Look Up and Live Numbers 21:4–9; Ephesians 2:1–10; John 3:14–21
Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God our Father, who sent His only Son to be our Savior, and our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look up to and live.
Look up and live is the title of our message today. It’s taken from our Old Testament and Gospel lessons.
When you look down, life looks worse. When you look up, life looks better. When we get discouraged, we tend to hang our heads. But when we’re encouraged and hopeful, we tend to raise our heads and look ahead.
When we think of death or Hell, we typically think down. When we think of God or Heaven, we think up.
God sent His Son so that we wouldn’t look down and die, but would look up and live. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
These are the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in our Gospel. More than that, these are the words of Jesus to the world.
Jesus told Nicodemus, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
Jesus was referring to the events in today’s Old Testament. Although God had saved His people from slavery in Egypt, and from being slaughtered by the Egyptian army at the Red Sea; although God had given them His Law at Sinai, and the people had responded, in Exodus 19:8, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”; although God had saved them from starving by giving them manna, bread from heaven to eat everyday, and flocks of quail for meat, and had saved them from dying of thirst by giving them water from a rock, still they turned on Him. They denounced their Provider and Protector.
To bring them back, God allowed poisonous snakes to come among them and bite them. It seems it always took something drastic or catastrophic to bring them back to God once they had left Him. The same is often true for us today.
Given this deathly dilemma beyond their control, the people called out to God and said to Moses, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.”
Moses, who loved them and trusted God, prayed for them. And God, who loved them, even though they continued to turn on Him, had a plan to save them.
He said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Jesus made it clear to Nicodemus, and all who would ever read or hear John, chapter 3, that the bronze serpent represented Him being lifted on the cross for all who have ever disobeyed and turned against God. Jesus came down to earth that He might be lifted up on the cross, that all might repent, look up to Him in faith, and live!
Our Epistle tells us of our spiritual dilemma, that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had nothing to look forward to but death and eternal punishment.
Knowing that would make our heads hang… if that was all we knew. But knowing Christ, knowing the Gospel, knowing that, as Jesus told Nicodemus, we’ve been re-born by water and the Spirit; knowing that by faith the Holy Spirit has made us alive with Christ; knowing all this, we lift up our heads and rejoice.
In Romans 6 Paul tells us, 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his… 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
We look up to Jesus, and we live with Him. This gives us reason to hold up our heads, and live in confident faith and hope.
But not hold up our heads to boast, at least not in ourselves. Our Epistle says,
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”, Paul says 1 Corinthians 1:31.
To hold up your head in vanity is to look at a false savior, yourself. To bow your head in honest humility and true repentance, and then, for Christ to take hold and lift up your head, in grace and forgiveness, that’s the right way to hold your head high. Then your head is lifted up in the right way, by the right One, for the right reason.
When we lift up our voices to complain against God and His commands, as His people often did in the wilderness, and as we sadly still do today; when we lift up our heads in arrogance as we sin against God, and publish it; proudly advertising our immoral choices, or try to gain social acceptance or popularity by them, or by anything that dishonors God and disrespects our neighbor, that is to our shame.
But to look up to the cross in true repentance and faith, and there to see your forgiveness, your salvation, your hope, your love, your joy, your life, your purpose for living, and for serving, and for worshipping, and for witnessing, and for sharing, and helping, and forgiving, that’s a blessed way to look up, and to live.
In our Epistle Paul reminds us, 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
God has saved and renewed us, that we might display His glorious workmanship, that we might be His handiwork. By His Spirit He has crafted our spirit, to do the good He has provided for us to do, the opportunities to love and help and serve that are all around us; we have only to open our eyes, and take action.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in all our troubles and worries and responsibilities that we can’t see the opportunities God is giving us to love and serve others. When we look up to Christ, and see, first His salvation, and then, His example, that’s when our eyes are opened up to a world of opportunity to love and serve in His name.
And as we serve others in His name, it helps to lift us up out of our little world of worry. It helps us to see beyond ourselves, and then things start to look better.
It’s in serving that we find fulfillment, and start feeling better about ourselves.
Not in a vain or proud way, but in an appreciative way, that God has saved and empowered us to serve; we’re so thankful and honored to be able to serve in His name, showing His love to the world!
Then one day, as God’s people are busy living lives of love, and serving one another, they will look up and see what they’ve been waiting for, the reason they have believed and served and looked up to the cross every day. We don’t know which day it will be, and we don’t know which generation, but we know it will be a glorious sound and sight for those who love Christ, and have longed for His appearing.
With the cry of the archangel, the trumpet call of God, Jesus will appear, riding on the clouds, Revelation tells us. The faithful who are living will be instantly changed into glory. The faithful who have died, will be instantly raised in glory. And all God’s people will look up, and see the One they put their trust in, and they won’t be disappointed nor put to shame.
Scripture tells us we will be lifted up into the sky, and taken to live in God’s glory forever, in a place Jesus has perfectly prepared for us. There, no one will look down in sadness or guilt or shame or pain, but all will shine with holy love and joy.
And we will see our Savior face to face. And what a glorious face we’ll see; what a beautiful sight we’ll behold and be in awe of.
Look up and remember this when sin and trouble have you discouraged and looking down; lift up your eyes and live. As Psalm 121 says, I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
As the bronze snake was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness, so your Lord was lifted up on the cross of Calvary, that you might look up in faith and live forever.
May your heart always look up to Him and rejoice!
And as you look up to your mighty and gracious God, His peace, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus our Lord, who was lifted up to save us. Amen.