The Purpose For Christ's Coming - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, December 21st. Christmas is more than presents and decorations. That becomes apparent when you grasp the purpose for Christ's coming. Here's more on the coming of Christ. The first purpose of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was to fulfill the law.

Let's say it together. The first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was what? To fulfill the law. The second purpose was? To reveal the Father. And the third purpose?

To testify to the truth. But there's a fourth reason, the fourth purpose for which he came, and that is to be found in Luke chapter 19. Now most of us know what Luke 19 is about. It is the first part of it is the story of Jesus calling Zacchaeus down from the tree and saying to him, Zacchaeus, come on down. I'm going home with you because salvation has come to your house today.

Well, it's interesting after Zacchaeus repents of his sin and pays back four times what he's taken. Verse 9 says, And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is the son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus said, One of the reasons I came is to seek and to save that which is lost. Now, when you look at that passage, he says to seek and to save.

What does he mean by seeking and saving? You remember that the theme of the 15th chapter of Luke is the theme of lost things? What do we have? We have, first of all, a what? A lost what? A lost sheep, a lost coin, and a what?

A lost son. But I want you to notice something. Here's the difference. A coin is an inanimate object. It has no mind of its own. A sheep has no mind like a human does. And so the shepherd goes after the sheep.

The woman goes after her coin. But God has given to every man and woman a free will. And the Father, typified here by God himself, runs toward the sinner with open, forgiving arms once the sinner has first made the choice to come back to the Father. Jesus is a seeking savior. He says, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost.

And listen, for every single one of you who has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ or in ignorance have not known the truth. I want to tell you, there's somebody after you. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is seeking you, seeking to save you, seeking to liberate you, seeking to free you, seeking to set you free, seeking to give you a whole brand new life. You say, I don't see the evidence of Jesus seeking me.

You don't see it, but it's happening. My friend, just the fact that you are listening, just the fact that you are listening right now, God is seeking you. He says, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost. Now, what did he mean by saving the lost? Well, a lost person is a person who is separated from God because of their sin, the sin of unbelief.

We come into the world a state of innocence. Before long, we make a choice to sin. And every single person who's ever lived made the choice to sin against God. Man is separated from God by his sin. Jesus said, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost.

Now, a better word that is a more descriptive word, a word that probably you and I could picture a little better than just the word save. If you'll turn to Romans Chapter five for a moment, I want you to look at the word here. Listen to the word that Paul uses here, which is probably a little more picturesque. Remember, we said a lost person is one who by the choice of their sin has been separated from God. Verse 10 of Romans five. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Now, let me explain what reconciliation means.

The term reconciled simply means this. That God, seeing the helpless condition of sinners, did not wait for the sinner to reach up and finally grab God because he never would. All listen, all of the philosophies in the world have been the explanations of man's search for truth. The highest good in life. Man could never have reached high enough intellectually or in his work to reach God. Reconciliation is a loving God doing what? Reaching down the sinful man where man could not reach God and taking hold of sinful man who was beyond his own reach of God. God reaching down, taking sinful man and bringing him back into a oneness of relationship with God the Father. Only God reconciled the sinner to himself. Now, look at this verse.

Second Corinthians chapter five. Paul said in verse 17, Therefore, if any man is now in Christ, he's a new creature. Something drastic has happened.

The old things passed away. Behold, all things behold, new things have come. Now, all these things are from God. That is, all this new life is from God who did what? Who reconciled us, brought us back into relationship with him through Christ.

And he listened. Not only did he do that, but he gave to all of us the ministry of what? The ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ reaching out and bringing the world, reconciling the world to himself.

Not counting the trespasses against them. And he's committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are now ambassadors for Christ. This message of reconciliation, as though God were through us in treating these lost people. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled unto God. Now, listen, he says one of the purposes for which he came was to seek us out and finding us. That is bringing us to an awareness of him. God, the father, through his son, reached down and brought us back or brought us into a relationship with him.

Now, having brought us into a reconciled relationship, that means the war is over. We're forgiven. And he says in this passage, look, verse 21, second Corinthians five. He made Christ him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become. Listen, we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. That is, you and I are clothed in the righteousness of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Now, here's what I want you to see.

Now, watch this very carefully. God reached down and reconciled us back unto himself. When he did that, exactly what happened? Turn back to Colossians chapter one. When he brought us back into this relationship with him, the Bible says something happened. Verse 15 of Colossians one.

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation. Verse 19. It was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness of the father to dwell in him. Chapter two, verse nine. For in him that is in Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete.

Now, let me ask you a question. In whom are you dwelling? In Christ, he says, you're abiding in me and I'm abiding in you. Who is indwelling Christ? Listen, the fullness of the Godhead.

Now, I understand that you and I cannot fully comprehend that, but here's what I want you to see. He says, you and I are in Christ. Christ is in us.

