The Reason Jesus Came

So, if you have your Bibles open to the book of Luke, and I'm going to read, you know, the Christmas story is so beautiful to preach through, and we can look at it from many different ways through the years. I've preached using the wise men, using the shepherds, using the, from the perspective of Joseph, from the perspective of Mary, the praise songs, all, the Holy Spirit moving through everything. It's just many different ways to look at this and interpret it. But this year we want to look at the shepherds, and we want to draw out, the guys are preaching with me in Edenton and Virginia Beach too, but we want to draw out from that shepherd's story some truths. And what we want to talk about is Jesus being the greatest gift that has ever been given.

He is the greatest gift that's ever been given. So let's, let's start with Luke chapter 2 verse 8. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, and behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. It's amazing how many times in Scripture, when angels actually appear, people fall down or are greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you, you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God. And so think about this, then the angel comes, visits the shepherds, and then they see the host of heaven, a host of angels, praising the Lord, saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying God and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them.

Can we say amen? So Christmas, this is a powerful passage. Hold your place right there and turn to the right with me to the book of 2 Corinthians. And I just want to read one verse that highlights this. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and the last verse in that chapter is verse 15.

2 Corinthians 9, 15. Paul says, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift or unspeakable. It means this gift of Jesus is so great, we can't put it into words adequately. It's beyond our capacity to tell the greatness of this gift.

Amen? It's interesting when we look at the shepherd's story that the angel comes and says, I'm going to share some good news with you that will cause great joy for all people. So Jesus came and he came for all people. Amen? He's the greatest gift and the gift was for everybody.

As many as will believe, as many as will accept. How many of you guys are expecting something great for Christmas? Come on. Honest the hour. How many of y'all are expecting something good for Christmas?

Okay. About, about... Half of y'all, the other are living with no hope or expectation at all. I did a little AI research and just, I wanted to know what are the top gifts that people are buying this year. So, so according to AI, the number one researched gift is the Nintendo Switch 2.

We had that response in the first service. Somebody's like, what? What is that? Well, maybe you've heard of the second one. The second one was the La Boo Boo Bag Charms.

Viral TikTok accessory trend. Maybe you've heard of the third one. Olaplex number seven bonding oil for frizz control of your hair. Okay. Or number four, the road glazing milk.

This is Haley Bieber's skincare line. Hit an all-time search high, hydrating essence for glowing skin. Y'all don't seem to be excited over these at all. This was another universe that researched these. And then finally, the hatching dinosaur egg toy.

I've actually heard of that, because we have four grandkids. I heard of the hatching dinosaur egg toy. It hatches with over 100 plus sounds. Don't you want that on Christmas morning? Little, our oldest grandson, little Mav, we asked what he wanted for Christmas.

He said full-size robot. Full-size robot might be cool to have around the house though, you know? Anyhow. So hopefully you're expecting something good, but whatever you get, if it's a Nintendo Switch or a La Boo Boo Bag, it's cool. It's a flag charm.

It's not as good as what I'm going to talk about this morning. Jesus was given to us free. Not enough money, enough solar power, nuclear power, not enough works, not enough, nothing, all the collective wealth of the world couldn't buy our way out of sin debt. But God sent his only son, hallelujah, to get us out of this thing. Amen?

And that changes the perspective of Christmas for all of us who believe. Because Christmas isn't just a time to get together with family, enjoy gifts, enjoy the season, listen to music. I love all that, and we should. But now to the believer, Christmas takes on a whole different meaning. It's our freedom day.

Amen? It's celebrating the incarnation of Christ, celebrating the greatest gift ever given to mankind. Can we shout amen? So today I'm going to give you five things that Jesus came to do. What did he come to do?

Why did he come to earth, and what did he actually do? I'm going to give you five things, just going through the Bible, picking out. We could add more to this, but these are major. First of all, Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Because a lot of people believe that Jesus came and just approved everyone's lifestyle.

That he came and he was accepting of every lifestyle and every behavior. That's not true at all. The Bible says he came and he preached repentance. Luke chapter 5, verse 31, Jesus said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

So here he likens the sick to sinners. They are the ones who need help. I came to help, and help comes through repentance. Now repentance, to repent means to actually turn around and go the other direction. That's right.

Confess means to say something. But repent means to turn and do something different. Because a lot of people believe that when you confess salvation or confess the Lord that there's nothing else to it. No, there's a whole lot more to it. You confess and then you change your ways.

