's saying, water and spirit.

Many will debate this, but the meaning of water and spirit is basically two ways of almost saying the same thing.

Nicodemus, a teacher of the Old Testament, would understand spiritual cleansing and purification.

The Old Testament tabernacle had a wash basin before you were to go into the presence of Jesus.

You were to wash up.

This picture of cleaning yourself, this picture of water and spirit, physical water representing spiritual purification.

What are we talking about?

I had some grease recently fall on some shoes.

And it really got me upset.

I got cleaning immediately.

And you know what I did?

I Googled.

What do you do?

Right?

And I Googled everything and I tried everything, and no matter what I did, the more I tried, the more I put on there, nothing worked.

And I come to the realization that the only thing that can happen for these to be okay is for them to be made new.

Y'all with me?

I can't rub it out.

I can't scratch it out.

I can't make this sin right.

I can't make this thing right.

I have to get a new piece of leather or get a new shoe.

The reality is I can get new leather.

I can get a new shoe.

I can't eliminate what happened, but I can make something new.

Hear me in life.

I can't keep going in the same direction and be going in the other direction.

I can't be wrong and be right.

I have to make something new.

I have to be reborn.

Reborn, he says, a man must be born again.

That's an inward spirit and water.

Inward cleansing will change the outward way.

And that's what he's saying to Nicodemus, you must be reborn.

George Whitfield, preacher of preachers, preached being reborn over 3,000 times.

And when he was asked why would you preach the same message so many times?

And he went back to this message and he says, because it says you must be born again.

And I want to ask you today, and I know that many of you are church people.

Have you been reborn?

Are we trying to fix a patch of something and still find ourselves in the same way?

Or have we been reborn?

Is there a new path?

Is there a new life?

Have I been made new?

And Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again.

God knew that today you would be here.

It's not a coincidence.

Maybe you're here and you need to be reborn.

Letter be.

We see a correlation to a breeze.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

You don't see everything about the wind, right?

Last night, pure example, lots of wind.

You don't see everything about the wind, but you definitely see the effects of the wind.

Right?

And so you don't have to understand everything that happens in this book to be born again.

Because Ephesians 2.89 says, For by grace are you saved through faith.

Not of works.

It's not something you do, Nicodemus.

It's not about doing.

It's about this faith.

It's not of works, lest any man should boast.

He says, it's the grace of God, it's this gift you've been saved.

Faith is the word pistos, and it means to be persuaded inwardly, to move inwardly.

The spirit, the word for wind, and the same word for spirit is pneuma, to be moved inwardly.

If you've never been moved inwardly, you might never have been born again.

The spirit is the inward move when a man is born again.

Every child born of God has a Holy Spirit who comes and resides in them.

And they are born again.

And so he says, don't get caught up that I said to be born again.

He says, it's like faith.

There are some things that you take by faith and you learn through experience.

And so he says, just you need to have place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Point number three, and we're going to park and focus for the remainder of the message a redeeming Messiah.

Ephesians 1:7 says, in him we have redemption through his blood.

Ephesians 1:7

He is a redeeming Messiah.

The word Messiah means anointed, it means consecrated.

And that word consecrated means, hear this, fully satisfied.

Israel was looking for a particular type of messiah, a political or a military type of figure, because they wanted somebody to come in and straighten out the powers of Rome that were in their life.

And so that's what they were looking for: the establishment of a kingdom with peace and prosperity.

And Jesus came with a message of redemption from sin.

And the hurdle that I think 2,000 years later is what Messiah are you looking for?

You see that word Messiah, anointed, consecrated, fully satisfied, is the one who fully satisfies.

But what Messiah are we looking to for our full satisfaction?

Got a world of people looking to a whole lot of other things for fully satisfying their needs.

What will satisfy you?

One man said that our greatest need is to be fully known and fully loved.

That's an identity thing.

Our greatest need is to be fully known and fully loved.

In September, Heather and I will have been married 20 years.

And she knows things.

Lots of things.

And she has loved me through things.

And she knows who I am, and we've had highs and we've had lows.

And when I think about that 20 years, there's not anything on planet Earth that I would trade for the love that I have with my wife.

Because she has seen all of the good and all of the bad, and she continues to accept and love me for who I am.

