Why Jesus Came to Die

Please have a seat.

And if you wanna take your bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 7, our reading is gonna be verses 9 to 17 of Revelation 7. And in here, the image changes from Jesus being our shepherd to Jesus being our lamb. The Bible has many, many wonderful pictures of who and what Jesus is for us. So let's, let's read Revelation chapter 7 verse 9. After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no 1 could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the lamb.

They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the land. All the angels were standing round the throne and round the elders and the 4 living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped god, saying, amen, praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our god forever and ever amen. Then 1 of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they? And where did they come from?

I answered, sir, you know, and he said, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of god and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst?

The sun will not beat down on them nor any scorching heat for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water and god will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Thank you, Dean, and, heaving everybody. And, welcome from me. I'm Tom 1 of the pastors here, and, it's lovely to have you with us.

Just to say, if you're if you're here for the 1st time, you don't normally come on Sunday evening or if you're watching for the 1st time, as Dean said, this is our kind of question time evening. And, therefore, the main service is a little bit shorter. So we only have 3 songs and it's a bit briefer to give us those time for for questions. So that's why why it is. And also we've just, we've just, we're just sort of coming to the end of this series that we've been working through, for the past 10 weeks.

It 10 weeks or so is called why Jesus came to die, and we've been looking at some reasons why the lord Jesus came to die. And, next Sunday, we're actually beginning a brand new series, in the book of Esther. So we're going back into the old testament, great story of Esther. And we're gonna be preaching through that. So if you wanted to get ahead and start preparing your mind and your heart, you could, in the next 7 days, read a a chapter or 2 of that, and you'd be very well prepared for the the new series that we're starting next next week.

But this evening we're doing something a little bit different. We're we're not thinking so much about 1 reason Jesus came to die. We're we're we're gonna have a think about, testimonies, really. That's gonna be the theme of this evening testimonies and how Jesus came to die to create testimonies. That's gonna be the idea.

So let's pray and, we'll have a think together. Father we thank you that the the glory of the cross and the achievement of the cross is a subject that we we will never be able to exhaust, or fully comprehend. Our minds can understand bits and pieces of the glory of what our lord Jesus did there for the earth world and for us and, but but we know this is a it was such a glorious, moment of god. Giving himself for his people. And, we pray that as we think about, what that cross means for for all of us as individuals, that you would, produce gratitude in our hearts, please.

We don't wanna just hear these things and be unmoved and unresponsive. We pray that Thanksgiving would flow from our hearts for the lord Jesus, and we ask this in his name. Oh, man. Well, upstairs in the, in the office, we we used to have a picture of Billy Gray on the office door. Great American evangelist who died in 20 18.

And, the idea was that every day we would go into the office and we'd see a picture of Billy Graham in the middle of preaching, he was doing that, and it was there to kind of inspire evangelistic zeal in us. He's now gone, right, I don't know, sort of where he went, or he took him down, but he's not there anymore. But if you know the story of Billy Graham, he's an amazing man and the opportunities that god gave him to proclaim the gospel. I mean, he he preached to enormous crowds all over the world and he had opportunities to speak even to the sort of Kim Jong Un dynasty and share the good news of Christ with presidents and dictators and spoke all over the world. Amazing the opportunities the lord gave him.

And, they reckon that the largest crowd that he spoke to, in his evangelistic campaigns was on June the 3rd, 19 73, where he went to South Korea, and it's estimated that he preached the gospel to 1100000 people, in 1 moment. Now here's a picture of it. We might be able to dim those spotlights, and you can try it and have a look. It's not it's not sort of very clear but you can get sort of something of the the scale of that opportunity and and there he is there preaching the gospel. I mean, they they reckon that that must be the largest single assembly that ever has heard the good news of Jesus, preach to them, or at least it must be 1 of them.

1 1100000 people. Can't imagine what that was like to to sort of speak to those numbers. It's amazing, really. But, when we, of course compare, that number as impressive as it is to the crowds in Revelation 7. June the 7th, June the 3rd 19 73, all of a sudden looks quite small.

In compared to what we find there. We we actually looked at this text a couple of weeks ago. Joshua John did a sermon on this, and he was drawing our attention to the international scale of the cross that Jesus has purchased to people from every tribe Tunga nation. But it is amazing. If you have a look at chapter 7 verse 9, we're told that there was a great multitude, that no 1 could count a great multitude that no 1 could count before the throne and before the lamb.

