"The One Who Came to Save"

Sermon Transcript for December 3, 2000

By Rev. Mike Beck

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 53

 

I’m enjoying so much preaching this series of messages on basic Christian doctrines. And I’ve been very appreciative of the many positive comments that are coming from you. Until I hit 2^nd year calculus, I was a math minor in college. And perhaps one of the reasons I’ve been enjoying this series is to be able to see the "wisdom" of God as through salvation history the various pieces of salvation are so intricately put together.

Two weeks ago I preached a message entitled, "What Does It Mean to Be Saved?" And that message had to do with the doctrine of salvation. But today’s message deals with the person of Jesus Christ and his place in the doctrine of salvation. Or, as the title of the message says, "the one who came to save".

Let’s begin by asking how you react to this image. The words "Jesus Saves!". Now, if I’m wrong on this someone tell me afterwards, but I’m old enough to remember the Burma Shave signs that were along side the road. You’d read one sign after another. I’m trying to remember rather the last sign said "Burma Shave" or "Jesus Saves". I can’t remember for sure which. But, I don’t know about you, but I get really turned off when I’m watching major sporting events. And I don’t know how they get the tickets that they get, but there’s this guy and his cronies and they always manage to be seated right in eye’s view of the camera and they are holding up their sign, John 3:16. And, I’m really kind of turned off by that. We perhaps naturally wince at the slogan, "Jesus Saves", especially as it’s often used. When it’s written in big neon lights outside the Rescue Mission we may feel that somehow that wording is beneath God’s dignity. And we’d like it to be phrased more elegantly.

But the other night I was at home and the movie ‘Titanic’ was aired on TV. We’d seen it at the theater, but we watched it again. As I was watching the movie, you’re very visually reminded, those people on the Titanic needed to be saved. And dignity wasn’t of much concern to them. What they were concerned about is, "Was there somebody who could save them from their predicament?" And friends, just like those folks on the Titanic, I need to be saved and you need to be saved.

Any serious reading of the gospels and the New Testament will lead us to this conclusion: This man Jesus was born with the specific assignment to die. Half the gospels talk about His death. There in the Upper Room with His disciples as He was praying are these words in John 12:27. Jesus says, "My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?" And then Jesus answers His own question. He says, "No, for it was this very reason that I was born." How do we explain that? That a man is born for the primary purpose of dying? Why is it that Jesus had to die? And then, What is the relationship of His death to our salvation?

Now, friends, we are New Testament Christians. We do not read the Old Testament the same way we read the New Testament. But when we explore basic Christian doctrines, we will do ourselves a great disservice if we ignore the background that has been provided for us in the pages of the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul writes these words to the early church at Corinth. He writes, "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." And here’s what we often forget as we read the New Testament. Hear me carefully, the only Scriptures they had were the Old Testament scriptures. No one was carrying around their King James’ red-letter New Testament! The Scriptures being referred to are from the Old Testament. And so before going on, let’s look briefly at the Old Testament background for "the one who came to save".

In the Old Testament, salvation begins with a system - and a rather intricate system. The plan that God puts in motion involve the sacrifice of blood for the forgiveness of sins. You brought your lamb to the temple. The lamb was sacrificed. The priest poured out the blood upon the alter and doing so a person received atonement for their sins. Now, we acknowledge that that concept seems repulsive to us in the 21^st Century America. But, let me remind you this. It is based upon two fundamental concepts that are still true for us today:

1. The essence of life is found in the blood. Anyone who deals with medicine knows this. The life is in the blood. When there is an illness, when medication is needed, when there is an infection, lots going on, something is happening with the blood.

2. The blood sacrifice of the Old Testament reminded the people of the seriousness of their sin in light of the holiness of their God.

Salvation themes run throughout the books of the Old Testament. So when we get to the writings of the prophets, we begin to see strong longings for a mediator or a person who can come along and bring salvation to God’s people. So as those early Christians after the resurrection looked back on scriptures like Isaiah 53, they saw in Christ the fulfillment of that desire. Hear again a couple portions of what Dan read for us. "He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed."

And some of you may be thinking, "Reverend Mike, this is the first Sunday in Advent, we’re talking about the baby Jesus that wonderful sweet story. Why are you talking about Christ’s death?" For this primary reason--the one who was born in that manger was born to die for you and for me.

As we think of this one who came to save, let’s move now to the New Testament. Let’s begin by looking at the words of the Angel to Joseph concerning the miraculous birth that was to take place. The Angel said to Joseph, "What is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus." And friends, in the New Testament the name a person was given was of extreme importance. Joseph was told, "You are to give him the name Jesus for He will save the people from their sins."

Allow me a sidelight here. For many persons in Jesus’ day, what they were looking for was the wrong kind of Savior. They were looking for a Savior who would be a king, who would be a military leader, who would help them overthrow the hated Romans. But that was not the salvation Jesus came to bring. Jesus came to bring something far more important. The reason He came are in the final words of His pronouncement to Joseph, "He will save His people from their sins".

So with this as background, I want to go back now to the two questions we looked at earlier. Why did Jesus have to die? And, what was the relationship of His death to our salvation?

 

Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Let me answer that very simply:

 

The Problem - Sin. There is the problem. And we more often than not do not take our sin seriously enough because we look at the person down the street. We say, "I’m just as good as they are. I live a better life than they do.

 

The Standard - God’s Holiness. But the Bible tells us the standard by which our sin is measured is the holiness of God. Any of you want to put your life up against the holiness of God this morning and say, "Hey I’m a pretty good guy or gal?"

 

The Consequence - Death--both physical and spiritual.

 

The Solution - Jesus Christ. But the reason we come together to worship our God each Sunday is the good news is there is a solution for that dilemma we are in and that solution is found in Jesus Christ.

You ought to be able to take that simple equation home with you. The problem is our sin. The standard is God’s holiness. The consequence is death. But the solution God has given is in the life of his Son Jesus Christ.

These words from Philippians 2, Versus 6-8 will tie today’s message right in to the message from last week on the incarnation. Hear them. "Being in very nature God, Jesus made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness; And being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross." Peter put it this way in I Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 24. "He", speaking of Christ, "bore our sin in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness." And then hear the echo of the words of Isaiah, "by His wounds we are healed".

You can tie together these last two messages also with this symbol used by the early Christians: the word "ICTHUS" being formed by the first five letters of the Greek alphabet. If you want to tie together the last two messages and boil them down to its essence, you’ve got it right there. Jesus Christ. God’s Son. Savior.

I close with this true story from a German concentration camp. On July 31, 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. As a reprisal, German officers arbitrarily selected ten men to die of starvation in an underground bunker. One of the men selected was Francis Gatchenzdic. When called to step forward, he cried out in anguish, "My poor wife and children". At that moment, a small Polish man, Maximillian Kolby, stepped forward and said, "I am a Catholic priest. I have no family. I want to die for this man". And to everyone’s amazement, the offer was accepted, and this Polish priest went with the other men to the starvation bunker. What occurred in that starvation bunker was to the amazement of the Gestapo. They lived far longer than anyone anticipated them living. Every time they would go down to observe them, it seemed like a church service was going on. They finally had to put them to death by lethal injection because they needed the bunker for another group of prisoners.

Forty-one years later, on October 10, 1982, in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Maximillian Kolby’s death was seen in its proper perspective. In the presence of 150,000 persons, 300 Archbishops and Bishops, 26 Cardinals, was Francis Gatchenzdic, his wife, Janena, his children, and his children’s children. And the Pope on that occasion described what Maximillian Kolby had done as a victory like that unto our Lord, Jesus Christ. "The one who came to save". To save you, to save me, to save all who would believe in His name.