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Introduction: Florida Man

Well, many of you in the room know me. If you do not, my name is Kenny, and I have the privilege of serving as pastor here at Horizon City Church. It’s our first Easter Sunday. We’ve existed now for approximately six months. God’s kindness. So, thank you for worshiping with us this morning. My wife and I moved from Minnesota to Orlando in the summer of 2023 with the hopes of planting a church in the area in the fall of ’24. That was the plan. When I started telling people in Minnesota that I was going to move to Florida, people began to allude to or make mention of this sort of well-known trope known as Florida Man. 

Some of you are familiar with Florida Man. If you’re not, just devote like 12 minutes later this afternoon to googling Florida Man. So there is this idea that people in Florida do wild things. So you’ll regularly see headlines from news outlets that will say Florida man did this thing. And it’s referring to a man in Florida. You know, not the same guy doing all the things obviously, but the way the headline will read, it would seem like there’s one dude, the Florida man, who’s doing all this crazy stuff. 

Well, there was a Florida man headline that I saw not long ago, sort of a tragic situation, but I saw a Florida Mound headline about a Florida man who was beaten with his own weapon after breaking into a home in Sarasota. In 2016, a man in Sarasota, Florida, broke into a family’s home with a baseball bat and intended to do harm to the family. 

Well, it appears that he did not realize that he was in for something beyond what he could imagine. The married couple realized he was in the home, and they attacked him first. They tackled him down to the ground. The wife was able to wrestle the bat away from his hand, and she began to hit him with the bat multiple times, causing severe injuries to this man. The man was able to escape, but a few hours later, he was caught by the Sheriff and arrested. He would eventually plead guilty. Pretty crazy situation.

 

The Death of Death

That is a silly illustration, but I think gives us a little bit of insight into precisely what Jesus did. You see, Death was Satan’s greatest weapon. Death is the weapon he intends to use to clobber us. And he invades with that weapon into our lives, into our kingdom. But our king said no, he ripped that weapon out of the Devil’s hand, and he beat the devil with it. Jesus beat the devil with the devil’s own weapon. Jesus triumphed over death by dying. The death of death came through the death of the one who would defeat death. 

Jesus defeated death by dying. It feels like an oxymoron. It feels so counterintuitive. Yet it was the masterful plan of God. So this morning, I want to talk a little bit about the death and resurrection of Jesus. I want to specifically hone in on two things. One is, how did Jesus defeat death? What was the process he went through? And then secondly, I want to answer the question, why did he choose to defeat death? What was the reason why he did this? So those are the two things we’re going to do this morning. We’re going to ask the question, How did Jesus defeat death? And then, secondly, why did he go on this mission to defeat death? That’s the plan. 

We’re going to start this morning by examining a very well-known passage of scripture, John chapter three, where Jesus is having this conversation with a man named Nicodemus. In this conversation, Jesus will give us probably the most famous Bible verse in all of the Bible, John 3:16. So that’s what we’re going to do this morning. But before we look at John 3, let’s pray together one more time. 

God, as we look at John 3, would you help us to understand it, and may it stoke our affections for you. May we leave this place loving you more than when we walked in. And I pray that if there’s anyone in this place this morning who does not know you, it’s not a genuine believer. I pray that today they would see you, they would see the beauty of Christ. And may today be the day they choose to put all their faith in Christ alone. I ask these things in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen.

 

Nicodemus Seeks Out Jesus

In John chapter 3, Jesus is having this conversation with a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the very, very strict, legalistic religious leaders of the first century. In First-Century Israel, they had significant religious authority, but also some political authority. Nicodemus was one of the most powerful of the bunch. In the city of Jerusalem in the first century, the population was about 600,000 people. There was a 70-seat elder council that basically oversaw all of the authority. 70 men who had all of the authority over the city of Jerusalem. Nicodemus was one of those 70 dudes. 

So he’s a very powerful guy. He’s wealthy, influential. And the teachings of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus had created a sort of buzz throughout the region. People had heard a lot about this. So I would imagine Nicodemus had heard a lot about Jesus and was very curious. But, because of his position of political power, it would be kind of risky for him to go meet with Jesus in a public fashion.

