Jesus the wonderful savior

 

There is somewhere around 200 different titles and symbols that are applied to Jesus Christ within the Bible. For instance in the NT He is called.

The Son of God

The Light of life

The Light of the world

The bread of life that came down from heaven

The Alpha and Omega

The eternal Word.

 

Now in the OT which has over 300 prophecies of Jesus was always speaking of him coming into this world. These prophets many times refer to him as,

The Messiah

The Redeemer

The Deliverer

The Holy One of Israel

 

Some of the inspired writers used poetic or figurative languages to describe Jesus.

The Rose of Sharon

The Lily of the Valley

The Bright and morning Star.

 

All of these differing names carrying different meanings which all apply to our  wonderful savior Jesus Christ. But one my favorite descriptions of Jesus in found in,

 

Isaiah 9:6  For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 

This section of scripture really shows that Jesus truly is our wonderful savior. Almost 700 year after Isaiah penned these words we see that a heavenly messenger announces the fulfillment of the coming Messiah in:

 

Matthew 1:20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.  21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."  22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:  23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

 

You see Joseph was going to put Mary away since she was with Child until this angel tells Joseph what is going on. As you can see from verse 23 which is a quote from Isa. 7:14 that Jesus would be called Immanuel. Notice the meaning of the word is God with us. This tells us that Jesus was in indeed Deity that would come in the form of flesh and the name Jesus itself means savior. Jesus was both man and Deity at the same time. The book of John bears this out as well.

 

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God.  3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

The Word being spoken of here is referring Jesus and notice very carefully that not only the word with God the word was God. This shows us without a doubt that Jesus is also Deity. Now John goes and tells exactly who this word was.

 

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' "  16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.  17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

 

So we can see that the anticipation of the savior or Messiah spoken about over and over again by the OT prophets had finally came to end in the NT time as Jesus or wonderful savior was born. To help us appreciate just how wonderful our savior is we need to take look at few more scriptures that really bring out how much love he truly had for each and everyone of us.

 

2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

 

Jesus had all the comforts and blessing that go along with being deity and being in heaven. Yet he left heaven to come to this earth to become poor so that you and I might become rich with spiritual blessing. According to Heb. 2:9 Jesus was made a little lower than the angels.

 

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,  6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 

 

Now many discussion have occurred on what it means when Jesus made himself of no reputation or as some translation say emptied himself. First of notice that verse 6 is referring to that time before Jesus became flesh showing that Jesus is indeed Deity and this why he would not considered robbery to be equal with God because he was deity but now he has came in the likeness of man. What he emptied himself of was the glory that he had when he was with the father. We can see this from Jesus prayer in John 17 especially in verse 5.

 

John 17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

 

Jesus was looking forward to when he could have the glory that he had once had when he was heaven before he became flesh. Again this gives us small idea of just what Jesus gave up so that he could be our wonderful savior. Not only was Jesus wonderful in the fact the he gave up his glory in heaven he is also wonderful in how lived his life on this earth.

 

Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

 

This shows us love God has for us because Jesus can understand the temptations that we have and this makes him better prepared to know just how to help us in our time of need. Since Jesus has been through the same temptations that we have he has a deeper compassion for those who are struggling with a sin. Lets continue reading as the next verse really point out the concept.

 

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.  2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.  3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.  4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.  5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You."  6 As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek";  7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,  8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,

 

I’m sure you have all heard the phrase that you have to walk in someone shoes to understand them and that is exactly what Jesus has done for us. There is such a great lesson for us to learn from Jesus here. There are so many people in this world that we do not understand because we have not taken the time to walk in their shoes. It is easy for us to point a finger at someone and laugh at them or call them names when we don’t understand their circumstance. We see this happening more in younger children in public school but it also happens with adults as well. Let me give you an example. Young children like to make fun of those who were glasses or those who are overweight. They don’t ever consider that medical condition the child may have with their eyes nor do they consider that the overweight child is simply genetically bigger or perhaps they are having to medicine that cause a person to gain weight. Now if take this child that is making fun of these others and they start gaining weight or they start having to wear glasses then they don’t make fun of the children anymore because now they understand and now they compassion for them. I am sure most of us in this room has made fun of or thought lowly of someone that we did not understand and I feel confident that many us have had a change of heart as we matured and have personally experienced or have loved ones experience these things we used to make fun of.

