He is Lifted Up
For the Lord’s Day:  the 8^th of August 2004 

John 3: 14-15

Introduction:  Now there are many things that can be said about the text for today.  We take as our title the apparently simple proposition that Christ was lifted up for all to see and in looking to Christ.  The sons of men, having already been wounded to the point of death by sin, thereby are healed and saved in and through that same lifting up of our Lord.  Thus, if the Spirit be the agent of grace: thereby are the elect of all the earth guaranteed that God will finish in them the process of salvation as they come to trust in Christ alone.

However, there is more going on here in the text than many realize.  Nicodemus in this scene serves much as a caller to Rush Limbaugh’s radio talk show.  Just as the majority of callers give the radio host a chance to discuss a topic near and dear to his heart, so too does the presence of Nicodemus and his honest, but ignorant questions: give the Apostle John the springboard to explain the calling and purpose for which Christ came to earth.  Commentator Raymond Brown explains:  “like so many of the characters in the Johannine discourses [Nicodeumus] has served as a foil whose misunderstanding or failure to understand causes Jesus to expound his revelation in detail.  As Jesus launches into the long explanation (from verses 11 to 21), Nicodemus fades off into the darkness whence he came.  The dialogue becomes a monologue; and Jesus alone holds the stage, his light shining out into the darkness and attracting men to come to him and become sons of God.”

Development:    The theme in this passage begins in the time of Moses, when the people of Israel were tramping through the desert during their forty year sojourn.  That story is well known and presented in some detail in Numbers 21.  As the exodus record tells us again and again, the people had forgotten their God, and they were punished by a plague of snakes.  And yet, their repentance is quick and even to many real enough.  Of course, God Himself could have easily provided the miraculous cure without any image.  But the healing was made conditional.  The Israelites who had been bitten must look up to the image of the bronze serpent and thereby realize that healing in this life as well as the new life begins with and through the plan and purpose of the Lord God Almighty, who would provide the final object for salvation in the person of our Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ.

One could almost make a case that in the imagery of that crafted bronze, there was demonstrated a definitive limitation of power of that old serpent himself – even Satan.  And yet, this is not the proper biblical association with the image, that centuries later was honored too much and finally had to be destroyed.  New Testament passages such as this one tell us plainly that the import of the Old Covenant experience is meant to point people towards the One who would come in the power of our Lord God Almighty.  In looking to Him who would be raised up – there would be life eternal.

All too many commentators, Raymond Brown tells us – would miss the totality of implications in this lifting up by focusing only upon the crucifixion alone.  Two of my ordinary sources make this mistake, but Brown would encourage us to see much more.  He tells us that the word used here for “lifted up” “is used in Acts for references to the ascension of Jesus.”  In the Hebrew terminology both the experience of death and glorification are possible applications.  Further Brown allows that “in John ‘being lifted up’ refers to one continuous action of ascent:  Jesus begins his return to his Father as he approaches death and completes it only with his ascension.”

Thus, there are three steps in this lifting up:

1.        the first step in the ascent is when Jesus is lifted up on the cross;

2.        the second step is when he is raised up from death;

3.        the final step is when he is lifted up to heaven.

The completeness of this understanding helps us to comprehend the implications of other texts later in this glorious Gospel of John.  In John 8: 28, we read:  “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.”  In the preaching of these things, John reports that “as he was saying these things, many believed in him.

So let us number our first point in the fact of the crucifixion.  In this New Testament, it is the people of Israel and their leaders who will indeed raise Christ up on the Roman death pole, which we have called the cross.  But, even though the Centurion believed on the basis of that limited material testimony – it was not until three days later when the reality of the resurrection began to dawn upon His followers that the disciples began to appreciate that their Father God had not left His only Son to corruption in the earth, but had indeed raised Him up from the dead.

Very many pagans and worldly people believe in the crucifixion and like the death of the Greek philosopher Socrates – thereby the man Jesus gained poetic immortality because He died for a good cause.  We do not do the world any favors if the crucifixion is the only aspect of Christ’s lifting up that we emphasize.  It is only the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead that makes any real difference in the salvation history of any man, woman or child.  Well, did John speak:  “then you will know that I am he.”  In the end even Thomas confessed that Jesus must be “My Lord and my God!”  You do not get to that proposition from the crucifixion alone, as all too many viewers of the popular springtime movie have proven.

Our second point is the fact of the resurrection.  In Mark 8: 31-32a we read:  “And [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.”  The greatest prophet of the Old Covenant foresaw the lifting up of Christ in Isaiah 52: 13 we read:  “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.”  The phrasing there is multiple in its implications, not only is the Suffering Servant “lifted up,” but He is also to be “exalted.”  That exaltation can be the resurrection or the ascension, in point of fact – with hindsight we can almost read into that passage the very special highness of the One who would be “lifted up” and “exalted.”

Our third point is the fact of the ascension.  Jesus Himself points towards the final calling home to heaven which was only attained in the ascension.  Sadly, too many people consider the ascension as only an afterthought, a sort of Elijah like experience whereby Christ was honored in a special way.  A contraire: the ascension is also a necessary part of the divine plan laid out before creation so that mankind may be redeemed!  John 12: 32 points us towards this event as well in the very words of our Lord:  “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”

Our cited texts of course lead us on to the next, very much like the bases in a baseball diamond point a player towards home plate.  Satan of course plays shortstop to keep the world focused on the crucifixion alone, but those who claim the Name of Christ must go on to affirm that His lifting up included ever so much more, because of the power and glory of His Father in heaven who would reveal Himself to us in the person of His one and only Son.

Application:  Raymond Brown allows that verse fifteen “shows why Jesus introduced into the discourse the imagery of being lifted up, namely, that his being lifted up will lead to the gift of eternal life to all who believe in Jesus.  This eternal life is the life of the sons of God, the life begotten from above, the life begotten of the Spirit.  When Jesus will be lifted up in crucifixion and ascension, his communication of the Spirit will constitute a flowing source of life for those who believe in him.”

Calvin takes us further even.  “To be lifted up means to be placed in a lofty and elevated situation, so as to be exhibited to the view of all.  This was done by the preaching of the Gospel.”  He cites Isaiah 2: 2-3b: to “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

Therefore, we may know our final point for the morning.  And it is this fact that whenever Christ is preached, His person and Name is lifted up in the Church for all the world to see, if they be enabled.  And even as He is lifted up in the testimony of the saints in the church – some will hear the gospel call by and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the original desert situation, where the brazen serpent was lifted up, it is not reported if any bitten refused to look up and live?  But, we know from later passages that even those who partook of the manna, the quail and those who saw and heard many blessed things – there bones rotted in the desert and the promised land never became their final home and resting place.  There are many in the world today, who are just as blind and stubborn – those who will not look up and see the reality of the personage revealed in Christ our Lord and our God.  May we see Him revealed as our Lord and savior this and every day.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES 

Barrett, C.K.  The Gospel According to St John.
Brown, Raymond E.  The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John.
Calvin, John:  Commentary on the Gospel of John.
Tasker, R.V.G.  Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: The Gospel According to St John.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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