Why Did Jesus Come (part 2)

[0:00] We're asking in this evangelistic Bible study just six basic questions. And the first is, who is Jesus? Because we've learned that Christianity is all about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

[0:14] So who is he? And then the second study was, why did he come to this earth? And we have seen that his titles are not just clues, but are helps to us to explain the answers to these questions.

[0:32] And so we saw his title of Savior as to why Jesus came. He is the Savior. And saviors save. And so we asked, well, who does Jesus save?

[0:44] And we saw that he came to save sinners. Not just the respectable among men, but the really bad sinners as well. We saw what sin is.

[0:56] That we're all sinners against God. God, because sin is breaking God's laws. And we just looked at some of the commands that Jesus spoke as he taught with the authority of God himself in his voice.

[1:13] And when he spoke, he spoke with the authority of God. And he shows us the laws that he has. And, again, we're undone by these laws. No one can stand before the command to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all of our strength.

[1:31] And to love our neighbor as ourselves. These commands search us and find us coming short of God's requirements. So we're all sinners against God. And then we have one more point in this lesson that we want to cover.

[1:46] And we'll see whether we go on after we've touched upon that this morning. So if the Son of God is here to save or to rescue sinners, if someone needs to be rescued, just in general, is it from something good or something bad?

[2:11] Well, it's obviously something bad, isn't it? Anybody here ever had to be rescued from a free steak dinner or from a free week's vacation from your boss or a raise?

[2:26] You don't need to be rescued from good things. But you might need to be rescued if your boat has sunk far out at sea and the Coast Guard spots you and the helicopter comes and sees you perishing below in the cold waters.

[2:44] You need to be rescued from danger upon you. And so that's the idea then behind this word rescue or save. Jesus' very name means he saves.

[2:57] The Lord saves. And that means there's some problem. There's some danger that we're in that we need to be saved from. So what is that?

[3:08] What is the danger that rebels need Jesus to save them from? Again, I guess we're assuming that you don't know anything about the Bible.

[3:19] What do you think? What does the world think that we need to be saved from? Well, some might say hell. Some understand it is hell. Of hell? Yeah.

[3:30] Okay. There's a general knowledge out there that there's a hell, whether people believe that or not. Some do. And so they might say hell. Bad influences from others?

[3:44] Bad influences? This is a concern, especially of parents. Trouble. Trouble. It abounds in the world, doesn't it? All kinds of troublemakers are at large.

[3:57] And it just looms heavy as we watch the news and learn of people. It could be health problems. It could be just the crime and all sorts of troubles that we need to be saved from trouble.

[4:12] Yeah, we need to be saved from our environment, from catastrophic environmental storms and so on. On and on we could go with the ideas that men have.

[4:24] Now, I take it for granted, since you're here to explore the teachings of Christianity, that you're not interested in some version of Christianity light, L-I-T-E.

[4:35] Some version of Christianity that has been shaped and tweaked by men to fit with their liking. You're not interested in that.

[4:46] You want the real thing. You want to know, what does the Bible teach? That's why you're here in this study. You're like the person who goes to the doctor after the test has been taken.

[4:58] And you're not saying, doctor, give me good news, even if there's bad news. You say, give it to me straight. I want to know the truth. And so I trust that's your reason for being here.

[5:11] You want it straight. And the answer of what we need to be saved from has to do with God's judgment for sin. God's judgment for sin.

[5:23] Now, if we're to really understand the problem that all sinners have, we have to realize it's not just a surface problem. It's not just that God has said that he's going to punish all sinners.

[5:38] That's true. That would be problematic enough. But it's not just because he's passed a law that says so. It's because of who God is. He's holy, which means there's no sin in him.

[5:53] He's perfectly good and righteous and just. So he has nothing of sin. In fact, his nature recoils against sin. He can't he can't help himself, we could say, but to hate sin and to punish it.

[6:08] He is so righteous that it turns his stomach, as we would say, wherever he sees it. And that's why he's determined to punish sin wherever it's found.

[6:22] Cameras recently have taken us into the courtroom where young ladies and girls have given testimony against this doctor, Larry Nassar, who sexually abused them while on the gymnastic teams.

[6:33] What would happen if the judge hearing these testimonies would just let him go free and just refuse to punish him?

[6:45] You'd have more than dads going after him in the courtroom, wouldn't you? That judge would be history. The whole nation would rise up and say, doesn't belong on the bench.