And the beautiful thing about Christianity is God gives you the power to do that. You're not left on your own. He gives you the power to do it. Mark chapter one. This was the message of Jesus.

Verse 15. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. That was his message.

It was a message of repentance. Only Jesus has the cure to humanity's problem. And that problem is sin. Only Jesus cures that. Every other religion takes a stab at it.

Ethics, prayer, some belief in sin. Some gods or something. Touching something. Doing something. Walking somewhere.

But Christianity is the only faith that says God actually came down in the form of a man. Lived among his own. Lived among his own. Gave himself for the sins of humanity so that we could be saved. And then proved his godness by raising from the dead.

He has the solution to our problem. You and I could never live up to our own standard of morality. Let alone God's standard of morality. All of us have fallen. All of us have fallen.

All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned. The Bible says in iniquity we were conceived. For sin came through one man being Adam. And it has reigned in the human race.

We all had a problem or have a problem and that is the sin debt. We have a problem. And it's a problem we couldn't just psychologically work out of. We couldn't pay our way out of. We couldn't reason our way out of.

We couldn't schmooze our way out of. We couldn't schmooze our way out of. Mom and dad couldn't get us out of it. Grandma and grandpa couldn't get us out of. But God came down himself in the form of a human being.

It's what the shepherds are talking about here. Came down himself in the form of a human being. And he gave us a way out. Repent. Believe the message.

Turn around. Go the other direction. God had been saying this. If you study the Old Testament. He had been crying out to Israel through the prophets.

He had given them the law. He had been making amends and building bridges through the centuries. And they failed. They always came back and failed. They would have a cycle of good then fall.

Cycle of good then fall. Then finally the prophets said God's sending one. He's going to be the anointed one. In Hebrew the Messiah. And he's going to come and he's going to rectify this situation.

And Isaiah has this beautiful passage in Isaiah 53 where he says, And he was wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our iniquity was placed upon him. And now it's by his stripes that we are healed. That one had to come and suffer and die. And we have to repent, confess, turn, and walk the other way.

The second reason Jesus came is he came then, and the Bible uses an interesting term, He came to give his life as ransom. He came to give his life as ransom. Mark 10, 45. Jesus says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And that word ransom deals with a payment.

There's a ransom payment for someone. Someone held at ransom, they're asking for money. And then given the money, supposedly they'll lose the person. We were under a debt. We were held in ransom.

And nobody could get us out of this. Jesus came. Amen. He said, out of his own mouth, to give my life as a ransom for many. And then Paul said in Galatians 4, that when the fullness of time had come, that God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem.

Another word that involves the payment of money. He came to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. He paid our debt. He paid with his own life. He bought our ransom.

He paid our ransom price. If we look at it figuratively, it was like we were all in jail, we were all in prison. And there's no, we didn't have, there's no bail, there's no life sentence, there's no way out. Nobody could get us out, no judge, no attorney, no family member. But then one steps into the courtroom, called the Son of God.

And he says, I will pay their debt for them. I will serve their sentence for them. I will bleed and give my life for them, so that they can be set free. So Hans Hess is standing before you a free man. Not by my own works, not by my own brilliance, or by my own doing.

But because Jesus Christ came and made his life a substitute for mine, took my ransom, paid that debt, and now I'm free, and I'm really happy about it. Hallelujah. How many are happy about it out there this morning? That's what Christmas is about. The baby in the manger is cool and everything, but this baby is going to go on and pay a sin debt.

This baby is going to go on and conquer. Can somebody shout amen? Amen. Third reason why Jesus came is he came then to give eternal life to all those who would receive him. In exchange, he gives eternal life.

John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave. That he gave. He's the greatest giver. That he gave his only begotten son, that whoever. Somebody shout whoever.

Whoever. Look at your neighbor and say, that's you. That's you. You're the whoever. That whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The greatest gift is Jesus. You were born as a, you know, you were born as a spirit being. That each one of us are spiritual. Each one of us are spiritual. We have flesh and bone, but we're in essence spiritual people.

The flesh and bone will pass away awaiting resurrection, but the spirit lives on. The spirit lives on. The spirit goes back to God who gave it, one verse said. Paul said to be absent from the bodies to be present with Christ. There's a life beyond this.

When this life ends, you step into eternity, so to speak. And you keep on living. It's not just we're just going to die and go to dust and it's over. No, you're a spiritual being. You're going to live somewhere.

