God's Means For Salvation

Sermon Series: Preparing for Christmas

For many individuals the last few weeks have been joyful, exciting weeks. Many have joyfully decorated their homes for Christmas, decorated Christmas trees, and purchased gifts that they are looking forward to giving to their loved ones and friends. Many have merrily sung along to their favorite Christmas songs and attended fun-filled Christmas parties. But on Friday our country was tragically reminded that even in the midst of what is supposed to be a joyful holiday season, evil doesn’t cease to be a reality. Evil doesn’t respect our national holidays or take time off like many of us do during this time of year. Evil is an ever present reality that can show itself in countries half-way around the earth or here in the neighborhoods of our own country.

On Friday morning a 20 year old gunman forcibly entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Upon entering the school he shot and killed 6 adults and 20 young children between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. As news of the tragedy began to circulate around the country Americans immediately became shocked and heart-broken. This is a generation of Americans who have unfortunately lived through and remember other tragedies like this. On April 20, 1999 a pair of students entered their school (Columbine High School) where they shot and killed 12 of their classmates and 1 teacher, as well as wounding 21 other classmates. On April 16, 2007 a lone gunman went on two shooting sprees on the campus of Virginia Tech University where he shot and killed 32 individuals and wounded 17 others. And even as recently as July 20, 2012 (this year) a lone gunman entered into a movie theatre where he shot and killed 12 individuals and injured 58 others. Our country remembers those shootings well. We remember where we were when the reports of those shootings started circulating. We remember seeing the images of agony and sorrow on our television screens and on our computer screens. And we remember mourning the loss of innocent lives that were taken for no good reason at all. But the news of Friday’s murders struck the heart of our nation with even greater force than these other shootings – not because the lives lost in the other shootings were any less valuable, but because of both the innocence of the lives lost in Friday’s shootings and the time of year in which the tragedy took place. Our hearts hurt and our minds began to ask questions: “How could anyone go into a school and begin murdering little children?” “How could someone take the lives of some many right before Christmas?” “Where is God in a tragedy like this? Does He even exist? And if so, why would God allow something like this to happen?” These are the kind of questions our nation began to wrestle with on Friday, and questions that many of us are still doing our best to process and find answers for.

So this week our challenge is to address Friday’s tragedy and to do so as we continue to try to prepare our own hearts and minds for Christmas (which is only 9 days away). How do we do that though? Where do we even begin to start? Perhaps the best place to start is with a portion of the birth narrative of Jesus in the NT book of Matthew, for there we discover another mass murder of innocent little children that took place around Christmas. Matthew tells us that wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem searching for the child that had been born King of the Jews. They began their search at Herod’s palace and after consulting some of Herod’s advisors they were directed to search for the child in Bethlehem. But Herod wanted them to do more than just find the child and worship Him, Herod wanted them to return with information about the child’s whereabouts. You see Herod found the news of this child’s birth a threat and he wanted to destroy the child. God wasn’t going to let that happen though, so He warned the wise men not to return to Herod.

“And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy Him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.’” (Matthew 2:12-18).

We are so quick to read over Matthew 2:16 as we remember what took place near the time of Jesus’ birth. But what we see in that verse is a very real and very tragic mass murder of little children. This is the only detail that Matthew gives us, so very few of us slow down to give consideration to what this must have looked and felt like. One of my favorite pastors, John Piper, has done that though in a fictional poem that he wrote called “The Innkeeper.” In that poem Piper tells us what this event may have been like for one individual who may have experienced it first hand and ends with a reminder of the hope that he should have. Please pause for a moment now (before reading any further) and click on this link to view a video of John Piper reading his own poem, “The Innkeeper.”

Is there still hope for finding joy this Christmas in light of the tragedy that took place Friday and in light of the reminder of what took place in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth narrative? Can we really celebrate and find hope this Christmas when we will be seeing images on the news of grieving parents draped over little coffins? Can we really worship a God (if there even is one) who would allow evil of this magnitude to take place in one of the most innocent of places (an elementary school)? The answer is ‘yes.’ But in order to do so we have to process these things in light of biblical truth.

We have to begin with the truth that God does exist and that He is both sovereign and good. To systematically cover these attributes of God would take far too long to do here, but allow me to provide you with some Scripture to give you a starting point. Psalm 107:1 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.” The psalmist here reminds us of some very important and eternal characteristics of God – God exists, God is good, and God loves steadfastly forever. The events of Friday did not occur because there is no God, because God is not loving, or because God is not good. Neither did the events of Friday occur because God is not in control. Paul writes in his letter to the church at Colossae, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17). God is the One who created the world, He’s the One who gives rulers and authorities their power, and He’s the One who is daily sustaining and holding all things together. So what transpired Friday wasn’t something that He did not have sovereignty over.

So then, how do we explain and make sense of the events of Friday? The answer is that man (all mankind – without any exceptions) is wicked and evil to the core. This is the consistent teaching of the Bible. After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden sin filled the hearts of all men which has left us completely wicked and depraved. Genesis 8:21 says, “for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Judges 17:6 and 21:25 say, “In those days there was no king . . . Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And Romans 3:9-12 says, “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’” The consistent teaching of Scripture is NOT that mankind is basically good; that at the core of each individual is a good heart and good intentions. The consistent teaching of Scripture is that all mankind is evil and the intentions of our heart are evil. The events of Friday took place because the gunman who entered the school had a wicked and evil heart. The gunman took the initiative to act on the evil intentions in his own heart and chose to destroy the lives of 20 precious little children and 6 brave adults. And while most of us would never put ourselves in the same category as this gunman or believe that we are capable of doing the wicked and evil things that he did, Scripture tells us that all of us possess evil hearts and that we are all capable of performing things like these. So while we our hearts break for the events that transpired on Friday, we have to let that tragedy remind us of two things. First, we must see Friday’s shooting as a reminder of the reality that evil resides in each of our own hearts. And secondly, we must see Friday’s shooting as reminder of the reality that we all stand in need of salvation and rescue from the sinfulness of our hearts.

And while these are hard and sobering things to be reminded of, the birth of Jesus should provide great hope. Listen to a few particular passages from two of the birth narratives of Jesus.

“But as he [Joseph] considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:8-11).

“And he [Simeon] came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, ‘Lord, now you are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation’” (Luke 2:27-30).

Whether it was the angel telling Joseph who this child would be before He was born, the angel making known to the shepherds who this child was right after He was born, or Simeon declaring who he understood this child to be eight days after He had been born, one thing was clear – Jesus was God’s means for salvation. Jesus was the Savior sent to save people from their sin! And when Simeon was holding the newborn Jesus, he saw far more than a delicate little baby boy, he saw God’s salvation.

We absolutely cannot lose sight of Jesus as God’s means of salvation! God is able to look past our outer façade and is able to see into our hearts. He is able to discern what is at the core of who we are. God knows that at the center of each of our hearts is evilness and sinfulness, and He knew that there was nothing we could do to fix it. Our sin had eternally separated us from Him. Unable to do anything on our own to reconcile ourselves to Him, God also knew that we needed someone to save us from our sinful and evil hearts and to reconcile us to Him. So God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the Savior! And this was the declaration surrounding Jesus at His birth (that He was the Savior). God’s means of salvation for all mankind arrived when Mary gave birth to Jesus – salvation had come! This is why the prophet Isaiah said, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). Jesus coming into the world was the reason for extraordinary hope. It was like continually living in darkness and then having the lights switched on all of a sudden. He was (and is) God’s appointed means for each of us to be rescued from the sin that we commit and the consequences that result. So the birth of Jesus was no little deal – it was a HUGE deal!

