Why Jesus Came to Die

We're gonna have 2 readings this evening.

The first will be from Isaiah 53. But the second 1 is from Romans chapter 8, which is on page 1 1 5 of your bibles on the tables. So maybe stick a finger in there first and then turn to page 7 4 1 7 4 1 for Isaiah 53. We're gonna have our reading now. So if you want to take your bibles, if you if you have a paper bible, that's good.

Turn to first Peter chapter 3, and we're gonna read verses 8 to 18. Finally, all of you be like minded, be sympathetic, love 1 another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing because to this, you are called so that you may be in so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil.

And their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good. They must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer. But the face of the lord is against those who do evil.

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats. Do not be frightened, but in your hearts, revere Christ as lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against you, against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better if it is god's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to god, Tom. We are as a church. If you've been coming along to the evening services over the last few weeks, we're we're we're basing this sermon series on a book that was written by John Piper, and the book's called 50 reasons why Jesus came to die.

And the idea there is that Jesus's death on the cross. It's an event swimming in-depth and meaning So much so that John Piper and indeed others have found at least 50 reasons, for for why he came to die. And this evening is reason 22. Jesus died. To bring us to god.

Let's pray together. Father, I pray even now that my words would come not just as words, but like Paul says with with power and with the holy spirit. And I pray all of us, lord, as we look at this wonderful, wonderful truth that our hearts will be inflamed for Jesus, and we will go out and transform to serve him in the world. And we pray this in his name and for his glory. Oh, men.

Oh, men. 6 years ago today, we weren't allowed to be here. In just a few weeks, we started to use words and phrases that we never ever used before, but now are are are just familiar to us in our vocabulary, things like COVID or lockdown or social distancing. And it was a weird, weird time. And maybe I think the worst thing for those of us that that were physically okay and our families were physically okay.

I think the worst part of it with separation from the people that we loved. Now at the time, I was engaged to Rose. And so I was engaged to Rose through at least, I mean, depending on how you count it, at least 2 different separate lockdown. Okay? So that meant that most of our engagement happened under various rules.

So to start with, we weren't allowed to see each other at all, and then we were allowed to see each other, if you remember, but outside, 2 meters apart, and all the other things as well. We want closeness with the ones we love, and it's such an obvious thing. I think if COVID hadn't happened, we wouldn't even think that it was worth saying, but distance, the opposite hurts. Now in order to understand the richness of our theme that Jesus died to bring us to god, we're gonna think a lot about god. Which is probably a good idea, isn't it?

But it's only when we've spent enough time on that that we can circle back to thinking about reason 22. And in order to properly think about god, we need to go back a bit more in just 6 years ago. 0.1 then. God with god. God with god.

Now god started the universe. In Genesis 1, he creates the structure of reality, and then he fills it with everything you've ever seen. Stars, birds, walruses, or whatever your favorite animal is. Now I've got it on good authority from Thomas Gant himself that a mongoose is his favorite animal. And god made mongoose, mongoose.

He made those as well. But in some respects, Genesis 1 is not the start of the story. The very start is revealed as the Bible unfolds. It's like a house where different rooms go on in terms of the light 1 by 1 by 1 until we get verses like John chapter 17 verse 5. This is Jesus praying.

He says, and now, father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. Before the world began. That's our target. If we're gonna understand god a little bit better, that is where we need to aim our minds. What was there before?

Genesis 1. Well, god was there. And in fact, god has existed infinitely longer without the universe than he has done with it. So what was god then before Genesis won? What was he?

Wow. I don't know if you've ever played 20 questions, and it's a sort of mediocre game, so it wouldn't necessarily suggest that we should. But in 20 questions, the idea is that you think of something, and then surprise surprise through questions, the other person has gotta try and guess what you're thinking about. Now you can only say yes or no, in response to their questions, otherwise it wouldn't be a particularly interesting game. But I was just thinking there's there's some classic questions in 20 questions that people often ask.

They often ask, is it an animal? Is it a mineral? Is it a vegetable? Those I'm told are classic things, the people ask. But when it comes to god, if you've got him in your head and you're playing to any questions, where you're gonna be saying no quite a lot.

Is he a vegetable no? Is he a mineral will no? Is he an animal no? The point is that he doesn't really fit any category. And when we do get verses like John 4 verse 4, where it says god is spirit.

