Matthew 1.18-21


For the last several weeks we've been looking at Jesus' Advent – His coming
to our world. I've done that to help you prepare for your celebration of
that Advent. Today, we do the same from still another perspective. Today,
we're going back to what is basic. Jesus came to save you from your sins. It
is so important to keep this in the forefront of your minds because this
basic truth provides the context for so much else. This truth is
foundational to things like your worship of God, your sense of worth as a
person, your motive for holy living and it's a starting point for
understanding others. So, it is good that I remind you of it. We never get
beyond the Gospel. Never. So, let's take another look at this which lies at
the heart of the Gospel. Jesus came to save you from your sins. I'd like to
do this from three vantage points. Jesus has come to save you from the
penalty, the power and the presence of sin. [The fact that they all start
with a 'p' must mean that I got this structure from a Baptist preacher.]

Our church, along with every other church, has a liturgy – a way of doing
worship together. Part of our liturgy is a reading of God's Law followed by
our prayer of confession. There are reasons why we do this. One of them is
as a reminder. It is to remind each of us that we are sinners. We are
sinners not in just some generic sense. When you say it that way the punch
of the thought is lost. We do not sin in some vague, generic sense. We sin
in specific ways, against specific laws that God has given us. We are that
kind of sinner. Since we sin specifically we confess specifically. The hope
is that as we do this, we all see again that we sinners deserve God's
justice. Our sins, those specific attitudes and their fruit, earn us God's
anger. But as we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness we are reminded –
again – that Jesus has come. He has come to save us. He has come to endure
God's anger for us. But we need to keep very clear what that means.
Experiencing God's angry justice includes things like being completely
banished from His blessed presence, residing instead in a place described as
complete darkness where there will be deep anguish of soul, a place of
torment, a place described as a lake of fire. And all of this is not just
for time but for eternity. That is the justice of God. That is hell. We
cannot imagine what it would be like to endure that even for one hour, let
alone an eternity. Jesus has come to rescue you from that. And He did that
by suffering all of that Himself. That is what the cross is about. Jesus
suffered the justice of God due you and in this way saved you from the
penalty of your sin. This is what the angel was talking about when he spoke
the words of our text to Joseph. This is the Gospel. This is what our
celebration is to be about.

Let's move on. Jesus also came to save you from the power of your sin. The
key here is to understand that sin has to power to make slaves of people.
Listen to Jesus. 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a
slave to sin.' [John 8:34] The language of slavery may sound extreme, but it
is so accurate. Consider the person who is not a Christian. He has the same
array of choices before him that you do. But, because of his slavery, his
only real options are sinful ones. The opportunity to do right lies before
him, but he will never choose it. For him, there isn't even the option of
not sinning. This isn't because of something outside of him forcing him to
act in a certain way. He is a slave of his sin, and he willingly submits to
it. So, for him it is simply a matter of sinning either in this way or
sinning in some other way. There may be better or worse sins for him to
choose from, but his choices always boil down to sin. Imagine a life where
whatever decision you have to make, you will always choose to sin. You will
always think, feel and act in a way that rebels against and offends the God
who created you and before whom you will one day stand. And imagine a life
that reaps all the consequences of those sinful choices, consequences that
build up over time, creating quite a burden. And so, what is the result of
this? A life that is in a downward spiral. For some the descent is quite
rapid, and life falls apart rather quickly. But for others the descent
proceeds more slowly, and the fruit of sinful choices and their consequences
are less noticeable, at least at first. But over time the sinful choices and
their consequences pile up and become harder to conceal and harder to
ignore. And the strength of that slavery becomes stronger and stronger and
stronger. This downward spiral can be quite subtle – or not. And you know
people in both categories. There are those whose lives are an obvious wreck
or clearly on their way to that destination. And then there are those whose
lives still can hide the slavery and its fruit – but it's there. Imagine
being such a slave, either with a tattered life or the one that gives the
lie that all is well. Imagine what it must be like for the slavery to show
more and more of its ugly fruit in your life. Imagine such a life. Jesus has
come to save you from that. He has come to rescue you from the power of sin
to enslave you and to destroy you.

Let me anticipate a question here. Some of you might be thinking, 'But I
still sin. How has Jesus saved me from the power of sin if I still sin.' He
has broken sin's power in this way. You, now, have a real choice. You can
choose to do what is right. They are slaves. They will never choose what is
right. But you have been freed from that. You can choose what is right –
and you do choose what is right. Think back over the years. There are sins
that once held you in their grip. You might have even thought that you would
never be rid of them. But you are. Their controlling power over you is gone.
Jesus did that. And that gives great hope right now as you think about sins
that currently hold you in their grip. Can you be rid of them? Will they
also become sins that you can look back on, instead of still wrestle with?
Yes! Absolutely! Jesus has come to save you from the power of sin. And so
there is a spiral in your life also, but it is a different kind of spiral.
While the spiral of the unbeliever is moving ever downward, you are
spiraling ever upward. He is moving further and further away from God and
closer to death. But you are moving closer and closer to your God, closer
and closer to the full enjoyment of life. You enjoy this spiral because
Jesus has come. He has come to save you from the power of sin.

Then there is the last 'p'. Jesus has come to save you from the presence of
sin. This was driven home to me recently as I was reading something by
Pastor John Piper. He was actually in the middle of a bit of a debate with
someone about the resurrection of the body. And in the midst of that he
writes what is an incidental comment, included in parentheses, in fact. He's
making the point that for us Christians death is gain. He writes a list of
reasons why this is so. Here is his second reason, with its incidental
parenthetical phrase. 'We will be sinless (O precious thought!)' When I
first read that little parenthetical phrase, I started to cry. When I was
writing this part of the sermon I cried. Don't you just get tired of
sinning? I do. Every time I sin, it is a failure. It is a failure to love. I
am weary of that. Don't you get tired of doing things that hurt the people
you love? Yes, you go and ask for forgiveness, and they graciously forgive
you, but you remember that look of pain in their faces, pain because of your
sin. And don't you get tired of the whole cycle? The Spirit is so very
gentle as He points out my sin. But, so often, I just dump on myself. 'What
in the world is the matter with you?!? Why did you do that – again? What is
wrong with you?' At some point I take myself in hand and tell myself to stop
the recriminations. They aren't necessary. 'Remember the Gospel', I tell
myself. So, I come to the Father – again – and ask for forgiveness. But even
as I am repenting of my sins before God, I find that I am sliding once again
into beating myself up for being so stupid, actually so sinful, until I
catch myself again. I tell myself that I am forgiven and that I can rejoice
in that. And I do – until the Spirit once again gently points out my sin. I
am weary of all of that. Aren't you? But then I think: one day I'll never
sin again. Never. That's when I start to cry. I have no idea what that will
be like or feel like. My life is filled with so much sin now it's hard to
imagine what it would be to live without it. But whatever it will be like, I
think that I'll enjoy it quite a bit. Actually, I'm very sure I'll enjoy
that quite a lot. What a glorious hope! Jesus has come to save us from the
very presence of sin. O Precious Thought!

Now, this is why Advent is so special. I must admit that I find myself
getting very angry as I hear one retailer after another telling me what the
perfect stocking stuffer is. For them, this is just another excuse to sell
stuff and make sure the year ends in the black. What garbage! But then I
remind myself that they're just talking about some federal holiday. It has
nothing to do with Advent. Jesus has come!! Advent is the time to rejoice
and to celebrate. But remember why we rejoice. Jesus has come to save us
from our sin. That is worthy of celebration. 'It will be said on that day,
"Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his
salvation."' [Isaiah 25:9]