Key Verse:
But He turned and rebuked them,[a] and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”[b] And they went to another – Luke 9:55-56 NKJV
What is the purpose of the coming savior?
In the first sermon in this trilogy of sermons, Lost Souls In Need of a Savior, we saw that lost souls were/are in need of a savior. These lost souls, we concluded, needed saving from the Lord; they need someone capable of standing up to God on their behalf. The only one capable of stopping God, we learned, is God Himself! There is no man that is capable of stopping God from doing what God deems is right for Him to do. The one that can and will stand up to the Lord for mankind is Jesus Christ.
Jesus, we know, is the reason for the Christmas season. We are celebrating Christ in the masses; we certainly know that we are celebrating the birth of Christ. During this time of the year,we often like to remind others that Jesus is the reason for the season.
We feel it necessary to argue for Christmas because many of us believe that Christmas is under attack. Personally I don’t care much for fighting, especially during this time of year, and I am of the mindset that you do you, and I will continue to celebrate Jesus Christ. Yet, there are many who argue against this holiday.
They argue: Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th – like they are teaching the world something brand new!
The point that seemingly gets lost in all of the arguing and debating is the fact that Jesus Christ was born! No matter the season, no matter the month, no matter the day – Jesus Christ was born! You see, we often talk about there being a reason for the season. We try to teach our children that there is a reason for the toys you get this time of the year – there is a reason, and purpose, behind Christmas. I want to focus on the purpose of this Savior’s birth. What was the purpose of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, being born in this world?
According to scripture – the purpose of Christ
In 1 John 3, we find a couple of verses that are integral to enlightening us on the purpose of Christ. In verse 5, we see that John writes:
And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
To manifest: means to appear; to present; to reveal. Christ appeared in the world (was born) through a virgin’s birth. For all of us to appear on this earth, we had to be born through the womb of a woman – Christ was born through the womb of a virgin woman. John writes that Christ was manifested to take away our sins. John gives us a reason, a purpose behind the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I believe all of us are born for a reason, and for a purpose as well, but the purpose for Christ was already well prophesied about, hundreds a years before He arrived.
There was a clearly defined purpose for the birth of Jesus Christ and John tells us plainly what that purpose was – to take away our sins. I want you to notice that John uses the word ‘our’ in this verse – he is not speaking singularly here. John says, “He was manifested to take away OUR sins” – not “my” sins or even the sins of one nation of people. Christ became the propitiation of sin for the whole world; not part of it; not one singular nation of people; and not for just one person but for everybody. Therefore, this means that Christ was not born for a select few, but was born and came for all!
John then continued in speaking about Christ, and said this in verse 8:
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
John digs more into the point here, stating again that there was a clear purpose for Jesus’ manifestation. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. One of the works of the devil, Satan, was to introduce sin to mankind. Satan introduced sin, that persistent unfaithfulness in God, which is rewarded with death – that is spiritual death. One of the devils other great works is his continued deceiving of mankind. The devil deceives many into believing in a lie, following their selfish and prideful ways, and this continues to move mankind away from the Lord – becoming lost souls.
About this, Jesus says (Matthew 18:11), “the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” This is a very important statement from Jesus Christ; these were His exact words. The Lord promised Abraham that because of his faith, all nations of the world would be blessed. God created mankind for the purpose of dwelling in peace with man. However, Satan deceived man in the garden, and man chose to dwell in sin. Understand this: the Lord was not going to dwell (live) with sin. Man chose to wonder off from the Lord and dwell with the devil. Man chose the devil over God!
Jesus then said (in Matthew 18:12):
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?
Herding sheep was very common during Jesus’ time, so He refers to that for His example. Sheep were not pets back then but were the livelihood of the shepherd. If a shepherd lost 1 sheep out of 100 sheep, he would leave the 99 sheep behind to go in search of the 1 lost sheep. We are a lot like that about money. If somebody shortchanges us a dollar, we get furious and want that dollar we were shorted. Think of something that you could possibly lose and would drop everything to go in search for – this is the heavenly Father. (Matthew 18:14) It is not the will of the Father that one of His (that is His creation) remains lost (or missing). We wondered off with the devil, to dwell, but God says, “I cannot allow you to live like that!”
Coming to save the lost
Mankind was/is made of lost souls that is in need of saving from currently dwelling with Satan and dwelling with Satan eternally. This is why we see Jesus’ overarching statement in Luke 9:56 when he says, “the Son of Man came to save lives.” You see, it’s not the fact that Jesus was born and just lived a life, but that He was born to save (get back) mankind!
Jesus was born to save mankind from the wolf that would scatter His sheep (John 10:13). Jesus was born to save man from being hunted by that roaring lion that roams back and forth in the world looking to see who he will devour (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus came to save mankind from that guilty verdict of sin – His Father’s punishment.
The Savior was born to suffer for you and me! This baby that is the reason for the season, we are told in Isaiah 53 will grow up to be despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3). The baby will grow up to only be smitten and afflicted by God (Isaiah 53:4). This baby would be bruised for the iniquities of mankind and chastised for the peace of all of mankind (Isaiah 53:5). The purpose of this baby, the purpose of Christ, was for mankind to offer him up for our sin (Isaiah 53:10).
We often talk about the reason for the season, but we leave Jesus as the baby lying in the manger, but I tell you that the baby had to grow up! The baby lived and the baby had a purpose! The purpose of Christmas was for all of mankind to be saved. To me, this is the greatest gift that could have ever been giving – The gift of God: Jesus Christ.