It's not saying we found a new substance under a microscope, and that thing is called spirit, and that is what god is. And next time you play 20 questions, that's your answer. No. He's saying that god is not really like anything else. The greatest distinction in existence is between creature and creator.

God and everything else. Perhaps the most fundamental reason though, but he's not like anything else is because god is 3 in 1. 1 writer. I absolutely love this. This is probably my favorite pithy statement that there is.

Alright? He says, God alone is god, and god is not alone. God alone is god, and god is not alone. Father, son, and holy spirit, 3 different persons. John 1 says the word was with god.

All persons are fully god. Matthew 28 says in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. And yet there is only 1 god. Due toonomy 6, hear o Israel, the lord our god, the lord is 1. And god has always, therefore, existed as trinity, and we'll think about what the significance of that is in just a moment.

So what was god like before Genesis won? Are you his extraordinary? Here are just a few of his character traits. Firstly, he was eternal not just without end, like the new creation, but without a start. He was present everywhere all at once filling even that void before creation of which there was no shape.

He was just seeing in the future every violation and upholding of his law and judging it and getting it right in every single instance. He was good. You could spend forever, and spoilers, we will, going further up and further into his divine being, and you would find nothing that wasn't lovely and burningly bright. He was patient. He knew before anything, the first sin, through to the last sin, and every single sin in the middle, and he didn't.

Pour out his molten anger. He was loved, each person in the trinity, giving, and giving, and giving of himself to the other persons. And finally, he was unchangeable. All of those things that I've just spoken about, it's impossible for any of those character traits of god to change even slightly. Finally, I don't know if you've ever asked this question.

But how did god feel? How did he feel? Well, god was happy. He was at peace, calm, and yet burning with life and delight and laughter. Just imagine waves and pulses of joy passing between these 3 blessed persons of the trinity.

There was nothing that he didn't have. He didn't need to make anything to feel a bit better or become just a little bit more glorious than he already was. He was perfect. Now if god was just 1, he'd be similar to to things like Plato's form of the good, or if you don't love the ancient Greeks quite as much as me or like Kim, similar to other gods, like like Allah. Oneness, But it's just them.

It's kind of lonely, isn't it? And so in the Bible, we marveled that at the center of everything, at the center of everything was community, each person of god so close that they are in each other without becoming each other in an intimate dance of love, which is why closeness, is it the middle of all things? 0.2, walking with god and walking without him. Now all of that had been taking place forever. And then in 1 mysterious moment, god said, let there be light.

And it's like a dam that was holding back his nature was suddenly broken. There's a writer called Joe Rigney. He says this. I think it I think it's fabulous. The triune god is like a husband and wife who love 1 another deeply and love their relationship and shared life so much that they decide to bring children into it.

Only this trying couple creates children from nothing. So Genesis 1 takes place. The overflow of god's being is channeled into time and space as he creates. And then, as we're probably well aware of, humans happen. So turn with me to, Genesis chapter 2.

We spend a bit of time in Genesis 2, 3 to Genesis 4. So you might wanna keep that open in Genesis chapter 2. I say turn there and then I need to remember that I also need to turn there. Genesis chapter 2. Give me a nice smile when you get there.

Lovely. I won't rate them. I promise. Alright. Genesis chapter 2.

Look down at verse 7, then the lord god formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life, and the man became a living being. God makes Adam. And then verse 15, skip a few verses down to verse 15. The lord god took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Now the Garden of Eden was the place god was.

So finally, our our theme comes to the forefront. Adam was brought to god. And then just skip over to chapter 3. Look at verse 8. A bit confusing because this is talking about something that happened before the fall, and it's after the fall.

But I'm sure we can cope. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the lord god as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. It's almost too wonderful for words, isn't it? Adam and Eve were brought to god, and they walked with him strolling through a world without decay. In some cultures, you actually hold hands as you walk, not in a romantic way, but in a friendship way.

And I love to think of this particular scene happening like that. The inexpressible happiness of the trinity, father, son, and holy spirit, and they hold out their hands. To Adam and Eve, and they walked, talking with god being, with god looking into those deep, kind eyes. Learning his wisdom, tasting his glory, that blissful heaviness of his nature. And that is what all of us were made to do.