And I love that verse. He's placed eternity in their hearts in Ecclesiastes. He's placed eternity in our hearts. There is a longing in each human being for something eternal. There's a longing for each of us after God, really.

Many people don't recognize what that longing is. But if you don't know Christ, there's a void in your life. And you're trying to fill that with some kind of psychology, some kind of philosophy, some kind of relationship, some kind of pursuit, some kind of accolades. You're trying to fill that. But I'm telling you, nothing can fill that until you meet the Lord and let Him in.

And then He comes in. And what He gives you in exchange for your sin is He gives you eternal and everlasting life. It's going to last from here on out. A life that is spent with Him. When you leave here, there's one of two locations.

One is hell, one is heaven. I choose heaven. How many can raise your hand and say, I choose heaven today? I choose to leave this world knowing Jesus, washed in the blood, having him in my heart with heaven as my destination. Somebody shout amen.

Let me show you something else. Turn to the book of Hebrews. If you go back to Mark, turn right. Go to Hebrews chapter 2. Something I came across the other day just in Bible reading, and I thought, oh wow, it just leapt off the page as to why Jesus came.

I want you to see it in black and white here. Hebrews 2 verse 14, in as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, meaning that you know, we are in real bodies, flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, meaning Jesus himself took upon himself flesh and blood. He himself shared in our flesh and blood. And then it says that, and we know from English that that means a purpose is coming. It's a purpose clause.

That he did this, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil. Why did Jesus come? He came that through death he might destroy the power of him who had death. That is the devil.

So when Jesus came, he came to destroy the devil. He came to do battle. He came to destroy the devil. Let me prove it to you. Luke chapter 4 verse 6.

Jesus goes into the wilderness and is tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. He fasts and encounters Satan. And in one of these temptations, Satan takes him up on a high mountain and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world. And he says, if you'll fall down and worship me, I'll give you these. For he said, this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish.

Now there's some older commentators that say that Satan was just lying here, but I believe they were his to give. God is the ultimate authority, but there was a delegated authority that God gave the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. They were to go out, conquer and have dominion over all the earth. But then they fell and sinned. They fell to the temptation of Satan.

And after they did that, the early church fathers would say, they surrendered their authority in the earth realm to the devil himself. And so to some extent in this earth sphere, Satan has been walking and operating with a certain authority. Are the kingdoms of the earth his to give? I think so. Until Jesus.

Until Jesus. Jesus said in John chapter 12 verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. In other words, I've come to do warfare. That's why John could say in 1 John 3, 8, for this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Hallelujah. He came healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, ministering to the outcasts, feeding the 5,000, preaching the gospel. Kicking the devil out of every sphere of existence, he came to do war against the devil. I'm gonna show my age here, but I was preaching this at the nine o'clock, and all I could see was Randy Macho Man Savage and Hulk Hogan. This is Americana to the core, man.

There's this clip of them I've watched on YouTube over and over because it's so, I don't know why. But they're standing there with the announcer, man, and they're talking about a match that's coming up, man, and they're sweating, and they're, and it's the WWE Smackdown or something. And I thought, that's it. Jesus came to lay the Smackdown on the devil. Come on, hallelujah.

He came to lay the Smackdown. I have come, woo, that they might have life. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that you might have life. Hallelujah. He had so much power and authority that he walked into the synagogue, his first miracle in the book of Mark, and the demons start crying out when he walked in.

He had so much authority that he steps off on the shore of Gadara, and a man possessed with a legion of demons starts crying out, Son of God, why have you come to torment us before our time? Hallelujah. That is the real authority showed up in town. The high sheriff, John Wayne, just showed up. Whatever your, Chuck Norris.