The bulk of the people on this 70-seat council, this Sanhedrin it was called, were not friendly to Jesus. They were very hostile toward Christ. And so Nicodemus, being a Pharisee, and there are many other Pharisees, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Pharisees in Jerusalem. They are very hostile, most of them toward Christ. So Nicodemus kind of has to step carefully here. So he seeks out Jesus in the middle of the night, and he starts to have this conversation. And you can tell that he wants to believe in Jesus, he wants to understand, but he’s got some doubts. This conversation would give us some of the most brilliant insights into the work and person of Christ. 

Side note, it’s okay if you have some doubts about Jesus. Nicodemus had some doubts. His humble approach in coming to Jesus, to engage in conversation, and ask questions led to one of the most glorious conversations in human history. I think sometimes we think that our doubts are going to scare God, or we’re a bad Christian if we have doubts, or we can’t express those doubts. But the reality is that often when we come to him humbly with our doubts, it leads to some of the most glorious and most helpful interactions with Jesus. 

So if that’s you this morning, you’re like, I’m just not really sure what I think about some of these things. Jesus invites you. He’s not going to bite your head off. He’s not going to bring condemnation. He’s going to kindly engage with you. That’s what we see him doing with Nicodemus in John 3. 

So Jesus and Nicodemus are having this conversation. Nicodemus clearly has some respect for Jesus, and he wants to understand. In essence, he’s asking Jesus, How do I follow God well? How do I do what God wants me to do? Jesus says to him, In John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus says, You must be born again. Nicodemus has no clue what he’s talking about. Nicodemus says to him, Born again? Do I have to go back into my mom’s womb and be born? What are you talking about, Jesus? 

He doesn’t understand. He’s confused. So then they have a little bit of back and forth and there’s some more conversation. Eventually in this conversation, Jesus is going to allude to the fact that, hey, Nicodemus, you’re one of the teachers of the law, you’re one of the most religious, you’re one of the most influential people. If you don’t understand these things, we’re in trouble. If you don’t understand this, how is anyone in Israel going to understand these things?

But here’s what Jesus does not do. He doesn’t get mad at Nicodemus for not understanding. He does not say, You dummy, I told you, be born again. No, he didn’t say that. Because it’s not how Jesus responds. When we don’t understand, we can say, Jesus, I don’t get it, man. And then Jesus kindly says, Okay, let me explain it to you this way. Jesus then will give him an analogy by using a moment in the history of Israel. 1400 years before this conversation is happening, there were these events that happened in ancient Egypt that we call the Exodus.

So we’re here in 2025, 2000 years ago, Jesus and Nicodemus are talking. And then 1400 years before that, there’s this event called the Exodus. Many of you surely are familiar with this. The Exodus is the moment when God rescues the Israelites from slavery. The Israelite people, hundreds of thousands of them, were slaves in the nation of Egypt for several hundreds of years under Egyptian tyranny. God uses Moses as the leader, raises up Moses to rescue them out of Egypt, and brings them into the wilderness. They will be in the wilderness for a period of time and eventually go into the Promised Land. That is their trajectory. 

 

Bronze Serpent Statue

But there’s this amazing moment, this incredibly beautiful and tragic moment in the wilderness after they come out of Egypt, before they go into the Promised Land, during that 40-year moment when they’re wandering around the wilderness. There’s this event with a bronze serpent. Jesus alludes to that event here in John 3. He’s like, Nicodemus, you don’t understand what I’m talking about on how to believe properly. Remember that thing that happened 1400 years ago back in the wilderness with the bronze serpent? Do you remember that? Let’s hearken back to that, because that moment in history will help us understand what I’m talking about. This is what Jesus says in John chapter 3, verses 14 and 15. Leon read it to us a moment ago. Jesus says, 

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

Jesus is alluding to this moment of the bronze serpent. Many of you may be familiar with what happened in the wilderness. If you are not, let me give you a quick. For those of you who have been around for the last few months. Most of you in the room have been with us when we’ve been traveling through the Book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews talks a lot about the Old Testament being filled with these things we call shadows or types. The Old Testament is filled with all these little Easter eggs, these little clues, these hints that foreshadow the things of the New Testament, mainly Jesus and the things that he would accomplish on our behalf. 

