Passover to Tabernacles - Part Eight Jan 09, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T005_20220109.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jn 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up...... We shall continue to look at the Lord's first advent today. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday January 9th 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 8 1). Jn 3:14 "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 [age lasting] life. We had seen last time how Jesus drew from the third of three consecutive types in Numbers to provide insight into His sacrifice on the cross on behalf of those already in possession of the free gift of eternal life. a). The incident the Lord drew from, we will remember, had to do with the sin of unbelief prevalent among the first generation of Israel to leave Egypt, prevalent among those who had already killed and applied the blood of the Passover lambs, who were then dying, having been bitten by fiery serpents because of their continued unbelief and disobedience. b). And we will remember that contextually, the incident with the fiery serpents came after Israel’s refusal to enter the land at Kadesh Barnea. And we will also remember, that as a result of the nation’s refusal to enter, the entire generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, was condemned to die in the wilderness – Nu 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. With this in mind it is important to realize that Israel’s unbelief and disobedience was centered upon the land of promise and their calling to rule from that land within a Theocracy. This was not just a general failure to keep the Law but a failure to organize their lives with a view to fulfilling their calling as a first-born son. This was unbelief and disobedience with respect to the purpose for their deliverance from Egypt, actions that, whether intentional or not, poured contempt upon the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs that God had provided for them, all of which foreshadowed the Christ. c). And as we have seen from the verse we began with today, as well as that which we had seen last time, Jesus called Nicodemus’ attention to the incident with the bronze serpent in the wilderness in His conversation with him at His first advent. d). And the circumstances in place in Israel at the Lord’s first advent parallel the experience of the first generation in the wilderness. The first generation was at the borders of the land at Kadesh Barnea and the land flowing with milk and honey lay before them. All they had to do was to respond to the Lord in a positive way, believing what He had said, and the land would have been theirs – Ex 23:22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. For the generation of Israel alive at the Lord’s first advent, the Kingdom of the heavens lay before them. All they had to do was to be faithfully obedient to the Lord’s command – Mt 4:17…..“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And had they done so, the Kingdom of the heavens would have been theirs. But refusal is seen on both occasions. e). And just as the twelve spies had brought back the fruit of the land of Canaan for the people to see and taste, so the Christ was demonstrating signs to the people showing the nature of the spiritual healing that would be theirs upon repentance, showing them ‘the fruit’ of the Kingdom of the heavens – Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. The spiritual condition of the nation had been described by Isaiah just prior to the beginning of the Assyrian and then Babylonian captivities as being sick ‘from the sole of the foot even to the head’. The seriousness of this on-going condition being the reason for the captivities. And following the captivities, Israel continually failed to heed the call to repentance during the intervening centuries and were found in this same spiritually sick condition at the Lord’s first advent, hence the reason why the offer of the Kingdom of the heavens had to be preceded by a call to repentance. And as national repentance then or since has not been forthcoming, the spiritual sickness described by Isaiah remains in place even today. f). Although the circumstances at the Lord’s first advent paralleled those of the first generation, there was one significant difference between the two. At the Lord’s first advent the OT Scriptures had been completed for four hundred years, following the conclusion of the Book of Malachi – Jn 1:14 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. And it was this completed written Word, from Genesis to Malachi, in the person of the Christ who became flesh and dwelt among His people. And Israel’s religious leaders, in possession of the written Word that revealed the person and work of the Christ, the Word made flesh, failed to see who was standing before their eyes – Heb 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; Jn 5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. The Pharisees and Scribes, those in possession of the Scriptures, the ones responsible for teaching the nation, who sat in Moses’ seat, continually searched the Scriptures but only ever saw the letter of that contained in them, not that which was to be spiritually discerned from them – 2 Co 3:6……….. for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And this explains why, when faced with the signs that Jesus gave them, the Pharisees and Scribes sought to kill Him rather than receive Him – Jn 9:13-16 13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. The man who had been blind from birth pictured the nation of Israel and their spiritual blindness, a major facet of the spiritual sickness described by Isaiah, which could have been healed, seen in the blind man receiving his sight, if the nation had seen the Christ within their Scriptures. And the healing of the man’s blindness took place on the Sabbath, the day that had also been given to Israel as a sign that pointed back to the seventh day in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and the purpose for it, as recorded by Moses, and forward to the Seventh Day, the Messianic Kingdom, in which it finds its fulfillment. g). The nation’s religious leaders though could not see any of this on a spiritual level, nor could they see, from their Scriptures, the One to whom the sign of healing attested. And nor did they see the connection between the sign of blind eyes being opened and the sign of the Sabbath. All they could see, through seeing