Some would say that's a so kind of love.

John 3.16, Tony Nolan read it this way: For God so loved the world.

It's a so kind of love.

Well, we want to look at that letter A, the scope of redemption, the scope of his love.

John 3.16 said, For God so loved the world.

The scope, the so and the world are the words I want you to hang on in this first part.

That's who he loved, which is everyone.

For God so loved the world.

That's you, that's me, that's your friend.

Hey, listen, that's your enemy.

That's a criminal, and that's a saint.

God loves everyone.

He's so loved.

And I need you to know that the people that would have read this, there would have been a radical thought to the Jews who thought that the love of God and the relationship of God was for Israel.

And John said, God so loved.

It's been said that this was the almightiest authority with the mightiest motive.

God in his infinite powerful state so loved the world.

I don't know who is here this morning, and you've been beaten up by a week or a month, or even just a day, and you come into church, and people have told me, for you, man, sometimes I go into church and I leave feeling beat up.

I hope that you'll be uplifted to know that God so He so loved you.

He loved you.

When I think about that kind of love, maybe I'm wrong in this, but I don't think I am wrong.

It's a paternal kind of love.

Heather and I have created three children.

We have these three, and I don't know that they will never know the love that we have for them until they have children.

I don't think a person can really fathom it because they did not create me.

Okay?

They didn't come in this world looking to have me.

I and her, we created them.

We wanted them before they ever had anything to do with choosing us, right?

All y'all that have children, you're tracking with me?

How many of you have children?

Okay.

God bless you.

It's hard.

I love my kids with a love that I've come to realize maybe can't be reciprocated.

Because I'm paternal.

I had a part in creating them.

And so they mess up all the time.

Y'all with me?

I'm not down on you kids.

I was a kid, and to my parents, I messed up all the time.

For 10 years, we had to create pathways and clear dangers just so that you could go up and down stairs.

Like you mess up a lot.

And you'd be standing here dead if it weren't for us.

Not standing, you'd just be dead.

Okay?

Me too.

So you mess up all, and every time that you mess up, we correct and we figure it out, and we continue to love you through mess ups.

And if we mess up that much, I'm not sure you still love us the same.

That's all I'm saying.

Right?

You're like, I got a deadbeat parent, I'm done with them.

They keep messing up.

All the time, they're messing up.

Why is it like that?

Because we created.

God, I believe, loves us in this paternal way.

And hear me, I so want my kids to be close to me.

But I don't want to make them.

I want them to choose me.

I already chose them.

We chose them.

God already chose you.

Do you choose him?

He so loves you, and you mess up all the time.

Me, I'm with you.

And God says, I forgive you, child.

I knew you were gonna mess up.

And I knew then, and I knew then, and I knew then.

And my blood, my son's blood, covers all of that sin and mess up and fell up.

I so love you.

I've chosen you and I created you, and I have a plan for you, not to harm you.

I've got a purpose for you.

But will you choose me?

Wow.

Letter B.

The sacrifice of redemption.

That's the who of the love and the what of the love, the scope, how far it goes.

But what about the sacrifice?

Look at verse 13 and 14.

Now I'm gonna be honest with you before I read this.

I wasn't gonna do the first part.

I was stuck on verse 16, thought we might do 17, and I got through Nicodemus part, and I thought, oh, this is we'll do this.

I got to 13 and 14.

I said, definitely not doing this.

Not gonna do it.

There's some things in there I don't know if I'm I'm sure I understand.

So we'll just skip it.

Just being honest.

Okay?

And then I started trying to understand it, and I was like, here it is, church.

Here it really is, and I don't want you to miss this.

It's kind of crazy, but it it's you're gonna see.

Verse 13 and 14.

Look what it says.

No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

The first per part I was tracking with.

We're gonna get to 14 in a minute, but verse 13 it says, He descended from heaven.

He gave up his divine privileges.

You want to talk about the sacrifice?

He who hung the stars at creation was born in a lowly manger.

He who created earth came to walk on earth.

He who men bowed down to worship stooped his knee to wash the disciples' feet.

He who created the sun to shine died in darkness.

I thought about this.

True omnipotence is the person who's able to set aside their omnipotence.

Jesus set aside his power.

That's real power.

Powerful enough that he won't be powerful in a moment.

Some of you dads understand this when your boys bucket you, right?

You set aside your power so they do not get hurt.

True power is being able to see your power and set it aside.

True omnipresence, power.

He set aside his omnipresence, his ability to be everywhere.

He said, I will be here on this earth, limited.

That's real power.

He sacrificed his self to come down and be obedient, Philippians says, all the way to the point of death, the death on the cross.

Let's get to verse 14.

I need you to go to Numbers because we're going to track back there.

Anybody says that and they're reading John 3, you go, hmm, that's interesting.

Numbers 21.

Verse 14 in John 3, he says this statement, which seems out of place, seems weird.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Jesus, a serpent, the wilderness, what what are we doing?

So if you turn to Numbers 21.

Start in verse 4.

Says then they journeyed from Mount Or by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged 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?

There is no food and no water, and our soul loaths this worthless bread.

So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died.

Therefore 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.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live.

So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the pole, and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone when he looked at the serpent, he lived.

Verse 14 again, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

What is this talking about?

Well, let's look at the text of what's happening.

Israel came out of Egypt, they were wandering in the wilderness, and they began to grumble.

They begin to say, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt?

We would rather go back to slavery than to be in this desert track and along wandering without seemingly a purpose.

And they begin to say, We have no food, we have no water, and we are so sick.

It says, We're sick of this manna every day.

Manna, manna can't pancakes, manna burgers, manna cotty, but man of bread all the time, manna.

And God sends.

I love my family shaking their head at me.

Means I've done right.

Fiery serpents, it says he sent.

Have you ever Googled the symptoms of a snake bite?

It's horrifying.

The symptoms.

And it's seemingly never-ending.

The symptoms, I mean, just depends on the snake.

And I gotta tell you, I'm not particularly afraid of snakes.

I killed a snake in our kitchen once, literally with a shoe in my hand.

It was them or me.

So they had to go.

But when I started reading, if that snake would have bit me, what it would have been like.

People, when you Google, people compare it to a gunshot.

Just boom! And then all of a sudden, things inside of you that happen is crazy.

Blood starts filling up, you feel like you're on fire, it's a mess.

And so the people of Israel are judged because of their groaning.

Oh, Lord help us, God, please don't judge us for our groaning in this way.

But he sends these snakes, and I thought about this.

Why?

Because the sin to God was hurtful and it was fierce.

But he sent a snake.

Isn't it interesting that in the garden, at the birthplace of sin, there was a serpent, and here again we see this.

So the Israelites begin to beg Moses.

That's what it says there in 21, verse 7 of Numbers.

Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned.

We have spoken against the Lord and against you.

Pray the Lord.

So he take this serpent from us.

So they begin to beg for a way of escape.

And I thought about this verse.

2 Corinthians 7 10, one of the most important verses in the Bible.

It says that godly sorrow leads to repentance.

This is the first time that I can find that the Israelites come to Moses.

Other times they come to Moses, they want to fix, they've got a problem, they complain to Moses.

But in this one, it says, they come to Moses, and look what they said.

It's important the words, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.

They acknowledge that their sin was against God.

And the Bible says, godly sorrow leads to repentance.

I think for the first time they realize their sins were against God.

We've sinned against God.

Have you ever had a moment where you thought about the sins that are in your life and you knew that they were not just against a person or against yourself, but you felt remorse to the creator of all creation.

You felt remorseful.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance.

Well, the answer is interesting.

God tells Moses, make a serpent, put it on a pole, and everyone that will see and look to that pole will receive salvation from these bites.

We've got a picture of a snake pole.

He says, Everyone who looks, that's important.

Words are important in the Bible.

Everyone who looks to the pole, that meant if you looked, you believed for healing.

That means not everybody had healing, but everyone who looked to the pole.

We're going to talk about that in just a second.

But Jesus said to the Nicodemus, You must be born again.

In other words, to believe meant the same thing as to look.

The people who looked believed in what God had said, looked at the sign of sin and death, and they believed.

Here's the question: you've been bit by a snake.

How badly do you want to get rid of the venom?

You've been bit by a snake.

