Fourth Sunday in Lent
Notes
Transcript
Trust
Trust
5 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 detest this miserable food.”
How quickly the people forget about whips and oppression - about making bricks without straw.
As God sets them free from the oppression they were in they find the journey difficult and they start to get grumpy.
They even catch themselves in their own lie:
Numbers 21:5 (NRSV)
5 …there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
Like my children who complain that there is nothing to eat in the kitchen - while a bowl of apples stares right back at them.
Speaking of apples - snakes get involved in this story too:
6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
I wonder how that happened. It seems a bit rough for the Lord to send serpents to bite and kill people…
Perhaps in their moaning against Moses they decided to rebel against what he said.
Perhaps Moses said - listen folks - eat the Manna - and don’t go looking under the rocks for bugs to eat… And under the rocks there were snakes.
Maybe they took a short cut…
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.
Its not so easy to figure out exactly the way they went. But they were impatient because they had hoped to be going to the promised land and the route described shows them going in the opposite direction of where they had hoped and wanted to be.
They grumbled.
Against Moses who was trying to lead them in the right direction.
Against God who had a plan for them
They ended up getting bitten by snakes.
Story of our lives.
We disobey God - we think we know better - and end up harming ourselves.
But just as we mess up - God makes a way of redemption:
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
What would you have done if you were Moses?
I don’t think my prayers would have been so friendly.
I might pray for more snakes.
Unfolding Covenant
Unfolding Covenant
On the first Sunday of Lent we remembered the rainbow that God set in the sky after the rescue of Noah.
On the second Sunday of Lent we remembered the Covenant that God made with Abraham a thousand or so years later… The promise that he would have many descendants.
On the third Sunday of Lent the Old Testament reading was from Exodus 20 - a reminder of the 10 commandments and the law.
These moments from the Old Testament that point to and remind us of a God who doesn’t give up on his people.
And even now - with snakes biting the Israelites after they have grumbled and been disobedient what will God do?
Bronze Snake
Bronze Snake
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
Such a strange thing for God to decide to do - especially with the prohibition against idolatry etc. Almost as if god is trying to show them something that might happen in the future.
9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Anyways - the snakes don’t go away - it turns out that they keep biting - that is sometimes what happens when you grumble too much and make your own trouble.
But even though the snakes continued to bite - they could look up at the pole - and instead of their rebellion killing them - they would be saved.
John 3:14-21
John 3:14-21
So we turn to John’s gospel and hear Jesus speaking - already in the third chapter of John - about his crucifixion and death. And comparing the raising up that will happen at crucifixion:
“so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
John 3:14–15 (NRSV)
14 And just 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.
Jesus uses the illustration of the serpent in the wilderness to help us to understand the kind of faith by which we can be saved.
Faith that just looks and sees. Looks and sees God - God’s love - opened up for us to receive.
It seems too simple - but thats why we need the moment in the wilderness where Moses sets up the snake:
Numbers 21:9 (NRSV)
9 …whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Well its all a bit different in John’s gospel. It is not just about surviving a snake bite.
It is a bit more.
Looking at Jesus - trusting in Jesus is to receive ‘eternal life’:
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Or in your favourite verse that is a good summary of all the Bible:
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
The context of these popular verses is Jesus pointing to this episode in Numbers. Where people simply have to look at the snake on the pole - and find themselves healed.
And illustration of the simple faith that it takes to accept and put into the affect of Jesus death on the cross.
An antidote to the poison of the snake that is killing us. The snake of rebellion and grumbling.
Evangelical
Evangelical
The word ‘evangelical’ has been hijacked by the more fundamentalist movements to mean ‘fundamentalist’ - but the original Evangelicals (like the Methodists) were not so fussed about being fundamentalist.
They stressed the power of the gospel.
Evangelical simply means - gospel based.
And you’d think of what Paul says in Romans 1:16
Romans 1:16 (NRSV)
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith…
The power of God for salvation.
The gospel.
Just like the snake on the pole was effective for healing those bitten by snakes.
The gospel is effective for those infected with sin.
Not just to take away the consequence of sin - but to take away the contamination and the effects of sin with us.
To give us a new start.
Evangelicals - like us - believe not just that the gospel is true.
But that it has a healing and transforming effect on those who believe.
And ‘believe’ is not complicated. Believe is as simple as looking in Jesus direction for help.
Bites
Bites
How have we been bitten - poisoned - by the world we’re living in:
Relationships
Addictions
Selfishness
Greed…
I’m sure we can think of many ways in which snakes have bitten us.
While we grumbled against God for where he was taking us.
And we focussed so much on the trouble that we saw no solution.
But now Jesus invites us - look up - look toward the cross - and see….
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.