7 Reasons Christ Came the First Time

Have you ever wondered this? Why does Christ have to come twice? Think about all the ways that God could have developed his plan. You think about, since Christ's first coming into his second coming, how horrible it is for humanity. And how horrible it is with the tribulation and all those things right before he comes back.

So why didn't he just have Christ come one time? And you know, the apostles asked that question, basically. Because after he was resurrected, when he ascended there, that last ascension, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom? This is it, right? This is when you now, because you've come, you died, you were resurrected, it's time to establish the kingdom. And he basically said, nope, goodbye, and he went away. And they must be thinking, I can't imagine the shock. No, he was supposed to come, establish the kingdom. We understand now he had to come and die for sins, but where did he go? And you see Paul wrestle with the idea that he thought Jesus Christ was coming back in his lifetime.

You know, we have the book of Revelation. Remember, none of the people, except the apostle John, none of those apostles had Revelation. There's all kinds of information we get from there. They did not have. You and I actually understand more information about the return of Jesus Christ because of Revelation than Peter or Paul would have in their lifetime because they didn't have it. Because John says, he revealed this to me. This wasn't something that had been revealed before in all of his details.

So you would have never heard a sermon by James on the four horsemen of the apocalypse. They didn't know anything about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. So suddenly, there's all this information about Christ's second coming that's given at the end of the century. The end of when people were dying off who had known Jesus.

The church was now made up of people in second and third generation. And new people had come in that had never known the apostles. And suddenly, they're getting this revelation about his second coming. What I want to do today is two Bible studies since we have a sermon time and a Bible study time. So we're going to be going through scriptures you all know very well.

These are scriptures you've heard many times. But what I want to do is show first of all, and this is what I want to do this morning in the sermon, seven reasons why Christ came the first time. Seven reasons why he came the first time. And then in the Bible study, we're going to go through seven reasons why he came the second time.

The continuity between these first and second comings reveals to us the entire plan of God. This is what God is doing. That's what's interesting about the Holy Days. All the Holy Days are about the first and second comings of Jesus Christ, basically. So by putting them together, we see the continuity of what God is doing. We also understand something very important for those who live between these two great events of salvation history. These two great events. You and I live in between them. It's a really interesting time to live.

And as we live in between these two great events, as we understand why there's the first coming, and why there's the second coming, and how they relate to each other. Because what we're going to find is, in Christ's first coming, God initiates a whole set of things he's doing. Things that were prophesied in the Old Testament, and he initiates them. At his second coming, he takes them and begins to complete them.

So there's an initiation of things, and then he begins to complete things. The completion actually isn't finished until the great white throne judgment, and that's over. The Father comes to earth. And we read about the last part of Revelation. So as we put these together, we begin to see Christ work in our lives, personally. There's something very important about us today as we live between these two events, and how this, what God is doing involves us in what Christ is doing in our lives.

So we'll put all this together. First coming, second coming, and what that means for us who live in between, and how it is supposed to affect our lives. So let's start with the first reason. And once again, as I say these, you're going to say, yeah, I know that. But it's putting them all together I think that's important. So there's no great new revelation today.

There's just stuff we know, but it's putting it together how they connect. It's like pieces of a puzzle. The first reason Christ came was to redeem mankind from the death penalty that we have incurred because of sin. To redeem us from a penalty that we can't free ourselves from. That's what the word redeem means. That we cannot buy out of.

And he came to redeem us to God so that we can now have a relationship with God. So that we don't have to suffer eternal death. One of the most interesting passages about this is in Romans. I'm not going to go through every detail in Romans 5 here. I just want to get the overview of what he's saying. It's interesting, Romans 5 is used to promote the doctrine of original sin that is very strong in Catholicism and in Lutheranism and the reform churches that were started by John Calvary. Original sin leads you to a very interesting conclusion. Like I said, I'm not going to go through all the explanations of original sin here, but I just want to mention it because this is the main passage.

Original sin leads you to a conclusion that every human being is at conception so evil that God in his wrath condemns you to hellfire. This is why Lutherans and Catholics practice infant baptism. If you don't baptize the baby and they die, they go to hell when they're tortured forever. Original sin, because you're conceived in sin, you now automatically receive this death penalty from God. Now, death is part of what happens to every human being. We'll see that. But what they mean is eternal death penalty. God now looks down over all humankind and arbitrarily, as far as we know, because we can't figure out why he does it, he picks a handful of people to save and sends everybody else to hell.