So Jesus is, in essence, here in John 3, telling Nicodemus that event that happened in the wilderness with the bronze serpent is a shadow, a foreshadowing of something that I’m going to do for you, Nicodemus. So the Israelites, there, they come out of Egypt. They’re in the wilderness, wandering around. This takes place right around 1400 BC, approximately. They’re wandering around the desert. They come to the edge of the Promised Land. But they make sinful, disobedient choices, and so God does not allow them to enter the Promised Land. 

So then they wander around the wilderness. And while they’re wandering around the wilderness, they begin to complain and grumble. They behave in ways that we would say are very disrespectful and blasphemous toward God. They begin to complain and say, I can’t believe God has not taken us into the Promised Land yet. Have you forgotten it was your sin that caused this? This is the event happening in the wilderness. So God’s wrath comes against the people of Israel, his righteous judgment. God says to them, in Numbers, chapter 21, verse 6, it says this:

“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people. And many of the people of Israel died.”

 So the people of Israel they’re being disrespectful and blasphemous. God has them wandering around the wilderness. They still grumble and complain at God and at Moses. And so God says, What are we going to do? I’m going to send a bunch of poisonous snakes to live in the camp. So there are hundreds of thousands of people. They live in these tents, kind of mini houses, portable houses in a big circle. In the middle of the camp is the tabernacle. So, hundreds of thousands of people living in this kind of mini city out in the desert. And God sends snakes. 

Can you imagine you’re living out here in the desert, and one day you’re in your bed, and out from under the drape of your tent comes this big old snake, and it bites you. And the pain, the poison is like, it feels like your arm’s on fire. And people begin to die. The Bible doesn’t tell us how many people die, but lots of people begin to die.

This is a great picture of how God deals with sin. He punishes sinners, he hates sin sometimes. We have this view in our modern society that God is just love. Love is mercy. Love is love. We say these things in our culture. God would never demand justice. If you read Numbers 21, it’s very clear. God demands justice. These Israelites deserved the bites of the snakes. They deserved to die. This was not unrighteous or unfair. 

So as people are dying, Moses then comes to God and says, God, would you be merciful? Would you take away these snakes? I know we deserve the snakes. Moses says, These people are stiff-necked people. That’s what he calls them. But would you be merciful? I know you’re a God of mercy. Would you take away the snakes we rightfully deserve? And God says to Moses, No. You’re going to live with these snakes. And for decades they live with, every day, living with the potential of snakes popping up in the camp. It’s not every day, but pretty frequently. God says this, because I am a God of mercy, Here’s what I will do:

I’m not going to take away the judgment because you deserve the judgment. But here’s what I will do instead. I will make a way for you to be healed of the consequences of the judgment. God tells Moses, Here is what you’re going to do: I want you to go and make a big bronze statue of a serpent, a big old bronze statue of a big old snake. And I want you to put it up high on a hill. And anyone who lives in the camp who gets bitten by a snake, if they look to the serpent that has been lifted up, and if they believe that there is healing power in the looking, if they would believe that, then they will be healed. 

That’s what he does. And so for the rest of the time they’re in the wilderness, they live with snakes, which they deserve. If someone is bitten, they’re instructed to look out and say, God told us that he would have mercy on us. I deserve to die. But I look to the bronze serpent that was lifted up. God, would you heal me? And every time the person was healed, God’s mercy. Every time. 

I said something like this on Friday night, but it’s worth saying again. There are two categories of people in the camp. There’s the person who gets bitten who says, I trust in God. I am so confident in God, and I know he’s gonna heal me. They run out of their house, and they immediately look to the bronze serpent, and immediately they’re healed. Or there’s the person who gets bitten who says, This hurts. I’m gonna die. I don’t know if I really believe that the bronze serpent can heal me. I don’t know about God. I kind of believe in God, but, you know, I’m going to look to him. My confidence is shaken. I don’t feel like I’m a really good Israelite, but I’m going to look to him. 

