Epiphany Sunday - Hebrews 13:8 - Pastor Jeremy Haynes

You.

We'll be reading today from Hebrews. We'll be in Hebrews, chapter 13. I'm going to read starting in verse five. I'm going to go all the way down to verse eight. It says this, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Remember the outcome of their way of life.

Imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Take your seats.

Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for this day. We thank you that you have called us to this moment in some amazing way. Every step of our life, every season of our life, every change we faced, every moment we've encountered, every affection of our heart, everything that we've faced in life, everything that we've desired in life, everything that's brought us to this point in life, has been somehow ordained and ordered by you and by your hand. And so we now come to you believing that everything you've done is done for our good.

It's done to shepherd us toward you and to walk with you and to be with you. And so now we ask you to bless this time, this teaching, and our hearts. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, it's a new year.

If you're anything like I am, you're deliberately seeking to manage the changes that you're experiencing already this year or the changes you hope to see happen this year. New year is a time that brings about changes in our lives. In fact, changes are everywhere I notice in my life. I think about changes in my body as I'm beginning older, I have tightness in my elbow these days. I've noticed changes in my family.

This year, my parents will both be 70. I feel a growing sense of responsibility for my parents. So much change there, even for my own marriage with Lexi, we now can go on date nights without a babysitter. That's an amazing change. Praise God.

That's right. All these changes, even with my career over the last few years, I used to be in some ways committed to the idea of serving full time, a vocational pastoral ministry. I thought I'd be in one church the rest of my life, but God changed that. And now I do something completely different. With the majority of my week, changes are always happening.

It almost seems that change is the only consistent thing we experience in life, is change. We manage change. Changes. When we come to the Book of HebrEws, we're looking to a people who is experiencing tremendous change. They're experiencing change because they've gone from being mostly a JeWish Community, from now changing into a christian community.

They've gone from people who have been, in the beginning of their faith, mostly faithful, it seems, to now doubting.

They've gone from a people who were confident in what they knew about the law into now a group that is unsure about how the law plays into their life, a group that was confident that the work of Moses was their sure place, now has to find their confidence in the grace that comes from Christ. All of these changes are taking place in their lives. And that's why the author of the Book of Hebrews is preaching to them, seeking them out to preach a word of the superiority of Christ in their life, that no matter what changes happen, Christ is the one who is greater than all the things you've known in the past, all the things you've held on to. ChRIsT is the one that you must grasp and hold fast to. His first goal he's had in this book, in this sermon, the second kind of goal he's had, as he's been teaching these people in this immense amount of change, is that he wants them to hold fast and be faithful to the things that God has taught them through ChrIsT.

All these things are happening. They're experiencing all these things. This SermoN's BeEn covering so much important data that they need to know about their faith. And now we come to this last chapter of the BOOk of hebrews, and he goes into 19 principles for ChrIstian Living. So all this lofty, amazing things they need to know about ChrIst.

But now we get into some nitty gritty principles that matter. I'll break them into three categories. The first category is really in relation to others. We're in chapter 13. I'm not going to go through all this, but in the first few verses, verse one through four, this relation to others talks about having hospitality and the importance of hospitality.

He talks about visiting prisoners. He talks about the importance of keeping the marriage bed holy and staying away from sexual morality, being content. Then the last section, last few verses, kind of going from verse nine all the way down to verse 1617. He looks at relation to God and he's saying to these people, separate yourself from the system of the Jews and move into this grace of God and step outside of the camp, step outside of the system that's in place of the Judaism, and step into the grace of God and offer sacrifices and prayers to him as an offering. These are the two categories now, right in the middle of these two categories, relations to other, in relation to God, we have relation to self.

Right in the middle, in relation to self, he's going to focus on having a steadfastness and a faithfulness in your heart. That's what we're going to focus on today. The two verses that we're going to look at today are going to be verse seven and eight. I have two points. Point number one is, remember your leaders.

Point number two is the sameness of Christ. Remember, he's speaking to a group of people who are struggling with all the changes they're facing, with the tribulations and the challenges. And now he's going to point to them in their relationship to themselves and say, inside your heart, inside who you are. These are the things you need to hear to stay strong. Two things.

Remember your leaders. Remember the sameness of Christ. Verse seven. Hebrews 13, verse seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith.

Remember your leaders. We don't know all of who their leaders were and who they were talking to or who they were thinking about. We don't have their names. We don't have their stories. But the principle remains, remember those leaders.

Some of them may have. May have already died. You remember them because they're not with you. But then some of them might be present. But the point is, remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to you.

A chapter earlier in the chapter eleven. Why don't you turn there? Chapter eleven. We have an example of a leader who came before that they should remember. His name is Moses.

Chapter eleven. Turn with me to verse 23.

By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, Moses left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. And by faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood over the doorpost that day so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

This is clearly a leader. They want to remember this leader. They want to remember his name is Moses. And what I love about Moses is that it says a few times here, not only were his parents not afraid, but he was not afraid. He decided not to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter and to take on the reproach or to give up the privilege of having that name.

He decided to take on the reproach of Christ and to give up the fleeting pleasures of Egypt. He decided to take on a life of struggle, because he believed there was something more in God for him and for his people. He did all these things in all the movements and phases and seasons of his life by faith. And I think about the outcome of his life. It was a good outcome.

Maybe it wasn't what he hoped, or maybe what we might have hoped as we read the story, but this was a man who was faithful till the end. Remember your leaders. Those who spoke the word of God to you, imitate their faith. Moses was one of those people. And I wonder, as they think about these leaders that are in front of them, like Moses.

I wonder if they were wondering if he could do it. We could do it. And I think the author was encouraging them and hoping that if they could see that Moses could do it in Christ, that they could do it in Christ, that's probably why he was encouraging them to do this, because then they could see it. Then they could do it. That's the parallel.

I had the privilege some time ago, to go to a memorial of a dear brother of ours, Chris Jenkins. Not his memorial, but his father's memorial. And at that memorial, I opened up the bulletin that day. And the bulletin had a picture of Chris Jenkins'father on the front of it. And his hair was silver, and he had this amazing smile.

And it almost seemed like he'd been laughing when they took that picture. And I enjoyed it. And I was really there because I'm Chris's friend, pastor in his church, and I want to be there when it counts. And I love my brother, but I love you, too. And that day, I was surprised, though.

