What's The Big Deal About Jesus?

Approximately 2000 years ago there was an event that went pretty much unnoticed by the world. This event was the coming of a child, born of a virgin. This child was no ordinary child. He was and is 100% God and 100% man. His coming changed the course of human history for all time.

While God had been with man since the beginning of time, now He condescended to becoming a human. He took upon Himself flesh and dwelt amongst us.

Biblical Text -

-[Prayer]-

Life Point- What Happened?

To really find out what happened doesn’t start with the story of the coming of our savior, but really starts back in the book of Genesis.

Genesis 3:1–7 NKJV

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

At this point, God has created the all things and He created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. God had told them to not eat of the knowledge of good and evil.

As we know they did anyway.

Genesis 3:13–19 NKJV

And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

This was the beginning of the curse placed upon man. Humankind is no longer without fault. We are born into sin and we now all have to experience death.

Our debt as a whole & individually cannot be paid by us. We sinned against an infinitely Holy God and in our sinfulness we have no way to make that right with Him.

But this is not the end of the story. Thousands of years after this, God himself would be the one to fulfill the debt that humanity couldn’t pay.

Life Point - What Was God’s Solution?

Exegetical -

Luke 2:8–14 NKJV

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 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. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Homiletical -

We know this scripture very well. Some of us have read it, some have seen that scene from Charlie Brown at this time of year.

But what is this part in verse 14?

Luke 2:14 NKJV

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Why is there this peace and goodwill toward men?

Do we currently have peace on earth? No.

Jesus himself said:

Matthew 24:3–14 NKJV

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 10:34–39 NKJV

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Some would say that the angels were wrong, but they are the ones that are actually wrong. Why? Because they misunderstand the life and message of Christ.

His life here on earth was to bring peace between God and man. Not between man and man, at least not yet.

Because of Jesus proclaimed Himself to be equal with God the father, he really ticked off the religious leaders of the day. They wanted Him dead. They didn’t do themselves because the common people saw Him as a popular leader.

He raised the dead, healed the sick and cast out demons with a word.

But he didn’t have such nice things to say about the hypocritical leaders.

As an example he said:

Matthew 23:27–36 NKJV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

That would be like me standing up in the Southern Baptist Convention and tell them, “All of you are hypocrites! You don’t know God! You have a form of Godliness, but inwardly you are dead and evil!”

That wouldn’t go over so well! The same is true with Jesus

They hated him so much that they got the Romans to do their dirty work for them! They knew he would suffer greatly, but they didn’t care. They wanted Him gone.

But you see, this was always God’s plan.

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to satisfy God’s justice and His wrath on sin and yet bring us into a right relationship with Him.

He lived a sinless life and through His blood we have peace with God.

He died on a Roman cross for your sin and my sin, but He didn’t stay dead.

No, He rose from the dead. Declaring victory over death, Hell, and the grave!

He left and said He would return to judge the living and the dead. And then He will rule and reign forever.

Revelation 21:1–8 NKJV

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Life Point - So What?

Exegetical -

John 3:16–18 NKJV

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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Homiletical -

Listen, you and I are born into sin. We have all sinned and our sin separates us from Christ.

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

But there is a hope. This hope came to earth, born in a manger and died to take our place.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever told a lie? Ever gotten wrathful at someone? According to the Bible, you are a sinner in God’s eyes because you have rebelled against His law. He did say, “You shall not lie” after all.

You are in need of punishment then and the wages for your sin is death. But we know that God has given us eternal life. What will you do today? Do you want to receive the free gift of Jesus to be saved?

It isn’t easy, it requires you to give up your entire being to Him. It requires calling upon on His name and yielding all that you are to all that He is. Let’s be honest though, is it really worth holding on to sin? Is your life really so great that you don’t need someone to take care of that sin for you? The answer is a resounding No!

So how does one receive this gift of Jesus?

Romans 10:13 NKJV

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Is that you today? Do you need to call upon the name of the Lord?

Call to Action – altar call….

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