But darkness came upon those walks because 1 day, and whether this was days after chapter 2 25 or tens or thousands or millions of years, 1 day, Adam couldn't look him in the eye. He couldn't enjoy his glory like he had. He couldn't enjoy god being creator and him being creature he wanted to be the 1 shining. And so he was ripe for the snake's offer. In chapter 3, verse 5, look down there with me.

The god knows, that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be like god, knowing good and evil. And then verse 6, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. She took someone ate it. She also gave some to her husband who is with her, and he ate it. Holding god's hand.

In the cool of the day, Adam takes a saw and calves off his own arm. He amputates himself from god. And so look at verse 9, but the lord god called to the man, where are you? Now physically, but they're close, but they're now infinitely distant from each other. Adam was brought to god in chapter 2 verse 15, but chapter 3 ends with verses 23 to 24.

Turn over the page to those. So the lord god banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he'd been taken after he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden, and cherubim. And a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. And so now we walk without him. Keep going into chapter 4.

Just look at verses 13 and 14. And just look at the imagery here. Cain said to the lord, my punishment is more than I can bear. Today, you're driving me from the land, and I'll be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.

Restless wanderer. What a phrase that is, but that does describe us, doesn't it? Restless, wanderers, alienated from something more. Don't you feel that? That something has been lost.

There's an ache that's deeper than your flesh. There is a loneliness, a longing, a distance. And in our clearest moments, it feels like that reality that we thirst for is tantalizingly close, almost so that you could reach out and touch it, but you never can. It always is just alluding us. And it's bigger than that.

Don't you feel like the world is gray? Like, the color has been drained from it that it lacks magic and wonder closeness to something that we don't even have the words to describe, and that's because he's gone. He's gone. He's distant. And 1 day, will be torn away even from that faint sense that we have of him now.

And it's my fault, and it's your fault. In a sense, each of us was there with Adam and Eve, but We also want him far away from us every day of the week. Our sin being the way that it is we are afraid. We're afraid to be close to a being like that that we looked at. A little bit earlier.

0.3 then. Jesus died to bring us to god. It's time For reason 22. So turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.

There won't be any more turning. You've been very good. So well done. You can tell our next teacher, Connie. 1 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 18.

And this really is the verse that we're gonna drill into. It says this, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to god. For Christ also suffered once for sins. Now remember, Jesus didn't start existing 2000 years ago. He was there.

Before there was air to breathe, he was there. Remember John 17 verse 5? And now father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. And he was there therefore in the garden. He held Jesus held Adam's hand, he looked into Adam's eyes, and as he banished Adam from the garden, he knew that he would have to follow him.

Bringing us to god was not painless. Distense hurts. And as Jesus hung on the sky, but hung on the cross, and the sky went black. The distance broke his heart. Now as as as technology makes us faster and faster, our world is getting smaller and smaller.

So it's actually really hard for us to think, in any sense about the scale and the distance that Jesus was cast. From god. So we we need to dip into, at least I I need help to do this. So, you can have to forgive me. We need to dip into something cosmic in terms of scale.

So I wanna suggest that that on the cross, as he was separated from god. It was like Jesus was put into a cramped space vehicle, and he's then launched into the deadness and coldness and darkness of space. Further and further into the depths, past the planets, past the stars, and so on, into the blackness. And the warmth from the sun withdraws And the light from the sun disappears, and in the cool and in the dark infinitely far from life. Jesus dies.

1 Peter 3 18 for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. So let's add, another layer to this analogy, and this is where it starts getting a bit are fetched, but I did struggle. So please do be, nice and forgiving here. I want you please to to to imagine that there is another space vehicle, okay, introducing complexity with ever increasing number. No.

I won't. I'll I'll stop at 2, but, like, imagine another space vehicle. I want you to think that in this 1, there is a man who has spent all of his adult life, killing, and kidnapping, and doing every sort of vile practice that you can imagine. And therefore, he's sentenced to death by exile into space, whatever this, you know, post apocalyptic world is that he's found himself in, that is what's happened. He's gonna be exiled, into space.

But as he's inside this, as he's inside the vehicle, and it starts to curve off into space, into the void, it's intercepted by another space vehicle, and it docks with it. And as the door goes down, this man is shocked to see that Jesus welcomes him into his own space vehicle. But then his gratitude turns to horror when he sees that Jesus abruptly steps straight past him, goes into his space vehicle and shuts the door. And so what you have is you have 2 vehicles. 1 of them is now on track the 1 the killer is in towards the sun, towards radiance, towards light, towards life.

