In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7-9, ESV
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The Text:
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.Numbers 21:4-9, ESV
From the Sermon:
So… do you feel like looking under pews for poisonous “fire serpents?” Do you see yourself in the impatience of the Children of Israel? Well, the text isn’t here to tell us that we are impatient so God is going to punish us with snakes. What it is saying is that God’s promises are true, even when we experience delay after delay… but we are impatient. We want his promises now.
We pray for healing… “God heal me I can’t bear the pain any longer. I don’t understand why you don’t answer me.” we grow impatient… “Why do I have to struggle with money? God why don’t you just make me win the lottery?” discouragement sets in… “I’ll never be married. No one would want to live their whole life with me?” We focus on ourselves… “I am a worthless person. Everything I do fails.” questioning… “Doesn’t God love me? Is God really there?”
God’s delay becomes God’s denial. “If I can’t have it now… then it’s just not worth it.” Our troubles become the center of our thoughts.
1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5 (ESV)
From the Sermon:
But, Paul also says that we are Children of the Light. We are that because we have been made so by the Jesus. He said himself that he is the light of the world. He not only brings light into the world, like when he made the blind man see, but he is the light of the world. Jesus is life, and that life, is the light of men. St. John says at the beginning of the Gospel of John. So Saint Paul can talk about our darkness as a thing of the past. Just look how Paul says it You were once in darkness… he said, but now you are light in the Lord. God’s Word of Light shines on us and tells us of our need for a Savior. It shines on the darkness in our hearts and exposes it. God’s Word also tells us that Jesus Christ is the Savior we need. He won forgiveness that makes the darkness in our hearts go away.
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