Who is Jesus

Bacon to the Rescue

God

Have you ever eaten a piece of food and it didn’t turn out to taste very good?

God

Maybe it was chicken and it was burned.

Maybe it was a vegetable and it tasted bad.

Americans have a secret for making all food taste better.

It’s bacon.

We love bacon.

We put bacon on everything.

Bacon on our vegetables.

Bacon on our meat.

Sometimes we wrap sausages with bacon.

We love bacon.

If there is ever a bad situation, it’s bacon to the rescue.

You need to have your bacon saved.

There is a phrase that we say in America.

Sin

If you ever find yourself in a tough situation and someone helps you out, we say “You saved my bacon.”

And you need to have your bacon saved.

The Problem

On Tuesday, we learned there is a God.

And this God is big.

He’s way bigger than us.

Then on Wednesday we learned that this God has laws.

And we have broken those laws.

If we break God’s laws then we are sinners.

The really bad news is that if God were to judge us for these sins, He would judge us and punish us for our sins.

And the punishment is Hell.

In the book of Romans, it says “The wages of sin is death.”

So if you have sinned.

If you have lied -

If you have stolen -

If you have disobeyed your parents -

You are in trouble.

You need your bacon saved.

You having your bacon saved, is what we call the Good News.

Because God didn’t leave His people to be judged.

In fact He did something wonderful.

He Sent Jesus on a Rescue Mission to save your bacon.

At Christmas time, Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t on vacation.

He came to rescue sinners.

The Bible says that He became human.

Through the power of God, His mother Mary became pregnant.

Virgin birth

She gave birth to Jesus like an ordinary child.

Then Jesus lived.

And he lived just like you and me.

And he lived perfectly.

Remember those sins we talked about?

He never sinned.

Lived perfectly

Betrayed

Put on a Cross

And He was killed.

While He was dying, God did something extraordinary.

Jesus was punished for sin.

But remember, He had never done anything wrong.

He was punished for our sins.

Suppose, someone was arrested for a crime, and given a fine or else they have to go to jail.

The judge says, you must pay 20,000 crowns, or else go to jail.

If someone pays that fine, then the person who’s in trouble can go free.

Because of sin, you have a fine.

And the fine for sin … is judgment from God, Hell.

And just like if someone pays 20,000 crowns to let a criminal go, Jesus paid the fine, with His life.

God punished Him so you wouldn’t have to be.

Think about that?

Jesus was innocent.

Jesus never did anything wrong.

And yet, He died for you.

Why would He do that?

Because of His love.

says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

We have seen this week that God is huge and big.

But now we see that God’s love is equally huge and big.

And the good news is that if Jesus was punished for sin … then your bacon is saved.

You don’t have to worry about being judged.

What set’s Jesus apart?

Plenty of people die everyday.

So how do we know that Jesus paid for sins?

On that day when He died on a Cross, He was buried in a tomb.

3 days later, some women went to visit his grave.

And when they got there, they found the tomb open.

Jesus was resurrected.

He came out of the grave alive.

Never to die again.

His resurrection means that He paid for our sins.

God accepted His death on our behalf.

And if you trust in Him.

If you believe that He lived and died for you.

If you repent.

If you trust in His death, then you can know that He is now preparing a place for you in heaven.

Why are we here?

Because we too were so bad that we deserved God’s punishment.

But at some point in our lives, someone spoke to us the way I am speaking to you.

And the Holy Spirit changed our heart and we understood the love of God and the work of Jesus.

We are here this week because we want to see your bacon saved.

We want to know that you too will go to heaven some day.

We have friends back home who are praying for you.

We’ve loved these past 3 days with you.

Please, let me know, or anyone here know if you feel God changing your heart and if you are ready to repent and trust in Jesus.