So the purpose of humanity is to send most of us to hell. Now, the Catholics have modified that, even the some, because they started to realize that really doesn't make sense. They believed it all during the Middle Ages. Even the Lutherans have started to modify that. It's the Calvinists that won't. The Calvinists say, no. God made us, predestined us to sin, and predestined almost all humanity to hell.

But he saved a few of us to show how wonderful he is. And since I'm one of the saved, I'm just... Isn't God wonderful? You? You go to hell because you deserve it. And that's their viewpoint. That's the basis of their teaching. It's interesting that Reformed theology is dying out because that's a harsh thing to believe, but there's still churches out there that believe that.

Anybody come from a Calvinist background here? Did you believe that? Sort of? One time, yeah. It's a problem, isn't it? There's a real problem with it that God just condemned everybody to hell, and then he saves a few. And you don't know if you're the saved or not until you get there. Then maybe you get there, maybe you don't. So, anyways, that's not what he's saying here.

So that's not what he's saying. Let's look at what he is saying. Verse 12. Therefore, justice through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. This doesn't mean we all, through conception, are sinners. What it means is when Adam sinned, he was now cut off from God, and death became the result of that, and death is passed on from human being to the human being.

All of Adam's children, when they were born, they were going to die. Sin was something they did themselves because they were cut off from God. And Satan is the God of the world. And we're going to talk about that in a minute, too. If Satan's the God of the world, they're cut off from God, and everybody has death in them, guess what everybody does? You sin. So we don't go...we're not receiving eternal punishment because of Adam's sin.

It's our own that we received eternal punishment. Those who do, receive it from. For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law. That's a very interesting statement. In other words, people didn't know about the law of God, most people, until the law was given to Moses.

Now we know Abraham did, you know why? It says in Genesis, Abraham obeyed the laws of God. But the average person didn't know anything about the law of God. They said, but they still died, didn't they? Even though they didn't know what was killing them. They didn't know what the law said, but they died anyways. He says, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. Even are those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who's the type of him who has to come. So even he says here, well, there are people that didn't sin like Adam, so that sort of makes original sin a problem.

But they still die. Everybody dies. Death entered into human beings. No human being can make themselves live forever. You know, there are a lot of very rich people today. They're spending billions of dollars trying to figure out how to create robots so that they can transfer their consciousness into robots. I mean, there's a huge industry out there trying to create that.

Like that's even possible, but they believe it's possible. They can transfer their consciousness into this robot that will live 500 years, but will go on forever because when the arm wears out, they just screw the arm off and put a new one on. And there's a huge industry trying to create that, and there's a lot of people spending a lot of money giving money to these companies trying to develop that. No, we die. We can't get out of that. We can't get out of the fact that we sin entered into humanity when Adam sinned.

He got kicked out of the garden, and he and Eve had to leave, and we're all cut off from God. Satan's deceived us. We all sin. We all die. He says, but the free gift, this is verse 15, is not like the offense, for if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. In other words, he became a man, this is first coming, so that the death penalty doesn't have to be eternal. We may die physically, but the death penalty doesn't have to be eternal, because unless God does something, all of us are going to die forever.

All of us. And physical death is something everybody faces, except those who have to be saints right at the time Christ returns and says they're changed immediately. That's still a type of death. He says, Therefore, as though one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Through Jesus Christ, we are redeemed from death. That's the first reason he came. You put that at the top of the list. It is to save humanity from something we can't save ourselves from, that we...it's part of the human condition ever since humanity got kicked out of Eden.

It's where we are. It's where humanity's been generation after generation. Christ came to stop that cycle and give humanity an opportunity for eternal life. That's the first reason. He came to redeem humanity back from the death penalty that we have received because of sin.

So you can look back at that first coming. Now what does that mean to us who live between those two comings? Well, first of all, for us who live between the two comings, if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, which we celebrate at every Passover, then we see Him as Savior. We actually see Him as Savior. Our relationship to God with our sin is we go before God and we are justified.

