The World Needed A Savior

Introduction

The thoughts that I have prepared for you this evening. In John 3 16, the Bible says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. I don’t remember the first time I heard John 3.16. I probably learned it in a Bible class, much like you have here in the back. It’s one of the most important and relevant verses of our time because it paints a very profound picture of a God who loves us and gave to us. And as we seek to serve God with our lives, I think as Christians, love is arguably the highest virtue that we are called to display because we love because Christ first loved us.

And as you read the story of Jesus, it is evident that his life and his ministry were motivated by love for mankind. Jesus Himself said, God sent me in love to seek and to save that which was lost. In love he came to the earth. In love he served mankind, and in love he went to the cross and he died. Jesus’ mission of love was to serve men and to offer hope through selfless sacrifice. And Paul reminds us we all needed this hope. We all needed this love. We were lost and dead in our trespasses and sins, condemned to die. But Jesus said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. That was his purpose for which he came, because Jesus knew that the world needed a Savior.

As you read the Gospels, you see Jesus helping and healing, feeding and serving to demonstrate his care and compassion for humanity. He wanted everyone to know that he cared about them. And as much as we appreciate the personal nature of this point, a very clear point is pushed forward as you read through the gospel message, and that is the universality of Jesus’ love for mankind. Because Jesus didn’t just love the easy people. Jesus loved the outcast, the marginalized, the baggage laden person who, quite frankly, had nothing to offer him and posed some serious situational awkwardness for him. You remember some of the people that Jesus interacted with? The woman at the well in John chapter 4, this woman who was living with a man who was not her husband.

And do you remember the things that Jesus talked to her about? He talked to her about salvation and worship. And he even broached the subject of her unlawful marriage. Now, how many of us would be willing to talk to somebody on our first go-round with them about those three things? It has a lot of potential to get at least a bit uncomfortable, wouldn’t you think? And yet Jesus did because his love was greater than any situation that he found himself in. And I could enumerate any number of occasions where Jesus found himself surrounded by those in society who many would just have brushed aside. Tax collectors, known sinners, those who were sick and demon possessed, those who had physical infirmities, but Jesus loved them. And people who were brushed aside by society flocked to Jesus because of his care and compassion.

Jesus loved everyone. And all of this points to the universality of God’s love for humanity through Jesus Christ. God loved by giving the world his only Son. Because the world needed a Savior. We may not have realized it. The world did not realize that it needed a Savior. But God knew that the world needed a Savior. One commentator noted love is the central point of Christian ethics. Because the one who adopts it becomes not simply obedient to moral admonitions, but is transformed into the very nature of God. And so as we strive as followers of God and followers of Christ to emulate his example, we’re compelled to show this type of love to everyone that we meet. Not for our own purposes, not to glorify ourselves, but to point everyone to a Savior who loved us and gave his life for us.

Jesus told his disciples that the world would know them by their love for one another. But let me ask you a question. Must we love everyone in every circumstance? What about when we get nothing in return? You know, love’s a lot easier when it’s reciprocal, isn’t it? What about when someone doesn’t deserve to be loved? Now I know as Christians we know better than to say something like that, don’t we? We know better than to say something like that. But what do we say with our actions? That’s what I want us to consider this evening. What do we say with our actions about loving other people? Jesus teaching an example challenges us to get outside of ourselves and consistently apply his loving principles even to the most extreme examples.

1. Love Your Enemies

And in Luke chapter 6, where I want us to study from this evening, Luke chapter 6, Jesus paints a clear and challenging picture of true love by taking loving others to the most extreme possible. Loving your enemies. If you haven’t already turned there, please turn with me to Luke chapter 6. We’re going to be planting ourselves here this evening. And studying about why Jesus gave this command. Because if you thought loving your honor co-worker was difficult, or your annoying sibling, or even that person that cut you off in traffic, if you think it’s difficult to love those people, listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, beginning in verse number 27. Jesus says, But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. But Jesus takes this a little bit further. Verse number 32 If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them, and if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners and expect to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend nothing, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high. For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Jesus starts the section with a command. Love your enemies. There’s no getting around that. Jesus says we must love our enemies. And I’ll tell you, in my experience, I think we tend as Americans to have a pretty narrow view of who our enemies are. We don’t live in a society that’s militant. We don’t live in a society where we are openly oppressed for our beliefs. We are able to gather in a building like this and believe what we believe and worship in the way that we want to worship.

