Remembering Jesus' Purpose
At the moment I find many things competing for my attention. The preparation of the budget and thinking about our finances, discussions about our planned appointment and differences of opinion about the title of the appointment, reviewing attendance and wondering what is happening to those we don’t see, wrestling with a particularly difficult sermon for this Sunday. I suspect in your own life you also have many things competing for your attention and know how wearying it can be when they fill your consciousness, and how those competing concerns can discourage by making us forget the bigger picture of our lives as believers.
But in God’s kindness the Scriptures as I read them keep engaging me with the bigger picture. Last week I was reminded by the parable of the lost coin and the woman’s joy at finding her coin that God seeks for the lost and has joy when He finds them, joy over the sinner who repents [Luke 15:8-10]. This prompted me to think again of why Jesus said He came into the world. “For the Son of Man”, He said when the crowds were wondering about His eating with Zachaeus, “came to seek and to save the lost.” [Luke 19:10]. Or, as the apostle Paul says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” [1 Tim. 1:15]
Here is refreshment for weary and discouraged hearts.
Encouragement by being reminded of Jesus’ reality
In these verses I am again confronted with Jesus’ reality, His greatness and shocking graciousness. He is the glorious Son of Man, the One whom all peoples, nations and languages serve, whose “Dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away”, and whose kingdom “shall not be destroyed.” He is the Christ, the one to whom God subjects all rulers and powers [Ps. 2]. We can scarcely imagine the greatness of His glory, the glory He had with the Father before the world was made [John 17:5]. Yet He came to seek the lost – with all that means. Entering our world, born in a stable, to work with His hands, to walk dusty roads, to be hungry and thirsty, to teach patiently, to be misunderstood and opposed. And He came not just to seek but to save – to do what it takes to rescue us and bring us back to God, with joy. And we know the price of that joy at our return was His grief and pain in death, dying on the cross for our sins, a grief and pain freely undertaken for people who had no claim on His love, who were responsible for their own lostness.
It is such a simple sentence – the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost – but there is such love and might contained within it, a love and might focused on doing us, sinners, rebels against our loving Creator, good, an infinite and eternal good. And there is such cause for thankfulness, for in this verse I and every believer are reminded of our reality.
Encouragement by being reminded of my reality
I was lost, lost in my sin, and the longer I live the more conscious I am of how much of a sinner I am. That is not pious self flagellation. I know that left to myself my heart naturally inclines to selfishness and pride and disbelief, that my attitudes have been shaped by a society in rebellion against God, and that it is just so much easier to pursue and then justify what suits me. I do not have it in myself, by myself, to live trusting and obeying the living God as I ought. I need saving today as much as I needed to be saved the day I first believed. But believing in the Lord Jesus I am saved. What He came to do He has accomplished by His blood shed on the cross. He has brought me back to God, to live at peace with Him, to be forgiven and given His Spirit, the downpayment on our eternal inheritance. Though a sinner, that is my future now – saved eternally, because God is rich in mercy and the Lord Jesus is such a great and effective Saviour in His death and rising.
Clarified focus
Being reminded of the big picture, of why Jesus came, is powerfully encouraging. I was lost, but have been found. I was condemned, but have been saved by a kind, gracious and mighty Saviour, the Lord Jesus. The trajectory of my life, whatever my present concerns, now ends, not in death, but in life in the presence of the God who loves me. And with that encouragement comes clarity in the midst of these many competing concerns about what is really important. We live in a world of great need, where many are still lost in their sin as we were, and face judgement, death and hell. There is one, only one, the Lord Jesus, who can rescue them, as He has rescued, saved, us. People need to hear of Him, hear of Him so they can call on Him, and they will only hear of Him if someone tells them about Him [Romans 10:13-14]. As those who have been saved, our purpose should be the same as His – to seek and save the lost. We cannot save them but can tell them of the one who can by sharing His gospel, for He is still seeking the lost, and there is still joy in heaven when they are found.
In all that is going on, let’s keep the focus on sharing in Jesus’ great mission. For me it means in all I do never losing focus on what Jesus came to do. For us as a church it means, this year and every year, it all our passing pre-occupations, thinking about how we can help people meet Jesus. Praying faithfully for the Lord to open blind eyes, and this year looking for opportunities to read John’s gospel with someone, planning to use the events we are running – starting on the 24th with the picnic or the Easter Saturday bible reading, to help people step by step to come and listen to the preaching on John in August, or the city wide events in April and August.
Here is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Take that to heart, and know its encouragement.
