The Suffering Savior
Background Story: John was a close disciple of Jesus who shared what he saw and heard.
Read John 1:1-14
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
Big Idea: Jesus suffered for you.
Jesus left Heaven, the place of perfection, to physically come and suffer on our behalf. Not only did He endure the pain of the cross, but He suffered the day to day life of a man. He was misunderstood even by His family (Luke 2:45-50). He suffered physical hunger and weakness while experiencing the attack of the enemy (Luke 4:1-13). He dealt with the sting of rejection from the people He left Heaven to save (Luke 4:14-30). His authority, reputation, and methods were questioned again and again (Luke 5:17-26, Luke 5:27-31, Luke 7:36-50, Luke 8:40-56, Luke 20:1-8). Instead of welcoming Him and learning from the Son of God, the religious leaders wanted to trick and discredit Him (Luke 6:1-11, Luke 20:20-26). He came to save them, yet they did not recognize Him (Luke 19:41-44). He was abandoned, denied, and betrayed by those men closest to Him (Luke 22:1-62). Being fully God and fully man, He was mocked, beaten, falsely accused, and sneered as He carried His cross, hung and died (Luke 22:63-23:46).
Who would do such a thing? Who would leave the perfection of Heaven to suffer the way He did? Hebrews 12:3 says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” You were that joy. I was that joy. Your neighbor, friend, family member, and the one far from Him right now… was the joy set before Him. He knew there was no other way, so He endured it all for our salvation!
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