Why Jesus Came

INTRO.- Ways you know you’re from Arkansas:

- "Vacation" means driving to Hot Springs or maybe even Branson.

- Up North to you means Missouri.

- You know several people who have hit a deer.

- Your school classes were canceled because of cold.

- Your school classes were canceled because of heat.

- You’ve had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

- You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.

- You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example:"Where’s my car at?"

- You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

- You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, catfish, and Sweet Tea.

- You eat dinner at noon and supper at night.

- You think that "deer season" is a National Holiday.

- You know what time to be home for curfew -- not because of the law, but because of the mosquitoes!

- You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer and Football.

- You know that Bill Clinton, Billy Bob Thornton, and John Grisham are all from Arkansas.

- You think a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.

- You know what "Wooooo Pig Sooie" means.

If you were born and raised in Arkansas would really ever want to move, say to Minnesota? I seriously doubt it. You might want to go visit MN, or perhaps of the Mall of America but I doubt that you would want to move there.

When you live in what you consider to be one of the best states, why would you want to live anywhere else? Why would you leave a good place or location for a lesser location?

Worse than moving to some other place in the US would be moving to another country, especially a country that has little to offer and where they worship foreign gods.

ILL.- One family in the LifeSpring Christian Church of Cincinnati, OH, recently visited Thailand and here is what they found. Thailand is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, and only .05% Christian. The wife said, “I feel like I am having such a strange week. The heat alone is overwhelming. The whole language barrier and being a minority are socially overwhelming. And I feel like I am in a whole other world spiritually speaking.”

Now, how would you like to move to Thailand to live? It would take some powerful motivation to move from where you’ve been born and raised to move somewhere extremely different, unsettled and insecure.

And that’s exactly what Jesus did. He left his glorious home for this sinful world. It’s almost hard to understand why He would do that, that is, until you know His heart and the heart of His father.

John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

Thank God that Jesus came to earth! Jesus left His father, His home, His heaven, His friends, His followers and all for earth, for us.

PROP.- In this sermon I want us to think about Jesus’ initial mission on earth.

1- Jesus sought and John baptized

2- Jesus submitted and God spoke

I. JESUS SOUGHT AND JOHN BAPTIZED

Matt. 3:13 “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.”

In a sense, Jesus was a seeker. All people are seekers in some form or another. That is, all people seek after something but not necessary the truth about God and Christ.

ILL.- Last Tuesday night on Larry King Live his guest was Jane Fonda. Many people don’t think too highly of Jane Fonda because of her “Hanoi Jane” reputation. However, in her recent years she’s changed. She readily admits that she, too, has been seeking something in life and really didn’t know what it was. She’s still against war but she’s been open to the Lord in her life. In fact, she now claims to be a Christian after being raised by her atheist father, Henry Fonda.

I think Jane Fonda found herself disillusioned with life, marriage, Hollywood, etc., which made her open to the Lord.

And I’ve heard various stories about her conversion, the first of which came from newsman Cal Thomas. I truly hope that Jane Fonda has found the Lord. Why? Because the Lord wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Often, it takes difficulty and hardship in life to make people seek the Lord. People have to go down before they ever go up.

ILL.- I remember a young married couple in Missouri many years ago. They had only one child; a three-and-a-half year old boy. The boy got very sick and they took him to the hospital in Columbia, MO. The next day the boy died. They were devastated.