For 2006, the fourth Sunday in (not of) Lent falls on March 26. The three assigned readings from the lectionary are Numbers 21:4-9 (fiery serpents); Ephesians 2:4-10 (saved by grace through faith) and John 3:14-21 (For God so loved the world). Though you may be surprised that John 3:16 has not been chosen, we have decided to preach on Numbers 21:9, “So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
While the epistle from Ephesians 2 certainly reveals that nothing we do can save us (we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves), at first reading it appears that Numbers 21 says that the people who were cured from the fiery serpents were those who took action and looked at the bronze serpent put on the pole by Moses. It is with this in mind that we are reminded of the singular call of most evangelicals today in regard to Decision theology. In summary it teaches that God has done all He can; now it’s up to you to make a decision.
That certainly appears to be the case in Numbers. Through Moses God had erected a bronze serpent. But if the people did not take the effort to look at it, then they would die. Their healing was due to their looking. So also with Jesus, they say. He did all He could do; now it’s up to you to make the effort and invite Him into your heart; make Him the LORD of the throne of your life, decide to believe in Him.
In theological circles this is called the confusion between justification and sanctification. In other circles it refers to putting the cart before the horse. Which is to say that upon closer reflection on the verses in Numbers 21, the people did not become believers by looking at the bronze serpent; they already were believers when they pleaded with Moses to ask the Lord to take away the serpents.
It is a common mistake found also in Revelation 3:20 and Jesus knocking on the door. This message is not to unbelievers but to the Church at Laodicea. “If anyone hears my voice” would make no difference to an unbeliever because in the Bible to hear the voice of God is to believe in God. How many parents use that understanding when they confront a disobedient child with, “Did you not hear what I told you to do???”
That through faith and not by works we do, clearly is the point of the bronze serpentIt is also found in the passage in which Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever BELIEVES (emhasis mine and the Holy Spirit’s) in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The bronze serpent, therefore, was a type of Messiah or Savior in the physical realm in contrast to Jesus in the spiritual realm. It was NOT looking at the bronze serpent that healed as it was believing that the promise of God was sure that whoever did look was healed.
Thus, not just John 3 but also Numbers 21 agrees with Ephesians 2 that salvation is not by any kind of work we do. And for those who imagine that “faith” is a work they do, listen to the end of verse 8 and beginning of verse 9 after “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that NOT OF YOURSELVES; it is the GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast.”
In a sermon I would point out to the listeners how often they thought that the burden of getting God’s ear was on them or how often they thought what they did mattered as to whether or not God would keep His promises to a believer. Then the Gospel would clarify how not just faith is a gift but so also the bronze serpent and the Lord Jesus Christ are gifts as they were lifted up from the ground for all to see (believe) for healing and salvation.
Name:Tom Baker
Oh good, I got to do it first, does that mean I win?
Leave my comment…
Deu 19:7 Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee.
Deu 19:8 And if the LORD thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;
Deu 19:9 If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the LORD thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
Deu 19:10 That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.
hmmmm, I guess I am stuck on stupid!
Does this passage mean that if we don’t increase in God’s love and walk in His ways He will not increase three more cities of refuge? Which then implies that there will be less and not more death by accidents in the Land of Promise by the hands of thy neighbor?
I have come to believe that the Word of God is the Word by Faith alone. I am presently reading again Martin Luther, [On Christian Liberty]. Boy was he on a rant about the Word and Faith and Pious ole Leo X!!! On page 15 Luther it is written:::”this is the first power of [Faith].”
“Let us now examine also the second.”…
The bronze serpent, the Thief. The devil is a thief too. Jesus comes as a thief in the night! Hmmmm.
Have you ever been present when a thief came and stole something from you?
I liken this discussion of yours about the bronze serpent on a pole and faith Tom like that thief who came and “stole” or removed from us something. When did we know when it was taken? We just realized, hey, it’s gone? Well when was it taken? Who stole it? A thief came and stole it and took it from my possession.
The devil we know comes to steal, kill and destroy.
Jesus comes as a thief in the night also. What does He come to take away from us?
Thank you Lord that we first believed and received Faith by hearing the Word of God, however we believed and received it. By Faith alone.
Today we look to the living bronze serpent no longer hung on a tree, cursed, dead, buried, and raise up that we might walk in newness of Life and increase the love of God by the power of Christ Jesus, thus God’s love is increased to more and more souls to be won for the Kingdom Joys and the Holy Ghost! Truly this is a work of God in those who do not deserve it.
Thanks be to God then, ok, Thanks God!Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Deu 19:11 But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities:
Deu 19:12 Then the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.
Deu 19:13 Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.
To which I proclaim
“”innocent blood has been shed therefore it may go well with me,”"
by Faith alone!
michael burke
Gospel Outreach
Eureka, Ca.
In response to Mike’s comments on Deuteronomy 7ff, this passage never came to pass for one simple reason. And it is found in verse 9 that for an additional three more cities to come into existence the people of God would need to obey all the commandments from God–which they did NOT!
What are these three cities. They are the cities of refuge to which a person who accidentally killed another person could flee and be safe from the avengers who would chase him. Of course, if he had committed murder, there was a process set up by which he could be taken from the city of refuge and punished.
God is promising that if additional land is given to Israel, there will be a need to have three more cities of refuge. Unfortunately, due to the unbelief of Israel, that land was not given and therefore the additional 3 cities of refuge were not necessary to protect those who accidentally shed innocent blood. I hope that is helpful to your question Mike. Blessings.
Is there really a need to teach it that way? That it wasn’t their turning and looking but God’s promise for them connected with that fiery serpent that gave the healing? Isn’t it true we confuse promise and law so much that we have to teach that baptism, the Lords supper, and believing the word, our God’s work and not ours? Shouldn’t we say ‘These things ought not to be!’
It is my conviction; correct me if I’m wrong here, that this was not a problem in the early church. Not that they did not confuse law and gospel but that they did not confuse faith as being our work. Faith was a polemic against work. Telling them to look was a promise in opposition against my offering some form of atonement (My work). Looking as opposed to doing. To look is to believe. For if you did not believe when you were bitten you would do much to help yourself but what you won’t do is the one thing needed. That of not doing only looking (Hearing). It was the promise itself that gave the looking and all that is apart of it (ie.) The turning of the head. The same as it is the Word (Of the gospel) that gives the hearing of the ear. We believe because we have heard. “Faith comes by hearing…” Now I am not hear discussing why some do not look or why some do not believe but why some do is because of the promise, the word not returning void.
Faith is a polemic against works. By my experience as a former Charismatic, let me share what happens when we don’t see it that way.
Coming out of Catholicism I was relieved to know that Jesus forgave all my sins by grace (Not of works) and this was given me through faith. You see, I know that the law, as I used the law or works, was like a measuring device and I did not measure up. I was found wanting, I yet lacked. Now I heard that the Righteousness of Christ is mine through faith. What a relief! I can throw away the measuring stick where works were concerned. It was by grace. It was not to long that I found out that this “Faith” replaced works in being the measuring stick. The question that plagued me was: Do I have ENOUGH faith?
Faith became a work. The measuring stick came back again, and again I was in lack. The words of Jesus that “if you have faith as a grain…” just exposed that I must not have any faith.
Praise be to God, when I found out that this faith is God’s gift and not my doing. There are many “doings” in scripture that are only consistent with a faith that is apart from any doings. This sounds contradictory but it is only because of the weakness of the language. Example: Mary as opposed to Martha did the one thing needed. That of not doing but hearing. The servants did fill the water pots with water. This is to be understood as not doing, not buying more wine, not laboring in the vineyard and winepress. What they did can only be associated with the promise because what they are doing (Which is apart from what one must do to acquire wine) is foolishness apart from the fulfillment of that promise. So also many other doings in scripture which are not doings at all, but an acting on a promise contrary to the work that we ourselves would deem needed. We plant a seed and water then rest because it is the seeds doing. We are baptized because it is God’s promise. We partake of the promise (Jesus) in Holy Communion. We do that, that is not doing!
so that’s why I need Pastor Baker’s teaching! I always need to know it is God that turns my head.
