The Remedy

1. YOUNG ADULTS
1. (Renovation Church Logo)
2. Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church
1. Before we get into our passage for this morning, I want to share with you something that’s happening this Fall at our church.
3. You’ve may have heard by now, but our Youth Group has exploded this year from 50 to over 200 students.
1. And the largest growth, of any grade (6th-12), amazingly, has been amongst high school seniors.
1. We’ve grown from just a handful of seniors to over 40.
1. And the VAST majority of these students are new believers as of THIS year.
1. And as a pastor, I feel a heavy, heavy burden for those souls…for their discipleship and care
4. The challenge though…is that even though we have 80% of our people in House Church, we have about a 5% success rate in getting 18 year olds into House Church the Fall after they graduate from high school
1. Certainly plenty go away to college, but many stay around or go to nearby colleges.
1. And even out of college, our integration success rate for 22 year olds, while much better, is still below 50%
2. But 95% of our 18-year-olds are not sticking (or even signing up for) a House Church in part because of how the world is changing.
1. Because of technology, because of risk-aversion, because of the lack of socialization in today’s youth, this is harder for young adults than it was even 10 years ago.
1. Plus, when you’re 19, you’re thinking about your finals at college, and your work study job in the cafeteria, and if you’re going to stay up to 2am or 3am on Friday night
1. It’s a very different stage of life from the rest of adulthood
5. So as the primary leader of this church, I’m not going to stay dedicated to doing the exact same thing if we have now a 95% failure rate.
1. To me that’s not good leadership.
1. …and that’s actually how churches die.
1. Because they say, “Well this is the way we’ve always done it”
1. They don’t adapt, and the ever-changing world passes them by.
6. So, starting this Fall, we are going to adapt, and we’re going to start 2 Young Adult House Churches for 18-25 year olds.
1. We will continue to be intergenerational in every other House Church.
1. We’re just now going to have House Churches for Young Adults & Adults 😊
2. If you are a Young Adult in an existing House Church, and you love it, I encourage you to stay there.
1. …for others, if you like, you can try out a Young Adult House Church this Fall.
7. And listen, because these Young Adult House Churches will run the exact same program as our normal House Churches (but just be for Young Adults)…
1. …we’re hopeful that they will give us a better bridge from Youth Ministry to House Church
1. Because right now, there is no bridge…just a huge chasm…
1. …95% of our kids are falling into the chasm and most are not getting out.
1. And especially with so many young adult new believers, we just can’t do that anymore.
8. So, you’ll hear more about that in late summer, as that will start in September, but I wanted to get it to you now because I know many of you are already thinking about this.
2. INTRODUCTION & TWO PASSAGES
1. (The new Birth Series)
2. Okay, let’s get into our Bible teaching for the day.
1. So go ahead and grab a Bible
1. John 3:9-15
2. Page 725
2. We are in the 2nd week of our 5-week teaching series on John Chapter 3
1. Last week we covered verses 1-8 where the religious Pharisee Nicodemus approached Jesus under the cover of night, and Jesus told Nicodemus that if he wanted to see the Kingdom of God (to go to heaven, to know true spiritual life), He must be born again.
1. And you can be born again by putting your faith in Jesus as your Savior….
1. …and when you do that, the Holy Spirit (who is God) comes inside of you, and gives you new spiritual life (thus, you’re born again), and changes you from the inside out.
3. And today, we’re going to read part 2 of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, starting at verse 9
1. (John 3:9-15) – NIV
2. 9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
   10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
4. (The Remedy)
5. Okay, to help Nicodemus understand what He’s teaching about salvation and being born again, Jesus uses an illustration from the Old Testament, that hopefully a Teacher of the Word like Nicodemus will understand.
1. This is verse 14, and we’re going to laser in our focus here today, so let’s read 14 & 15 again.
1. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
6. Okay, what is Jesus even referring to?
1. Even if you grew up in church, this may not be a story you remember from Sunday School.
1. It’s a rather unfamiliar Old Testament reference for most people.
1. So much so, that I want us to read the actual story from the Bible.
2. Numbers 21:4-9
3. Page 107
1. A lot of people think the book of Numbers is just, well, numbers, but it’s not.
1. It has some incredible stories as well.
2. This one takes place about 40 years after the Israelites have been delivered from slavery in Egypt.
1. They’ve been wandering around the desert for 40 years, and they are now not long from entering the promised land.
1. Except they’re having to take a long detour to get around an enemy, and they are not very pleased about that at the moment.
