Why Did Jesus Live?
- John Beeson / Greg Lavine
- Apr 7, 2025
- 18 min read
Updated: Jul 15
Why Did Jesus Live?
The Why’s of Easter
Greg Lavine and John Beeson
You've all been a part of conversations like this where someone is super excited about what they're talking about and you have little to no interest whatsoever in what they're talking about. And so you kind of politely listen, but you're looking for a way out of the conversation. Essentially, this happens to me with John, especially this time of year. He starts to talk about this archaic type of sport that used to be popular way back when, in the days of horse racing and boxing and baseball. Those are the top three sports in the country.
And he gets going on baseball. And I just like, yeah, yeah, I'm not opposed to baseball. There are so many games, none of them really matter. When they start to matter, when they start to matter in October, if the Diamondbacks are in it, I get interested. I play along with the pennant race.
Understanding some terms, do you, Greg? Yes, a little bit. I'm thinking more like, hey, the draft is here for college battle. There's lots of exciting things than baseball. That's sometimes how people in the world can look at Christians.
So Christians can. Can go out and be sharing Jesus with friends. And it's very possible to sit back as Christians share, especially on how they might share, but they're sharing about Jesus, and you'll be thinking to yourself, like, okay, what difference does it make a guy who lived 2,000 years ago, like, what difference does that make to me? As Christians go on and on. We're walking through a series as we gaze towards Easter just two weeks from now, consider, what does the life of Jesus have for us?
What does the death of Jesus have for us? And what does the resurrection of Jesus have for us? Why do those things matter? And I would suggest to you that the life of Jesus has invitations to us that are powerful and beautiful. And that's true if we're a Christian.
That's true if we're not a Christian. If we're not a Christian and, and we're hearing that, listen, Jesus is not just an idea, it's not just a myth. He is a human being who lived 2,000 years ago. And consider this from Scripture. Jesus is 100% man, a human being, and 100% God.
So when we say that the life of Jesus is everything like Jesus, Jesus is the foundation of everything that, that we do if we're ever a part of a church. And Jesus isn't the center of everything, like, that's. That's not Christianity. There's a reason Christianity is called Christianity. There's a reason we are called Christians or Christians.
We are followers of Jesus. We seek to glorify Jesus. Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is the One we want to exalt. He is the center of absolutely everything.
He's God and he's man. Consider these words out of the Gospel of John, first chapter. He says, the true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know Him.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth from eternity past. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit had perfect harmony, perfect unity, perfect love, as the Father exalted the Son and the Son exalted the Father, and the Holy Spirit lifted up both.
There's affirmation and approval and encouragement pouring from one to another in absolute perfection. And then the Father sent His Son to this world. And in that moment, God did not change, but he added to himself humanity. God had never been a human. God in Jesus Christ became a human being.
He set aside attributes of his deity in order to become a human being and live amongst us. And I would suggest to you that as we gaze into the life of Jesus as God and as man, there are invitations in him for all of us. And as we look towards Easter, may it be that we walk in these invitations. So we have two weeks till Easter. We want to spend these three Sundays, as we step into that, answering these questions, the whys of Easter.
Why does Jesus life matter for me? For you? Why does his death matter? That's next week and on Easter Sunday, why does it matter that he rose again? And you've already heard Greg beginning to open this up for us, that the whys of why did Jesus live for us come from the heart of God reaching out to connect with us.
And the first of four invitations that we're going to receive is this. The first invitation is jesus invites us into being human. Jesus life invites us into being human. You heard Greg share that Jesus retained full divinity. He's fully God, but also fully man.
And I think sometimes we tend to diminish that. We shrink the fullness of his humanity. Now Jesus was fully human. He got hungry, he got tired. He navigated difficult relationships he had to forgive.
Jesus was fully, fully human. I want to take us over to Philippians 2 where we see the fullness of his humanity on display in his humility and his obedience. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 2. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
Jesus. Life is a life of navigating humanity, the fullness of what it is to be a human being. Jesus lost, lost friends. He grieved that loss. Jesus sought God the Father's will in prayer.
He reached out. He asked God what he was supposed to do. We see this as he's preparing to choose the disciples. Over in Luke 6 we see him seeking God the Father in prayer. In these days he went out to the mountain to pray.
And all night he continued in prayer to God and. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose them from the twelve whom he named his apostles. Jesus. Jesus navigates these challenging places. Have you ever had to seek the will of God?
What do you want from me? Jesus sought the will of God. I think for many of us, we think of Jesus life as though he had some sort of extra superpowers that are not locked, that are unlocked or locked to us. He had unlocked to him. I think of.
