What Jesus can do for those lost in SIN? Rev. 1:4-7
He was the first to rise from the dead. He is the commander of all the rulers of the world. He loved us and made us free from our sins by the shedding of his blood. He made us his kingdom and his priests to serve before God his Father. He rules forever and forever.
A man named John Perring is trying to get money from the Bank of England. His claim is that his great grandfather invested over $100,000 in this bank many years ago. He says the bank paid interest to his relative until 1846 and since that time has not paid anything. He would like to collect more than a Trillion dollars. He has been after them for a number of years without success and it is most likely he will not get a cent. In contrast to this, I would like to think of how many riches we have in Christ that is available to us by faith. To have all these riches we must repent of our sins and become a part of the family of God. When we are His children then all He possesses and all He can do will be available.
Let us look at three things that Jesus can do.
I. Jesus loves while we are yet sinners. In vs. 5 it says, “He loved us.” Christ’ love for us is not in the past tense but in the present tense. An accurate translation of this would be, “is loving us.” What is a way to describe that love?
A. Jesus loves us just as we are. Guess what; there is nothing we can do to make God love us. On the other hand, there is nothing we can do to stop him from loving us. The Bible says, “God is love.” Because of Jesus Christ God can love us just as we are.
As the songwriter put it, “Just as I am without on plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. And thou biddest me come to thee, O lamb of God I come. Just as I am and waiting not, to rid my soul of one dark blot. To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot? Just as I am tho’ tossed about, with many a conflict, many a doubt. Fightings and fears within, without, O lamb of God I come. Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because thy promise I believe. Just as I am! Thy love unknown hath broken every barrier down. Now to be thine, yea thine alone, O Lamb of God I come.” There was a man named Oliver Cromwell who told his painter to paint with warts and all. He wanted people to remember him as he was. Jesus loves us warts and all. There is nothing we can do to clean up our act before Jesus can love us. He loves us just as we are.
B. Jesus loves us with a sacrificial love. The word we have here for love is agape, which is the strongest word for love given in the N. T. You see it God’s love for sinful man that springs form the value He places on a human soul. Our bodies are made from the dust of the earth but our souls are made to inhabit eternity. ROM 5:6 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” ROM 5:8 “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
JESUS REALLY LOVESYOU----Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the Pastor and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, "Okay Dad, I’m ready." His Pastor Dad asked, "Ready for what?” Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out." Dad responds, "Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring down rain." The boy gives his Dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining?" Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather." Despondently the boy asks, "Dad, can I go -- Please?" His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here’s the tracts; be careful son." "Thanks, Dad!" And with that he was off and out into the rain. This 11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door-to-door and handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel tract. After 2-hours of walking in the rain he was soaking bone-chilled wet and down to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell -- but nobody answered. He rang it again and again bit still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally, this 11-year-old trooper turned to leave but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door, rang the bell, and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?" With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, "Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU! I came to give you my very last Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love." With that, he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed, "Thank you, son! And God bless you!" Well, the following Sunday morning in church, his Dad was in the pulpit and as the service began he asked, "Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?" Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face. "None of you in this church know me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband has passed on, some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart as I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live. "So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. "Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, ’I’ll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.’ "I waited and waited -- but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, ’Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me!’ "I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked, I could hardly believe my eyes! "There on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life! His smile! Oh, I could never describe it to you! And the words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with cherub-like voice, ’Ma’am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.’ "Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out, into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t need them any more. "You see, I am now a happy child of the KING, and since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel tract I have come here to personally say, ’Thank you to God’s little angel who came just in the nick of time, and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.’” You may be a Christian, for we are not without problems, or you may not yet know the King. Whatever the case, and whatever the problem or situation you find yourself in, and no matter how dark it may seem, I want you to know that I just came to tell you, "JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU!"
II. The next thing our verses tell us is that Jesus came to free us from our sins. It says, “He washed away our sins in His own blood.” One has said the word washed is better translated loosed or freed. Jesus and only Jesus is able to free us from our sinful nature. John 1:12-13 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
A. He freed us from our sins by giving Himself. 1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.” It is only by the blood of Jesus we can be free from sin.
B. He frees us from our sins as we accept Him by faith believing. A complete experience that cannot be undone. It points to a definite time when Jesus did this work in our hearts. The Bible calls it a new birth or being born again.
III. Jesus is here to lift us out of our sins. Jesus lifts us out of our sin to abundant-life living. John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Jesus was lifted up on the cross so He could lift us out of our sins. Everywhere the gospel has been preached and believed upon; it has lifted sinners out of the darkness of sin into the light of God’s forgiveness and love. As we look at the life of Jesus, we see Him take a sinful woman at a well and change her into a witness where she brought a whole town to see Jesus. Jesus took a man named Saul who hated the church and was bent on destroying it into a man who had to keep going on to tell others of the wonderful news about Christ. He became the instrument that God used to write half of the N. T.
He lifted me by Charles Gabiel. “From sinking sand He lifted me. With tender hand, He lifted me. From shades of night to plains of light, Oh praise His name, He lifted me.”
Conclusion: There is a day in the life of each person who does not know Jesus Christ as Savior, when there is no more opportunity to receive Christ. God will take his or her life, and he or she will go into eternity without Christ. We don’t know when that day is, so it behooves you if you do not know Christ as Savior to trust Him this morning. He died for your sins. He was buried. He rose again. All you need to do is make a full faith commitment to Him.
“During World War II, an American naval force in the North Atlantic was engaged in heavy battle with enemy ships and submarines on an exceptionally dark night. Six planes took off from the carrier to search out those targets, but while they were in the air, a total blackout was ordered for the carrier in order to protect it from attack. Without lights on the carrier’s deck, the six planes could not possibly land, and they made a radio request for the lights to be turned on just long enough for them to come in. But because the entire carrier, with its several thousand men as well as all the other planes and equipment, would have been put in jeopardy, no lights were permitted. When the six planes ran out of fuel, they had to ditch in the freezing water and all crewmembers perished into eternity.” There comes a time when God turns out the lights, when further opportunity of salvation is forever lost.” (John MacArthur, The Mac Arthur Commentary, Matthew 8-15, (Chicago, Moody Press, 1987), p.314)
