FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 16
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’ – NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Part 3)
Jesus answered Nicodemus (all emphasis mine): “NO MAN hath ascendeth to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even THE SON OF MAN which is in heaven. And as Moses LIFTED UP THE SERPENT in the wilderness, even so must the SON OF MAN BE LIFTED UP.” John 3: 13, 14, KJV. (See verses 1-14). Compare these with Numbers 21: 1-9, focusing on verses 5-9 as follows:
v 5 And the people (Israel) spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth [hateth] this light bread.
v 6 And the Lord sent FIERY SERPENTS among the people, and bit the people, and MUCH PEOPLE OF ISRAEL DIED.
v 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken agains the Lord. that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses PRAYED for the people.
v 8 And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a FIERY SERPENT, AND PUT IT IN A POLE, and it shall come to pass, that EVERYONE THAT IS BITTEN, WHEN HE LOOKS UPON IT, SHALL LIVE.
v 9 And Moses made a serpent of BRASS [not gold, silver, iron or clay], and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he BEHELD the serpent of brass, HE LIVED.”
Who was Nicodemus, why and how does figure into this topic? Read on, beginning with the Scriptures cited above and you will know. Nicodemus, from the Greek NIkodimos, means “victor over the people.”
“Nicodemus held a high position of trust in the Jewish nation. He was highly educated and possessed talents of no ordinary character, and he was an honored member of the national council [Sanhedrin]. With others, he had been stirred by the teachings of Jesus. Though rich, learned, and honored, he had been strangely attracted to the humble Nazarene. The lessons that had fallen from the Savior’s lips had greatly impressed him, and he DESIRED TO LEARN MORE of these wonderful truths.” p. 167.
“Since hearing Jesus, Nicodemus had ANXIOUSLY STUDIED THE PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE COMING MESSIAH [as revealed by the Old Testament prophets]; and the MORE HE SEARCHED, THE GREATER THE CONVICTION that this was the One who was to come as the Messiah [in his first Advent]. With many others in Israel he had been GREATLY DISTRESSED by the profanation of the temple.
He was a witness to the scene when Jesus [the humble Nazarene, Son of man] drove out the buyers and sellers; he beheld the manifestation of DIVINE POWER; he saw the Savior receiving the poor and healing the sick; he saw their looks of joy, and heard their words of praise; and he could NOT DOUBT that Jesus of Nazareth [the Son of man] was the SON OF GOD.” – E. G. White, ‘The Desire of Ages,’ pp. 168, 167, Pacific Press Asso., 1949.
It must be noted that in the Bible and throughout sacred history, any person—regardless of background that any or all of life and society’s different and changing circumstances may have initially shaped—-if in his heart he desires and and even craves to know and makes earnest efforts to know the truths of salvation, will eventually absolutely find it.
Why and how? This is in fact one of the major responsibilities and work of the Holy Spirit, and a big part of the “good news” of the unfailing PROMISES and it’s accompanying “exceedingly abundant” divine PROVISIONS of the gospel of Christ—-the Son of man and the Son of God!
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF