12/2/13 - "WHY JESUS CAME TO EARTH" - PART 1

Luke 2:10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The Christmas season is upon us and it really is one of my favorite times of year. It is a time when people’s attention gets drawn to our Savior. This is also a great time to reach out to others in sharing our faith and letting all known the true reason for the season. I want to begin this week a series for the next several weeks of sharing some key things as to why Jesus came to earth. In sharing these simple but powerful truths of why Christ came, we can renew our hearts to why we received Jesus into our lives when we were born again. I pray you will be blessed as we talk about these truths, and I pray your Christmas will be filled with the presence of our Savior.

Before we get started with the first of these truths I want to draw your attention to our foundation text above. The proclamation from the angel to the shepherds in the field was the best news ever given to mankind.  The angel declared, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”. The good news has come and for all who receive Christ as their Savior they can experience all of what Christ has done for them. For all who have received Him, we have a reason to celebrate this good news every day of our lives. Let us rejoice for our Savior has come.

1. JESUS CAME TO SAVE SINNERS

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

This is the primary reason Jesus came was to save sinners from their fallen state and restore them back to the Father. There are several key things to make note of when talking about being “saved”. The first thing to make note of is that Jesus in coming to earth to save man was the greatest proof of God’s love for all of humanity. God so loved the world that He was willing to send His Son to take our place. Another key to recognize is what scripture reveals about how someone receives this salvation, and not what man says about it. Unfortunately there are those who did not base their salvation on what scripture says and without doing so one is not truly saved.

Scripture reveals that for someone to be born again they must have what 2 Corinthians 7:10 states as godly sorrow. Paul states that godly sorrow produces repentance, and leads one to salvation. There must be godly sorrow for someone to be saved. Godly sorrow is seen in the heart of someone who knows they have sinned, and they don’t want to continue to live a life of sin. They have a desire to turn from their sinful ways. Worldly sorrow that Paul goes on to speak about does not produce repentance. Instead it produces death.

Worldly sorrow means the person is sorry they got caught, but they don’t really have a desire to change the way they are living. This is what repentance is all about. Repentance simply means to do a 180. It means to have a change of mind, change of heart, and therefore a change of lifestyle. If someone has godly sorrow they will want to be saved. To do so one simply fulfills what Romans 10:13 declares. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is how someone initiates true salvation. What it means is all who invoke the Lordship of Jesus Christ over their life, they shall receive new life. It is a choice to no longer be the lord over your life, but instead receive the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Another very important point about being saved has to do with more than just the initial born again experience. The word that is used in the Greek language for the word saved is Sozo. When Jesus came to save sinners He did far more than just pay the price for their sin. He paid the price for them to be made complete, spirit, soul, and body. If you just become born again that is good, but there is much more God has for us through what Christ has done. Salvation is a complete plan, not just a way to go to heaven. This word Sozo means: to save, i.e. deliver or protect, to heal, preserve, be (make) whole. This is all of what Christ has done in saving the sinner.

When someone is saved from something they are saved from something to something. When we get saved we are saved from all that is evil and all that came as a result of evil, to what Christ has done for us. We are not just born again, we now have available to us deliverance, protection, healing, preservation, and the ability to be whole or lack nothing. But just as one does not enter into the kingdom of God without acting upon their faith, so must we act upon our faith in what Christ has done for us to receive all that we have as a part of our salvation. If someone was to invite you over to their house for supper, and they are the ones who purchased the food, prepared the meal, and set the table, all you have to do is come and sit at that table and partake of what they have provided. So it is with God. We will cover this area more next week.

2. JESUS CAME TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS

Matt. 1:21 She will give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus [He Saves], because he will save his people from their sins.

Not only did Jesus come to save sinners, He also came to deliver us from our sins. This is more than just a removal of the old sinful nature that is within man. In John 16:9 Jesus revealed the one sin that would stand between God and man is the sin of not believing in Jesus. When someone turns to Him that is the sin that is dealt with so that man can be born again. But notice in the above verse it reveals that He will also save (this word here means deliver) His people from their sins. Jesus has come to empower us so that we are no longer bound by sinful ways. Sin is still destructive and you can’t name one sin that is not going to end up in pain, whether emotionally, physically, or otherwise. Scripture clearly states that we do not want to continue in a lifestyle of sin after being born again. The great part is Jesus did something about this to deliver us from walking in sin.

Jude 3  Dearly loved friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the truth of the Good News. God gave this unchanging truth once for all time to his holy people.
Jude 4 I say this because some godless people have wormed their way in among you, saying that God’s forgiveness allows us to live immoral lives. The fate of such people was determined long ago, for they have turned against our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

First and foremost to guard against living a life thinking it doesn’t matter if I sin or not you must pay attention to who you are listening to, and make sure that what they are saying lines up with scripture. Jude was warning the believers in his day that there where those who wormed their way into the body of Christ teaching them that since they are saved by grace, that God’s grace allows us to live immoral lives. There are many believers today who come against anyone who talks about sin, and how you can get free from a sinful lifestyle. They say such people are legalistic. If that is true then Jude, Paul, James, John, Matthew, Mark, Jesus Himself and others were legalistic. Anyone that knows the scriptures, clearly knows that we are not saved through any works of our own, but this does not mean it’s to continue in sin.

1 Cor. 15:33 Don’t let anyone deceive you. Associating with bad people will ruin decent people.
1 Cor. 15:34 Come back to the right point of view, and stop sinning. Some people don’t know anything about God. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Here are two important keys to getting out of sin. Watch who you are associating with, for evil company corrupts good habits. This means we should be careful who we choose as friends in our lives. This does not mean we are not friendly nor that we are not to reach out to sinners, but we are to be careful who we allow to influence our lives. Also notice Paul states here that a part of the problem with the Corinthians is that they did not know anything about God. The more you get to know God, the less desire you are going to have for sin. God and His nature will begin to rub off on you. Galatians 5:16 also tells us if we walk in the spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. To do so means we are governed now by our inner man, our spirit man, the real you. There is no sin in the real you for he has been made a new creation in Christ.

So rejoice that Jesus not only came to save all sinners, but He also came to deliver us from the very works of sin. As we continue to focus on our walk with God we will look away from the things that are harmful to our lives. When you turn to the Lord you turn away from the things that are destructive and harmful. He will help you in every part of your life to walk in the freedom He has given us to be saved and to be delivered from sin!

See You Again Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”

May God’s Best Be Yours!

Pastor Darryl Baker