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Christianity
Explored – Week 3
Why did Jesus come?
In the last couple of weeks we've been saying
something quite simple but very important:- Christianity IS Christ- it's all about
Jesus. Christianity is a
relationship with Jesus. So if
it’s a relationship with Jesus, we’ve been doing our best to introduce
Him to you.
Last week we saw that Mark introduces Jesus as ‘the
Christ, the Son of God’. Jesus is
the one promised from the very beginning- the King of all creation who
was born into the world. And we
saw last week Mark's gospel showing Jesus walk around planet earth like
He owns the place. We saw the
authority of King Jesus. His
authority in teaching, His authority over evil, His authority over
disease, His authority over nature itself, His authority over death and crucially
His authority to deal with our biggest problem- the problem of sin. In every aspect of His world, Jesus
shows Himself to be completely in control – He is the Christ, the Son of
God.
But if that’s who He is, and if Christianity is
a relationship with Him – What do
you think it would be like to meet Jesus? I once asked my sister that and she
gave a great analogy. She said,
the thought of meeting Jesus face to face was a bit like talking to
someone for a while and then finding out they’re a dentist. You can be laughing and smiling,
flashing those toothy grins around the place, but when you find out
they’re a dental health professional, your immediate reaction is to do
this [cover mouth]. And it’s
true. Ordinarily I'm comfortable
with my teeth looking like a jumbled mess of brown tic-tacs. But when I come into contact with a
dentist I become very aware of the appalling state of my teeth.
That’s the silly illustration. But seriously tonight we are
considering facing up to Jesus, the King of Creation, the Christ, the Son
of God, who sees us and knows us to the bottom of our hearts. And we can’t hide it. What’s it like to meet with Jesus
Christ, the Son of God?
Tonight is definitely the most uncomfortable
night on Christianity Explored. If
it’s your first week this week, Welcome – you’ve joined us for the
heaviest of all our discussions.
This week we’re asking the question ‘Why did Jesus come?’ And we’re going to hear His own answer
to that question – Jesus has come because of our problems, because of our
sin. Tonight is going to be heavy.
Tonight we’re looking at some very confronting
home truths. And I want to remind
you that everything I say up here is up for discussion on the table
groups. Please raise any questions
or objections you have, we'd love to hear from you.
But tonight we’re looking at Why Jesus
came?
Let’s turn to one of my favourite stories in all
the bible. Mark chapter 2, verses
13-17.
13 Once again Jesus
went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to
teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus
sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told
him, and Levi got up and followed him. 15 While Jesus was
having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and
"sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there
were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law
who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax
collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax
collectors and`sinners'?" 17 On hearing this, Jesus said
to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I
have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Here in this passage we have sinners and the righteous, baddies
and goodies. And by the standards
of the day the baddies at this dinner party were very bad and the goodies
were very good. While the tax
collectors cheated their own people out of money and then gave it to the hated
Romans, the Pharisees were religious, biblical, zealous, upright, ethical,
they look whiter-than-white. But
the bombshell is verse 17- ‘It is not the
healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners’.
Jesus thinks of Himself as a spiritual
doctor. And because He’s a doctor,
He is not interested in the healthy, He’s only interested in the
sick.
And that’s true isn’t it? You don’t go to your GP, sit down and
tell them ‘I just thought you’d like to know I’m a picture of perfect
health.’ Your doctor does not want
to know that. Your doctor will
chase you out of the surgery for wasting their time. Doctors are for sick people. And Jesus is for sinners.
Tonight we are asking Why did Jesus come? And verse 17 tells us. Jesus says-
"I have come like a Doctor , I have come for sick sinners." Jesus has not come to congratulate the good
people, He has come to save the bad people. Jesus has come like a Doctor – to heal
our heart problems. But the one
qualification for His healing is this – you need to admit you’re sick. Jesus has not come for the healthy, He
has not come for righteous, upright, godly, nice, good people. Jesus has come for the sick, He has
come for sinners, bad people, ungodly people, rebellious people.
Which means if you want a relationship with
Jesus there is one
qualification you have to meet.
