Christ Jesus why “I Have Come”

Good afternoon and welcome to the Panhandle. Here it is the day after Christmas, I pray that you were able to spend an enjoyable day with your family. This is the message I preached on December 22^nd.

On Sunday December 1^st I preached about the prophecies concerning the coming Messiah. All of which points to Christ Jesus by the way. On December 8^th I preached on the unique message that Gabriel delivered to Mary concerning the birth of a son whom she was to name Jesus. This morning I want to spend some time looking at why God sent His Son, Christ Jesus to earth. My kids tell me that everyone knows why Christ Jesus came to earth, but maybe it is good to be reminded.

Even as we’re singing about “joy to the world” and “peace on earth,” our world is filled with wars and rumors of wars. Oh, how it is good to be reminded that the Prince of Peace has come! Some of the most helpful information about our Lord’s mission comes from His “I have come” statements. That phrase, occurring 13 times in the Gospels, is significant because it presupposes Christ’s preexistence. The Lord Christ Jesus is distinct from everyone else, in that He possesses a double nature—both God and man. He has always existed and always will. He is eternal in the heavens, thus His coming to earth was pre-planned. He looked down on this planet, saw a need, and said, “I am going to be born to meet that need.” And so, the importance of the “I have come” statements.

1. He Came to Represent the Father: “I have come in My Father’s name.” (John 5:43a)

1. The ceiling of a cathedral in Europe was beautiful but so lofty it was difficult to study. The rector put a tilted mirror near the floor, allowing visitors to study the grandeur of the ceiling at their level.
2. Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, at our level.

1. In reference to Christ Jesus, Paul wrote to the church at Colosse, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15).
2. The writer of Hebrews wrote, And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).

2. When Philip asked Christ Jesus (God/man) to show them the Father; He answered , "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, "Show us the Father'?” (John 14:9).

1. If you want to see God, read what the Bible has to say about Christ Jesus and you will see God.

2. He Came to Kindle a Fire (Luke 12:49-53);

49 "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!

50 "But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!

51 "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division;

52 for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.

53 "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

1. This passage can be boiled down to three words: fire, baptism, and division. Christ came to kindle a fire, undergo a baptism, and create a division.
2. The baptism was His baptism into suffering, His death on the Cross. The division is between those who will receive Him and those who will not.
3. But what did Christ Jesus mean by bringing fire on the earth? In Luke 3:16, John the Baptist said the Messiah would set fire to earth and burn the chaff, fire being a biblical symbol for judgment.

1. Yes, Christ Jesus is love, it is because of that love that He came to earth to save you from your sins. (John 3:16)

1. But, Christ Jesus is also a holy God and so He came to deal with and destroy the force of evil in this world.

1. In Luke 12, He was saying in effect: “I have come to deal with sin and judge evil. I’m going to kindle a fire and cleanse this world of evil. In the process I am going to be plunged into suffering, and the world will be divided over Me. Everyone must accept Me or reject Me.”

1. It is the same today. You must accept Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour or you reject Him.

3. He Came to Preach a Message: He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for." (Mark 1:38).

1. The content of that message is given in Mark 1:14-15; Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." — it is the good news!
2. “Good News” that wonderful old Greek word: euaggelion. The prefix eu means good; the stem word angel means message.

1. This is one of the Bible’s great words, yet it seems an understatement.

1. If you were trapped in a collapsed cave, running out of air, shut in claustrophobic darkness, minutes from death, and you heard workmen breaking through the rubble to rescue you, would you call that “good news”?

1. Here we are, separated from God by sin, trapped on a doomed planet, facing death and hell. And God Himself became a man, dying in our place, rising from the dead to give us life.

2. Is that good news? Yes, but it’s more than good news. We don’t have a word to describe it. The angels put it this way: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.” (Luke 2:10-11)

4. He Came to Illumine the World : "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46)

1. The world is drab, pale in comparission to what it was meant to be. For many it is a miserable place, filled with sin’s darkness. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19).
2. But Christ Jesus came, offering His indescribable gift. His presence dispels the gloom, lighting up our world and our lives. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. (John 1:4).

1. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali (nef-thal-ime')-to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,

the way to the sea, along the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles-
the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned." (Matthew 4:12-16).

5. He Came to Enrich Us (John 10:10): “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. ”

1. There were two cities in New York that drew water from the nearby mountains.

1. One depended on a lake that tended to dry up during droughts.
2. The other got its supply from a lake in the Catskills that never went dry, because it was fed by underground streams. They could never exhaust that lake.

1. Many of us forget that we have an endless supply of grace, joy, peace.

1. We don’t have to worry about our spiritual reserves, but we’ve got to tap into them by faith.
2. If we’re committed to Christ Jesus and walking in the Spirit, we have an ocean of God’s blessing to draw from every day.

Christ Jesus came for you! He knew you before you were born, and He loves you. He came to give you good news, to light up your life, to give you abundant life. Let this Christmas be the one you really celebrate! Let this Christmas be the one you accept Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,

There is room in my heart for Thee.¹

1 Morgan, R. J. (2002). Nelson’s annual preacher's sourcebook : 2003 edition (electronic ed., pp. 370–372). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.