And what I was surprised by was the stories they told about his father. It was almost like they rehearsed it. Each person got up and they said, he told us not to talk about his past and what he did in his life, but to only talk about Jesus. It was like every single person knew what they were to say, as though they were handed notes for their talk. He was a man of faith.

He was a man of honor. Both of his sons got up. Both of his sons and his family, they stood up and praised his faithfulness. And they spoke words of their own faith that they saw in him that was handed down to them.

I listened. I felt. I believed that if he could do it, Mr. Jenkins, I could do it. I could have that day where I stand, not stand where I'm in the ground and my kids are there telling the story of my faithfulness.

If he could do it, I could do it. I felt that.

What will they say when you're in the ground?

Will you be the person that was holding on to the leaders that spoke the word of God to you in a way that you're imitating their faith so that those who come behind you can hold your hand as they look to you?

This is what the author is talking about. The relation to self is that I remember the leaders who spoke the word of God to me. When the challenges come, when the seasons change, when I lose my way, I remember what they told me, and I hold on.

This is what the author wants them to do.

Second point, the sameness of Christ.

Back to verse. Chapter 13, one sentence that will echo in our hearts for eternity.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Here's the question we must ask to this one sentence. In what sense is he the same? In what sense is he the same yesterday, today, and forever? In what sense?

Well, if you would turn with me to Hebrews, chapter one. And I want to answer that question with us.

Long ago. This is verse one. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son Jesus, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. Jesus.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the power of his word.

One of the ways he's the same is that he's the same nature, the exact imprint of God the father and God the son. They have the sameness. The rock of ages, the God of old, the God who created all things, Jesus was there creating with him. He's the same. He was not a man.

That's merely a prophet that lived and died, and his story was over. He existed before that. He's the same as the eternal God. That's part of the sameness. Another part of the sameness that I believe is important is it's over in Malachi.

Malachi. Three, six. You don't need to turn. Let me just read it for you. For I, the Lord, do not change.

Therefore, you, o children of Jacob, you will not be consumed, because I do not change.

He's connected to that God that does not change. He's the unchanging God. Some theologians say the immutable God, that's the sense in which he does not change. And the fact that his divinity is the same as the Godhead, the Trinity, the son, the spirit, the Son and the father, they are the same. And then another point.

Even thinking back with me to Hebrews, I kind of missed it. But let me just kind of say it again. Hebrews one. It says this whole statement here after it talks about him being the exact imprint of the nature of God. In chapter one, verse eight, and actually chapter one, verse five, it says, the author says, for to who?

To which of the angels did God ever say these things? Say it again. The author of Hebrews is asking a rhetorical question. For to which of the angels did God ever say this? Dot, dot, dot.

Here he goes, verse eight. But of the sun God said, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You, the Son, have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed to you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

So God calls the Son God. The throne is his forever and ever. He's the same in his divinity, in his truth, in his grace, in his mercy. His everlastingness is the same as the triune God. He's also the same in his compassion and kindness and love.

He sympathizes with us. This is his sameness, that he has that ability to know us intimately. I think about a moment in the life of Saul where Saul had sinned and failed, and God had raised up Saul to be king. Saul in his haste failed, and he stole the spoils of a battle and God judged him. And this is what Samuel said to Saul about the nature of God.

He says, saul, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you and also the Lord of glory, the glory of Israel. He will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. So it's interesting. God is this everlasting same God, and yet he responds to the things that are happening in time.

I think it's beautiful picture of this Jesus who is half man or fully man and fully God. There's a part of God that is the same, the same, and yet responding to what's happening, Jesus being fully man and fully God, exemplifies to us the sameness of God, the triune God. That's a sense in which he's the same. Next question is, what do these three different time periods mean for us? Yesterday, today, and forever?

Well, yesterday, I think I've kind of already said it. He was there in the beginning, pulling forward all the details, all the things that have happened to this point, even the story about Moses, how he chose the reproach of Christ. It said, over the pleasures, every single prophet, every single detail, Jesus was somehow a part of these things all the way until now. That's yesterday working and then today. Today is today.

Today is always today. The day you're seeing, the day you're feeling, the day you're experiencing. Today is the day where you are strengthened by the grace of God, where you hold fast to the truths of God.

Today is the day. And so Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and he's also the same today. He helps us to live by faith today, to trust him today. We think about our confessions. We do every single week here.

Those confessions are part of us being strengthened by the grace of God. Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever shall believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For he didn't send his son in the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those of you who are in Christ Jesus.

Broad is the road that leads to death and destruction, but narrow is the road that leads to life. Jesus is the truth, the life and the way, and no one gets to the father except through him. These truths we hold on to, and they strengthen us every single day. That is the todayness of Jesus. And then tomorrow and forever is the fact that there is a day where he brings us to himself, and he will wipe away every tear and every burden, every concern, every temptation, every sensitivity, every insecurity will be gone, where all things will be made new in him, with him, for eternity.

This is a part of what it means when God says and then what the Bible says and what the author says. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and forever. He is the God that is the same. When the world seems like it's changing fundamentally, he's the same I think about in my life, just the ways that I remember him being the same through my journey, I think about being a five year old and my mom singing Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. I was five and I remember him calling me deeply in my early twenty s and singing Jesus Messiah, name above all names, blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel, early twenty s.

And then I remember standing here just even six months ago singing, he will hold me fast, he will hold me fast, for my savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.

I've gone through so many terrible, amazing things and he has held me fast all the way through it. Five years old, ten years old, 1520. You keep counting. Here I stand. Not because I'm amazing, because he's been the same, holding me, putting these songs in my heart so that I could sing them, so that my affections can rise for him.

My intellect can remember him, but my affections live for him. I get to move by faith. I get to remember the leaders who've come before me on my weekdays. I get to go, he's the same even when I'm not. I get to reach back, hold on to him.

I get to read my Bible and I get to have my human days. And remember that God sees me in the sense of what he put in the Bible so that I can remember that I can be weak and he could be strong. I was even meditating and reflecting and thinking about this sermon, and I stumbled onto psalm 102, and I think it was a great reminder of all the changes that are happening and all of what I think this church in Hebrews is experiencing and all of what we might experience, and it comes back to this sameness. And I want to read this psalm 102 to you as we kind of come to this end of Jesus being the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let me read this for us.

And I want you to think about the tension in this psalm between the humanity of the person praying this prayer and the reality of God's sameness and God's power. Psalm 102 hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress, incline your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call, for my days pass away like smoke. My bones burn like a furnace.

My heart is struck down like grass and has withered. I forget to eat my bread because my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me.

