SEVEN FAMOUS BIBLE VERSES #7: LOOK UP - GRACE & LOVE ARE FREE

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"....John 3:16

You see it in the end zones of football games, from the NFL to the CFL (Canadian Football League) to College and definitely Friday Night Lights at high schools across America. I have seen it at basketball games, music concerts and even secular downtown parades on hand-made signs anywhere. Everyone uses it across Western Civilization. They even quote it in King James English. While "Judge not less ye be judged" is used is a negative defense mechanism, John 3:16 is proclaimed worldwide as the main proof of our Loving God, even by those who don't believe in Him.

This is not criticism because John 3:16 can stand by itself, if the person proclaiming or hearing it spoken, understands even 10% of the full counsel of God as found in the Scriptures. But it is necessary, as in ALL of the Word of God, to grasp context, content and comprehension.

CONTEXT:

John 3:13-18 says: 13 No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

CONTENT: 

- Before the Resurrection (which is when the hope of Eternal Life was realized), no one but God, could get to the Throne of Heaven except God Himself, with His Angelic beings. Old Testament saints who slept with their fathers, were in paradise, until Resurrection Sunday. Jesus is the Advocate and Intermediary, in that, He had to come down from off the Throne (as confirmed in Philippians 2:5-11) and if you read this passage from Philippians 2, we will know what all that really means. Without this amazing selfless act of love and grace, we would all be lost forever.

- The example of Moses "lifting up the serpent in the wilderness" was given to us by Christ so we could escape the sting of the second and final death. To go back to the Exodus, the Israelites were getting attacked, bitten and killed by snakes, as a direct warning from God. Moses prayed and God told him to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Moses was then to tell the people who were attacked by the sting of the serpent to simply LOOK at the bronze pole and believe and be saved. Jesus is telling us that if we too look up to Him, His Sacrifice, death, burial and Resurrection - all signified by the Cross - we too shall live forever in the Kingdom of Heaven - and be saved!

This is the main thing to be grasped in this passage. We have no choice but to look to the modern day bronze pole of Moses, now called "The Cross". Like the pole, the Cross defeated the serpent. Like the bronze pole, the Cross defeated death. Like the bronze pole, the Cross brought God directly to us - if we would just open our hearts to Him.

COMPREHENSION:

We see the main content is the Cross (John 3:13-15). We see God coming down from Heaven to show the way there to anyone who believes. What we pick up from the verses now, after John 3:16 is the Rationale of the Almighty, found here in John 3:17-18. We really do need to catch this or those who don't, won't or could care less, would fall in the category Jesus warned about in John 3:18...and as the Bible says "it is a fearsome thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God". Only the unredeemed face this scenario 100% of the time.

To wit, we see:

- God loved the world (John 3:16)....His general Grace, love and mercy is for all. Even those who reject and continue to reject Him. Still He loves. What people say and do to and about God daily condemns them daily, yet He lets us live. What a mighty loving God! His Grace is free. His Mercy is free. His Love is free.

- Because He loved, He gave. When God gives, He does not hold back. He gave the most precious only Begotten (which literally means "One of a Kind") Son, the Lord Jesus as part of His plan to redeem all mankind, from sin which destroys forever. He loves us even now, no matter how much we mess up all of that which He gives us to be stewards.

- The offer was/is and will always be there (with an expiration date) that if we confess with our mouth (Godly sorrow leadeth to repentance) and believe with our Hearts that Jesus IS LORD - we too can be part of this Great Plan of Redemption, conceived in Love. We WILL be saved!

- The "Whoever...or Whosoever" believes is the most crucial thing here. There are only two options: reject and perish via eternal separation from the God Whom the majority has and will reject or believe, have Faith and be welcome to the paradise prepared for ALL those who love God, and are called by His Name! It comes down to this.

THE CHOICE:

So what do we do with this knowledge of the most famous and popular verse in the known world? Is it just a happy "saying" for carefree events and then go about our business, with not a care in the world? What God is telling us this - we had better care! Just as people make plans for their older age, buy life insurance or save for retirement, it is very scary to see the majority of people all around us, who care not about the most important thing in the world - their eternal souls. While there is still time, there remains the free gift which avoids us harsh and final judgment where there is no cover for our sins. While there is still time, we can really grab John 3:16, pull it into our heart and run with it, until it becomes a part of us. The latter is the only way we can avoid being eternally separated from the Loving God, Who gave His One of a Kind Son - King Jesus.

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PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF NUMBERS #6

PRECUSOR TO THE CROSS

6 The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “[j]Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:6-9)
This passage is no small matter. We are never told what Moses prayed when he interceded for the people one more time. Before this last episode recorded above in Numbers 21-6-9 , we are told that the Israelites rejected God ten (10)times! This time, God ran through the latest rebels like a knife through butter. He unleashed poisonous serpents which bit countless Israelites who paid the ultimate price for their sin.  Realizing their sin, the people came and begged Moses to intercede on their behalf with Almighty God. Moses was then given instructions to fashion a snake and put it on a pole, high and lifted up. God then ordained that whosever look upon that snake, was healed. And they were healed.

The significance of this can be found in the greatest passage in Bible history – John chapter 3, where Jesus Himself recalled the instructions He gave Moses then, during His nighttime meeting with Nicodemus.  Jesus said "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[a] have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:14-16).

The serpent in Scripture is synonymous with sin, Satan and self. It was the serpent in the Garden of Eden who introduces sin into the world and brought the downfall of mankind, leading to death, destruction accompanied with all the pain and suffering we see today.  The reason Christ recalls this incident with Moses in John 3 is its dynamic parallel to the Cross. The equation is as follows: just like Adam and Eve in the garden, the Israelites sinned immensely against Holy God and died. They deserved to die, just as we do. However, Yahweh (Jesus in the Old Testament) had Moses place a snake on a wooden pole and lifted it up high. Then, when those same Israelites in the desert looked up to that pole with sin wrapped around it, they lived, in spite of their deadly snake-bitten bodies full of sin.

Jesus was predicting His own Sacrifice to Nicodemus when He said to the teacher of Israel that just as Moses lifted up that bronze serpent on pole in the desert, so must He (the Christ) be lifted up. Later on, at Golgotha, Nicodemus would realize what that meant when he and Joseph of Arimathea took the deceased body of Jesus off the Cross – the same Jesus Who became sin, lifted high on a piece of wood. This ultimate sacrifice of the Ancient of Days on behalf of sinful man was done in order that we may look up to the payment on the Cross, believe in His finished work and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. 

Yes, this is much more than an instance when Moses once again prayed for God to spare a rebellious and evil generation. This is the foreshadow of our coming salvation.

PRAYERS OF THE BIBLE SERIES: THE BOOK OF EXODUS #2

....OF HUMILITY & GRATITUDE

The man Moses is an incredible human being. Contemplate, for a while, just who Moses really is. He was the Prince of Egypt, placed in that position by the Hand of God, second in command in the most powerful country on earth (at the time). Yet within a few years, he is a wanted fugitive in the hot burning deserts of Midian. There he becomes a shepherd from age 40 until he is age 80, and raises a family. He is married to the beautiful daughter of the high priest of Midian, Reuel (Jethro) – a descendant of Abraham’s second wife after Sarah died. Then one day he is chasing one of his sheep up a mountain and Jesus Christ (Yahweh, I Am Who I Am) appears to Moses in a burning bush and all history is changed. 

From the face to Face encounter with Jesus, Moses goes through the Ten Plaques; the Passover; the Exodus; the Parting of the Red Sea; the Manna from Heaven; Gushing water from a Rock; the Ten Commandments and so much more! The people had seen the victories against the Amalekites when Moses arms were raised, and the defeats when his arms got tired and fell to his sides. Miracle after miracle – clothes and shoes which did not wear out for forty years. No illnesses that required medical attention.  The bronze serpent which drove away the snakes when they looked upon it…and so much more.  

After witnessing some of the miracles, immediately after crossing the Red Sea , and having beheld the Mighty Hand of God, Moses composed this song and prayer of praise which should be an example for us, when WE consider His Majesty, His Might and His Magnificent Manner of dealing with us. Prayers do not always have to be about serious tough issues (surgery, tragedy or depression etc.) Sometimes the Lord is pleased when we just pray to Him via the means of lifting up our praises to Him. We did not have to go through all the hardship and extravagant one time major events of the oceans parting for us, but all of us have come of our own personal "Egypts". We were all delivered from the bondage and slavery of sin and crossed over, on “dry land” to the other side. We crossed over from death and darkness to eternal life and light when we were born again into Salvation through the Sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus. Christ parted that previously uncrossable sea for all mankind, for all time, at the Cross where He paid our sin debt IN FULL!

In this way, therefore, let us adopt the prayerful and worshipful Song of Moses, to be our own, our song of Gratitude as to what the Lord has done for us.

MOSES PRAYER OF PRAISE:

Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying:

         OUR GOD FIGHTS FOR US!

“I will sing to the Lord,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!
2 The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
3 The Lord is a man of war;
The Lord is His name.
4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
5 The depths have covered them;
They sank to the bottom like a stone.

6 “Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power;
Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.
7 And in the greatness of Your excellence
You have overthrown those who rose against You;
You sent forth Your wrath;
It consumed them like stubble.
8 And with the blast of Your nostrils
The waters were gathered together;
The floods stood upright like a heap;
The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
My desire shall be satisfied on them.
I will draw my sword,
My hand shall destroy them.’
10 You blew with Your wind,
The sea covered them;
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

PRAISE AND GLORY TO HIS NAME!

11 “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out Your right hand;
The earth swallowed them.
13 You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength
To Your holy habitation.

PROCLAIM THE NAME OF THE LORD!

14 “The people will hear and be afraid;
Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed;
The mighty men of Moab,
Trembling will take hold of them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.
16 Fear and dread will fall on them;
By the greatness of Your arm
They will be as still as a stone,
Till Your people pass over, O Lord,
Till the people pass over
Whom You have purchased.
17 You will bring them in and plant them
In the mountain of Your inheritance,
In the place, O Lord, which You have made
For Your own dwelling,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. 

"The Lord shall reign forever and ever.”(verse 18) Amen

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