Anyone Who Looked Lived

In one paragraph

The morning's message worked through Numbers 21 and John 3 side by side, showing how a strange Old Testament story of snakes in the wilderness points directly to the cross. Pastor Mark connected those texts to the most familiar verse in the Bible and pressed the congregation on what it actually means to look to Jesus in faith. Before getting into the text, Pastor Mark noted that the day landed on...

Read together

1. Numbers 20:14-21 Moses sends messengers to Edom asking to pass through, Edom refuses with a large army
2. Numbers 20:22-29 Aaron dies on Mount Hor, his priestly garments passed to his son Eleazar, Israel mourns thirty days
3. Numbers 21:1-3 Canaanite king of Arad attacks Israel, Israel vows to destroy their cities, God gives the victory
4. Numbers 21:4-9 People grumble against God and Moses, God sends venomous snakes, Moses prays, bronze snake lifted on a pole
5. John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life
6. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes shall not perish but have eternal life
7. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Solomon says God has placed eternity in our hearts, used to illustrate that we know infinity is true even beyond comprehension
8. Daniel 7 Referenced as the Old Testament source for the title Son of Man coming on clouds in glory
9. Proverbs 3:5-6 Used as the benediction: trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, submit to Him and He will make your paths straight

Talk about it

1. The pastor spent time on Saint Patrick's real story, a man who was captured, found faith in slavery, and then felt God calling him to go back to the very people who had enslaved him. What do you think made Patrick willing to obey that call, and what would it take for you to do something similar?
2. The Israelites had manna provided for them daily and still said 'we detest this miserable food.' Can you think of a time when you grumbled about something God had provided because it was not what you wanted, even though it was what you needed?
3. The pastor described the bronze snake on the pole as irrational, yet anyone who looked at it lived. He drew a straight line from that to the cross, saying the message of the cross is also foolishness to those who are perishing. What makes it hard to explain that kind of faith to someone who finds it irrational?
4. Cornelius Van Till said 'it is not kindness to tell patients that need strong medicine that nothing serious is wrong with them.' How do you hold together genuine love for people with the honesty of telling them the truth about sin and their need for a Savior?
5. The boy scout who had not grown up in church heard the gospel and simply said 'Jesus on the cross, I'll take that.' What does that kind of simple, uncluttered response make you think about how we sometimes overcomplicate sharing the gospel?