Those who deride me use my name as a curse, for I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink because of your indignation and your anger. For you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow. I wither away like grass. But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever.

You are remembered throughout all the generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion. It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come for your servants. Hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.

Nations will fear the name of the Lord. All kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the Lord builds up Zion. He appears in his glory. He regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.

Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord that he looked down from his holy Height from the heaven. The Lord looked at the earth to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, his praise when peoples gather together and kingdoms to worship the Lord. He has broken my strength in mid course. He has shortened my days. O my God, I say, take me not away in the midst of my days.

You whose years endure throughout all the generations.

The tension is there and the reality is there. A weak man praying to an eternal God who he knows will never forget him.

While our minds might fade and dull and our strength may go away, our goals may never be achieved, our weakness may overtake us. The seasons may hurt. The seasons may bring joy.

But no matter what happens, he is the same in his faith. His hope and his love will remain forever. And I've got good news for you. As we close this down today, you are not the changeless one that everything hinges on.

You are not the changeless one that everything hinges on. There is a lot of concerns. There's a lot of things you want to pull together. You want to keep your family intact, you want to keep your friends intact. You want to keep your church intact, your job intact, your finances intact.

All these things do not hinge on your changelessness. But all of these things hinge on the changelessness of Christ. And for that reason, we can rest. And for that reason we can rejoice, because he's the one that will always remain strong in every season. Let's pray.

God in heaven, we thank you. We thank you that it does not depend on us. It depends on you. You are the one. You were there when Moses decided to put off the fleeting pleasures of Israel to pursue you.

You were there when this author penned the book of Hebrews and wanted to challenge these people to remember their leaders and to remember you and how you are the same God. You were there when we first prayed to you. You were there when we first sang that song to you. You were there when we fell down. You were there when we got up.

You were there. You are here now.

You are here now. We bring this to you now. We bring you our life. We bring you our worries. We bring you our concerns.

We bring you our anxieties. We give you our jobs. We give you our families. We give you all the things that we carry. We cast them at your feet because you care for us.

You are the God of the last generation. You are the God of this generation. And you will be the God of the next generation. And every generation that will ever come will praise you by faith. We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

7th Day of Christmas- Hebrews 7:26-28 - Pastor Jon Meenk

Good morning. You can remain standing. We're going to pick up right from there. Hebrews 7:26-28 is going to be our passage today. Picking up right there, For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the Oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. This is the word, Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for another day where you gather your church together. Lord, I pray that today we would... As we dive into your word, Lord Jesus, our eyes would only see you. And Lord, we'd see our weakness, but we'd see the great lengths that you have gone to to redeem us and Lord Jesus to be our high priest. And what that means for us, why we need a high priest.

Lord Jesus and why you are the perfect and the better high priest for us. Lord, we're in desperate need of you. I'm in need of you and preaching your word, and we're all in need of hearing your word. Through the power of your spirit, would you enable us this morning to hear your word? Would it be planted into our hearts, Lord? All for Your glory and Jesus name, Amen. You can have a seat. Well, Merry Christmas, everybody. I hope you had a good one. I have a quick story to just help break the ice and get us rolling. I think you'll find it funny. It has nothing to do with the message. We're opening presents Christmas morning, and my kids love giving gifts. And so they're little. So they either make funny little gifts for us or they just go and they find toys in their bedroom and they wrap them. And so these presents just keep showing up under the tree and there's tons. And you can tell they're all from our kids because of how they're wrapped. And so we're opening all their presents Christmas morning. And Everly, my oldest, hands Katie, my wife, a gift.

And so she opens it. And we're used to seeing either a craft or something that we've seen around the house for years, like a toy that's just been in the living room. Now all of a sudden, we're opening it up and she opens up and it's this serving spoon that I've never seen before. And so we're like, I'm shocked. I'm in the kitchen, Katie is open. I'm absolutely shocked. I'm like, Everly, when did you get a spoon? She can't drive herself to the store. And so she listened to her pastor, John Noyes, who I don't know if you guys remember weeks ago, he said, If you don't collect stuff out of the lost and found, it's a good Christmas present. And my daughter, I've never been more proud. My daughter, in her ingenuity, frugleness, she snuck a spoon out of that box, home, into a room, wrapped it. So whoever spoon that is, thank you. It was the best gift my wife received this Christmas. It was one of your spoons from my wonderful daughter, Everlee. So it was fun. I hope you all had a great and wonderful Christmas. Man, it's crazy how fast it goes.

Right? Like, so fast. It felt like it was over so fast. Every year, I know that's coming every year that every year it's going to feel like, man, Christmas just flew by. And so there's always this one moment I look to every year because I'm sure your Decembers are the same as mine. We're all doing the same thing. December, you so bad want to slow down and just enjoy that advent of the season and just wait and wait and wait. But man, life is crazy in December, and you're running from work party to the mall. You're trying to get presents. You're trying to wrap things. You're trying to bake things, you're getting have get-togethers with friends, and just December flies. And then Christmas Day shows up, and that day feels like a blink of an eye, right? There's always this one moment that I look forward to on Christmas morning, it's really simple, is just when all the running around finally stops, and it's Christmas morning, and I'm just in my sweats, sitting on the couch, a coffee in my hand, and just watching my wife and my kid smile. It's like, all right, the craziness and the running around has stopped just for a few moments.

And I know it's going to pick up again tomorrow, like the very next day. But I love basking in that moment. I don't know if you have that specific moment. I hope you all have a moment on Christmas that you just really look forward to where you can stop and bask in the goodness of God and not just run through this life and not stopping to smell the roses as it were. But here's the problem, right? That moment is so quick, like I was saying, that soon we're just back into running around, running around, running around. And it's, what is it? It's only 51 more weeks until Christmas, 2024. Is that like make your stomach turn? Just like thinking like, it's just life is going by so fast. In any case, however your fleeting moment is, whether it's like mine or something else, the moment is so quick. And so today, we're going to talk a bit about busyness, and we're going to look at the the weakness of the high priest here in Hebrews seven, and we're going to see a constant busyness in these high priests. And to be clear, before we dive into this message, we're dropping right into the middle of Hebrews, and there's just a lot there.