[6:59] Why is that? Why is that? Why would we respond that way? We expect a judge to be just.

[7:11] Where has that expectation come from? Well, that's an interesting question. That's part of the image of God that's been put upon us, that we're made in God's image.

[7:23] And God is just. And we have this sense of justice. And we know when our rights have been violated, there's something that just, that's not right.

[7:34] It shouldn't be that way. And indeed, it shouldn't. That's not the way God created the world originally. It was all right and just and fair. And so when we come across injustice, whether in our personal lives or in the courtrooms, everything within us screams foul.

[7:54] It's not fair. And there's there's good reason for that. You see, we don't want a judge who's light on crime, who overlooks evil, who lets wrongdoers go free.

[8:05] A judge is supposed to uphold justice. It's in his very name. Judge justice. A judge is supposed to see that evildoers are held accountable and punished for his crimes.

[8:17] And even so, God himself as judge would not be a just judge if he let sinners go free, if he did not punish their sin.

[8:30] So God being just, it's who he is, it's what he is. He will punish sin wherever it's found. And so that leads us then to this third answer to the question.

[8:42] Why did Jesus come? Well, he came to save sinners. We're all sinners. And we're all in danger of God's judgment for our sin. Now, there's a view of Jesus in the world today of a very syrupy, sweet Jesus who would never think of punishing sinners eternally.

[9:05] In a hell of torment. Let's turn to his own words so that you can read for yourself the Jesus that walked the earth. And you can make up your own mind of what claims he made concerning the matter of judgment in hell.

[9:23] Is he the Jesus that's so popularly thought of today? Or is he really a just Jesus? Turn to chapter 12. We're in the Gospel of Luke.

[9:36] And let's look at verses 2 to 5. Tom Zeltlinger, you have that? There are nothing to see of that one of these clothes that are here that will not be made of hell.

[9:53] What you have said in the dark, you turn into the daylight and what you must be here in the inner room when you proclaim the liberties. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of this to kill the body and after that be the only one.

[10:07] But I'll show you whom you should fear. Fear him whom after the body has been killed has the authority of the glory of the hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Okay.

[10:19] Jesus is talking about there's a lot of things that don't get punished in this life. Not every Larry Nassar gets hauled into court and punished for their nasty crimes.

[10:30] A lot of them get through it in this life. But Jesus is teaching that there is coming a time when every hidden thing will be brought to light. There's a coming day of putting right of all the wrongs done in secret.

[10:44] That's a coming day of judgment. And that's what he's warning people about. That they need to not just be afraid of a personal enemy that might murder them and kill their body.

[10:57] But he says, no, you're an eternal being. You have body, soul. And you need to fear him who after killing the body can cast your soul and body into hell.

[11:10] So Jesus believed in hell and warned people against going there. He.

[11:26] Where was the word authority in that passage? I heard Tom read it. He has authority to throw you into hell or power, as the NIV says.

[11:37] Remember, we've been talking about the authority of Jesus to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to forgive sins. Here's another one of his authorities to cast into hell.

[11:50] As well, as the Bible says that Jesus will be handed the judgment to judge on behalf of God. He has authority to cast into hell. Any questions on this passage?

[12:03] Again, I'm just wanting you to see, as a fair observer, what kind of view did Jesus have of punishment, judgment, hell, and so on.

[12:14] If you turn over to chapter 16, you read, if you read this week, these chapters about this rich man who died and went to hell.

[12:25] This is quite a lengthy passage. 16, 19. And Mark, would you read that? 19 to 26.

[12:36] There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table.

[12:55] Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried.

[13:07] In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.

[13:26] But Abraham replied, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.

[13:41] And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been sacrificed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot. Nor can anyone cross over from there to us.

[13:54] So the Lord Jesus speaks of about a place of agony and of torment that is unmitigated, that is uninterrupted.

[14:05] There's not so much as a bit of relief to those who are in this place. And we need to be clear that the rich man didn't go to hell because he was a rich man.

[14:19] Why did he go to hell? It's what he failed to do, wasn't it? He failed to share with the beggar at his door. Well, that reminds us that sin is not only doing bad things, it's failing to do the good things that we're commanded to do.

[14:39] And this man is in hell because though he had the ability to help the beggar at his door, he didn't. And so hell is a place of torment.

[14:51] It's a place of agony for sins in this life. The selfishness and greed, the lack of compassion, there's a hell to pay for sin. Jesus is saying this, teaching this to those who heard him.

[15:03] And we're simply limiting our study to the Gospel of Luke. There are many, many more passages in the other three Gospels in which Jesus speaks about hell very pointedly.

[15:17] In fact, no one in the Bible spoke more about hell than Jesus did. And so we need to be sure that our view of this Jesus is coming from the source material of those who heard him and quoted his sayings to Luke so that Luke could write them down.

[15:36] He spoke about a hell to pay for sin. He spoke about a coming day of judgment. Chapter 10, verses 13 through 15.

[15:48] Chapter 10, 13 through 15 takes us to this judgment day and shows us what's going to happen there.

[16:00] It's quite a kind thing of the Savior to do. He knows how judgment will unfold. And he's warning and he's telling. He's talking to some cities where he taught and performed many miracles.

[16:14] Jody, do you have verses 13 through 15, please? Woe to you, Thorestan. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth's manches.

[16:31] But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Thorestan, will you be exalted in heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. Okay, again, woe to you.

[16:45] Woe is a word of great sorrow or distress that is being pronounced upon these cities. Why? What was their crime? Well, they didn't do anything.

[16:58] They didn't repent. They should have done something. They should have repented of their sins and turned from their sins. And they didn't. Again, we see they didn't do what they should have done.

[17:09] And they had Jesus with them, doing his mighty miracles and teaching them. And yet, with all that evidence of God being present with them, they did nothing.

[17:21] They went on living as they were. And because of that, judgment is coming. In fact, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, these Gentile places that Jesus rarely went to.

[17:36] And those who lived in much more gospel darkness and didn't hear as much, it'll go better for them in the day of judgment than it will for those cities that had Jesus in their midst over and over, teaching, preaching, doing miracles.

[17:51] The same thing is true of chapter 11, verses 31 and 32. Dave Grenard, if you'd read that for us.

[18:03] Chapter 11, 31 and 32. Now, Jesus' words here are, thank you, Dave.

[18:35] These words of Jesus are taking us back to part one of our Bibles, back into the Old Testament. There was a great King Solomon, and he spoke with a wisdom that God had not given to any other man.

[18:46] And this Queen of Sheba came a long way. She had heard of his wisdom, and she came a long way to see and to hear for herself the wisdom of this King. And Jesus is saying, now a greater than Solomon is here, namely himself.

[19:02] He's come from heaven as God's son with all wisdom. And he's saying, and you have not heard me.

[19:12] You've not listened to me. You've not been interested in my gospel. And so the Queen of the South will condemn this generation.

[19:23] When? At the judgment. There's a final judgment. And then he says the same thing about the men of Nineveh. Nineveh, there's a little book in the Old Testament called Jonah about this city of Nineveh.

[19:36] That was a wicked city, and God sent Jonah to go and proclaim judgment is coming. And they believe the message of Jonah and turn from their sin, and God spared Nineveh.

[19:50] And Jesus says, if they repented at the preaching of Jonah, what will be your guilt when a greater than Jonah is now here and you are not repenting?

[20:01] You're just going on with your life, happy to live without Jesus, without me. So Jesus speaks of a judgment to come when eternal destinies are assigned by God the judge.

[20:15] One further passage here in Luke on the judgment, and we'll look more in depth at this passage, because again, Jesus is telling us what's going to happen on that day.

[20:28] Chapter 13, 22 to verse 30. 22 to 30. Brian, do you have that? Yeah. He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and yearning toward Jerusalem.

[20:44] And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

[20:56] When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us, then he will answer you, I do not know where you come from.

[21:08] Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets. But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from.

[21:19] Depart from me, all you warriors of evil. In that place there will be weeping and dashing of teeth. When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves cast out.

[21:31] And people will come from east and west and north and south and recline at the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

[21:46] So this man that is listening to Jesus has a burning question. What does he want to know? What starts this dialogue of Jesus? Will there just be a few that are saved?

[21:59] Yes, it's a question about how many are going to be saved. Is it only a few, Lord? Now, did the Savior answer his question? No, he didn't, did he?

[22:14] Jesus didn't always tell men what they wanted to know, but he did always tell them what they needed to know. And that's what we see here, that people are not asking the right questions.

[22:27] And when they're not asking the right questions, Jesus doesn't answer their questions. He does better than that. He tells them what they need to know. So he doesn't satisfy this man's curiosity, but he tells them something far more important.

[22:42] And what is it? It's a very personal thing. You see, his question was out there. How many are there, Lord, that are going to be saved at the end?

[22:55] And what does Jesus do? Yeah, yeah. You be sure that you're one of them, however many or few they are. You be sure that you're one of them.

[23:09] You make every effort. You strive to enter. In other words, he's saying your greater concern is to see that you are saved. And we learn that people are saved.

[23:20] They enter into the eternal kingdom of God. It's a picture of going through a door into the kingdom of God. It's interesting that Jesus claims to be that door in one of the other gospels.

[23:33] But here's the kingdom of God. And there's this door. And inside the kingdom of God, there's feasting and happiness and joy.

[23:44] Outside is weeping and gnashing of teeth in anguish and misery and remorse. That's one of Jesus' key descriptions of hell.

[23:58] Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again, it speaks of regret, of anguish, of soul anguish, as much as physical anguish, that one would gnash their teeth in misery and remorse.

[24:15] Well, who's the owner of the house into which they're seeking entry? There's the owner of this kingdom. And they're talking to the owner, asking him to open for them.

[24:29] Who is that owner in Jesus' story? God. God. As we'll see, it is God the Son, particularly.

[24:42] It is Jesus himself who is God the Son, who is not only the owner of the house, but he's also the one that they had seen and heard when he was walking and teaching in their streets.

[24:56] So he is the one who opens or closes the door into his eternal kingdom. Again, we're seeing that Jesus, as God's Christ, has the authority of God to forgive sin, to heal, to cast out demons, to raise the dead, indeed to open heaven to those who are knocking.

[25:21] Jesus is claiming that authority to be judge of people's eternal destinies. And so many in that final day, Jesus says, will want to enter the kingdom of God, but will not be allowed to enter.

[25:34] So your question, sir, are there many? Well, there are going to be many who want to get in, who won't be allowed in. And why not?

[25:45] Well, Jesus is saying he did not know them. Now, if you've read through Luke, you know that Jesus knows everything. He knows what men are thinking.

[25:57] He knows everything about us without being told about us. He knew Zacchaeus' name, as we saw last week. He'd never met before.

[26:09] And he knows what's going on in our hearts. So Jesus is not saying that I didn't have knowledge of you. The word know is a word of intimate, personal relationship.

[26:23] And Jesus is saying, I never knew you. I never had the relationship with you. And so they will be denied because they had no knowing relationship with Jesus Christ.

[26:39] And then they'll object. But Lord, you remember us. Remember, we were there. And you ate and drank with us. Or we ate and drank with you.

[26:49] And you taught in our streets. Now, Jesus had clearly done this. This is what he was doing, even as he's telling them this parable. He's traveling around, eating and drinking with them, talking and doing miracles, up and down the streets of their city, across their fields.

[27:07] This will be true. These men will be speaking the truth in the day of judgment. Indeed, they did hear him and eat and drink with him. But it did not do them everlasting good because they rejected him.

[27:24] For all that they heard of him, they never knew him. They never entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ in which they trusted in him as their savior.

[27:34] And so Jesus will still say, I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evil doers. So who's put out of the kingdom of God?

[27:49] Well, evil doers. And one of the greatest evil deeds is to reject Jesus. Indeed, to have heard him, to have known about him, and perhaps even these folks to have seen him, and yet not to trust in him and enter into a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

[28:13] And so depart away from me, all you evil doers. Again, you remember, God is so holy, he can't dwell with sin and sinners.

[28:24] And so there must be the parting with these evil doers. And indeed, if God, at great cost to himself, sent his own son into the world to save sinners, if that's what we're learning in this second evening, that why did Jesus come?

[28:41] To save sinners. If God went to the cost of giving up his own son, and we'll see next week just how that worked, then indeed it is one of the greatest sins possible to say, thanks but no thanks.

[28:55] I don't want this Jesus. Well, is there a second chance for people to be saved in the day of judgment? Let's say somebody went their whole life in this world without trusting in Jesus to save them, without receiving Jesus and entering into this relationship with him.

[29:14] At the end, in the day of judgment, will there be a second chance given to that fellow? What do we find in Jesus' teaching? Yes or no?

[29:27] No. There will be people seeking, knocking, asking for entrance, and yet they will not be allowed in. So in that day of final judgment, there's a line being drawn.

[29:39] God is being very patient with men, but there will come a day of judgment when the line is drawn, and in that day people will see who Jesus is. They will see that he indeed is God, with authority, just like we have been studying the authority of God.

[29:56] They will see that they need him in order to be saved from God's judgment, but it will be truth known too late, for there are no second chances at the day of judgment.

[30:07] Only those who trust in Jesus and follow him in this life, here, will be allowed to enter. Only those who had a knowing relationship with Jesus will enter the kingdom of God.

[30:20] And what is it that will be especially galling to these Jews in that day that will cause them, Jesus says, to gnash their teeth? What will cause them to just grind their teeth and really be upset about?

[30:37] What is it that they will see on the inside while they are on the outside? Gentiles. You see, Jesus was a Jew, and he came to the Jews first and offered them salvation, and they rejected him as their king.

[30:57] And now he's offering himself to Gentiles, non-Jews. That's what a Gentile is. It's anybody that's not a Jew. And they are receiving him. All over the world they're receiving him.

[31:09] And in that day, Jesus says, they're going to come from east and west, north and south, and they're going to sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your forefathers, your Jewish forefathers. Gentiles are going to be in, and you're going to be out.

[31:24] Now, that was the last thing that Jews thought. They thought they were in just because they had Jewish blood in their veins. And Jesus is telling them, no, you're not allowed into the kingdom of God just because of some privilege status of who your mom and dad are, and whether you're in a certain family or a certain race.

[31:42] Not at all. Each one of you personally must come to know me, receive me, or you will be lost forever. And so those last in spiritual privileges, like Gentiles who've come from a background of idolatry, those last in privilege will be first in that day.

[32:03] And those who had been first in privilege, the Jews, will be last in that day. And that will be especially galling. So what do we learn from this passage?

[32:13] We learn that Jesus is the final judge determining the eternal destinies of men. These words of Jesus should make us consider personally, just like this man.

[32:26] Lord, are there only a few going to be saved? You be sure that you are striving to enter. And that should be the personal application to us, that it shouldn't just be a theoretical thing.

[32:36] And just wonder how many will make it in the end. No, if we're hearing Jesus, we need to consider, will I be in or out in that day? No. The last judgment then.

[32:48] There is a hell. When the Titanic first grazed that iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, most of the passengers were blind to how serious their danger was. Most of them were partying and having the party of their lives.

[33:03] But there was danger, wasn't there? And in the same way, most sinners today who've rebelled against God are blind to just how serious their problem is.

[33:15] But Jesus knows how serious it is. And that's why he warns us. That's why he's ringing the bell of danger on board the sinking ship.

[33:28] There's danger here. He loves us and doesn't want us to go to hell. He doesn't want us ending up on the wrong side of the judgment in that day. Indeed, that's why he's come.

[33:40] That's why he befriended sinners and tax collectors. It's at the very heart of his mission. He came into the world to save sinners. And so he's rescuing them.

[33:52] He's warning them about God's judgment for sin. Now next week, we'll see exactly how Jesus does that. How does Jesus save sinners from God's judgment?

[34:05] So we'll see that it's not a small thing that he did to save people from judgment. And if it is such a huge thing that he does, as we'll see next week, we know that he wouldn't have gone to that end if there was just a small danger.

[34:25] If there was really no danger, then why did Jesus need to come? No, it was a huge problem. It was a huge danger. And that's why a person like God's divine son was found in a place like this.

[34:40] Because it would be only through him that sinners could be saved. So Jesus is here warning people. It's like a shot across the bow of a ship.

[34:50] If the enemy, before they blow the ship out of the water, is kind enough to shoot one across the bow, it's a shot of warning, isn't it?

[35:02] If it was their intent to kill, they'd lower the sights and put them out of their misery. But if they're shooting a shot across the bow, it's saying, stop. Don't go any further.

[35:13] I don't want to shoot you. I want you to be spared. That's why I'm shooting across the bow. Jesus was here with a shot across the bow, saying to people, I love you.

[35:27] I don't want you to perish eternally. Listen to me. Be sure you are one who is saved in that day. His intent was not to make men miserable, but to save them from everlasting misery.

[35:42] So for next week, read Luke 20 to 23. and look for the answer. Why did Jesus die? We've seen who he is, why he's come. Now, seek the answer of why did Jesus die and make notes of anything, excuse me, that you want to discuss.

[35:59] And as often happens, we have no more time to discuss today. So, you're dismissed. Yes, Yes,