SERMON OUTLINE:
(1). HE CAME: The Son of Man came.”
(2). HE SEEKS: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save.”
(3). HE FINDS: “What was lost.”
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• You might recognise the photo of this lady - Gabby Login
• She was the host of the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year show.
• And has sparked fresh controversy this week,
• By wishing viewers a 'happy festive season' rather than 'Merry Christmas'.
• We assume she did it to be woke or politically correct,
• But I am glad to say it seems to have backfired on her,
• With lots of criticism from the public and other media sources.
• TRANSITION:
• The BBC (or Gabby Logan) may want to go back to a Pagan festivals,
• But I will stick with Christmas and Jesus being the reason for the season.
Note:
• In history there is no greater or more influential figure than Jesus Christ.
• And one of life’s great questions has to be,
• Who is Jesus Christ,
• And why did Jesus Christ come to the earth?
Ill:
• If you did a survey on the street.
• Who is Jesus or why did he come you would get a variety of responses.
• YouTube: UK Vox – Who is Jesus?
• Download Link: https://youtu.be/qStz4lBsvCQ
• Some argue that Jesus came to give us an example of God’s love.
• Others say that he came to be the Perfect Man,
• Many people consider him the greatest teacher of all time.
• Others he was a prophet, a messenger from God.
• Still others believe he came to establish a new religion.
• TRANSITION:
• Question: What did Jesus say about himself?
• Answer: Luke chapter 19 verse 10.
• “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
• In one simple sentence,
• We have recorded the sublimest statement of the mission of Christ.
• He spoke those words to a man hiding in a tree.
• Many of you may know the story of Zacchaeus,
• If you don’t then here it is.
• YouTube: Zacchaeus,(Friends & heroes).
• Download Link: https://youtu.be/7U1KWld6V4o
(1). HE CAME: The Son of Man came.”
• The question of did Jesus exist has long been settled.
• No serious scholar today believes he was an invented figure.
Ill:
• Shocked a few years ago on a tennis holiday.
• Speaking to one of the group, a German lady,
• Who confidently told me regarding Jesus, “I don’t believe it!”
• So, I replied, “Which bit don’t you believe?”
• She replied, “All of it! I don’t even believe there was a Jesus!”
• When I pressed her on her evidence for that claim,
• She said, “I don’t have any, I just don’t believe!”
• And critics claim Christians have blind faith!
• It is a historical fact that Jesus existed & was crucified.
• No serious historian doubts that today.
• They may not believe he did miracles or rose from the dead,
• No serious historian doubts his existence or violent death.
• The big question all of us have to decide is,
• Was Jesus just a great a man or more than a man?
• Was he divine?
Note:
• Christians believe that Jesus was unique.
• We started life when a man’s sperm fused with a woman’s ovum.
• Now that in itself is remarkable!
• The probability of you being born is about 1 in 400 trillion.
• Now think of how ‘lucky’ you are!
• But the Bible teaches Jesus always existed as part of the Godhead.
• Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
• And that he chose to enter his own creation!
Ill:
• On February 15, 1921,
• There was a doctor who performed an appendicectomy.
• A surgical operation in which the vermiform appendix,
• (a portion of the intestine) is removed.
• The doctor performing the surgery was Dr. Evan Kane,
• Who during his 37-year medical career,
• Had performed nearly 4,000 of these operations.
• so, this surgery was not at all unusual,
• Well, except for two things.
FIRST:
• This was the first time that local anesthesia,
• Had ever been used in major surgery.
• Dr. Kane believed that local anesthesia,
• Was much safer than putting a patient completely to sleep.
• The problem was trying to find a patient,
• Willing to be the ‘guinea pig,’
• Someone who would allow Dr Kane to operate on them.
• Most people are squeamish,
• At the thought of being awake during their own surgery.
• Others are fearful that the anaesthesia might wear off too soon.
• Well after much searching,
• They found someone who would be willing to undergo surgery,
• While under local anaesthetic.