That person walks out, and they’re not sure what’s going to happen. They look up, God, would you heal me? And they’re healed. Because the healing was not dependent on the fervent nature of their confidence in God’s healing power. It was not dependent on how much they trusted God. It was dependent on how fervently God had been committed to them. Their faithfulness or their genuineness, or their intensity is not at the heart of the commitment. It is God’s commitment to us at the heart of his healing power.

 

Jesus Takes on Death

So Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. He goes, Nicodemus, you don’t understand what I’m saying, but do you remember the Bronze Serpent 1400 years ago? Do you remember? That story that happened back then wasn’t primarily about them. It’s a true story. It actually happened. But that story’s not about them, Nicodemus. That story is about me. He says, just as Moses lifted up that bronze serpent, so too the Son of Man, referring to himself. His favorite title to call himself was the Son of Man. 

Jesus says, just as the bronze serpent will be lifted up, the Son of Man must also be lifted up. And all who look to the one who has been lifted up will find eternal life. What an incredible promise. Jesus is equating himself with the serpent. Now, usually in the Bible, the serpent refers to evil or the devil. But in this particular case, Jesus is actually equating himself with the serpent. This is a remarkable moment in the history of Israel.

The idea that the serpent is both the source of condemnation and the source of the cure is quite interesting. God wants to make it very clear what Jesus must do. Jesus must become like a serpent. He must become the condemnation. He must become the curse. It is serpents causing people to die in Israel. Therefore, we need a serpent to be the source of healing. Similarly, with all of humanity, it is death that causes us to be plagued. Therefore, it is death that must defeat death. In Galatians chapter 3, verse 13, the apostle Paul says it this way, 

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” 

In Second Corinthians 5:21, the apostle Paul says that Jesus became sin. He doesn’t ontologically change. The essence of Jesus doesn’t transform into being sin. But in a legal sense, Jesus becomes the very thing that is plaguing us. Back in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis chapter two, God said, If you sin, you will surely die. Death is the curse for all humans. Ever since Adam, we have all sinned. All of us are in a slow march toward death. Physically and emotionally decaying, falling apart. 

We are victims of this curse. This march toward death for all of us is quite painful. It’s the curse that we deserve. As humans, we are disconnected from our life source. Humans had taken flight, but we disconnected ourselves from God. So, like an airplane that loses all of its fuel mid-flight, we crash. We are spiritually unplugged from the power that we need to live the life God would want us to live. This is the curse. We became dead men, and therefore, to rescue dead men, Jesus had to become a dead man. We sinned and became dead men. And so he became a dead man to save us.

Hebrews chapter two. We saw this a few months ago. In Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9, the writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus tasted death. Later in chapter two, he says that Jesus was the one to destroy the devil and deliver us, because the devil has the power of death. Again, alluding back to my silly Sarasota man analogy. The weapon that Satan comes after us with is death. Jesus takes that. He says, You want death to be the weapon? Let me take that, and I’m going to die. In such a way that will defeat you and death forever. Oh, you’re trying to kill my people. I’m gonna let you kill me, but I’m gonna die in a fashion that will render your ability to kill people totally obsolete. I’m gonna defang you with my death, He says to the devil. 

 

How Does Jesus Defeat Death?

How does Jesus do this? So the two questions we asked were, how and why? Jesus defeats death by surviving the sentence that God had pronounced upon him. Let me give you a silly example. A few months ago, I was watching a video on TikTok about a guy who had committed several crimes and was sentenced to 945 years in prison with no chance of parole. That was the sentence. 945 years. Well, the reality is there’s no human that could last that long. You’re gonna be long dead.

However, if there were a human that could live, let’s say, another thousand years, that person could go to prison for 945 years and then he would be released to live the last 55 years of his life. If that person could survive it. The problem is that no human can survive that sort of sentence. Well, similarly, the sentence for your sin from God is the full wrath of God. Because you are a sinner. Because I am a sinner. The sentence that God gives is the full wrath of God. All of the wrath that God has to offer, you must take. But the reality is none of us can survive that. Our souls would crumble and be in torment and hell forever and ever and ever because we don’t have what it takes to survive that sort of sentencing. 