It is foolish to be baptized if no remission of sins is to be found in the water.
It is foolish to partake of Communion if Christ’s body and blood our not found with, in, on the bread and wine.
It is foolish for the Leper to dip in the Jordan seven times if healing is not found there.
These are all God’s promises apart from works or our doings. It is faith that does what works would never do. Those who are of the works of the law find nothing more foolish as faith.
Responding to Steve’s comments about whether faith is viewed as a work or a gift, you make some good points that sometimes we go too far in alerting others to the danger of imagining that we are saved by our faith. You yourself admitted that coming out of Catholicism you had to ask the question as to whether or not you had “ENOUGH faith?”
On the other hand, you make a great point by insisting that from God’s point of view, faith is His work both in our being justified through faith and our being sanctified through faith. That some Christians confuse faith with our works ought not keep us from insisting that saving faith is the work of God and Him alone.
Another passage I thought of to make your point, Steve, is the 9th chapter of John in which the man born blind does go to the pool of Siloam, washes and comes back seeing. What healed him was NOT his faith but the word of Jesus. The rest of the chapter reveals that the man obeyed the voice of Jesus even though he did not realize until afterwards that Jesus was the Messiah. Thanks for keeping us alert to the insight that you offered us.
Tom
another thought occurred to me this morning about those verses in Deuteronomy I used to illustrate our need for God’s intervening in this world going wild even more so and greater and greater as the days grow nearer and nearer TO THE END OF ALL THINGS.
It could be implied herein that God, who is love, is helping us understand what He is teaching us we are becoming, [His loving creatures through Christ to this lost and dying world], by this passage of Scripture which is saying simply to all humanity that “accidents” happen. That’s life.
Also He is quite aware of what and where Lucifer, this fallen angel, is at all times. He knows His thoughts and responses to Lucifer is going to be different than those molested by him. God indeed is omnipotent and He does Reign. Our deliverance from him is receiving HIM who died for us! Oh that blessed exchange!! Martin Luther captures this brillance well in his little treatise, “ON CHRISTIAN LIBERTY”. I am inspired to have more fellowship with those of a like precious Faith!
The problem is not God’s or Lucifer’s actions, it’s ours; as you posted to Steve herein, the blind man saw because he was doing what Jesus said, by obeying His “VOICE” he could see. He received sight by obeying Jesus not by going to the pool and washing. Didn’t Jesus open several blind men’s eyes and each time it was different?
I remember one time in the Philippines a man was brought up to me who was blind and he asked me because he believed God’s power was working in me I suppose, to pray that God would give him sight again so he could finish out his days reading the Bible. This man was frail and aged, in his 80′s. To his and my surprise as well as those who saw what I saw, God cleared up his eyes so that he could see and read the Bible again.
What caught my heart was his request and it was his request that moved me to ask God to give him his sight again. Frankly the sight of this man’s eyes was quite undoing because I didn’t have the faith to believe God could or would “change” the appearance of his eyeballs which is what my natural man was focusing on. He did not have very good looking eyeballs and it was difficult for me to look at them or in general at his face!
God, inspite of my weakness and unwillingness, answered both of our hearts that morning, his heart’s desire to read the Bible and my agreement with his request which is what I love to do, Read the Word of God continually! This blind man’s request imparted “God’s Faith” into me, hence, Faith came by hearing and hearing by the Word of God working in that man’s desire to read God’s Word. It was his request, and why that moved me to pray for his sight to be perfect again. I simply didn’t have any strength to pray for him beyond that.
God is God. I am being dethroned from my high and mighty place of myself.
I have so much more peace and joy when I yield to my Maker and rejoice in His abundant love and mercy and grace continually!
As Luke records:::>Act 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Act 13:49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
Act 13:50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
Act 13:51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
Act 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.
michael burke
gospel outreach
eureka, ca