And thank God we live in a peaceful and tolerant society for now. And so our usage of the word enemy, I think has lost some of its impact. But the term that Jesus uses here for enemy actually means someone that is openly hostile, at enmity with another. It implies a deep-seated hatred, irreconcilable hostility proceeding out of a personal hatred bent on inflicting harm. Jesus isn’t just talking about that guy at work that stole your lunch. He’s talking about someone that hates everything that you stand for and wants to kill you. And I think for us to appreciate Jesus’ command, we need to understand the enemies Jesus is referring to are more than just those inconsiderate jerks who pop up in our life. We’re talking about people who oppose your ideals and want to suppress and silence you.

And Jesus is, of course, speaking to a first century audience who would not have had a difficult time picturing what their enemies look like. He’s talking to a group of Jews in first century Palestine who are ruled by the infamously brutal Roman government. And if you know anything about the Romans during this time, they left no survivors. When they came through, they dragged people out of their homes. They burned their homes to the ground. They brutally murdered and executed people in the streets. This is a culture that produced the Colosseum, where people were put in an arena and fought to the death for public entertainment. This is a culture and a government that domesticated crucifixion. People were hung on a cross on the side of the road and lit on fire to give light to people walking in the path.

Those who knew and listened to Jesus teach in person were all too acquainted with who their enemies were. And so when Jesus said, Love your enemies, they wouldn’t have had any problem picturing who these people were in their lives. These were the Romans, if nothing else. And yet Jesus knew his audience, and still, Jesus commands, love your enemies. But he doesn’t just command it, he tells them what it looks like. Did you notice that? That’s what verses 27 through 30 are all about. Jesus says, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who cur who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic.

Give to everyone who begs. He’s painting a picture of what this looks like. He says, these are the things that you would do for the people you love. He says, I want you to do these to the people that you don’t love. In fact, the people that you hate. Jesus is saying that the person who openly opposes you need to give and love and serve them. And you can imagine the Jews at this point, they’re probably looking at Jesus like he’s crazy, like he’s got three heads. What is this guy saying? These people oppress us. They have taken away our nation. We are God’s people, and you’re the one that’s supposed to come and save us from all this, right? All of the Jews would have thought about Jesus and the Messiah in a very political context, especially during this time, because he was the Messiah.

2. Jesus Wants People Who Follow Him to Be Different

He’s the one who’s going to give them back their nation. He’s not supposed to come and encourage them to submit to the current regime. They wanted to overthrow the Romans. And they were looking for a guy that was on board with that. What the Jews were doing was trying to frame Jesus in the context of their worldview, because they wanted a kingdom that would make their lives better now. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. I think we all know that intellectually. And his teaching reflected that. In fact, his kingdom wasn’t like any kingdom that ever existed. And I think, much like the Jews, we forget this sometimes. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. He did not come to rule us like every other king or ruler that we have ever seen.

His rule and reign are different. You know, sometimes I think as we look at the political environment in our country, we wish that our government was more spiritual. We wish that they cared about us more and was less power hungry. But the reality is we live in a world that’s what leaders are looking for. In fact, the psalmist in Psalm 2 writes about this. He says, the nations rage, the people plot in vain, the kings of earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, and God sits up in the heavens. And he’s laughing at them. God is laughing at them because he knows what they are doing is futile. And the psalmist writes this because we need to be reminded that earthly leaders cannot be expected to offer us satisfaction because they’re in games all temporal.

