Because Jesus Came

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If you’ll turn with me this morning to Luke chapter 3, and also you might put your bulletin or something at John chapter 1 to mark your spot there as well. I’m really suffering this morning from my allergies, and when I woke up I didn’t have a voice, and it’s here a little bit now, and I’m just praying that it holds out for the remainder of this morning. Luke chapter 3 and John chapter 1.

One thing that I have always loved about this time of year and still do is the fact that the whole world seems to, I think one of the deacons put it quite eloquently this morning. He said the world seems to stop and take notice of the fact that Jesus was born, that God’s Son came to earth. And, you know, just when I started to doubt that, because we hear so much about the war on Christmas, just when I started to doubt that, I was walking through the grocery store on Friday afternoon and heard blaring from the radio overhead in the store, loud enough to understand the words.

A woman singing about Jesus born on this day, he is the light of salvation. And I thought, right here in the grocery store. You know, I don’t know if the people who are in charge of selecting what’s played over the intercom, I don’t know if they believe in him as the light of salvation or not, but people are just going on about their business, but recognizing that this holiday is set aside for a purpose.

And we talk so much about putting Christ back in Christmas, but the fact is you can’t take him out of Christmas, regardless of what any government says, regardless of what any retailers do, he can’t be taken out. He can’t be taken out of anything against his will. And it’s a wonderful story that we pause to reflect on at this time of year.

It’s a wonderful story. That a young girl who had never known a man became pregnant, and the child was God’s son, was put there by the Holy Spirit, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. And her espoused husband, a righteous man who, when he found her pregnant, could have put her away, could have had her stoned, to be quite honest, could have had her killed for adultery, said instead, I don’t want to see any harm come to her, I’m just going to put her away quietly, meaning he was going to divorce her quietly and not make a public spectacle out of her.

And yet an angel of the Lord came to him and told him that the child really was God’s son. And then God orchestrated the Roman authorities to do an empire-wide census where they would be sent to Bethlehem in fulfillment of prophecy. And then the child was born in a stable, we think.

Was born in a stable, could have been a cave, could have been something back there behind the inn where they kept the animals, but he was born in meager circumstances. And the Bible said he was laid in a manger, a feeding trough, because there was no room in the inn. And this child was welcomed into the world by shepherds, by shepherds whom the hosts of heaven, God’s angel armies, came forth to the lowest of the low in society and announced that the Redeemer was here.

And they dropped everything. It sounds to me from reading the story like they left their sheep behind. I don’t know that for sure, but they quit what they were doing and went to go and see and worship this child who had been born to be their Savior.

And even the heavens announced the coming of God’s Son. As the star over Bethlehem was seen from far off in the east that maybe a few months, maybe as much as two years later, people made the journey from far away to come and worship the King of Kings. It’s a wonderful story.

We see it portrayed here in this nativity scene. We see it on postcards and we sing about it and we think about it. And it is a wonderful story.

But my question for you this morning is, so what? Is that a little shocking to you? It’s a wonderful story, but so what?

Folks, if we don’t do anything about it, if we don’t use it as a jumping off point to explain that he didn’t just come to give us a wonderful story, didn’t just come to give us a wonderful postcard picture that we could send out in December. He didn’t just come so we could feel warm and fuzzy and give each other presents, but he really did come for the purpose that God sent him. If we don’t tell the whole story, then none of that wonderful story at Christmastime matters, ladies and gentlemen.

And I’ve noticed as I read through the accounts of the Christmas story in the Gospels, aside from a few brief mentions of Jesus’ early life, of his childhood, and his adolescence in Matthew and Luke, These gospel accounts spend a great deal of time, relatively speaking, talking about his birth and the events surrounding it, and then skip very fast ahead, about 30 years. And the next person we see is a man named John the Baptist. And folks, I look at John the Baptist, and I look at how the gospel writers spent all of this time talking about the birth, and in very short time talking about the years in between, and fast-forwarded to John the Baptist. And I think there’s something that we can learn from this and from his example. Let’s begin looking at Luke chapter 3, starting in verse 1.

