Because Jesus Came

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Anyway, I appreciate you having us here today. We’re going to be in Luke chapter 3, if you’ll turn there. And then if you’ve got your bulletin with you, you might stick it in John chapter 1, because we’re going to look there as well this morning.

One of my favorite things is to tell stories. I’ve been around other preachers and heard them tell their jokes. Oh, I told this joke from the pulpit.

I said that I’m not so good with the joke telling, but I like telling stories, not just from the pulpit, just in life. When something interesting happens to me, I can’t wait to call Charla or call my mother. I’m 30 years old and I still call my mother when something happens.

When something interesting happens or something funny happens, I can’t wait to tell it. One of my favorite stories is the time I ended up driving my car in a Christmas parade. And what makes that an interesting story is I wasn’t one of the floats.

I just made a wrong turn and ended up in the Christmas parade. My cousin was in the passenger seat and said, what do we do? I said, just wave.

Just act like we belong here. I love, when something fun, interesting like that happens, I can’t wait to tell people. My kids provide all sorts of fodder for stories.

They’re probably going to hate me when they grow up for all the stories I tell from the pulpit. But I can’t wait when something happens with them to tell the story. When my daughter runs away from the cow at Chick-fil-A, I can’t wait to tell my mother.

When my son sticks a wood chip up his nose at school. It’s fun. It’s fun to have a story to tell.

But as I thought about this, how much more important is it when you have a story that’s actually worth telling? We have a story that is worth telling. You may like to tell stories to your family about things that have happened to you in your day, and we enjoy that.

But folks, we have a story that is worth telling more than any of the fun or interesting or even upsetting things that may happen to us because we have a story to tell that is of eternal significance. We’re going to look at John the Baptist this morning and see how his whole life was devoted to telling the story of Jesus coming. His whole life was devoted to this story that he had to tell.

And quite frankly, folks, we have the same story to tell. And yet we don’t get quite as excited, I think, sometimes about telling that story as we do all of the little anecdotes and the things that happen to us on a daily basis. You know, tell me about your day.

People love to answer that one. Go tell somebody about what Jesus did for you. That’s a little harder to do.

And part of the reason is I think we think people are going to shut us down. People aren’t interested. People have heard that story.

It’s been told a million times. But when you really think about what happened when God sent his son, when God the son put on human flesh and came to dwell among us and lived among us and lived a sinless life, how hard is that to do? Somebody was talking in Sunday school this morning about not having sinned yet because they hadn’t gotten out of bed in the morning.

And the point was made very well that sometimes you can lay there and think things you’re not supposed to. And I think I heard my wife say, well, maybe I haven’t sinned because I haven’t woken up yet. That’s about the only way.

That’s about the only way. Try going an hour without sinning. And he did it for 30 years, folks.

And then he gave his life for us. He shed his blood and he died on the cross. He didn’t have to do that, but he did it anyway.

Not because we deserved his grace or mercy, but because he just is gracious and merciful and because he loved us that much. And then the most incredible part of all of it, he rose again from the dead. See, we forget about that story and a lot of times we leave off with the cross.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s important that we preach the cross and too many churches don’t nowadays. But we forget about the resurrection. He rose again and proved that when he said it is finished, when he said he was coming to seek and to save that which was lost, the resurrection was him backing that up with action and proving that he had the power to do those things.

John the Baptist came preparing the way for the coming of Christ, came preparing people with this story of, hey, guys, the Messiah is coming. He had an incredible story to share, and we have this same story that we have the privilege of being able to share anytime we get the opportunity. So if you haven’t already turned there with me this morning, turn to Luke chapter 3.

We’re going to start in verse 1. We’re going to look at a few verses here and then skip a few years ahead, a little bit ahead in the story in John chapter 1. Luke chapter 3, verse 1 says, Now in the fifteenth 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 Eteria, and of the region of Trachonidas, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

Now, if you ever read passages like this and you wonder why is there so much detail, why all the names, why all the geography, let me tell you people don’t put that much detail into a lie I taught school for a little while and plus have had children you know that the trick to catching somebody in a lie is in the details and typically a good liar a good fabricator of a story is going to leave out some of the details because they don’t want to get bogged down in the details there are some people in our world today who believe that this book is a book of fairy tales I don’t know about you but every fairy tale I’ve ever heard started out very vaguely once upon a time. Where here we have the writers of the Gospels. We have Luke, who was very methodical in everything he researched and everything he wrote.

We have Luke pointing out, hey, I can tell you exactly what time this was, when this happened, who was ruling here, who was ruling there. I’ve looked at all of these guys, and the timeline matches up to about 27, 28 AD. All of this matches up.

And so if you ever wonder why all these names, why all these dates, why all these places, there are little clues in there for us where God is pointing out to say, this is verifiable historical fact. This really happened. God’s word is truth.

God’s word is truth. I feel like I’ve been drilling that phrase into my son’s head this week. We’re working on Awanas, and that’s one of their things that they’re having to memorize this week.

God’s word is truth. But it’s just as important for us to know at our age as adults that God’s word is still truth. That’s not just something we tell the little kids.

God’s word is true. And so during this time, it says, The word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came unto 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 the word of the Lord came to him, and so he went about the Jordan Valley preaching repentance for the remission of sins. And he was baptizing people. And as we hit on a little bit in Sunday school this morning, that was a ritual that they already were somewhat familiar with.

They would baptize people as converts. If they were Gentiles and they wanted to convert to Judaism, they would be baptized. And it was a symbol of this cleansing.

It was a ritual for cleansing and a symbol of conversion. And so John brought it and put his spin on it and said, you need to repent and told them because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. The Messiah is about to come and you need to repent.

You need to get your hearts right with God. And this baptism that he took them through was not something foreign that they wouldn’t understand. They would understand what they were going through, that it was a symbol of a changed heart, of a changed life.

It was a symbol of this conversion that takes place when we repent, when we change our minds and when we turn toward God. This was prophesied. It was told 700 years before that he would come and that he would be the voice of the one crying in the wilderness.

I was looking at this word crying the other day, and in the original language it means like an animal’s cry in the wilderness. I love going out into the country where it’s quiet and you don’t hear. We live not too far from I-35, and you can hear cars all day, and you can hear trains, and you can hear the football games at Moore High School.

There’s just noise all around us. I like getting out into the country, and it’s quiet, and it’s peaceful. And when one animal makes noise, when there’s a hawk circling overhead and making noise, or there are cows out in the pasture mooing, you can hear that animal where in the city it’ll be drowned out.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, John the Baptist, was a very clear, unmistakable message that people would have heard and they had to make a decision about. They couldn’t just ignore it. And many would accept what he brought.

Many would reject it. But they had to hear it and they couldn’t ignore it. It was clear and unmistakable like a cry in the quiet of the wilderness saying, prepare the way of the Lord.

Make his path straight. Get everybody ready. Get the people ready.

Those who are low need to be brought up. Those who think themselves a little too high need to be brought down. The Bible says God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud.

So he’s telling people, get your hearts ready for the coming of Christ. Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low. The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. That Jesus Christ is in bodily form the salvation of God. And he didn’t come, ladies and gentlemen, just to save the Jews, but he came to be the Savior of all who would call on him.

Whether it’s the Jews or the Gentiles, he would be the Savior for everybody who was willing to trust in God’s offer of salvation. And so John makes it very clear that the Messiah is coming, he’s bringing the salvation of God and all flesh will see this salvation, and he’s telling the people, you need to prepare yourselves. Now, as I said, John would have had an unmistakable voice.

His message would have been clear. It would have compelled people to some sort of action. John could have very easily gotten to a point where he was all about himself.

It’s dangerous for a preacher to start to think, I’m so wonderful. It’s all about me and my message. Fortunately, I embarrass myself on a regular basis, so God keeps me humble through that.

But it’s a danger there when you get up and you preach this message and you talk to people and they listen and they want to hear what you have to say. John never strayed away from the message, hey, it’s not about me, it’s about Jesus Christ who’s about to come. It’s about this Messiah who’s coming and bringing salvation and you need to prepare for that.

Don’t build a following around me. You need to prepare for the one who’s about to come. Now turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 1, if you’ve marked your spot there.

John chapter 1. John chapter 1 is one of my favorite chapters and we could spend all day here, but we won’t do that. We’re going to start in verse 24.

This is a little while longer. The Pharisees have just questioned him and said, Who are you? By what authority are you doing this ministry?

By what authority do you baptize? They’ve asked him, Are you Elijah? He says, No, I’m not Elijah.

Now, in keeping with Old Testament prophecy, he came in the spirit of Elijah, but he was not Elijah himself. Are you Jeremiah? When it says, Are you that prophet?

No, I’m not Jeremiah. are you the Messiah? When we see that word Christ, they’re not specifically identifying Jesus.

They’re asking, are you the Messiah? And he says, no, I’m not any of those things. And so they’ve asked him and he’s told them, just as we saw in Luke, that he’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

And so we pick up in verse 24 and it says, they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet? So if you’re not the Messiah yourself, if you’re not Elijah, if you’re not Jeremiah, if you’re not one of these prophets that’s supposed to come, who are you and why are you doing this ministry?

They were threatened. They didn’t like him. They were wrapped up in their religious rituals that kept themselves in power and kept the people bound.

And yet the people wanted to hear from John because the people were hungry for somebody who was real. And it’s not so much different from our day. I look at some of the people who are running for president, and I won’t name any names, but on either side, and I think, why are people listening to him? Why are people listening to her?

Why are people flocking to this person? And you know what? Whether I agree with somebody or not, people seem to be flocking to the people who are genuine, who are saying what they really think.

We live in a culture where everybody in the public eye, they’ve got a publicist, They have style consultants, and they’re dressed to the nines, and every word they say is choreographed. Everything is choreographed. Everything’s planned out.

People are tired, I think, of the smoke and the mirrors and the play. They just want to hear from somebody who’s real. And when you had the Pharisees telling you how to have a relationship with God, when they didn’t even seem to inwardly have a relationship with God, the people were starving for somebody who was real. And so they wanted to hear from John. This man was not out to impress anybody.

And so the Pharisees being threatened by that said, Who do you think you are? And John answered them in verse 26 and said, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not. He’s already here, by the way.

The Messiah is already here in our midst and you just don’t know it yet. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose. Again, at this point John could have said, And I think the natural human response would be to say, who do you think I am?

I can do whatever I want. I have the authority to preach. I have the authority to baptize.

He never strays from his message. It’s not about John. He says, I’m here on behalf of one whose shoes I’m not even worthy to take off.

And these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus. And again, again, he stays on this one message, this one story that he has to tell.

And he sees his followers. We know that from the other gospel accounts and some things that are written in the book of Acts, that he had developed, not on purpose, but he developed a group of people who traveled with him, who followed him, who listened to him teach. He’s there with these people, and he sees Jesus, and he could have very easily, again, built a following and a huge ministry for himself.

but he points them to Jesus and says, Behold, look over there, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. All of the teaching that I’ve been doing, every moment that you’ve followed me, and I’ve taught about what’s to come, is culminated in this moment.

There he is. Go follow him. He points them to the Lamb.

That was, you read, you know, we don’t know that much about John the Baptist, but everything we know about him from the New Testament. You look at everything he said, you look at everything he did, it was all geared toward this story of Jesus is coming, you need to be prepared. God is sending his salvation in the form of the Messiah, you need to be prepared.

And ladies and gentlemen, because Jesus has come, we have this same story to share with people as well. We have this same story that John the Baptist was so single-minded and focused about. we have this same story to share with a world who desperately needs to hear it.

Now, this might seem like an odd message to preach at Christmastime, but folks, what better time of year to tell people about what Christ did than at this time where the world, whether it knows it or not, is already focused on the event of his coming, of his first coming. We’re in a time of year where people think about spiritual things who may not think about spiritual things at any other point during the year. We have more of an open door during this season because Jesus came and this is the time of year when we celebrate that, whether it happened this time of year or not.

This is the time of year when we commemorate that. And we have an open door with people to tell them this story. The problem is, the problem is, and I love the Christmas story, that the problem is too often we treat Christ like he’s still in the manger.

You know what I’m talking about? I hear people call him the baby Jesus. Still, not just in the context of the Christmas story.

Baby Jesus. Folks, he’s not baby Jesus anymore. What happened on Christmas morning was miraculous.

I mean, the word miraculous doesn’t even begin to cover it. A virgin gave birth to a child who was the son of God. If we can read over that again and gloss over that and it gets old, there’s something wrong with us.

If that doesn’t amaze us every time we read it, something’s wrong. God’s son was born to a virgin, and he came to be the salvation of God to God’s people. That’s an incredible story.

but folks we need to in terms of the story and in terms of the message that we we convey to the world we need to take the baby out of the manger because that baby was born but he was born for the purpose of growing up of living a sinless life and being the sacrifice for sins and a risen savior and when we come together to commemorate his birth we have more of an open door at this time of year than we have I think any other time of year to talk about what he’s done in his coming, not just in that day when he was born, but throughout the whole time he came. We have the opportunity, maybe we don’t use these exact words, but we have the opportunity to look the world square in the eye and say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We have that opportunity.

We have that open door. Now, a few things about this message that we have to share, a few things that we need to share with the world as we focus on the fact that Christ came to earth and he came as a baby, but he didn’t stay a baby. He came as a baby and grew into a conquering savior.

A few of the things that John the Baptist alluded to that we need to share as well is, first of all, because Jesus came, repentance is due. Because Jesus came, repentance is due. I shared a story with the, not one of mine, but I shared a story last night with the search committee about something that’s bothered me for a few years, watching an invitation being given in a church, inviting kids to come forward and be saved.

And they were told during this invitation that if they wanted Jesus to be their best friend, to raise their hand and pray a prayer after the lady who was speaking. And they did pray a prayer and they asked Jesus to be their best friend and they were assured that they were going to heaven. And folks, it breaks my heart because that’s not the gospel that the Bible portrays.

The gospel says that there’s sin in each of us. We’ve all sinned against a holy God, whether we want to admit it or not. Either God is right or we’re right.

It can’t be both. And we’ve all sinned. We’ve all disobeyed God, and there’s a need for repentance.

There’s a point where the Bible says we need to come to repentance. The times of ignorance, the book of Acts says, God winked at, God let us seem to get by with things for a while, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. There was a time when God said, I’m going to get, to use this phrase, God gave us just enough rope to hang ourselves.

It’s not that we get away with anything. But God let things go on for just a little while. But now that Jesus has come, God says it’s time to get serious about sin and it’s time to repent.

John came preaching repentance because the Messiah was coming. And because Christ has come, repentance is due to God. Repentance is owed to God because we’ve sinned.

What does this word repentance mean? I’ve struggled with the word repentance for years trying to understand because I don’t believe we add a thing to the work of Christ by our works. No matter what we can do, we don’t add a thing to the work of Christ. Salvation is from first to last completely His work.

And we simply are responsible to believe, to take Him at His word. And yet the Bible teaches repentance. I struggled with this because I thought repentance means, sounds like it means you’ve got to get your life in order and you’ve got to put all your sins behind you.

You’ve got to clean up your life and come to Christ. I started studying that word a few years ago and realized that what the Bible’s talking about is a change of mind. It’s talking about a change of mind. Because before, in our natural state, we’re sinners, and we disobey God, and we like it that way.

But there comes a point when we’re confronted with who Christ is, and we have a choice to make. Is God right or are we right? And repentance is when we finally get over ourselves, Get over thinking that we’re right and we can do things our way and agree with God.

Now, does that mean that we don’t forsake sin? Not at all. But repentance means we change our mind about who God is and what we owe God.

And I believe God, when there’s true repentance, God will clean up our lives. That’s the whole point of the cross. We couldn’t clean up our lives on our own.

But John the Baptist came preaching that because Christ was coming, repentance was owed. Folks, we have the same message, that there is such a thing as sin. There is such a thing still as right and wrong.

The world doesn’t like to believe that. We live in a world that is rapidly changing. I can’t believe the things that have happened in the last ten years that I never thought would have taken place.

The changes in our culture, where now it’s practically hate speech to tell anybody that anything is wrong. Folks, there’s still such a thing as right and wrong. There’s still such a thing as obedience and disobedience.

and we all have disobeyed God. And God says we need to repent. We need to get over the idea of thinking that we’re right, and we can do whatever we want, and it doesn’t matter what God wants.

And we need to humble ourselves and admit before God that we’re wrong and that we’re in need of his forgiveness. So he came preaching repentance, and we need to tell the world about the need for repentance. It’s not going to be a popular message.

I would love to say let’s all go preach feel-good messages. Let’s all go share a feel-good message that everybody wants to hear. The fact is, it’s not something that’s going to be popular to hear, but it’s a message that’s desperately needed.

Because if there’s no such thing as sin, there’s nothing that we’re actually needing to be saved from. And yet the Bible’s clear that there is sin and there is a need for salvation. But with this need for repentance, there’s also forgiveness available.

So repentance is due, but also because Jesus came, forgiveness is available. There would be no forgiveness without the cross. I want you to hear that very carefully.

There would be no forgiveness of sins without the cross. If God could or would forgive our sins without the cross, then why in the world did he send Jesus Christ to pay for our sins? Why in the world did he send him who knew no sin, as the Bible says, to become sin for us?

But doesn’t God love us and God just wants to take everybody to heaven? Yes, that’s what the cross was about. God loved us enough that he was willing to send his own son.

And Jesus Christ went willingly to the cross. But he preached repentance, John the Baptist preached repentance for the remission of sins, as it says in Luke 3. 3.

That word remission means forgiveness, for it to be taken away. Folks, because Jesus came, forgiveness is available. If he was born and just stayed the baby in the manger, there wouldn’t be forgiveness.

If he was born and just was a good moral teacher, there wouldn’t be any forgiveness. But folks, because he came in the way that he came, because he was born God in human flesh, because he lived a sinless life, because he shed his blood on the cross as a payment for our sins, and because he rose again to prove that he was God able to forgive sins. Forgiveness is available.

Forgiveness is available. We have that message, that message of hope to share with the world. We have the bad news that you need to repent, but we also have the good news that God stands willing to forgive.

And finally this morning, because Jesus came, we should, we, just like John the Baptist, should point people to the Lamb. We should point them to the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Folks, that’s the responsibility of this church, of any Bible-believing church.

It’s the responsibility of any believer to point people to the Lamb. It’s not just the job of the pastor or the deacons. It’s the job of each of us to say, you know what, in my life, it’s not about me.

It’s about Him, and it’s about pointing people to Him. And we need to be, we need to on purpose point people to Jesus Christ. We need to on purpose tell people that God loved them enough that he sent his son to die for them. And now because Jesus died for them, they don’t have to try to earn their salvation by following the Old Testament law.

They don’t have to do good things and hope that it’s enough for God. They don’t get saved because of what church they go to or are a member of. They don’t get saved.

They don’t earn God’s forgiveness by giving money, by helping the poor, by being a nice person. Because there’s not enough of any of that stuff that we could do that it would ever make a bit of difference with God. But because Jesus came, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Our sin has been nailed to the cross. It’s been paid for in full. And now God stands willing to forgive.

If we simply believe that that child who was born was the only one who could pay for our sins. If we truly believe that we’ve sinned and we need His salvation. We believe that He died for us and we are willing to ask God’s forgiveness on that basis.

the Bible says it’s by grace that we’re saved through faith and that not of yourselves it’s the gift of God not by works lest any man should boast God offers that as a free gift this morning and God offers that as a free gift at really any time as you go tell people about Christ and what he’s done for you and what he can do for them as we hopefully take advantage of the open door that we have during this season God stands willing to offer forgiveness and salvation and eternal life in heaven is a free gift. We have all of that and we have that story to tell because Jesus came.