And the other 1, the 1 that Jesus is in plunges further and further and further away. Jesus Christ, the close 1, the god man who had and has in his own being all the character traits we looked at earlier. Jesus Christ who has never not existed and he knew the smile of god longer than the forever that awaits Christians. Jesus Christ was severed from god for you. Psalm 103 verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed all our transgressions, from us.

And as far as the east is from the west, so far was Jesus removed from god. 1 Peter 3 18, for Christ also suffered, once for sins, the righteous, for the unrighteous, to bring you to god, to bring you to god. Why did I spend so long on god at the start other than it's probably a good idea in a church service to do so? Why did I do? I did it because god, as John Piper, is amazing at describing in his book.

God is the gospel. It is god who is the gospel. And through the distance of Christ, we have him back, and we have him close. Now I say this all reverently, so please don't kill me in your minds before I finish what I'm about to say. Salvation is a means to an end.

Forgiveness, is a means to an end justification, is a means to an end, redemption, is a means to an end, adoption is a means to an end. Listen to this extended passage from John Piper. I think this is brilliant, particularly the last line. Which sounds like 1 of those, you know, click baity things that you see online, doesn't it? But but I promise in this case, it is actually true.

Here's what John Piper says. But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in 1 thing. God himself. All the words of the gospel lead to him or they are not the gospel.

For example, salvation is not good news. If it only sell it saves from hell and not for god. Foreiveness is not good news. If it only gives relief from guilt and doesn't open the way to god. Justification is not good news.

If it only makes us legally acceptable to god, but doesn't bring fellowship with god. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage, but doesn't bring us to god. And then here's the last sentence, right? This is really, really good. Adaption is not good news if it only puts us in the father's family, but not in his arms.

That's good, isn't it? Adoption is not good news, but only puts us in the father's family, but not in his arms. 1 Peter 3 18 for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to god. God is the end goal. God is the gospel.

0.4 then. Living as those brought to god. Living as those brought to god. So as we think about that and as we think about how how can we be changed by the spirit as a result of of thinking about this wonderful, wonderful truth, how is that the case? So I've got just 3 things I think are helpful for us to think about.

And the first of those in terms of living as those brought to god is to be with him. Because like in the garden, he holds out his hand to you again. And he invites you all of us to a life that is rich with wonder and magic because it is rich with himself. You were made to be close to him, like, like Piper says, again and again and again. If you've ever listened to ask pastor John, you make it maybe through 30 seconds before you hear the sentence, but it's a good sentence.

So there's a reason for that. John Piper says, god is most glorified in us. When we are most satisfied in him. It's a wonderful, wonderful phrase. Now in Christian Life, there is, as we know, there is a now bucket, and there is a not yet bucket.

And a lot of hurt is done when you get those buckets mixed up. Right? There's a lot of, I suppose particularly they're not yet bucket. Right? So there's a lot of a lot of teachers.

As we know, we we we call them out all the time, and so we shared that that say certain things that are only gonna happen in the new creation like being completely healed and only ever experiencing joy and peace and never once being, suffering and having illness. All that stuff that Rory spoke about last Sunday evening. That is coming for all believers in the new creation, but that's a not yet thing. Alright? It's not an out thing.

A lot of damage is done when you get them mixed up. But When it comes to being with god, this is a now thing. So if I'm using that image from from the start about lockdown, the lockdown restrictions, in this case, have been lifted. You have been brought to god and not enjoying that closeness now would be like me marrying Rose and social distancing until death. Tonight, you can go home.

You can shut the door and pray like Jesus commanded. And god through Christ, god will be there. Enjoy being with him. Talk to him about how you feel what's going on in your life and tell him how wonderful he is. Taste the preciousness of god.

This is a now thing. Not a not yet thing. Yes. All of it will be perfectly fulfilled in the new creation, but this is a now thing. Question.

Will the new creation feel a little bit strange to you because you're not used to being with god? Second thing to draw out in terms of living as those brought to god fill your mind with him. Yeah? Fill your mind. Fill it.

Fill it with him. Think about god. We started that line of thought earlier, in this, in this talk. I was talking to Marcus yesterday, and I told him I'd do this, so don't feel too sorry for him. I was talking to him yesterday, and he was just talking about the importance of beholding god was the the lovely Marcus language that he used around this.