The Bible teaches that Jesus lived for approximately 33 years. During His life the Bible teaches that Jesus never once committed any sin and that because He was God His heart was not evil and sinful, but righteous and perfect. In His life He did what no other human has ever been able to do – He lived a perfect life. Still Jesus was hated by many of the religious leaders of the day because they understood His claims to be God but did not believe that He was. So Jesus was eventually arrested (although He had never done anything wrong) and put to death by the most horrific forms of death – Roman crucifixion. Jesus’ death was not an accident though. It wasn’t as if He (or God the Father) had lost control of things on earth. Jesus’ death was part of God’s plan. You see our sin required death (see Romans 6:23) and because God is a just God He could not just pretend as if our sin had never happened. God would have to pay out the full punishment for every sin that had been committed. So the only way to save us from the penalty for our sin was if someone else suffered the punishment for us. That’s what Jesus was doing on the cross; when Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified He was becoming our substitute. The Bible teaches that on the cross Jesus was taking the penalty for every sin ever committed upon Himself and that He was dying the death that each and every person (Himself excluded) deserved. Jesus was taking our punishment for us. Then the Bible teaches that three days after Jesus’ death, He rose to life again. Up until that point nothing had ever defeated death. Once death had someone in his grasp he never let go of them. Perhaps there were some that escaped death for a time or a season, but once death finally got a hold of them there was no one who could escape his grasp – that is until Jesus. Jesus rose to life three days after His death proving His victory and power over both sin and over death. And since His victory over death He has never and will never die again. In His death Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of mankind and in His resurrection He proved victorious over sin and death. So now we can know that sin won’t have the last word. Sin will not ultimately stand in victory because Jesus has defeated it and He has paid the penalty for the sins of all mankind. Jesus alone is victorious. And as Christmas comes this year in the shadow of a great national tragedy, we recognize with great hope that when we celebrate the birthday of Jesus we are celebrating the birth of the One who has conquered sin, who has made a way to rescue us from the sin, the evil, and the depravity of our own hearts, and that He is in the process of making all things new!

Those who are believers in Christ not only know of this hope, they have experienced it – for in placing their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord they have experienced God’s forgiveness for the sins they have committed; they have had their hearts cleansed of the evil and wickedness that was residing there; and they have been given a new life and a new hope. But there are many, many others who have not yet experienced this hope. Perhaps God is opening your eyes to the truth of the sinfulness and the evilness of your own heart. Perhaps God is impressing upon your heart a need for salvation that is impossible for you to achieve on your own. Perhaps God is calling you to call on Jesus as the only sufficient means of salvation for you. Receiving the gift of Jesus and God’s salvation which only comes through faith in Him (see Ephesians 2:8-9) is simply a means of (1) recognizing your sinfulness and confessing it to God, (2) recognizing your need for a Savior (that you can’t earn God’s forgiveness or cleansing on your own), (3) believing that by His death and resurrection Jesus paid your sin penalty for you and is the only one able to save you, (4) and then turning over control of your life to Jesus (allowing Him to guide and direct the way you live rather than keeping that right for yourself). The apostle Peter said that all who do this (“everyone who believes in Him”) “receives forgiveness of sins through His name” (Acts 10:43). Is there anything keeping you from receiving the forgiveness, cleansing, and hope that Jesus was born to give you?  He is God's only means of salvation!

Connection Point Questions for Discussion:

1. Has the tragic event that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School caused any changes in the way that you normally prepare for Christmas?  If so, what has it changed and why has it changed your normal preparation?

2. What do the actions of the 20 year old gunman reveal to us about what was in his heart?  What do his actions reveal about the condition of the hearts and the motives of the hearts of all mankind?  (See Genesis 8:21; Judges 17:6; and Romans 3:9-12 for help.)  Is it safe to say that while hopefully none of us will ever go out and gun down 20 innocent little children, that our hearts are just as evil and depraved as this young man's?  Is there anything that we can do on our own to change the condition of our hearts, and if not what does that mean that we need?

3.  Last week we talked about the significance of one of the names by which Jesus would be called - "Emmanuel."  What does Emmanuel mean and why did we say that was so important to remember when we are celebrating Jesus' birth?  This week we emphasized another title describing Jesus' identity and what He had come to do?  What was that title/purpose and where do we find it in the birth narratives?

4. In light of the tragedy that took place last Friday and what that reminds us of in regards to the condition of our own hearts, why is the declaration of Jesus as God's means of salvation so important and what hope does that give us?  How should this impact the way in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus each Christmas?