only the letter of the law, was Jesus ‘not keeping’ the Sabbath, and on this basis, they sought His death – Lk 6:7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. And in relation to this particular sign, the man who had received his sight from the Lord became the object of their antagonism towards Jesus, with the result that he was put out of the synagogue, which from a Jewish mindset at the time, was tantamount to being cut off from Israel, cut off from its life and religious practices – Jn 9:34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. We will also note though, from the verses in John Chapter 9, that some of the Pharisees could not reconcile Jesus being ‘a sinner’, Him not keeping the Sabbath, with the signs He performed. None were able to make the connection between what they read in the Scriptures and the Christ standing before them who they saw with their natural eyes, but neither could they understand, if He was a sinner, how He could perform these signs. And a division arose among them. 2). Nicodemus of course was one of those Pharisees - Jn 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And we will remember that Nicodemus had come to Jesus ‘by night’ to ask Him about these very signs that He was performing. And we will remember what Nicodemus said in connection with them– Jn 3:2 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.” Notice that Nicodemus said, ‘we know’, he and the rest of the Pharisees knew that Jesus was a teacher come from God, and they knew that no one could do the signs that Jesus did ‘unless God is with him’. a). Beyond this however, they could not go, which is the reason for The seemingly strange interchange between Jesus and Nicodemus that followed - Jn 3:3 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?” 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. That which was to be understood, that which would have enabled those hearing to have access to the Kingdom being offered, could only come through the Spirit, not the letter. And the fact that Nicodemus was unable to see the Red Sea crossing being alluded to in the Lord’s response is a clear indication of his inability to see beyond the letter of that which Moses wrote. For Nicodemus and the rest of the Pharisees at this time, it would seem that the account of the Red Sea crossing was no more than an historical record. But through the allusion to the Red Sea crossing, drawing from its spiritual meaning, Jesus had stated that only a change of mind, repentance, on the part of the nation’s religious leaders, would result in the Spirit of the Word being opened to their understanding as it was brought forth from above. b). Because of the inability of Israel’s religious leaders to see the Christ in the Scriptures, there was no repentance at the Lord’s first advent, but in Him making the connection between the bronze serpent incident and His impending crucifixion, Jesus was prophetically pointing Nicodemus to that future day at the end of the tribulation, when the nation will look on the One whom they pierced, the One who was lifted-up. And in that day, in the antitype of the bronze serpent lifted-up on a pole, the nation will look on Christ and live, will have life for the age to come. c). And looking on the One whom they pierced in that day will go beyond just physically seeing Him with their natural eyes, to having their spiritual eyes opened, as the blind man in John Chapter 9, to be able to see Him in the Scriptures in the antitype of the experience of the disciples on the day of His resurrection – Lk 24:25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And the antitype of Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road – Acts 9:9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank…………………..17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. 2 Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 3). Hos 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. 14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. 15 I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Hosea speaks of Ephraim’s ‘sickness’ and Judah’s ‘wound’, both of which take us to the spiritual condition of Israel described in Isaiah Chapter 1. And what we see prophetically here that takes us beyond the letter to the Spirit, is the type of that future day when national Israel will turn to the man of sin, the very antithesis of the Christ, to help them – Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” However, in full agreement with the type, the Antichrist cannot cure them, in fact he is the one determined to destroy them. The spiritual condition of the nation has been set in place by the Divine hand in line with that which God had told them recorded in Leviticus Chapter 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 28. And the One who has brought about the nation’s sickness is the only One who can effect its cure. a). And national healing can only be found in the Christ, the Passover Lamb, who was lifted-up as the bronze serpent was lifted-up by Moses in the wilderness – Jn 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” Israel’s religious leaders at the time of the Lord’s first advent, because of their refusal to see beyond the letter of the Scriptures, not only barred themselves from entrance into the Kingdom of the heavens but also by misleading the people through this refusal, caused the door to be shut in their faces as well - Mt 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. And just like those leaders at Kadesh Barnea, the consequences for them are dire and age lasting. It was their failure to have properly prepared the people and then their failure to lead them into the Land and the Kingdom of the heavens that is the reason for their condemnation – Le 26:21 “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. And with the multiplication of the intensity of God’s wrath that has come from the rejection of the Kingdom of the heavens and the killing of their King the Jewish people have for two thousand years reaped the consequences of that which they have sown - Mt 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” 25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” And not only this - Mt 23:34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And beginning with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman legions in 70AD and the diaspora that accompanied it, along with every persecution, pogram, and anti-Semitic act to the holocaust and beyond, the Jewish people have been