And it was messing with my confidence even writing this message because there's so much more on the cutting room floor than there is in this message. There's just no way that I could cover everything adequately and do it in a time span where you would want to pay attention for that long. And then also, for whatever reason, whether it's Christmas or whatnot, hey, young ones, you were on my mind the whole time. And so, Roland, you're on my mind, dude. Huck, you were on my mind, buddy. Yeah, you young kids, you were just on my mind through this. And my hope is that today, specifically for you young ones, that you would understand why you need a high priest, what is the high priest, and why Jesus is the new and better and perfect high priest for you and for me. I'm going to get through. You just heard chapter seven read. I'm going to get through this whole message, and I'm not going to mention Melchizedek once, right? And if you are reading through Hebrews, you're thinking, how do you get through chapter seven without even mentioning Melchizedek? But my hope today is that I can point out this contrast of the high priests under the law and the high priests that we have in the New Covenant.

This weakness of the old covenant, high priests, like I've said before, results in this endless, perpetual laboring and striving. And it's much like how I picture us. You see the world around you in December, just running, running, non-stop, non-stop busyness. And we see this weakness clearly. We read it already. It's in verse 18. It says, for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. These high priests that were in the line of Aaron, who were appointed under the law were flawed men. They were sinful men. And so there was never a perfect sacrifice offered, which is why we read here, For the law made nothing perfect. The tabernacle, though it was a reminder to the people of God that God was with them, it wasn't like he was with them in the garden temple where he was communing with man. But there was that tabernacle was also a reminder to them that there was a separation from God and them. God had chosen to, after that temple relationship being broken in sin in Eden, we see then God at Mount Sinai bringing that relationship back together.

And so we see the temple at Mount Sinai where Moses meets God, right? And so then we move into God then gives His law, and through His law, He makes a way that He can be in relationship with man again. But it doesn't mean He just forgets about sin. And so He sets up all these very detailed rules and laws and rituals of sacrifice so that these priests, these high priests in the line of Aaron can make sacrifice and God can be with his people. But he's still separate from his people. And so this sacrifice, there was a weakness to it because it made no one perfect, like I said, because these men were not perfect. They were mere men. They had their own sin to deal with, just like any other human. So they couldn't approach God on their own merit. They had to follow these laws and they had to follow this sacrificial system to first make atonement for their own sin, and then to go in and make a sacrifice for God's people. But as we just read, it didn't make anybody perfect. The high priests appointed by the law were constantly working, constantly maintaining.

And this wasn't only just at the once-a-year sacrifice that we know as the Day of Atonement, where he would enter into the Holy of Holies and make a sacrifice for all the people. But daily in the morning and daily at night, there was a sacrifice known as the perpetual burnt offerings that they would offer in the morning, they would offer in the evening. And this happened every day, every day, over and over again. You're seeing this. I don't know if you know what the definition of perpetual is, but occurring repeatedly, so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted. These offerings were constant, seemingly endless. And there is no feeling of rest. There is no feeling of completion. There is no feeling of like, okay, we're finally at this place where we're back in that relationship with God, but there was always this distance. There was always this separation. But these high priests not only had a moral dilemma in that they had their own sin they had to deal with, and they weren't a perfect sacrifice. And so these lambs and goats and whatever they offered weren't perfect sacrifices. But they also had a mortal dilemma, is that these were mere men who sinned, and these were also mere men who would die.

So you would have one high priest, but then that high priest doesn't live forever. And so that baton needs to be passed to the next high priest. And can you imagine if we don't just read past this stuff or maybe think we know about the temple, sacrificial system or the high priests, if we don't read past and just think how this is affecting the people in the wilderness, God's people as this is happening, can you imagine the restlessness and anxiety that this causes to the people? There's a restlessness in the hearts of those people, I'm sure. Because as I think of this high priests, this is... God is scary, right? He's scary, and we want to be in relationship with him, but He's holy, and He's pure, and He's all-powerful, and he has these very detailed ways of approaching Him. And then you're... There's a man, a mere man that is going in there and following these. Right then, I don't know if I trust anybody that much. I don't think you should. Pick the person in here. I asked my kids when I was talking to them at the breakfast table, I was like, Okay, pick somebody from church.

They're going to be the high priests, so I can explain it to you. They go, Pastor David. I was like, okay, still. Yeah, exactly. Man, it's like, oh. Then imagine, this is what I was telling my kids, imagine you have this high priest who then is like, okay, at first you're like, Oh, dude, don't mess this up. Don't mess this up. And then year after year, okay, he's got this. He got this. But then that guy dies and then you got another guy like, Man. It's anxiety. It's stressful. Here you have the tavernacle where God's presence is resting. And I don't want to jump into itlike all the stories, but this is Old Testament. I'm not saying that God has changed, but this is Old Testament, Old Covenant. You don't approach God on your own terms. You approach God on his terms, and you don't make it up. If you guys know the story of Aaron's sons who approached God and didn't offer the right sacrifice, and they were consumed with fire, this is that God, right? The stakes are high. You have this guy who's living in, who's taking up residence in this tabernacle, and through his law, he's given this avenue, like I just said, of this relationship to be restored in some ways, not fully, but to be restored in some ways.

And this relationship would depend on mere men following detailed instructions. How crazy does that sound? How many of you here... Well, I don't know. There's probably millions of toys that were put together this Christmas, and no instructions were read, right? We aren't known. I would say us as men are not known for the details of these instructions and following these instructions. And so when I read that, when I see that, it's like, man, the anxiety and the restlessness of this. This perpetual, sacrificial system was never the end, but it was always pointing, right? This was always pointing to we needed a better high priest. Because perfection wasn't obtained by the law, and the high priests of the law were the shadow of the substance of what's to come. They were pointing to something. Young ones, I want you to get this concept, okay? So follow me with this. Your pastors will say this terminology. I know I say it. I can think of times where I've heard our other pastors say it, but like the shadow and substance. Okay? I want you to know what that means when we say that. Next time you go to the park, I want you to go out to a tree and I want you to find the shadow of the tree on the ground.

Look down and find that shadow. And you're looking at the shadow and you can tell some stuff from that tree, right? You can tell if it's a skinny tree. You can tell if it's a fat tree. You can tell if there's leaves. You can tell if there isn't any leaves. Maybe, depending where the sun is, you can tell how tall it is or it's not very tall. But then turn and look at the tree, right? The shadow gave you some details of what the tree was, but it never was the tree. It was a shadow of the tree describing a bit, a little bit of what the real tree is. And so once you have the tree, once you're looking at the tree, do you need the shadow anymore to describe the tree or to see the tree? No, you don't need the shadow anymore. Okay? Whatever new toy you got for Christmas, you can do the same thing. You have to go to the park. You can just go home. Hold your toy up so that one of the lights gives you a shadow on the ground and describe, look at your toy, the shadow, right?

And you can get a picture of that toy. But then look at the toy in your hand. What are you going to play with? You're going to play with the toy or you're going to play with the shadow of the toy? With the toy, right? These high priests were the shadow of the substance, which is what's to come, which is Jesus, which is the thing that we need. And the whole time it was pointed to that. So now we've seen the weakness, the moral weakness, and the mortal weakness of these high priests under the law. So now let's go back and see the fitting high priests that we have. And it's the beginning of verse 26 here, For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were corrupt, Christ, our high priest is holy. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were guilty, Christ, our high priest is innocent. Where the high priests of the Old Covenant were stained by sin, Christ, our high priest is unstained. And where the high priests of the Old Covenant were in separate from sin because they were sinners themselves, Christ, our high priest was sinless and separated from sinners.

Do you understand that? You see how Christ is our better and perfect high priest. Every moral weakness found in the high priests in the Old Covenant is contrasted by the moral perfection of Christ, our perfect high priests. The passage goes on to say, He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily. First, for his own sins that we talked about, the priests having to offer sacrifices for themselves, and then for the sins of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. As the perfect high priest, he didn't need to sacrifice for himself. As completely holy, without sin, he could approach God without fear and offer a sacrifice. But Jesus, our high priest, didn't go in with a sacrifice in his hands, but he goes in and he offers himself the Lamb of God. He offers himself to God as a sacrifice. This perfect sacrifice now doesn't just merely cover our sins, but it atones for our sins. Where the high priests under the law would go and offer a sacrifice once a year, but it would need to be redone next year and it need to be redone the next year, and it need to be redone the next year because it merely covered their sins.

But Christ offering a perfect sacrifice has wiped your sins out. His perfect sacrifice of laying himself down as the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Now your sins, Christian, are not covered. They're obliterated. But it doesn't merely solve this moral dilemma. Christ also solves our mortal dilemma. In verse 26, it says that He's exalted above the heavens where the service of men ended and where it was limited by their lifespan. Christ, who has conquered death, who offered Himself, died for us, but also lives for us. Now there is no end to His service as the high priest. He lives forever. And so there's no next guy. There's no next one. There's no anxiety of what's going to happen when he hands this to the next guy. Jesus is our perfect and final high priest forever. Verse 28 says, For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, and these are the moral and mortal weaknesses we just covered. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. Okay, that word of the oath, I don't know if you're like me, you're probably feeling like, hey, this is pretty straightforward.

Just reading the passage, saying what this passage is saying a few more times. Really straightforward. We got it. And then my brain, when I get to that word of the oath part, I just don't talk like that. So then my brain trips out for a second. As I was writing this message, I had a picture in my head of I got a drill in my hand, and we're just methodically drilling this screw in. It's all working. It's all working. And then that word of the oath line comes up and the drill skips and I strip out the screw head and now we're stuck. So what we're going to do, it's like everybody in here is done, we're going to back that screw out. We're going to get some momentum, and we're going to ram at home and figure this out. And if you're not like me and you're like, Dude, what's your problem? Then congratulations. You can go back to sleep. Going back. This is going to be fun. Going back to verse 18, we're going to cruise through this real quick. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of the weakness and uselessness of the law.

Okay, we already read this. This is the weakness of the law and the high priests appointed by that law that we just covered. So that's the moral and mortal weakness. For the law made nothing perfect because it wasn't a perfect sacrifice, right? But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Okay, kids, who or what is that better hope? Good job, Breaker. You can almost always say Jesus, and you're going to be right. Jesus is that better hope. So verse 20, And it was not without an oath. Okay, so this new and better hope comes with an oath. Why does it need an oath? Look one page back or hold your finger and go back to chapter six, verse 16. Or you can just hear me read it here. It says, For people swear by something greater than themselves and in their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desires to show more convincingly to the heirs of promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. Okay, let me explain that. So the people, us human beings and our weakness, we lie and you can't trust us.

Okay? So what do we do? And we want somebody to really, really, really trust what we're saying. We say stuff like, I promise or I swear, right? Or if you talk like this, you say, I give an oath. I've never heard my kids say I give an oath, right? So we lie. God does not lie, right? By giving this oath, it's not saying that, Hey, this is God's word that's actually trustworthy and nothing else is. This is God, as we just read, knowing the weakness of us, knowing the weakness of man. And when he wants to hammer home that we can be convinced of something that will never change, that he will never go back on, God then gives an oath. Do you guys see that here? So now let's go back, verse 20, And it was not without an oath. Remember we just talked about this new and better hope, which is Jesus comes with an oath. God is doubling down here by giving an oath because He knows our weakness. He's like, I promise, I will not change my mind on this. This is the oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

Under the law, there was no Oath that came along with the priests under Aaron. This was just the law given. Here's the law. Here's how you approach me and follow these rules. You got that? But with this new high priest, there comes an Oath. There comes a promise, right? But this one, who's Jesus, was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him. Okay, so here comes the oath. All right, so backtrack a little bit. We're trying to get this screw in, right? This better hope is Jesus, and God guarantees this better hope, this better high priest with a promise, with an oath. And here comes the oath, and it's at a Psalm 1:10-4, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. So if there's any doubt that we have a final and perfect high priest, God has made an oath that this is your high priest forever. That anxiety that you would feel of the changing high priests or these imperfect high priests ends because this is your high priest forever. This is the oath. God is sworn and He's not going to change his mind.

Verse 22, This makes Jesus the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented from death by continuing office. This is the mortal weakness, right? But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. He lives forever because Jesus conquered death. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost. He's able to save fully and completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Okay? And then we're in our passage that we started with today, For it was indeed fitting. This is the high priest that we need. This is the high priest that fit us. It was indeed fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law. So this is Old Covenant and New Covenant.

The law came and this was the shadow. Remember, kids, this is the shadow pointing to the substance. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. So this high priests that we rely on, that the people of God relied on to maintain this relationship with God, even though it was still separated. They needed someone to go before him and make peace with God because of their sins. And now we have the perfect high priest. We have the one who is sinless, going and offering himself. So don't leave me hanging here. I got an easy question. Who is the substance that the shadow is pointing to? Who is the son who has been made perfect? And who is our perfect high priest? Jesus, Breaker, you're on it, dude. Jesus. But before we end, I want to leave you guys with one last picture. You may have nailed it with somebody's present this year, or maybe somebody else nailed it for you and they gave you just something awesome. I'm going to give you bad news. Whatever that thing is, it's going to lose its shine pretty quick.

