The Miracle of the Message
Hebrews 1:1-3
Sermon Series: The Miracles of Christmas
Rosemont Baptist Church, December 5, 2021
SERMON SERIES [THE MIRACLES OF CHRISTMAS]
If and when we think about all the miracles that Christmas truly is, Jesus, as the very person of God, coming into the world to save us from our sins, do we consider all these things as we celebrate Christmas? Last week we looked at the miracle of Gospel, that God would send Jesus, to take the penalty of our sins upon Himself. Today, we look at the message that Jesus brings.
God had fully revealed His plan for our salvation. That is the message we have, the message for which we have been entrusted. We need to realize the power that is present with the message we profess:
1 Corinthians 2:1–5 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
The power of Paul’s preaching was in the message and not in his ability as a speaker and a preacher. The writer of Hebrews understood this and open His letter to the Hebrews stating as much.
Hebrews 1:1–3
Christmas is celebrated around the world. Even when Ellen and I were missionaries in Indonesia, Christmas was promoted by all the decorations and Christmas trees. It was quote the commercial event, and this in a country that is 90 percent Muslim. How about other non-Christian countries?
How does Japan celebrate Christmas? Christmas has which has become a major event over there. They put up decorations, exchange presents, send cards, sing yuletide songs, decorate trees, serve special seasonal treats (especially strawberry-decorated Christmas cakes), and make a big fuss over St Nick, Rudolph and Frosty. Their Santa is sometimes dressed like a Samurai.
However due to slick marketing, in the past 20+ years, chicken has become the traditional Christmas meal and KFC is the place to be on Christmas. It is very important for single adults to have a date for a romantic dinner (at KFC?) on Christmas Eve. A big Christmas tradition is attending a concert of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
The one thing the Japanese do not do at Christmas is honor Christ. That’s because Japan is nearly 99% Shinto and Buddhist. A missionary to Japan was asked if Christmas was Santa’s birthday. I’ve been asked that right here in our town! In Japan Only ½ of 1% of Japan’s population is Christian. So where do you think they got this commercial version of Christmas? From us. They are attracted to the glitter and romance of the American version of Christmas, and have adopted nearly everything except the spiritual significance of the season.
I’ve also been reading how many people in our country don’t wish others a “Merry Christmas” anymore, for fear of offending non-believers. We have “Happy Holidays,” “Winter Festivals,” and “Season’s Greetings. As an American culture, we have taken Christ out of Christmas. Jesus is no longer invited to His celebration. Many of our public schools have had to become “Japanese” in their observance of the Christmas holiday, observing all the trappings of the season but actively ignoring the meaning of the season. They no longer use the word "Christmas." Many businesses are canceling their Christmas parties or changing it to “Holiday Parties.”
What’s the point of the Christmas season, without Jesus? We are experiencing freedom from religion. We should follow the Star, not the crowd.
Even Christians can miss the point of Christmas. We put up our Nativity sets without thinking about why Jesus came to Bethlehem. The sober truth is that He came to die. The manger led to a Cross. Jesus came to die. We in the church, need to put the Message back into Christmas.[1]
We need to remind the world about the Christ in Christmas.
Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways
God, throughout history has progressively revealed himself to mankind. The fact is, God cannot be known unless God makes Himself known. Also, think about it, God cannot reveal more about Himself than we are able to understand. God would not be infinite if we have Him all figured out.
From this verse, “in many portions” in the Hebrew can be translated “in fragments,” or “in parts and pieces.” God had only given select portions of Himself. “In many ways,” God spoke through the prophets various ways: “the Word of LORD came unto …” “thus saith the LORD”
God had shown Himself to the prophets through dreams, visions, and direct revelations. Often God would illustrate His message through the actions of the prophets.
Hebrews 1:2a in these last days has spoken to us in His Son …
Now God has spoken to us, to mankind, through Jesus. This is the center of today’s message. Jesus came with the message – not a message, but the message – the Gospel, straight from God. Before we explore the message by the Son, let us put into perspective just who this Son was:
Hebrews 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
It is this Jesus, who will inherit all things. And just what is Jesus’ relationship to creation? Jesus owns it all, because He made it all:
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
All of creation is in the hands of Jesus. So what is Jesus’ relationship to God?