moving inexorably towards a final captivity within the last form of the Babylonian kingdom in the hands of the man the Scriptures call the Beast. That which the Scriptures call ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’, that which we know as the tribulation. An unprecedented time - Mt 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. An unprecedented time of horror, the like of which has never been seen before. And in one sense all of this will come to pass because those who led the people, and the people themselves as a result, had not paid attention to that which God had said. And here we can find another parallel between the first generation and the generation alive at the Lord’s first advent. A parallel that will also transfer into a Christian setting – Ex 16:8 Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.” In response to the people’s complaints about hunger, the Lord provided quail for them to eat in the evening and bread the following morning. And we will note from Exodus 16:8 that this is what Moses told the people God would do - Ex 16:15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was……. Then the next day, having been told that God would provide bread for them in the morning the people had no idea what they saw on the ground before them. Consequently, they said ‘What is it?’, what is this thing? A question that has been transliterated from the Hebrew to give us the word ‘manna’. b). God had spoken, Moses had told the people, but having heard they didn’t hear. It was as if they had no clue as to what God had provided for them. c). If we take this example over to the time of Lord’s first advent we will find this - Jn 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The ‘true bread from heaven’ stood before the people with a message and accompanying signs that had been clearly laid out by God in the pages of the OT Scriptures. God had told them that Messiah would come and had told them of the signs that would confirm His identity, and the Kingdom of the heavens with respect to the Jewish people had been in play since the days of Abraham. But what do we see? - Mk 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Perhaps something here will strike us as familiar. ‘What is this?’ Do we remember the manna? And here was the true Bread from heaven. And the sign of casting out the unclean spirit from a man on the Sabbath produced the question, ‘What new doctrine is this?’ d). This was no new doctrine but the fulfillment of that which the Scriptures foretold. Again here we find the religious leaders, in possession of the written Word through which God had spoken by the Prophets, along with those they taught, seeing but not able to see and hearing but not able to hear – Isa 6:9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate…. And I wonder how many of us have had the experience, when speaking of the Word of the Kingdom to others, of hearing the questions, ‘Where has this new teaching come from?’ ‘Why haven’t we heard this before?’ We will come back to this next time, if the remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed. Passover to Tabernacles - Part Eight Jan 09, 2022 Speaker: John Herbert Series: Passover to Tabernacles Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T005_20220109.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Jn 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up...... We shall continue to look at the Lord's first advent today. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday January 9th 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 8 1). Jn 3:14 "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 [age lasting] life. We had seen last time how Jesus drew from the third of three consecutive types in Numbers to provide insight into His sacrifice on the cross on behalf of those already in possession of the free gift of eternal life. a). The incident the Lord drew from, we will remember, had to do with the sin of unbelief prevalent among the first generation of Israel to leave Egypt, prevalent among those who had already killed and applied the blood of the Passover lambs, who were then dying, having been bitten by fiery serpents because of their continued unbelief and disobedience. b). And we will remember that contextually, the incident with the fiery serpents came after Israel’s refusal to enter the land at Kadesh Barnea. And we will also remember, that as a result of the nation’s refusal to enter, the entire generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, was condemned to die in the wilderness – Nu 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. 30 Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. With this in mind it is important to realize that Israel’s unbelief and disobedience was centered upon the land of promise and their calling to rule from that land within a Theocracy. This was not just a general failure to keep the Law but a failure to organize their lives with a view to fulfilling their calling as a first-born son. This was unbelief and disobedience with respect to the purpose for their deliverance from Egypt, actions that, whether intentional or not, poured contempt upon the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs that God had provided for them, all of which foreshadowed the Christ. c). And as we have seen from the verse we began with today, as well as that which we had seen last time, Jesus called Nicodemus’ attention to the incident with the bronze serpent in the wilderness in His conversation with him at His first advent. d). And the circumstances in place in Israel at the Lord’s first advent parallel the experience of the first generation in the wilderness. The first generation was at the borders of the land at Kadesh Barnea and the land flowing with milk and honey lay before them. All they had to do was to respond to the Lord in a positive way, believing what He had said, and the land would have been theirs – Ex 23:22 But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. For the generation of Israel alive at the Lord’s first advent, the Kingdom of the heavens lay before them. All they had to do was to be faithfully obedient to the Lord’s command – Mt 4:17…..“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And had they done so, the Kingdom of the heavens would have been theirs. But refusal is seen on both occasions. e). And just as the twelve spies had brought back the fruit of the land of Canaan for the people to see and taste, so the Christ was demonstrating signs to the people showing the nature of the spiritual healing that would be theirs upon repentance, showing them ‘the fruit’ of the Kingdom of the heavens – Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; They have not been closed or bound up, Or soothed with ointment. The spiritual condition of the nation had been described by Isaiah just prior to the beginning of the Assyrian and then Babylonian captivities as being sick ‘from the sole of the foot even to the head’. The seriousness of this on-going condition being the reason for the captivities. And following the captivities, Israel continually failed to heed the call to repentance during the intervening centuries and were found in this same spiritually sick condition at the Lord’s first advent, hence the reason why the offer of the Kingdom of the heavens had to be preceded by a call to repentance. And as national repentance then or since has not been forthcoming, the spiritual sickness described by Isaiah remains in place even today. f). Although the circumstances at the Lord’s first advent paralleled those of the first generation, there was one significant difference between the two. At the Lord’s first advent the OT Scriptures had been completed for four hundred years, following the conclusion of the Book of Malachi – Jn 1:14 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. And it was this completed written Word, from Genesis to Malachi, in the person of the Christ who became flesh and dwelt among His people. And Israel’s religious leaders, in possession of the written Word that revealed the person and work of the Christ, the Word made flesh, failed to see who was standing before their eyes – Heb 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; Jn 5:39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. The Pharisees and Scribes, those in possession of the Scriptures, the ones responsible for teaching the nation, who sat in Moses’ seat, continually searched the Scriptures but only ever saw the letter of that contained in them, not that which was to be spiritually discerned from them – 2 Co 3:6……….. for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And this explains why, when faced with the signs that Jesus gave them, the Pharisees and Scribes sought to kill Him rather than receive Him – Jn 9:13-16 13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. The man who had been blind from birth pictured the nation of Israel and their spiritual blindness, a major facet of the spiritual sickness described by Isaiah, which could have been healed, seen in the blind man receiving his sight, if the nation had seen the Christ within their Scriptures. And the healing of the man’s blindness took place on the Sabbath, the day that had also been given to Israel as a sign that pointed back to the seventh day in Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 and the purpose for it, as recorded by Moses, and forward to the Seventh Day, the Messianic Kingdom, in which it finds its fulfillment. g). The nation’s religious leaders though could not see any of this on a spiritual level, nor could they see, from their Scriptures, the One to whom the sign of healing attested. And nor did they see the connection between the sign of blind eyes being opened and the sign of the Sabbath. All they could see, through seeing only the letter of the law, was Jesus ‘not keeping’ the Sabbath, and on this basis, they sought His death – Lk 6:7 So the scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against Him. And in relation to this particular sign, the man who had received his sight from the Lord became the object of their antagonism towards Jesus, with the result that he was put out of the synagogue, which from a Jewish mindset at the time, was tantamount to being cut off from Israel, cut off from its life and religious practices – Jn 9:34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. We will also note though, from the verses in John Chapter 9, that some of the Pharisees could not reconcile Jesus being ‘a sinner’, Him not keeping the Sabbath, with the signs He performed. None were able to make the connection between what they read in the Scriptures and the Christ standing before them who they saw with their natural eyes, but neither could they understand, if He was a sinner, how He could perform these signs. And a division arose among them. 2). Nicodemus of course was one of those Pharisees - Jn 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And we will remember that Nicodemus had come to Jesus ‘by night’ to ask Him about these very signs that He was performing. And we will remember what Nicodemus said in connection with them– Jn 3:2 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.” Notice that Nicodemus said, ‘we know’, he and the rest of the Pharisees knew that Jesus was a teacher come from God, and they knew that no one could do the signs that Jesus did ‘unless God is with him’. a). Beyond this however, they could not go, which is the reason for The seemingly strange interchange between Jesus and Nicodemus that followed - Jn 3:3 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?” 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. That which was to be understood, that which would have enabled those hearing to have access to the Kingdom being offered, could only come through the Spirit, not the letter. And the fact that Nicodemus was unable to see the Red Sea crossing being alluded to in the Lord’s response is a clear indication of his inability to see beyond the letter of that which Moses wrote. For Nicodemus and the rest of the Pharisees at this time, it would seem that the account of the Red Sea crossing was no more than an historical record. But through the allusion to the Red Sea crossing, drawing from its spiritual meaning, Jesus had stated that only a change of mind, repentance, on the part of the nation’s religious leaders, would result in the Spirit of the Word being opened to their understanding as it was brought forth from above. b). Because of the inability of Israel’s religious leaders to see the Christ in the Scriptures, there was no repentance at the Lord’s first advent, but in Him making the connection between the bronze serpent incident and His impending crucifixion, Jesus was prophetically pointing Nicodemus to that future day at the end of the tribulation, when the nation will look on the One whom they pierced, the One who was lifted-up. And in that day, in the antitype of the bronze serpent lifted-up on a pole, the nation will look on Christ and live, will have life for the age to come. c). And looking on the One whom they pierced in that day will go beyond just physically seeing Him with their natural eyes, to having their spiritual eyes opened, as the blind man in John Chapter 9, to be able to see Him in the Scriptures in the antitype of the experience of the disciples on the day of His resurrection – Lk 24:25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And the antitype of Paul’s experience on the Damascus Road – Acts 9:9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank…………………..17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. 