• Finally, on Tuesday morning, February 15th, the operation began.
• The patient was prepped and wheeled into the operating room.
• A local anaesthetic was applied.
• And as Dr. Kane had done thousands of times before,
• He cut open the tissues and removed the appendix.
• The patient had only minor discomfort,
• And recovered quickly and was dismissed two days later.
• Dr. Kane had proven his theory.
• Thanks to the willingness of a brave volunteer.
Now, I said there were two facts that made this surgery unusual.
• I've told you the first: the use of local anesthesia.
• The second unusual thing was the patient.
SECOND:
• The patient was Dr. Kane.
• Unable to find a volunteer patient,
• To prove his point, Dr. Kane decided to operate on himself.
• TRANSITION:
• In an even far more remarkable way than Dr Kane.
• Jesus Christ became one of us. Fully divine but fully human!
• As the old hymn (‘There is a green hill far away’) says,
“There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin,
He only could unlock the gate
Of heav’n and let us in.”
• He placed himself in our world.
• He placed himself in our shoes.
• He placed himself in our place on the cross!
• That he might cure us a from a greater problem than a burst appendix.
• He would give his life for the sins of thew world!
Jesus has come to earth,
• The Almighty has entered our world,
• The infinite has become finite,
• The eternal has invaded time.
• Theologians call it the Incarnation–God in human flesh.
• The Bible calls him Immanuel–God with us.
Note:
• His birth differs from every other birth,
• Because he voluntarily came into this world.
• You and I came into the world,
• Because of the choice (or the mistake) of our parents.
• . We were born but we had no choice in the matter.
• But Jesus “came” the Bible says,
• According to the plan of God.
• Quote: Galatians chapter 4 verse 4.
• “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son”
• Every detail was minutely planned in heaven.
• Nothing concerning Jesus happened by chance.
• He came from the light into the darkness.
• He came from splendour of heaven into squalor od a stable.
• He came from purity into a world of sin.
• But he came! He came!
At the heart of the Christian faith is this certain truth:
• God has come down to us in the person of Jesus.
• Now we know what God is like,
• For God the Son has made him known to us.
“Let earth and heaven combine,
angels and men agree
to praise in songs divine
the incarnate Deity.
our God contracted to a span,
incomprehensibly made man.
. He laid his glory by,
took form in mortal clay.
unseen by human eye
the hidden Godhead lay.
infant of days he here became,
and bore the meek Immanuel’s name.”
(2). HE SEEKS: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save.”
Ill:
• We are all familiar with these words,
• “Your mission if you choose to accept it.”
• You tube Download Link: https://youtu.be/bN0ET7emEhQ
• TRANSITION:
• The Bible and Jesus himself make it very clear.
• Jesus Christ was on the most spiritually significant mission.
• Jesus came looking for something,
• Or rather I should say Jesus came looking for someone.
Ill:
• Jesus himself put it this way in Luke chapter 15.
• e.g. He is like the woman who lost a coin,
• And searched her house until she found it.
• e.g. He is like the man who lost one sheep,
• And went out into the wilderness to find it.
• e.g. He is the like the Father,
• Who welcomed his lost & rebellious son back home again.
Jesus came looking for someone!
• e.g. He found Zacchaeus hiding up a tree,
• e.g. He found a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well.
• e.g. He found a blind beggar outside the temple.
• e.g. He found a bunch of fishermen that he would turn into disciples.
• e.g. He found a tax collector called Levi in his workplace.
• e.g. He even found a criminal hanging on a cross dying next to him!
• e.g. And there are many in this room tonight,
• Who can say, “Jesus Christ found me!”
• Jesus came as the seeking Savior.
• We will never understand him unless we see this clearly.
Ill:
• Most Sunday afternoons I drive up to Speakers Corner,
• (Hyde park. London).
• And talk, argue, debate often with Moslem men.
• They keep telling me Jesus was a prophet, a messenger.
• But my Bible tells me different!
• God sent a saviour – not a messenger or another prophet.
