The Work of Christ // Selected Scriptures

INTRODUCTION

This week we continue our Pillars teaching series as we study the non-negotiables of the faith that the God of the Bible teaches for salvation. The aim for this series is a couple reasons; First, we want you know what Jesus says in the scriptures that are able to save you you. Second, these truths found in the Bible are able to transform your life eternally and here on earth. I’m praying that God, through the Holy Spirit would grip your hearts as we walk through what it means to follow Jesus.

In 2018 a Thailand youth soccer team of 12 boys were trapped in a cave because of a flood on June 23, 2018. It seemed that thousands of the locals went to the mountain where the 12 boys and their coach were. Many professional divers came from around the world to help rescue these young boys from the cave but many couldn't.

Just like the boys in the cave who were without food and water and stuck in the dark are those who continue to live and reject Jesus Christ.

The boys were trapped in the cave starting on June 23 and were eventually rescued on July 10 after special divers dove in the cave. This is the work of Jesus Christ. Luke 19:10 says “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” The work of Jesus is that he rescued those who want to be rescued from their own sin and fully trust in Him for life.

SERMON

Last time we gathered before the break, Gabe did well in showing us who Jesus is. He showed us that Jesus is God in the flesh meaning that when we see Jesus in the scripture we are seeing the movements and conversation of God. It also means that when Jesus talkes, God is talking. We saw that Jesus is Creator and Jesus is Redeemer. That is who Jesus is - tonight is almost part 2 as we look at the Work of Jesus and answering the question ‘What did Jesus do’.

The work of Jesus is not only that He dies for our sin but He died that you would live for him each day. Tonight, I want us to look at the work of Jesus as a blueprint for How he has called us to live. The temptation is to close your ears and chalk up tonight as something you already know but I’d like you to look and allow the work of Christ to really transform every part of your life.

In sum, the work of Christ is that He has saved and redeemed is from a dead life to true life and tonight I want us to see what Christ must do to win this life for us.

Jesus Died in our Place

A few weeks ago we looked at the 10 commandments in Exodus and saw that it was given as a way to show that God’s people were incapable of keeping the law perfectly as God would require to be reconciled back to him as he created life in the garden of Eden, when all of creation was perfect and good. If you notice in in Genesis 3:15 God already has a plan in place to bring about redemption and reconciliation of his won people back to himself. Here is whah God says to the ancient serpent in the garden. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the first time in human history that we get a glimpse in the redemptive plan of God for his people but since that moment we have been trying to cover ourselves from the perfection of Christ.

Illustration - we hate people who think they are better than us and we really hate those who sin less that we do and have a deeper desire for the Lord than we do. We hate the people who seemingly have a more righteous life than we do. People in Memphis tend to thing those in Collierville believe they’re better. People in American tend to believe we’re better thise who live outside of the US. cowboys fans tend to hate cowboys fans because we are better than the rest. The point here, in a serious manner is that we cover up our insecurities with hatred and the bringing down of others so that we can feel better about our sin and shortcomings. Sin has taight us to cover ourselves so that we’r enot exposed. Adam and Eve did the same thing.

Genesis 3:8 says “when they [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Since the beginning of time we’ve hid and tried to cover ourselves to make this right. Unfortunately, this isn’t a good or godly or a sufficient response. We live in a cursed and wicked world with no way to make ourselves un-cursed - the issue is that we all seek to uncurse or unburden ourselves from the weight of the sin curse with “heart fillers”. Throughout human history God’s people have tried to make things right on their own. In Old Testament times they built alters to sacrifice to gods in hope to make things right. Today we build lives for ourselves that give us the appearance of righteousness but really it’s secular moralism where do we good.

No amount of righteousness or goodness produced outside of salvation in Christ is able to save your soul. The solution that God provided in Christ is found in Galatians 3:13 where Paul says “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” What started in Genesis 3 found its solution in Galatians 3 where Jesus died in our place for the forgiveness of sin.

The message of the gospel is that we no longer have to pay for our own sin because God, through the work of Jesus Christ, has paid for our sin in our place. We all know and love John 3:16. Let’s say it together - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. We often stop here, but Jesus gives us a whole picture of his redemptive plan in the following verses. Let’s keep reading. John 3:17–18 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

What Jesus tells Nicodemus and reveals to us is that we’re already condemned to a real place called hell meant for Satan and His angels and not for people. Hell is meant for those who desires to cover up and pay for their own sin and Heaven and being with Christ are meant for those whose desire is for Jesus Christ. God has provide Jesus, his own perfect son, as a substitute to atone or pay for our sin so that we don’t have to.

Jesus Brought us Peace with God

Jesus dying in our place instead of us has brought us peace with God where there wasn't peace without Christ. There are two type of peace in our world. There’s false peace and you real peace.

False peace is after a long day of school many test and maybe a long day of practice and people wanting your attention. Many people go to their phones or maybe even a TV show because you may want to just get away and have some peace. The reality is that this isnt real peace, is it? It’s escapism and it only last for a few moments.

Another example is when you enter a new space for the first time and you’ve decided that you don’t know anyone and you don’t want to talk to anyone. What do you do? You reach in your back packet and you grab your phone and escape from the situation.

The world you and I live in today looks for ways to bring themselves peace with their conscience and their soul by looking to other things for peace. We start life not at peace with God and we go through life trying to reconcile ourselves.

There are 4 types of peace that I think we see.

1. The “Good Person” Peace – Trying to Earn God’s Approval

The good person peace try’s to earn God’s approval and says “I’ll be at peace with God because I’m a good person. I don’t hurt anyone, I’m nice to people, and try to alwasy do the right things whenever I can . this persons peace is found in their abuility to do the right thing in their life morally. You have good behavior and people are you think you’re nice. If niceness brought you peace with God then you would be the model child. The issue is that peace with God doesn't come in what you do but in what Christ did. Romans 5:1 “we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2. The “Religious Routine” Peace – Trying to Do More Church Stuff

The religious routine people try to find their peace though religious activity and in simply doing spiritual things. It may sound and look something like you praying only before your test or only praying when things god bad, promising God to do better os that you can avoid something bad and reading your Bible occasionally. The issue is that peace with God cannot be attainted through religious activity and checking the box on Sundays and Wednesday. The most religious people of Jesus day, who did good actions, prayed a lot, and went to their version of church - Jesus called a whitewashed tombstone - which meant they were clean on the outside but filthy on the inside.

I say that because many of us in here go to church and do the spiritual things like pray before meals or a game but our personal walk is worthless. We live from spiritual high to spiritual high, when the real walk of a true Christian is birthed from relationship with Christ and daily rhythms. Peace with God cannot be cheapened by simply DOING religious stuff but peace with God is obtained through life in and through CHRIST.

Matthew 15:8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;”

3. The “Positive Vibes” Peace – Trying to Feel Spiritual Without Repentance

The positive vibes person says their spiritual. They meditate, go off of their zodiac signs in trying to know themselves and understand. This positive vibes peace seeker wants to know more about them than they desire to know about God. Peace for this person is that if they can understand everything about themselves they will fully understand all they need. The concern here is that this person seek self-enlightenment and not enlightenment. We true peace when we understand more of Jesus than when we understand more of ourselves.

Jesus says in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” true peace is not found the search for self but in the search for Christ

4. The “Comparison Game” Peace – Thinking God Grades on a Curve

The spiritual comparison game is where we believe God grades on a curve in relation to other people. We’ll say things like “I know i’m not perfect but I’m better than most people”. I don’t go to public school or when I go to parties I don’t drink or use drugs. or even, Eric at least were not having sex it’s only touching. Comparing our life to someone else’s life is like comparing the cat poop to dog poop - ALL POOP STINKS. The only comparison that bring peace is when we compare our life to that of Jesus Christ because it is then that we truly can see who we really are and start to know that our peace can only be found in Christ.

You don’t get peace by being better — you get peace by being forgiven.

True peace - the peace that will sustain you when parents get divorced, when a medical emergency happens, when you can’t understand the world around and when you’re confused in found in belief and surrendering your life to Christ. All those ways might look like peace, but they’re really just counterfeits. The only peace that lasts is the one Jesus bought with His blood — not the peace we make, but the peace He made.

Romans 5:1 says it this way “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Real Peace in life is by accepting sacrifice of Jesus Christ to make peace between you and God.

Jesus Will Return for His Church

The last] Pillar that’s important for Christians is the the truth Jesus will return for His people that are those who have truly trusted in Him and are His elected people. Knowing that Jesus will come back for his true church should cause us to consider how we live today. There will be a time in the near future that Jesus Christ will come back for His church. When I say “church” I don’t mean Central Church or Bellevue Baptist Church - I mean the people that have truly surrendered their life to Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin - this is the church. The church is defined as those who’ve trusted in Christ. This is who Jesus is coming back to capture and bring them to our eternal home. The return of Christ is a pillar for Christians because in it’s truth we live with a gospel urgency.

Growing up, I’d ride the bus home and would be home from school a few hours before my parents would come home. I can remember the many times that my mom or dad would tell me to do something, like clean my room and have it done by the time they got home. As your average teenager I’d procrastinate and there would be times where I would hear the garage open and rush by sprinting to my room and throwing everything either under my bed or in my closet before they would walk into the house.

Knowing that Jesus will return is like living in that sort of urgency every single day for those who are far from Christ. Paul says it like this in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” The good works that is produced when we understand that Christ will come back is winning souls for Christ - This is a GOOD WORK produced by faith!

As Christians we’re in the middle of being already saved and justified and the end of being glorified in heaven. While on earth have work to do for the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of self. It’s super important that we know Jesus is coming back and will only bring with Him, His TRUE CHURCH.

CONCLUSION

Jesus has died in your place, and brought you peace with God, and He will return for His true church. Can I tell you something… the sacrifice of Jesus Christ means nothing if you don’t surrender your life to Christ. And can I make a real but challenging pastoral comment…if you are unwilling and refusing to faithfully follow Jesus into the baptism water then I would seriously consider if you have truly been born again. Following Jesus Christ, after salvation means following Jesus in the baptism water. But the first step is surrendering your life to Christ.

Response

Salvation: Heads bowed, eyes closed. If you want to be born again and surrender your life to Christ you may say something like this [lead in a proto-prayer].

Discipleship: Some of you may have already started your new walk with Christ and you want to go public with your faith - we have a plan for you to take your next step in baptism ove rat our next steps table or you can meet me at the After Party.

Maybe tonight you have questions about who Jesus is or what He did. We welcome any questions about faith to understand what you believe - come to our next steps area where you cna meet with someone from our team for questions or prayer!

Why does it matter that we know what Jesus did?

A: It matter because the Christian message hinges on the work of Jesus Christ for salvation and transformation. We can’t live a perfect life, we can’t believe that Christ died in our place if we don’t see our true sinful nature, we cant have peace with God on our own, and we will not be a part of Christ church with the seal that He is looking for when he comes back. I want