You MUST be a sinner. If
you want a relationship with Jesus the question is NOT ‘Are you good
enough for Jesus?’ The question is
‘Are you bad enough for Jesus.’
Why has Jesus come? He has come ONLY for sinners. Do you qualify?
Tonight is about reassuring you that you DO
qualify. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. And we all need the Doctor’s
healing.
Let me show you that we are all sinners.
Let's turn to Mark 12:28-31.
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of
all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this:`Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this:`Love
your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than
these."
What does God expect from us? What is His standard? In v30, Jesus sums up everything that
He expects from us with one idea- love. That's all. That's the standard, it's very simple:-
everything we do and say and think is to be motivated by love- love for
the God who made us and love for each other.
It makes sense doesn't it? We've been saying that Christianity is
all about relationship, and so naturally the thing that Jesus
wants from us in this relationship is – love.
But look at the love we are to show- verse
30- All our heart, all
our soul, all our mind, all our
strength. No part of our lives is
to be withheld from God. That is
God's standard. He is to have all
of everything.
But He’s actually had all of nothing.
Let me ask you this question and see what your
heart does: Who’s got the right to
tell you how to lead your life?
Who’s got the right to tell you how to spend your money or your
time or who you should spend it with?
Who’s got the right to tell you anything?
My instinctive reaction is to say “Nobody! No-one’s got the right to tell me what
to do!” But that’s crazy. I draw another breath right now because
God gives it to me and yet, I think of myself as my own. I don’t naturally love God with
everything. The natural state of
my heart is to resent Him. Isn’t that
appalling? But it’s true. It must grieve His heart so much but
even as He pours out love and grace and good gifts, but naturally, my
heart does not love Him, naturally I resent Him.
And what about loving other people? Do I love other people as much as I
love myself – wow that’s a big standard!
You know I have loved one or two other people in my life. But the very people I have loved most I
have also hurt the most. I’m sure
you’re the same. The closer we get
to people the more we hurt them. What
are we like? We are very far from
Jesus’ standard here.
I mean just think- what would it be like - to
have always loved God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? What
would it be like to have always loved our neighbours as much as we love
ourselves? I can’t even imagine
what that would look like, except that I’ve seen it in one man – in Jesus
Christ. He showed total love for
God even going to the cross for Him.
He showed total love for others, even going to the cross for
us. No-one was ever able to pin a
single sin on Jesus – He was a Man of pure love. But are you up to His standard? I’m not.
We tend to think that the world is divided into
quite nice people over here and naughty people over there – and we’re
always just on the right side of the line. The bible says differently. The bible says there’s Jesus far away
on that side of the line, and then there’s all of us down here – the
sinners.
Are you a sinner? I’m a sinner. I’m sick – I need the Doctor’s
help. What about you, are you a
sinner?
What’s the matter with us? Well Jesus says we’ve got a real
problem with our hearts. Turn with
me to Mark 7, from verse 14:
The issue in this chapter is what makes someone
unclean in God’s eyes. Unclean is
just another way of saying something is unacceptable to God. Now the Pharisees are blaming external
things – you are unacceptable because of what you touch, where you go,
what you eat.
But Jesus says the problem is much closer to
home. Mark chapter 7 and we’ll read verses 14-23.
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me,
everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can
make him`unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a
man that makes him`unclean'." 16 17 After he had left the
crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18
"Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing
that enters a man from the outside can make him`unclean'? 19
For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his
body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean".)
20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes
him`unclean'. 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come
evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22
greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23
All these evils come from inside and make a man`unclean'."
The Pharisees thought of themselves as
righteous. And they thought the
problem of sin was a problem OUT THERE.
You became unclean by stuff coming into you from the outside.
Jesus says no.
Evil is not OUT THERE.
Verse 21: It’s from WITHIN.
It’s quite terrifying what Jesus is saying. It’s like those horror films where the
monster chases the heroes and the heroes finally make it up the stairs to
the attic and they bolt the door behind them and slump to the floor. And then they realize the monster is IN
THERE WITH THEM. It’s the ultimate
horror scenario. The monster is
not OUT THERE. The monster is
INSIDE. That’s what Jesus is
saying to us.
