Sunday School Lesson

1. Numbers 21:4-9
John 3:1-17
God Saves
December 22, 2019
First Baptist Church
Jackson, Mississippi
USA
What’s the number one thing?
The glory of God!
1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of
God.
References
• MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Study Bible (Nashville, Nelson Publishing,
1997).
• Palmer, Edwin H., The NIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1985).
• Piper, John, “The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up,” 3/15/2018, Sermon on
YouTube Video.
Introduction to Book of Numbers
• Written by Moses in 1405 BC during his last year of life to describe the
journey of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to arrival at Canaan (the
Promised Land).
• Israel initially refused to enter Canaan because of fear of the enemies who
were living there.
‒ Numbers 14:1-10
• The Israelites wandered in the wilderness 40 years until those who were 20
years or older had died.
‒ Numbers 14:26-38

2. Introduction to Numbers 21:4-9
• The Israelites began their journey to Canaan to claim the Promised Land.
‒ Numbers 20:1-13
• The king of Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through their land.
‒ Descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob.
‒ Numbers 20:14-21
• God had forbidden Israel from engaging in warfare with Edom.
‒ Deuteronomy 2:4-6
The Detour Around Edom
Numbers 21:4 NKJV
4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around
the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the
way.
• Since the way through Edom was barred, Moses turned to the south
toward the Gulf of Aqabah (Red Sea).
• This was a long, difficult and circuitous route.
“We are tired of this!”
Number 21:5 NKJV
5 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
• The people’s impatience led them to despise the manna.
• They blasphemed God and His provisions for them.
The Serpents
Number 21:6-7 NKJV
6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and
many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore 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.
• God sends punishment for their blasphemy.
What was required to live
Numbers 21:8-9 NKJV
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it
shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses
made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had
bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
• An action was required to live – “look at the bronze serpent.”

3. The significance of bronze
• Bronze – a metal composed of 88% copper and 12% tin with some minor
alloys (brass has more zinc than tin).
• The Altar of the Tabernacle was overlaid with bronze to withstand the heat.
• The Laver of the Tabernacle was bronze – washing before entering the
Holy of Holies.
• Bronze (brass) is considered an idiom for judgment.
John describes Jesus’ feet
Revelation 1:13-15 NKJV
13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed
with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a
flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His
voice as the sound of many waters;
• The glowing hot brass (bronze) feet is a reference to divine judgment.
Observations on Number 21:4-9
1. The serpent on the pole was the antidote if gazed upon by those poisoned
and dying.
2. The serpents in the camp were sent by God because of God’s wrath on
their blasphemy.
‒ Looking at the serpent on the pole removed God’s wrath and they
were saved when they looked.
3. God is rescuing his sinful people from His own curse with a symbol or
picture of the curse.
‒ God could have used another symbol, such as a lamb, as the other
sacrifices.
4. All the Israelites had to do was “LOOK” at the serpent pole.
‒ Looking was an act of the will if one wanted to be healed and live.
The bronze serpent pole shows up again almost 1000 years later (729 BC)
2 Kings 18:4 NKJV
4 He (Hezekiah) removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down
the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had
made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called
it Nehushtan.
• It was probably kept in the Tabernacle.
• Judah (Southern Kingdom) was worshipping it as an idol because snakes
were fertility symbols in Canaan.

4. Connecting the Old Testament and the New Testament
1 Corinthians 10:11 NKJV
11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for
our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
• Examples ― images, patterns, prototypes.
Jesus uses the serpent on a pole in teaching Nicodemus
John 3:1-2 NKJV
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This
man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a
teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God
is with him.”
• Nicodemus makes only a statement, but Jesus read the questions in his
mind.
John 3:3-4 NKJV
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
• “born again” means “born from above”, which is a spiritual
transformation.
John 3:5-6 NKJV
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is
flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
• Jesus is referencing the OT spiritual cleansing with the reference ‘of water
and the Spirit.’
• Verse 6 Flesh = physical birth; Spirit = a born again spiritual transformation
at the calling of the Holy Spirit.
John 3:7-9 NKJV
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows
where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes
from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus
answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
• Those who are not born again are unable to understand the
manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

