Holding Up Christ to a Dying World — E.A. Johnston

Holding Up Christ to a Dying World

Before we go to our time of prayer this evening, friends, I have a brief message to bring before you. If we are not praying for the unconverted and if we are not witnessing to the unconverted, what excuse can we claim?

If you were standing on the shore and you saw a ship in the near distance begin to sink and passengers in distress began to jump overboard and landing in the water, thrashing their arms and crying out for help, and if near you was a lifeboat which you knew how to operate and activate and you failed to employ it at once in this crisis and emergency to reach those drowning souls, you should be guilty the blood of all whom you failed to go and rescue.

Likewise, if you are a true Christian who knows the way of salvation, and if you fail to hold up Christ to a dying world, then your apathy and indifference and your selfish complacency should haunt you at the judgment.

How can you sit before a television for hours upon end laughing and leering at utter nonsense when souls are perishing every minute into a burning pit of hell? If you are truly saved, then where is your singe of conscience from your lack of concern for the unconverted all around you day after day?

How can you be so numb to millions dropping into hell's fire continually while you ignore their screams of distress? The title of my message this evening, friends, is Holding Up Christ to a Dying World, and my text can be found in the Gospel of John.

The Brazen Serpent and the Lifted-Up Son of Man

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in chapter 3 and in verses 14 through 15. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Let me pause here, friends. Jesus is speaking here of the brazen serpent that was lifted up on a pole in the desert, and all those snake-bit Jews who gazed at it and beheld that brazen serpent on that pole, which Moses held up and carried high for all to see.

As they fastened their eyes upon it, they were instantly healed. Jesus states, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. This speaks, of course, to his crucifixion on Calvary's cross, lifted up to a sin-poisoned world, that all who look upon him and feel their need of a remedy for sin and believe on him shall be saved and have eternal life.

The cross, in a sense, was Christ's throne of authority, where he routed the enemy and spoiled principalities, where broken humanity and divine majesty met, in life-saving power flowing out through his precious blood, and when he died, he died for us so we could live through the second birth.

But he had to be lifted up on that bloody cross for the sins of the world. Look at verse 15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The duty required is to come to Christ and believe on him.

The Reality of a Dying World

I want us to see several aspects from our passage this evening, friends. Number one. Holding up Christ to a dying world, that the world is a sinking ship broken up upon the rocks and its occupants dying and perishing into hell, is a reality we must face and we cannot ignore.

D. O. Moody once related that God showed him that the world was a sinking ship and he told Moody, he said, Moody, here is a lifeboat, go and fill it. And Moody went and did just that. Moody shook two continents for God, holding up Christ to a dying world, or we.

Looking to the Lifted-Up Son of Man

Number two. The need to look at the lifted-up Son of Man. We must feel our need of a sin remedy. We must see a revealed Christ, lifted up, his arms outstretched, ready to receive all comers. Jesus said he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Have we ever taken our place at the foot of the cross as a guilty lost sinner in need of a savior? There is a need to look at the lifted-up Christ, look and live and fasten our hope on him as a remedy for sin.

Believing in Christ for Eternal Life

Number three. The need to believe in him to have eternal life. I fear many today sitting in our churches have rested their hope of salvation on the fact that they believe Jesus died for sin. Without believing on the one who died, you must get to Christ, friend, and behold him and believe on him.

The Believer's Duty to Hold Up Christ

Lastly, we as born-again believers have a duty and an obligation to hold up Christ to a dying world. There is no excuse for a believer to be excused from this duty. Where would you be had someone not held Christ up to you?

How can you selfishly keep him to yourself? You have no excuse and you'll have to answer Christ when you face him at the judgment. How will you explain your silence about him to a dying world? Our obligation should really be our consuming passion in holding up Christ to a dying world.

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