The Foundation of our Relationship with Christ

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Foundation of our relationship with Christ is our need for him.

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Gospel of Mark

Please stand for the reading of Gods Word
Mark 6:30–52 CSB
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things. When it grew late, his disciples approached him and said, “This place is deserted, and it is already late. Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages to buy themselves something to eat.” “You give them something to eat,” he responded. They said to him, “Should we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” When they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he instructed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves. He kept giving them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. Everyone ate and was satisfied. They picked up twelve baskets full of pieces of bread and fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were five thousand men. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray. Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them. When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened.
Todays section in scripture is a wild one. These two events, some of the most well known of Jesus’ ministry, stories lasting millenia, took place in a time window of probably less then 12 hours.
As we saw last week, Jesus had sent out the twelve disciples to go and preach as well as drive out demons and anoint the sick and heal them. Now, they’ve returned, reconnected with Jesus and are telling Him all about what has happened. I can only imagine that they got back filled with excitement, a lot of “Jesus, you won’t believe what happened,”. Remember, we saw earlire that they were preaching the Gospel, casting out demons and performing miracles.
I’d also be bold and assume that after the initial excitement of getting back and telling Jesus, they’re bodies are starting to remind them of how exhausted they are. There were also a lot of people, as we see in this passage, coming and going from the place that they were, to the extent that they weren’t able to eat. Doesn’t sound like an ideal situation for getting back to rest, recharge and share stories.
Jesus is aware of this, so he tells them in verse 31, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.”
It’s almost like Jesus is saying, let’s go on a retreat. Let’s go rest a while. So little side note here if you never take a vacations, vacations are Biblical. Get some rest. When doing the work of the Lord, sometimes we need to slow down in addition to our normal sabbath days of rest.
back to the passage. This retreat doesn’t exactly go as planned.
We read
Mark 6:32–33 CSB
So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, but many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they ran on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.
The disciples weren’t the only people that were looking to be with Jesus.
----- more time explaining the passage Bring in Matthew 14 for the walking on water section-----
Anybody ever heard of Beiber fever?
No shame here.
I’m not asking if you’ve ever had Beiber fever, thats personal.
Just asking if you know what it is. Beiber fever, for those that don’t know what it is, it is a fascinating madness found most commonly in tweens and teenage girls that are crazy about pop singer Justin Beiber. These people are committed. They wait in line for hours just to see this short, oddly dressed, scraggly haired canadian kid. And when they see him, they lose their minds. They go wild. And for them, they feel like seeing their idol is giving meaning to their life. If you dont’ know Beiber, think of N’sync from the 90’s, or New Kids on the Block before that. Elvis Presley or the Beatles. People were OBSESSED with them. They bought the records, went to concerts, hung pictures and posters in their rooms and let their lives from fashion to opinions be shaped by these pop stars. Clearly, pop idol obsession is not something specific to one generation. The interesting thing about these people, often times younger people, is they are shamelessly willing to admit that there was something in their life that they need to complete them. They need themselves some Justin Beiber in their life and they don’t care who knows it. The rest of us are looking at them like, “uh, okay weirdos.”
It’s almost like, there is a desire for more inside them that leaves them feeling empty and purposeless unless they constantly worshipping their musical idol.
This idea that life requires purpose or we feel empty is pretty commonly agreed upon by most people in the world. We might not all be expressing our feelings of emptiness with a Beiber fever like fervor. I think though, there are two categories we can put most people into. Those who know there’s an emptiness inside of us and are queitly doing things in life to address it, and those who will do anything without shame to get the thing that helps them deal with all the feelings of sadness, meaninglessness, depression, anger and any other negative feeling you can think of. And these people are just the Beiber fans.
----- List some more things that other might think is weird to pursue to fill the hole inside of us. Drug addicts. Daredevils. Workaholics. Kid obssessed parents. -----
You see, the only difference between us and all those teen girls and a couple weird moms with Beiber fever, workaholics at the office too much, addicts who just can’t stay away, is that they are more willing to shamelessly pursue whatever they are doing to address the gaping hole of incompleteness in their lives. They are just more willing to admit the extent to which they believe their lives can’t be handled without their obsession. Not saying they have it right. Not at all. And at their core, they know it too. But they aren’t acting like they’re just okay without filling in that hole.
