Why Did God Send Jesus?

The following is excerpted from my sermon, preached at ICC worship services on 13th December 2009.

“…In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” John 18:37

That is a pretty bold statement. It is simply not the normal statement of a normal person.
What if I stood up here and made those same claims? What if I said that the reason I exist is to tell you what is true? You’d think I was a lunatic wouldn’t you? Those are the ravings of an insane man. “If you are on the side of truth then you will listen and do what I say.”
***What makes Jesus say that?

Perhaps he is a lunatic. Perhaps he was just deceived and had this grandiose idea that he was God’s own son. If that’s true then we should dismiss all of his teaching and everything about him in the Bible because its just the rantings and ravings of an insane man.

But what if it is true? What if Jesus really, truly is God’s son? What if what he claims to be true - that he was sent in to the world in order to tell people the truth - what if that really was right? There is only one person who can make that claim and be right. The only one who can claim to be the Son of God who came to tell the truth is: The Son of God.

So if Jesus truly is God’s son, if God really did take on the form of a human being, born to a young woman named Mary.If it really the reality of Christmas is that the God of the universe
entered right here in our midst, right here on our turf, was one of us…if its really true, then we have to believe the claims he makes as well. And I BELIEVE IT IS TRUE.

And if Jesus really is the Son of God, then the implications for you and for me are pretty huge!

1. We must LISTEN to what he teaches!
We are to read and know and study the Bible so that we can learn and absorb every single thing that Jesus said. Not just a casual reading, but an all-out, focused, informed study of Scripture.

2. We better put his words in to practice. listening, hearing, absorbing his word…and then acting on it. You can say you believe in God, you can say you want to be a follower of Christ…but if it doesn’t come and impact the way you think, the way you treat your spouse, the morals of how you conduct business, if it doesn’t change and impact your relationship with your parents and your best friend and your neighbor…then you’re just saying the words, but you don’t
really believe them. Because the way you live your life reflects what you believe.

I have struggled so many times in my life to live in tangible, real ways that show that I am a person of faith. Every time I let myself be ruled and dictated by what the carnival
of voices around me is saying about me - ‘you deserve to have more Barry, you ought to get ahead of everyone else Barry, you sure aren’t worth anything unless you prove your
intelligence or your strength Barry’ – every time I let myself live and act out of those thoughts then I am not listening to the truth - I am listening to lies and ordering my life around them.

There is another way though. I can listen to what Jesus says is true. I can learn to believe that what he says is important is truly important. I can learn to see myself the way he sees me and to value the things that he values. I can learn to listen…to read his word, to listen in prayer, to ask other wise people about it…learn to listen and thus order my life around the truth that he teaches. Because in the end, that’s how I want my life to be ordered. Not around the carnival of half-truths - but around the rock solid truth that Jesus told us about God.

In our world we certainly can lose sight of what matters, and put our focus on
all the wrong things. We live in a world that says that beauty and wealth and power and
fame are the most highly treasured values … in a carnival that says integrity & servanthood & humility get tossed aside. What a confused world this really is. And who speaks truth to
confused people?

**That’s why God sent Jesus: to tell confused people the truth.

Jesus came so that we would know, really know, see and hear and feel…and know the God of the universe. That’s why God sent Jesus: to tell confused people the truth.