I love Chuck Norris jokes, by the way. This is why the Bible can say, Acts 10 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy spirit and with power who went about doing good healing all those who were oppressed of the devil that's what he does that's what we're doing we're doing that here at fountain of life we're coming to do war against the kingdom of the enemy what is that sin depression anxiety addictions racism poverty we come to do war against all that and proclaim liberty to the captives you can be free hallelujah you know you know what the good news to a sinner is don't have to live in sin anymore you know what the good news to an oppressed person is don't have to be oppressed anymore we come to preach liberty to the captives we come to preach victory hallelujah we're on the winning side we're awaiting the arrival of jesus himself to set up his kingdom now we live with eternity in our hearts declaring warfare against the devil we've already won come on somebody shout i already win so why do we have to fight if he defeated the devil what are we doing battling the devil well the devil has a span of time god's already declared it his end is already coming it's already been prophesied it's already there's an angel that comes down in the book of revelation and takes a chain and binds that dragon that old deceiver satan and casts him into the lake of fire and i love years ago i heard dwight thompson preach and he said i believe that angel that came down i believe it's one of those fat baby angels from those middle eve middle age paintings because the bible does say that we're going to look on him one day who deceived the nations and we're going to be like are you kidding me this is the guy that all those scary movies were made about give me a break the saints win read revelation we win it's a book about winning there's a term in greek called nikot It's where we get to, it's the term Nike. You know Nike tennis shoes have the swoosh. The swoosh comes from ancient Greece and it's the sign of victory. That's why they stole it and put it on their tennis shoes.

But that word in the Greek nikao or nike is used all throughout the book of Revelation. And to him who overcomes. And to him who overcomes. And to him who overcomes. And I saw a sea of glass and the saints surrounding the sea of glass.

And I saw the lamb and those who followed the lamb washed in white. Their robes were washed in white. Hallelujah. Singing a victory song. All through the book it's victory, victory, victory.

So when the devil comes and whispers in your ear, do you really think you're a Christian? You believe back in, you remember back in 1993 what went down? Why do you remember in 1987? What you did. Why do you remember in 2,024?

Remember Christmas back then? You have to say, you may know my past, but devil I know your future. My sins have been cast into the sea of forgetfulness. And your future is, I win and you lose. Talk to the hand because the face ain't listening.

Somebody shout hallelujah. Come on, shout out, I win. Hallelujah. Let me give you one more thing Jesus came to do. And it's back in this Hebrew text.

Go back there. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14. So he came to destroy the devil, the one who had power over death. Okay, why is that? Because when God created humanity, he created Adam and Eve to live forever.

Death wasn't part of the equation. So you think about it. This body in its original state with Adam and Eve was made to live forever. No getting old. Well, maybe getting old in numerical age, but ain't no getting old.

Aches and pains and whatever people say come with an old age. I don't know anything about that. I'm going to keep living my life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Look at your neighbor and say, I'm going to live my life. I'm going to leave some of those things off of it. But when Satan tempted Adam and Eve and they fell, death entered. Death entered the earth realm. And then from that time on, every human being has had to face death.

I mean, we can exclude Enoch and Elijah. Okay, there you go. Everybody else has had to face death. We've had to face death. And so it's so recalibrated humanity that now, how many years do we have left?

What can we accomplish before we leave here? What do we need to do? Think about that. Think about how we would have never thought that way had we been in the original state. Never had those.

We've been recalibrated to think this way. And so fear of that appointment with death has now reigned over humanity. And I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard it said, and it's worth the thought, that all fear relates back in root form to the fear of death. In one form or other, we're afraid of the end. We're afraid of what will happen.

We don't want to die. We don't want to be buried. We don't want to go to the funeral home. We want to be seen, not viewed. But that sentence of death has been hanging over humanity.

Notice this verse. This is going to free you. So why did Jesus come? Verse 14, Hebrews 2, that through death he might destroy him, the devil, who had the power of death because Satan's been holding this over humanity's head. But then in verse 15, And released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

So not only did He come to destroy the devil, He came to take away the fear of death. How did He do that? He took upon Himself the form of a person, a human, walked in flesh and blood, lived like you and I, was tempted like you and I, and He lived a sinless life. And then He was crucified, beaten, whipped, crucified, then buried, then He died, He faced death. And then according to Scripture, it didn't end with the grave, but we believe He went down below the grave.

The Bible said He went into the lower caverns or lower regions of the spirit realm and death, into Sheol, and even the term Tartarus is used, where it was the holding place of the Titans in Greek mythology. He goes down in there, according to Peter, He preached victory to the spirits held in captivity that had fallen in the days of Noah. Figure that one out. And then He didn't stay dead. On the third day, life and breath came back into His body by the Holy Ghost.

Because that same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is moving in you and me right now, Paul said. And life came back into Him by the power of the Holy Ghost. He started breathing. He raised up. The stone was rolled away from the tomb, and He rolled straight out of it, conquering death, hell, and the grave forever.