So when I was. I was born two years after the first Star wars came out. So Star wars was a big part of my childhood. I remember we had our next door neighbor. He was the one with all the toys.
He had all the cool toys. Okay. So I remember one morning, he's like, john, John, I got real lightsabers. And I'm like, really real lightsabers. Come on over.
Come on over after school we'll play with my lightsabers. I was like, well, I can't think about anything else today except for the real lightsabers I'm going to play with after school. So I'm locked in real lightsabers. I'm imagining the duels we're going to have, you know, the danger we will be in as we weld these instruments. You know, mesquite trees will chop down, you know.
And then I go and I see the real lightsabers and they're. Well, they're just not real, unfortunately. They're plastic. They make that Whooshing noise and they light up. I'm like, yeah.
I think for a lot of us, we think that God gives us the plastic lightsaber and Jesus has the real lightsaber. He. I mean, yeah, it's Jesus, okay?
Of course he forgives people. It's Jesus. Of course he has compassion on difficult people. It's Jesus. No, Jesus was fully human. He was even tempted as we are, tempted as we are. We're going to read a passage.
We're going to come back to it, actually, two different times over the course of the sermon. I want to read the beginning. This is in Hebrews 4. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Did you catch the wildness of that?
I don't know what your heart struggles with as it comes to sin. Lust, greed, anger, anxiousness. I don't know what that struggle is. But the author of Hebrews says he was tempted in every respect. He has felt those temptations.
He has navigated through that place. And Jesus shows us what it is to be a human being. Image that I have of Jesus is of a baby inside of his or her mother's womb, connected to mom with umbilical cord. That Jesus in life was connected to the Father so that he would hear the Father speak before he spoke, that he would hear the Father direct him before he moved. The reason he went out in prayer so often was to be connected to the Father in all things.
And that same dependency is given to us. Jesus was a human being. In the first invitation, he invites us in to humanity. The second invitation, though, is the opposite side of that is that he invites us into godliness. Consider that verse that we just read in Hebrews chapter four.
It says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Yet without sin. In other words, Jesus Christ was tempted in every way, just as we are. But he never crossed the line into sin. His anger never crossed the line into sin.
His desires, his passions never crossed the line into sin. He wanted things that were opposed to God. At times you look at his prayer in the garden, Father, not my will, but yours be done. In other words, God, I don't want to die on the cross.
I don't want to die on the cross. Yet not my will, but yours be done. He lived out his life without sin, not crossing the line. Once in utter purity. And he invites us into that same thing.
There's three things that happen in the life of Christ in our life. One is we can have our sins washed away. The other is that he gives us his righteousness. He takes his righteousness and he puts it inside of us. So he washes our sins away.
Then he gives us his righteousness. But the third thing, he gives us supernatural power to live victorious, godly lives. Listen to just a few verses. We see these playing it out In Matthew chapter five, Jesus is teaching. He says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. In other words, he obeyed the law because we could not. He obeyed the law in utter perfection we never could have. He obeyed in our place. He fulfills the law for us.
He takes away our sin and he gives us his righteousness. Consider these words out of Romans, chapter 5. I'm beginning in verse 18. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, that's Adam's sin. As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.
For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. He takes away our sin and he gives us his righteous. He credits it to us. The old King James I love. He imputed.
He imputed his righteousness inside of us. But it doesn't stop there. It's not just that he takes away our sin. It's not just that he gives us his righteousness. Then he gives us supernatural power to actually become righteous, to live out victorious, godly, righteous lives.
In the book of 2 Corinthians, in chapter 5, verse 21, we read these words. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. For our sake, he, the Father, made him to be sin. Jesus, who knew no sin. Jesus was sinless, but God the Father made Jesus sin so that in him we might become righteousness of God.
Our sin is washed away. His righteousness is credited to us. It's put inside of us. And then we are given supernatural power to live godly, victorious lives. I have been a little bit haunted recently with a command in Scripture.
Husbands, love your wives as Christ does the church. I gaze into the beauty of that command and I think, what chance do I have? As Christ loved the church, on her worst day, on the church's worst day, Jesus loved her in the most deepest way possible. She's spitting on him, abandoning him, correcting him, looking up, oh, Jesus, if you're so special, why don't you come down from there? I've sometimes thought, I know I'm not Jesus.
If I was somehow Jesus on the cross, and I had the armies of the Host of Heaven behind me, and some snot nosed little earthlings were looking up at me, saying, whoa, if you're so special, why don't you come down from there?
He was saying, father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. So I think, what chance do I have of loving my wife like he loved? It's so pure. It's so beautiful. It's so incredible.
I feel a million miles from it. But here's. Here's a thought. I'm not going to raise my hand, say, hey, I got this down. Deborah's right over here.
You can check. I don't.
But by the grace of God, I'm better at it today than I was 10 years ago.
God gives us supernatural power to not only have it be some kind of external thing where our sin is washed away and he gives us his righteousness, but he actually changes us. He molds us. I put the toilet down by myself and everything now. Well, not everything, but that. I got that down most of the time.
So if you've ever. If you've ever thought I'm not worthy or I can't measure up, remember, in the life of Jesus not only takes away your sin and gives us his righteousness, he has supernatural power for you today that can help you live in victory today more than you did yesterday. Jesus invites us into being human. Jesus invites us into godliness. Jesus is our invitation into the kingdom of God.
I don't know. It really doesn't matter your political affiliation or leanings. Every single one of us has been disappointed in our life by human kingdoms, by human political parties, by human political leaders. But the kingdom of God never, never disappoints. Jesus Christ comes as the king of that kingdom, and he invites us.
He doesn't just come to show us individually how to be human beings. He doesn't just come to give us an example individually and the power to walk into godliness. He calls us collectively from every tribe and tongue and nation into a new kingdom where he is the King. And he says, you collectively get to demonstrate a new way to live. You're the light to this world.
You get to step into a new path New path of healing. Jesus steps in with the power of the king of that kingdom, demonstrating the power of the kingdom in miracles, undoing what was broken in this world, stepping into that world with teachings. Jesus doesn't just drop down on earth and head straight to the cross. He gives us a lifetime of demonstration of what this kingdom looks like. And then he explains it to us.
He teaches us his word, explains that to us. How to live, how to love, how to walk in his way. I want to take us to a passage over in Luke 4. It's his first sermon. It's in his hometown. He's in the synagogue. He's going to unroll the scroll of Isaiah and he's going to read from that scroll. And then he's going to sit down and he's going to preach the shortest, most audacious sermon you've ever heard. Here's In Luke 4, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's reading from Isaiah because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
That little word, good news, by the way, if you ever heard the word gospel, that's what we're talking about, the good news. The good news. Now, the life of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I've come to undo everything that was wrong.
And he rolled up the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant. And he sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Whoa. You have been waiting generation after generation for the true king to come.
It's me, Jesus says, and the spirit of the Lord is upon me and I am the good news. I am the in breaking of the kingdom that's going to liberate captives, that's going to undo the brokenness of this world. Come, follow me. Jesus is the invitation into that kingdom. He calls us collectively on his mission for undoing everything that is wrong in this world.
So I'm old enough. If you know the movie Parent Trap, there's the old version and then there's the old old version. I'm old enough to know the old old version as well as the old version. You know, it's been around for a while. Here's the parent trap in a nutshell.
If you don't know the parent trap, Parent trap. Two twins Separated at birth, one lives with mom, one lives with dad. They meet up at a summer camp and two cool things happen. Both reflect the gospel. One is that in meeting each other, they both begin to understand more deeply who they are.
So it is with Jesus, when we meet our brother, Jesus Christ, we more deeply understand who we are. When we are separated from him, are reconnected to him, we understand ourselves. But it's not just that. They are then set on a mission. Mission to put mom and dad together, to reconcile what was wrong.
And so too, we are set on a mission to reconcile, to make right what is wrong in this world. You are the salt of the earth, Jesus said. You are the light of the world. The city on a hill cannot be hidden. You are a reflection collectively as the people of God.
To demonstrate my heart in this world, have you seen evidences of Jesus kingdom at work? In this world, have you seen two people that had no business ever reconciling who knew Jesus reconcile? Have you ever seen someone, through the power of Jesus in their life, break an addiction that was leading them into destruction? You've seen the kingdom at work, healing at work, the power of Jesus alive. Because Jesus is our invitation into the kingdom of God.
Jesus invites us into humanity. Jesus invites us into godliness. Jesus invites us into kingdom. If you forget everything else this morning, I hope you hear this last invitation. Jesus invites us into relationship with God.
The most foundational invitation he offers us. Jesus was teaching his disciples, and in this teaching he shares that he is the truth and the life and the way. Because he says that he is the way. The disciples start to ask him questions. Philip pulls him aside like, hey, show us the Father.
Could you show us the Father? And when Philip asked this question, Jesus goes, you don't get it yet. You don't. You don't get it yet. And this is Jesus response to him.