4. And here’s what happens:
5. (Numbers 21:4-9) – NIV
6. 4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
   6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
   8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
3. THE SICKNESS
1. And so this story is really important to Jesus.
1. Because it teaches a number of things about our human condition.
2. Firstly, it is symbolic of our sickness.
1. THE SICKNESS
1. This is something we keep seeing in the Bible the past few weeks.
1. The Bible is very clear that we have a sickness that can’t be remedied on our own: And that sickness is called sin.
1. Sin is any thought, word, or action that goes against the will of God.
3. And the venomous snakes in Numbers 21 are symbolic of the disease & effects of sin
1. Speaking of snakes, when my wife Lindsey and I had only been married for a few years, we were about to leave our apartment one day to go pick up her brother at the airport when my wife walked into our living room with her face white as a sheet
1. And she said, “There’s a snake in our extra bedroom.”
1. And so I fearfully poked my head into the room, and there was a big female garter snake, coiled around itself, sunning itself right in the middle of the room.
2. So I (and this is the great thing about being in an apartment), I called Maintenance, and I said, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but there is a snake in our apartment,”
1. And they came and took care of it. Amazing.
2. 2 Weeks later, it’s a Friday, I’m getting ready for bed, walking into our bedroom barefoot, and there…is another snake!
1. It’s a male this time, so a little smaller, but still, it’s a snake!
1. And so I tell Lindsey, and she comes in, and listen, I’m a manly man …but my wife…she’s a strong woman and….so she went after the snake.
2. And she grabbed a shoe, and a hammer (we were light on snake-catching resources)…
1. …and I guess the idea was to hold it down with the shoe and then hammer it to death…
3. But as she tried to slam it with the shoe, it dodged her efforts..
1. ..and you know the wood trim that’s above your carpet at the bottom of your wall?
1. It pushed down the carpet, went under the trim, and then up into our wall.
1. Cool!
4. This was a Friday night, so maintenance is closed…there’s nothing we can do.
1. I mean a rational person probably would’ve gotten a hotel at this point, but not me…I’m a perseverant man
1. The next day, Saturday was fine.
3. But then on Sunday morning, I’m waking up to get ready for church, and I walk around our bed, and there, taking its sabbath rest right next to us on the floor, is snake #3.
1. So I said to myself, “David, it’s time to be a man.”
1. So I grab a bucket-like garbage can and a broom (again, low on resources), and I walk over to it shaking.
1. And then I start (ahhh!) sweeping it into the bucket.
1. I get it in there and start running towards our patio door
1. Our apartment was on the first level, so you could walk right out of it.
2. And as I’m running, I yell to Lindsey, “Did you open the door!?!”
1. Now, communication and clarity is very important in marriage.
1. But see, she thought I meant, “Unlock the door,” but I meant actually slide the door open!
3. So after I hear her say, “Yes,” I run full speed toward the door only to smack right into a glass door (with a LIVE snack in a bucket!)…
1. …and thankfully, by the grace of God I did not fall over.
1. I get the door open, and throw the snake about 10,000 feet into the woods.
4. Listen, snakes are disgusting...I don’t care what you think.
1. They are literally a symbol of sin in the Bible.
1. But thankfully, there is a remedy!
1. There is a Divine Maintenance Man who specializes in taking them away!
4. THE REMEDY
1. So, in Numbers, the Israelites are dying from these venomous snake bites, but now they begin to acknowledge their sin.
1. In verse 7, they say “Moses, we’ve sinned against you and against God! Pray to the Lord for us!”
1. And God provides a REMEDY to their sickness.
1. THE SICKNESS
2. THE REMEDY
2. He tells Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and anyone who has been bitten can look at it and be healed.
1. Okay, that’s different.
1. Why a bronze snake?
2. Well, first of all, no word is wasted in the Bible, so even the fact that it’s bronze is significant.
1. Bronze, in Scripture, is associated with judgment
1. Bronze receives the fire of judgment as it’s shaped
1. And the sacrificial altar in the tabernacle where the lamb was slain, was bronze.
2. And also think about the imagery of the serpent on the pole here.
1. Why make a bronze image of the very thing that was destroying them?
1. You’d think you’d make like a Bronze Mongoose or something that kills snakes.
1. But it’s an image of the very thing that is destroying them!
2. But here’s the thing, it all makes sense in the hindsight of the New Testament and John 3
2. So look at the connection now that Jesus is making to this true Old Testament story
1. (John 3:14 ) - NIV
2. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up
1. So Jesus is saying that when He gets lifted up on the cross, that is the same imagery as the bronze snake in the desert.
3. So let’s go back to our question:
1. Why make a bronze image of the very thing that was destroying them? A snake?
1. Because, well, think about our present lives.
1. What is our sickness? What is the venom that destroys us, our lives, and our families?
1. Sin!
2. And so just as Moses put a snake on a pole to save them from snakes, God has put sin on a pole to save us from our sins.