But Jesus did. He wasn’t an ordinary man. He was the God man. He was God, so he could suffer the wrath of God. So Jesus goes to the cross, and the sentence is the full wrath of God. God takes all the guilt and shame of your sin, and he puts it on Jesus. Then God says to Jesus, Here is the sentence. Everything I have to offer you. All of the guilt and shame that could ever be placed on someone, I’m putting on you right now. Any other human, spiritually speaking, would fall apart and would be destined for hell forever. 

We could not handle that. But Jesus could handle it. He took the full wrath at the cross. He died a brutal physical death. But that pales in comparison to the guilt and shame that was put on him. The spiritual punishment that was placed on Jesus at the cross. For several hours on a cross, he is enduring, like the silly analogy of the guy going through 945 years of prison. Jesus is on the cross, taking it wave after wave after wave of the wrath of God. Taking it, taking it, taking it, taking it, taking it until it was all taken.

And then he yells out, It is finished, and he dies. He becomes the dead man, in the process, paying for all of our sins. He’s placed in the tomb owned by a man named Joseph and his body cared for by a man by the name of Nicodemus. Who, just a few months or years earlier, had had a conversation with Jesus. Jesus was dead. He had paid the price. He survived the sentence that God had given him. He paid for the spiritual crimes of humanity, and he was dead in a tomb. 

But he doesn’t stay dead because it would be unjust to leave someone in prison after the sentence has already been paid. It would be unfair, unrighteous. So God says to his son, You have paid the price. Now we do the just thing, and we raise you up from the dead. On that first Easter Sunday morning, Christ walked out of that tomb as the evidence that he is who he said he was. 

See, if he had died, we would say, did he really pay the price? Did he really have what it took if he had stayed dead? He raised us up and said, No, I took it all and I am still here to live and tell you about it for forever and ever and ever. Jesus makes an offer, an unbelievable bargain. He says, Come on, let’s make a deal. If you will follow me, my actions at the cross will count for your sin forever and ever. You’re already condemned. You’re already living in the camp with serpents all around you biting you. 

This world is filled with things that bite us and cause pain. We are already on our way to condemnation. God doesn’t have to offer any more condemnation to you. We’re already headed there. But if you would look to me, just like the Israelites looked to the bronze serpent, if you would look to the Son of Man who was lifted up, your sin will be forgiven. His death will count for you. He offers you a pathway to experiencing the full joy of God. As we sang in that song a moment ago, Heaven’s gates are now wide open. He says, Come. Would you look to me, the one who was lifted up? You will be healed. There was a spiritual healing for those who look to the one who has lifted up. 

Jesus turns death into something quite glorious. Death should have been the thing that scares us the most. The most frightening, most horrible thing that you could ever do to someone is to kill them. And yet Jesus turns it upside down. As one theologian once said. Oh, how the turntables. (Two of you got it. That’s good.)

Death would have been the thing that catapulted us into hell. But because of what Christ has done on our behalf, instead, death becomes the thing that catapults us into the fullness of joy. The Apostle Paul says it this way in Philippians 1.

“To die is gain.”

To die is to gain something remarkable. More than 20 times in the New Testament, there is a clear connection between the resurrection of Christ and our future resurrection. We know that we, too, will be resurrected from the dead and will enjoy God forever.

The reason we know that is because Christ has risen from the dead. The only thing that could stop us from enjoying God forever was death. And the fact that Christ has risen from the dead is evidence that death has been defeated. The Apostle Peter says it this way. Christ suffered once for sins that he might bring us back to God. Jesus says this in John 11, 

“Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” 

You’re going to die physically, but if you believe on him, you will never die eternally. In First Corinthians 15. My wife read it to us a moment ago. The tone of 1 Corinthians 15 is a tad bit boastful. Paul is talking trash to death. Kind of like when I play basketball at the YMCA, even if I miss 20 shots in a row, I make one shot and I’m like, yeah, what you got? That’s right. 

