Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Did Jesus Call Himself a "Personal Savior"? | Who Is Jesus? | John 3.16-17

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are asking, who is Jesus? A few years back, I remember hearing a street evangelist talking to a passerby, and he says to this guy, have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior? The passerby kind of slows down and gets a little wide-eyed and double-checks that he's really the person who's being talked to. And when he realizes that he really is the one that this street evangelist is addressing,

Starting point is 00:00:41 he looks a little bit confused, he turns around. And he asks this question, my personal savior from what? And the evangelist responds, well, he's your personal savior from hell and your sin. And the guy, he's a little more composed now. He goes, oh, well, I don't really believe in hell, and I'm a good person. So thanks, but no thanks. And he walks off. I couldn't believe what I saw. In a tiny little 30-second conversation, Jesus somehow became a spiritual concierge, guiding the willing convert from hell to heaven. And of course, if someone's not really interested in going to heaven, if they don't want that particular vacation, well, they're free to pass. Thanks, but no thanks. The tragedy wasn't just that someone passed on Jesus. It's also that a single question,

Starting point is 00:01:29 Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior? Made King Jesus look utterly trivial to this guy. And now, maybe that question wouldn't be so bad if it actually reflected the words of Jesus. But here's the truth. Jesus never calls himself a personal savior. You will never find those words anywhere in the New Testament, much less on Jesus' own lips. He never once asked anyone to receive him as their personal savior or to welcome him into their heart. Now, I can't help but wonder what these conversations would be like between the evangelist and the street guy,

Starting point is 00:02:05 what they'd be like if people started to talk a little more like Jesus. I actually think they'd be a little more interesting. For example, what the street evangelist had said, do you ever feel purposeless in life? Do you want to be saved from lostness? I like that question because it sounds a lot like Jesus. Luke 1910, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Or what if he said, hey, do you want to know how to save the world from poverty, injustice, over imprisonment? Because that kind of sounds like Jesus too. Check out Luke 418. The spirit of the Lord is on me,

Starting point is 00:02:39 because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. What if the evangelist had said this, do you feel like something's wrong with the world? do you want to know how to save it? Because everybody feels like something's wrong with the world. It kind of feels like things are going to hell in a handbasket. And it doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right. You think, man, something's got to change.

Starting point is 00:03:06 And guess what, that question, do you want to know how to save the world to make things right in the world? Again, that sounds a lot like Jesus. Check out John 316. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. For God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world,

Starting point is 00:03:26 but to save the world through him. Or one last one here, okay? What if he said, hey, do you know how to deal with the problem of evil in the world? Do you know how the world can be saved from its own selfishness, abuses of power, sexual misconduct? I mean, the list could go on and on. And again, it just sounds a lot like what Jesus said. It sounds like what people said about Jesus in this case.

Starting point is 00:03:47 For example, the angel says to Joseph in Matthew 121, he will save his people Israel from their sins. Jesus came to deal with the problem of evil. Or check out John the Baptist. He said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away your personal sins to become your personal savior. No, that's actually not what he says. He says, who came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus came to deal with the problem of evil, not just in individuals, but in the world. I hope you're starting to see the problem with only talking about quote unquote personal salvation. It's not how Jesus talked. You won't find it anywhere. Of course, I just have to state the obvious. Jesus came to rescue us individually from our sins.

Starting point is 00:04:28 But that is a small part of a much bigger rescue mission. He came to rescue the entire world. Not just me. He came to rescue everything from what's wrong with it. In Matthew 1928, Jesus said that his kingdom would bring about the renewal of all things. Here's a different way of thinking about it. Just a little illustration. Imagine that you asked my daughter, you said, hey, what's your dad's mission in life? And she looks at you and she says, well, my dad's mission is to mow the lawn every week. Well, it wouldn't be an entirely false statement. I do kind of have a goal to mow the lawn every week. I don't always make that goal, by the way. But that's just part of a far bigger goal to be a good dad and a good husband who takes care of our

Starting point is 00:05:12 little world that we call a house. Mowing the lawn, that's a tiny part of a far bigger mission, a far bigger goal to love my kids and my wife by serving them and by creating an atmosphere of love and service in our home. I mean, yeah, my daughter kids talk about me mowing the lawn, but I hope she would say something bigger than that. People in our world are asking bigger questions than who will be my personal savior. To most people, that's kind of a trivial question. They're asking the big questions about how to deal with evil and injustice, questions about how to order our society, about how to transform and protect the world. And Jesus, he actually has something to say about those questions. He came to deal with exactly those problems. When we present Jesus merely as a personal

Starting point is 00:05:58 savior helping individuals to file on to his little escape train out of this creation, we not only turn people from Jesus, I think we actually misrepresent Jesus. Now, I know I might be offending some people right now because maybe you're like me. At the age of 19, I became a Christian precisely by praying a prayer to Jesus to be my personal savior and to come and live in my heart. heart. And I want to say unequivocally, I am so thankful for that moment, and I am deeply grateful for the people who taught me those things. They're true. They really are true. Jesus has saved me personally from my sins, but I'm thankful that in the Gospels, he shows that he has come to deal with something so much bigger than that. What kind of Savior is Jesus? He's a worldwide Savior.

Starting point is 00:06:45 Hey, have you met Jesus not your personal Savior or much more than your personal Savior? Have you met Jesus the Savior of the world, who came to deal comprehensively with the problem of evil and injustice, not just in every individual human heart, but also in society in general? Have you met the world's savior Jesus who came to rescue us from the consequences of evil? Not just God's wrath, but also poverty, injustice, and sickness and everything that's wrong with the world? Do you see that Jesus is much more than just a personal concierge to heaven? Do you see the magnitude of Jesus's rescue plan? Do you see that he has a purpose for you and a purpose for this world? That's who the real Jesus is, the literal savior of the world.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Did Jesus Call Himself a "Personal Savior"? | Who Is Jesus? | John 3.16-17

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