Hebrews 1:3a And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature …
Jesus doesn’t merely reflect the glory of God, Jesus is the glory of God. You want to know what God is like, look no further than Jesus. Philip asked Jesus that very thing:
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
And what is Jesus current and ongoing work:
Hebrews 1:3b … and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high …
Upholding all things? What does that mean?
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
Jesus is first and without Jesus we (and all of creation) would cease to exist. Yet being first and being before all things, this same Jesus: “When He had made purification of sins.” Jesus took away our sins – how? By paying the penalty of our sins on the cross. This is the Gospel, the Good news! And now, even today, “He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” And there at God’s right hand, the seat of honor, glory, and power. And what is Jesus doing while He is seated on the Father’s right hand? Jesus is interceding for us.
1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
Now with this perspective of who the Son is, what He has done, and what He is doing, let us go back to verse 2.
Hebrews 1:2a in these last days has spoken to us in His Son …
Jesus, who is God in the flesh. Jesus speaks not only for God – He spoke as God. In the New Testament there is no messenger and word-event formula as one finds in the Old Testament, such as
“the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah” (e.g., Jeremiah 28:12). On no occasion did Jesus say, “Thus says the Lord” or “The word of God came to me.” Jesus would say, “but I say unto you.” (see Matthew 5:5:20, 22, 28, 32, 34, etc.) At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew records:
Matthew 7:28–29 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Jesus speak as having authority be He does have all authority. In the Transfiguration of Jesus, where Jesus and His inter three, Peter, James, and John, went to the top of Mount Carmel and saw Jesus transformed before them into His glorified body. Peter, as he was known to do, can’t keep his mouth shut and speaks out of turn. Then from Heaven a big voiced boomed:
Matthew 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”
Wow you cannot get any more direct than that. "Listen to Him!" Jesus has a message and we are to hear it. Do we “hear” Jesus? Do we hear Him in His Word? Over and over in the Scriptures we read:
Matthew 11:15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Jesus says this 12 times in the NT and 4 times in the gospels and 8 times in Revelation. Now if we have heard, really heard God’s message from Jesus through His Word, what are we going to about it?
There is a real responsibility in hearing the Word, hearing the message that Jesus brings. We will be held accountable for all we have heard, all that we have read, and all that we know form His Word. James tells us:
James 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.
Warren W. Wiersbe tells us the whole book of Hebrews is a warning. This letter to the Hebrews was written to believers to heed God’s Message. [2]
But what happens when we do not? Jesus came and gave us the message. But, what happens when we ignore the message?
We Drift from the Message.
We drift by neglecting the Message.
Hebrews 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
If we are not being doers of the word we begin to neglect the Word. After we start neglecting the message we begin to:
Doubt the message.
Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
Remember the letter to the Hebrews is written to believers, not to unbelievers. Doubting the Word only hardens your heart. As your heart hardens this leads to:
Dullness toward the message.
Hebrews 5:11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
This is in context of the writer of Hebrews trying to teach deeper truths, but unable because we are not use to digesting the Word. In the next verse we read that “by this time you ought to be teachers” but we still need to spoon feed you. We will forget how to digest and study the Word of God. Our dullness to the message leads us to:
Despise the message
Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins
Despising the message, we quickly develop an attitude of willfully being disobedient to God. This means we begin to:
Defy the message
Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.
Jesus came and spoke and personally delivered the message. We drift from, doubt, become dull, despise and defy the message, the word which we have in our hands, what makes us think that we would obey any word we hear from heaven. And there is a sin that leads to death, but should we not heed the Word and live?
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
God will discipline those of His who neglect His message. The message spoken by Jesus cannot be ignored. It was so important that God needed to deliver it Himself. That is the miracle of the message.
It was so important, Jesus came and delivered it Himself. The question this morning is if you have heard or read his message, what will do you do with it?
This message is the message that must be understood this Christmas. Jesus came to save. And He is coming again to judge.
We either accept Jesus’ message of Salvation or we face Him as Judge.
As Christians we realize that without Jesus, we’re nothing.
[1] Modified from a message by Robert Leroe on Sermon Central: www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/putting-the-easter-back-into-christmas-robert-leroe-sermon-on-birth-of-jesus-64490?libronix=1&utm_source=libronix&utm_medium=api-link&utm_campaign=logos-software
[2] The following is adapted and borrowed from Wiersbe: Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), Phm 17.
