Christmas At Rock Point · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Dec 25, 2018 · 72 min watch · 3 min read

Christmas At Rock Point

Big Idea

Jesus was born so that we can be born again — simply look to Him and receive eternal life.

Pastor Jeff argues that what people are truly searching for — peace, contentment, joy, and life that endures through dark circumstances — cannot be found by chasing the things that seem right to us. Drawing on Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 and the Old Testament story of the bronze snake in Numbers 21, he shows that all of us are 'snake-bitten' by sin and separated from the life God intends. Just as the Israelites were healed by looking in faith at the snake on the pole, we are born again and given eternal life by looking in faith to Jesus, who took our sin upon Himself on the cross.

Key points

1
1We are often searching for the right things but looking in the wrong places, missing what is right in front of us.
2
2Jesus told Nicodemus that unless a person is born again — a spiritual birth prompted by the Holy Spirit — they cannot enter the kingdom of God.
3
3Eternal life is not merely living forever; it is 'Zoe' — life found in God, the life the Creator intended, experienced despite one's circumstances.
4
4Like the Israelites who were snake-bitten after rejecting God's provision, all of us are poisoned by sin and cannot heal ourselves by being good enough.
5
5God did not take away the snakes; He provided a snake on a pole so that anyone who simply looked at it would live — a foreshadowing of looking in faith to Christ on the cross.
6
6To be born again simply means to look away from your own plans, admit you have run the wrong way, and look to Jesus — just as the verse 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' means trusting Jesus through every circumstance, not getting whatever you want.
7
7Putting your faith in Jesus may not change your situation, but it will change you and empower you to go through it.

Application

Pastor Jeff's call to action is direct and personal: stop counting passes — stop pinning your hope for peace, joy, and contentment on the next relationship, job, or improved circumstance — and look to Jesus. Just as the bitten Israelites were healed not by removing the snakes but by looking in faith at the pole, you do not need your situation fixed first. You need to turn from trusting your own plan and look to the One who was born, took your sin to the cross, and rose again. That single act of looking — of faith — is how you are born again. And once you are, the promise is not a shortcut around the hard moments but the presence and strength of Christ through every one of them, beginning right now.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

There is a way that seems right to us. That is not a harsh judgment — it is just honest. Most of us are not chasing obviously bad things. We are chasing peace, joy, contentment, a life that holds together when things get hard. The problem Pastor Jeff named is not the destination; it is the map. We keep assuming the next relationship, the next job, the next version of our circumstances will finally get us there. And when it does not, we do not question the map — we just start planning the next trip. Proverbs names this pattern plainly: some roads look right and still lead somewhere we never intended to go. That is not meant to make you feel foolish. It is meant to make you stop long enough to ask whether what you are following is actually taking you where you want to end up. The invitation this week is not to feel bad about the roads you have taken. It is to honestly look at where they have led — and to stay open to the possibility that what you are truly searching for cannot be found by trying harder in the same direction. Something better is being offered. This devotional exists to help you see it.

For reflection

When you picture a life that feels truly full and at peace, what have you been counting on to get you there — and has that thing ever actually delivered?

Pray

Pray for honest eyes to see where your own map has been leading you, and openness to a different way.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message centers on a simple but striking image: ancient Israelites bitten by snakes, healed not by removing the snakes but by looking at a pole. Pastor Jeff used that story to point straight to Jesus — and to the kind of life He offers.

Discussion questions

1
In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless a person is 'born again' by the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is confused — he takes Jesus literally. What do you think Jesus is getting at when He separates a physical birth from this spiritual one?
2
Pastor Jeff drew a distinction between 'living forever' and what he called 'Zoe' — the life God originally intended, experienced even in hard circumstances. How does that distinction change the way we might hear Jesus' promise of 'eternal life' in John 3:16?
3
In Numbers 21, God does not remove the snakes — He provides a snake on a pole so that anyone who looks at it will live. What do you think the story is saying about how healing and rescue come, and why do you think looking was enough?
4
Pastor Jeff described a tendency he called 'counting passes' — pinning hope for peace, joy, and contentment on the next relationship, job, or improved circumstance. Where do you think that instinct comes from, and how does it connect to the Proverbs line he cited: 'There is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end it leads to death'?
5
Pastor Jeff pointed out that the familiar verse 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' is often quoted to mean getting whatever we want, but he argued it means something different — that Christ empowers us to go through every circumstance. How does that reading of the verse sit with you, and what does it suggest about what faith actually promises?
6
Pastor Jeff's main call was to stop looking to circumstances for peace and instead look to Jesus — the same way the bitten Israelites looked to the pole. What might it look like, practically, for a person or a community to make that shift in how they face a hard season?

Pray together

Gratitude for a God who provides a way to look to Him — and asking for the grace to keep looking to Jesus rather than to our own plans, whatever circumstances we are walking through right now

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Sign in to save this message.

Go deeper

Where these passages are preached

John 3 Proverbs 14 Numbers 21 Philippians 4

Explore related topics

Born Again Eternal Life Finding Peace in Christ Looking to Jesus Sin and Redemption

Related sermons

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →