We are continuing this series. Celebrate Jesus last week. Pastor Jonathan from our DuPont location started us off. We talked about who Jesus is. And that is so important and that matters so much.

But we can’t stop there. We can’t stop at just exploring who Jesus is. We also want to talk about why Jesus came. Because if we stop at just who Jesus is, then Christmas just becomes another holiday. Like it just becomes another holiday instead of the beginning of a mission that Jesus Christ came to the planet to do.

And so this week we’re going to lean into something, um, the next sort of step in the process of why Jesus came. And my heart is to give you as much information as I can. Um, but it’s really just going to be all of my favorite information because there’s so much that we could talk about. I mean, this is just—okay, we’ll start at the Bible because we had this scripture at the beginning in our services if you missed it.

Um, come to church earlier, like on time, because there’s great things that happen. That’s just the heart of a pastor speaking to the church. We love you and we do some cool things at the beginning of our service.

But we had this in our worship set and it’s really one of the key verses of our series. It’s from Luke chapter 2. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy.”

Okay, this is where we get the celebrate part of our series. Okay, because we got the best news ever when Jesus came to the planet. All right. So, I bring you—That’s right, you can give it up. It’s exciting. We get to celebrate it.

“So I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Okay, so Jesus came to the planet as the Savior, as the Messiah. All right? And there’s so much that we could say about this. Um, so the problem is when we say, you know, we’re going to talk about why Jesus came, the Bible gives us so much to work with that we could literally have an entire college course on it plus.

Okay, so I mean just—this is just a visual example of all of the prophecies about Jesus from the Old Testament, like all the way back in Genesis at the beginning of the Bible, and then how it kind of corresponds with the New Testament.

Okay. So there is a lot of content to work with when we’re talking about why Jesus came. I mean, the prophecies alone of who the Messiah was going to be, how He was going to come, what He was going to do, how people were going to respond, what was going to happen, where He was going to come to, how He was going to get there—I mean, all of this is in the Bible.

And we can see this arc. This is why we need to take back the rainbow, y’all, because it’s in the Bible. Okay, that’s another message, but we don’t have time to talk about all the things.

All right, but we are going to talk about some of my favorite highlights about why Jesus came. Because when we talk about why Jesus came, there’s a visual that I think will help you understand it.

And maybe you’ve grown up in church, maybe you’ve seen this before, but no matter how many times you see it—maybe it’s your very first time—I believe it’s going to help transform your mind and your heart today and even help you celebrate Jesus even more this Christmas season.

So if we’re going to talk about why Jesus came, we kind of have to start before Christmas. Yes, I know this is a Christmas series, but we have to go back a little bit further because the story of Christmas and this promise of the Savior happens way before a baby ends up in a Bethlehem manger.

Okay, so we have God. He created everything like way back in Genesis. And I don’t have Genesis 1 up here, but in Genesis 1, like way back at the beginning of the Bible, the first book of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Okay, so He creates all of the things, all of the living things, all of the planets, all the universe. He creates humanity, and He created us on purpose. He created us to be in relationship with Him.

And we see in John 3:16 that God so loved the world. That means He loved the cosmos, like the physical world, but He also loved the world in us as humanity.

Okay, and in John 3:16 we also see that He wants to give us eternal life. He wants us to live with Him in eternity.

Okay, so those are a couple truths that we see even before Jesus comes to the planet. God created the world. He created humanity. He loves us. And He wants to give us eternal life.

Okay, then John 10:10 is a famous verse that God wants to give us abundant life. He doesn’t want us to just live a boring, horrible existence of a life. He wants to give us a purposeful, full, and abundant life.

So these are the things that we know about the purpose and the bigness of God. Way before Jesus came on the planet, we have these truths about who God is and the character that He has and the love that He has for us.

Okay, so that’s God. So what happens in Genesis is that there’s this chasm created between humanity and our Creator. There’s this separation.

So when we were created, Adam and Eve, when they walked in the garden with God, they had an intimate relationship with Him. They were together. But then something happens. There’s a fallout and it creates this huge separation between humanity and God.

So humanity was separated from God, and we’ll get to that in a second. But our problem is that everybody has sinned. Everybody falls short.

We see in Hebrews that there is going to be a judgment after death. In Romans 6, we see that there’s two deaths. There’s physical death and there’s spiritual death. None of us can cheat physical death. That’s like one out of one. All of us are gonna die.

We’re talking about celebrating Jesus, okay, but that’s a truth also that we have to understand. Everyone is going to die.

But the spiritual death—we have a choice in where we end up in eternity. And you don’t have to end up in the fiery hell that exists. And it does exist, because heaven exists.

There’s so much theology—I’m battling with myself of how much to say—but just stick with me.

