girls, and all of us. We've been thinking
about some of the interesting facts concerning the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ and over the past few weeks we've reminded
ourselves that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was promised,
that it was miraculous, that it was witnessed, And this morning
I want us to think about the fact that the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ was purposeful. He came on a mission. He came
with purpose. There is a beautiful passage
in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, which is often
quoted at this time of year, and rightly so. I want to just
read it to you. It shows how much the Old Testament
prophets understood about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was a lot. They understood
a lot, although they only saw brief glimpses. When we look
back, which is always the case, it's always easier to understand
these things on reflection. But when we look back, they saw
glimpses of wonderful things about the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. From that Old Testament to the
New Testament, there was a continuous and consistent revelation of
God's grace and mercy. Here is what Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 9. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. It's a lovely, lovely couple
of verses. And I think that despite all
of the great names that the Lord Jesus Christ has given here in
these verses, and we have thought of them in the past and we will
think of them again, what I want to mention to you specifically
this morning is that little phrase which says, the government shall
be upon his shoulder. Now I'm not making any comment
about the American government in particular because what I
do know from coming from across the Atlantic is that it doesn't
matter what country you're in, invariably the governments of
this world are in a mess. But here is a government that
is worth thinking about. Here is a government that is
worth being concerned about. Here is the government of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of His people and in the life
of the church, in His rule over the whole world. The government
shall be upon His shoulder. It's a delightful picture. Think
about the Lord Jesus Christ shouldering the responsibility of the well-being
of his people. And that's what Isaiah saw. When Isaiah was talking about
the child being born and the son being given, he says explicitly
that the management, the government of all the needs of his people
shall rest upon the shoulder of their saviour. their Deliverer
and their Redeemer. And it's the management of that
covenant of grace that was committed to him by God the Father. It
is the rule of his kingdom, the church, the accomplishment of
all the tasks that were set before him, the redemption of his people,
the satisfaction of God's justice, and the perfect righteousness
that would be granted to those that he represented in his coming. Of the increase, we are told,
of his government and peace, there shall be no end. We are on the victory side. And the Old Testament prophets,
they understood that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming and that
he would bring eternal life and peace with him. This coming of
Christ would demonstrate and manifest the love of God. There's a lovely little phrase
here at the end of these verses that says the zeal. That's the
love, but it's more than just love. It's a fervent love. It's a passionate love. It's
a zealous love. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. The love for the Son The love
of God for His Son, the love of God for His people, the coming
of Christ is all about God's love for us. And love is a purpose. And the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ was purposeful. There are three things that I
want to leave with you with respect to the purposes of the Lord's
coming, the purposes of the Lord's incarnation. Well, may we celebrate
these things at this time of the year. We've spoken about
that briefly in passing in recent weeks. I'm sure that the Lord
Jesus Christ did not come at this time of year, but be that
as it may, There are three things that we need to remember with
respect to the coming of Christ and his purpose. The first one
is this, he came to take away our sin. The second one is that
he came to give his people life. And the third one, he came to
destroy the works of the devil. In Matthew chapter 1 verse 21
we read, And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's the reason for Christ
coming, to save his people from their sins. And in 1 John chapter
3 verse 5, here we're told again that he was manifested, he was
shown, he was revealed to us to take away our sins. The Apostle Paul says to Timothy,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. It's
worthy of acceptance. We should accept this statement,
this truth, this reason for Christ's coming. We have to believe it.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. By his knowledge,
says Isaiah in chapter 53, verse 11, shall my righteous servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. And in 2 Corinthians chapter
5, verse 21, he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So here was the first reason
for the Lord Jesus Christ's coming. He came to take away our sin. But he also came to give us something. And in a time of year when the
giving of gifts is high in the priorities of those that are
14 and under, The Lord Jesus Christ gave us
a gift. He came into the world in order
to bring life and peace to his people. The Apostle John, I think,
of all the apostles and their writings, seemed to have a special
place for the idea of this reason for Christ's coming. And he spoke
about this life frequently in his writings. In John chapter
one, verse one, he says, In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. Let us, let us young
people, Older people, let us never be ashamed of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has for
us more than this world can ever offer. There is nothing in this
world that is equal to the blessings that Christ has for his people. Never be ashamed of him. Never
doubt him. Never give up on the Lord. He will never give up on you. Sometimes we think of the Lord
as a weak little baby in a manger, but our glorious Saviour is Almighty
God. He created all things, John tells
us. All things are His. He is, to
use Isaiah's term again, the great governor. He is governing
all things. and he is in control of every
aspect of our lives. His government of all things,
says Isaiah, shows him to be the mighty God. And this Lord
Jesus Christ came to give life to men and women, to give life
to boys and girls, who in their natural condition, the Bible
tells us, are separated from God and dead in our sins. He came to save us from our sin. He came to give us life. Life
that would never end. Life that will go on forever
and ever and ever. Everlasting life. Eternal life. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 9,
in this was manifested the love of God towards us. Remember we
talked about that manifestation, that was the zeal of God, the
fervent love that would accomplish all the things that Christ came
to do. In this was manifested the love
of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. The Lord Jesus
Christ could say, I am come that they might have life and that
they might have it more abundantly. I am the way, the truth and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. And lastly, I want to draw your
attention to this fact as well. I want you to know something
else. That little baby that came into this world to save us, that
came into this world to give us life, he didn't do it secretly. He didn't, as it were, do it
away hidden in a corner where no one could see. He didn't steal
in in the darkness and steal back out again, having done what
he promised to do. He didn't slip away with his
prize while nobody was watching. No, that wouldn't honour our
God. That wouldn't reveal the majesty
of His government. He had to come and show Himself
to be victorious. So let us keep in our mind that
while He came as a baby, and while He died on the cross, the
Lord Jesus Christ rose again victorious over every enemy. every enemy that we have in this
world. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
destroy his enemies and our enemies and they must be defeated. The devil must be defeated and
the works of the devil must be destroyed. That's a wonderful
thing. And I wanted especially to link
that to these other two reasons for Christ's coming. Yes, he
came to save us. Yes, he came to give us life.
But we will stand and watch. We will witness when every evil
Every sinful, every iniquitous thing, every brutality, every
shame, every wickedness of men and women in this world will
be destroyed and it will be such a cataclysmic event and Christ
will arise out of the midst of that as the victor and as the
triumphant God, our God, our representative, our deliverer. So the third purpose of the Lord
Jesus Christ coming into this world was to destroy the devil
and his works. 1 John 3, verse 8. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. There you are. That's it. Why
did Jesus come into the world? To destroy the works of the devil. Put that down. John says it in
so many words. Hebrews 2 verse 14. As the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. He became like our flesh, like
our blood. He took upon himself our humanity,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil. Jesus was
born, yes he was, and he came with a purpose. He fulfilled
that purpose when he died for our sins, when he rose again
from the grave to give us life, and in defeating and destroying
our enemy and the works of our enemy. That devil had held us
captive and held us trapped, Christ brought liberty, and He
is our wonderful Saviour. Let us remember these three reasons
why the Lord Jesus Christ came. It was a promised birth. It was a miraculous birth. It
was a birth that was witnessed in this world, and He came with
a purpose. His purpose was to save His people. to give us life and to destroy
the devil and his works. Amen.