He has become our life. This Christ who has become our life is also indwelled by God the Father so that all the fullness of the Godhead is indwelling every single believer. What does that say to you about the incomparable love of God that was expressed the night Jesus Christ was born? He was not simply satisfied fulfilling the law, revealing the father, testifying to the truth. But it was the great purpose of God not only to reconcile us unto himself, but then listen, in all of the fullness of his glory and his power to indwell every single saint. So that you and I cleansed with the blood of Jesus Christ are the continuing, ongoing, growing, what, reflections of the person of Almighty God himself. That's his purpose. His purpose is not simply to forgive our sins. His purpose is, listen, God, who is transcendent above and beyond all of creation, God in all of his glory and power and honor and majesty, has chosen to condescend to live within the human body of any and every single believer. That is the message of Christmas that Jesus came to dwell among men. And he came to dwell within the human body of every single believer.

Now, let me ask you a question. If his purpose was to seek and to save that which is lost. And the Bible clearly says that he has given to you and me the ministry of reconciliation. That means that he's given to every single one of us.

The responsibility of being vessels of reconciliation to lost people who need to be brought into fellowship with God. That isn't an option. That isn't something you and I choose or choose not to do. He says you have been given. God has commissioned every single one of us with the ministry of reconciliation. Somebody says, well, that's not my spiritual gift.

Forget it. Listen, every single spiritual gift has been given in order to serve the living God. And God could not make it any clearer by saying, I have reconciled you to myself. You have the responsibility of becoming the vessel through whom others are reconciled to me through you.

Now, let me ask you another question. Can you tell me a greater work on earth? Than for God to use you as the vessel by which someone else is introduced to Christ. Their sins are forgiven. Their name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise under the day of redemption.

And they become the eternal sons and daughters of the living God. Do you understand what happens when you do that? God uses you. Listen, God uses you to do what? To effect an eternal change in somebody's life.

Let me ask you another question. When you die, will it really make any real difference that you lived? Will it make any eternal difference? Can you name me anything on the face of this earth that you could ever do that would have the lasting impact? That would be equal to your bringing one single person into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Thereby affecting the change of their eternal destiny. What did Paul say? There has been given to all of us the service of reconciliation. That's why Jesus came.

But there's one last reason. If you'll turn to John Chapter 10 for a moment. In this chapter, the Lord Jesus is picturing himself as the Good Shepherd.

Listen to what he says. Let's start with verse nine. I am the door.

If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief. Who is the thief? Satan. The thief comes only to steal.

Steal your life, steal your talents, steal your gifts, steal your possessions, steal your time, steal and kill and destroy. But Jesus says, I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly. You know why he says he came?

He says this is the reason I came. I came that your life may be made complete. We have been made whole by the grace of a loving father. We have abundant life. That is, life at its best is the gift of God to every single believer. And I want to ask you, my friend, do you have life at its best? Are you going to just keep on doing it your way and having it your way and doing your thing, neglecting and shunning and rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, just carrying out your life your way?

Well, I want to tell you something. First of all, one of these days you're going to die and be eternally separated from God. And you're going to you will have missed life. He said it isn't enough to be forgiven of sins. He says, I've come to give you not life, but life abundantly. He says, man, I want you to enjoy every minute of it. I want you to live it to its fullest. He says, I've made you a whole person.

I want you to be complete. And he says, I've made you complete in him. That's why he came. The more I read the Bible, here's the conclusion I come to. The most awful, incomprehensible, painful of all scenes ever to be pictured by the human mind or seen by the human eye will be the judgment of God. When men who have heard the gospel, women who've heard the gospel stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his majesty and righteousness and holy and glory and honor with all of his attributes glowing like a thousand stars around him. And this unbelieving, dying, sin sick world offer their pitiful excuses to a holy God who moved heaven and earth, seeking them out in order to save them, to reconcile them, to give them life and to give them abundant life.

And for them to have rejected him. I want to tell you, my friend, the glories of heaven are beyond human comprehension. The pain of the judgment will be equal in sorrow as heaven will be in joy. My dear friend, this is the way you respond to the divine, outreaching hand of our Heavenly Father. You acknowledge the hymn that you've sinned against him. You tell him, Lord, I've sinned against you. I've rebelled against you.

I've wanted it my way. I'm confessing my sins. I'm repenting of my sins. Father, I'm changing my attitude.

I now want you in my life. I'm receiving the death of your son as full payment for my sin. I'm receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I'm yielding my life to him. Here and now, by faith, I receive Jesus Christ as my savior.

The moment you express that faith in him, your sins are forgiven. You've been brought in the beautiful, wonderful bosom of the Heavenly Father. You now have become a child of the living God. My friend, Jesus says, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost. And I've come to give you the kind of life that your heart is hungering and thirsting for. Listen, nobody knows the kind of life you need like God.

And he's tailored the abundant life, listen, to meet, to satisfy and to complete the life of every single human being on the face of the earth. And the gospel is offered to you. Now, you have to make a decision.

You only have two choices. You can accept Christ as your savior and forever become a living child of God. Or you can reject the gospel and forever be separated from God.

No hope forever and ever and ever. When time ceases to be, you will be, so to speak, in this vast, unlimited existence of eternal separation from God only because you made a foolish choice about your life. Wouldn't you agree, my friend, if, listen to me, if what I told you, if what I've shared with you just may possibly be true, will you not be wise enough to fall on your knees, pray right where you are and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior? He came for folks like you and me.

He won't force your hand. My friend, I am pleading with you in the name of Jesus to surrender your life to him and begin to enjoy life at its very best. God's wonderful, abundant life. Thank you for listening to part two of The Purpose for Christ's Coming. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.