It says, Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Etruria, and of the region of Trachonitis and Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene. By the way, at this point, they didn’t have the years divided up into B. C.

and A. D. that came on a little further, so they would date things according to who was in power at that time, the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar, and that’s supposed to tell us when this happened.

That’s why they have all these names here. Annas and Caiaphas, being the high priests, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. And so John the Baptist, who is the cousin of Jesus, who is spoken of in Luke chapter 1, is out in the wilderness, and God speaks to him.

And it had been told in Luke chapter 1 that he would be a prophet, that he would be someone who would point the people to Jesus, that he would be someone who would point people to the Messiah. It says in verse 3, And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

So we skip very fast here over the next 30 years, and the next thing we see is John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, the cousin of Jesus Christ, appearing on the scene. He’s been out in the desert, probably looked like a crazy man when he showed up on the banks of the Jordan and began to preach to people, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and began to prepare the way for the Lord’s coming. He said he was the one who fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy, saying, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and who made it his mission, as verse 6 says, that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Because Jesus came, ladies and gentlemen, because Jesus came in the previous passage, because Jesus came in chapter 2, in chapter 3, John the Baptist had a job to do, and I submit to you, because Jesus came, we have a job to do as well. It’s not enough, ladies and gentlemen, that we bring people to remembrance of the story of his birth. But because Jesus came, we have a story to tell.

That’s your first point this morning. Because Jesus came, we have a story to tell. And believe it or not, it doesn’t end with the departure of the wise men.

John the Baptist got this right. John the Baptist came preaching the story of God’s salvation. Jesus Christ is the story of God’s salvation.

And we have an open door, it seems, at Christmas time that so often we don’t have to tell people of what Christ did. And we cannot leave off at the manger. We can’t leave off with the shepherds.

We can’t leave off with the departure of the wise men because there’s so much more. The Christmas story, the real story here, the real importance doesn’t end with the departure of the wise men. It was only getting started because this baby came for a specific purpose.

This baby was sent by God the Father for a specific purpose. And I remember telling you last year that for so many people, the image that they still have, and I’m afraid with us too, the image that we still have is of Jesus being the baby in the manger. He was born as the baby in the manger, but he didn’t stay that way.

Because he was sent here to grow up, to live a sinless life, to teach, to preach, to lead people back to God, and to shed his blood and die so that we could have the forgiveness of God. And because Jesus came, John the Baptist had a story to tell. That’s why he went through the Jordan Valley and began preaching.

And it says, he was the one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John the Baptist went through the Jordan Valley to anybody who would listen and began telling them, because Jesus had come, that the Messiah is on his way. You need to listen.

You need to take notice. God is about to do something incredible. God is about to do something miraculous.

Prepare the way of the Lord. And folks, we have a story to tell because Jesus came. We have a job to do.

We have a job to do to prepare the way of the Lord. Maybe not in the exact same sense, but we have the awesome privilege, ladies and gentlemen. We have the awesome privilege and calling.

It’s a responsibility and a privilege to be able to go to other people and introduce them to the one who died for them. And in that sense, we get to prepare the way of the Lord. As we speak to them and we tell them, as I’ve told you before, the bad news first and the good news that follows.

The bad news that we’ve all sinned against God and the good news that Jesus came to deal with that sin. But because Jesus came, we have a story to tell and we dare not leave off. We dare not lead the world to think that Jesus Christ only matters at Christmas time or because of Christmas when there’s so much more to his story.

I submit to you that Christmas would not matter. You know, I asked you a minute ago, so what? Don’t be fooled into thinking I believe the Christmas story isn’t important.

But we fail to see its real importance when we act like the Christmas story is the only story there is. It would not be important if it weren’t for what came after. Miraculous, yes.