 

I think we can also agree that a person who has walked in your shoes and went through something like you have has a much deeper understanding of what you have been through and be very helpful to you. For instance a former drunk will understand another struggling drunk more than someone who has never dealt with that problem. Paul teaches this same concept in:

 

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

 

Here Paul is showing that we should stand fast in our faith in Christ and that we resist the devil and his temptation because others in the church have been able to do it. So clearly we can see Just how wonderful our savior is because he has walked in our shoes but he never sinned.

 

Another wonderful thing about Jesus was the fact that he knew that he would have face the cross and bear the sins of the world yet he was willing to do this for each and everyone of us.

 

Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

 

Even though Jesus knew he was going to lay his life down for us in his humanity we can see that he struggled with this a great deal especially as we read in:

 

Matthew 26: 36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there."  37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.  38 Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me."  39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  40 Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?  41 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."  43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.  44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.  45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

 

Again we can see Jesus really struggling here and we can only imagine how much sorry and pain he was experience at this time yet even in this stressful situation he still allowed the fathers will to be his guide. From this point forward Jesus will experience some the greatest torture a human could endure all so that we could have freedom from our sins.

 

We know that many false witnesses came forward and spoke against Jesus and that he was cursed at he was beaten by the Jews. He was lead around like a dog to Piliate and to Herod. He was dressed up by Heord’s people and by the Pilates soldiers and made fun of and he also was scorged which was very painful torture. One enclopedia describes it this way:

 

A Roman implement for severe bodily punishment. It consisted of a handle, to which several cords or leather thongs were affixed, which were weighted with jagged pieces of bone or metal, to make the blow more painful and effective. The victim was tied to a post (Acts 22:25) and the blows were applied to the back and loins, sometimes even, in the wanton cruelty of the executioner, to the face and the bowels. In the tense position of the body, the effect can easily be imagined. So hideous was the punishment that the victim usually fainted and not rarely died under it.

 

Again Jesus endured  the harsh punishment for all mankind. Then he was led to cross where nails were driven through his hands and his feet and left to struggle with great pain just to be able to breath with still more people yelling at him and mocking him. But as hard as all of this was I believe the hardest thing Jesus went through was when the father had to separate himself from the his son because of the all the sin that he was bearing for you and I. That is why Jesus cried out,

 

Matthew 27:46  "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

 

Again this  is why Jesus is our wonder savior because he was even willing to face the temporary separation from the Father and of course Jesus is also wonderful in the fact that he was raised from the dead and is not sitting at right hand of the father in heaven. This is what all of Christianity is based upon because through Jesus resurrection we all have the hope of being resurrected at the judgment day. Paul makes this very clear for us in:

 

1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.  15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up -- if in fact the dead do not rise.  16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.  

 

Of course Paul goes on to say that Jesus was raised from dead and each us can take comfort in this knowing that Jesus has overcome the grave and that he has promised everyone who remains faithful to God a home in heaven. We can put our confidence and our trust in Jesus knowing that he truly is our wonderful savior who has redeemed us from sin. Jesus is our only way that we can make it to heaven. Jesus said himself,

 

John 14:6  "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

 

Matthew 7:21  " Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

 

You see Jesus did his part he gave up his glory and came to the earth as servant lived the perfect live suffered the pain of the cross and was raised from the dead. Now mankind has his part. We must all obey God will in order to make to heaven. Jesus also tells us,

 

John 14:15   " If you love Me, keep My commandments.

 

Jesus has told us several thing that we must do in order to make it to heaven.

 

John 8:24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

Luke 13:3  "I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Matthew 10:32" Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Mark 16:16  "He who believes and is baptized will be saved

 

After a person is baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins Jesus also says this.

 

Revelation 2:10  Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

 

Will allow Jesus to be your wonderful savior today? He commands are not burdensome and you can accept Jesus as your savior if you will obey his commands on how to become a Christian and how to remain a faithful Christian. So if you are here this morning and you want to be saved and be able to call heaven your home then why not obey Jesus’s commands this morning by believing in him, repenting, confessing and being baptized for the remission of yours in the name Christ or if you already a Christians I hope you use this lesson as reminder of the wonderful things Christ has done for us and that you will be encouraged to remain faithful to God for the rest of your lives.