1. And you say, “Well Jesus is not sin!”
1. But look at what the Bible says:
2. (2 Corinthians 5:21) – NIV
3. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
3. And not only does this mean that there is a remedy now available for our sickness, it means you can be free.
1. Imagine there was one venomous snake slithering around a village, and every day (for weeks) it was biting another person and killing them…
1. …if one day a hunter says, “I’m going to stop this madness, hunt down that snake, kill it, and save the village!”
1. If he locates it and kills it, how would he return & show his victory?
2. The only way to actually restore hope and peace back to the village would be for the hunter to walk back into the village with that very dead snake on his spear, lifted high for everyone to see.
1. And he could shout, “It’s dead! Victory! We can rest! We are free!”
1. And that same imagery is happening on the pole, and on the cross!
1. Sin’s hold on us has been defeated!
2. Death has been defeated!
3. We can rest! We can be free!
5. THE DIRECTIONS
1. Well how?
1. That’s the next step.
2. I think of it It’s kind of like if you are sick, and you go to Walgreen’s and pick up some over the counter medicine.
1. THE SICKNESS
2. THE REMEDY
1. You know your sickness (you got a bad cough, and you’re all stuffed up)
1. You are getting the remedy…your Nyquil or whatever it is.
3. But what are you going to read next on the box? The directions!
4. THE SICKNESS
5. THE REMEDY
6. THE DIRECTIONS
1. Do I take this twice a day or 10 ml at a time? Or what do I need to do?
3. And so if sin is our sickness, and Jesus on the cross is our remedy, how do we receive him? What do we do? What are the DIRECTIONS?
1. Well what did they do way back in the book of Numbers?
1. It was simple, right?
1. Moses said all they need to do was look up.
1. In FAITH, just look at the bronze snake.
4. And Jesus is using that same principle to teach Nicodemus about being born again and eternal life
1. (John 3:14-15) – NIV
2. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
1. The way we can be forgiven by Jesus is through faith THAT He took our sin (that He became sin) upon the cross and died in our place.
1. And if you believe in that, you can be saved. That’s the next verse, right?
1. (John 3:16) – NIV
2. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
5. It’s as simple as it was in Moses’ day when the people merely had to look up at the bronze snake who had been lifted up on the pole.
1. But, listen, the camp in Moses’ day was HUGE, and I guarantee you that once word got out to the whole camp about the Bronze Snake, that some people didn’t go look at it
1. They perished because they thought that idea of being saved just by looking at a bronze was just altogether too simple.
2. And people have been doing the same thing to Jesus for 2,000 years.
1. Either we think it’s too good to be true or deep down, we just don’t like the idea that there’s nothing we can do, it’s all on Him.
1. Because I think if the Bible said, “In order to be saved and go to heaven, you must go on a quest to the Himalayan Mountains,” I bet most Americans would figure it out and get there.
1. But when it says, “Just believe!” we shrug it off.
6. But listen, it’s true!!
1. After seeing all of your sin, He still loved you so much that he took on all of your sin on the cross.
1. And just like the bronze snake in the desert, he was lifted up on a pole, a cross…
1. …and if you would just look up to Him in faith…and believe in faith, that the judgment for your sins fell on Him, and that He became your sin on the cross…and took your punishment.
1. If you would believe in Faith that He is the Remedy that can actually change your life…
1. … and grant you eternal life in heaven…
1. …you can be saved.
2. You just have to look.
1. Look up!
7. Jesus says, verse 15 of our passage, that EVERYONE who believes will be saved.
1. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been.
1. EVERYONE who believes can be saved.
8. And for those of you that have never done that before, I want to give you an opportunity to do so right now.
6. Let’s just have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head.
7. If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the Leader of your life…to accept His gift of Eternal life…
1. In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand up
1. No one’s going to be looking at you at all, that’s why we had everyone close their eyes.
2. But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…
1. To say, “God, I’m looking up to you lifted up for me”
8. If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven.
1. Then I invite you to stand where you are right now (and keep standing).
9. The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.
10. Repeat after me
11. Dear God
1. I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
2. But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
1. And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
3. And now I commit, to following you, with my life.

(NEXT STEPS)

1. As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information…
1. And we want to get you some more resources and next steps so you know what to do next (this is so important)…
2. …so I want the ___ of you, to walk over to that door TOGETHER on your left where my friends are waving.
1. You won’t walk there alone.
2. You can start walking.
3. Okay, as they walk, let me pray.