Jesus' Mission of Love Brings Hope

BLANK SLIDE TO BEGIN RECORDING (Please don’t wait for Matt to be at podium.)

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Introduction

Christmas Greetings from our armed forces.

During the Christmas season, I always appreciate seeing greetings from those serving our country while stationed around the world. They often say something akin to, “Merry Christmas to you and your family...” I wish those TV spots ran throughout the year with different messages reminding us of those who love our country and sacrificially give their time and risk their lives to protect us. It would honor them and their sacrifice throughout the year.

Among the many reasons men and women decide to join the armed forces, most, if not all, go with the understanding that they may give their life. They go with purpose!

Transition: The same and more is true as God the Father planned to send His Son, Jesus, to His earthly station.

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I. The Father sent the Son for a particular purpose.

In one of the most well-known Bible passages, Mt 1:20-23, we read that,

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“...an angel of the Lord appeared to (Joseph) in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:20–23 (Emphasis mine.))

A particular mission requires a particular plan. God has never been reactionary; He has planned this since before time began (Isaiah 53:10; Acts 2:22-24).

Think about how ridiculous it would be if our armed forces went into a battle theater and created their battle plan once they landed. No, some of the best experts in their respective fields discuss strategy, resources, and so much more before they send the air and ground teams in.

Isa 53:10 tells us “it was the will of the Lord to crush Jesus.” Can you imagine that? It’s easy to breeze through this without stopping to consider the reality of what that means.

We’ve had some really fun family nights this month (reading our Advent story, playing games, wrestling, sparring, baking cookies). You all these activities I mentioned? They’re just vehicles to enjoy time with my people. There are no words to describe how I would feel to knowingly put either of my sons out there as a sacrifice for someone else…to say nothing of someone else who would betray him, spit on him and senselessly murder him.

But that’s what our Father did.

And in Acts 2:23, Peter preaches

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Acts 2:23 ESV

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

In His eternal purpose, God’s master plan, the Father devised a plan to do away with the requirement of the law for salvation. We have to ask, “Why?” Why, if something worked for several thousand years did God change the plan?

Well it didn’t work, and that was not by accident. And God didn’t “change the plan” as we would think. God initiated the the first plan to show us our need for the second.

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2. Out with the Old, in with the New.

Jesus’ purpose (in coming to earth through a virgin birth) was to abolish the Old Covenant sacrificial system and establish the New Covenant.

The law—the rules and regulations men and women had to keep perfectly (not one slip-up) to have an eternal relationship with the Father—and the sacrifices and burnt offerings it required—was never intended to function for the permanent removal of the eternal penalty for our sins because it could not.

This is why, as Zack read for us this morning, the writer of Hebrews tells us that > SLIDE Jesus came: to do God’s will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second (He 10:9).

For thousands of years God’s people would offer sacrifices and burnt offerings, and they—we—would need to continue to forever, and it still would not be enough to save us from sins. (You think your schedules are wrapped around particular aspects of your life now?)

Illustration

Men, you ever get a honey-do list from your wife? It can be a frustrating thing…gotta be honest with ya’. It’s not that we don’t want to serve our wives…not at all.

The problem is that a list of four things may be left for a husband to complete. He may get a plan together to complete those four things in time to settle in for a game. It never fails, right when he finishes his list and settles in to watch his game, he will get a phone call and the list grows. Many times, that list won’t seem to have an end.

That’s why I came up with a master question that I’m sure no one has ever come up with. “Babe, I’m so happy to do these things for you today. You work so hard all the time and I just want to make you smile. Let me just ask you a little question: Is there anything else you’re thinking of that might not be on this list? It’ll help me plan my day and meet and maybe even exceed your expectations.”

That’s the problem with law. There is no way to “check off the list.”

There is no possible way to complete the requirements of the law. There is nothing wrong with God’s standard (He is holy), but everything is wrong with our capacity to satisfy it. Tony Evans words it well when he says, “Our flesh is contaminated by sin and will always react to God’s standard.”

Jesus didn’t come to earth to be a good example!He came to save his people from our sins by demolishing the requirement of the law—to redeem us (purchase our salvation) from the curse of the law.

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Two mission objectives were required for Jesus to save His people from our sins:

A. the God-Man would live an absolutely perfect life in thought and deed.

B. He would willingly and undeservedly allow Himself to be murdered on a cross at Calvary.

The immediate context of Hebrews 9:11-12 shows this:

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Hebrews 9:11–12 (ESV)

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to tell us that Jesus now mediates this better, New Covenant (He stands as the go-between for God and every man who has biblical faith).

Could there be any greater love? The answer is unequivocally, “No!”

Jesus taught His disciples:

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John 15:12–17 ESV

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Jesus loved us with the most sacrificial love possible in all the world. The perfectly righteous God-Man willingly left His Heavenly home, came to this earth for the precise mission of dying for you and me!

We celebrate with joy this and every Christmas because we have been perfectly loved.

Conclusion

Just as Jesus had a purpose, “to do (the Father’s) will” (Heb 10:7 from Ps 40:8), and our Father has a will for each us who name the name of Jesus as our Savior. He gave it to Jesus to tell us: to love one another, which is how we demonstrate that we are God’s children…Jesus’ friends.

Does the purposeful mission of Christ change, or strengthen, your affections for God? If it does, you will respond to His sacrificial mission by turning to Him in humble, repentant love, laying aside your own desire to live as the king of your own heart/life) in order to take up His mission to us: to live all of life for the One True God by loving Him and one another with enduring love, enabled by the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in your inner man at the moment of your salvation.

The result, seen later in Heb 10:21-25:

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Hebrews 10:21–25 ESV

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Illustration

Many Christians react to the law by trying to work hard to obey all of the laws and do all of the right things. They are like the circus entertainer that spins plates. They put each plate on a stick and try to keep them moving, working hard to keep all plates spinning and in balance.

Just like the entertainer, Christians run all over the place trying to do the right things and keep all of the key areas of the Christian life spinning. They spin the religion plates of going to church, reading their Bible, and giving tithes, and it wears them out.

They are reverting back to a standard that the Bible says will kill you. “The letter kills.” The law will kill because sin will go crazy when it is faced with the divine standards of God.

This is why we must continually remember Jesus’ love-sacrifice.

Conclusion and Transition to Communion

I was standing in my office with nearly 800 others as we watched one airplane and then another careen into the twin towers in NYC, forever changing the skyline and our defense strategy as a nation, twenty years ago (in face, some of you parents will have to explain what I’m talking about to our children b/c no one under the age of twenty today was even born yet).

As a nation we came together for a period of time. We built a memorial and to this day two lights shine upward into the sky as a reminder of those who were killed that day, whether as victims of this humanly unforeseen attack as well as those who ran to their death in an effort to save others.

“We will never forget!” became the mantra for a nation which vowed to remember the tragedy that day.

(Hold up juice and bread.)

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1 Corinthians 11:23–34 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.

Closing Prayer & Communion