"Why Jesus Came To Us!" Series

Message 1: “Why Jesus came to us!”

Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2

Today we are beginning a new sermon series that I will preach each Sunday between now and Easter Sunday in April. What I want you to see in the next few weeks is just how important and valuable your life is to Jesus. The way we say it here at FBC is this:

. What we will do in the ensuing weeks is to look at various episodes from the life and ministry of Jesus to see how Jesus showed people from all walks of life how their lives mattered to Him.

Do you realize that the entire mission of Jesus’ coming into this world was to tell people and show them ? People matter to Jesus. You matter to Jesus.

We see this today in our passages of scripture. When we come to Luke 4:18, the gospel writer Luke records for us the first sermon of Jesus in Nazareth, His hometown. As was His custom, Jesus went to the synagogue which would be much like us coming to church today. The people had heard how Jesus had performed many miracles in and around Capernaum. They had heard about His message of repentance from sin, the Kingdom of God, and the message of love and forgiveness. At first, the people of Nazareth were excited Jesus was in town. He was asked to read from the scroll a passage from the prophet Isaiah which is found in Isaiah 61:1-2. What Jesus reads to the people, He proclaims to be His mission on earth. (READ PASSAGES)

Let’s consider what the Messiah’s mission was, and still is, today. Jesus came to show you that through His mission of doing 3 things. What did Jesus come to do?

I. Jesus came to proclaim the evangelistic message of life

He said He came “To preach good news to the poor (18:a / 61:a).” While Jesus did care about the poor (see Luke 14:13), and was desperately poor Himself (see Matthew 8:20) this verse is not primarily speaking of material deprivation or economic poverty. To understand what Jesus meant listen to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5. Jesus is beginning his “Sermon on the Mount” and the section we know as the “Beatitudes.” Look at verse three with me: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

The word “poor” here implies humility and hopelessness of spirit. It literally means “having nothing to offer on one’s own accord.” In other words, it is the realization that on our own, we have nothing to offer God. God is not dependant on us, rather, we are dependant on Him! Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible called The Message translates this verse: “You’re blessed when you are at the end of your rope.” (Mt. 5:3)

Author Mike Breaux writes, “You are blessed…when you reach into your spiritual pockets, and you turn them inside out and all you’ve got are little lint balls. You will never be happy in life until you realize you’re spiritually busted and you need God in your life.”

This is the crux of becoming a Christian. Salvation begins the moment you realize that you are a sinner and that you have offended a holy and righteous God. Romans 3:23 teaches us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” It is then you understand you are deserving of death because of your sins and you are hopeless and helpless to save yourself. Romans 6:23 tells us “the wages of sin is death…” This will lead you to cry out for forgiveness.

The message of Jesus is that because , He came to be that deliverer for you. Jesus and Jesus alone can deliver you from your sin. Paul wrote to the church at Rome: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Jesus died on the cross, for our sins, in our place so that we could spend eternity with him in heaven. Let’s look at the rest of Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. (Romans 6:23).

ILLUSTRATION: The NT gospels record of an incident where a woman who had been caught in adultery was being dragged into the streets before Jesus to be stoned. She was guilty. She had been caught in the act of adultery. She had no defense. Her accusers were numerous. What did Jesus do? Wrote in the dirt and rock after rock was dropped. She wanted to be forgiven and Jesus forgave her! She became poor in spirit. Her life had nothing to offer the Lord at that point. She was hopeless. But, because Jesus had come to proclaim good news to those poor in spirit like this woman and because His mission was to show her , Jesus said unto her, “Where are your accusers? You now have none and neither do I accuse you. Go, your sins have been forgiven.” This is what Jesus came to do in your life this morning!