John 3:9-15

This second section confirms that the Old Testament indicated the spiritual process that Jesus was teaching to Nicodemus. Jesus was surprised that Nicodemus could not figure this out. "You know the Old Testament so well. Why do you not see this in there?" That there has to be a spiritual change and that the Kingdom of God is first spiritual and then, of course, it will be a kingdom of this earth when Jesus Christ returns.

However, the Jewish leadership could not understand this, they missed this or outright rejected it because of their, using a term we can take from Jesus, their earthiness. They were of the earth. They could not comprehend this spiritual truth. They could not believe it. And their theology had a fatal flaw in that it was focused entirely on physical Israel. They could not see beyond the bounds of physical Israel.

But Jesus is telling him that the truth of salvation is focused on turning to and believing the Son of God. It is not on Israel being a great nation and having sway over the nations of the earth. And He tells Nicodemus that he should have known this. Because he knew exactly when Jesus said Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. He had probably read that section in the Pentateuch a hundred times. But he never had the mind, never had the Spirit of God to understand what that meant. That it foreshadowed Jesus Christ being lifted up so that all men can be saved. That is what the serpent in the wilderness was supposed to do. People were supposed to turn to and look at the serpent and be healed. Their life would be saved after all the snake bites and everything that were happening there.

And so that physical sign moves easily into comprehension when you understand that serpents—what might a serpent be a symbol of and turning to, look at, gazing upon something lifted into the air on a pole? And of course, the culmination was that people's lives were saved. Just take that up one notch, one spiritual notch, and it fits wonderfully into the story of salvation, if you will.