Jesus was perfect so that you don't have to be

There's a common misconception amongst non christians that people who are Christian are perfect and don't sin.

 

Christian's are judged harshly for making mistakes ie. Swearing or anger, non christians seem to think that somehow we are different to them, and that in no way could they ever be like us because they themselves know that they aren't perfect.

 

It's this stigma that I'd like to have a look a look at and show that Christians are no different to anybody else, we still have a sinful nature and we still sin. We are exactly the same as everyone else, we have the same lusts and temptations, we get angry and upset, the difference is that we understand that we will be forgiven for our sins.

 

However I in no way want to say that because we know we sin that it is all right for us to do so. We still have a responsibility to try not to sin, what I'm hopefully going to show is that when we do undoubtedly sin we will be forgiven.

 

So to do this I'd like for us to look at a few different bible characters. Some more well known characters, and other not so well known characters who came from all sorts of backgrounds and show how God accepts everyone and how nobody other than Jesus was perfect and they all sinned.

 

Then to conclude we'll have a look at Jesus and show that it's through his perfect sacrifice that allows our sins to be forgiven and how in our sinful nature it's our only hope to be saved.

 

The first character that I'd like to have a look at is Zacchaeus the tax collector. We can read what happened to him in Luke 19 v1-10

 

Luk 19:1  He(Jesus) entered Jericho and was passing through.

2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.

3  And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.

4  So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

5  And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today."

6  So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

7  And when they saw it, they all grumbled, "He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."

8  And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold."

9  And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

10  For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

 

 

So here was a man who was a tax collector who met Jesus and then converted to following him. So you might ask why was this such a bad thing, why did the people dislike Zacchaeus so much as we can see in v 7 that they describe him as a sinner.

 

To understand this you really need to have a good appreciation of what was happening in the land of Israel at this time. The Romans had conquered Israel and turned it into one of their provinces. The provinces of Rome had one main purpose, this was to pay tax and support Rome itself. So the Romans set up tax collectors all around the province to collect this tax. However the tax rates weren't readily known and the tax collectors used to collect as much tax as they could, then just send what they had to to Rome and keep the rest for themselves.

 

As you can imagine this didn't make them very popular, think what it would be like if you knew that half of the taxes that you had to pay went to the person taking the taxes off you. This hard earned money which for you could make the difference between feeding your family.

 

So this is why Zacchaeus wasn't a popular man, think how much we nowadays like the tax man. There was a huge uproar when it was discovered about MP's expenses and what they'd been spending money on.

 

So how does Jesus treat him, we can see in v5 he says, to him come on I'm going to come and eat food at your house today. You can imagine how Zacchaeus would've felt, he would have been used to people ignoring him and shunning him. But Jesus saw through all that, and he saw that here was a man who wasn't perfect, he did things that were wrong and lied and cheated but he saw that he needed forgiveness.

 

So in v8 Zacchaeus repents and says that he'll give back anyman that he defrauded 4 times that what he took from him. Zacchaeus repents and decides to start doing what's right now.

 

In v10 Jesus says ‘For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost’ Jesus didn't come to help perfect people, if we were perfect we wouldn't need helping. No he came to help all of us no matter what we've done because nothing that we've done in the past is impossible to be forgiven by God.

 

Well you might say, that's fine but who is Zacchaeus, we never hear of him again after this, there were other people that were much better than him. The people that we're supposed to follow didn't do things like that.

 

Mat 10:2  The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

3  Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

4  Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

 

 

This is a list of the twelve disciples, everybody has heard of the twelve disciple and what does it say in v3, ‘and Matthew the tax collector.’

 

One of Jesus' own disciples was a tax collector, he was one of these lying, cheating people. That was until he realised that he could be forgiven. Until he realised that his past didn't matter and that he wasn't different to anyone else.

 

The next character that I'd like to look at is the apostle Paul. Before we look at what kind of background he came from first I'd like to have a look and see what he ended up doing.

 

Well for starters he wrote about 25% of the new testament. Many of the books in the new testament are letters written by him to the early churches around the Mediterranean. So he was no ordinary person, or was he? What qualified him to write so much of what he did.

 

Well we know that he travelled to most of the early churches. A lot of the books in the new testament are him writing to them reminding them what they ought to be doing.

 

Paul undertook several missionary journeys to visit all of these churches, which in those days was a huge undertaking. He would have had to walk most of the way or travel by ship, which wasn't that safe.

 

Paul took to preaching the word without fear 2 Cor 11 v24-28 shows us what it was that Paul endured to make sure that the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus got out to everybody that he could possibly get it too.

 

2Co 11:24  Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.

25  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;

26  on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;

27  in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

28  And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

 

 

He endured all of this, here is a man worth trying to follow. Surely Paul was a man that none of us can hope to be like. How did he endure all of this? Surely he must have been brought up perfectly, he must be different somehow.

 

Let's go and have a look at what it was Paul was doing before he started preaching the gospel.

 

Acts 8 v1-3 remembering that Paul used to be called Saul until he changed his name

 

Act 8:1  And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

2  Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

3  But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

 

Surely this isn't the same man that we've just looked at, surely it's not the same man who wrote a quarter of the new testament. So where did he come from, well he answers this in Acts 22 v3.

 

Act 22:3  "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

 

So Paul was brought up as a Pharisee one of the strict Jews who followed the law and didn't believe that Jesus was the son of God. Instead they believed that they were still waiting for their saviour and that they should be following the old law of the Old Testament.

 

So Paul being brought up like this, what does he do, he goes and persecutes all of the Jews that believe in Jesus as the Messiah. He drags them out of their houses and throws many of them in prison, a lot of them would've been put to death.

 

He went around killing Christian's! He split them from their families, he forced them to scatter around the country, to hide themselves to only meet in secret. This is the person that wrote a quarter of the new testament, a murderer. Paul wasn't perfect not by a long shot, but do you know what he did, he learnt from his mistakes in the past and used them as a means of preaching.

 

Galatians 1 v13 to the end

 

Gal 1:13  For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

14  And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

15  But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

16  was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;

17  nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

19  But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.

20  (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)

21  Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

22  And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

23  They only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."

24  And they glorified God because of me.

 

 

He used his own conversion to preach to others, he showed that if he could change anybody could, and this still applies today.

 

How many of us have rounded people to have them killed? Or forced people in to hiding? Or made them fear us that they would run for their lives when they saw us?

 

There is very little worse than what Paul did, so if Paul can be forgiven, why can't we?

 

So we've looked at how we aren't perfect and how nobody was perfect. Nobody that is accept Jesus, so now I want to look and show you how because Jesus was perfect it's through his sacrifice that we can be forgiven.

 

So we as Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and that he died and was raised again three days later and is now with his father in heaven waiting to return again one day.

 

He was born through his human mother Mary which made him human. But because he was God's son he was born with the ability to commit no sin, something which no other human has ever managed.

 

Some churches would have you believe that there are modern day saints who commit no sin, but the wages of sin are death, and we all die.

 

So how is it through Jesus' death we can be saved and forgiven.

 

To find the answer to this we need to look at Paul's letter to the Romans and chapter 6

 

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

 

Baptism is the key, baptism and belief, when we are baptised it is symbolic of Jesus' dying

 

Rom 6:4  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

 

So when we get baptised we unite ourselves with Christ. Because he didn't sin, because he was perfect, death couldn't take him. Now we have the chance through baptism to join him in beating death. Because he sacrificed himself and allowed himself to die we now have the chance to gain everlasting life in the kingdom through his sacrifice.

 

Rom 6:6  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7  For one who has died has been set free from sin.

8  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has     dominion over him.

10  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

13  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

14  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

 

Grace is the answer to a lot of the questions, it's through God's grace that we can be saved. If we believe on him and do out best he will always forgive us no matter what we have done.

 

Ephesians 2 talks more about grace.

 

Eph 2:1  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--

3  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

 

Because we all sin we will all die and there's nothing that we can do about it on our own

 

4  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--

6  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

So there is nothing that we can do, we can't earn ourselves a place in the kingdom. It's only through God's grace and mercy that we can be saved.

 

We are allowed to make mistakes as long as we ask forgiveness and repent. Faith, love and humility are most important, not being right in everything.

 

We can look back on all these things that happened to people and learn from them ourselves. We can see how we don't have to be perfect, God will forgive any of us.

 

We can all turn to God, he will accept everyone of us no matter what we've done. It doesn't matter that from time to time you will make mistakes, that you will do things wrong. If we were perfect we wouldn't need saving, but that's the point none of us are. But thanks to Jesus' sacrifice and God's grace that doesn't matter, we can all still be saved.

 

As Jesus said,

 

Luk 12:32  "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.