Your shoes are going to wear out, your clothes are going to get stained, games are going to get old, Legos are going to get lost, toys are going to get broken. Right? These things don't last forever. So we do all this running around. We run, run, run through December, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy to get to Christmas Day. And we have this quick moment, which is good. A quick moment before we're back to running, running, running, running, running to do it all again, hopefully by the grace of God, next year with these imperfect gifts that won't last forever. When I think of Jesus as high priest, there's one picture, descriptive picture in Hebrews that I always think of. And I was talking to Nate a few weeks back, and he actually brought it up to me. And it's what I always picture. And so I hope I leave you with this picture if you take nothing else away from this. It's in Chapter 10, verses 11 through 14. And it says this, remember these priests, if I haven't said enough, are offering an imperfect sacrifice, constantly maintaining, constantly, constantly, constantly striving to maintain this relationship.

And verse 11 says, And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. Reminds me of the busyness of December. That for me. Going, going, going, going, going, and maybe that's just a microcosm of just life, what life feels like, going, going, going, going, going, going, hoping you can work hard enough to take a moment. But right on the other side of that moment, it's you're going, going, going, going, going again. And there's just a restlessness. But the good news is verse 12, But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down. And he sat down at the right-hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstill for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. That moment on Christmas morning that I look forward to that is fleeting, that I know to be only for a few short moments. And the whole time, like this year, I was thinking, man, even in that moment, I was thinking, Tuesday is coming and it's back to work.

It's back to going, going, going, going, going, right? That moment and all my striving is just a moment. But Christian, that moment has been secured for you for eternity. Christ is no longer leaving us restless, wondering what's going to happen, wondering what is my relationship with God like, wondering if I approach God, how will I find Him? Wondering what our status is with God Almighty. Jesus has done the work, and we're the high priests under the Old Covenant were constantly running and constantly working, Jesus Christ, our high priest, has offered a perfect sacrifice, and he sat down and finished the work. Young ones, if you take a picture away today of this message, it's that. Jesus, your high priest, at great cost to himself, went before God the Father and offered himself to God as a sacrifice, and he died for you, but he rose for you. And so now he's at the right-hand of God the Father, not trying to appease God the Father, but the sacrifice has been given. And so now you're in right standing with God the Father through your high priest, Jesus Christ. You guys get that? And it's been done.

It's been done perfectly forever. This is the shadow that was always pointing to the substance. These high priests under the law were pointing us to Christ. And so now we have Christ. We don't need to look back to our works and look back to our own sacrifices, thinking that our sacrifices are a way that we can gain acceptance and gain entry to God because Christ has done it for us, and He's finished the work. Christ has come, has become our perfect high priest who is holy and who can stand before a holy God. And Christ, our high priest, then doesn't offer a sacrifice as a lamb of a lamb, but as the lamb of God, He offers Himself as the perfect sacrifice. And where the smoke from the burnt offerings would ascend and float up, they'd rise and they'd ascend to heaven. So Christ, after his death, would rise and is ascended to heaven, and he's in the heavenly places interceding for you, interceding for you, interceding for you before God as the perfect sacrifice. Friends, there's nothing I can do to slow down the craziness in your life. There's nothing I can do to make things more manageable in your life.

I wish I could. I can't do it in my own life. But what I can tell you today, and hopefully you go home with this today, is that, Christian, there's rest for your souls. And I don't even say that there's rest for your souls in something that you can look forward to. It's something that you have now. There is rest for you. Though life is crazy, we live in the now and not yet, and this rest for you is current, and it's available to you now. Christ has done the work for you. And though our lives are crazy and we run from thing to thing, and it's New Year's, and then we're going to be off and running in 2024. Christian, there is rest because the work has been completed. And we can trust that it's not through our own hard work and our own laboring that we did good enough that we've earned a moment of rest, but it's just simply that we've placed our faith in Jesus Christ, the perfect High Priest, the perfect sacrifice who's gone before us. And he secured that forever because he lives forever. So as we come to the table today, let the table remind you of your high priest who stood in your place, who offered himself as a sacrifice, his body broken for you, his blood shed for you, who ascended into heaven for you, and who sits at the right-hand of God the Father Almighty, interceding on your behalf. You are in right standing with God because of your perfect high priest. Let me tell you again, Christian, rest in him. Rest in him. There's no other high priests. There's no one else to come after. It's been secured and it's been done. And so you can rest in him. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, would you seal this upon our hearts? Lord Jesus, we thank you for what you've done for us. I ask that you would magnify these words. Would you cause us to remember? And Lord, would you cause us to rest in you that these words would ring true not just in our minds, but they would take root in our lives, realizing you as our perfect high priests going before us. We give you all the glory in Jesus' name, Amen.

Advent IV - Hebrews 3:1 - Pastor David Deutsch

As you are, please open your Bibles to Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3, and we will be in verse 1 today. I will read the verse for you before we pray. Hebrews 3:1, hear the word of God. I read the word. Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus. Our God in heaven, we have gathered here today to see Jesus, to hear Jesus, to consider Jesus, to exalt Jesus, to exalt in Jesus, to meditate upon Jesus, to praise Jesus, to hear Jesus. Everything we have gathered here today to do to feed upon Jesus. Everything, Lord, that we have gathered here to do today is centered upon your son, the apostle and the high priest of our confession, Jesus himself. And so, Lord, I pray on this fourth day and advent and during this season that you would not allow us to miss Christ for all that should point to Christ. That you would not allow us to miss Jesus for all the gifts and types and lights and trees and things that are intended to direct us to Him. But there would simply be more of Christ because of more of the pointers, more of the helps, and more of the season.

But our hearts, our hearts, Lord, do not need what is in the boxes that are at home. Our hearts need what is in the box of Your word open for us today. And so I pray that you will do that for us by Your Spirit, that you will show us Your son, and we will find in Him rest for our souls and life renewed and light for the day ahead. We pray all of this in Jesus name and Amen. In his Christmas oratorio, W. H. Auden, has a small section where he writes about the days that follow Christmas morning. I want you to see if you can identify with this. Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes. Some have gotten broken. And carrying them up to the attic, we go. The holly and the missile toe must be taken down and burnt, and the children got ready for school. Lord have mercy. There are enough leftovers to do, warmed up for the rest of the week. Not that we have much of an appetite. Having drunk such a lot, stayed up so late, attempted quite unsuccessfully to love all of our relatives, and in general, overestimated grossly our powers.