Would you not carry your children across the hot desert to get them in vision of the pole?

Would you not take your friend who'd been bitten and pull them up and get them to a place where they could see the pole?

Because that was the place of healing.

Listen to me, that's where the crossroads of belief hits.

If you look, that's belief and healing.

Crossroads.

If you look at the pole, well, what's the pole?

What's that have to do with anything?

How badly do you want to be rid of this problem?

When my son Wyatt flew down the road past Dunsmore and catapulted into the air, no helmet, and smacked his head on the concrete, I knew that a major injury was on its way as he passed me.

And as a father, I didn't act.

I didn't act fast.

I didn't stop him, I didn't tackle him.

Everything that you play back that could have happened didn't happen.

And I watched unfold him flying through the air, smash his head on the concrete.

And I want to tell you, when we got back to the house and I watched him not open his eyes for over an hour and him lay there in pain and ask me, Dad, am I going to die?

And I got him in the car.

I want to tell you, I would have done anything.

There's not anything that I wouldn't have done for him to be healed.

You want to talk about a poll?

I went to a poll.

If there was anything that would have taken that pain from my child in that moment when I was just full of fear, full of what's going to happen, what ifs, all these things, I prayed, I confessed, I cried.

I'm telling you, I gave God every name He has in the book.

Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah, I mean everything.

I sped, I got to the hospital.

And when I think about you and me, if you had been bit by a snake, maybe venomous, how quickly would you want to get to anti-venom?

God said, Moses, if they want healed, they must look at the sign of sin and death.

The serpent on the pole.

The definition, hear me, church, a belief is right here for those people that were bitten.

They stopped.

They turned.

In a moment, God said, do this, and they obeyed the thing that God said.

The belief.

Belief is what you want more than anything.

Do I want to keep this pain?

Do I want to keep this sinful pain?

Do I want to keep this me?

Do I want to keep this life?

Do I want to keep these circumstances?

Well, then don't look.

The definition of belief is found there.

Do I believe for healing?

Just, he says, just as the serpent was lifted up.

Oh, now it's starting to make more sense.

Just as the serpent was lifted up, I must be lifted up.

Look at the pole, they said.

Now, 1 Peter 2 24, I'm going to show you a different pole.

It says he himself bore our sins on the tree.

Let us see the picture of Jesus on the pole.

Just as the sign of the serpent, the sin and the death that was killing the Israelites became the very means of their healing.

So, in the same way, Jesus Christ took the sin that was killing us.

Hear me, and he literally embodied it.

And thus became the means of our healing and salvation.

Jesus embodied, listen to me, he took on sin.

It may sound shocking for you to hear that.

Jesus embodied sin.

Paul said it starkly in Corinthians.

This is what he said.

God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus took on all of our sin.

He took on all of the serpent.

He took it all in.

And Jesus did this by being lifted up.

He was saying, if John 3.16, if you will look to the cross, you're going to find John 3.16.

If you look to the one on the cross, well, I want you to look at John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

Verse 38 and 39.

If you will look to the cross, church.

John 19, 38 and 39.

Jesus had been crucified.

Jesus had been whipped and tortured and been beaten.

And when all of that was finished, and when the earth turned black, and all of the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spear was thrust through his side, when all of that was finished, and all of it was over, and anybody that was nearby could have watched Jesus on the cross dying for all of our sins and all that he went through.

Here's this few people.

And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, a hundred pounds, and they took the body of Jesus.

Nicodemus looked at the pole.

He looked at the cross.

And when Jesus' body had been broken for off, he was one of the two people in history who had been having this conversation.

Who are you?

How are you of God?

Who does that make me?

What am I going to do?

He says, You must be born again.

Look to the one that's on the cross.

He watches it and he handles one of the two people that handles Jesus' body after the crucifixion.

And he gives all that he had in aloes, in spices, and myrrhs to put it on Jesus.

He gently anointed his body.

He tended to Jesus.

He looked to the pole.

And when Jesus died for him, you know what a reborn life looks like?

I do anything.

I believe in him.

I do anything for him.

I give anything for I want to tend to Jesus.

I want to tend for Jesus.

I want to live for Jesus.

I've been born again.

Have you, church?

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