Listen, you guys know I’m from Philadelphia. I’m a big Eagles fan. When the Eagles won the Super Bowl, I was trash-talking all of my friends who are Giants fans. Oh, they all got text messages from me. Y’all ain’t got nothing on us. Super Bowl champs, baby. That’s exactly what Paul’s doing. In First Corinthians 15, he’s saying, Hey, Death. Ha ha. You thought you had me. He says, Hey, Death, remember this? This perishable body is gonna put on an imperishable body. This mortal body, oh, it’s gonna put on immortality. Then he says this in 1 Corinthians 15:55, 

“Oh, death, where’s your victory? Oh, Death, where’s your sting?” 

Death, you ain’t got nothing on me. Most of us will die. Maybe some of us will see the return of Christ. Maybe. But in all likelihood, we’re all going to die. We’re going to die of something. Cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s. We’re all going to deal with something. It’s going to sting for a moment. Then you will walk into the presence of the king, and you will laugh and say, Oh, Death, that’s all you had to offer me? I now get to enjoy him forever. Because Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. 

Side note, in this life, death is still very painful. The snakes that bite still hurt. They still kill. There’s a glorious serpent that’s been lifted up on our behalf. But in the moment, it still hurts. Many of us have experienced the death of loved ones, disappointment, and betrayal. All of us have experienced pain in this life. It’s real. But he will strengthen you. In Romans, chapter 6, the apostle Paul says this, 

“The spirit of God who raised Jesus up from the dead now lives in you.” 

The same power that brought Jesus back from the dead now indwells you and will strengthen you as you go through this life. So not only is there a promise of ultimate healing, but there’s a promise of strength. As we walk through the valley of pain here in this life, he gives us emotional strength and spiritual strength, and physical strength to endure. And we have a hope that lasts forever. So the Apostle Paul says this in 1st Thessalonians 4. He says, 

“We do not grieve as others do who have no hope.”

When unbelievers experience death, they have no hope. But we do have hope because Paul says this first. Thessalonians 4, verse 14. 

“Because we believe that Jesus died and rose again.” 

That’s what he says. We suffer in this life, but we have hope and strength. Why? Because we believe that Jesus died and rose again. So that’s the how. How did Jesus defeat death? By surviving the sentence God gave by becoming a dead man and then justly being raised from the dead.

 

Why Does Jesus Defeat Death?

The second question I want to answer is the why? Why did Jesus do this? Well, he tells us in the very next verse, the most famous verse in all of the Bible, Jesus says to Nicodemus, Let me tell you why. John 3:16, Jesus says to Nicodemus. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 Why? Why did Jesus become a man to be lifted up? Love. True love. Because he loves. Because he loves you. God could have allowed all of us to die. He would have been perfectly within his rights. It would have been righteous and fair for everyone in that camp to be bitten by a snake and to die. God is not obligated to raise up a serpent to look to. There’s no cosmic law that says God has to save you. God could have said to all of us, To hell with you, literally. And he would have been righteous and fair in doing so. It would not be unfair. 

But God says, I love them too much for that to be the end of the story. God says, I love them. God says, I want him in my family. God says, Tom, I want you in my family. He says, Hank, I want you in my family. He says, Olivia, I want you in my family. He says, Bridget, I want you in my family. Joyce, I want you in my family. And I will do what it takes to get you into my family. If it means God becoming a man and being lifted up so that you can look to him and have your sins forgiven, I love you in that way. I love you in a way that leads me to experience pain and death. Because my love is redemptive toward you. 

Christ defeated death by dying. He was justly vindicated, brought back from the dead by the power of God, by the way, the power of God that is now alive in you. He did it because he loves you. Because he loves you with a matchless, everlasting love beyond what you could ever imagine. 

 

Closing

If you are here this morning and you are a believer in Jesus, if you are a follower of Christ, if that is you, he says to you this morning, I love you. I love you. And if you are here this morning, you are not a believer. You would say, Kenny, I’m not a follower of Christ. Jesus says to you, Come. Come experience that love forever and ever and ever. Oh, death, where is your sting?

You ain’t got nothing on us.