BASIC TRAINING #3 - JESUS IS SAVIOR
ISAIAH 53:4-6; LUKE 19:10; 1 TIMOTHY 1:15
(Note: Drama "Another Day at the Bus Stop" can be purchased from www.willowdrama.com. Movie clips are used by permission through CVLI)
INTRODUCTION: (Master & Commander clip: Chap: 15 Start: 0:49:47 End: 0:53:20 -3:43 )
What a heart-retching decision by that Commander. If he doesn’t cut the ropes to the wreckage it will become a “sea anchor” killing everyone on board. If he does cut the ropes he sacrifices one of his men, Mr. Warley. But the truth was that it was necessary for Warely to die in order to save the ship and its crew. How hard would that be to watch that man swept out to sea, to send him to his certain death?
Last week we learned that we live in a world that is a churning sea of sin. We learned whether you struggle with pride or gossip or abuse or adultery.. we all have a sinful nature. And much like the clip we just saw, in order to save us from our plight someone had to be sacrificed. But instead of dying in an accident, incredibly, Jesus Christ chose, chose mind you, to sacrifice Himself so that we might live.
Last week was the bad news, we talked about the guilt of our sin. This week comes the great news: there is a Savior and He wants everyone to live - forever with Him. The purpose of this message will really depend upon where you are on your spiritual journey. If you have known Jesus Christ as your personal Savior for a while then I pray that this message will deepen your faith in Him. Maybe you are just beginning your faith walk. Maybe it wasn’t that long ago that you received Jesus as Savior and Lord and responded to Him as we talked last week with repentance, confession and baptism. Well, my prayer is that this sermon will help you see that continuing to walk with and learn about Him is the best thing you can do. Maybe some of you are here seeking. Just “checking out this God or church thing.” Well, my prayer for you is that this message will plant some seeds that will lead you to study and investigate more, that will motivate you to ask questions about this man Jesus. So, wherever you are in your spiritual journey I pray that this will be a moment of confrontation with the One who gave His life for you.
Several years ago in the Boston marathon there was a woman named Rosie Ruiz who competed.. and cheated, by riding a bus, winning the prestigious race. The problem with Rosie is that she completed the marathon faster than anyone had ever done it before. When she finished people stared at her in disbelief. A perceptive TV reporter stuck a microphone in her face and said, "Maam, you are either the fastest woman alive, or you are a fraud." The same applies to Jesus Christ. If Jesus is really who He says He is than He is history’s greatest hinge.. upon which all else opens or closes. But if He is not who He says He is, He is history’s greatest hoax. He is an imposter. So that makes this matter the most important issue you will ever deal with. So this morning let’s go through a natural progression. First, to the O.T., seeing the promise of a Savior, then to the N.T. seeing the fulfillment of that Savior, and finally, recognizing our need for a Savior.
I. THE PROMISE OF A SAVIOR:
From the very beginning sin erected a barrier between man and God. Where there had been a perfect relationship, because both man and God were perfect, there was, and still is a gulf of separation that was created because of man’s sin. You see, as it did for Adam and Eve, so it does for us.. our sin has alienated us from a sinless & perfect God. So, God knew, from the beginning that something, in this case, Someone, would have to bridge that gulf. Now, incredibly the Bible teaches us that God, unfolded His promise of a Savior before creation. Rev. 13:8- "..the lamb who was killed before the world was made."(NLT) God knew even before the sacrifice was needed that Jesus would be the One to bridge the gulf between sinful man and sinless God. Isn’t that amazing? That means that God made us, knowing He would have to save us. Knowing that it would cost Him His Son. Let me ask you - would you have made you knowing it would cost your Son’s life? God did. What unbelievable love!
All through the O.T. God’s plan to reconcile man to Himself is revealed. The earliest referral to this is in the first book of the Bible in Gen. 3:15. There we are told that although satan would bruise Jesus’ heel at the cross, Jesus would crush satan’s power when He resurrected from the grave. And then God rose up prophets to serve as His mouth pieces to tell people of the coming Savior. Through these prophecies people learned all kinds of details concerning this coming Savior. The O.T. is filled with promise after promise that a Redeemer was coming to buy man back from sin.
I believe that there are many things that can substantiate and strengthen your faith. God has provided some strong objective evidence for your faith. Over the last couple of weeks we have talked about such things a archeological discoveries that are showing more clearly than ever that the Bible is an accurate and true historical account. In the 1950’s, in a place called Qumran near the Dead Sea, a shepherd boy accidently uncovered one of the greatest archeological finds of our time. He discovered pots containing what is now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls dated back before Christ and held much of the O.T. Now, although they do not contain the entire O.T., guess what they do contain? The portions of the O.T. found on those scrolls contains every prophecy from the O.T. concerning Jesus. It’s as if God gave us a huge neon type arrow pointing to Jesus through those scrolls.
And a study of prophecy is another thing that can deepen your faith. 2 Peter 1:19- "We have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay close attention to everything they have written, for, like lights shining into dark corners, their words help us to understand many things.."(LB) One of the greatest proofs that Jesus is the Savior of the world, is the O.T. prophecies. There are nearly 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His lifetime. No wonder David wrote in Psalm 130:7 "..put your hope in the lord. For He is loving and able to save." (NCV) And only Jesus Christ is worthy of instilling hope in our hearts for only He is our Savior. That’s why Paul wrote: “Jesus is the only One who can save people. His name is the only power in the world that has been given to save people. We must be saved through him!” (Acts 4:12 - NCV) Notice - He’s the only One. Some think that to be narrow but if it not the truth! And not only was He perfectly predicted, He was perfectly qualified.
II. THE FULFILLMENT OF A SAVIOR:
Because while the O.T. tells of a promised Savior, the NT reveals the fulfillment of all those prophecies in the person of Jesus Christ. And not only are they fulfilled but the purpose, the reason a Savior is needed, is revealed. It is revealed by His name. In Matt. 1:19 an angel appears to a young man in Nazareth who is quite troubled because he has discovered that his fiancé is pregnant. So he is trying to figure out a way to gently break the engagement. But an angel comes to him and says, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."(NIV) And then in vs:21 the angel says: "She will give birth to a son, and you are to call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sin."(NIV) The name "Jesus" means Savior or "God is salvation." We also see the fulfillment & purpose of Jesus as savior at His birth. In the Christmas story, in Luke 2:11 when the angels appear before the shepherds they say, "Today, in the town of David a savior has been born to you: he is Christ the lord."(NIV) You see Jesus is His name meaning Savior, Christ is His title which means anointed one or chosen one. And Jesus proved all thorough His life that He was the One, the Savior. Through his miracles, to His teaching, to His resurrecting from the dead, Jesus proved himself to be the historical person who had been promised since the beginning of time.
But what is even more important than recognizing Jesus as the historical reality that fits the promise, we need to truly comprehend why He came. It is critical to understand that Jesus isn’t just a person with good ideas, or a prophet espousing a new morality, or even a martyr worth emulating. Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of our need because he became our substitute. Where we should of died as punishment for our sin, He died for us. His whole purpose in coming was to save us from our sin. Jesus Himself declared His purpose in Luke 19:10- "The Son of Man (Jesus) has come to seek and to save people who are lost.."(GW) James Irwin, one of the few astronauts that walked upon the moon, once said, "God walking on the earth, because of what that means, will always carry more importance than any man walking on the moon."
But Jesus didn’t just walk on this earth and give platitudes, fulfilling his mission meant he had to die to pay the penalty for sin. And this payment through death was not a quick, easy demise. Jesus didn’t just die for my sin, he suffered because of my sin. Back in 1985 I underwent major knee surgery. Now, I’m the type that is interested in "how" things are done, so I asked my orthopedic surgeon if I could have a video of my surgery. He said, he would allow me to have the video of the orthoscopic procedure, which showed him what had to be done, but not of the major surgery. You see, back then not everything could be done orthoscopicly. When I asked him why he explained it this way.. "You would not want to see what I have to do to get into your knee joint. I cut off a piece of ligament from your side, and then open up your knee. I have to separate your knee joint wide enough to get both my hands inside your knee. And I had to attach it with a large screw. I actually forcibly screwed that screw into your bone. I don’t think you want to see that." Now, when I tell that story I get much the same reaction that many of you are giving right now. They cringe and say, "How could you even think about seeing that.. that must of been so gross." But you know what? You cannot find a more gruesome nor grosser situation then the type of death that Jesus endured for you and me. You see, we can actually hear so often that “Jesus died for our sins” that if we’re not careful we will forget what Jesus’ purpose actually cost Him, what He had to endure.
Hundreds of years before Jesus’ death Isaiah described what would happen to Him. Isaiah 53:4, that we have printed for you, tells us that the reason Jesus had to go to the cross was because of our sin. You see although the religious leaders and the mob cried for Jesus’ blood and although Pilate condemned Him it was not just them that sent Jesus to his punishment. Look at Vs:5 - “But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him- our sins!”(Isa. 53:5 - MSG)
VIDEO CLIP - The Passion of the Christ - Chap. 15: Start:51:13 - Stop: 53:28 - 2:15
I cannot show you anymore of that film. I would recommend you see this movie.. without young children. Because it is gruesome. But, from everything I can read and study it is also very realistic. It will help you get a sense of what saving you and I cost Jesus. So, let’s just read this prophecy and make some comments about it.. try and visualize what happened to Jesus as we read this. Look at the last of vs:5. "He took the punishment.." He took it.. This was no accident. Jesus wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time, He was in the right place, at exactly the right time, where He chose to be. Vs:4- "... it was our pain he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.." Back when my youngest child, Zach was little, I was throwing him up in the air, as Dad’s do, and accidently lost control of him. I grabbed him to keep him from hitting the floor but in doing so I broke his arm. You could hear it “pop” when I grabbed it. Oh, how I wished it was my arm. That’s the natural reaction of a father. But God, the heavenly Father, deliberately allowed His Son to endure unbelievable pain, so you & I might be saved.
Notice vs:5? It says he was "ripped and tore and crushed.” The crucifixion is often misunderstood. The purpose of crucifixion was not to kill a person. Death usually came by asphyxiation, exposure or heart failure not from the piercing of the nails. The purpose of the crucifixion was for torture. Some criminals were known to live for 3 and 4 days on the cross. But Jesus didn’t just suffer the piercing. He had been severely beaten, as we began to see in that clip, and by the time he was actually nailed to the cross he had been severely flogged, slapped, punched, had a crown of thorns jammed on his head. It is no wonder that Isa. 52:14 reads- "Many were amazed when they saw him - beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person."(NLT) Tischendorf was an early Jewish historian. After the crucifixion of Jesus, he received a letter that was written to Pontius Pilate by a soldier who was at the execution of Jesus. In that letter the soldier wrote: "When the mother of Jesus of Nazareth was brought to Calvary, she stood below the three crosses and asked me, "Which one is my son?" "So disfigured one would scarcely know he was a person.”
Maybe the greatest miracle Jesus ever performed was having the power to come down from the cross and yet staying up there. Even Jesus’ enemies cried from the foot of the cross.. "He saved others... but He can’t save himself!" (Mt. 27:41 NLT) Yes, He did save others and He could of saved Himself. Why did He subject Himself to this? Why did He stay? Max Lucado writes: "Why didn’t He come down from the cross? After all, nails don’t hold gods to trees... but love does." And on that day, love did. And on the day when Jesus was crucified you and I were there... because it was our sin that placed Him there. Isa. 53:6- "We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him!" (Msg) Martin Luther said, "Each of us carries nails of calvary in our pockets." 1 Peter 2:24- "He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds!"(NLT) Jesus fulfilled the promise. He is our Savior!
