There’s Just Something About Christmas Series

It’s now just two weeks and just fourteen days until Christmas! Christmas is so exciting for so many reasons: family gathering together, time off from work and obligations, and the strong sense of nostalgia we all feel this time of year.

Nat King Cole captured the sentiment of the season for many of us:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Jack Frost nipping at your nose

Yuletide carols being sung by a choir

And folks dressed up like Eskimos

And so I'm offering this simple phrase

To kids from one to 92

Although it's been said many times, many ways

Merry Christmas to you.

But we are miscommunicating the essence of Christmas if we think the holiday is simply chestnuts roasting on an open fire. So many people simply miss the essence of the Christmas message.

Sometimes our best efforts are lost in translation. Years ago, in some of the Spanish versions of the movie Star Wars, the translator translated Chewbacca into the Spanish words meaning, “Chewing Tabaco!”

Some years ago, Pepsi wanted to say, “Come alive! You’re the Pepsi generation” in China. They literally translated the slogan and found out it meant, “Pepsi will bring back your ancestors from the dead!”

One more…we all know that KFC’s chicken is “Finger-lickin good,” but when KFC opened its doors in China in the late 1980s, I don’t think they meant to say, “Eat your fingers off.”

Like these, so many people simply miss the essence of the Christmas message. In the moments to come, I want you to know why Jesus is the Voice of Christmas.

Find Hebrews 1 with me, if you will. Hebrews 1 celebrates and declares the greatness of Jesus. Here in the early parts of Hebrews, we have what some have called the “nosebleed” section of Christology.

Today’s Scripture

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Hebrews is saying, “Jesus is better.” The whole theme of Hebrews is: Jesus is better. Or as the English Standard Version says it: Jesus is superior. Jesus is better than the angels (Hebrews 1:4). Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus’ sacrifice is better (Hebrews 9:23). Jesus’ temple is better (Hebrews 7:22). Jesus makes for a better hope (Hebrews 7:19). The whole theme of Hebrews is: Jesus is better.

We don’t know who wrote Hebrews, and Hebrews was likely written to Jewish converts to the Messiah who were considering giving up on Jesus. The writer of Hebrews has one basic message: “Don’t give up! Christ is better. Go all the way with Him!”

1. Jesus is God’s Final Word

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Jesus is the Voice of Christmas.

1.1 What if God were Silent?

Imagine for a moment if God didn’t talk. Imagine if the Almighty were silent, invoking His right to privacy. Pause to consider if there were no prophets, no Moses, and none of the sacred writings. What if there was no Bible? A man named Henry Rogers did just that shortly after WW II. He tells of a man’s dream where a man turns to read His Bible and discovered that his Bible was blank. There were only blank pages in his Bible everywhere he turned. He soon turned to find others’ Bibles. His mother’s Bible was blank. His father’s Bible was blank too. Everyone’s Bibles were blank as well. Even the Bibles in the nearby bookshops all across the land and they were all blank! Every place he could think that he might find a Bible, they were all blank! Despair was everywhere! Even those who just owned a copy but never read God’s Word were quickly upset by all the blank sacred pages everywhere.

Comically, we might wonder, “What if there were no coffee.” It’s still another thing to consider, “What if I didn’t have my best friend?” But, it is whole another level to consider what if God were silent.

1.2 God’s Diversity of Speech

Throughout history, God has spoken in many different ways. He spoke angels, and through a burning bush, He spoke through dreams and even spoke through Balaam’s donkey (Numbers 22:28). However, God’s main communication method was through the Old Testament prophets. But once Jesus came to planet earth, God said, “This is my final way to talk to you, through my Son, Jesus.”