Elmhurst CRC

Daily Dose of Lent - John 3: 10-17

March 03, 2023 Jeff Klein Season 1 Episode 8
Elmhurst CRC
Daily Dose of Lent - John 3: 10-17
Show Notes Transcript

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach 

Jeff Klein 0:07 

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose in the word of God. This is Jeff Klein, the Pastor of Outreach at the church. It's Friday, March the 3rd. This week, we're stumbling to the cross alongside of Nicodemus. I'll be reading from John chapter 3, verses 10 through 17.

Jeff Klein  0:22 

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Jeff Klein  1:07 

But, before that verse, Jesus makes a reference to a strange story in Numbers. The people of Israel speak against God and Moses, questioning once again why God took them out of Egypt - questioning the rescue God provided from slavery. God sends poisonous snakes among the people and they begin to die. They beg Moses to pray to God for them and God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and place it on a pole. When someone got bitten by a snake, they would just look at the snake on the pole and be healed. Nicodemus would have known that story well. Jesus expands the significance of that story and ties it to himself. He says that he will be lifted up, just like that snake, and the poisonous sin at work inside will be healed if you simply look to him. You just have to have the faith to believe and look – it’s easy. Nothing else is required to be saved. Just look, believe, and receive. 

Jeff Klein 1:45 

Where do you stand today? Have you looked to the Savior, to the Son of Man, to Jesus? Have you mustered the faith to look and watch him heal the poison at work inside you?

Jeff Klein  2:18  

Nicodemus was stumbling because he could not get himself to look, - at least at this point - and so in spite of being a religious expert, a Biblical scholar, and a teacher, he really didn’t get it. Don’t kid yourself – you can attend Christian School, sit through countless Bible studies, hear lots of sermons, be super learn-ed in your understanding of the Bible and have all the answers, but still fail to really look up at Jesus and receive his healing.