I think that's brilliant, and I don't think I can improve on that. So I want us to behold god in our minds. Turn the idea of god over and over in your head. Take each of those character traits that we we thought about right at the start. Take them.

Hold them in your mind and and relish it. Delight in his work in the world, in the cross. In the resurrection, in the outpouring of the spirit, in the creation, in all his works in your life individually. And to fuel that, obviously, we need to read. The scriptures.

And here's another funny thing, like, cultural things happen, don't they? But is there a rule that means you can only read the Bible once a day in something called a quiet time? I don't know. Is that? I don't think there is.

And we can also we can memorize it. Yeah. We can memorize it. We can we can take those verses that tell us something beautiful and special and wonderful about god, and we can put them to memory. And then as we're walking along, we're doing the chores, whatever it is, we can just be saying it over and over in our heads, and we can start to we can start to behold god, as this brother says, brilliant.

And do read Christian books as well that tell you about god. There's a lot of good ones. There's, you know, knowing god by Packer, clues in the title. That's probably gonna do you some good in terms of thinking about god. You've got the attributes of god by Arthur Pink, brilliant name, very, very good book, but but do read this sort of thing.

Now that might sound boring. That's an obstacle for us, isn't it? I know we're not supposed to think in that way, but we might think, actually, I'm not gonna do that because it does sound kind of boring. But our tastes need to be refined, and they need to be trained. When I was a child, all I ever ate was fish fingers and potato waffles.

I'm really sorry, mum. I've outed you there. But I promise it wasn't her fault. It was definitely my fault. But as I've got older and slightly mature, I like to think, although I was talking to Rose about this earlier, and she was like, Thomas hasn't actually happened yet.

You do know that. But I like to think my tastes have become more mature. And I've advanced beyond those, fish fingers and potato waffles days. Or, in a slightly more interesting 1, the school that I taught at, what we would do in form time every morning with my form, is every class in the school did this, is we would play the the very best of what's been thought and said in classical music to our kids. To try and counteract some of the drill and the grime that they were getting in the culture that they belong to outside of the school.

Our tastes need to be refined and they need to be trained. Now in a world full of TikTok, we might need to do a lot of refining and training. I'm told the average viewer who's watching a video decides to move on to the next video between 1.8 and 3 seconds. So that is that's what we're up against here. And beholding, I hate to say, is gonna take a little bit longer than that, but we need to fill our minds with him.

And if I if that's not persuade, go and talk to Marcus because he will persuade you. He he's wonderful on all of this. And the third thing then, and the final thing is we're thinking about living as those brought to god What gospel do we hold out to people that don't know Jesus? Do we hold out a a transaction or a deal, or do we hold out god himself? Now, shamefully, I think the gospel I often think through and hand out to others is basically some variation on you're a sinner.

You're going to hell. Jesus died that your sins can be forgiven. You can go to be with him in heaven when you die, Bish bash bosh. All of those things are wonderfully true, but it just feels like we're missing something there. Right?

Like, what about god? What about why he's so wonderful? What about Jesus? Why is Jesus so so glorious. Why should people love him?

It's gotta be part of it. Right? Like all of these things I mentioned are definitely the gospel, but they're pointing us to god. They're pointing us to god. Listen to this.

This is JC Ryle in Holyness. Amazing book. He said this. Keep before your mind that the lord Jesus is an actual living person and deal with him as such. I fear the personality of the lord is sadly lost sight of by many in the present day.

Their talk is more about salvation than about the savior, more about redemption than about the redeemer. More about justification than about Jesus, more about Christ's work than about Christ's person. Did Jesus leave behind grave clothes and a ticket to heaven in the tomb. So let's take time to explain the beauties of god to the people that we meet. And we can only do that if we fill our minds with him, and we can only do that.

If we love being with him, and we can only do that because Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to god. Let's pray. Father, we want to behold you We wanna see wonderful things in your word that excite us and fire up our hearts to worship you with all of our lives. Please forgive me. Please forgive us for when we've not done that.

When we've we've not had trained and refined tastes that, lead us away from Christ rather than towards him. And we praise you that because Jesus was was distant and an eternally and infinitely distant from you on the cross that we have been brought to you. And lord, we pray that truth would drive us out into the world to proclaim the beauties of God. And we pray these things for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ.