Jesus = Salvation
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Intro:
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Recently I thought about some of the messages and series I have preached this year. We have discussed receiving MORE from God. We learned about the Great Commission. We studied the life of Joseph. We just finished looking at our responsibility to Praise in Progress.
As I prayed about what I should preach now, it was like I heard the Lord say, talk about Me for a little while. So today, we will begin a series about Jesus. I want us to think about the One who made all of this possible.
Today, I want us to see that Jesus = Salvation. Who is thankful that Jesus provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sin?
When I was five years old, my family went to Alabama to my aunt and uncle’s home. It was summer and they had a swimming pool. One of my distant cousins took turns pretending to push each other in the pool.
Guess what happened? He pushed me in. As I mentioned last Sunday, I can barely swim as a twenty-eight year old. Imagine me being a five year old.
I was stuck, I tried to get to the top and I could swim. I sucked in a bunch of water, I panicked as I sank to the bottom. Suddenly, one of the relatives jumped in and saved me from drowning.
I thought about this story this week and I called my mom. I asked, do you remember when I fell in at Aunt Marian and Uncle Bill’s pool? She answered, I REMEMBER WHEN ETHAN PUSHED YOU IN THE POOL. I still don’t care for him that much...
I confessed we were both at fault and it was bound to be one of us. Even though I was a young child, I still remember the feeling of sinking and the feeling of being saved.
When we think of salvation, we should remember that we were sinking deep in sin. Our lives were stuck and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get free.
Then one day, Jesus reached down to us and showed us a better way. Of all the great things Jesus does for the world, the greatest is the salvation of our souls.
Humanity sinks deeper and deeper into moral depravity, spiritual negligence, and immoral actions. People try to get better through self-help, self- care, and self-motivation, yet long-lasting change never follows.
We were all there at one time until someone introduced us to JESUS and we accepted Him as our Savior, bringing out out salvation.
As I prayed about how to present the simple yet profound message of salvation, I remembered a book I received in the mail late last year.
Written by Ken Ham, who founded the Ark-Encounter in Kentucky, he titled his book, “Gospel Reset- Salvation Made Simple.” One quote stuck with me:
“A historic transition is occuring. Barely noticed, slowly, quietly, imperceptibly, religion [when they say religion, they usually mean Christianity], is shriveling in America, as it already has in Europe, Canada, Australia , across the developed world. Increasingly, supernatural faith belongs to the third-world. The first world is entering the long-predicted secular age where science and knowledge dominate.”
We live in age in our nation where absolute truth is replaced by personal opinion. A recent president said in 2006, “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At last not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim Nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers.”
This thirteen-year-old statement is now a fact. As a result, many people are not coming to Christ as they once did in the past. The reason?
The author of the book believes, We often start at the cross and move forward, when people do not even have the foundation that there is a God who made the heavens and the earth.
It is like trying to build a home by starting with the roof. So this morning, I want to lay a foundation, weaving through Old Testament and New Testament scripture to show that Jesus = Salvation.
I have three points, [Humanity’s Separation], [Humanity’s Substitution], and [Humanity’s Salvation].
Let’s begin
1. Humanity’s Separation
1. Humanity’s Separation
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
After God created the heaven, the earth, the sea, the dry land, the sun, the moon, and all the animals, He made man in His image. Knowing it was not good for man to be alone, He gave him a wife.
After God created the heaven, the earth, the sea, the dry land, the sun, the moon, and all the animals, He made man in His image. Knowing it was not good for man to be alone, He gave him a wife.
He gave them a garden, a paradise, with everything they would ever need. The had only one rule, do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Scripture does not tell us how long they were in the garden, but one day the devil deceived Adam and Eve. He distorted the truth and Adam and Eve gave into temptation.
Their momentary lapse had catastrophic consequences. Through their action sin entered humanity. With sin followed a separation from God.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Genesis 3:8-13
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
I find this to be one of the saddest passages of scripture. It shows us a few things. First it shows us that it was a common practice for God to meet with Adam and Eve. They are the only two people who ever saw Him face to face.
Second, it shows us that it was God’s intention and design to fellowship and be close with His creation. He created us for communication and friendship.
They are the only two people who ever saw Him face to face.
Third, notice the heartbreak in God’s words. They hid themselves because of their sin and God cried out, “Adam, where are you?” Adam confessed, I hid myself when I heard Your voice because I was afraid.
With sin came fear and with the fear came a desire to separate themselves and hide themselves from the righteous and holy God.
What was their punishment?
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
Because of sin, God sent them from the Garden of Eden and separated them from Him. From there on out, it appeared that God would be a distant God in the heavens.
His perfection could not be around imperfect sinners. Notice God’s love. He could have easily killed Adam and Eve because of their sin. It was His right and really He should have.
But in His great love, He separated them while He unfolded His plan to get His people back from the sins that plagued humanity.
To understand how Jesus = Salvation, we first need to see Humanity’s Separation...
2. Humanity’s Substitution
2. Humanity’s Substitution
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Though Adam and Eve made the conscience decision to sin, God spoke directly to the source. He cursed the serpent and issued a promise.
You came against the woman, the Seed of the woman will bruise your head. I wonder what the Old Testament people thought when they heard this passage.
What woman would bear the seed that would defeat Satan? If they expected a quick answer they would be disappointed. It would be over four thousand years before the answer came.
Instead, for thousands of years, God’s people lived in a cycle of habitual sin. The would be judged, God would send a prophet, they would listen to the Prophet and then they would repent.