III. OUR NEED FOR A SAVIOR:
So, what does it all mean for us today? What’s the application? It’s an obvious one isn’t it? Because of our sin, we need a Savior, we need Jesus. Because our sin put Jesus Christ on the cross we must ourselves crucify ego and swallow our pride and turn our sinful lives over to a sinless Savior. The apostle Paul said what all of us could say in 1 Tim. 1 :15- "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst." (GW)
Jesus Christ came to save us from sin, to save us from eternal damnation. Last week we talked specifically about this salvation by grace, but I also want you to see that Jesus not only offers eternal salvation He also offers to be the peace which allows us to breach some of our separations right now, in 2005. So many people only see salvation as something in the "sweet bye and bye," and certainly the greatest part of salvation is living eternally in heaven. But Jesus’ salvation is also for the "difficult here and now" too.
You see, our sin separated us from a right relationship with God. No-one likes to be separated from the things they value. Several years ago, my wife Deb, lost the diamond to her wedding ring. One night she looked down and the band was still there but the diamond was gone. She was so upset. I suggested she verbally walk through her day and we would back track. Well, she did that but all of a sudden she said, "Tim, I took a bath this morning, what if it..” but I interrupted her and said, "Honey, you don’t have to worry about that. If it came out while you were in the tub it will still be there because with the size of the diamond that I got you, there’s no way it would fit down the small holes of that drain!" She gave that look.. but the point is that she was really upset when she lost that diamond because it was valuable to her.
And when we sin we create 5 separations from God. Jesus is our bridge that spans those separations and makes it possible for us to have peace with God here & now.
1. Sin created a psychological separation bringing on guilt and shame. But Jesus provides peace, forgiveness. I believe that a Christian should have a balanced self-image. We don’t think we are better than we are but we also don’t think of ourselves as worthless. God valued you so much that He created you in His image and then He died for us. That should motivate us to seek to please God in all we say and do.
2. Sin also created spiritual separation with God. God as a perfect being cannot abide nor be around sin, so He can’t fellowship with sinners. But the Bible teaches that when we receive Jesus as our Savior, He removes that alienation from God. God no longer sees our sin but sees Jesus’ perfection.“God has made a way for people to be right with Him... God makes people right with Him through their trust in Jesus.” (Rom. 3:21-22 NCV) Because of Jesus we can once again have close fellowship with God.
3. Sin also created a sociological separation. Sin made us blame and separated us from each other. But if we follow Jesus we can be at peace with one another. Now, the church is not perfect.. Someone once said, "To live in heaven with ones we love oh, that will be glory, but to live here below with those we know, that’s another story." But even though we are not perfect there is a bond between believer’s like no other bond. I have been in service clubs, fraternal orders and even a union. And although I have felt close to some of those people because of areas of commonality, I have never had the relationship with them as I do my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Why? Because we don’t just have things in common, like jobs and community interests, but we have the same purpose for living, the same values, the same foundation for belief.. the same Savior.
4. Sin created an environmental separation. From the beginning sin began to corrupt this world. Sin brought thorns, thistles, storms, earthquakes, tsunamis. But because of Jesus, there is coming a day, according to the Bible, when this old world will be done and we will live in a place that is once again environmental perfect. A place that will be beyond beauty in description but will also be a place of peace.. no more sorrow, no more tears, no more night... the place that Jesus has prepared.
5. But the final bridge is the most important. That is that sin created a physical separation because the punishment for sin is death. Some say that satan’s strongest weapon is the reality of death. Is there one of us who has not felt the sting of it’s blow? But when you have Jesus Christ as your Savior you enter into a partnership with Him. Because He conquered death, you can conquer death too. Paul writes: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! (1 Cor.15:55 & 57NLT)
You see, those who accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, may have to experience separation from this world, but they will never have to experience eternal death, separation from God.
Because of Jesus we no longer have to be separated psychologically, spiritually, sociologically, environmentally or physically. But don’t think Jesus stopped loving you, wanting you and yearning for you at the cross. Remember what He said His purpose was? It hasn’t changed.. No matter what you’ve done. No matter what your experiences or feelings have been. The truth is He’s still seeking, still desiring, He’s still wanting to save... And if you’ll only allow Him to, He’ll gladly be your Savior.. After all, that’s why He came into the world.
PRAYER (Drama: “Another Day at the Bus Stop” sets up.)
ABOVE ALL (Song)