And just like all the rest of Revelation, this scene is about scale. You know, nothing in Revelation is small or quiet. Everything is loud. Everything is large. You know, you read revelation, and it doesn't just talk about a light tremor.

It talks about a huge earthquake. There's no light tremors. There's only huge earthquakes. And If he wants to tell you about a dragon, it hasn't got 1 head. It's got 7 heads.

You know, it's a big loud dragon, and there's not just drops of blood. There's oceans of blood in Revelation. So everything is dialled up to 10. And redemption is like that as well. There's nothing small or quiet about redemption.

Redemption is very big. It's innumerable. It's large scale. It's loud singing. There's no there's nothing quite there's no quiet times in Revelation.

You couldn't justify the quiet time from Revelation. It must be a loud, big corporate time. That's what we're to have. Yeah. That that's the book.

It's it's it's big scale. And there's something about that perspective, I think that we we need. Because in our own local ministries and in our own local area here in Kingston, it can sometimes feel like we're in the day of small things, can't it? You know, we're just carrying on and we have small steady encouragement, not 1100000, but 1 or 2 or 3. And, we're pleased and we're thankful for that.

But sometimes it's good to remember that we may live in the day of small things here, but we are we belong to scale. And size and noise and a big picture redemption. And of course, you know, in this age of the individual, where the individual is king and me is king, and it's all about me, anything that will remind us of the corporate achievement of the cross is so important for us in our age lest we get so obsessed with the self that we forget Jesus is gathering millions from all across history and we just belong to a a slice of a glory pie. Just 1 small slice, but we we belong to something much bigger. So that's all very helpful for us to see.

But at the same time, let's not forget that the the individual man or woman or boy or girl, the individual, matters greatly to the lord Jesus Christ. You see from John's perspective in Revelation, all he can tell us is I saw a great multitude. I saw a crowd. That's what he can see. He can see a crowd.

And when we look at 1100000 people in South Korea, all we can see is a crowd from our perspective. But from the perspective of the lamb who is upon the throne, he sees both a crowd and millions and millions of individual stories of grace that make up that crowd. He's able to see both, isn't he? He sees the scale and he sees the preciousness of the individual. And that's because when we think about this crowd in revelation and We think about these redeemed people from all over history.

The the word redeemed is not just a theological cate category, the redeemed. It's people. It's people. Individuals, men and women and boys and girls from this nation and from other nation from this part of history and all part of her is people who make up the crowd, which is the redeemed. We were, trawling through the, photo archives this week, and we were trying to, find the earliest group photo of Cornerstone Church.

And, we we managed to go back 14 years. We couldn't find an earlier 1. If you have got an earlier group photo of Cornerstone, be very interested to see it. But here it is, this is this is us in 2012. And, you you might remember if you were, part of the church back then, we were, we had to meet in chessington, school for a summer because at Beatles's where they were doing the plumbing or something like that.

And we had several several weeks there. Who was actually part who was sort of part of that? Just out of interest. Yeah. Okay.

There we go. So that's 14 years ago. And, I I have to say, I actually look exactly the same. Is that amazing? I was zooming in on myself, but my hair and youthfulness is I haven't really aged.

It puts quite amazing, really. I anyway, Laurel did sort of differed on that. She sort of could definitely see some aging that has taken place. But anyway, there we go. Anyway, that's 20 12.

And this is our, this is our most recent 1. This is, us in 20 26. And, as you can see there, I have a ageless at the front there. And, this is this is us here and, this year, and it's it's a lovely photo. And, of course, you know, when you've been around sort of this length of time, it has been a join.

It has been wonderful to see how god has god has grown the size of the church, you know, that we we are a bigger group now. But what is even more wonderful about that is what it says about god's saving work in the lives of many individuals. That's what's lovely about this group. And it is 1 of the lovely things actually about being a pastor and an elder in a church is that you get to know, like, lots of stories. And so you look at it and you think, well, it's a crowd.

It's great, but you know something of what Jesus has done for that person, and he came to rescue that person, and that person fled persecution and got converted and, that person was enabled to go through amazing tragedy, because of the love of Christ. And you get you get to hear the testimonies which make up the crowd. And that's what we need to remember, I think, with Revelation 7. It it would be impossible to actually see a picture, I think, of the crowd in Revelation 7. But we would see the same it would be the same thing.