And then this line, Once again, as in previous years, we have seen the actual vision and failed to do more than entertain it. Once more, we have seen the vision of Christ. And the only effect that is done is for us to entertain it, and then it is gone. Like the Christmas tree is gone. Let it not be that way for us as a family here at Solie. As a matter of fact, the writer of this letter to the Hebrews will not allow it to be that way for us. As I've told you before, this letter is actually a sermon. If you look at chapter 13 with me, if you turn back to the end of the letter, he actually says this. I finally think this is a little bit hilarious, actually, what he says. In Hebrews 13:22, he tells us what he considers this letter to be, this 13-chapter letter. He says this in 13:22, But I urge you brothers, bear with this word of exhortation. That's the sermon. He considers this letter to be a word of exhortation, a sermon to the people that he's writing to. Now, this is a 13-chapter sermon, and I want you to see, like all preachers, he's confused.

Because every preacher who's ever preached thinks that their sermon is too short. Look at what he says. But I urge you, brothers, bear with this word of exhortation, for I've written to you briefly. He has the same problem every other preacher does. He thinks all of his sermons are brief and all of his sermons are short. You're thinking, have you ever read through Hebrews before? Nothing short about this. So all preachers, by the way, we're all a little bit messed up in that way. We all think our sermons are brief whether or not they are. But this is a sermon that is being delivered to Jewish Christians who are being lulled back into the old life of the old world. They're being persecuted back to the temple. They're being persecuted back to the old covenant. They are being told that Christ himself is not enough that they need what the old covenant had in all of its old covenant and Old World ways. The writer of Hebrews is writing to a persecuted people who are struggling to stay with Christ, who are struggling to continue to walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the real concern that he has that there might be some who actually apostatize from the faith if they will not stay on Jesus.

Look at what he says in verse 12 of chapter 3, See to it, brothers, that there not be in any one of you, you brothers, on evil, unbelieving heart, that you fall away from the living God, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it's still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You see, we have to be up in each other's grilles. We have to be up in each other's lives as a faithful community because of the deceitfulness of sin and the way the deceitfulness of sin can get into the lives of one another. And some people, our brothers and sisters, can get lost in that deceitfulness. And so we have to be up in their grill, but we have to be up in their grill about who? Christ. About Christ. Verse 14 says, For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. ' This sermon is given by this whoever preaches it, and many believe it's Paul, for the purpose of a persevering faith and those who are struggling to remain faithful to the Lord in the face of persecution and challenges for their faithfulfulness.

They are being persecuted away from the faith and they're being lured away from the faith. They're being persecuted away from the faith by those who will have none of Christ. They're being lured away from the faith because it is their old ways, the comfortable ways of the temple and the Old Covenant. So they're being pushed there and they're being lured there. And this sermon was written to put before them the supremacy of Christ. That Christ is better than everything that came before, you see. Christ is better than the angels and He's better than Adam and He's better than Moses and He's better than Abraham. He's better than everything that came before. Why would you go back when what you have in Christ is not only the fulfillment of everything that came before, but the better of everything that came before. And all the way on through, Christ is better. He's a better priest. He's a better prophet. He's a better king. He is in every way being exalted in this letter and set before... Listen, the vision of Christ is being set before the people so that they will not fulfill what W. H. Auden said.

So that they will not behold the vision of Christ. And then it just go away. And then it just go away. So over and over and over and over and over. And we're going to see it next week. Christ, the Supreme High priest, as Pastor John preaches into the following Lord's Day, as Pastor Nois preaches, Christ, the only one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the only certain place in the world is Jesus Christ Himself. What I want you to see from our passage this morning is that as this is a sermon, and up to this point in the sermon, the writer has been exalting Christ, been putting Christ out there for their faith to be locked onto and held onto. And not just any Christ, but the incarnate son of God. The son of God in his incarnation. Book of Hebrews is a Christmas sermon. It's a sermon about God become man. It's a sermon about the son of God taking our flesh to himself. And what we don't find, and this is important, what we don't find in chapter one is any command to do anything. No commands. Just Jesus. What we don't find in chapter two is any command.

Don't do anything, just Jesus. It's here in chapter three and verse 1, where we find the first command in this sermon. Two chapters in. Maybe preachers could do well to learn to spend a little bit more time just on Jesus for a while before we're told what to do in regards to Jesus for a while. Put the vision before our faith. Tell us who our Jesus is, who the Lord Christ is for our faith and for our life. But I want you to notice that what He tells us to do is actually more of Christ. The first command that He gives us is not to do something for Christ, but is to actually spend more time with Christ. In other words, He knows that what they need more than anything else is to be locked in to Christ. Christ must always be before them, you see. And look at what he says in verse 1, Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling. And then here's the command, consider. The first command in this book, consider. Consider who? Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus. The first thing he tells us to do is look to Christ.

He doesn't tell us to go out and do something for Jesus. He tells us to consider Jesus. To consider Jesus in His offices, two offices, interestingly. And then He tells us who we are as the people who are giving consideration to Jesus. So first, the command. He tells us to consider Jesus. This word in the Greek is extraordinarily important. Because this word in the Greek requires the absence of distraction. It requires silence. It requires space. It requires time. In our day, it would require us putting our digital away, fasting from the digital connection that we have. This is a word that actually requires thought, requires meditation, requires rumination. Because you see, we are looking here at the unseen Christ. We are communing here with one who is unseen to us. And so it's important that we understand that there's a certain communion that takes place with an unseen Christ, and it requires us to give thought time. Thought time. Musing time. Ruminating time. Meditative time, prayerful time. It requires us to be able to disconnect from the myriad of distractions in life and to give our minds attention... Our hearts, affection, and our heart's affection, and our body's direction to Jesus Christ for a time.

We have to do this in our lives. We have to do this in our lives. If you have a if you have a busy life and you have children in your life and you have jobs in your life and you have a marriage in your life, right? What is one of the things that you have to do in order to keep your marriage where it needs to be with all of the things that pull from it, right? You've got to date your wife. The purpose of dating your wife is not so that the two of you can get away from everything so that you can come together at a nice restaurant and spend the evenings on your phones not talking to each other. That's stupid. The purpose of that is to be able to say that this relationship requires a certain consideration and nurture because it, on its own, is itself, you see. It is what it is on its own, and it needs its own nurture. You come away to come together. You do that for a reason, and you give considerable time to the exchange of one another in communion and the like.