You see, there is something that makes us incomplete. Something that will never be satisfied by food, fun, friendships, children, money, careers, sex, alcohol, drugs, celebrities, success, good vibes, doing good deeds. Nothing. Nothing can fulfill this desire. And you want to know the crazy part, that hole inside of all those celebrity groupies, all the alcoholics, porn addicts, greedy business people. That gaping hole inside of them, that seemingly never ending hole they are trying to fill through idols and desires. It’s no bigger than the hole inside your soul. In fact, that space in you, that empty hole filled with all the bad feelings in life inside you, is exactly the same shape and size as all those people you look at and go, “glad I’m not like them”. The hole inside our souls is exactly the same as the hole of every bad, broken, lost, greedy, murdering and strung out person on earth. As humans, we’re all the same in this way.
But for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we know something about this hole in our souls. And for those of you that don’t know, I’m excited to share it with you today.
This hole can be filled.
Completely, ridding us of all emptiness, sadness, evil and hate. And it is filled by one thing, and one thing only. A relationship with God. The creator of the universe. The one who came to earth as a man and died for our sins. The creator of heaven.
And how does He fill that hole? Through bringing us into relationship with Him through his Son and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some of you are sitting here today shaking your head yes because that hole in your soul isn’t empty any more. And praise God for that. If you believe in Jesus and have given your life to Him, He is filling that space. And He does that through bringing us into relationship with Him.
For those of you that are here today and you haven’t given your life to Christ, maybe you are hearing about Jesus for the first time. Maybe you’ve known Him, but have been far and are considering finally giving your life to Him, or maybe you are trying to live life on your own or finding your own way in the world. I want you to know today that Jesus came to this earth and died so that He might break the power of sin that keeps this space in your soul empty and is inviting you into relationship with Him.
See, sin is what keeps this space from being filled. Sin is what keeps us separate from relationship with God. But, there’s something that we have to realize about this emptiness inside of us.
The desire for more, the seemingly empty space we can’t fill in our souls doesn’t exist because of sin.
That empty space that drives us to pursuing money, fame, success, drugs, alcohol, sex, love, all of it. That unfillable space is not a result of sin.
Yes. Sin maintains its emptiness and is the obstacle to our relationship with our Lord, as sin is separation from God. But the hole was there before sin. It was there even before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil in the Garden.
You see. As humans. We were created for something more than ourselves. A space, that if living separate from God, exists eternally empty. The hole doesn’t exist because you were bad, or you made mistakes, or you haven’t found your purpose yet. Or even that you were born a sinner. The space exists because that space is for God. He made us for relationship with Him, and as long as we are not in perfect relationship with Him, the space created for Him is empty.
The space in our souls exists because we were created to only be complete when in relationship with God.
And as long as we are here on earth and until Jesus returns and brings us home into glory, that space will be one that we are aware of. But Jesus has given believers the Holy Spirit, that we may be in relationship with Him now, beginning to experience the fullness of life coming from the filling of this space inside us. Even in the midst of this sinful world, we are able to live as God created us.
Isaiah 43:7 CSB
everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.”
Isaiah 43:21 CSB
The people I formed for myself will declare my praise.
We were created for God. We were created so that only with Him are we complete. To worship Him and be in relationship with Him.
Therefore, from the moment we were created, we had space and desire that could only be satisfied by Him.
And when we are in heaven, there will be no pain and suffering. No tears. We will be made perfectly complete just as we were designed and all the feelings and cravings that drove us to try to fill the space here on earth will be completely satisfied in our perfect, unhindered, relationship with God.
That’s where we find the foundation of our relationship with Christ.
He is the only one that can fill the emptiness inside us and overcome the sin that has separated us from God, and He does so perfectly.
Therefore
The foundation of our relationship with Christ is our need for Him.
You see. It’s part of our nature, part of who we are. We are creatures of need. And that need is part of Gods design, and the fulfiller of that need is God.
Psalm 73:26 CSB
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.
Philippians 4:19 CSB
And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Deuteronomy 4:29 CSB
But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.
