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Sunday, December 21
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  • Gloria Patri
  • Doxology
  • We have been looking at the advents of Christ. So far, we have examined “Christ’s Entrance,” “Christ’s Timing,” and “Christ’s Appearance,”.
    Today, I would like to examine “Christ’s Purpose.” Christ’s first advent was to save the lost (Luke 19:10). His second advent, however, will be to judge the lost (Matthew 25:31-33, 41-46).
    For background to our study today, let us read Isaiah 64:1-4
    Isaiah 64:1–4 NASB 2020
    1 Oh, that You would tear open the heavens and come down, That the mountains would quake at Your presence— 2 As fire kindles brushwood, as fire causes water to boil— To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence! 3 When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence. 4 For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of one who waits for Him.
    For some, Christmas is a very stressful time. Some have an incrdible load of work during this season.
    Take Santa, for instance. Phillip Bump, a technology writer for The Atlantic, has attempted to provide a tongue-in-cheek answer to an important question: What exactly is Santa’s yearly workload?
    Bump calculated the number of Christian children in the world and the geographic distribution of those children around the globe. After factoring in all the nuances of time zones, distance between houses, and how many children live in each house, Bump shared his conclusions about Santa’s yearly task:
    [Based on CIA estimates] there are just over 526,000,000 Christian kids under the age of 14 in the world who celebrate Christmas on December 25. In other words, Santa has to deliver presents to almost 22 million kids an hour, every hour, on the night before Christmas. That’s about 365,000 kids a minute; about 6,100 a second.
    Bump mentions a few caveats: not all Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25, the CIA’s data isn’t always up-to-date, and some non-Christians celebrate Christmas too. But all in all, Santa has an enormous job to do! He has to serve over a half billion kids in one night as he pulls a huge sleigh with nine reindeer, while he tries to avoid being detected and shot down by the North America Aerospace Defense Command—and don’t forget that one of his reindeer has a very shiny nose.
    Santa Claus would have to possess superhuman qualities to be able to deliver so many gifts and so much love. And while some may be skeptical of Santa’s ability, we should recognize that Jesus is the only one who is truly able to deliver gifts of grace and love to people all over the world.
    In today’s lesson, we learn about Christ’s purpose for his first and second advents.
    I. Christ’s Purpose for His First Advent
    First, let’s look at Christ’s purpose for his first advent.
    “The Hound of Heaven” is a 182-line poem written by 19th century English poet Francis Thompson (1859–1907). Although Thompson was a follower of Christ, he struggled with life.
    In the depths of his despair, Thompson described his flight from God. The central metaphor of the poem is a paradoxical spiritual dynamic. Thompson describes fleeing through time and inner and experience. Thompson wrote that he tried to flee God “down the nights and down the days,” “down the arches of they years” while at the same time he writes that God pursued him.
    God’s pursuit is characterized by “unhurrying chase” and “deliberate speed” and accompanied by a voice.
    The poem’s theological vision is of a divine love pursuing a soul who flees from that love as if it is a threat. That doesn’t sound how we typically speak about true love.
    We are afraid of this true love, of God. We know, at least on some level, that this true love will require us to surrender ourselves. That scares us. Each of us have had and currently have various relationships in our lives; parent child, spouse, girl friend or boy fried, friend etc. To be in those relationships, we must give some of ourselves. But we never give all. Why? Because we know that we are sinful and will fail. We also know the other person will fail. So we hold part of our hearts back to try and avoid being hurt. Because we are finite, we can perceive God to be like us. While this isn’t true and God cannot fail, we still have trouble giving all of ourselves to God. So we run. Sometimes when we are hurt we run to Him. Other times, because of sin, we run away from Him. And all through this God pursues us with His divine love.
    Thompson’s own life is what led him to write this poem. He had a lonely childhood; experienced failure in religious and professional vocations as well struggled with an addiction to opium, which was legal to use. His poem ultimately shows this divine pursuit as a means in which God pours His loves His people who can then finally find what the soul really seeks.
    While the exact circumstances in each of our lives is different. We are all sinners and we all need rescuing. And God pursues us with a divine love. It is when we repent and turn to Him that we can finally discover what love, joy and happiness really mean.
    In a recent biography of John Stott, Stott refers to Thompson’s poem. According to Stott, he [Stott] owes his faith in Christ not to his parents or teachers or even his own decision, but to Jesus, “the hound of heaven.” Stott writes:
    [My faith is] “due to Jesus Christ himself, who pursued me relentlessly even when I was running away from him in order to go my own way. And if it were not for the gracious pursuit of the hound of heaven I would today be on the scrap-heap of wasted and discarded lives.”
    A story in the Bible that illustrates Jesus’ relentless love for sinners is the story of Jesus and Zaccheus, found in Luke 19:1-10.
    About a week before his crucifixion, Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
    Luke 19:1–5 NASB 2020
    1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable due to the crowd, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree in order to see Him, because He was about to pass through that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
    This is pretty amazing if you think about it. There was a crowd so large that Zaccheus had to climb a tree just to see Jesus. Out of all those people in this crowd, Jesus singled out Zacchaeus and called him by name. And Jesus goes further and tells him that Jesus will eat at Zaccheus’s house.
    The word translated “must” carries with it an idea of divine necessity. Jesus isn’t saying He is tired and can’t go any further but that He has a divine plan that brought Him to Zaccheus.
    Zaccheus’ response?
    Luke 19:6–10 NASB 2020
    6 And he hurried and came down, and received Him joyfully. 7 When the people saw this, they all began to complain, saying, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner!” 8 But Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four times as much.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
    The crowds response was to grumble.
    Jesus goes with Zaccheus to have dinner with him and everyone else complains that Jesus is going to eat with someone they didn’t like.
    Do you see the the dichotomy in this picture. Jesus tells Zaccheus to come down and he hurried and came down. Then Jesus says He is going to Zaccheus’ house to eat and everyone else complains.
    The crowd loved to hear Jesus preach. They loved to watch Jesus perform miracles. But they did not like the company He kept.
    I wonder what the dinner conversation was? When Jesus invites Himself into your house, what will you talk to Him about?
    I don’t know what Zaccheus had to say but at least part of what Jesus told Zaccheus was about God’s love, grace and mercy offered to sinners, the kingdom of God and how to inhearit eternal life.
    Zaccheus clearly responded to God’s call by giving half of his possessions and for everyone he extorted, he was going to give back four times the amount.
    And for final proof that Zaccheus was saved was Jesus own words.
    Luke 19:9 NASB 2020
    9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
    Zaccheus did receive salvation because he was a descendant of Abraham’s but because he was saved, he became a spiritual descendant of Abraham.
    And this brings us to why Jesus came to see Zaccheus.
    Luke 19:10 NASB 2020
    10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
    Jesus walks into Jericho on His way to Jerusalem, not just to pass through it but in order to bring God’s saving grace to Zaccheus.
    The word “seek” when used in the sense of Jesus seeking, means that Jesus will search out whom He he desires in order to bring God’s saving grace to that person. When Jesus finds the person He is seeking, He will always complete the reason for His coming; too seek and save.
    Zacchaeus was sought and saved by Jesus.
    Francis Thompson was sought and saved by Jesus.
    John Stott was sought and saved by Jesus.
    I was sought and saved by Jesus.
    Have you been sought and saved by Jesus?
    Gregory Boyle retells the story of a 15-year-old gang member named Rigo. Rigo was getting ready for a special worship service for incarcerated youth when Boyle casually asked if Rigo’s father would be coming. The following is a summary of their conversation.
    “No,” he said, “He’s a heroin addict and never been in my life. Used to always beat me.”
    Then something snapped inside Rigo as he recalled an image from his childhood.
    “I think I was in fourth grade,” he began, “I came home. Sent home in the middle of the day…. [When I got home] my dad says, ‘Why did they send you home?’ And cuz my dad always beat me, I said, ‘If I tell you, promise you won’t hit me?’ He just said, ‘I’m your father. Course I’m not gonna hit you.’ So I told him.”
    Rigo began to cry, and in a moment he started wailing and rocking back and forth. Boyle put his arm around him until he slowly calmed down. When Rigo could finally speak again, he spoke quietly, still in a state of shock: “He beat me with a pipe…with…a pipe.”
    After Rigo composed himself, Boyle asked about his mom. Rigo pointed to a small woman and said, “That’s her over there…. There’s no one like her.”
    Then Rigo paused and said, “I’ve been locked up for a year and half. She comes to see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes every Sunday [to see me]?”
    Rigo started sobbing with the same ferocity as before. After catching his breath, he gasped through the sobs, “Seven buses. She takes…seven…buses. Imagine.”
    Jesus loves his own like Rigo’s mother loves her son—with commitment, steadfastness, relentlessness, and sacrifice. Jesus is a Savior who “takes seven buses, just to arrive at us.” All throughout Jesus’ ministry—his birth in Bethlehem, his life in Israel, his preaching the good news of the gospel, his healing of the sick, his meals with sinners, his rejection by the crowd, his death on the cross for the elect—he has shown us his love and how much he has done to seek and to save the lost.
