Jesus Came To Do His Father's Will

HEBREWS 10:5-10 – ADVENT 4 – December 18, 2005

Dear Fellow-Redeemed & Saints in the Lord:

Today as you listened to our text, you may have already noticed the underlying thought and theme of obedience. Jesus came to this world and obeyed perfectly his Father’s will. He did this because you and I, who are sinners, live a life of disobedience, a life that is imperfect. The book of Hebrews is, of course by its title, written to those Jewish people who were very familiar with the Old Testament. In Bible study we have been going through Leviticus and looking at all the requirements for their offerings. All these sacrifices are pretty hard to keep track of for us in our modern age. For the people of the Old Testament, they were to keep track, follow them and do them. Yet, all those offerings and sacrifices could not pay the price of sin. In Hebrews 10:4 it says: "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

That is why each year we have this time of Advent to prepare for the birth of our Savior. Each year we are reminded that Jesus came to do his Father’s will. Jesus came to live with us. We heard it in our Gospel: Jesus is Immanuel, with and in us by faith. Jesus, before he left his disciples after his resurrection, told the disciples as he reminds us this morning: "Jesus replied, ’If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’" (John 14:23). This morning the Lord Jesus comes to us once again through his word. He comes to make his home with us, and we are reminded as the writer to the Hebrews tells us:

JESUS CAME TO DO HIS FATHER’S WILL

I. We learn that Jesus’ obedience was faithful; and we pray that:

II. May our obedience be faith-full

I. JESUS’ OBEDIENCE WAS FAITHFUL

Our text begins: "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire." You have to remember that this sounded pretty strange and different for the Jewish people. For generation after generation after generation, ever since the Lord took them out of Egypt, he gave them the command and the different requirements for the sacrifices and offerings. The Lord God wanted his people to carry out these sacrifices and offerings. But yet here the Lord says: He did not desire them. The Lord God almighty did not desire these sacrifices because he did not need them. The Lord did not need all of those sacrifices, but the Lord always wanted these people, as they wandered in the wilderness and got to the Promised Land to remember that the Messiah would come. This Messiah, the Christ, the anointed was the true sacrifice that was going to come to pay the price for sin.

Our text continues: "With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased." First mentioned are the voluntary offerings, sacrifices that the Lord did not really need or desire. In the end even their required offerings ended up not being pleasing to the Lord. You may remember, as Jesus walked on this earth in the flesh, he came to the synagogue and drove out the moneychangers in the temple. God’s people had made Jesus’ Father’s house a business rather than a place of worship. They sat around the outer courtyard selling all of these things for sacrifices because they were required. Rather than being a pleasing thing, it had become displeasing.

So how was it going to all change? How were these people going to be saved? How are you and I saved? "Then I said, ’Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.’" Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament. We are reminded of that fact, as our Scripture lessons continue in Advent. Today our first Scripture lesson talked about David who was going to be king. Someone would be king from his line forever. David and his son Solomon are gone, but the Savior Jesus Christ who is still our Lord and our King, came from the line and house of David. That was the promise that the Lord made. It was the promise the Lord kept when Jesus came to do his Father’s will.

The season of Christmas is a time that even the world around sees as a season of peace and joy and love. For us as believers, we realize there is more than just the outward appearance of joy and peace and love. We have the gift of God dwelling in us by faith. We realize that even though we do not deserve it God has saved us. Paul says in Romans: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We remember today as we get closer to the manger on Christmas Day that the cross of crucifixion overshadows the manger. That cross of Christ was always central in the life of Jesus, from the very time he was born until the very time he was sacrificed on the cross, because Jesus came to do his Father’s will. Jesus came to do his Father’s will, first of all; to defeat the devil, to conquer death, and pay the price for sins. But Jesus also came to do his Father’s will to save you and me and all of mankind from eternal destruction.