They’re just power hungry. They want what’s best for them. And they want what’s best for them right now. They’re looking out for themselves. And Jesus’ goal as a leader is to lead us to eternal life, not temporal satisfaction. And so Jesus, what he’s really calling his followers to is to be different. And that’s what these verses are all about. Jesus says, love your enemies because he wants people who follow him to be different. What loving our enemies means is that there must be a distinction in those who follow Christ and those who follow the world. Not in political affiliation, not in power, but in character. Jesus’ life and teaching were radically countercultural because what Christ wanted to do is he wanted to paint a very clear path.

When someone realized the futility of this life, he wanted them to see a very clear discrepancy between the Christ and the culture. Jesus goes on to say, if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. He says, this is what the world does. If you do what the world does, what makes you any different? Sinners lend and expect repayment. You know, it’s easy and it’s natural to give reciprocal love because it pleases us as much as it pleased the one that we’re giving it to. But Jesus says, do it even to the one you think deserves it the least. And Christ calls his followers to be like this because Christ lived this way. There were no blurred lines between the Christ and the culture.

He didn’t come to this earth to be a celebrity. He came into this world to save sinners. And that was his mission, and that was his goal. He didn’t want to come and be a king. He didn’t want to establish a kingdom. He wanted to get people to eternal life with God. That was his mission, and there were no blurred lines between the Christ and the culture. And so when Jesus commanded his followers to love their enemies, it wasn’t simply so they would practice moral superiority or exercise this spiritual goodness. Jesus encourages his disciples to be distinct because it points people to a better way. And it points men to a savior. And that was the whole reason Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And Peter reminds us that followers of Christ are set apart, that ye may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You think about it. In a world that promoted himself, in a world that is completely self-centered. Christ stood out. People flocked to him, and he didn’t even have the internet. People knew about Christ because he was different, he lived differently, he taught differently, he stood out. He was unfairly tried and convicted and sentenced to death. People didn’t understand him. They looked at him and they tried, but the world could not fathom and could not understand what Jesus was all about. People spit in his face and yelled, crucify him, crucify him. They put to death the Savior of the world because they did not understand.

3. Our Enemies Are Difficult to Love

He was unlike this world. And in the face of the ultimate injustice, Christ said, Father, forgive them. Jesus Christ loved his enemies. Even while they mocked him and beat him and crucified him. We serve a God who died loving his enemies. And that’s because Jesus knew that the world needed a Savior. And that included his enemies. But Jesus not only commands us to love our enemies, but he showed us how to love in an effort to reframe our thinking. But that’s easier said than done, right? There’s this struggle that we have. And that is that our enemies are difficult to love, aren’t they? There are enemies for a reason. We are opposed to someone else for a reason. We have different ideals, we have different understandings, we have different things that we want.

The Jews hated the Romans because they were terrible to them. Maybe you have someone in your life that is just terrible to you. And no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get along with them. Or maybe they have just rubbed you wrong from the very beginning. We all have people like this in our lives, don’t we? Maybe at some point or the other. Someone that just rubbed us wrong, we can’t get along with. We have enemies. Because we have different ideas and opinions and beliefs. And so to love them requires a lot of effort. It requires a lot of energy. It requires a lot of work. Consider the enemies of Jesus, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, those who came after him publicly.

They were often irrational and obtuse and bullheaded. They ignored his sound logical arguments. They even ignored his miracles. Here is Jesus healing the sick and raising the dead, and they are ignoring him, and rather they choose to openly berate him. But even with his worst enemies. Jesus was patient. Again, the people Jesus was speaking to did not like the Romans. And so for them to put aside their personal biases was going to take a lot of work. It was difficult. And so Jesus goes on to teach some principles how to love our enemies. Aside from his own example, Jesus reminds these people, as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. And this is a pretty self-explanatory principle, right? The golden rule, we’re all familiar with this.

