The Reason

 Since I slept through most of the Christmas season and didn't get to preach a Christmas message, I wanted to linger on that subject for one last bit this year.

Even as we know that Christmas is all about Jesus, most of us still enjoy the tradition of getting presents for others. At our house, Erin single handedly took care of all the Christmas details while I was down. She did all the shopping and wrapping - which actually, she probably does most of it anyway each year. Moms are pretty awesome that way...

And this year, since I was sick, I really didn't know exactly what the kids were getting from us. The kids of course got their presents from Santa, but when they opened their gifts from me and Erin - it was the first time I saw them. So it was kind of a surprise for me, too.

When Mary and Joseph received their very special present almost two thousand years ago – it was a surprise for most because not everyone knew why that baby was there. Why did God send Jesus to earth? That's what I want to remind us of again today – why God sent Jesus. The most well know reason is, of course…

I. Love

One of the most well known verses in the Bible spells out this 'why' pretty clearly. Let's look at this familiar passage again…

John 3:16-18 (NIV)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (18) Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

Pretty much everyone in this country has probably heard that verse. God was motivated by love to send Jesus. Even most 'non-church goers' generally understand that God is about love. In the traditional Christmas picture of the manger scene, there's a genuine feeling of warmth and love that's obvious to even the casual observer.

We can see the idea of love again in 1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)...

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (10) This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Once again – God showed His love by sending Jesus. But here's the question that most 'non church going folk' might miss – God sent Jesus, out of love, but why did He send Jesus knowing that He would be crucified?

Most people understand the idea that God loves us, but don't really understand the incredible depth of that love. In both passages we just read, love is a big theme – but there was another purpose there, too. Both passages start with God's love, but then point to His desire for us – so that we might be saved, so that we might live.

The traditional manger scene with Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus reminds us of God's love, but if you're not paying attention – you can almost forget the fact that baby Jesus grew up. At Christmas time everyone knows who that baby in the manger is – they know it's baby Jesus. Even those who don't follow Christ can enjoy Christmas carols and the warm feeling that comes with the holiday.

I remember back in High School - one of the students started a tradition that we kept alive for years. I used to be in plays at Lake Central Theater Guild. After auditions, when the directors left the auditorium to make their final casting decisions, we would all gather on the stage after someone spontaneously started singing the song, "O Holy Night". Everybody huddled together and joined in singing.

We weren't an organized religious group - just a bunch of high school kids. I was involved in the Church - but many of the teens singing were not. But here they were singing the words, "O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior's birth." Again - they knew they were singing about little baby Jesus - they enjoyed the beauty of the song - but I'm pretty sure very few of them were even remotely thinking about the fact that Jesus grew up and died for them as their Savior.

It's easy to feel the love of the manger but forget the sacrifice of the cross. Many people understand that little baby Jesus came because of love, but many in the world aren't really aware of another reason why God sent Jesus to the earth…

II. To save us

If you went up to the average person on the street today and asked them if they were saved – what might they say? Some might understand what you were asking but many would probably just be annoyed. Those outside of the Church don't know that without Jesus they're lost; many would reject that idea and even argue with you. They don't have any idea that they even need saving.

The Apostle Paul focused on this reason of why God sent Jesus in 1 Timothy 1:15-17 (NIV)...

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. (16) But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. (17) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul was very aware of his need to be saved. One sign of spiritual maturity is a growing sense of how unworthy you are when compared to the holiness, the perfection of Jesus. God sent Jesus because of love to save sinners, to pay the price for our sins. We don't always like to think of ourselves in that way, as sinners – but it's accurate. That's why God sent Jesus - to save us from our sin, from ourselves.

If we look early in the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew, we find where Joseph had just found out that his fiancée Mary was pregnant and he knew that the baby wasn't his. He decided to break things off quietly…

Matthew 1:20-21 (NIV)

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (21) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

"Jesus", or in Hebrew "Jeshua"- it means "The Lord saves". The Gospel message, the very first part of the Christmas story, before Jesus was even born – an angel revealed one of God's reasons for sending Jesus – to save His people from their sins. Of course Joseph probably had no idea what that actually entailed at that time. He couldn't have imagined that the manger where his son would be born would have the shadow of a cross hanging over it.

Even the nation of Israel, Jesus' own people really didn't fully know what that meant - that Jesus was sent there to save them. Many assumed it meant that He would save them from the oppressive Roman government. That He would lead them in a rebellion as a political leader or a warrior king. They figured they most needed saving from outside forces. They didn't really understand that Jesus was there to save them from their own sins. That didn't enter their minds at that point.

Now, with hindsight, we of course can say that Jesus came to save us – and we wouldn't make the same mistake as the people back then, would we? Would we forget that it was to save us from our sins? We wouldn't get distracted and think that Jesus came to just save us from all pain and suffering we might have to endure in this life, right? We remember that Jesus didn't just come to save us from any situation that might be difficult or uncomfortable, correct?

Jesus didn't come just so we could be safe and secure and pain free in this life. Jesus came to save us, from our sin, so we could have eternal life with the Father!

It's easy to forget just what it was that Jesus came to save us 'from'. Everyone enjoys hearing about God's first reason for sending Jesus – out of love for us; but not everyone understands that they really need a savior from their sin. All of those other 'bad people' need to be saved, but not really 'good people'...?

Paul had it exactly right when he considered himself the 'worst of sinners'. When he compared himself to Jesus' goodness and holiness and righteousness – his actions and attitudes came up far short.

What do we look like when compared to Jesus? What would you be without Jesus? Stop and think of all the stuff in your life that Jesus has saved you from; those things from which He has delivered you; the garbage He has brought you through - the choices you could have made and the choices you did make. That might give you some perspective as to why God sent Jesus.

While many understand that God sent Jesus out of love, and some understand that Jesus really was sent to save us from our sin, most don't really understand yet another reason why. It's a big word…

III. Reconciliation

Take your time copying that one down.

How many here enjoy balancing your checkbook? You take your bank statement and your checkbook and you make sure they match up – they balance out, they reconcile.

I don't enjoy the process but it's so much easier now with online banking. I can see exactly what charges have gone through and when. I can sit down and in no time have things reconciled; I can see that my checkbook agrees with the bank account balance online. AND, if they don't, I can fix it right away.

Back to reconciliation, to reconcile – it means to settle matters, to put things right, to bring together, to resolve the issue, to reestablish a close relationship between - that's why God sent Jesus to earth, to reconcile us with Him; to make that relationship right again.

We can again see Paul's words in Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)...

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. (22) But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - (23) if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Not many people intentionally set out to be an enemy of God. Who wants to place themselves in opposition to the All powerful Creator of the Universe? But that's exactly the place in which we find ourselves because of our sin. Sin separates us from God – it puts us in opposition to God. Sin is absolutely against everything that God is; His very essence. We have to understand that God hates sin. And because He hates sin so much, when we sin, when there is sin in our lives – that makes us God's enemy.

But because God loved us so much, because He desired to save us from being His enemy, to save us from being lost and separated from Him forever – the only way to solve that problem was to reconcile that broken relationship between Him and us. The only way to do that, to reconcile things was by sending Jesus, God in the flesh, down to earth to live among us, to demonstrate God's love and ultimately to die for us.

The wages of sin is death. There is a price to be paid for sin. And according to God's Word, the price must be paid in blood. When Jesus came down to earth and gave His life, He was literally saying – 'over my dead body will you be separated from the Father and spend eternity in Hell'. Jesus didn't come to earth for condemnation and judgment – but to give His life to reconcile our relationship with the Father.

Why did God become a man and come down to earth and willingly allow Himself to be nailed to a cross, to be killed? So that He could rise again and defeat death so that we could have a way back to the Father – so that we could go to Heaven. So that faithful brothers and sisters who have gone before us - so that they would not stay dead!

So What?

Paul seemed to have a pretty good handle on why Jesus came to earth. He understood the depth of his sin and the depth of Christ's love for him despite that sin. And he also understood something else – he had to do something about that truth.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

(20) We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (21) God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul knew exactly from what Jesus had saved Him. It was that knowledge that motivated both his gratefulness and his willingness to be an ambassador for Christ. He had been given a huge gift of mercy and it was his intention to share that gift with anyone who would listen. That's our job, too.

God sent Jesus for a purpose – and that purpose gives us purpose! Go share the real reason we celebrate at Christmas time even after the holiday season is over!