Sermon Nuggets – Thurs. Feb 14 2008
Happy Valentine’s Day
Theme- Born Again
Verses John 3:14-20 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
This week we have looked at the implications of being Born Again- it means having a New Start, having a New Spirit, and today we talk about having a New Savior.
Nicodemus knew a great deal about the Old Testament. He knew all about Moses and when the people were sinning in the wilderness in their complainting and wanting to replace Moses from leadership. God punished them with a plague of poisonous snakes. They cried out to God and to Moses to be saved. The dying people were desperate like people today who are dying of disease without a cure. Many are likely cry to God when faced suddenly with their own mortality. When we are faced with our eternal lostness we cry out to God. But crying out to God isn't enough.
God heard the prayers of the people in the wilderness instructing Moses to build a bronze snake and place it on a high pole. If anyone would look to the snake he or she would be saved from the death from the poison. It took an act of faith to do that.
That story explained our need for a new savior. It wasn’t the serpent that saved the people in the Old Testament it was God. That Old Testament experience was a prophecy of the saving power of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are now to look to Jesus as sinners so we can be healed and not die in our sin. It is also a message of faith. Just as the serpent was put on the pole so Jesus would be put on the cross.
God is just and must punish sin. But because God is also merciful He will pardon all who believe in Jesus. The cross represents the death Jesus took in our place as sentence for sin. We know the snake is a symbolic of Satan and sin. God is destroying sin and the sin is placed on the pole. The Bible tell us in 2 Cor 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The object of my belief is Jesus Christ. No one can come unto the father but by Jesus. There is no other way.
Just as God provided a means for salvation in that wilderness, so He provides a means of salvation for you and me. We need to look, believe, and live. God not only gave us a way out, he paid the price Himself that is why He is our Savior. That is a real love story on Valentine’s Day.
You need do nothing to be lost, you are already under condemnation. You can feel the lostness. You may feel the need for God. You may be under conviction for sin. You may try to be better and help others to be saved. But the only solution to our delimmea is to be born again, having a new savior. Believing Christ died is history; but believing Christ died for you, That is salvation, New Birth is having a New Savior, and that Savior is no other name than Jesus.
Pastor Dale