A wonderful, unbelievable story. But it wouldn’t have near the importance if that baby hadn’t been born, the Son of God. Second of all this morning, because Jesus came, we see in the life of John the Baptist that because Jesus came, repentance is due.

Repentance is due. what in the world is repentance there are all kinds of theories that theologians have about what repentance means I’m going to make it real simple for you it means to change your mind it means to change your mind if you break the words down in the Greek it means a change of mind and the reason I say there are all sorts of theories about it people argue about what it means and some have said well if repentance is part of salvation that means you have to clean up your whole life and come to Jesus Christ it does not mean anything of the sort just because I’m repentant doesn’t mean I’m never going to sin again.

I was talking to somebody this week about how sometimes even though I know in my head that God forgives when we repent, that God forgives his children, I still cannot understand sometimes how I can commit the same sin over and over and feel so sorry about it and go to God in genuine repentance and say, I’m sorry, I hate this, I don’t want to do this again, and yet knowing full well I’m probably going to fall into the same trap again and thinking, how can God continue to forgive me? How can it even appear as genuine repentance? But folks, repentance doesn’t mean we’ve cleaned up every aspect of our lives.

Repentance means we’ve come to agree with God about our sin. Repentance means the want to has changed. Repentance means we turn from that sin toward God.

And the Bible says here that because Jesus came, that because Jesus was born in that manger, and because of everything that was prophesied to happen later, that John came into all the country about Jordan, it says preaching the baptism of repentance. Jesus came to earth to reveal to mankind where we had fallen short. It’s not by accident that John chapter 1 calls him the light, that the Bible calls him the light of the world, and said that the light came into darkness.

Colossians calls Jesus Christ the image of the invisible God. And it’s by Jesus Christ that God and his character and his nature are most fully revealed. We see God through Jesus Christ. We learn about him as well through his revealed word, but we see who he really is in the life and the character of Jesus Christ. And when that light and darkness bump up against each other in John chapter 1, and the Bible says the darkness didn’t receive him, didn’t receive the light, ladies and gentlemen, he came to point out where we were wrong, where we fell short of God’s holiness, where we fell short of God’s nature.

And John came with the message that because the Messiah has been born and because he’s about to walk among us, repentance is due. He went and he preached to them the baptism of repentance. Now, do not take from this that baptism saves, that baptism is part of salvation.

This was an outward act that they would have only undergone because of repentance internally. We are now only supposed to undergo water baptism as a result of repentance and faith in Christ. It’s an outward expression. And what baptism did in that day, what baptism did in that day, people who converted to Judaism at that point, people who came from other pagan countries, other pagan cultures, who wanted to convert to Judaism, who wanted to repent and follow the one true God, were to be baptized outwardly as an outward sign of their repentance.

The baptism was an expression of the fact that there has been a change of mind, There’s been a change of heart that should manifest itself as a change of life. And so he’s not merely calling on the people to come and get baptized. He’s calling on them to come and repent.

Come and change your heart. Come and change your mind. And because Jesus Christ has come, because Jesus Christ came, we’re faced with a choice.

We’re confronted. We are absolutely confronted, smacked in the face with a picture of the holiness of God and the realization of where we fall short. I’ve heard so many times this week people say, well, you know, you’re not Jesus.

You’re not perfect. You don’t get to judge. I talked with some of you about how I read some of the articles on this whole controversy surrounding Phil Robertson.

And anytime anybody wants to say anything about sin, you hear, well, you’re not Jesus. You don’t get to judge. Folks, we all know we’re not Jesus.

The whole world knows we’re not Jesus. You know why? Because Jesus was such a remarkable man, if it’s correct to call him a man.

God in human flesh. You understand why even the non-believing world still looks at him and says, we’re not Jesus. It’s because even today, 2,000 years later, we look back on his example of holiness, of sinlessness, absolute perfection, and we realize how far short we all fall of his example.