• Quote: the message of the angel to Jospeh was,
• Matthew chapter 1 verse 21:
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,
because he will SAVE his people from their sins.”
• Quote: the message of the angel to Mary was,
• Luke chapter 1 verse 31:
• “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him JESUS.”
• Jesus means, “Jehovah saves.”
• Quote: the message of the Shepherds was,
• Luke chapter 2 verse 11:
“Today in the town of David a SAVIOUR has been born to you.
he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Ill:
• A man fell in a hole.
• YouTube Download Link: https://youtu.be/M3FxkAu4FAE
• We don’t need more advice.
• We don’t need another example.
• But we all need a saviour! That is why Jesus came!
(3). HE FINDS: “What was lost.”
• In that one sentence,
• We have the most perfect description of the state of humanity.
Ill:
• On a flight, an airplane pilot made this announcement.
• "Ladies and gentlemen, we have some good news and some bad news,
• The good news is we are making great progress,
• The bad news is we are lost”.
• TRANSITION: Isn’t that a great description of our times,
• We are making great progress in every area of life,
• e.g. technology, science, medicine etc.
• And yet we are still lost,
• We are still battling the same problems of the human heart!
Quote: Rick Warren (from his sermon ‘Hope is My Anchor’):
• It’s his poem, so he might as well read it.
• YouTube Download Link: https://youtu.be/IpI2phhdlhA
“Wealth is idolized.
Truth is minimized.
Life is trivialized.
Abortion legalized.
Television is vulgarized.
Advertising is sensualized.
Everything is sexualized and commercialized.
Our consciences have been desensitized and anesthetized.
Education is secularized.
Free markets are monopolized.
Races are polarized.
Politics are polarized.
Sports are scandalized.
Morals and ethics are liberalized.
And in entertainment crime is sensationalized and immorality is popularized,
Drugs are legitimized, sin is glamorized.
The courts are paralyzed.
The breakup of the family is rationalized.
Manners are uncivilized.
Christians are demonized.
And God is marginalized.”
• TRANSITION: We are making record time,
• But we are very much living in a lost world!
• A world gone wrong!
Note: Men are lost with God.
What does it mean to be lost?
Once again Jesus tells us in his three parables in Luke chapter 15.
• e.g. Sheep wandering away from the flock (separation).
• e.g. Coin lost in a dark room (not fulfilling its purpose)
• e.g. Son outside his father’s influence (perish).
Note: Here is the good news of Christmas and the gospel!
• The shepherd went and found the lost sheep!
• The woman found the lost coin.
• The father welcomed back the lost son!
• If Christ did not come to us, we would never come to him.
• We were born running!
• We all want to do our own thing! We all go our own way!
• But we find hope and the answer in the words of Jesus,
• Who came to “to seek and to save what was lost.”
• In him we see God’s love.
• In him we see God’s mercy.
• In him we see God’s kindness.
• In him we see God’s holiness.
• In him we see God’s justice.
• In him we see God’s forgiveness.
Quote: My favourite Carol, “Hark the herald angels sing.”
“Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled…
Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth.”
• You can be ‘reconciled’ tonight!
• You can experience that ‘second birth’ and be ‘born again!’
Salvation is both simple but hard. Let me use this outline to help you:
Romans Road to Salvation: Bible Verses
• The Romans Road lays out a path to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ,
• Its emphases sin, its consequences,
• And the redeeming power of Christ's death and resurrection.
The Human Problem - Sin
Romans chapter 3 verse 23 –
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
The Consequence of Sin
Romans chapter 6 verse 23 –
" For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The Solution - Christ's Sacrifice
Romans chapter 5 verse 8 –
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The Response - Faith
Romans chapter 10 verse 9 –
"If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
The Assurance of Salvation
Romans chapter 10 verse 13 –
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
The Result of Salvation - Peace with God
Romans chapter 5 verse 1 –
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:"
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=VC0v9swZVMV1zmmmfG5dlgyIpMew5WZM
SERMON VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/4JdiaVSrhj0
