Posted on 03/10/2018 2:23:46 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
“The Gospel on a Pole” (John 3:14-21)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That, of course, is John 3:16, a verse you all know. Because it sums up the good news of Christ so succinctly, John 3:16 is often called “the gospel in a nutshell.” But today, instead of the nutshell, this morning we’re going to be looking at the verses right before it, what I call, “The Gospel on a Pole.”
The gospel on a pole? What’s that? Well, what I’m referring to is the story mentioned in verses 14 and 15, where Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” So the story is hanging on a pole. And in both the Old Testament and the New, what God lifts up on a pole means salvation for God’s people.
Jesus’ words take us back to the incident you heard about in the Old Testament Reading for today, from Numbers 21. Israel had come out of Egypt, and now they are wandering in the wilderness. As they were wont to do, the Israelites start grumbling against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” The Israelites are complaining, saying they would rather go back to the slavery they experienced in Egypt than to have to travel through the desert like this to get to the Promised Land. They were sick of the “meals ready to eat” that the Lord was providing for them. Every day it was manna on the menu. Manna waffles. Manna burgers. Bamanna bread. Same old, same old, every day. So they groused and grumbled and kvetched.
But this was manna sent from heaven. The Lord was providing for them, keeping them alive through the wilderness. They had to trust God to provide for them on a daily basis. They had to trust God to be faithful and to lead them eventually into the land he had promised. But the people of Israel did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. And so they grumbled. They grumbled against Moses. But since Moses was simply God’s servant, doing what the Lord had told him to do, in effect they were grumbling against God.
Do we do this, my friends? Grumble against God on our way to the Promised Land? Complain about how hard we have it? Complain about God’s provision, or lack thereof, as we perceive it? Then we are no better than the Israelites, and our lack of trust in God is exposed.
This lack of trust in God and his goodness, the idea that God is somehow holding out on us, this is the essence of what sin is. It goes back a long way, even before the time of the Israelites in the wilderness. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the garden--they thought God was holding out on them. The serpent tempted them to doubt God, to doubt God’s word, to doubt his goodness. You know how that turned out. Adam and Eve fell into sin, and with sin came the curse of death. And the rest is history. We’ve all been doing the same thing ever since.
And Israel--the Lord had taken them to himself to be his own people. But they too failed to trust in God. They too fell into sin. And with sin came death. The Lord sent poisonous snakes among them. The snakes bit them, and they began to die. Notice the instrument of death here: snakes, serpents, just like the serpent in the garden that had first tempted man to sin. The Lord here is drawing the connection between sin and death, the sin of failing to trust in God and the consequence of death that follows as a result. And that is all you and I would have to look forward to, if that were all there was to the story. We too are sinners, grumblers against God, people who do not trust God as we ought. And the wages of sin is death.
But there is more to the story, thank God! And the story is hanging on a pole. Judgment and punishment and condemnation--as just and as well-deserved as that judgment is--that is not all there is. There is also God’s unmerited mercy and grace and love. And out of that great love, God provided a way of escape, a way of salvation. And he hung it on a pole. “Make a snake and put it up on a pole,” the Lord told Moses. “Everyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” This bronze snake, a symbol of the very sin that literally was killing them, became the means God provided for their healing. To look to that bronze serpent, lifted up on a pole, was to see and receive the salvation the Lord in his mercy had bestowed.
And that is the comparison Jesus makes in our text: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” What happened with that snake on a pole would be replayed in an even greater fashion. Jesus himself must be lifted up, as the means of an even greater salvation. And this story, too, is hanging on a pole.
The whole world--not just the children of Israel, but the whole world, including us--we were sick and dying, as we lay there grumbling against God, doubting his goodness, shaking our fist at God. That is the world’s natural state, our lost condition. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, as Ephesians says. But God, being rich in mercy and love, provided the way of escape, the way of salvation. Just as that bronze snake, the very sign of the sin and death that was killing the Israelites, became the very means of their healing, so in the same way Christ Jesus took the sin that was killing us--he literally embodied it--and thus became the means of our healing and salvation. Jesus literally embodied sin. Let me repeat that; it may sound shocking: Jesus literally embodied sin. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” St. Peter says in his epistle. St. Paul says it even more starkly in Corinthians: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus became sin for us. He literally took it all in. And Jesus did this by being “lifted up.”
Now one might think of Jesus being “lifted up” in terms of his being “lifted up” in glory--being exalted, being highly honored. But not here. When Jesus says of himself, “the Son of Man must be lifted up,” he is talking about his being lifted up on the cross--being lifted up in shame, being lifted up to die. In the strange paradox that is the gospel, Christ is glorified precisely by dying on a cross. Christ is lifted up--and consequently God’s grace and mercy and love are lifted up, glorified--by Jesus literally being lifted up, that is, being hoisted in the air, on the tree of the cross. The story is hanging on a pole.
