Jesus and the Bronze Serpent? John 3:14-15 EXPLAINED | (un)ANSWERED

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

We've all experienced the odd occurrence in the Bible, and was left with fringe questions.

00:09

Watch and listen, as we leave no question unanswered.

00:20

As Christians, we often spend our time in the Word of God. Whether that be in your devotional time, at church, or sending a verse to encourage a friend, when we read this

00:31

Word, we can come across things that confuse us, things that puzzle us. And the verse that we're going over today is one of those verses that have often left the reader confused.

00:44

The question is, is the explanation that I'm giving you today going to leave this unanswered?

00:53

Let's go through it now. That passage is in the Gospel according to John, chapter 3. The verse that we're going to be looking at is verse 14.

01:02

Let me read that to you now. It says, Now, that's the issue.

01:21

We have often wondered, why is Jesus comparing himself to a serpent in the wilderness?

01:26

Now to get the fuller picture of what Jesus is talking about regarding the serpent, we have to go to the original context.

01:33

In your Bibles, in the beginning of the Word of God, in the Pentateuch, is the book of Numbers. At this point in Numbers, chapter 21, we have the

01:43

Israelites, the Hebrews who have been rescued and delivered from slavery in Egypt, and now they've been wandering the wilderness and they have yet to come into the promised land.

01:53

Here's what Numbers 21 says. It says, Then the

02:35

Lord said to Moses, That's the context of John, chapter 3, verse 14 and 15.

03:01

And so what Jesus is alluding to here, he's already spoken about how someone must be born again, but now the question is, how?

03:10

How is someone to be born again? How is someone to be born of water and spirit to enter the kingdom of God?

03:16

They must look to Christ in this way. Why must they look to Christ in this way?

03:22

Because just like the Israelites, judgment has come upon the people, and they need grace to come down and to save them from it.

03:34

But the question remains, why a serpent of all things?

03:41

Here's what it is. We see in Genesis chapter 3 that serpents are cursed things.

03:50

We see that what was happening here to the Israelites was a curse upon them.

03:56

The judgment of God had come upon them. And so Jesus too, although spotless, although perfect, the fact is, like the serpent that was raised on the pole, which was a cursed thing to the people, he must become like a cursed thing on a cross, on a wood pole, just like that bronze serpent.

04:23

The account in Numbers 21 ultimately isn't about the Israelites being saved from venomous snakes.

04:30

This, in God's providence, has always pointed forward to what Jesus is saying in John chapter 3, and ultimately to the cross.

04:40

And just as those snakes were a curse to those people, Jesus, it says in Galatians chapter 3, will take upon himself the curse of the law.

04:53

He will become a curse for us. For all who hang on a tree are cursed.

04:59

And that's the fact. Just as the serpent, this cursed thing, was on a wooden pole,

05:05

Christ himself will go on a wooden pole. He will go on the wooden cross, and he will take the curse of the fall upon himself.

05:15

Because you have to imagine, in the first century, at this point, all the blessings and curses that were mentioned in Deuteronomy were happening now.

05:25

Curses were compounding. You have the curse of the fall of man. You have the curse of Babel, and the spreading out of people upon the earth.

05:33

You have famine. You have diseases. You have blindness, lameness.

05:40

You have leprosy. Demonic activity is at its height at this point in the first century.

05:46

And not only that, you have foreign invaders and Roman occupation. And even then, Jesus is pointing to Nicodemus and saying, you are a hypocrite.

05:55

You have sin. You have curses. You have the curses of your father. And these need to be dealt with.

06:02

And only Christ can deal with them. He will take these curses, every single one of them, and He will put them upon Himself.

06:10

He'll do what God did for the Israelites. They had no remedy in themselves. They couldn't solve this issue of these fiery serpents.

06:20

They needed an intercessor. And that's the thing with this. Jesus is pointing to the fact that we don't need

06:25

Moses anymore. Jesus will be the intercessor. And He'll be the sacrifice.

06:31

He'll raise Himself up on that wooden pole. He will become the serpent on the pole as the

06:37

God -man on the cross. He will take all the sin of fallen humanity, of those who believe in Him, upon Himself.

06:46

And that's the promise of the Gospel. This is a foreshadow in John chapter 3 of the

06:52

Gospel. And my belief with this, which is showing obviously a conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus, is that Nicodemus, the one hearing all this, that he must be raised up like the serpent on the staff, is that we see in John chapter 19 in the future.

07:12

After the crucifixion, at the point of Jesus' death, Nicodemus brought aloes and perfumes for the burial of Jesus Christ.

07:24

I would argue there that he has believed on the one. And I would argue at this point that this is what he remembered.

07:32

He didn't understand what Jesus was talking about in this moment. But what he did understand was what

07:38

Jesus was alluding to. That Nicodemus, that you and me, we have to look to something outside of ourselves to save us.

07:48

We need to look to Jesus on the cross to do that. So the question has been, why a serpent?

07:55

And we see now why. Serpents are cursed things. In the garden, the serpent was evil.

08:03

He was the tempter. He ushered in, through our sin, the fall of man.

08:10

And that's the point. All of the fall of man, all of that sin, will fall on Jesus.

08:18

And he will become as a cursed thing on that cross. That is the correlation, brothers and sisters.

08:24

Because just as Peter says in his sermon in Acts chapter 3, Jesus died at the hands of godless men.

08:32

He was crucified. He was scourged. Isaiah 52 says he was marred beyond recognition.

08:39

The worst crime and worst sin in all of human history will occur with Jesus Christ.

08:46

And yet it is all at the same time the sovereign act of God. It is the mission that Jesus came for.

08:55

That he would die upon that cross, and all who would look to him will be saved.

09:01

So you can imagine, when Nicodemus saw Jesus lifted up, he believed.

09:07

He looked to him. And that's the call of the gospel to every single one of us. We've seen that Jesus was lifted up.

09:15

We've seen that he was put on the wood pole, the cross. And now we have to look to him for eternal life.

09:24

And no doubt this section, this verse, Jesus saying that he would be like the serpent on the staff, was confusing to Nicodemus.

09:36

It might have even felt unanswered to him. But after Nicodemus saw him lifted up, you better believe, at that point, it was finally answered.