Christ Jesus Came Into the World to Save Sinners
TEXT: 1 Timothy 1:15 – “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
INTRODUCTION
Satan is a master at using controversial and extra-biblical issues to distract the church.
Illus. – A former police officer tells of the tactics of a group of thieves. – He says:
“They enter the store as a group. One or two separate themselves from the group, and the others start a loud commotion in another section of the store. This grabs the attention of the clerks and customers. As all eyes are turned to the disturbance, the accomplices fill their pockets with merchandise and cash, leaving before anyone suspects. Hours—sometimes even days—later, the victimized merchant realizes things are missing and calls the police. Too late.” (Tom McHaffie)
I wonder how often this strategy is used by the Evil One! We’re seduced by distractions, while our churches are ransacked. Many of our churches have lost not their merchandise, but their MISSION, and “a church without a mission will soon be out of COMmission.”
I’m afraid that’s what sometimes happens with what Paul is talking about in this verse. Here’s the master theme of the Bible, but Satan is adept at distracting us from focusing on it.
When you look at the Bible as a whole, you see that the most prominent theme of the Bible is the work of God to save those who are without God. I mean, the Bible underscores over and over again what Paul tells us in our text—that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” From Genesis to Revelation, you find one conspicuous, continuous theme threading like a scarlet thread from book to book—“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
You know, the Bible speaks on a lot of subjects. It gives us answers about issues of morality and ethics. It tells us how to find joy; how to rear our children; how to handle our money. But its CENTRAL purpose is to lay the groundwork for and then record for eternity the pivotal event of the ages—that Christ Jesus would come into the world to save sinners.
Everything else in the Bible is a sidelight to this salient theme. The great Bible scholar Merrill F. Unger put it this way:
“The Bible is one book, one history, one story, His story. Behind 10,000 events stands God, the builder of history, the maker of the ages.…You can go down into the minutest detail everywhere and see that there is one great purpose moving through the ages, the eternal design of the Almighty God to redeem a wrecked and ruined world.”
That Christ Jesus would come into the world to save sinners…
• is the eminent goal of the eternal God;
• it’s the subject of the centuries;
• it’s the theme of all theology;
• it’s the heartbeat of heaven.
What I’d like to do today is take a very brief, cursory tour of the Bible to show you this wonderful theme, and then close with some personal applications of this truth to our lives.
I. THE THEME IN THE BIBLE
A. Notice first the OLD TESTAMENT emphasis on this theme. (Of course, it would take an entire series of sermons to adequately cover this, so I’m only going to hit very superficially on just a few areas in the whole Old Testament:)
• You can’t get three chapters into Genesis, the first book of the Bible before you’re introduced to this theme. After Adam and Eve plunged the world into sin—an act that would have catastrophic consequences for all of history—God speaks to Satan through the serpent and says in Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” We don’t have time to deal with this in detail, but this the first time the Bible intimates that a messiah would someday come into the world to save sinners.
• I wish I had several weeks to show you how the Genesis patriarchs and many of the events of their lives are types and symbols of Jesus who would come to save sinners or how the Exodus foreshadows our redemption secured by Jesus—but time does not permit us in this cursory examination.
• This grand purpose was foreshadowed by the animal sacrifices in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.… The unsaved reader of Leviticus who doesn’t have the illuminating help of the Holy Spirit might see the Old Testament sacrifices as a bloody, primitive approach to appease an angry god. But the saved person indwelt by the Holy Spirit who compares scripture with scripture soon comes to see the true meaning of the Old Testament sacrifices.
Henry Halley, in his Halley’s Bible Handbook, explained that purpose like this:
“The unceasing sacrifice of animals and the never ending glow of altar fires were designed by God to burn into the consciousness of man the sense of his deep sinfulness and to be an age-long picture of the coming sacrifice of Christ toward whom they pointed and in whom they were fulfilled.”
Also, we see that many of the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming promised Messiah point to this wonderful design of eternity.
• For instance, Psalm 22, which is part of the poetic literature of the Bible, is the great Old Testament chapter that paints in vivid detail Christ’s horrible death, which is what secured our salvation. This chapter predicted—hundreds of years before the event—several exact details that were fulfilled on the cross:
– We’re told that Christ would be scorned and mocked.
– We read that Jesus would have a terrible thirst—fulfilled when He shouted “I thirst” on the cross.
– This chapter prophesies that His hands and feet would be pierced.
– It tells us that his garments would be parted and that His tormenters would cast lots for them.
And it records—hundreds of years before—Jesus’s dejected, forlorn cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Do you see it?—Hundreds of years before it happened, the Psalmist prophesied that Christ Jesus would come into the world to save sinners!
• You also see it in Isaiah 53. Verse 6 begins by saying, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…” That’s why Jesus had to come in the first place. We’re all sinners in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. We’ve all “turned to our own way.”
But aren’t you glad the verse doesn’t end there?—It goes on to say, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. The work of Christ to save sinners is elaborated on in even more detail in verses 10-12. In these verses, wonderful theological truths like propitiation and justification are clearly enunciated hundreds of years before to prophecy of the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
There is no doubt that the theme of the ages is abundantly illustrated in the Old Testament.
