Why Did Jesus Become a Man - 5

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Please make your donation to Visionathon today at vision.org.au Today, Dr. David Jeremiah shares why that makes Christmas worth celebrating all year. Here's David with today's message, Why Did Jesus Become a Man? Well, as the moon lit the tree tops and the evening breeze cooled her skin, Mary rested quietly, renewing her strength. She gazed in wonder at the tiny living gift that she held in her arms. Any child, of course, is a miracle from heaven, but the firstborn in particular. Even so, Mary understood that the child she held was set apart from any other that had ever been born in the history of the world.

She knew what the angel had told her and what her heart had confirmed. Here at my breast, she thought, is the Son of God. Those are the very words, the very designation that the angel had given her, Son of God. Yet, surely, she couldn't have been so much different than the rest of us.

She must have asked some questions too. Surely, in the mind of Mary on that day was the word why. Why had Jesus come to this earth? Why had she been chosen as the vessel to bring him into humanity? Why was God becoming a man?

What purpose could there possibly be in such an unprecedented event? Why the nativity? While some of the answers to those questions appear in the gospel records of the Scripture, it takes all of the Bible to even get close to a full understanding. Today, I want to begin unpacking some of the reasons I have discovered in answering that question, why the nativity. Why was Jesus sent to this earth? Why did Jesus become a man?

Why? Here are what I believe to be the five most important reasons for Jesus becoming a man. First of all, Jesus became a man to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament. In Luke chapter 24 and verse 44, we read, and these are the words of Jesus, All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

That's what Jesus said. Now, Jesus said this to the two on the road to Emmaus who had just come out of Jerusalem and were discussing what had happened in the death of Christ and did not know that he had come back from the grave. And as Jesus began to talk with them, Jesus responded to them, and it says here that Jesus said, All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. When Jesus made that statement, he encompassed the entire Old Testament. The prophets, the law, and the Psalms were the Old Testament as they were spoken of in that day. And what Jesus said was this, that everything that had been said about him in the Old Testament, all of it had to be fulfilled in his coming.

These words recorded by Luke remind us that when Jesus came to this earth to be our Savior, when God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, one of the reasons he came was to satisfy all of the prophecies that had been made concerning him in the Old Testament. Do you realize that it would be almost possible to write a complete Christology of Jesus Christ using only the Old Testament prophecies concerning him? The Old Testament prophets spoke frequently about a coming champion.

Every page from Genesis to Malachi trembles with the wondrous anticipation of the coming of this champion. The prophetic books were written by many different writers at various times over many centuries. And yet together, throughout the words of the prophets, there were glimmers of a Savior, a king who would rescue his people and restore them to God. The prophets spoke of this one who was to come. In fact, there were more than 300 specific prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures about the promised Messiah.

The hints were tantalizing. Isaiah said that this special deliverer would be miraculously born of a virgin and that his name would be called Immanuel. Isaiah wrote this not one year before it happened, not ten years, but hundreds of years before it took place. In the words of Isaiah 7.14, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Immanuel. Hundreds of years before that event took place, Isaiah prophesied that it would happen. Jeremiah, perhaps the greatest prophet of the Old Testament. Jeremiah prophesied that the birthplace of this coming one would suffer a massacre of infants. In the film, The Nativity Story, one of the most moving scenes is when the soldiers of Herod swoop down upon the city of Bethlehem with the intent of destroying all of the male children in the city. Jeremiah prophesied it would happen in chapter 31 of his prophecy in verse 15. We read, Thus says the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and weeping, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more.

Rachel's tomb, according to tradition, is located near Bethlehem, and her weeping represents the overwhelming sorrow of the families of these slain infants. Perhaps you're not a veteran student of the Word of God and you think, well, that's a very obscure passage you chose from Jeremiah, Dr. Jeremiah. Why would you choose such a passage?

Are you really sure that's what it means? Well, I've chosen to trace this one a little more carefully than the other two so that you will understand how carefully this all fits together, this book we call the Bible. Look with me at Matthew's account of this tragic moment in the history of Israel. For in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 2 and verses 16 and 18, we have the story of what happened when the wise men were told to come back and tell Herod where Jesus was.

And remember, they were warned not to do that and they didn't go back. So beginning in Matthew chapter 2 verses 16 and following, and I want you to follow this story carefully so you can connect it with Jeremiah in the Old Testament. Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its districts from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more. The New Testament draws a straight line back to Jeremiah and says, this is what the prophet was talking about in Jeremiah 31, 15, written hundreds of years before the massacre in Bethlehem. Why did Herod have all those babies killed? Because he feared that among them was a king who would become his rival.

And the best way he knew to obliterate that possibility was just to kill all of the male children two years old and under. So Jesus came to be a man, to be the fulfillment of all of these things that were spoken of him from the Old Testament. But secondly, Jesus became a man to show us the Father.

Now stay with me on this one and watch carefully. On one occasion, Philip was talking with Jesus in John 14 and he said, Lord, show us the Father and it will be sufficient for us. And Jesus said to Philip, Philip, have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me. Now listen to what he says at the end of this. Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father. One of the most misunderstood things about this season of the year is the nature of the person who is actually being celebrated as far as his birthday is concerned.

This is not just a wonderful man we're talking about. No, Jesus was God in a body. Jesus was God walking around in flesh and blood.

The incarnation means that God was poured into the flesh of humanity. And so when Jesus came to this earth, he came for the purpose of showing us who God was. Now how do you understand God if you cannot know any more about him than the Old Testament's description of him as God is spirit? You can know about him through the Scriptures. Hebrews tell us that the prophets spoke of him, but the word which is Jesus has come to reveal to us who the Father is. If you want to know who God is, you need to know who Jesus is because Jesus teaches you who God is. So when you read the Gospels and you learn of Jesus and you study his life, you are taking a course in who God is for Jesus came to reveal him to us. Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 and 19, support this truth in a marvelous way. He, Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for it pleased the Father that in him, in Christ, all the fullness should dwell.

Almighty God poured the Godhead into the body of Jesus. Jesus is God. The apostle John, I think, explains it best when he writes these words in the prologue of his Gospel.

He says it this way. Listen, in the beginning was the word. In your Bible, you will notice the word is capitalized.

That's a word that speaks of Jesus. In the beginning was the word, and let's just put the word Jesus in there so we understand it clearly. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.

And Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. In the beginning was Jesus, and yet Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Don't let anyone ever tell you that Jesus began in Bethlehem.

He did not begin there. He had existed from time past, but he came into this form of humanity when he was born in Bethlehem. Historian William Barclay is in awe of this truth, and in one of his books, he writes these words. Here was the shatteringly new thing that God could and would become a human person, that God could enter into this life that we live, that eternity could appear in time, that somehow the Creator could appear in creation in such a way that men's eyes could actually see him. Jesus did not come to talk to men about God. He came to show men what God is like so that the simplest mind might know him as intimately as the mind of the greatest philosopher. When John says that Jesus dwelt among us, he uses a word that means to live in a tent.

Military people would say he came to bivouac with us. Or as theologians define, he came to tabernacle with us, and that's what Jesus did, isn't it? He came to be one of us.

He came and moved in among us. Why did Jesus become a man? So that those of us who are men and women, who understand other men and women, would be able to understand God. When you see Jesus doing what he did in the Gospels, you are watching God at work. Do you want to know God?

Get to know Jesus. That's why the only way you can become a Christian is to know Jesus because Jesus is the way that you know God. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.

If you want to know God, you have to know Jesus because Jesus is God's revelation to you about himself. Well, first of all, Jesus became a man to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus became a man to show us the Father. Thirdly, Jesus became a man to save us from our sin.

I love what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1-15. He says, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Paul wrote, and I'm the chief of them. And how could Jesus come into this world to save us and why was it necessary? Why couldn't God from his throne in heaven make a sovereign decree of some sort that sin problem was over and that we would all be saved? Because in the nature of God's holiness and his justice, he had to become one of us so that as a representative of mankind, he could go to the cross and on our behalf pay the penalty that we deserve. If God paid the penalty for us, it would have been an edict, it would have been a sovereign act, but it wouldn't have been the ministry of redemption that the Scripture speaks of and that the Old Testament portrays. We had to have a God-man to save us.

A man couldn't do it. He could have no more power than any other man, and God could not do it in the sense of God the Father doing it without being identified with us in humanity. And I like to say it this way, and I've said this over and over throughout the years, that because he was God and man, he lifted up one hand and he took hold of the Father and he reached down the other hand and he took hold of man, and at the cross, in a moment of time, he brought them together. And now with his hands reached out, he offers his salvation to all who will come. God would not have saved us apart from the gift of his Son.