Dear friends, look to that pole, look to the cross, for your healing! Here is your only hope, Christ hanging on that cross! God has provided for your salvation--indeed, the salvation of the whole world! Look to Jesus, your crucified Savior, in faith. This is what it is to believe. And this is no great work you are doing. This is no new demand, as though, well, you couldn’t keep the Ten Commandments, but now you’ve really got to meet this new requirement and make your decision for Jesus, and it’s all up to you. No. Faith is not some new demand. It’s simply receiving the gift that God gives.
Ephesians puts it like this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” You see, even your faith is part of the gift. This whole “being saved by grace through faith” thing--the whole thing, the whole package, comes from God. Your believing is no great accomplishment on your part. It’s just receiving what God freely gives you. It’s like you learned in the Catechism: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel,” and so on. Friends, we were helpless and hopeless and dead, by nature children of wrath. But God in his mercy made us alive together with Christ. Faith, then, believing, is simply receiving. All the glory goes to God.
Yes, look in faith to that pole, look to the cross, where your Savior is lifted up! He is lifted up, “that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” This is more than a snakebite you’re being cured of. You’re being given eternal life! And “eternal” life is more than just this same current existence stretched out for a bazillion years. No, it’s not just more of the same--the same old sorrows and miseries that characterize life in this vale of tears. Eternal life is not just a matter of quantity; it’s a matter of quality. Eternal life is new life, life with God, life restored to how it ought to be, life with no more sorrows or misery or separation or sin or death. Eternal life is the new life found only in Christ, and it lasts forever. It is life that will characterize the age to come, when Christ returns in glory and lead his people home, at home in the promised land of the kingdom of heaven.
And yet it begins even now. We have this eternal life now, all you who are baptized into Christ and believe in his name. You have eternal life already now, and death will not stop it. Christ died the Big Death for you; that’s already taken place. And Jesus rose from the dead, rose from the grave never to die again, because death could not hold him. Brothers and sisters, you were joined to Christ in Holy Baptism. You have already died and arisen with Christ. So now you are already in “eternal life,” believe it or not. No, wait, just believe it! It’s true!
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” In its own way, this passage, John 3:14-15, expresses the good news of salvation just as well as John 3:16. It’s not the gospel in a nutshell, but it comes pretty close. It’s the gospel hanging on a pole. And here’s what it tells you: Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross for you and for all the other snakebit sinners of the world. Look to him, look to Jesus in faith and be saved. Believe in his name and you have eternal life. Beloved, it is this “gospel on a pole” that will lift you up all the way to heaven!
[Jesus said:] “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.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Ping.
"Faith is not some new demand. It’s simply receiving the gift that God gives." When the Israelites looked to the snake on the pole (and some refused to do so and died!) they were believing GOD's Promise. God does the work, we are called to believe His Grace toward us. Many are called, sadly, few are chosen, because so few will let Him do it ...
These are the final Stichera from Great Vespers this evening:
For the Third Sunday of Great Lent in Tone Five,
(**Rejoice**)
Verse 4. From the morning watch until night, from the morning watch let Israel trust in the Lord.
O Cross of the Lord to which the world aspireth, let the light-giving flashes of Thy grace raise the hearts of those who honor thee and welcome thee with divine love, O thou through whom the dismay of tears hath passed away; and by whom we have been saved from the snares of death and translated into joy imperishable, reveal to us the splendor of thy comeliness, granting the prizes of abstinence to thy servants who ask in faith for thy rich help and the Great Mercy.
Verse 3. For with the Lord there is mercy and with Him is abundant redemption, and He will deliver Israel from all his iniquities.
Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross, O bright paradise of the Church, O Tree of incorruption, thou who didst bring forth for us the enjoyment of glory everlasting, through whom the hosts of devils are driven out, the ranks of angels rejoice together, and the congregations of believers celebrate, O unconquerable weapon and impregnable foundation, the triumph of kings and the pride of Priests, grant us to apprehend the Passion of Christ and His Resurrection.
Verse 2. Praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people.
Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross, the unconquerable triumph of true worship, O door of paradise, the confirmation of believers, the wall of the Church, through which corruption hath disappeared and perished, and the power of death was swallowed, and we ascend from earth to heaven, thou incontestable weapon and adversary of demons; for thou art the glory of Martyrs and their adornment in truth, the haven of salvation that granteth to the world the Great Mercy.
