1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word this glorious
Christmas morning that we celebrate the birth of our dear Savior Jesus is taken
from Hebrews 1:1-6 and is entitled, “This
is God’s Son,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
C. S. Lewis
memorably portrayed our experience as Christians in spiritual growth of an
ever-enlarging Christ in his Chronicles
of Narnia. Lucy, caught up in her spiritual quest, saw the lion
Aslan—Jesus—shining white and huge in the moonlight. In a burst of emotion Lucy
rushed to him, burying her face in his mane, then Aslan rolled over on his side
so that Lucy fell, half-sitting and half-lying between his front paws. He bent
forward and touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath was all around
her. She gazed up into the large, wise face.
“Welcome, child,” Aslan said. “Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re
bigger.” “That’s because you are older, little one,” he answered. “Not
because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me
bigger.”
3.
I’m sure
that each year Christmas rolls around the story of the birth of our dear Savior
Jesus becomes bigger and bigger to you! There’s
so much depth to the Christmas story and God’s plan of salvation for us as
sinful human beings we could never reach to the bottom of it. The author of Hebrews presents the greatness
of Christ as no other New Testament writer does.
4.
Jesus was
the center of everything for the Jewish Christians who are addressed in the
letter to the Hebrews. Sad to say, for many of these believers—daily facing the
fury of Satan at the hands of persecuting Jews and pagans—Jesus was focus of
their distress. The Book of Hebrews was written to strengthen these troubled
Christians so that their faith wouldn’t crumble. Most importantly the author of
Hebrews says that Jesus was at the center of God’s plan for their salvation.
Jesus was their God, who wondrously became their Brother. Jesus was the Priest
who sacrificed Himself. Jesus was the
heart of their faith, their hope, their life. Jesus was everything to them. The
writer made all this clear to his struggling friends. But, he also makes it
clear to us. At a time when the Christmas season and holiday celebration in our
society are decidedly Christ-less, we need the reminder that Christ is at the
center of Christmas. Today, the author
of Hebrews reminds us exactly who this Jesus, this baby boy born in a barn, truly
is: the eternal God who took on a human nature to save and exalt sinners.
5.
Hebrews 1:1
says, “1 Long ago, at many times and
in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.” We live in a society that recognizes the
necessity of good communication. In the world of commerce millions are spent on
persuasive advertising. Politicians know how vital it is to communicate well.
Diplomats recognize the dangers that can arise in international affairs when
there occurs a serious ‘breakdown in
communications’. Stresses in family life frequently arise in situations
when husband and wife merely talk to each other but fail to communicate. The letter to the Hebrews begins by asserting
the greatest single fact of the Christian revelation: God has spoken to man
through His word in the Bible and through His Son, Jesus. In Christ God has
closed the greatest communication gap of all time, that which exists between a
holy God and us sinful human beings.
6. Hebrews
1:2 goes onto say, “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.” What a miracle of love that God should
choose to speak to us directly through His Son! The phrase “these last days” informs us that we
shouldn’t look for any new prophecies from God. Nor is God going to start
communicating with us in new ways, other than through the Scriptures. Jesus Christ
is God’s last and fullest word to us. So we listen closely as God speaks to us
about our Redeemer. Here in Hebrews we find the doctrine of the two natures of
Christ. Martin Luther remarked that the two natures are rarely taught with as
much detail as they are in this section of Scripture. It’s this truth that
gives us so much comfort and joy at Christmas time. When we see how God exalted
human nature as the attributes of the Son of God were communicated to the man
born of Mary, when we see how God gave hope to humanity by honoring humanity in
Christ, then we can rejoice! God didn’t give up on humanity. Instead he found a
way to raise us up from our sin to give us the hope of a glorious and holy
life. He asked his Son to take on our human nature and to share the glory of
God with it. This is God’s Son for you!
7. The glorious exaltation of Christ’s
humanity, is expressed when the writer declares, “whom he appointed heir of all things.” As true God, Jesus had no
need to be appointed heir; he was the original owner! But as true man he was
appointed heir of “all things,” i.e.,
of the whole creation. We belong to Christ because God appointed him heir and
we’re His inheritance. But we’re also part of His creation. The Son was the agent through whom the Father
created all that there is. He was with God and was God, the Apostle John writes
in the first chapter of His Gospel (1:1–14), and so all things were made
through Him and nothing was made without Him. It’s also true that we belong to
Christ because He’s the one who made us.
8. Hebrews 1:3-4 says, “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, 4 having become as much superior to angels as
the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” Here
in these verses is the heart of the Christian message. The Son of God took on
human flesh and blood to provide purification from sin. This is the Good News
of Christmas. Notice that Jesus cleansed
us of sin. He didn’t clean up our will, our reason, or our abilities so that we
could earn God’s favor through some sort of effort on our part through our own
good works. It wasn’t our work but Jesus’ work that purified us from sin. Let me repeat that again, it wasn’t our work
but Jesus’ work that purified us from sin. It was Jesus alone who washed away
the filth of sin by offering His own body and blood as the final atoning sacrifice.
Without Christ there’s no forgiveness and no purity before God. Without Christ
we would be forever unclean and unable to stand in the presence of the holy
God. But Jesus did wash us clean. We have been purified.
9. It should also be noted that purification
for sins comes only through faith in Christ. In Acts 15:9 Peter explained this
to the Jerusalem Council as he spelled out the truth for Jew and Gentile alike:
“God purified their hearts by faith.”
The one who has faith that Jesus has cleansed him of sin is cleansed. The writer goes on to state that this same
Jesus who humbled himself and became obedient even to death was also exalted to
the highest place. The Apostle Paul
reminds us of this in Philippians chapter 2. Christ poured out His blood on the
cross to purify us from sin. Jesus died. But then God raised Him from the dead
and exalted Him. The writer to the Hebrews explains that after Jesus died and
rose again He “sat at the right hand of
the Majesty in heaven.” Here again we wonder that the human nature was
raised up and exalted. As true God, the Son always possessed the power and
authority of God. But it’s God’s great miracle and our hope that this power and
authority was shared with the human nature of Christ. Our human nature, the
body and soul that we possess as human beings, wasn’t defeated and destroyed by
sin. But, in Christ Jesus it was honored and exalted.
10. Christ’s exaltation is our great hope. Where
He is, we will be. What His body and soul enjoy in heaven, we will also enjoy.
That He was raised up from death to glory means that we will be raised as well.
We won’t become divine, for God has set Christ above us, but we will share in His
glory. This is our hope and joy as we gaze into the manger at Christmas time.
We see a little boy with a body and soul just like ours, and we know that we
will share that “body-and-soul” life
with him forever. This is God’s Son born
for you! Hallelujah! Amen.
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