The awful price that was paid for us on Calvary is really the story of the cradle. Luke 19, 10, Jesus says, I have come to seek and to save that which is lost. Paul wrote about it in Ephesians when he said, in him we have redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. My friends, if Christ had not come, the course of humanity would be one long downward hopeless trudge toward the eternal night of despair, but Almighty God interrupted all of that. He shut down the cycle of sin by sending Jesus to be our Savior.

And if you've never put your trust in Jesus Christ, it would be true to say that without knowing him, you cannot know God, and without accepting him, you cannot be forgiven, for that's the purpose for his coming, to forgive us of our sins. And then there's another reason why he came. Jesus came to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus became a man to show us the Father. Jesus became a man to save us from our sins.

And here's the fourth one. Jesus became a man to sympathize with our weaknesses. Now, this is something that is truly astounding to me. And you say, where in the world would you pick up such a doctrine? It sounds almost heretical that Jesus would come down here to identify with our weaknesses.

Well, I didn't make this up, friends. It's right in the Scripture. In the book of Hebrews, in the fourth chapter, we read these words, "'For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.' He came to sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." Get your arms around this Scripture, especially at this season of the year. Do you know why you can go to Jesus with whatever's going on in your life and know that he hears you and understands you?

You know that because one day he came down here to walk among us and experience everything that we've experienced. And the Scripture says he experienced it all to the fullest apart from sin. Some theologians like to argue about that, and they say if Jesus could not sin, then temptation could not have been temptation. Testing could not have been testing.

All they understand is their own finite comprehension of this, but think about it for a moment. Jesus wasn't tempted up until the third hour or the fourth hour or the fifth hour. He felt the whole weight of the temptation. Jesus wasn't tested just a little bit. He felt the whole weight of the testing.

Jesus has been tempted and tested in areas you could never comprehend because nothing ever stopped it since he did not yield to it. He felt the full force of it, and he understands you like no one else. That's why I love the term that comes at Christmas time when we say you call his name Emmanuel, and Emmanuel means what, class? God with us. Not just God present with us, but God as one of us, God understanding us, God entering into all of our sorrow and our sadness. One of the disconnects at the Christmas season is that so many people who do not know Christ find the season to be one of despair and discouragement because apart from Christ, someone who can identify with us, where do we go to find help in the time of need? The passage says that because he is who he is and because he did what he did in becoming one of us and identifying with our weakness, that means that we can be bold in going to him in prayer knowing that in praying to him, we will find grace to help in our time of need. Do you need grace in your time of need?

I do, and I'm so thankful that my Lord cared enough about me to come down here and become like I am apart from sin. Jesus came into this world knowing what it would cost him. He bore in his body the marks of evil that we deserve. He bore in his sinless soul the weight of sin so that we could be forgiven. He bore in his manly frame the hurt and the pain of injustice that we might be understood.

But I want to tell you something, he did more than make the offer. He took on our face and our disfigurement. He became a man so that God would become touchable and approachable and reachable. He is Emmanuel, God with us, and for all of us, that will be a useful thought during these next weeks. God is with us.

Whatever it is you have experienced, you can be sure that God has been all the way to the end of that road and when you offer your prayer to him, he will embrace you with his love and he will be able to say, I have been there and experienced that. Jesus became a man to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament. He became a man to show us the Father. He became a man to save us from our sin and he became a man to sympathize with our weaknesses.

Finally, he became a man to secure our hope of heaven. He came down here to be one of us so that he could take us up there to be one of them. He came down so that we could go up.

That's pretty easy, isn't it? He came down so that we could go up. Colossians 1-27 says, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Let me say it to you this way, friends. Until Christ comes to live within your heart, you are not fit for heaven. You couldn't exist up there. You can't get in for one thing, but you couldn't exist if you did. The only way you can live in heaven is with Christ in you. He's the one who gives you the heaven equipment.

He's the one who makes you fit for heaven, and until Christ is in you, you can't go to heaven. I mean, you say, well, that's very arbitrary. That's very politically incorrect. You know what? I don't care because it's the truth of the Word of God, you know? I'm not trying to be nasty or in your face. This is not a put-down of anyone else.

I don't know about anybody else. I just know what my Bible says, and my Bible says, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. There is one way to God, and as we understand the whole story, it becomes more and more easy for us to understand that.

Does it not? If God is the only one who became man, if God is the only one who cared enough to take us away from the cross and put his own son there, if God has paid the entire price for all of this, this is God's idea, not mine. And God says, this is the way this works. You come to God by coming to Jesus because Jesus is God. Jesus is the revelation of God, and Jesus is the one who paid the penalty for your sin and for mine. And one day, if we live until he returns, we'll hear the trumpet and we'll go up to be with him, and if we should die before he comes, our bodies will go in the grave and we will go in our spirit to be with him, and one day our soul and our spirit and our body will be rejoined and we shall live with him forever in heaven.

How do I know that? The Bible says it. The Bible teaches it, and listen to me. If Almighty God said all that he said about the first coming of Christ and it came true minutely in an accurate fashion, everything he says about the second coming of Christ will happen the same way. Everything I believe about the first coming comes from the Old Testament, fulfilled in the New Testament, and now here are some more promises.

I believe all of those too. He's coming again, and when he does, we're going up to be with him. And we take for granted at this season of the year all that happens. My purpose at Christmastime is, you know, I love this season.

I have to be one of the true romantics when it comes to Christmas. But I don't want us to get lost in the tinsel and the paper and the fun and miss out on this truth. I've told people as I've done interviews with response to this book on the Nativity, they asked me, why did I do it? And I said, because I want to take back Christmas, because the story of Christmas as it was originally written is more exciting than anything I have ever heard that they've tried to come up with since then, and it's filled with the redemptive truth for all mankind.

Wouldn't you want to really get excited about that? Because Almighty God has visited us. He has come to be one of us, and we take it for granted. Charlie was 10. School was out for Christmas, and the family had chosen to spend the holiday in the country. The boy pressed his nose against the bay window in a vacation home and marveled at the British winter they were experiencing. He was happy to trade the blackened streets of London for the cotton-white freshness of the snow-covered hills. His mom invited him to go for a drive, and he quickly accepted, and they snaked the car down the twisty road, the tires crunching the snow as they went, and the boy puffed his breath on the window.

If you have never lived in the Midwest, you won't understand that, but it is a marvelous thing that happens at a certain time of the year. He was thrilled, and the mother, however, was a bit anxious. She could tell that this was more than a normal storm. Heavy snowfall came down, visibility lessened, and as she took a curve, the car started to slide, and it didn't stop until it was in a ditch. She tried to drive out of the ditch, but she couldn't do it.

Little Charlie pushed. She pressed the gas, but they were just digging themselves in deeper. They were really stuck, and they needed help. A mile down the road, there was a house, and off they went, knocked on the door. Of course, the woman told them, of course you can come in.

Please come in and warm yourselves. The phone is yours, and she offered them tea and cookies and urged them to stay until the help arrived. An ordinary event? Don't suggest that to the woman who opened the door. She has never forgotten that day. She retold the story a thousand times if she's told it once, and who could blame her? It's not often that royalty appears on your porch, for the two travelers stranded by the England winter were no less than Queen Elizabeth and the heir to the throne, 10-year-old Charles. You wouldn't forget that day, would you?

But I want to tell you something far more wonderful than that has happened. The message of Christmas is that royalty has walked down our streets. Kevin's prince has knocked on our door, and God has moved into our neighbourhood, and he has you on his heart today. He has moved into our neighbourhood. He is one of us. He is here. Almighty God is here. We do not serve a God who is far away.

We serve a God who is close at hand, for he has come to be with us. He is our Saviour, and Christmas is here. We hope you enjoyed today's Turning Point weekend edition with Dr David Jeremiah. To hear this and other Turning Point programs, or to get more information about this ministry, simply download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smart device, or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio. You can also view Turning Point television on free to air Channel 7 too, Sunday mornings at 8, and on ACC TV Sundays at 6.30am, and Friday afternoons at 1. We invite you to join us again next weekend as Dr David Jeremiah shares another powerful message from God's word, here on Turning Point weekend edition. Thanks for taking time to listen to this audio on demand from Vision Christian Media. To find out more about us, go to vision.org.au