Why Did Jesus Come? (The Gospel, Part 1)

The Bible says, in  John 14:6:
"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Again, in John 18:37 is says,
"Therefore, Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”

Again, in 1 Timothy 1:15 the Bible says,
"It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost."

Let’s look at these words from Jesus, and about Jesus and why they matter.

For the next two weeks on Truth Matters I want to look at the Gospel.

Frequently, I’ve heard the term “the Gospel” used regarding ideas about the Lord, things that Christians believe or things they should be doing. I’ve heard statements like, “Feeding the poor, now that’s the gospel.” Or “Love your neighbor, now that’s the Gospel.”

And while these are both things that are commanded to followers and believers of Jesus, those are not what’s meant by the term The Gospel.

I wants us to look at what it means. The word “Gospel” basically means Good News or the Good Message. The four New Testament books which are known as the Gospels are titled individually as the Gospel according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke and according to John. Simply put, the Gospel is the Good News concerning Jesus recorded by these four writers.
So, what is the Good News? The Good News is the story of Jesus. It’s the message of His coming. It’s the story of who He was, what He declared, and what He accomplished. All that God had revealed in the Old Testament points to this coming, this Gospel, this story of Jesus. And all of history from that point on and even reaching back is impacted by what occurrs in this coming, this story of Jesus. So, you can understand why I wanted to start here in Truth Matters. Because this story, this Gospel is of singular importance as we examine truth that matters. The coming of Jesus and the Good News surrounding His coming is, in fact, the culmination of what God initiated from the very beginning. It is the truth that matters most concerning God and us.

Hebrews 1:1-2 says it clearly.
"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world."

God had a message which He had spoken long ago and has now finally is delivered in His Son, Jesus.

Remember what the angels declared at the birth of Jesus? Luke 2:10-11, the gospel records it. The shepherds are out there in the fields watching and suddenly the angels appear. And it said,
"The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Good News for all the people. God sends a Savior.

John’s Gospel spells it out a little more in John 1:14, when he says,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Good News from God is come to us. It is God Himself in the flesh and He come to us as a Savior. To say it again, the Gospel is the Good News from God. It’s the story that God has sent us a Savior. His name is Jesus. Yeshua, which translated means God saves. Now, that is Good News. It’s the best news. It’s the type of news that matters.

Over the next two weeks, I want us to consider two questions concerning the Gospel – the Story of Jesus. The first question is, “Why did Jesus Come?” That’s what we’re going to look at today. The second question, which we’ll look at next week is, “Why did Jesus have to die?” Embedded in these two questions is the crux of what we mean when we talk about sharing the Gospel or the Good News.

So, let’s look at this first question. “Why did Jesus Come?”

Now, if you were to ask that question around to people, we may get a multitude of answers. So, rather than asking ourselves or even asking other people, I want us to see what God Himself has revealed in His Word. Why speculate when we can see what God says?

In John 14:6, Jesus revealed something about the direction He was leading His disciples and declaring something about Himself. He said to His disciples, “You believe in God? Believe also in Me.” You see, He said, you should believe in Me. He was leaving them to go prepare a place for them. He told them they know the way that He was going. Thomas then asked how they would know the way. And then Jesus answered,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Did you hear what He said? Do you understand the claim that He’s making about Himself? He said that He is the way to God; not a way to God, He said He is the way to God. I mean, you look all around you and see the handiwork of God. And you can see what God has done but you can’t see God Himself. We recognize the sense that there is a God, but yet we don’t know how to get to Him. Religions are all around claim to have ways to get to God, or ways to God. But Jesus Himself comes and says that He is the way to God.

I believe Him. I believe what He said. Do you?

He said that He was telling the truth, He was telling in fact the truth. He was the truth. In the middle of this world we live in of endless ideas and speculations about what truth is, He said He spoke it. He embodied it. He should be believed. I believe Him. I believe what He said about Himself and the truth that He declared. The question is, do you?

He said that He was the life. Go to Ephesians 2:1-8 and read what it says. What you’ll discover is that Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He didn’t come as an influencer. He came to make dead people alive, to replace death with life.

I believe because I was dead and now, I’m alive. I have believed and have Him and I have life. Do you?

So, why did Jesus come? He came to provide the way to God.

In John 18:37, Jesus is on trial you remember? And He’s being questioned by Pontius Pilate. It records there,
"Therefore, Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this purpose, I have been born, and for this I have come into the world: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice.”

Pilate asked Him if He was a king, and He says that He is a king. He is in fact, the King. He claims royal authority. He says that He is IMPORTANT and holds an important position. He said that there’s a purpose in His coming. And He says that He came to give testimony to the truth. With all the lies and information and misconceptions, God comes to tell us the truth. That the Truth is important.

He also states that those people who are part of the Truth listens to His voice. The truth is so important that He came to proclaim it. It is so valuable that it should be listened to. Because Truth Matters. It matters to God. And it should matter to us.

Now, back to the original question. “Why did Jesus come?” I mean, didn’t God have holy men and prophets to provide us information about truth or the way to God, tell us about it? Why did God Himself have to come?

Someone once said that the seriousness of a situation can be understood by who is sent in to handle the situation. The situation must have been important, must have been serious. In 1 Timothy 1:15, Paul provides a very direct answer to that question that we’ve looking at. It says,
It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, (and then Paul adds) among whom I am foremost.

Jesus’ coming declares the truth about God, but it also reveals the truth about us. We’re sinners and we needed to be rescued. We are sinners. It’s believable, it’s verifiable. I’m a sinner. You’re a sinner. It’s really not a secret, though we really try hard to hide it. It can’t be counterbalanced by any number of good deeds because it doesn’t change the reality, the truth of it. We are sinners. God doesn’t sugarcoat the truth about us. He’s very honest about it.

In fact, He’s more than honest. He didn’t come to vindictively point a finger at us. No, Jesus’ coming says that God is good and He cares. He came because He’s a rescuer. He came to rescue us because we needed rescuing. We needed a Savior and so He came to save us.

Without Him coming–we wouldn’t know the way. And so, He told us the truth. Without the truth and we wouldn’t know the way to God.
Without Him coming to tell us, we wouldn’t hear and believe Him and find the way to God.
Without Him coming–we would be lost, lost in our sin and no one to rescue us.

I remember a story about a young woman and she attended a women’s home Bible study. Now, with the study about to begin, a lady spoke up. Now, this woman’s job in the Bible study involved keeping records of who attended and who didn’t attend and when they attended. She mentioned that there were several ladies who hadn’t attended in quite some time. She asked that since they had not attended in quite a while, if it would be ok to delete them from the records.

With that statement, the young woman I mentioned lower her head and began to softly weep. This, of course, stopped everybody else in the room and they became silent. They wondered, Why is she crying?

She finally stopped and dried her tears. Wiped her face. She looked around the room and she spoke.

She said, “You know, for several years my friend invited me to come to this study. Time and time again I made excuses, but she kept inviting me. And finally, when I reached a point when I was at the end of myself and my life was in a dark hole, she again invited me and I came. I heard the Words of God and He rescued me And He changed my life.”

The woman then took a deep breath and she continued. She said, “You know the only thing worse than being lost?” She looked at the people.

“The only thing worse than being lost is being lost and no one’s looking for you.”

Jesus came because we were lost. We weren’t looking for Him. He came looking for us. I believe Him because I was lost and He found me and He rescued me.

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners. That’s Good News since we are all sinners.

It’s the truth and for sinners, it’s this that Truth Matters.