And when faced with that example, we have a choice to make. Do we continue to wallow in our sin, or do we repent toward God? There was a time when God, there was a time and still is a time when God allows people to wander from him.

When God allows people to ignore what he says. The Bible says in Acts chapter 17 that the times of ignorance God winked at. That means God let the people that Paul was speaking to at the time, he let them get by with their sin, with their rebellion for a little while.

In ignorance. In the times of this ignorance God winked at. but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

You hear that? The difference is because Jesus Christ has come and we are presented with absolutely undeniable evidence of the holiness of God and how far we fall short. For a while, God let us get by with our ignorance and sin, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

That’s Acts 17. 30. Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The one he’s speaking of here, who God raised from the dead, the one he’s speaking of, whom God has ordained to judge all mankind, is Jesus Christ. And because Jesus has come, not only are we confronted with the holiness and the sinlessness of God, and are falling short of it, but we’re confronted with the fact that there is one day a judgment coming. And that is why John the Baptist pleaded with the people because Jesus came to submit to the baptism of repentance. Not because baptism saved, but because they needed a change of heart and a change of mind toward God, and they needed to demonstrate it.

And folks, we have that same message to the world now. In presentations of the gospel, so many people don’t like to talk about repentance, because we want to just make everybody feel nice and wonderful. And it does sound nice and wonderful to start out and say, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, and I believe that.

God loves us and has what is in the eternal scheme of things a wonderful plan for our lives, but I think sometimes it’s also misleading to a lost world who hears, well, that means God just loves me and wants me to bring whatever I have to him, and he’ll be okay with that. Folks, the fact is God commands us to repent. God commands us to turn from our sins toward him, and because Jesus has come, that repentance is now due, and we have that message to take to the world.

Third of all this morning, because Jesus came, forgiveness is available. You see, in the gospel presentation I learned a few years ago, it’s best if we start with the bad news. Most of the time when I’ve ever asked somebody, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news, which do you want first?

I’ll take the bad news first because then I can temper it with the good. That’s usually the answer. Folks, we start with the bad news that repentance is due.

Christ came, there’s good news. Christ died to save sinners like me and you. I watched a video a couple years ago of a mega church, their children’s ministry.

Folks, their children’s church in this group was probably five times the size of our congregation now at least, their Sunday morning children’s church. And I watched the video where the lady was up there preaching to them and said, basically, if you want to go to heaven, make Jesus your best friend. Raise your hand if you want Jesus to be your best friend.

Of course, they all raised their hands, all the little kids did. Who doesn’t want Jesus to be their best friend? Who doesn’t want to go to heaven?

And yet it was a sad thing. There was no good news preached to him. There was no bad news.

And I shudder to think of how many people are being led astray by this idea. But the fact is repentance is due and forgiveness is not only needed but available. John the Baptist came because Jesus came.

John the Baptist came preaching the baptism of repentance. It says for the remission of sins. For the remission of sins.

See, we would be in a world of hurt. It would be bad, bad, bad, bad news if Jesus came with a message of you’ve sinned against God and you need to repent, but it’s still not going to get you anywhere. You’re still going to die in your sins.

And you know what? That’s what we deserved. God would have been absolutely right if he’d commanded repentance and still let us die in our sins because our sin is offensive against a holy God.

And yet the Bible tells us that Christ came into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. See, the world was condemned already. Jesus didn’t have to condemn the world because our sin had already condemned us.

But he came, the Bible says, that through him the world might be saved. And because Jesus came, John the Baptist preached the remission of sins. The word remission, we don’t hear it a lot anymore unless we’re talking about something like cancer.

And to be in remission is about the closest thing there is with cancer to being cured. I don’t remember the exact timeline, but I think I’ve heard that people say, you know, what you want to get to is five years in remission. Five years with that cancer being beaten back.

Ladies and gentlemen, our sin in terms of remission is not just beaten back where it can come back eventually. This remission of sins that the Bible speaks of, that’s available through Jesus Christ, means that the sin is covered, the sin is blotted out. As far as God’s concerned, the sin is no more.