We know what pleases us. We talked about that this morning. We’re all pretty inherently selfish. We understand what works best for us and what will please us. And Jesus encourages his readers and his hearers, and he encourages us to take this approach when it comes to others. Paul reiterates this point as he’s reflecting on the life of Christ in his letter. He says, Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Look, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Paul is saying if we’re going to love our enemies, it starts by caring about others, the way that we care about ourselves.

4. Be Merciful, Even as Your Father Is Merciful

But Jesus digs a little deeper than that. He also teaches that there’s a need to respect and reflect the nature of God. He says in verse number 36, be merciful, even as your father is merciful. You remember the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10. Jesus taught this parable to demonstrate this principle. There’s a man who’s beaten and bloody. He’s on this trip. He’s beaten and bloodied, and he’s left for dead on the side of the road. He has no hope and he has no help. And if he’s left there alone, he’s going to die. And there’s these men that just so happen to be walking that road at the same time as him. Three different men. And the first two men that walk by, they’re very religious.

There’s a Levite and there’s a priest. Men who claim to be religious. And they walk right on past this man. But the Samaritan saw a man in need and he helped him. And Jesus, at the end of this parable, he says, look, if you see someone in need, you need to help them. Go and do likewise. And Jesus’ point is that however much we appreciate and we may revel in the love that is shown to us by God in our own salvation. We often fail to show it to others. Even those that may deserve it. Have you noticed that? We often neglect to show love to others because of inconvenience or selfishness on our part. We just don’t have time. Maybe we’re like the religious guys in the parable in this parable who are we’re on a trip, we’ve got somewhere to go, we’ve got people to see, we’ve got things to do.

It would be too inconvenient to help someone right now. We make excuses for why we shouldn’t help others, and so we fail to show love and mercy even to those who might need it. I think all too often we forget that our ultimate goal is to bring glory to God the Father by reflecting the mercy shown to us. And so demonstrating mercy forces us to see people the same way that God sees people. As sinners in need of grace. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus taught that he makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, rain on the just and the unjust. And what he’s teaching is that God shows no partiality so that everyone can know his goodness. God desires for all men to be saved, and so he gives all men these good things so that they can see very clearly that there is a God that loves them and that can help them.

5. No One Deserves the Love of God

Jesus says here in our text in Luke chapter 6 and verse number 35, He’s kind to the ungrateful and the evil. The Bible teaches very clearly that God gives good things to all men. Because God is not a respecter of persons. God knows that we all have a great, deep and pressing need. And so for us to withhold love and mercy from our enemies, what we’re really doing is placing ourselves in the place of God. And Paul warns us against this. In Romans chapter 12, he says, Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. You know, sometimes we don’t love our enemies because we don’t think they deserve it. But the reality is, none of us really deserve it, do we?

And sometimes we forget that. I’ve observed that when we forget this fact, we not only devalue others, but we step on God’s toes. And we devalue the mercy that He’s shown to me. We look at other people and we say, What God has given to me, I deserve it, and you don’t. And that’s just not the case. And Jesus teaches us that we must not regard our own forgiveness of higher value than our fellow man. In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of a man who owed an enormous amount of money to a king, several million dollars, depending on how you work the currency there. And this man couldn’t pay the king back. And the king calls him and he says, I want you to pay me what you owe, and he just can’t do it.

And the king says, Okay, I’m going to cast you into prison. And this man, realizing his fate, falls down before the king. He’s on his hands and knees and he is grabbing the king, and he begs and he pleads and he says, Please have mercy on me. And give me a chance. And you know what that king does? He not only forgives that man, but he forgives the entire debt. You think that man’s life was changed? Several million dollars that he owed this king, and it’s completely wiped away, just like that. You bet it changed that man’s life. But unfortunately, that isn’t the end of the story. This same man in this parable turns around and he goes and finds one of his fellow men that owes him some money.