Verse 1. For His mercy is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
Come, ye first created couple who fell from the heavenly rank through man-destroying envy, because of a bitter delight resulting from the taste of the olden tree. Behold, here cometh in truth the most revered Tree. Hasten to kiss it, shouting to it in faith, Thou art our helper, O most revered Cross, of whose fruit when we partook we attained incorruption and received securely the first Eden and the Great Mercy.
DOXASTICON FOR THIRD SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT IN TONE THREE
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O Christ our God, Who didst accept crucifixion willingly for the general resurrection of mankind; and by the red of the Cross didst dye Thy fingers with blood; and with a crimson dye didst compassionately ordain for us forgiveness with kingly authority; forsake us not in our danger of estrangement from Thee, but have compassion, O Thou Who alone art long-suffering, on Thy harassed people. Arise, and fight them who fight us; for Thou art almighty.
Christ is the fruit hanging upon the tree of the Cross. When we partake of His Body and Blood in the Holy Communion we are assured of “remission of sins and life everlasting”.
Each Communicant in the Orthodox Church hears these words, personally addressed: “The servant of God, N., partakes of the holy and life giving Body and Blood of Christ unto the remission of his sins and unto life everlasting”.
When we take the bread and wine of communion we are, as Paul told us, showing our FAITH in His death for redeeming us until He returns. It is by Faith / faithing that we are saved, not by hocus pocus transmogrification to eat the actual flesh and blood of GOD with us.
When Jesus told His disciples that where two or more will gather in His name there is He in the midst of them, GOD wasn't telling them He would show up to feed them His flesh and blood.
It is paganism to believe you can acquire from the 'god' by consuming the foods offered to that idol / 'god'. That is why the first great council of Believers send word to the Gentile believers to abstain from foods sacrificed to idols!
One last point: in the story of Na'aman, what Jewish rituals were required of him after he believed in the God the Prophet introduced him to so that he would remain free of the leprosy; what rituals did the Prophet command him to show fealty when he asked if God would know he remained a believer even as going with his king into the temple of raamone for the kings devotion to their idol?
kerping
Excellent.
Thank you.
Believing on Him and receiving Him does.
John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3-8 Jesus answered him,“Truly, truly, 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 when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of 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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:14-18 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. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Since we are forbidden to eat blood or human flesh, and that prohibition against consuming blood stands outside the law, Jesus could not have given His actually flesh and blood to His disciples to eat and commanded them and all others to violate His perpetual ordinance, and sin.
Then He would not have been the sinless sacrifice for our sins.
Nor did they eat the blood as Peter relates in Acts 10 that he had never eaten anything unclean.
If peter thought or understood Jesus to mean that what Jesus was offering him to eat was actually, literal flesh and blood, not only would ha have refused but by his own testimony, he did refuse.
Or Peter lied to God about never having eaten anything unclean.
Faith in Jesus compels us to do what He has commanded us to do: “Take, eat...”.
I suggest that you read the ENTIRE chapter of John 6 and not focus exclusively on the single verse you quoted.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
He's telling them that what He just said was a metaphor and represents SPIRITUAL truth, not physical reality.
Also, He says here in that chapter you tell me to read...
John 6:53-64 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)
Are you going to live forever, here and now in this physical body since you here and now physically ate and drank?
After all, if you are going to take it literally that it's literal flesh and blood people are consuming, then the results must also be literal, here and now.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Do you ever get hungry and thirsty?
If you believe that He's talking about literal eating, then the results must also be literal.
Here are all the passages connected with it.
Genesis 9:4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life , that is, its blood.
Leviticus 3:17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”
Leviticus 7:26-27 Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.”
Leviticus 17:10-14 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
“Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Deuteronomy 12:16 Only you shall not eat the blood ; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.
Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life , and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Deuteronomy 15:23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground like water.
Acts 15:12-29 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter:
“The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Here Jesus Himself calls the cup *the fruit of the vine*, HIS recognition that it's only wine, not blood.
Matthew 26:29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Mark 14:25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 22:18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
So are you trying to tell me that Jesus is going to command people to violate His Law that's a reflection of His righteous character?
That would be Jesus commanding them to sin.
So it the eating is figurative, a symbolic remembrance, there is no conflict with the rest of Scripture.
If the eating is literal, as Catholics claim, then there is a conflict in Scripture and it's yours to explain away, how God is now contradicting Himself.
And spare me the logical fallacy of *God can do anything He wants*.
Because that is NOT true.
John 6 is not the text for the establishing of GIS covenant. You are willfully sewing error.
Thank you, m’Lady, for sharing that wonderful teaching ... again. Perhaps there are those who have not seen it and this is their opportunity to come out from heretical dogma.
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