And because Jesus came, that forgiveness is available. If you’ve never repented, if you’ve never said, I’m tired of this sin, I’m tired of the way I live my life, I hate that I’ve sinned against God and offended Him, and I just want to be right with God. If you’ve never repented and you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, folks, that forgiveness is available to you this morning.

I’m so glad that when I was five years old, that forgiveness was available to me. I’m so glad that that forgiveness is still there and available to me. Amen?

But John the Baptist, because Jesus came, went preaching remission of sins. In another verse in Acts, it says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Following the law, following the Old Testament, doing good things, could never, ever, ever wipe the slate clean for you and me, in terms of our standing with God.

And yet, because Jesus Christ came, John the Baptist preached and Paul preached and everybody else down through the ages to this day has preached that forgiveness is available has preached that forgiveness is available forgiveness is available to you this morning you can’t earn God’s forgiveness through the law through being good, doing good works, going to church, giving money praying enough, being the right kind of person but folks because Jesus came not just to be born and be laid in the manger but came to be born, laid in the manger live a perfect sinless life and go to the cross to shed his blood and die for us. Forgiveness is available through him because Jesus came. And finally this morning, and if you’ll turn with me to John chapter 1, because Jesus came, we should point people to the Lamb.

In verse 24 of John chapter 1, it says, And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. This is right after where we left off in Luke, where he’s claiming that he’s the one spoken of by the prophet Isaiah who came to prepare the way of the Lord. Some people were sent to question him.

It says they were the Pharisees. Verse 25, And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, nor that prophet? And they had previously asked him, Are you the Messiah?

And he said no. It indicates in John that he was not even hesitant to say no. Okay, are you Elijah? No, he’s not Elijah the person. I think he’s, I think Jesus made it clear he’s the Elijah figure spoken of in Malachi.

But is he the literal Elijah? No, he says he’s not. Is he that prophet?

Is he Jeremiah? No, he’s not. They should have known better than to ask these questions.

The Bible doesn’t teach reincarnation, doesn’t in the New Testament, didn’t in the Old Testament. And so they’ve come and asked him, if you’re not the Messiah, if you’re not Elijah, if you’re not Jeremiah, who are you to be baptizing people? And in verse 26, John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not.

He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. So they began questioning him about his authority and he doesn’t sidestep the issue, but he tells him it’s not about me and my authority. And he points him to the authority of the Messiah who’s coming.

These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan where John was baptizing. In verse 29 the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which away the sin of the world. At that point, he’s speaking to his followers, and he says, Behold the Lamb.

The Lamb you’ve been looking for, the perfect sacrifice, who’s going to take away your sins, there he is. The day before, when speaking to the Pharisees, they’d asked him about his authority, and he said, It’s not about me and my authority. The Lamb is coming.

The Messiah is coming. And folks, because Jesus came, John the Baptist pointed people not to himself, not to his group, not to his rituals, but to the Lamb. And because Jesus came, we also should point people to the Lamb.

And what we’ve talked about, some of the things that John the Baptist preached because Jesus came, that repentance is due, that forgiveness is available, all of that is involved in pointing people to the Lamb. And John, not John the Baptist, but John, the writer of John, John the Apostle, wrote in 1 John of Jesus that he is the propitiation, he is the offering, he is the all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins, And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Folks, it’s so easy at this time of year to get caught up in the wonderful story.

And it is a wonderful story. But we do a disservice to the Lamb and we do a disservice to those around us when we leave off the story and we leave him as a baby in the manger. Folks, we have, just like John the Baptist had, we have the awesome responsibility and the awesome privilege of pointing people to the Lamb and showing them that not only because he’s come that repentance is due, that there is bad news.

We have all sinned against a holy God and we have to pay for that sin. But also the good news that Jesus Christ came and lived a sinless life and died for us because we couldn’t pay for our sins.