Gospel Insight for Living and Preaching

Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-16

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of
Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against
God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that
many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “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.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord
said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is
bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 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.

Introduction

As Christians, the most normal instructions that we were given is to

live the gospel and to preach the gospel. It’s the natural dynamic that
the Gospel creates in us, inside us (living) and outside ourselves
(preaching). However, it’s easier said than done. We ask ourselves;
how do we live inside the Gospel for our growth, and how do we
preach the Gospel in obedience to our great commission? This
morning, I’ll be bridging an Old Testament account to its New
Testament reality, and give us a clear insight as to how we ought to
live and preach the Gospel.
Proposition

Looking unto Jesus with the right vision brings us to live more
effectively and faithfully.

I’ll be addressing you with two points: 1. A clear Providence for

Gospel Living and 2. A clear Pattern for Gospel Preaching.

A certain Providence for Gospel Living

And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Do we still see our need to preach the Gospel to ourselves daily? Let us
not think that as Christians, we do not need the Gospel anymore. You
might say, “I’ve heard that once, maybe a few times, and I so I need to
move on to other things”. But don’t go there! We need the Gospel more
than we ever realize. We need it daily, constantly, and always, be
preached to us. In fact, all of preaching should always be centered in
the Gospel. Because, we, like sharp knives, when brought into all of
lives hardships, struggles, discipline, and decisions, the once sharp
blades get dull and rough that it loses its cutting ability. This is exactly
what happened to the Israelites in Number 21. After all the mighty
things that God shown them in saving them out, they looked at the
discomfort of the journey, rather than the blessing of it. They rumbled,
there’s no water, but you read one chapter before this, in Numbers 21,
when the Lord in fact provided water from the rock. They accused God
of killing them (you have brought us our of Egypt to die in the
wilderness), Not providing for them (there is no food nor water), The
Lord provided for them food from heaven, and they called it worthless
food. The nerve! How dare they? The problem is forgetfulness.
Ignorance. Disregard for God. Oh how right God is for cursing them
with snakes. But were no better than them. In fact, snakes are lesser
judgements.

We’ve called God’s blessing as curse. We call living as hell. We fail to

see God giving us enough for every day, and we insult him when we
say we don’t have anything. Our Christian walk becomes tasteless,
unmotivated, tiring, and depressing. I know this, because I’ve been
there, more than I can count. You might be in this point of time when
you probably thought, I want to live for the Lord, I know I need to, but
I just can’t do this, or I can’t give anything, or I cannot help in the
ministry, I cannot be of use to the Lord, or I’ll never get out of this
drug or porn addiction. Brother, Sister, I tell you, it isn’t that the
power of the Gospel decreases in effectiveness, for Jesus’ atonement
was perfect and for all time. According to Hebrews 10, beginning from
verse 14: For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those
who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us;
for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and
write them on their minds.” What a promise! God can write (think of
engrave, like in Jeremiah 17) his laws in our hearts, and when we are
born again, regenerated, our hearts are changed. We are transformed
to believe! Our hearts do still wander day by day in sin, what we need
is a heart and mind transformed by sure Gospel promises! So,
brethren, when you are blinded, bombarded by Satan and the world
with lies of what you don’t have and can’t do, counter it with the
Gospel truth, that there stands a providence of hope, of what is in
Christ. An always eternal living hope in Jesus that will never fail. What
needs to be corrected is our vision, our eyesight, our perspective, our
mindset, that our hopelessness turned into hope, our brokenness
turned into wholeness, our shame turned into confidence, our
deadness turned into life in Christ Jesus alone. Perhaps, the looking
glasses needed some cleaning and some adjustment. And liberating
that the answer is outside and apart from us. Look and live!! You are
not measured by your bank account, or by your financial net. You are
measure by who you have become in Jesus, an eternal child of God.
How then can you say that life is hopeless? Adjust your eyes. Look and
live! Well, the serpent pole was ordered to be destroyed by God as it
already became an object of idolatry in 2 Kings 18:4. And it’s a good
thing that it was destroyed, to show us that God will establish a better
one. Now, there remains for us an eternal pole standing for us to look,
for the serpent pole is but a shadow, a foretaste to its better, ultimate
reality, in Jesus, when he hung on the cross. We are all familiar with
John 3:16, but we often neglect that it fits to this OT narrative, because
in context, Jesus was talking about this very story from Numbers in
verse 14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may
have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus, as he testified himself, became the eternal pole for his people,
whose effect exceeds above and beyond that bronze serpent pole of
Moses. Look and live! For Jesus is our life, our curse for once and for
all hung on the tree, absorbing it like a sponge, and God the Father
eternally pleased and satisfied in that one ultimate offering for the
sins of the elect. This is our message. This is our good news. And this
is the hope that we want to proclaim, that they look to Christ and live!

Let me ask you then, how many times have you thought God has not
been good? How many times have you complained to God for not
providing when he does and already did in Jesus? Ask the Holy Spirit,
to develop our eyes to see beyond, that we might increase in
understanding. That we are utterly guilty, but he is utterly gracious,
and that we must be willingly grateful to live for Him.

A clear pattern for Gospel Preaching

Now, not only can we find in here our real need for the Gospel as
already believers, but this also gives us a clear pattern as to how we
preach the Gospel. When we proclaim the Gospel, what are the main
elements?
When we share the Gospel, although there’s a lot of models out there
already, this is the skeleton: Who God is, Who Man Is, Who Christ Is,
What Faith is.

And the Numbers 21 account very clearly speaks of these elements.

Man’s Guilt: We have rebelled against God. We have been ungrateful,

and disregarded God’s goodness as worthless. We are wicked.

God’s Curse: Death. The just penalty of our rebellion to God’s

goodness. Our true curse is infinitely worse than just snake venom. It’s
eternal condemnation for each of our sin.

God’s Remedy: Our true blessing is infinitely better than the serpent
pole. It’s eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Let us see Jesus Christ for who he is, and point the lost and the dead to
him who is the only hope unto life. As Christian, it should be our duty
and our delight to exercise in our minds how to proclaim the great
news of the Gospel. It should be our joy to speak it clearly, because in
it is life and death. It is rightfully the power of God unto salvation.

Listen to what Milton Vincent writes about the power of God in the
Gospel:

“God’s power is seen in erupting volcanoes, in the unimaginably hot

boil of our massive sun, and in the lightning speed of a recently
discovered star seen streaking through the heavens at 1.5 million miles
per hour. Yet in scripture such wonders are never labeled “the power
of God”. How powerful, then, must the gospel be that it would merit
such a title! And how great is the salvation it could accomplish in my
life, if I would only embrace it by faith and give it a central in my
thoughts each day!”

If this be the power of God, then living for God is the surest thing we
can say yes to. If this be the power of God, then preaching the Gospel
is the most important thing we ought to speak with our mouths. What
you have in your life, and what you speak with your mouth is the most
powerful thing. How can you say you can’t? How then can you again
say that your life has no purpose? How then can you again say you
don’t have anything when in Christ, you have the power the power to
both live and proclaim grace. Look and live! There is hope and life in
Jesus alone.