But they just couldn’t control the sin problem, which furthered their separation from God. Until one day, God sent the angel Gabriel with a message for a young Jewish girl.
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.
The girl was named Mary and she was part of the group of God’s people who faithfully looked for the day when God would send the Messiah.
Imagine the surprise and shock of the girl who never married. Being a devout follower of God, being unmarried meant she was a virgin.
God sent a messenger to tell her, you WILL have a Child and you WILL name Him Jesus. Around the same time an angel goes to Joseph, who was to engaged to Mary with a similar promise.
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
The name Jesus means, The Lord is Salvation. Salvation is IN His name. But the wondered, how will He save us? Will He lead a political movement? Will He work to overthrow the Romans?
These were carnal answers to a spiritual question. God was less interested in their political status and more concerned with their spiritual status.
For thousands of years, He could not be near them because of their sins. They owed Him a debt that they could never repay. Therefore, He would send a substitute for their sins.
He would send His Son to stand in their place. It took Him over thirty-three years to fulfill the plan, and it ended in the most unlikely way.
44 Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. 45 Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. 46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last.
45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. 49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,
Jesus defeated sin and Satan in an unlikely way. For thousands of years God’s people looked to their external problems instead of realizing they had an internal problem.
Their problem was not their leaders, their kings, their government, or their oppressors. The problem was their sin. And they only way they could overcome their sin is if God sent a substitute to die for them!
But the hope does not rest solely in His death, for if He were still dead we would be people who were separated from God, possessing a substitute but not having access to...
3. Humanity’s Salvation
3. Humanity’s Salvation
2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” 8 And they remembered His words.
The greatest words in history were uttered by these two angels, He is NOT HERE, He is RISEN! The resurrection of Jesus Christ chan ged EVERYTHING!
Why? Because the penalty of Adam and Eve’s sin was death. They knew that when they chose to eat the fruit. Because of their sin, death entered the human race.
There was finality in death. No one could beat it and it could not be avoided. That is why Satan did all he could to kill Jesus. He was there in the garden when God promised humanity would die because of their sin.
When Satan saw Jesus walk the earth as a human, he thought, this will be easy, we will kill Him and that will be the end of that. But God had something up His sleeve.
It is as though He told Satan, you thought you could beat Me. You tried with Adam and Eve and now you tried with My Son. You thought you could defeat US, the Godhead!
I will show you. My Son will lie in the grave for three days, allowing you and the world to think His work is finished. And just as your celebration is getting to a peak, you will begin to hear a noise, you will feel an earthquake, and you will see a bright light.
And when it happened, Satan panicked, he had not planned for this. Jesus, God’s only Son, defeated Satan’s backup, he always thought he would have the monopoly on death.
But God showed, I am more powerful over death! And because Jesus defeated death, by rising from the dead, He provided a way for humanity to be saved from their impending death!
And the simple message worked: humanity was separated from God because of their sin, God sent His Son as the substitute for their sin, and now Humanity can be saved from their sin.
Everywhere the New Testament preached this simple message, it had a profound impact, let’s look:
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,
4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
14 And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
Acts
5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Whenever the name and the message of Jesus was preached, people received salvation!
Close:
I am so thankful for our salvation. It has nothing to do with us and EVERYTHING to do with God’s love, Jesus’ willingness to die, and the Holy Spirit’s work.
As I studied for this message, I searched through the gospels for one story to show how salvation works. But it hit me, the salvation message cannot be confined to one story, instead it is revealed through One Person, and that person in Jesus!
Therefore, we need to look to the Man Jesus and cry out, Lord Save me from my sins! Who is thankful that Jesus saved us?
Our challenge in 2019 is what I mentioned in my introduction. We have a society that no longer knows the stories of the bible. They no longer understand all that God has to offer, because many of them do not even know if God exists.
So when we tell people about salvation, we have to tell them WHY they need to be saved not just WHO can get them saved. Until I understand that I am separated from God because of the obstacle of sin, I can never be saved.
But when I know that, then I realize how great a substitute Jesus was for my sins.
When we think of Jesus we need to think of Salvation, and when we think of Salvation, we need to think of Jesus.
I love the words of Paul in:
2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Today is a really good day to get saved. If you are here this morning and you have never come to the point where you have asked the Lord to come into your life and forgive you of your sins, I would do it today!
But, I am not finished! I want to talk to those of us who are saved and have been for a while. If we get lazy in our walk with Jesus, lethargic in our prayer life, and lax in our committment to His house and His will for our lives, we risk the danger of backsliding.
What is backsliding? It is a process where people who were once close to God have fallen away from Him. It occurs when we want God’s way over our way!
Two years ago in July 2017, I preached a message titled, Sinner Saved or Saved Sinner. Sin is a real issue. And being saved does not exempt us from Satan’s desire to get us to fall into sin.
We must as Christians do all we can to get God’s help to overcome the sins of this life! We cannot buy into the lie of the devil that tells us God does not care how we live.
If God does not care how we live, He would not have sent His Son to die in our place! So our aim to make sure, we NEVER take our salvation for granted.
We cannot stay in sin and think, it’s okay if I sin, God doesn’t really care. God cares about the sins of the unbeliever and He cares about the sins of the believer!
So this morning’s altar service is for EVERYBODY! If we are here and have never accepted Jesus’ work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, today is the day for Jesus to give us salvation.
If we are saved, but are not as close as we once were. If we are backslidden or in the process of backsliding, today is the day to renew our commitment.
And if we are saved and living for Jesus, let’s thank Him and praise Him for our salvation!
Jesus = Salvation and for that I am thankful!