Jesus: The Savior of the World

Today we are wrapping up our sermon series “All About Jesus,” where we have been looking at how Jesus impacted the people of his time and how he also should be impacting us today. Our scripture today comes from Titus 3:3-8.

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Please pray with me…

Christ has risen, Christ has risen indeed…We can look at Jesus and how through the acts of dying on the cross and then rising from the dead how he changed the world for everyone. We went from a people who were unable to escape from the power of sin to a people that were saved from sin through the blood of Jesus.

We went from people separated as Jew or non-Jew to a people united under the banner of Christ. As the song says “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.”

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The beginning of today’s scripture reminds us of where Jew and Gentile stood before the death and resurrection of Jesus. The words the writer uses are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved, living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

Unfortunately, we can still recognize some of those traits in people today. That is to remind us that we are still living in an imperfect world. A world that is sometimes described as “of the flesh” instead of grace. A world of hate instead of love. A world of division instead of unification.

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Jesus should have changed this for those that call themselves followers of him. Yes, in our humanness we may at times still revert back to these thoughts and actions but in the end, we should have been changed. We should have been transformed into children of God.

We should be able to see the difference that should occur from the moment we were justified or made right with God. The writer of Titus uses the words “At one time we too were.” This is the writer stating that we no longer should be.

Followers of Jesus should be different. We should no longer be fools. We should be obedient to God. We should have self-control. We should not desire to return evil for evil. We should not be envious. We should love instead of hate.

We have been given a higher order of expectations than the rest of society. We have been given a higher purpose than those that are still attempting to discover who and what they believe. We that call ourselves Christians are called to be different.

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Verse six tells us why we should be different, rebirth and renewal. It is through these words that we come up a phrase you sometimes will hear, born again. The word rebirth is correct because when we give our life to Christ it is as if we become infants again.

We should have a new way of looking at the world. We should no longer be looking at the world only with human eyes. We should be looking at the world with spiritual eyes. Our focus should no longer be on following the ways of humanity but should now be focused on following the ways of God.

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We also are renewed. We have been made new again. There are not many times that we get a do-over in life. Usually once we have done something, if we mess it up, we don’t get to start over and try again. Jesus is the Savior of the world. He offers each one of us do-overs over and over again. He tells us that we are new again. He wants us to try to do better the next time.

When we look at what Jesus did for us, we should be able to see the difference from before and after. We should no longer be foolish; we should be aware of a new way. The Jewish people were expecting a Savior of violence.

They were expecting someone who would destroy their enemies and once again make things right in their world. They were an oppressed people. Their hope was that the Messiah would turn them from oppressed to be able to be oppressors. From those enslaved to those who could enslave.

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Instead, Jesus opened their eyes to a Savior of peace. A Savior that chooses to unite the Jew and the Gentile. A savior that doesn’t free us from a human foe but frees us from the disabling power of sin.

We may look foolish in our decisions to the outside world but that’s because everyone’s eyes have still not been opened. There are still people out in the world that are unaware of a better way of living. Many around us are still seeking the ways of the world instead of the ways of God.

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I want to make a quick point before you think I have my head in the sand. I know that many of those that are Christians are not living this out. There are many that are more focused on believing they are right than seeking peace with fellow Christians and with those around them.

But I also want to make another point. Just because they may not be living their lives how we believe a person should as a follower of Jesus does not mean they are not. There is to many Christians stating that someone can’t be a Christian because of their actions.

This is not for us to decide. We are to focus on our journey with Jesus. We are to focus on our actions. In fact, it could be stated that we are not following the will of God. We should not make the same choice that they are making.

We are to attempt to be people of peace. We are to believe that God desires for those that disagree to focus more on what they agree on, than on those things that can cause conflict between them.

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That is why Jesus showed us how to no longer be disobedient but to make the choice to be obedient to God. We are given a choice. The first choice is do we want to accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us and ask for our sins to be forgiven. But even after we make that choice, we still need to decide how obedient we are going to be to God.

God doesn’t force us to be obedient to him. We are able to decide if we want to take the way that is better for us or the way that will still lead us towards pain and disappointment. We have a God whose ways are always going to be the best ways for us. We need to decide if we want to accept them.

The best way is not always going to be the easy way. In fact, many times following the ways of God will end up being the hard way. We have to decide if we want to take the hard way, the way God desires for us to take. Or the easy way, the way the world would expect us to take.