B. You especially cannot miss it in the NEW TESTAMENT. – The New Testament abounds with many references, explanations, and illustrations of this magnificent plan of God.
• The name “Jesus” means “Savior,” so His very name tells us of His mission.
This purpose was announced to Joseph when he thought about putting away Mary when he found out she was expecting. An angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Then the angel said “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: [WHY?…] for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
• This theme of the ages was announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:11 – “For unto you is born this day in the city of David [A WHAT?…] a savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
• It was proclaimed by John the Baptist when Jesus began His public ministry – John 1:29 says, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
• Jesus himself clearly explained His purpose for coming on many occasions.
– For instance, in Luke 19:10, He said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
– We all know that Jesus’s words to Nicodemus in the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16 where Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – But in the very next verse, Jesus went on to explain His purpose on earth when he said, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but [WHY?] that the world through him might be saved” (verse 17).
– And even in His dying moments, in His awful suffering and agony on the cross, He displayed that purpose by saving the thief on the cross!
• You also find this theme in the epistles, that is, the letters of the New Testament.
– For instance, Paul shouts it here in our text, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!”
– The writer of Hebrews says “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…” (Hebrews 9:26)
– Peter says in 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God…”
– John says in 1 John 4:14 – “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
• And in the book of Revelation, Jesus is called “the Lamb” 28 times. Why a lamb?—Because as John says in Revelation 13:8, Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” And why was He slain?—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
You see…
• Jesus didn’t come primarily to BE OUR EXAMPLE, though He was that above all others who lived on this earth.…
• He didn’t come just to SHOW US HOW TO LIVE, though no one ever lived like Jesus.…
• Nor did He come primarily to TEACH US LOFTY MORAL PRINCIPLES, though no one ever preached and taught like Jesus!
• Nor to BE A REVOLUTIONARY, though His message rocked the world.
No!—“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!”
II. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS THEME
(TRANSITION…) SO, if all this is true; if it is indeed true that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—then what are the IMPLICATIONS of that fact? How should this truth affect our lives? What does this mean to you and me personally?
• First, if Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, you should be saved today!
There’s not a person in this room who is not a sinner. 1 John 3:4 tells us that sin is the transgression of God’s laws, and there is no one who has not transgressed God’s laws.
Therefore, Jesus Christ died for you and He died for me—because we’re sinners, and “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!” God so loved you and me—and every other sinner—that He sent his Son to die for you—not once you clean yourself up, but now, while you're still a sinner! Romans 5:6 says, “For when we were yet without strength [i.e., to save ourselves], in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Christ didn’t die for perfect people—He died for ungodly people—people who have done and said and thought sinful things. Two verses down, Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth [which means “showed or display”, so…God showed] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Wow!—What a wonderful God!—Christ Jesus came into the world to save you and me when we were still sinners. That should not surprise you for, after all, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners!”
Don’t turn away from the greatest offer you will ever receive in your life. The writer of Hebrews warns, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation…” (Hebrews 2:3)
Come to Christ and be saved—today!
• My next applications is this: if Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, each of us who name the name of Christ ought to be actively trying to bring your lost family members, neighbors, friends, and co-workers to Christ.
Every one of them is a sinner like you and me, for Romans 3:23 says that “ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” So if Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Christ died for them just like He did for you! If Christ DIED for them, the least you can do is tell them what He did for them. May God help us all to pay any cost to win the lost, because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
• Finally, if Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, we ought to give willingly, generously, and sacrificially to the cause of worldwide missions. That’s why your church supports missionaries. That’s why your pastor promotes missions. That’s why many churches challenge their members to give to missions. That’s why your church may have a missions conference or some kind of missions emphases—because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. THAT’S what it’s all about.
CONCLUSION
QUOTATION : In Love is a Costly Thing, by African Missionary Dick Hillis says this:
She was lying on the ground. In her arms she held a tiny baby girl. As I put a cooked sweet potato into her outstretched hand, I wondered if she would live until morning. Her strength was almost gone, but her tired eyes acknowledged my gift. The sweet potato could help so little—but it was all I had.
Taking a bite she chewed it carefully. Then, placing her mouth over her baby's mouth, she forced the soft warm food into the tiny throat. Although the mother was starving, she used the entire potato to keep her baby alive.
Exhausted from her effort, she dropped her head on the ground and closed her eyes. In a few minutes the baby was asleep. I later learned that during the night the mother's heart stopped, but her little girl lived. (EMPHASIZE:) Love is a costly thing.
Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That involved GREAT sacrifice by Jesus Christ. Like this woman, He died so that we might live. As Dick Hillis said, “love is a costly thing.”
And you know what?—We must tell the world at any cost.
But I’ll tell you something: Such love is costly.
• It will cost you time and maybe your reputation to tell others about Christ.
• It will cost this church money and time and effort and work and prayer to get the Gospel out in your Jerusalem, that is, your own city or town or community.
• It will cost us a tithe and a missions offering for you to reach not only your own town/city, but to have a truly GLOBAL outreach.
• It may cost you your children if God calls them to take the Gospel to some foreign land—something you should be imminently proud of, and give thanks to God for.
In light of what Christ has done for us, may we do what God would have us do—because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