There’s tremendous evil in the world but
actually the real monster is not out there – it’s in here! If we were to trace all the evil in the
world back to its source, the place we’d end up is in the human heart.
For it is from within, out of our hearts that come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness,
envy, slander, arrogance and folly (v. 21).
Someone put it like this: the heart of the
human problem is the problem of the
human heart. The problem is not out
there – it’s in here. And that’s
scary.
Let’s do a thought experiment.
Imagine for a moment that we turned this church
into a public gallery, and that plastered all over the walls was a record
of your life. Each day is on the walls: October 20th 1999,
October 20th 2000, October 20th 2001 all the way up
to October 20th 2009.
For each day there is a complete and true account of everything
you’ve ever said, thought or done.
And of course included on every page is whether you’ve loved God that
day with all your heart and loved your neighbour as much as you love
yourself.
Now I know that there'd be lots to celebrate:
loving relationships, real achievements, acts of kindness, moments of
generosity and selflessness. But there would also be thousands of things
that we’d want to keep out of the public gaze.
Now, I don't know about you but if my life was
put up in here uncensored, I would emigrate. In a flash, no question, I'd grab my
passport and be out the door. And
I don't think I'd be alone in that.
Who here would be willing to take us all on a guided tour of their
own uncensored life story. “Ta
da!”
We know we can’t even do that. We can’t even
face one another with truth of our hearts. What about God – who the bible says has
eyes too pure to even look on evil.
Are you a sinner?
The greatest tragedy is when people live in
denial of their sin. Many come to
Jesus the Doctor, they are sick to the heart, coughing up sins and
selfishness, but they sit in His surgery and they claim that they are healthy. What can Jesus the Doctor do? Well, here’s one thing He does. He tells His patients what will happen
if they don’t get treatment.
Growing up we always had in the house a
cancerous lung in formaldehyde. It
was a human lung in a glass case.
A bit odd, you might think.
But my mum worked for a Cancer charity and for people who didn’t
see a problem with smoking 50 a day, my mum would produce this horrible
thing – to show them that this is where it all leads. It gave people a shock, but it was the
loving thing to do.
Jesus does a similar thing in Mark chapter
9. Let’s turn there for a very
scary Doctor’s warning.
Mark chapter 9, verses 42-48.
42 "And if anyone
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better
for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his
neck. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is
better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell,
where the fire never goes out. 44 45 And if your foot causes
you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than
to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 46 47 And if your eye causes
you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of
God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48
where "`their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'
This is even scarier than the Cancerous
lung. But it’s the loving thing
for the Doctor to warn us. Jesus
says the prognosis for sick sinners is terrible. We face the judgement of God. That is
how serious sin is. The Bible says that hell is real, it’s forever and
it’s for all those who live in denial and don’t seek the Doctor’s help.
And it’s totally fair. We live our lives saying ‘I don’t want
you God! I don’t want you
God! I’ll take your good gifts but
I don’t want you.’ All the time
God is saying ‘Yes you do want me, I am the source of your life and every
good thing. I love you, I am for
you.’ But we persist in saying ‘I
don’t want you God! I don’t want
you!’ And at some point God says –
“If you don’t want me, ok, you don’t get me.” Hell is the place where people get
exactly what they want. If you
don’t want God, you don’t get God – forever. And it’s totally fair.
But Jesus wants us to know, it is madness to
want to live apart from the God who sustains you and is the source of
every good thing. As a good Doctor
He wants to wake us up to the reality of our sickness. Here is the Cancerous lung as a
warning. Look at these verses,
this is where our sickness leads.
And Jesus pleads with us not to dismiss His warnings about hell,
because His very reason for coming to earth is to save us from it.
Why did Jesus come? He came as a Doctor for sick
sinners. He came to save people
with sinful hearts from a fate worse than death. That’s who Jesus is? Who are you? Are you a sinner?
Let’s discuss further on our tables.
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