In three of our meditations this week, we invite you to focus on three key events in the life of Jesus, under the following headings:

LIFTED UP!
RAISED UP!
RECEIVED UP!

LIFTED UP!
‘And as Moses LIFTED UP the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be LIFTED UP’, John chapter 3 verse 14.

This verse takes us back to an Old Testament incident, recorded in Numbers chapter 21 verses 4-9. The children of Israel murmured against God and Moses as they journeyed through the wilderness. The lack of water and bread led them to long to be back in Egypt, from whence they had been delivered by God. Such was the level of their complaints that God sent ‘fiery servants’ among them, which bit them, and many of them died. They turned to Moses in their distress and pleaded with him to intercede with God on their behalf. God instructed him to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. If a person was bitten, they should look in faith at the bronze serpent and he / she would live! It was foolishness to human reasoning but to those who obeyed in faith, it was the power of God unto salvation – they looked and lived!

Jesus recalled the incident to Nicodemus, one of the Jewish religious leaders, who was seeking to know more about God’s way of salvation. He paralleled it with His own coming death, when He would be LIFTED UP on a cross. Just as the children of Israel looked, by faith, at the serpent on a pole and lived, so sinful men and women must look at Christ on the cross, who was LIFTED UP and took the judgment of God for their sin and trust Him for eternal life! He said later. ‘And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself’, John chapter 12 verse 32.

Praise God for the Christ Who will ‘draw all peoples’ to Himself. Will you allow Him to do so? For more information, please contact us. We will gladly send you a Bible and other helpful literature. We will pray for you. Come back again for another Message of Hope.