John 14, verse 9. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show me the Father? It's a truth we see spill out in the Gospel of John.
Especially if you see Jesus, you see the Father. If you hear Jesus, you hear the Father. If you reject Jesus, you reject the Father. If you believe in Jesus, you believe in the Father. If you accept Jesus, you accept the Father.
This invitation Jesus gives us. Remember the picture I tried to paint earlier of this perfect, beautiful unity from eternity past of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with a love and affirmation just flowing between them from One to another, Jesus invites us into that, that the love from the Father to the Son, through the Spirit into us back to the Father, that we would be in that place, invited into relationship with God. We're not invited into a set of doctrines, we're not invited into a religion. We're invited into relationship with God, a part of his family. A very striking moment or memory in my life goes back to college.
So the senior pastor of the church I was going to in college had been there like 30 years. He had a son who was about 10 years older than I was that discipled me for a couple of years in college and I found myself at their house a fair bit and I was at their house one time and I don't know what. So the senior pastor, they both had the same name as Charles, but it was one went by Charlie. And then Chuck was the son, but Charlie Sr. Was in the room and we were visiting together.
And Chuck, Charlie Jr. He must have ate something spicy. I don't know what happened. He was just very proud and disrespectful towards his dad. And not only disrespectful towards his dad, but he started to kind of puff out his chest with Bible knowledge, you know, trying to like, well, I know what this verse means.
You don't even know that dad. And I'm like just kind of watching it. And at one point dad grabbed his son's Bible and chucked it across the floor. Dammit Chuck, you don't need more Bible knowledge in your life. You need relationship with Jesus.
Now he loved the word of God as much as any human being that I've ever known. So he meant no disrespect to Scripture. The Bible though was not written for us to gain knowledge. If that was its purpose. You know, you could be a history professor at a university and teach the Bible without knowing Jesus.
This was not given to us for doctrine's sake. It was not given to us for religion's sake. This was given to us that we might meet and know God in it, that we would taste and see the Lord in its pages. So all he meant was you need to set down your pursuit for knowledge. It's obviously puffing you up.
Sit and rest with God in relationship with him. I was big eyed and soaking it in, but it's a truth. I remember to this day.
The main invitation, the life of Jesus is relationship with God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit invites us in past religion, past knowledge, past doctrine, past all of those things, he invites us in to relationship with himself. I Hope you've heard that throughout this sermon. Jesus is not a force. He's not an idea.
He's a person. Person with an invitation to each and every one of us. And if you don't know where you are with Jesus today, as you hear this, you're like, yeah, I've had respect for Jesus and he's been a nice person to learn from. From there. I want you to hear an invitation for you to put your trust in him today.
Repent of your own paths of spirituality that have tried to establish your own way to go, to repent of your own kingdom, to repent of trying to create godliness, good deeds on your own, and receive the gift that Jesus has for you today. We would love. We'd love to talk to you right up front here after the service, our prayer team will be here, and we'd love to talk to you. If you're online, our online team would love to talk to you. I want to take us back to that passage in Hebrews.
I want to land there with a call to all of us. Here's the passage, and read one final verse in it. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Okay, so what, what do we do? Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Every one of us. I want us to hear this invitation. These two weeks leading up to Easter, would these be weeks that you hear this call of Jesus saying, come, spend time with me. Spend time with me. I'm not a dusty historical figure out there.
I am the Son of God who wants a relationship with you. Spend time with me. Okay. Okay. What does that mean?
What does it mean to spend time with Jesus? Let me give you two footholds for that first time in his word, God has given us His Word, as Greg shared, to share his heart with us so that we can know him better. Over these two weeks, I'd invite you to pick up a Gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and to spend time getting to know the heart of Jesus, to read. Not just to try to speed read through, but to read and. And reflect and react and to listen.
God, what do you have for me? What are you showing me about your heart as I read the text? Second, spend time in prayer with God. Prayer is a conversation that God invites us in to meet him, to commune with him, to connect with him. He says come, come.
I'm. I want to hear what's on your heart. Share with me what you're wrestling with, what you're struggling with. And then I want to tell you what's on my heart. So listen.
Listen and receive.
Listen again to that call. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus life matters to every single one of us and he invites us to come and be with him. Let me pray. Lord, we are so grateful for your kingdom.
We're so grateful, Lord, for the ministry of your life, Lord, that in your life we can see what it is to really be a human being. We can be invited into godliness, into following your path. We can. We can walk into your kingdom together as a community and God, that we can see the very face of God. Thank you, Jesus, for your life.
We want to live more like you and we want to be like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
