OPEN: A preacher and a member of his congregation stood by the side of the road. They were taking turns holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn around before it’s too late!"
It wasn’t too long until a car drove up, the driver saw the sign, rolled down his window and yelled out: "I just wish you religious nuts would leave us alone!" and he sped up and drove around the curve out of sight.
Shortly, you could hear the sound of tires screeching on the pavement… and a big splash.
The church member turned to his preacher and said, “You know, I told you we should have just put up a sign that said ’bridge out’”
APPLY: It’s obvious that those church people should have been more selective in what they put on their sign. And, because they weren’t careful in how they phrased their warning… a driver ignored them.
If something is important enough - if it’s critical enough - we try to be careful what we say and how we say it. There are times when we do not want to be misunderstood.
In our passage in Hebrews 1, God is telling us that He was very selective in how He spoke to us. Hebrews 1:1 tells us that “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways”
God Spoke.
God had something to say.
And what He had to say was so important that He used special people called a very special group of people called “prophets” that He spoke through. And He repeated His message through those prophets at “many times and in various ways.”
Now, that implies that God had something specific He wanted to talk about.
What could that be?
Well, Hebrews tells us plainly:
God spoke through those prophets at many time and various ways - BUT NOW He has spoken by His Son.
What that’s telling us is this: His Son was the message.
The coming of Jesus was what God was focusing on all through the Old Testament times.
In fact there is the repeated message throughout the Old Testament: “Somebody’s coming”.
Sometimes, God could be real subtle.
For example, one man I read told of an intriguing message he found in the genealogies.
Genealogies are those boring sections of Scripture that nobody seems to enjoy reading, and yet – in the genealogy of Noah we find these names:
Adam - Seth - Enosh - Kenan - Mahalalel - Jared - Enoch - Methuselah - Lamech – Noah.
In the Jewish language each one of those names had a meaning.
Adam, for example – means “Man”
Seth means “appointed”,
Enosh means “mortal… and so on.
So this man took the meanings of each of those names came up with the most intriguing message:
“Man - appointed - mortal - sorrow –
The blessed God - shall come down - teaching –
His death shall bring - the despairing - rest or comfort!”
(http://fromthemindofdoulos.blogspot.com/)
Never knew that was there did you?
Neither did I till I read this man’s article.
And that’s just in the boring part of Scripture – the part no one wants to read.
That’s just when God was being subtle.
But there other times when God wasn’t very subtle at all.
Sometimes God was very direct and obvious.
For example, you could look in the book of Daniel and you’d find that God gave a very specific information about when Jesus was to begin His earthly ministry. Using a very intriguing mathematical equation, God revealed the exact year that His “anointed one” would begin His ministry. The exact year that Jesus began His ministry.
Additionally, God used Daniel to describe the various nations that would come to power before the Church was created by Jesus.
In the book of Isaiah, God tells us a great deal about the coming Messiah.
We find, especially chapter 53, that
Ø The Messiah would be despised and rejected of men;
Ø That He would be wounded and bruised
Ø He would pour out His life unto death
Ø That He’d die with wicked men, and numbered with the transgressors
Ø But – that He would be buried with the rich
Ø And that His life would be a “guilt offering” - “bearing the sin of many”
Isaiah 53 is a very significant chapter in God’s prophetic revelation.
It is so powerful that – to this day – Jewish people are still puzzled and frustrated by it’s message.
And, that prophecy from Isaiah 53 was so powerful, that Acts 8 tells us the story of an official from Ethiopia who was riding home in his chariot reading that very passage. God arranged to have Philip (a Deacon of the early church) available, so that when the Ethiopian saw him, asked him to help him understand the chapter he was reading. He asked who God was talking about. And from that very passage, Philip taught this Ethiopian official about Jesus. It was so convincing that the Ethiopian believed in Jesus, confessed Jesus as His Lord and Savior, and was buried in the waters of Christian baptism for the forgiveness of his sins.
Acts tells us that he then on his way “rejoicing.”
When God spoke thru the prophets – at many times and in various ways - He had a very special message. A message that He drove home by symbols, hidden messages and outright declarations.
The message was this: Somebody’s coming. Somebody’s coming.
And when He comes this is what He’ll look like,
and this is what He’ll do,
and this is where He’ll go.
There were over 300 direct prophecies telling about this Messiah.
No other prophet or religious teacher can lay claim to that kind of prophetic attention.
300 direct prophecies, and perhaps 1000 symbolic and hidden declarations of God’s intention.
Each and every one of those messages telling us exactly the same thing:
Someone is coming!
And now (pause…) that someone has come
In these latter days God has spoken to us by His Son, Jesus Christ.
And He spoke thru Jesus, because He WAS the message.
He was the one everyone had been anticipating nearly 4000 years.
And the writer of Hebrews wants you to understand this message wasn’t about a body of doctrine it was about the Son of God,
He was not some angel.
He wasn’t a nice teacher of pleasant moral precepts.
He wasn’t simply a prophet of God.
He was the SON of God.
He was “…the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word….” Hebrews 1:3
Now, there are some people who have a problem with that.
They’re not comfortable with Jesus being something more than a good teacher, a mere mortal who said some decent things.
But talk about Him being The Son of God – they don’t want to go there.
Charles Colson says that he “discovered that one major U.S. daily, as a matter of policy, will not print the two words Jesus and Christ together; because when combined, the editor says, it represents an editorial judgment.”
One Dean from Oxford University said "Jesus was a great teacher, a very ethical, moral, human being … certainly a phenomenal teacher… and Christianity is a great world religion . . .and while I agree he is a great light, once we say he is the only light, this is what leads to all kinds of spiritual racism and a division.”
When it comes to the divinity of Jesus there are a lot of people who just don’t want to go there.
But the Bible won’t let us go anywhere else.
Again and again, the Scriptures speak of Jesus’ divinity
* From the prophecy in Isaiah 9 which tells us “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called (among other things) Mighty God….” Isaiah 9:6
* To the Gospel of Matthew auoting another prophecy Isaiah: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" —which means, "God with us." Matthew 1:23
* Jesus Himself said “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
* When Jesus asks His disciples who they think that He is “Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.’” Matthew 16:16-17
* And one of the most famous passages in Scripture declares “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten (His one and only) Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Again, and again and again God’s Word declares Jesus was God in the flesh.
But there are those who reject that Biblical reality because it “doesn’t make sense to them”.
That’s the main argument used by the Jehovah Witnesses.
They can’t understand how Jesus could be God… and if they can’t understand it – it can’t be true.
But that’s only because Jehovah Witnesses reason in the wrong direction.
They think as mortals.
And because they think as mortals – and not like God - they end up trying to bring God down to their level.
But it doesn’t work that way.
ILLUS: A preacher once met a Jehovah Witness who challenged him on the deity of Christ.
"You say that Jesus Christ is coequal with the eternal Father, but He cannot be, for no son is ever as old as the one who has begotten him."
The minister thought for a moment and then replied, "You yourself have just called God the eternal Father. Have you ever thought that statement through? Don’t you realize that God can only be the eternal Father if He has an eternal Son? If you would rethink your position in the light of the Scriptures, you would see that eternal Fatherhood demands eternal Sonship!"
And Hebrews tells us – that is the message
Jesus is THE SON of God, God in the flesh.
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” Hebrews 1:3
That’s the message.
But why is that important?
Why is it important for us to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Son of God in order to be Christians?
Well, because if Jesus wasn’t the Son of God…
If He wasn’t God in the flesh…
If He wasn’t Immanuel – God with us…
Then, His death on the cross would mean nothing.
You see – the Bible tells us that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.
It also tells us that our sin is against God.
And Scripture also tells us that there is no way we could ever pay for our own sins by our own good works. We can’t balance out our guilt, no matter how many good deeds we may do.
Now, if I can’t pay for my own sins, then someone else has to.
But couldn’t another man or woman pay for my sin by dying for us?
No.
No mortal man has ever been sinless enough to step in for us.
ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Only the sinless Son of God could take our place.
We couldn’t pay the price… so God did it for us.
To deny that is to demean God’s sacrifice to redeem us from our sins.
The message is this: Jesus (God in the Flesh/ God With Us) gave His life to save ours.
The Apostle John wrote: “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist— he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” 1 John 2:22-23
CLOSE: A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.
He said, "Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art." The young man held out this package. "I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared at it in awe and his eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.
"Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift."
The father hung the portrait over his mantle.
Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
Some time later, the man died, and there was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?"
There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, "We want to see the famous paintings."
But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?"
Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!"
But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! The son! Who’ll take the "SON?"
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. "I’ll give $10 for the painting." Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
"We have $10, who will bid $20?"
"Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters."
"$10 is the bid, won’t someone bid $20?"
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel.
"Going once, twice, SOLD for $10."
A man sitting on the second row shouted, "Now let’s get on with the collection!"
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I’m sorry, the auction is over."
"What about the paintings?"
The auctioneer replied: "When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!"
God gave His Son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: "The Son, the Son, who’ll take the Son?"
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