You've got a huge crowd and as we look at it, we remember that that these aren't people who have been gathered all at once by chance. This is a group that has been added to 1 sinner at a time. You know, 1 story at a time, 1 testimony at a time, and these individuals are making up this this great, great crowd. Now in this series, we've been looking at reasons Jesus came to die. And, we've we've seen some fantastic theological truths, I hope.

If you haven't heard last week, I mean, Alex is it was a really terrific talk and worth going back some very, very important theology for us well applied through the cross of Christ. It it was it was just so helpful. But tonight, as we finish off, I I I want to sort of say that that every member of Cornerstone, is a reason that Jesus came to die. We've we've looked at many reasons and good theology, but every member is a reason that Jesus came came to die. We're gonna just leave revelation for a moment.

And if you if you can turn with me, I don't think I've put it up. No. If you can turn with me to luke 19 verse 10, I just want us to look at 1 verse really, which is the sort of mission statement of the lord Jesus, coming off the, the back of a story about Zacchaeus. And, at the end of that story in luke 19 verse 10, Jesus says that the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. The son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

There's his mission. But again, if we ask the question, well, who are the lost, who are the lost, we remember that a bit like the redeemed, it's not just a theological category. Jesus came to save the faceless lost, whoever they might be, this category of people. No. No.

No. No. No. The the lost are the the individuals that Jesus has been meeting and finding and rescuing and saving throughout the gospel. They make up this group called The Lost.

So it's people like Zacchaeus. Yeah? What why did Jesus come to die? Give me a reason. Why did Jesus come to die?

He came so that a money loving cheat could be turned into a generous lover of Jesus who gives his money away. That's the reason that Jesus came to die. Zekaeus. Zekaeus is a reason. And you go back through the gospel, it's the same thing.

You can read the whole of Luke like that. Who are the lost which Jesus came for? Well, it's the man with an impure spirit in chapter 4. That's the reason Jesus came to die that man. He came so that that man could be liberated from satan and evil and come into the light of the kingdom of god.

That's why he came to die to put the enemies of god to open shame and to save people like that man. Same is true in chapter 5. Why did Jesus come to die to cleanse a man from leprosy? He came down from heaven in order to take uncleanness on himself at the cross so that that leper could be cleansed. That was a reason he came to die.

That man was part of the loss. Same in Luke chapter 7. You've got this sort of sad story of a widow who's just about to bury her son, and Jesus comes to meet her. And Jesus died for her. He died so that her son might live.

He she's a reason, and that boy's a reason that Jesus came to die. You got Jairus in chapter 8. You know, why did Jesus come to die? He came so that a significant synagogue leader could see the glory of god and be transformed and be a worshiper of the lord Jesus Christ. Jairus was a reason that Jesus came to die.

And then you think of the thief in Luke chapter 23 who's hanging on the cross next to Jesus. And 1 of the thieves is mocking him, but the other thief realizes, no, we're getting what we deserve. This man's innocent. He's righteous. He doesn't deserve this.

Will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? Jesus says I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise. That thief was a reason. Jesus died so that that thief could enter paradise. He's a reason.

And so do you see this is how they've got seeking and saving the lost? This is not just a the lost, whoever these are people. These are the lost that come and make up this crowd of saved people. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. To to try to kind of rub this point home.

Some of you will know we, we put a video together, this week or rather, Patty who might be watching online, but probably not here, and Alex as well helped. We put together a a video, and, we filmed this at, band of brothers on Monday night, and then it was filmed again at the women's bible study on, Wednesday. And the idea was just to get as many brief testimonies as we could in 1 video. And so the question to every person was the same, what does the cross of Christ mean for you? And we've got a mixture here of the men of band of brothers and the women at the women's bible study and they've got 2 different backgrounds, but the backgrounds aren't the main thing, the words are the main thing.

And and the whole sort of thought behind this is that every 1 of us, like the people in Luke's gospel, every 1 of us, is a reason that the lord Jesus Christ came to die to to do things in our lives by the power of the cross. And so, hopefully, Dan, we can knock the lights off and, turn the volume up, and it might be worth knocking all the lights off actually, if someone knows how to do that, just turn them all off. This is about 6 minutes this video, 6 and a half minutes, but just watch it and enjoy all that the cross has done for us. What does the course of price mean to me? It means that my guilt is being taken away.