That’s why we see all of these people expressing their nature of need. Worshipping idols, pleasures, comfort and so much more.
Today’s passages we can learn a lot about this nature of need that we have.
First we see it collectively in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. This group of people, full of their need for the God of the universe, are running on foot to keep up with Jesus. Whether it was Jesus’ teaching, miracles, presence or whatever was driving them, He was filling that hole in their souls that leads them to desire.
To learn from this story and our relationship with Christ, we are going to look at Jesus.
And looking at him, we see that Jesus had compassion on them.
Why? Why does Jesus have compassion on them?
Because they were embarrassing themselves chasing a guy around town?
Because He knew they would be hungry later and they forgot their lunches?
No, scripture tells us He had compassion on them
Mark 6:34 (CSB)
When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
What scripture is saying here, by calling this group of people sheep without a shepherd, is it’s stating the lost nature of these people, their aimless lives, and how they ultimately are in need of someone to lead them, protect them, and provide for their needs. Someone to give them purpose, a shepherd.
And Jesus shows compassion because He fully understands their need for God.
And what does Jesus do for this collective group. These sheep? He gives them what they need.
He sees them and ...
Mark 6:34 (CSB)
When he went ashore, he saw a large crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then he began to teach them many things.
Jesus is fully aware of our need for Him. And as He looks at a collective group of people, He shows compassion and takes care of their needs. In this case, we are reminded that our ultimate need, a relationship with God, comes through the knowledge of the Word of God.
It’s important that we see that Jesus responds to us collectively. This is key because Christ cares for our needs as a shepherd, caring for His flock. This is because our relationship with Jesus takes place in community. Jesus is in a personal relationship with us individually as well as collectively as the church.
In Acts, after around three thousand people were baptized, what happens? Do they all go off and say, “I’m a Christian now, God takes care of my needs so I don’t need the rest of ya’ll anymore”.
No. Look here.
Acts 2:44–47 CSB
Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Guys, this is so different than Western Culture. In our current times, we are doing more and more stuff alone. Our identity is all about individualism and controlling our expression of that individualism as if that is where our purpose in life lies. I mean, more and more people are working from home then ever before, only having to interact in controlled emails and zoom meetings and seeing only who they want. We build our facebook profiles, make it unique so we are seen as so unique. We gotta be so different on TikTok and get those likes. Choose whatever gender you think defines your feelings best. Oh, and don’t listen to that politician, your just a sheeple if follow them.
We live in a culture of self worship, thinking we can satisfy our own needs and give our lives ultimate purpose through whatever we decide is the key to unlocking our identity.
We’re all here trying to be unique. Trying to find identity by looking in ourselves, or how we present ourselves, or who we don’t want to be.
Romans 1:18–25 CSB
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
Our images may have moved from birds and four footed animals, to political parties, gender identities, celebrities, and online profiles, but I think this verse still holds true. Our culture has exchanged the truth of God for a lie. No wonder so many people feel hopeless and empty.
Scripture tells us as believers we are so different than that. It calls us into community, not individualism. And when we are in that community, we are about Jesus and each other.
In the letter to the church at Philippi, we read
Philippians 2:3–4 CSB
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Jesus cares for our needs through His church.
As humans of need, we must allow ourselves to be taken care of by the shepherd. Therefore, we must be okay with becoming His sheep and part of His flock.
You see, who we are as individuals is sons and daughters of the Lord most High. Regardless of what your online profile says, or feelings about yourself or what others say. We are defined by our relationship with the Creator. And in that relationship, He makes himself known to us and cares for our needs individually and collectively
Being in that relationship means admitting we have those needs.
Now, let’s continue on in this Bible story.
Jesus instructs His disciples after the meal to get into the boat from earlier and cross to the other side, Bethsaida. Jesus stuck around to dismiss the crowd. Here’s what happens next as told in Matthew
Matthew 14:24–32 CSB
Meanwhile, the boat was already some distance from land, battered by the waves, because the wind was against them. Jesus came toward them walking on the sea very early in the morning. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost!” they said, and they cried out in fear. Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter answered him, “command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
So, let’s set the stage here.
