Sermon 169

📖 Sermon 169 — Why Jesus Came

Date: 12-17-50
Text: Luke 19:10
Preacher: G. S. Kok

INTRODUCTION

Why did the Son of God — almighty, all-sufficient, glorious God — humble Himself to become a servant and even suffer the awful death of the cross?
This is a question that fills our minds.
Jesus Himself answers this question.

SUBJECT: WHY JESUS CAME

I. JESUS HIMSELF ANSWERS THIS QUESTION

A. He is qualified to answer it

1. He planned His own advent.
2. He was fully aware of it even before He came as a Babe.
3. He is the Son of Man — the Messiah.

B. He speaks these words on His last journey to Jerusalem

1. Only a few days remain before His death.
2. That death is the means by which He fulfills His mission.

C. He gives His explanation in connection with Zacchaeus

1. Jesus is passing through Jericho, the home of Zacchaeus the publican.
2. Zacchaeus desires to see Jesus and climbs a tree.
3. Jesus calls him by name and invites Himself to his home.
4. Scribes and Pharisees object because Jesus fellowships with sinners.
5. Jesus explains: His action is exactly in harmony with His mission. He assures them He is doing the very work He came to do.

II. HIS COMING CONCERNS “THAT WHICH WAS LOST” — MAN

A. Not lost things, but lost people

1. In a sense, this includes all mankind.
2. All we like sheep have gone astray.
3. All sinners are lost people — because all people are sinners.
4. Zacchaeus may have been a strayed covenant child who drifted from true religion.

B. What it means to be lost

1. Lost by its owner:
   a. Gone out of the owner’s possession — like a lost coin or a runaway sheep.
   b. The owner misses it.
   c. So we have gone out of God’s possession and have been claimed by another — even Satan.
2. Given over to destruction:
   a. When an unbeliever dies, we say he is lost — eternal destruction.
   b. The lost are on the way to destruction.
   c. Like the lost sheep doomed to die on the mountainside.
   d. Like the prodigal son, away from the Father and facing death.
3. This includes all who do not believe in Christ:
   a. Those still living in sin, doing their own will.
   b. Those who do not repent and believe.
   c. Perhaps some listening to this sermon were still lost — just as Zacchaeus was lost until Jesus came.

III. JESUS CAME “TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST”

A. This does not mean He does not know where they are

1. God knows every individual.
2. Jesus knew where Zacchaeus was — and He had earlier seen Nathanael under the fig tree.

B. What does it mean to seek?

1. To restore sinners to God.
2. Jesus came to rescue sinners from destruction — so they might have eternal life.
3. To liberate them from Satan’s dominion and from sin’s dreadful results.

C. He came to Bethlehem and went to the cross for this purpose

1. He went about teaching and preaching, calling the lost to repentance.
2. He went to the cross to pay the price of redemption.
3. He gave His life to bring them back to God.
4. He does not merely find them and offer salvation — He saves them.

D. He still does this today

1. Most earnestly.
2. Ministers and missionaries are His voice.
3. We may believe He is still seeking tonight.
   Zacchaeus didn’t know Jesus was seeking him — his desire to see Jesus was already the Lord seeking him.

E. This is why believers rejoice

1. Not as the world rejoices.
2. Saved sinners rejoice because Jesus came to seek and to save them.