Across my salvation from the very bottom of my depths through to victory just like the mighty sign. What's the cross across the Christ mean for me? It means I have meaning. It means I have purpose, and it means about all that I've got peace because god is in control. The 1 that I'm gonna be using.

It's safer for eternity, in health, to eternity, if you have a look at. Coastal Christ is the assurance of isolation. Liberation from an empty way of life. Because it shows me that Jesus love me when I thought no 1 did. Frank will be, but what in my eyes, god is real.

It's true. Everything in the Bible is I think it's it's trimmed. Across of Christ, is there anything that's enabled me to live through this stream of life to be trapped in these, overseas bosses? Amen. The cross was the place where I died, and the place I was reborn.

Because of the grasp of Christ, I have access to god and the same thing. The cost of Christ means to me that my self worth is found in god's love for me and not my own fears. The course of Christ means to me that I don't have to prove myself to gold or anyone else, and I've been brought into god's town. It means I can instead of hating my enemies, I can love them and forgive them. You are loved, the visual.

It means that I don't need to feel guilt or shame, or I do things that would have made me feel guilty or shameful before. I now connect to Jesus' his death, and I know that he's beginning the truth. For me, I am a sinner and the lord is holy, and, it's hard to beat those 2 in the middle, but the cross, the cross of, if I started on, means that, I can be saved. And daily, that means for me that I could keep going back to the lord when I've sinned, I can go back to the 1 who is both the 1 who paid the price and the 1 who is judge. Because of the cross, I have hope, safety, uncertainty that I could find to know where else.

That means the god that created me came down to die for me to save me even though I'm not able to deserve it. Across the Christ means for me now that's I am, now free from the hope of all your sinful desires, pleasures at once, and instead a canal, freely and joyfully live to serve him. Because of the cross, the days I could never afford to pay has been paid in full. It is the opportunity to save ourselves and others and correct our mistake. We wanna make sure that we give good example to others and get opportunities to go to heaven.

It means I'm set free. I love to Sunday, brought to a new family. I know I'm a sinner, but wonderfully on the cross, god substitutes himself for me. Jesus dies in my place. Because in the car, I have renewed hope and can face 4 of my scenarios.

Knowing that, the moral price isn't normal. I've done some really helpful things in my life that people I love. And of course, to me, means that god can forgive me and accept me without having to ignore evil and sweep it under the carpet. The cross of Christ means, hope, hope in this life, because someone's come and sorted out of a mess in this world that nobody else can, but more importantly, hope in the next life, hope that not only will I get to see all my loved ones who have trusted in him before, before me, I'll see them again. I'll see him, and that's a real hope, to, to live by.

It means for me that I was an enemy of god, but he calls me friend. Because of the cross, death has been conquered. Because of the cross of Christ, death is no longer a destructive and it is conquered, and it means, he paid for my sin. Jesus's triumphant over sin and death so that all who trust in him can have life to the full. The cross of Christ is the ultimate act of love.

It's where Jesus died for those agendas of it just finally. The cross Christ means, I have eternal life. Jesus. Because of the cross of Christ and the Christ that Jesus paid for me, I have a certain hope of of life with him. Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, I can be free from the guilt and shame that used to weigh me down and live a purpose of god, through the freedom of Christ.

Everything. I was going 1 way not sure about what the purpose of life for. Jesus died on the cross to bring me to God. I have purpose. Because of the cross of Christ, I no longer have to live for myself, but I can live for him.

You die for be unrisked. Because of the price of price, my things have been paid for. I'm just thinking of him being nailed across, like he can't be as his feet. Yes. That is, because of me, so that process highly personal, and because of him overcoming the cross, I have access to the father.

So it's there's a lot of emotions, but maybe, like, thankfulness and gratitude, and also a joy knowing that, yeah, the relationship with the father of the store, and I have a place at the table, and, and then we'll be going after, this life group. The perfect, sacrificial love. Thank you. Sabrina. So good.

And, The point is these these are all the reasons, that Jesus came to die. This this is why he came. He came so that James Stileman's guilt could be taken away. That was a reason Jesus came to die. He came to give Dave Austin peace and a home in heaven.