That's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ be not risen from the dead, our faith is in vain. But I'm telling you, by the witness of 500 adults, and to the apostles, and to me myself, He was risen from the dead. We saw Him. Hallelujah. And because He has risen from the dead, you also will come up.

First the natural, then the spiritual, He said. Now this corruptible shall put on incorruption. This mortal shall put on immortality. Then will be brought to pass the saying that is written, O death, where is your victory? And O grave, where is your sting?

Hallelujah. The fear of death has been defeated because death has been defeated. Come on, somebody. That's why He came. Death has been defeated.

Therefore, the fear, the stinger has been taken out. Somebody shout, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Somebody shout, glory, glory, glory. So for the believer in Jesus, when they die, it's just another step over into eternity. That's why when we do a believer's funeral, we celebrate, actually.

There is a sorrowing involved in it, but we don't allow grief to take hold of us. Why? Because Paul said, we don't grieve as those who have no hope. For we know, this saying is true, that God Himself, hallelujah, is going to descend. Jesus is going to come out on the clouds with a trump, with the voice of an archangel.

Hallelujah. And the voice of God is going to call, and all the dead are going to rise, showing that death did not have a hold on the believer. That's why Paul can use a euphemism. They're sleeping in Christ. They just went to the next room.

They went over into eternity. For the unbeliever, death should be scary. For the unbeliever, there's a sting in death. But for the believer, Jesus is going to be scary. Jesus has taken it out.

There's an old Puritan theologian named John Owen. He wrote a book and I always loved the title of it, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. Mike Snowden was telling me that he used to hear a Jamaican brother preach and he said one day he heard him preaching and he said, I can live now because I've already dealt with death. We can live now because death's already been dealt with.

Jesus took it. So why do we have, why do we face, why is there still death, why does the Christians still have to die? Because it's, we're on a time frame here. Jesus is going to come back and notice in Revelation two enemies that are cast into the lake of fire. One is death and one is hell.

He does away with them. Going to be done, Buck, all the funerals we've done, going to be a thing of the past. They're not going to, can you imagine a world without funerals? Can you imagine a world without death? Can you imagine a world without hospitals?

We're going there. Or it's coming here, I should say. It's coming here. We're living in the spirit of it right now. We're living in the kingdom power of it right now.

Well, hallelujah. I feel like running. I feel like shouting somebody. So this, okay, let's get back to Christmas. This changes everything.

It changes everything. We celebrate Christmas. Yeah. Why? Because we have the greatest gift.

Conquered death, took the sting, took the fear out, took the fear out. Let me tell you something. When I've done studies, and I'm no psychologist, but when I've done studies on anxiety and fear, it is unbelievable how rampant it is in America. Yeah. Panic attacks, anxieties, it's really unbelievable.

And my heart goes out to you. I preached on this recently, and it really blew up. So many people tagged on to that. But I'm telling you, the answer is right there in Hebrews 2. You don't have to live with that fear on you.

You don't have to live with that fear on you. Tell it to go back to where it came from. The enemy. You don't have to live with that fear. You've been set free.

Amen. Can I read you a verse, and we're going to pray. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible from Revelation. Here's what we've got to look forward to. Revelation chapter 7 and verse 9.

After these things, John said, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one can number, of all nations, all ethne in the Greek, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, salvation, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped. They wereières. We're going... We're going over yonder.

Where there's no more division. Hallelujah. Thank you. All people, tribes, kindreds, tongues, and nations worshiping before the Lamb. We got one thing in common in this church.

We all come from different backgrounds. I come from the hills of Virginia. Some of y'all come from Weeksville. Some of you are from Currituck County. Some of you are from Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas.

One thing we have in common, we all were sold under sin. We all been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. That's it. And we can sing a song the angels can't sing. I've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

I've been redeemed. Oh, hallelujah. Let this freedom get ahold of you right now. Come on, fear goes right now in Jesus' name. That fear goes right now in Jesus' name.

Hey, it's such an honor to have you join us for service. I pray the Word was a blessing to you, and I pray you avail yourselves to the resources we have online. And if you're ever in the Elizabeth City area, or I mean Outer Banks or Tidewater, Virginia, make the drive. Come visit us one Sunday. We would love to welcome you here, and you can experience this yourself.

As one man used to say, can't be explained, can only be experienced. There's some truth into that. Anyhow, thank you for watching. I pray the Lord will bless you and that you grow in your faith and fulfill the call that God has on your life. We here at Fountain of Life.

Love you.