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Jesus showed us that Satan has been deceiving us into thinking that his way was the right way. He offers us an alternative. We could remain loyal to the ways of the world, or we can become transformed and choose to follow the ways of God. When we make the right choice, the choice to give ourselves over to God, we are then offered a better way.

We receive this guidance through what we call in the church Sanctifying Grace. This is the grace that God uses to guide us into a closer relationship with him. As we become closer to God the devil’s deceptions should become clearer to us.

When we accept what Jesus did for us, we are no longer enslaved by sin. It is true that we will continue to sin and will continue to need forgiveness from God, but we are set free from the power of sin.

We are given grace from God. Grace by definition is not earned. Grace is given to us because of God’s love for us. This is all made possible through what Jesus did for us which is why he is the Savior of the world.

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When we look at verse seven, we also find hope. A hope given to us by God through his son, Jesus. Our first reading focuses on the hope given to us by God and how even as we go through the struggles of life it is hope that helps us overcome life’s obstacles.

When we view hope from the strictly human perspective it is us desiring that something comes true. It is us saying… “I hope this works,” “I hope he is on time,” “I hope this sermon is going to end soon.” This is not how hope in Christ is viewed. Hope in Christ is hope that is already fulfilled.

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Hope in Christ is us having the knowledge that through Jesus all things are possible. Our first scripture reading says it this way, “hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Our hope is not a desire our hope becomes an expectation.

We receive two types of hope through Jesus. We receive the hope of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life. We know that through Jesus being the Savior of the world that each one of us now can have our sins forgiven. It goes back to the idea of rebirth and renewal. Jesus did for us what we were unable to do for ourselves.

The Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah to come and do something special. They just didn’t expect how special it would be. They couldn’t imagine that the Messiah would remove the power of sin that had hounded humanity since Adam and Eve ate from the tree. Jesus became the Savior for all, not just for the Jewish people.

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The Jewish people had been trying to remove the power of sin from their lives since Moses. God gave Moses a way to remove sin. He told them to make animal sacrifices regularly and once a year the chief priest would go into the Holy of Holies which is where God resided and sprinkle blood onto what was called the mercy seat. This was to remove all sins that had accumulated throughout the year.

Jesus, through his death removed the need for these sacrifices. He allows us to go directly to our Father in Heaven and ask for forgiveness. Max Lucado in his book “He Chose the Nails explained it this way (Read page 104). Christ can remove the taint of sin from your life if you are willing to ask for forgiveness.

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We also receive the hope mentioned in verse seven. The hope of eternal life. It is through the death of Jesus on the cross that we are able to reside with our Father in heaven. God made the choice to allow for us to become a part of his Holy Family as adopted sons and daughters.

We became family. We were invited to come in and reside with our God and his son, our Lord who was and is the Savior of the World. We no longer needed to worry about our death because just as we are celebrating today, our death brings life.

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Our first reading goes on to explain what this hope should offer to us. It should lead to us allowing the good and the bad of life to change us, transform us, help us overcome the times of turmoil we will face in this world.

The hope that we find in Jesus should cause us to have perseverance which should improve our character, which should bring us back to hope. Connecting to God and staying connected to God during times of trouble should deepen our relationship with God.

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Perseverance keeps us moving when life throws us a curve ball. It is us keeping the faith even when the troubles of the world get us down. It is us believing that God is with us even through these times of struggle.

I know that this is easier said than done but I beg you that during the times that you are struggling do not give up on God. Find a way to keep coming to church. Find a way to keep praying. Find a way to trust that God has not left you and will never forget about you.

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Perseverance should lead to character. It is through overcoming or persevering that the tough times that we are able to become closer to God. Perseverance should allow us to become more like God.

This does not mean that we are going to be perfect, but it should mean that we are going to desire to become the person that God desires for us to be. Allowing and believing that God has helped us overcome the obstacles of life should lead us to want to receive an even greater understanding of what God wants to do within us.

And this should then bring us to an even greater understanding of hope. We should even more truly be able to understand the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We should be willing to attempt to discover more and more the ways that we can become closer to him.

We are to be people of love and hope. Love for God and for those around us and a hope that no matter what we do God can use it for good. Jesus become our example. His death on the cross should have been the end of the story, instead it was only the beginning.

We are here today because of the hope that others had in the one who became our example and died so that we could be saved from the power of sin. Jesus is the Savior of the world. Let us leave today and spread his message of grace, love, and hope to those that we meet.

Let us pray…