That was the reason he came to die. He came to save Paul Simpson and us all from from hell for heaven. That was the reason Jesus came to die. He came to give Levi assurance. That was the reason he came to die.

He came to give James Sadly, liberation, and freedom. He came to show Alex Hurdle how loved he really is. He came to show James that god is real. I love that. Well, god is real.

That's why he came to die. He came to enable ines to live on through tragedy. That's why he came to die. He came to give Rachel Robinson access to god. He came to give Lauren a hope that could not be found anywhere else.

He came to make Simon Zedlowski a joyful servant of god, and he is a joyful servant of god, isn't he? That's the reason that Jesus came to die. He came to pay a debt that Diane could never afford to pay. He came to give Roxanne the strength that she needs for all her tomorrows. He came so that Chris Tilly can see his loved ones again, and better than that can look at the face of Jesus.

He came to conquer death for Heather White and Anna Dennis, These are the reasons that Jesus came to die. Not because each 1 of us is the center of the story, but because the saving work of Jesus Christ reaches into the individual experience and changes the individual and makes a testimony of the individual and brings the individual into this great crowd of redeemed people all for the glory of the lord Jesus Christ. There's that great song back in Revelation 7 that we saw at the beginning All of them are singing in verse 10. Salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And from our perspective, there is only 1 song.

You know, that's the song they're all singing. And yet Jesus knows that in all of their singing, there's some personal gratitude in them. That those words mean something beautiful to each individual who's who's saying them. And that's the same for us when when we sing our songs, Although we all sing the same words, we know that all of our singing is colored by our own experience of the truths that we have come to taste. You know, somebody it was amazing thought someone was to come in tonight and to hear us singing.

They would hear us all singing the same thing, but would not see as Jesus sees what those words actually mean to every single 1 of us. We are a group of redeemed people made up of many, many in redeemed individuals. And I think all of this is, well, not, you know, not only should it produce a sort of personal gratitude in us for the cross, but it does help us evangelistically, doesn't it, to think this way? 1 of the things that we do often here rightly is we we pray for the road, but we remember that a road is not actually a category, really. We don't pray for a road.

We pray for the hundreds of people that make up this road who each have their own stories of suppressing the truth about god and turning away from Christ and have each gone away and each need a personal experience of the lord Jesus Christ. We it helps us evangelistically to remember that that hundreds of thousands in Kingston are hundreds of thousands of individuals who have their own ways and need the lord Jesus Christ. So this is a this is a lovely thing. Reasons Jesus came to die when it's for it's for us. It's for us.

For people, us who make up this this church. What I thought we would do now on our tables, is just to spend spend a minute or 2. I'll I'll I'll pray for us. And then I thought on our tables, we would just you could just pick a person on your table to share their testimony. So if you're new and you don't know people very well, then you don't have to be the 1 to do that.

You can just sit and listen. But you might wanna choose someone on your table. Maybe 1 of those people in the video could just kind of elaborate on the table a little bit more and just share share a testimony. And then after that, you could talk about 1 sort of person that you would love to come to know the lord Jesus Christ. If there's anybody in your life, and it would be appropriate to sort of name them, someone at the school gate or someone in the office, an individual who who you would love to meet the lord Jesus.

Okay? So I'll pray and then we'll take a minute to share some testimonies on our tables. Father, we we, we, thank you for the lord Jesus, and we thank you for all of the members of this church. And, the, how moving that video is. The these are, people who make up our church.

We are not just a crowd. We are we are a people who've been gathered 1 sinner at a time. And, each of us has come by your spirit and kindness to see the glory of the cross. And we thank you that we all are, reasons that you came to die. And we're so grateful for what you've done in our lives.

And, we do pray, yes, for this, roads, but we but the the individuals that make up this road, the ones at number 100, and the ones at number 4, and the ones at number 84, and all these who we don't see, we drive past, but you know what sin and sadness is lurking there, and, you know that these individuals make up needs the lord Jesus Christ. And so please, lord, have have mercy saved. We prayed. The people We have contact with the people we know in our lives, and, we thank you again for the wonder of the cross. In Jesus' name, amen.

So on our tables that share some testimonies, share some people, we'd love to come to know Christ, and then we'll have our last song in a minute.