We have a relationship with Him because we recognize, I am here because of this sacrifice for me. I am here because He took my penalty, so I'm allowed to come before you, be a child of God, and receive eternal life. So we recognize and relate to Jesus Christ as Savior if we understand this coming. Now the second reason for the return of the first coming of Jesus Christ is in 1 Corinthians 15. Now there's a little different phrase that's used in Romans that I think really adds something to this statement that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15. Let's read this first.

Now a lot of times I like to take a passage and break it down and go through the long path. We'll be jumping around here because I'm just pulling out these major statements. You can't read Romans 5. You come to the conclusion, oh yeah, He became a man. In other words, He had to come as a man the first time. It was God's plan. He becomes a man to take the penalty for humanity. He becomes human to take the penalty for humanity. And then returns so that we...well, we'll get into this in a minute, so there's something that can happen to us. 1 Corinthians 15, 20. But now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since my man came death... talking about Adam again... My man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ and His coming. It's interesting, in Romans, he says somewhat the same thing, but he calls him the firstborn.

So we can say he came to be the firstfruits, and that's a nice sort of agricultural analogy. But the firstborn is a very real concept. So Jesus came to die and be resurrected as the firstborn of how humanity comes into the kingdom of God, into the family of God. There will be many, many, many born into that kingdom, and he's the first. He shows the way that this happens. We're lost in sin. We can't get out of this because we're lost in death. I mean, you and I, if we can say, you know, there's this argument that comes up. People say, well, you know, if I just had a chance, I could keep all the commandments and do all good on my own. So, yeah, save yourself. I don't know, where would you go to do that? So, okay, we need him as a savior. Now we start to see, okay, he is... He shows us a way. He is the firstborn. He's the first one to die as a human being and be resurrected.

And be back with his father in his eternal life. He precedes others. So he came to die and be resurrected to be the firstborn. There has to be others to follow him because they're born, too.

So how does that relate to us today? Well, if we recognize him as savior, we also relate to him then as the firstborn because he perceives us in showing us how to go into eternal life. Even death, we realize, is at the end. We realize his death and resurrection, we can follow that. Our own death and resurrection is following him. Our own death and resurrection is following him so that he's the firstborn of many brothers.

So now we relate to him as this firstborn that we can relate to that we follow. So he's savior, he's firstborn. He had to come as a human being to do that, didn't he? He couldn't come as conquering king and do those two things.

When he comes the second time, he doesn't come for exactly the same reason because he comes as conquering king. Conquering king doesn't die as savior, and conquering king isn't the firstborn to show how eternal life comes to us. 3. This is going to be interesting when we get into the Bible study after the potluck on not just why, or his second coming, because these are all tied together. Christ came to defeat Satan. Satan is the ruler of the world.

Adam wasn't kicked out of Eden and then became the ruler of the world. Adam would have been the ruler of the world, but he didn't follow God. So Satan became the ruler of the world.

Hebrews 2. We're going to go to Hebrews a number of times here today. Like I said, we're jumping around some, but I think you have to put these points together. You see what God did with Christ's first coming, but you also see how that relates to. How do we relate to not only Christ, but to the Father through these things?

Hebrews 2.

And verse 14. Once again, this was read around Passover time this year. It is much then, as the children, the purpose of humanity made in the image of God is to become the children of God. It is much then, as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise, the subject here, if you read chapter 2 of Jesus Christ, He Himself likewise shared in the same that through death, so He had to become as a human being to die, that through death He might destroy Him, who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their life-time subject of bondage. So, death came into the human experience because of Adam. As well, Adam's you sinned, you and your wife, she sinned, you're getting kicked out of Eden, you're going to die. He said they would die. Guess what? Your children are going to die. Death is now part of everybody's experience. But here He places the blame, really, on the one who caused Adam to sin. He says really death comes through, Satan.

He says, and release those who fear of death for all their life-time subject to bondage. Physical life is so limiting to us in a way that it wasn't to Adam and Eve. Without sin, their physical life was a lot more freer than ours. They didn't have anxiety, they didn't have depression, they had no conflict with each other or with God. I mean, before sin, their lives were perfect, even physically. They never got sick, right? It was a good life. Sin entered in, and they started to die just like God told them they would. And they would get sick, and they would feel bad, and they would get old. And bad things would happen as one of their sons murdered another son.

He says for a deed, this is verse 16, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. That's very interesting because Jesus Christ is called in the Old Testament, and it is used by Paul in the New Testament, the seed of Abraham, and this context is Christ. And then eventually all of humanity, because all humanity become the seed of Abraham. There's the physical seed of Abraham, and then there's the spiritual seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, like us. Not just like us, like, oh, well, I've got to go down there because of all those worthless scum that have already been condemned to hell. He became like his... That's a very important statement.

He became like his brethren. This is the purpose of God.

No, we were very rebellious wayward, brethren, but we were his brethren.

That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for that he himself has suffered, being tempted. He's able to aid those who are tempted. So this is an amazing passenger. He had to become flesh so that he could help us, so that Christ could say, yes, I know what that's like. So, boy, you don't know what it's like. He says, I don't? I mean, just fill in the blank. You don't know what it's like, God, to have rotten neighbors. Oh, yeah, I do. Christ says, I do. You know what it's like to do that. I do. I do.

I did this for you. So he came as our Savior, but he comes here for this purpose to defeat Satan, so that my brethren can be released from the bondage that they're in. We do. We observe that, celebrate that every year at the Days of Unleavened Bread, don't we? Oh, we've already talked about the Passover Days of Unleavened Bread. But here we see another reason why he had to come physically to defeat Satan. Now, he defeated him, but Satan was not removed yet, was he?

When Jesus ascended back to heaven, Satan's still the God of the world.

The plan's not done yet.

See, I could see the item in one of the apostles saying, when does Satan get defeated here? You said you defeated him, but the Roman Empire still rules. Nothing much has changed.

And he just disappears.

So he came to defeat Satan. Fourth reason.

Christ came to initiate the new covenant.

It's interesting, when I started to write this out in the first half, Jesus came to do this, Jesus came to do this, and it wasn't on purpose. And I look at the second half, as Christ comes to do this, Christ comes to do this, because he comes as this man. The second time, he doesn't come as a man. I mean, Christ is just a title, but you understand. He came the first time as Jesus. The second time, he comes back as Jesus Christ. He comes back as the King of Kings. To complete this work he started. He came to initiate the new covenant. That's what he told the disciples on Passover. Take this bread, take this wine, this is the new covenant. The Old Testament prophesied a new covenant. That the covenant God had made with Abraham was going to be expanded to other people. The covenant God made with Israel was with a physical nation, and certain elements had to be kept, but there was going to be a change in it.

What's interesting is in Hebrews 8, over a few pages here, in Hebrews 8, we have the longest quote in the New Testament of an Old Testament passage. The longest quote in the New Testament of an Old Testament passage. Let's start here in verse 6. Once again, the subject here is Christ as High Priest. He's the High Priest. For now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, as much as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, there was a problem. Ancient Israel failed in their covenant, and God knew they would fail in their covenant. He prophesied they would fail in their covenant. Why? And this gets into the fact that we don't just commit sins, but sin becomes part of us. So we can keep the law, but we have to deal with the inner man, too. He says, so the writer of Hebrew says, and now he's going to quote from Jeremiah. And here's this long quote, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, in the day which I took them by the hand, to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And none of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brothers say, no, the Lord. For all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. And that's a long quote. And here's the quote, no more, and that's a long quote. And then verse 13, he makes a comment here, and then he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. So here we have the writer of Hebrews say, the new covenant is happening now. Jesus said that at the Passover, when he did that with his disciples. Well, we find the Apostle Paul expanding upon this, saying, you know what? The new covenant isn't just for Judah and Israel, it's for everybody. And Gentiles were now coming to the church. People were not Jews, were coming into the church. Large numbers. And he says, yes, you can be part of the new covenant too.

He came to institute this new covenant.

And in this new covenant, he is acting as the high priest of this covenant.

Now that's a very interesting concept, because in the Old Testament, the physical high priest interceded for the people. He brought a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement into the Holy Sanctuary. If that wasn't accepted by God, that meant he rejected all of Israel.

If he went in and he was rejected by God, he didn't come out. It meant he would die. Now there's no cases we know of where a high priest died going in there. But it was a concern. So he goes in and he presents on the mercy seat, which represented the throne of God. He brings in this sacrifice. God accepts it.

Jesus Christ is a unique high priest, as it says in Hebrews, because he doesn't bring an animal sacrifice. He brought himself and said, I am the sacrifice.

And so we had this idea, this realization. He started a new covenant. He instituted something that was new, has elements of the old. But the old covenant did not present. Those animals could not bring salvation to people. They only brought them justification. They were allowed to go have a relationship with God in a limited way. It did not offer them salvation. This sacrifice and this high priest brings us salvation. Hebrews 4.

Once again, it's sort of a shotgun. We're using all these different ideas of bringing them together. But if you write down these scriptures and you write down these points, you get to see, oh, wait a minute. These all pieces fit together. And there's all kinds of scriptures in the Old and New Testament that now fit together around Christ's first coming.

He says in verse 14, seeing then, now this is how now this idea of a new covenant, Jesus' sacrifice being offered which is himself and him acting as high priest, this is now how this affects us. 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, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore, this is the privilege you and I have, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You and I can come boldly before the throne of God, not in arrogance, that's not what it means. But we can know that we are allowed to come, we are welcome to come, because Jesus Christ there is the high priest, and we can go there not only to receive forgiveness, but to receive help.

To receive help. You are under a new covenant. And in that new covenant, you have a high priest. I have a high priest. Wow! We start to look, okay, I see him as Savior. I see him as Firstborn. You start to see all these ways that you understand him. Now you relate to him as high priest.

He makes it possible for us to go before God the Father, and have a relationship with Him. So He came to initiate this new covenant.

For us today, between the two events, that means we get to see Him and understand Him as high priest. Fifth reason.

Because of the new covenant, Jesus came to establish the new covenant church.

He came to establish a church, a group of people. He said, I'm going to call you together, and you will be my disciples. He did not say He came the first time to convert the whole world.

He did say, I have come to call together people to create a church, or a chalice, a group of called out people, an assembly of people. I'm creating an assembly of people. In fact, He even says, it would never be the majority of people on earth.

So He didn't come the first time to establish God's kingdom on earth.

He did come to pull together a group of people that He would rule over, called the church.

Ancient Israel was supposed to represent God as a physical nation.

In Matthew 16, Jesus said, I am going to create a church. He told the disciples that. He told them that.

But this group is a spiritual group. It doesn't depend on whether you are born in Israelite. That has nothing to do with it. These people are called together to be the spiritual representatives of God, to all nations.

He said, well that's okay. He came to create a church. We all know that. There is nothing here I have mentioned that is new. But how do I relate to Christ as the one who founded the church?

That question came up in the New Testament. Colossians. Colossians 1.

And verse 15.

The context here of this whole first chapter is Jesus Christ. So the He hears is Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. We'll get back to the firstborn concept.

For by Him all things were created. So this doesn't mean, oh well, Jesus was created. That firstborn doesn't mean He was the first created thing. It means that He was the first born through a resurrection. But He is the Creator. God created all things through Him. For by Him all things were created that are in the heaven, that are in the earth, that are visible in the earth. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things consist. That literally means all things are sustained by Him. I don't know how you can get a more clear pronouncement of Jesus' divinity.

He created all things and He makes all things exist.

And then the next chapter is verse 16. He created all things and He makes all things exist.

But now verse 18. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead. Now once again we understand what firstborn known. He is the firstborn from the dead. And in all things He may have the preeminence. We are to keep Jesus Christ firmly in our minds as the head of the church. I guarantee you when you do that, all the other problems that happen in church, there's always problems. There's problems within the congregation. There's problems within families. There's problems within organizations. There's problems between different organizations. There's all these problems. And many people just give up.

Because, you know, being in a congregation long enough, and you're going to have some problem with somebody. Some conflict or something.

But if Christ is seen as the head of the church, He's the one in charge. And you also see Him as Savior, firstborn, an older brother, all these other things.

These other things aren't that important.

Christ will take care of them. You give it to Him. You go to God and say, Father, I give this to Your Son. I give it to the high priest. I give it to the head of the church. And I will trust that He will now take care.

We give these things. He came to establish the church. Now, sometimes you can't do that if there's heretics involved. You've got to make a stand against heretics because we're told to do that. But you understand what I'm saying. If you make a stand against heretics, it's because Christ is the head of the church, and they're teaching against something Christ taught, so you've got to make a stand. But once again, who's the focal point here? Preeminence. God says He's in charge of the church. He takes care of it. He runs it.

So He came to establish this church. You and I live in between the two events, so we live under Christ's guidance in the church. The sixth reason.

Christ came to leave His followers an example of how to live.

He didn't come just to die for us. He came to show this is how this works as a human being. 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2.

And verse 21.

For to this you were called, so this is your calling, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was the seat found in His mouth. But when He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously, who Himself bore our sins. Now see how all these things are getting mixed together. All these reasons now are getting mixed together into Christ having to come as a human being. Who in His own body, bore our sins on His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. By whose stripes you were healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls. Not only this is an example, we are told... Now this is the comeback all through the New Testament. That because of God's Holy Spirit, Christ literally lives in us. So, here's this example we say, I can't live by that example. So it says the mind of Christ is developed in us. Through God's Spirit, we are developed to be literally brethren of Jesus. We are literally become like Him.

His example becomes us. Not just because we are looking at the external example, but because the example is being developed internally in us. Inside us, Christ is being developed. We have this marked family resemblance.

Oh! So that Jesus, He's your brother, huh?

Thought so. You sort of look like Him.

So there's this development of this example. He came to give us the example through the Holy Spirit, He lives in us. So that's a whole other concept. How He lives in us... We wouldn't have time for it, but He lives in us to develop in us His mind.

So that we become like Him. He became like us so that we can become like Him.

You know, you don't hear that in modern Christianity. Except in one place.

Eastern Orthodox churches.

The Greek Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox. They have a major doctrine that they excommunicated the Catholics over. There are a couple of things that they excommunicated each other over. But one was the belief that Jesus became like us so that we become like Him. And they will say, it is the purpose of humanity to become gods. Not be God, but little gods. It is the purpose of humanity to become like God in this limited way. Because Jesus Christ has developed in us.

Yeah, they got it right. They got it right. Got excommunicated over it, but they got it right. It's called the Doctrine of Deification.

So, He showed us the example and He developed that example in us. And then the last point.

This is in Matthew 11. Let's go there. I know we've been going through the series on the Hebrew 6 basic doctrines, but I thought we'd take a little break. Next week we'll do resurrections, and then two weeks after that we'll do eternal judgments. But I thought we'd take a little break because it takes two periods to do this. One sermon and one Bible study and put this together. Matthew 11, verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes. So, He says, thank you God that what I'm preaching is only understood by these, well, let's see, a fisherman, a tax collector. These aren't important people in society. And I thank you for that.

He said, even so, Father, it seemed good in Your sight, and all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. And this is the next statement, it's very interesting. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. You and I know God through Jesus Christ. He came to reveal God. Now, that doesn't mean God wasn't known in the Old Testament, but He wasn't known to the extent that we understand because of Jesus Christ. He came to, He says, I reveal the Father to who I choose to reveal the Father to. Interesting, there's another place, He basically says, and the Father reveals me to people He wills to reveal. In other words, we're working together here, revealing ourselves to other people, to human beings. We understand the Father deeper because of Jesus Christ.

He wants us to understand His Father. That's why He said, in spite of, remember, He's divine. When you pray, you will not pray directly to me. You will pray directly to the Father, and you will pray in my name.

I'm bringing you to Him. He really stresses this. I am bringing you to Him. That's my job. That's what I'm doing here.

So He came to reveal the Father. And when you put the New Testament together, everything in the New Testament is about, I'm here to take you there. You don't really know God. You think you do. So I'm here to take you to God. I came here to be like you in this sticky, messy place.

I came here to be like you so I can take you to Him. Isn't that remarkable? I came here so I could take you to Him. Because you're not going to get it otherwise. And you sure don't have the right to go to God because...

you're all sinners and you're all dying. And you have no way to get out of it.

What this shows is the remarkable love of God.

And the value He puts on human beings. So that gets us through seven reasons why Christ came the first time. Why Jesus came. Why He became flesh. What I want to do in the Bible study, then, is go through seven reasons why He came the second time. And show you how they fit together. We're doing two Bible studies. I mean, this is not exactly a sermon. It's more of a Bible study. But we're going to do two Bible studies so that we can show how these things fit together. And in doing so, understand what God is doing in our lives today.