It’s really early in the morning, so probably like 3am, the disciples have been trying to cross the water all night and they’re in a big storm, struggling against the wind. In Mark it tells us that they were using oars to drive the boat through the wind.
I don’t know about you, but if I stay awake until “very early in the morning” for any reason, I’m borderline basket case about to lose his mind. I’ve also been on a boat in bad weather trying to get home. That is not fun. And you throw in hours of trying to survive and it being through the middle of the night after what sounds alike a tiring few weeks seeing as Jesus just the day before told them they needed to go rest.
So imagine you’re out there, crashing waves, pulling the oars, just hoping that soon you’ll hear one of your buddy’s holler “land hoe”.
Wouldn’t that be nice, right!?
No, you hear some yell “It’s a ghost.”
But Jesus responds telling them to have courage, “It is I”.
And what does Peter do? He says,
“Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to you on the water.”
Jesus says to him, “Come” and Peter does just that.
Now, let’s just stop here for a second. We are looking at a story here giving us a window into the relationship between Jesus and one of His disciples. As we remembered earlier, the disciples were just days ago on their own, without Jesus, casting out demons, sharing the Gospel and performing miracles. Yet, they’re still clearly scared about something supernatural taking place like a ghost. And even in the the midst of Peter’s decision, realizing it’s Jesus, we see Him acknowledging the power to do something amazing only coming from Christ.
So Peter, gets out of the boat and starts walking towards Jesus. Once he gets out there though, and he sees the wind and the water at his feet, without the safety of the boat, he becomes afraid and begins to sink, crying “Lord save me”.
Jesus immediately catches him with his hand, saving him and says, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
It’s this interaction between Jesus and Peter that I think can teach us so much about our relationship with our Savior. and its founding on our need for Him
Think back to last week when we read in Mark 6.12-13
Mark 6:12–13 CSB
So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Jesus wasn’t there for that. He was somewhere else. The disciples were out on their own doing these things. Yet, here we have Peter, hesitating to join Jesus on the water until Jesus calls him, and then sinking once he is out there because as Jesus calls it, “He is of little faith.” This is the same Peter who we see in Acts chapter 9 healing a man paralyzed and bedridden for 8 years and then in the next few verses, raising someone from the dead.
We read that and we might think, okay, Peter’s definitely got something figured out with this faith thing right.
He has, and here’s the secret. He wrote a letter and tells us.
2 Peter 1:3–4 CSB
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
Shortly after Peter tells us.
2 Peter 1:20–21 CSB
Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Peter is telling us something about our relationship with Christ as believers through these two verses.
It is only by Gods power that we receive everything needed for life and for living in a godly, Christian manner, and that even our salvation is dependant on him. We need God.
That when we look at other believers, seeing even the most awesome Christians of all, the prophets of the Bible. Daniel, Isaiah, Moses, John the Baptist, Peter. All of them. The works they do for the Kingdom are only happening because they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
They needed God, just the same as the rest of us.
So what all does this have to do with Peter walking on water.
A lot. Because, you see, Peter walking on water is a beautiful picture of one of Christs followers, the guy who said in one of his letters to the church “Be Holy Like Me”. The guy who Jesus said would be the rock the church would be built on. A man who clearly is in relationship with God.
And we see here that even as he steps out in faith on the water, with Jesus just inches away, he still needs Christ.
In our lives, we will have so many different relationship types. Friend, family, coworker, coach, student, acquaintance. The list goes on and on and on.
One of the most influental and important relationships, is that which we have with our parents. Through them, God gives us life. We are fed by them. Taught about life. They impress so much on us. And, after 18 years, it’s time for us to strike it out on our own. We needed them for so long. But now, we are off on our own. And, if they raised us right, we won’t need them so much anymore. I mean, maybe a phone call here, or a little help with money or life advice there. But, as we get older, we become more independant, and that’s a good thing.
Even with work. Your entry level job has a boss, who has a boss, who has a boss and that boss reports to a whole board of bosses. Yet, as you move up the company ladder, start your own business, grow your success, you rely less on a boss, less on someone you can’t do the job without, and eventually you rely on yourselfmore. As we grow in life, more and more are we are essentially “doing it on your own.” Our growth and success in life professionally, personally, and loads of other ways is dependant on our individual abilities. We grow because we can. We’ve done the work, we’ve been shaped, we’ve learned the stuff.
To one extent, growing up is all about needing less help, and doing more ourselves. We become independant.
As Darth Vader put it when meeting Obi Wan as they met again at last, “When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.”
This is not how our relationship with Jesus works.
It’s not some , we meet Jesus, gain salvation, learn from him for a bit and once he’s grown us up enough, he sends us off on our own.
No, it’s not that at all.
Jesus will never be like a parent or mentor, someday watching from the sidelines and grabbing coffee later to catch up. When Peter was building the church, Jesus wasn’t watching from the sideline.
Think about sports in 2020. Now, this might come as a shock to you, especially with all of the Seahawks fans in here. As a Hawks fan myself, I mean no disrespect to my fellow 12’s, but we gotta face the truth.
Sports teams don’t need fans.
Yes, they need money, and fans are where that money comes from. But think about sports in 2020.
Empty stadiums. Silence after every big play was made. No one to high five as you went into the locker room after a win.
When the stadiums were empty, and we as fans were all essentially invisible to the sports world, sports went on. Highlight worthy moments happened. Players still played their hearts out. Championships were won. And no one was there.
The point I’m getting at is this, Jesus isn’t your fan. He never could be. Fans aren’t essential. So if you are thinking that as a Christian, your relationship with Jesus will grow to a place where it’s less about need and more of a,” alright Jesus, I’m going into the world, see how much I’ve learned.” You’re wrong. Jesus isn’t your cheerleader. In fact, or relationship with Christ is the opposite.
As we grow closer to Jesus, learn more about the Bible, grow in holiness, we will not need God less, rather, we will need Him more.
Friends,
Growth in our relationship with Christ is intimately connected with our understanding of how much we need Him
This relationship with Jesus is not measured like all the other relationships in our life. We will never grow out of this relationship.
John 15:5 CSB
I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.
And the beauty of all this is that as we discover and press into more and more our need for Jesus, we will get to discover more of the riches of His mercies.
Let’s read more of what Peter wrote in his letter that we referenced earlier.
2 Peter 1:3–8 CSB
His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through our need for Him, the Lord gives us fullness of life. Through these things He provides what we need to experience our true use and fruitfulness in life. Jesus said it himself,
John 10:10 CSB
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
And that abundant life, the Lord delights in. Our relationship with Him is one that is filled with joy. Jesus is better than any fan, friend, coach, anything.
So as we look at Peter, we don’t see him walking on the water and swagger up to Jesus, turn to His buddies, be like, “bro, look at my faith, I’m walking on water”. No, we see a man that trusts in His Lord, and even when he is weak in faith, Jesus provides for His needs and brings Him close and is the keeper of their relationship and Peter’s safety.
Our relationship with Christ is humbly rooted in our need for Him.
So what about those here who don’t know Jesus. What does Jesus say about those who don’t know they need Him. Who want life abundant and are trying to find it by their own. What do we say to them. What does the Bible say to you.
Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were fervently pursuing to fill that empty space in their souls with something. The greedy tax collectors feeding the pit of their souls with money, prostitutes who were used by men and searched for hope through sexual needs of others and themselves, for theives who felt they were just one thing away from feeling complete, and so many more types of sinners. Now, you may or may not resonate with one of these people in how they live their life, but as we discussed earlier, there is something insatiable inside us that money, sex, drugs, relationships, success and everything else just can’t fill.
So when a group of proud men called Pharisees asked Jesus, “why are you hanging out with all these non-religious people, sinners”, Jesus says this.
Luke 5:31–32 CSB
Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Friends, Jesus came into this world to save those who don’t know Him. We read in 1 Timothy that “Christ came into the world to save sinners”.
Probably the most popular verse in all of scripture is John 3.16, I think it’s even better read when followed by verse 17.
John 3:16–17 CSB
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Church, friends, anyone in this room. Jesus came to this earth, by the love of God, to fill that hole in your soul. To fulfill all your needs, forever. Jesus died to get the obstacle of sin that holds that hole empty out of the way, so that He might fill it with the only thing that can fill it, our true and never ending need, a relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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