It’s Still the Cross

In the Old Testament the children of Israel were commanded that if they had been bitten by a serpent, all they had to do was look upon the serpent on the pole and they would be healed. There are clear parallels between this episode and Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus had to be lifted up onto a cross so that the poison of sin in our lives could be dealt with. We have to come and look upon Him through faith.

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Today, traditionally, is the time when we consider the fact that Jesus Christ was crucified. I want to try and ‘demystify’ the reality of what it means for us to realise who Jesus was when He gave up His life on the cross. He Himself talked to gentleman in the New Testament times and referred to an episode which occurs in the scripture we will soon read. The situation was that God had been the provider for the children of Israel. Bread from heaven had come every morning without fail. There came a point when the children of Israel became disappointed with this same provision each day. In Numbers 21 the people began to speak against God.

Numbers 21:4-7

They all routed their communication with God through Moses. There was no communication straight to God like we can have now with our heavenly Father. These serpents whose bite was fatal, represented in parallel, the sin that is within in us; which is also fatal. Sin is that which we know to be wrong. If so be that sin is inside us and we haven’t had it dealt with it is fatal. Here Moses took note of the people:

Numbers 21:8-9

We’re not told how tall this pole was but it must have been pretty tall because anyone who had been bitten had to have sight of the fiery serpent on top of it. There was only one pole. I can imagine the situation, for example in a family where the children had been playing and one of them had been bitten. The panic of the mother or father to make sure that the child could see the serpent on the pole. Making sure that the child looked it; that was all that was needed. They organised themselves so that they knew where it was so that they could look upon it. The provision by God for these people was twenty four hour provision, for male or female, young or old. It was not complicated. Sometimes, if we were to transfer it to the sin in our lives, we can become so complicated as to what a person has to be and what has to happen before they can get saved. There might be some of us that have made things so complicated in your mind. But you’ve heard about the cross and Jesus Christ giving up His life on the cross for you. We’ll see in a minute that Jesus Himself paralleled what happened here with the children of Israel. If you wanted you could make a long list of parallels between this episode here in Numbers and the episode in the New Testament.

I want you to notice that if the serpent had bitten an individual, a remedy had been provided.

Romans 5:12

The poison from the serpent was real. In sin terms it is as if all of us from the beginning of our lives are in a situation where the poison is already inside us; it’s called sin. You can’t play around with this sin that is inside you. It grips what you say and what you do. You get annoyed with yourself because you know that what you think and do is wrong, but somehow you can’t get rid of it. Whatsoever a man sows he shall reap. If you continue to be involved in sin there is an automatic reaping from that sin. There’s no doubt that the poison killed. There’s no doubt that the wages of sin are death.

There was only one serpent of brass on the pole.

1 Timothy 2:5

That’s why Good Friday, when we thinking about Jesus hanging on the cross, is so significant. There is only one way for us to get our lives sorted in God, and that is through Jesus Christ. I don’t think that when something happened from the serpent’s bite they were wishing that there was an easier remedy. All they knew was that the moment they would look upon the serpent they would healed. There is one mediator between God and man: Christ Jesus.

Jesus refers to this in the following passage. At the beginning of this chapter Nicodemus came at night to talk to Jesus. Jesus talked to him about what it means to be a Christian. And then He gets to the point in the conversation when He says:

John 3:14

That is very clear. What are we saying then? Nicodemus was the ruler of the Jews, he knew what was recorded in the Torah. He would have known the story of the serpent on the pole in the Old Testament. Jesus what showing him that in exactly the same way as Moses lifted up the serpent, even so that Son of man must be lifted up.

John 3:15

There was a brass serpent on a pole which is a strange image. In the same way that as the serpent on the pole could deal with the serpents in the camp, Jesus made Himself of no reputation, was made in the likeness of men so that He could identify with you and with me. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The obedience of Jesus means that I can stand in front of you and tell you that this isn’t complicated. Here Nicodemus was going to see Jesus, in a short period of time, lifted up on the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:7

In the Old Testament the clear thing was the vision. Now we do not have to physically see Jesus standing here now, we have to walk in faith. I want to make it crystal clear that to become a Christian is not complicated. The fact that some of you sitting here tonight know that you need to sort this out is God already talking to you. Jesus isn’t standing behind the door waiting for you to come through so that he can beat you down. He has provided a remedy for everyone. The remedy isn’t a quick prescription.

John 3:16

If any of you have thought about what it meant for Jesus to hang on the cross, it was mind-numbingly torturing. But He did it for us so that we can look by faith.