    Christ’s purpose for His first advent was to save the lost.
    II. Christ’s Purpose for His Second Advent
    Second, let’s look at Christ’s purpose for his second advent.
    On the Tuesday of his final week on earth, Jesus left the temple and His disciples came to Him.
    Matthew 24:1–3 NASB 2020
    1 Jesus left the temple area and was going on His way when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. 2 But He responded and said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” 3 And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
    Jesus then gave an explanation called the Olivet Discourse in which he gave his disciples a prophetic overview of events that were to transpire in the near and distant future. Regarding the purpose of his second advent, Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-33:
    Matthew 25:31–33 NASB 2020
    31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
    Then Jesus said that the blessing to the “sheep,” the believers, consists of their inheritance in his Father’s kingdom, which is given not as a reward for good works but because of their saving relationship with the Father and the Son.
    Regarding the “goats,” the unbelievers, Jesus had this to say in Matthew 25:41-46:
    Matthew 25:41–46 NASB 2020
    41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
    Whereas Christ’s purpose for his first advent was to save the lost, the purpose for his second advent will be to judge the lost.
    I have said this before but it bears repeating for some. When Jesus returns the second time, all history is over. There is no second chance to get right with God at that time. Multitudes of people are going to be shocked and surprised and stunned when Jesus returns for his second advent. They will cry and scream and curse at being judged for their sin against God. They will object to having to answer for rebelling against God.
    The Bible teaches that the judgment against the goats will be eternal conscious torment often referred to as ECT.
    Some don’t like this idea and question God over it.
    Some ask, “Wait a minute. How can any sin deserve everlasting destruction? If God is just, how can he punish like this?”
    Pastor Fritz shares this example to answer those who question God’s judgment.
    The best answer I ever heard to that question was given by Colin Smith, who is a middle school pastor. He outlined the stages of the following scenario:
    •           Suppose a middle school student punches another student in class. What happens? The student is given a detention.
    •           Suppose during the detention, this boy punches the teacher. What happens? The student gets suspended from school.
    •           Suppose on the way home, the same boy punches a policeman on the nose. What happens? He finds himself in jail.
    •           Suppose some years later, the very same boy is in a crowd waiting to see the President of the United States. As the President passes by, the boy lunges forward to punch the President. What happens? He is shot dead by the secret service.
    In every case the crime is precisely the same, but the severity of the crime is measured by the one against whom it is committed. What comes from sinning against God? Answer: Everlasting destruction.
    Every person should carefully consider his or her eternal destiny. Every person has a body and a soul. The body will eventually die but the soul will never die. The soul will live throughout all eternity. Every person will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. When Jesus comes for his second advent, he will come to judge the lost.
    In an interview with Relevant Magazine, Tim Keller addressed the question about why Christmas matters. He says:
    If Jesus didn’t come, the story of Christmas is one more moral paradigm to crush you. If Jesus didn’t come, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere around these Christmas stories that say we need to be sacrificing, we need to be humble, we need to be loving. All that will do is crush you into the ground….
    [But] if Jesus Christ is actually God come in the flesh, you’re going to know much more about God…. If Jesus is who he says he is, we have a 500-page autobiography from God, in a sense. And our understanding will be vastly more personal and specific than any philosophy or religion could give us. [Because of Christmas] look at what God has done to get you to know him personally. If the Son would come all this way to become a real person to you, don’t you think the Holy Spirit will do anything in his power to make Jesus a real person to you in your heart? Christmas is an invitation by God: Look what I’ve done to come near to you. Now draw near to Me. I don’t want to be a concept; I want to be a friend.
    When Jesus came that first Christmas, he did not come as a concept. He came as a friend to save the lost. But when he comes the next time, he will come to judge the lost.
    Turn to Jesus today in repentance and faith so that he will be your Friend and not your Judge when he comes again.
    Let’s pray.

      • Isaiah 64:1–4NASB2020

      • Luke 19:1–5NASB2020

      • Luke 19:6–10NASB2020

      • Luke 19:9NASB2020

      • Luke 19:10NASB2020

      • Matthew 24:1–3NASB2020

      • Matthew 25:31–33NASB2020

      • Matthew 25:41–46NASB2020

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