5. Jesus uses the serpent on a pole in teaching Nicodemus
John 3:10-11 NKJV
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not
know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and
testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
• The Pharisees had witnessed Jesus’ miracles and still did not believe.
• “you do not receive Our witness”
‒ John 1:11-13 NKJV
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many
as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:12-13 NKJV
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if
I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came
down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
• One is unable to see the kingdom of God until you are born again.
• The link between verses 12 & 13 is Jesus teaching about “heavenly things
& heaven.”
• Jesus shifts the focus to the truth of salvation at verse 13.
‒ Jesus will now turn away from Nicodemus’ questions and address the
true meaning of salvation.
‒ The key word in the following verses is “believe.”
‒ The new birth must be appropriated by an act of faith.
‒ Jesus begins to refer to himself and focuses on the actions of the Son of
Man in salvation.
John 3:14-15 NKJV
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
eternal life.
• These verses in the OT are foreshadowing Jesus’ crucifixion.
John 3:16-17 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved.

6. Observations on John 3:1-17
1. Jesus is the Son of Man – the incarnation of God becoming man on earth.
• John 9:35-38 NIV
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him,
he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in
him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking
with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
2. Jesus, in the place of the serpent, is the source of healing and the rescue
from the poison of sin and wrath of God.
• Jesus is the cure for our sins and the source of eternal life.
• As Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole, Jesus was lifted up on the
cross.
• Who lifted up Jesus on the cross?
‒ John 8:28 NKJV
28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then
you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as
My Father taught Me, I speak these things.”
‐ The Pharisees gave authority to the Romans to lift up Jesus on the
cross!
‐ However, it was God’s plan and Jesus’ choice.
• Jesus lifted up and crucified.
‒ Jesus was lifted up so that men bound by sin and death can live
eternally when they look and believe.
‒ Just as those affected by serpent bites and dying were saved by
looking at the bronze serpent, man dying from the penalty of sin
and death can be saved by believing in Jesus.
3. In the place of the serpent, Jesus takes on our sins and its curse.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.
‒ God placed our sins on Jesus while on the cross so that believers
may appear righteous before God.
• Galatians 3:13 NKJV
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a
curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)
‒ Jesus took upon Himself the curse on sinners and bore the wrath of
sin for believers.

7. Observations on John 3:1-17
4. What Jesus gives, by taking on our sins and the curse for us, is eternal life.
• John 3:15 NKJV
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
‒ The poison of sin and death is taken away.
‒ The joy of heaven is ours because the Son of Man was lifted up.
5. What do you share with those who are not born again, like Nicodemus?
• John 5:15 NKJV
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
• Numbers 21:9 NKJV
9 and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the
bronze serpent, he lived.
• John 1:14 NKJV
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.
Behold and Look!
The Message of Christmas!
• John 1:29 NKJV
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
• Isaiah 45:22 NKJV
22 “Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.”
• This is why we celebrate the birth of Jesus!
The Plan of Hope & Salvation:
John 3:16-17 NKJV
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not
send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved.”
John 14:6 NKJV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.”
Romans 3:23 NKJV
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

8. Romans 6:23a NKJV
23a For the wages of sin is death,
• Death in this life (the first death) is 100%.
• Even Jesus, the only one who doesn’t deserve death, died in this life to
pay the penalty for our sin.
• The death referred to in Romans 6:23a is the “second death” explained in
Revelation 21:8.
Revelation 21:8 NKJV
8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral,
sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
• Anyone who’s lifestyle is one or more of the sins listed in Revelation 21:8,
will experience the “second death,” if they do not repent.
• To Repent means to turn around, to go in the opposite direction, to turn
away from sin and believe in Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:8 NKJV
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 6:23b NKJV
23b but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Revelation 21:7 NKJV
7 “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be
My son.”
• Romans 10:9-10 explain to us how to be overcomers.
Romans 10:9-10 NKJV
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
Romans 10:13 NKJV
13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Do you have questions?
Would you like to know more?
Please, contact First Baptist Church Jackson at 601-949-1900 or
http://firstbaptistjackson.org/contact/