2 Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 3). Hos 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. 14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. 15 I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Hosea speaks of Ephraim’s ‘sickness’ and Judah’s ‘wound’, both of which take us to the spiritual condition of Israel described in Isaiah Chapter 1. And what we see prophetically here that takes us beyond the letter to the Spirit, is the type of that future day when national Israel will turn to the man of sin, the very antithesis of the Christ, to help them – Da 9:27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.” However, in full agreement with the type, the Antichrist cannot cure them, in fact he is the one determined to destroy them. The spiritual condition of the nation has been set in place by the Divine hand in line with that which God had told them recorded in Leviticus Chapter 26 and Deuteronomy Chapter 28. And the One who has brought about the nation’s sickness is the only One who can effect its cure. a). And national healing can only be found in the Christ, the Passover Lamb, who was lifted-up as the bronze serpent was lifted-up by Moses in the wilderness – Jn 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” Israel’s religious leaders at the time of the Lord’s first advent, because of their refusal to see beyond the letter of the Scriptures, not only barred themselves from entrance into the Kingdom of the heavens but also by misleading the people through this refusal, caused the door to be shut in their faces as well - Mt 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. And just like those leaders at Kadesh Barnea, the consequences for them are dire and age lasting. It was their failure to have properly prepared the people and then their failure to lead them into the Land and the Kingdom of the heavens that is the reason for their condemnation – Le 26:21 “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins. And with the multiplication of the intensity of God’s wrath that has come from the rejection of the Kingdom of the heavens and the killing of their King the Jewish people have for two thousand years reaped the consequences of that which they have sown - Mt 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” 25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” And not only this - Mt 23:34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And beginning with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman legions in 70AD and the diaspora that accompanied it, along with every persecution, pogram, and anti-Semitic act to the holocaust and beyond, the Jewish people have been moving inexorably towards a final captivity within the last form of the Babylonian kingdom in the hands of the man the Scriptures call the Beast. That which the Scriptures call ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’, that which we know as the tribulation. An unprecedented time - Mt 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. An unprecedented time of horror, the like of which has never been seen before. And in one sense all of this will come to pass because those who led the people, and the people themselves as a result, had not paid attention to that which God had said. And here we can find another parallel between the first generation and the generation alive at the Lord’s first advent. A parallel that will also transfer into a Christian setting – Ex 16:8 Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.” In response to the people’s complaints about hunger, the Lord provided quail for them to eat in the evening and bread the following morning. And we will note from Exodus 16:8 that this is what Moses told the people God would do - Ex 16:15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was……. Then the next day, having been told that God would provide bread for them in the morning the people had no idea what they saw on the ground before them. Consequently, they said ‘What is it?’, what is this thing? A question that has been transliterated from the Hebrew to give us the word ‘manna’. b). God had spoken, Moses had told the people, but having heard they didn’t hear. It was as if they had no clue as to what God had provided for them. c). If we take this example over to the time of Lord’s first advent we will find this - Jn 6:32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The ‘true bread from heaven’ stood before the people with a message and accompanying signs that had been clearly laid out by God in the pages of the OT Scriptures. God had told them that Messiah would come and had told them of the signs that would confirm His identity, and the Kingdom of the heavens with respect to the Jewish people had been in play since the days of Abraham. But what do we see? - Mk 1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” 26 And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. 27 Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Perhaps something here will strike us as familiar. ‘What is this?’ Do we remember the manna? And here was the true Bread from heaven. And the sign of casting out the unclean spirit from a man on the Sabbath produced the question, ‘What new doctrine is this?’ d). This was no new doctrine but the fulfillment of that which the Scriptures foretold. Again here we find the religious leaders, in possession of the written Word through which God had spoken by the Prophets, along with those they taught, seeing but not able to see and hearing but not able to hear – Isa 6:9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate…. And I wonder how many of us have had the experience, when speaking of the Word of the Kingdom to others, of hearing the questions, ‘Where has this new teaching come from?’ ‘Why haven’t we heard this before?’ We will come back to this next time, if the remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.