A much smaller amount. It’s still about four months’ wages, but a much smaller amount. But nothing compared to the debt that was forgiven him. And he goes and he chokes this man. The same situation that has just happened to him. He’s on the reverse of this now. And the man falls to his knees before this man. He says, Please give me time, have mercy on me. But this man does not. In fact, he compels him to pay him back, and he refuses. And when word gets back to the king that forgave this man this huge debt, how do you think he responded? Matthew chapter 18, then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you. And in his anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all of his debt. And then Jesus goes on and he gives us the application, and he says, So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart. I mean, let’s be honest. The struggle to love our enemies is difficult. But we must put aside our biases and realize that we all owe a debt to God that we cannot pay. The world needs a Savior. And that includes my enemies. And I have no right to withhold mercy and love even from my worst enemies, because the truth is no one deserves the love of God.

6. While We Were Enemies, We Were Reconciled

Not you, not me, not the most righteous person to ever love or to live in this world. When God so loved the world that he gave his son, it wasn’t because he looked down at humanity and he was so pleased with them, he said, I’m going to go send my son to go hang out with them down there. No, God sent his son to the world because we were on a crash course with eternal destruction. Paul wrote, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died.

All this happened when mankind was opposed to God. In fact, in verse number 10, Paul goes on and says, For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. He said before we came to know Christ, we were enemies to God. We were completely opposed to him. You know, when we look at our enemies, I think we tend to dehumanize them. And we make them look like these inherently bad creatures that don’t deserve our love. But the truth is that we are all enemies outside of Christ. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one can live up to that perfect standard.

And I think it’s easy for us to romanticize our own goodness to wear those rose colored glasses and to look at our life and to get in this game of comparing ourselves to other people and to think that we are so much better. But the reality is nothing is good enough. My worthiness is like filthy rags before God, Isaiah says. Everyone is unlovable compared to a perfect God. But Jesus loved the sinner. Jesus loved the outcast. Jesus loved the enemy. Jesus loved me. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son because the world needs a savior. And that includes me. We must train ourselves to see mankind the way God does. As sinners in need of a Savior. The love of God through Christ Jesus is for all men because, as Peter reminds us, God wishes that all men would come to repentance, even his enemies.

And Paul tells us, do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? You think about the life of Paul. He was one of the greatest opponents to Christ in the first century. Paul was a man who walked into Christians’ homes and he dragged them out of their homes and threw them into prison and put them in jail and put them to death. Imagine if that man were sitting on this front pew this evening. How would you feel about him if he had done that to someone in your family? But God saw fit to show Paul mercy. And it changed Paul’s life. And as you read Paul’s letters to other Christians, you can tell that Paul was constantly reminded of his need for a Savior.

As he wrote to the Corinthians, he says, the love of Christ controls us. The love of Christ compels us, because we’ve concluded this that one has died for all. Therefore, all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Paul realized God’s mercy is intended to lead men to a renewed, purpose-filled life in Christ. Paul realized he was a changed man because God, only because God saw fit to show him mercy. And in turn, Paul showed that same kind of love and mercy and grace to everyone he met as he shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as he wrote to the Romans, he said, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. He realized that God’s mercy was intended to point us to something greater. This new life in Christ that God creates because he shows us mercy. Because he cared and loved the world. When we die with Christ in baptism, we are putting to death that old man. That old man that was an enemy to God. Because outside of God we are all, or outside of Christ, we are all enemies to God. But baptism takes us from being enemies to God and makes us sons and daughters of a loving and gracious God. Jesus is the Savior that we all need.

Conclusion

Have you put to death the old man in your life? That’s what we’re called to as believers, to put to death that old person. To not live like the rest of the world. We’re called to love the world like God loved the world when he sent his only Son. Jesus loved you enough that he died for you, so that you can have hope and life. He is the Savior that we all need. Will you love him? Will you follow him? Will you commit to following him even when it’s hard? Will you give your life to him? Now you have the opportunity this evening. Jesus offers you that invitation. If I can help you in any way, I’ll be down here at the front while we stand and while we sing.