Page 19 - BACK TO BETHLEHEM

two wills. Jesus always agreed with the Father but He wants to
illustrate humanity and as a man He said, “I determine to
depend on the indwelling Father.” So, we, as men and women,
depend on the indwelling Christ. We are not robots. “He lives
in me, nevertheless I live.” And Jesus said, “I will lay down
My will as a man to demonstrate that I only want God’s will.”
God the Father sent God the Son into the world. That
was quite a journey and I want you to follow that journey with
me. When you take a journey there has to be a destination or a
goal, an end. My Lillian doesn’t just say, “Go to the store.”
She gives me a list. She tells me what isle to go down and what
brand to buy and which coupons to use to get it cheaper and she
even tells me what roads to take to save gas. When Jesus left
heaven, I want to show you the difference between His journey
and His goal.
I think it’s easy to identify His goal. John 3:17, “For
God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but
that the world should be saved through Him.” He was sent so
that the world might be saved. John 6:39, “And this is the will
of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I lose
nothing, but raise it up on the last day.” Luke 19:10, “For the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1
John 4:14, “And we have beheld and bear witness that the
Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” That’s
the goal; to be the Savior of the world. That’s the end; that’s
the destiny.
But what about His journey? We say in Micah 5:2, that
it’s Bethlehem, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrata, too little
to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for
Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago,
from the days of eternity.” He went to Bethlehem but that
wasn’t His goal. That’s part of the journey. He was nine
months in Mary’s womb but he didn’t stay there. He went to
Bethlehem but he didn’t stay there. You might say his goal was
Nazareth. That was his boyhood town. He didn’t stay there
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