Ephesians 2, we see that we can’t do anything to earn our way to heaven. Like good works. There’s other religions that will say you just have to be a good person, you have to do all these good things, and then you will know.

This tells us in Ephesians 2 that we can’t be good enough. This chasm here—it’s not a DIY project. Some of you are really handy and you’re like, “I could build a bridge that long, no big deal.”

Okay, me—I know myself—and I am a Pinterest fail queen. I don’t even post my Pinterest fails because they’re all so bad. I’m just not a very crafty person.

But even the best craftsman that you know, there’s nothing that you could do to build your own bridge to God. You can’t be good enough. You can’t do enough good things. And you can’t do enough bad things.

It’s not about what we have done. In fact, the Bible tells us that because of Adam, the one man who sinned, he condemned all of humanity after him to death—physical death and spiritual death.

We’re not inherently good as humans. We’re inherently sinful. And that’s our problem. And it creates this gap between us and God.

Now, the cool thing about God is that this isn’t just a mistake or bad luck. It’s not just about broken systems. The Bible calls it sin. And sin is just missing the mark.

That’s what creates the gap between us. In Genesis, when Adam and Eve ate the apple, they sinned against God. It created this chasm of separation because of sin.

We all live in this gap between us and God because of our sinful nature. And that’s what really separates us from God.

And I can’t do enough good. You can’t do enough good to make up for the sinful nature that we have, for all the bad things that we have done or all the good things that we haven’t done.

Because there are sins that you commit and there are sins that you omit. And they’re both sin because it’s missing the mark.

We’re going to get to Jesus in just a second because we’re celebrating Jesus. But I had to take you here so that you understand just how great it is that we get to celebrate Jesus—because this is where the story turns around.

God created the heavens and the earth. We know that He loves us. We know He wants to give us eternal life. We have a problem. We have all sinned. We can’t cheat spiritual death. Sin is missing the mark. We all do it.

We all have to face this chasm that we can’t build our own bridge across.

And the amazing thing—and the thing that we get to celebrate—is that God didn’t look at this gap of sin and walk away. He wasn’t an angry parent that was just like, “Well, I tried my best.”

He didn’t lower the standard. He didn’t ask you to fix it. He didn’t ask you to be better. God provided a solution.

And God’s solution is the cross.

And this is why we celebrate Jesus coming to the planet. Because we don’t get to the cross without the cradle. We don’t get to the bridge, the salvation, without Jesus coming to the planet as a baby in a manger and living a sinless life.

And just like Adam was the one man who condemned humanity to sin, Jesus was the one man who changed everything.

And so God’s solution is that He showed us His love—that in Romans 5:8, while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us.

While we were still sinners, Jesus sacrificed Himself for us. He became the atonement for our sins so that we could be redeemed.

Even though we don’t deserve it, even though we couldn’t do anything ourselves to redeem ourselves, we get to celebrate Jesus because He did it for you so that you could have the promise of eternal life.

This is the bridge that takes us from our problem back into the opportunity of relationship with our Creator, with the holy living God, when we say yes to Jesus.

Why did Jesus come? This is why Christmas isn’t just about a baby in a manger. It’s about a Savior on a mission.

Yes, we see baby Jesus everywhere and we want to celebrate His birth. It’s His birthday. But it’s not just about a baby in a manger. It’s also about the Savior who’s on a mission.

Jesus came to save us. He came to save you and I from eternal damnation.

Maybe you’re sitting in one of our rooms today or watching online and you’re like, “Well, I don’t know if I even believe in a heaven or a hell.”

Okay, you can live with that if you want. Keep asking questions. Keep doing the research. Keep praying. Keep your heart open.

For me, there’s enough evidence that I can stand here and say there is a heaven and there is a hell.

And I decided a long time ago to give my heart to Jesus. I’m not perfect. But I’d rather say yes to Jesus and be wrong than say no and be wrong.

Jesus came to save us. And by faith and repentance alone, in Christ alone, you get the free gift of eternal life.

The sovereign God sent His Son Jesus to be perfect and full payment for the sin of mankind. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can enter back into relationship with God through faith and repentance to experience eternal life.

Jesus also came with freedom and healing. In Luke 4:18, He said God sent Him to heal the brokenhearted and set the captives free.

Jesus came to give life. John 10:10—He came that we might have life and have it to the full.

Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.

Jesus also came announcing the kingdom of heaven. He taught about the kingdom more than any other topic.

Above all, live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

We don’t get good to get God. We get God to get good.

Our response is to believe and receive. It’s always been about what Jesus did for us.

And Jesus wants a relationship with you.

If you’ve never said yes—or you want to recommit—today can be your day of new beginnings.

Lord Jesus, welcome to my world…

Amen.