11-27-2016

The Promises of His Coming

Part 1 – His Mission

Nov. 27, 2016 – Forsyth UMC

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 53:4-11 and Luke 2:25-38

During the next three Sundays I want to look at the promises concerning Christ’s coming. We will focus on: 1) his mission; 2) his character; and 3) his kingship.

  1. Our Problem

We the people God created had a problem. Created to be God’s children and in his image we in essence ran away from home. The story is told in Genesis 3:1-15.

In that story God told us that he would put enmity between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the devil. Her offspring as counted by God would be Christ who while he would suffer the devil’s wrath in the crucifixion, would triumph through the resurrection and crush the head of the serpent delivering a fatal blow to the devil and his forces.

From the beginning of time God promised a Redeemer to free us from our sins and the power of Satan who held mankind captive by their sins.

  1. The Solution

Isaiah 59:20 says, “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.” Declares the Lord.

Redeem means to buy back. When the human race fell into sin it rightfully became the property of the devil. In Luke 4:6 the devil offered to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Christ would bow down and worship him and he said, “for it have been given to me,” …

Christ came to win back the kingdoms of the world to God, if Christ had submitted to the devil’s temptation he would have been submitting to one of his own creations for even the devil was originally created as a good angel and did not fall until evil was found in him. In fact God would have given up his place as God, and that was just not going to happen. It would have been a terrible thing for our world and for all of the heavens. But God is God and he does not share his glory with any other, nor is anyone equal to him. That would be like a General submitting to the orders of a Private.

But Christ refused to submit quoting the Scripture that says, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Instead Christ followed the Father’s plan to come and live among us, to do miracles among us that the Father planned, then to sacrifice his life on the cross to win the world back to himself.

This is much like Aslan the Lion did in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia where Aslan sacrificed himself to save Edmund and the others that had fallen under the spell of the White Witch.

  1. What He Would Do

Isaiah 53:4-11 foretold exactly what Christ would some 700 years before Christ was born.

  1. He took our infirmities – our weaknesses, the places we are prone to fail, physically, spiritually, and mentally.
  2. He carried our sorrows – Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. He feels every heart ache, every loss, every time you hurt over a loved one’s or our own illness or other misfortune. Jesus carried it all.
  3. He was pierced for our transgressions – the nails he took on the cross he took for us as he had no sin of his own so he took ours to the cross.
  4. Crushed for our iniquities – Christ’s body was beaten and bruised because of our sins.
  5. The punishment that brought us peace was laid upon him – God the Father had to punish sin but none of us, not even the most powerful angel of God could withstand the wrath of God against sin and evil, so God himself became a man in Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity and the Son of God took our punishment for us.

Because of what Jesus would do, Simeon and Anna were excited to see the Lord’s Christ for they knew the promises of God that Isaiah 53 continues saying, “by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.”

This was and continues to be the mission of Christ: to redeem people from their sins. The price is paid in full by the blood of Jesus, why should anyone walk in the darkness of sin?

Conclusion

The Mission of Christ was to Redeem people, to buy them back so they no longer have to be slaves to sin, but now are free to fully be the children of God. When we possess this great Redemption from Christ, we have peace with God, we have Joy in Christ, and we have freedom from sin and the fear of death.

This was the mission of Christ we celebrate at Christmas. It is what Anna and Simeon were looking for, it is what we and Christians of all ages have found and rejoice in, and it is what the world needs to hear. So let us proclaim clearly to everyone!

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