Well, this is true of our human relationships. It's true of our friendships. It's true of our families. It's true of everything in life requires due consideration. But so does Jesus. There is no communion with Jesus apart from communion with Jesus. You can't commune with Christ apart from communing with Christ. That communing with Christ is both public and private. We commune with Christ together here today because Christ is put before us here today. That's why the Lord's Day is so important. That's why in chapter 10 of this very book, the writer of Hebrews says this in verse 25, he says, We are to not forsake the assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. You see, there were some people who were forsaking church. They were forsaking the assembling together, and it had become a habit in their lives to not gather with God's people, to have Christ put before them together. And just so that you also see, if we go back to our verse, it's therefore, holy brothers. It's the family. Holy brothers. It's the family that's been put together, that together shares in communion with the living Christ.

And the way in which the Bible presents that to us is that we share communion with the living Christ by assembling together and not having the habit of forsaking that assembling, because all of the means of grace that exists this morning with us gathering together are for the sake of communion with Jesus Christ. We're here for Christ as great as that music was, we're not here for that. That is a means to Jesus. As great of a preacher as I am, just kidding, we're not here for me. We're here for Him. As wonderful as this table is, it's not just bread and wine. It's here for Him. You see, every part of everything that we do every Lord's Day is about more of Jesus together as the holy family that He has put together in union with His incarnate self, you see. That is why we don't forsake the assembly because one of the ways that we come away from the world together as holy brothers is by synagogue-ing together, is by being the called-out people, the church, and sitting through the means of grace where Christ is presented to us. We don't develop the habit of missing that because you can't get that back anywhere else.

Podcasts don't give you that. Radio doesn't give you that. Certainly, TBN on TV is not going to give you that. You don't have the embodied character of the very body of Christ being the body of Christ with Christ himself and his body at the right-hand of the Father, you see. So as holy brothers, we consider Christ by not forsaking the assembly, but by gathering together because this is all about Jesus when we do. But secondly, this is also the opportunity for you as well. You are a son or a daughter of the King. And I asked you this morning, are you giving due consideration to communion with the living Christ, the unseen living Christ? This is the first command for us. And in fact, the first command requires we actually have to use our minds with that consideration. This is not mindless, let go and let God. This is the very application of your mind and your heart to the person and to the offices and to the work of Jesus Christ. You are setting Christ before you in the scriptures and you are considering what the scriptures revealed to you about Jesus Christ. And you are communing with him in the very revelation of himself.

That is what this word consider means and it's vital. And who's being called to this? Well, look at the verse. Therefore, holy brothers. You see, what's important about this holy brothers is, Itry to think about this week. We oftentimes call Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus the holy family. As if the holy family was over there. You want to know where the holy family is? It's right here with you. You are the Holy Family. You are as much the holy family of Jesus as Mary and Joseph were the holy family of Jesus. And in the Book of Hebrews, this holiness is a cultic holiness. And what I mean by that is the background is the Book of Leviticus. Oftentimes when we think of holiness, we think of certain types of laws. If I don't taste and I don't touch and I don't chew and I don't do this, I don't do that. Why is chew? I was involved in that. But if I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't go with girls who do, then somehow I'm holy. That type of nonsense. We limit it to those things, which two-thirds of which I think I do.

We're going to drink at the Lord's table this morning, so they're ouch. So all of that to say, we sometimes link holiness to these man-made laws. But the Book of Hebrews is simply an exposition of the Book of Leviticus. And in Leviticus, if you remember, holiness is not about being separated from. It's about being separated for something specific. And the background of this is the need for cleansing and for purification. And Pastor John already preached on this. If you back up to chapter one, listen to these words. Chapter one and verse three. Jesus, one, three, who is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power, who, having accomplished cleansing for sin, things, sat down at the right-hand of the Majesty on high. You'll notice two things there. What Jesus accomplished was a cleansing. Some of your translations have purification. What a cleansing and a purification does is it means that you are now acceptable and you are now welcome and you now have access to God. You see? What holiness means in the book of Hebrews is that you are welcomed in the presence of God.

You have access to Him. You can draw near to Him and He will receive you as He receives His own son. Do you understand that? He will receive you as He receives His own son. And you'll notice that the son is seated here. Nate, this is for you, okay? The high priest here is seated. Why? Because the work is done. I'll leave you that next week, John. I won't say anymore. I will leave that for Pastor John next week. But you'll notice, so we are holy brothers. We are holy brothers and sisters, which means together we are welcome to draw near in the presence of the Lord. How many of you have that fear of what your daughter is going to bring home for a future husband? If you're not raising your... Thank you, brother. Yeah, thank you. Yes, if you're not raising your hand, you're lying, right? Well, look what Jesus brought home to His Father. You and me, the church. And He's even excited about it. Look at Chapter 2 and verse 13, the end of verse 13 of chapter two. This is what He says to the Father, Behold, I and the children whom you have given me, here we are.

You'd be thinking, the Father is going, That's what I gave you? That's what you brought home. But that's not what the father does. You see, the father receives us the way he receives His son. And His son brings us home to the Father. And you want to know what's true about this bringing home? He's not ashamed of it. Jesus is not ashamed to bring us, this rag-tag group of broken people, into His presence and say to the Father, here's my girl. Here's my girl. Here's my wife. He's not ashamed to do that. So if he is not ashamed of you, then you need to let your shame go. You have no right to retain a shame that He won't retain. And because He sanctified you, because through His incarnation, He took your humanity to himself. Because He did that and He sanctified you, and He is sanctifying you, you and I together are welcome in His presence. We have access. We do not have to stay away. We are not sinners in the hands of an angry God. We are not. The church is not a sinner in the hand of an angry God. The church is sinners saved in the nail-scarred hands of a loving savior who has brought us home to his father.

And he is not ashamed of us because we're united to him. You see, we belong to Him. You are the holy family. We are the holy family. And as the holy family, you look at what it says, we are partakers of a heavenly calling together. That word in the Greek is partners. We're in a partnership. It was used in Greek times and in the days of Jesus to refer to partnerships among those who went into business for one another. Peter and James and John and their families had a partnership in the fishing business. And what this is saying here is that together, the church of Jesus Christ, we are in a shared partnership. And what we share is a calling from heaven. A calling in which God dispatches from heaven. He dispatches that calling from heaven to us, and that calling comes to us, and it is effectual. It gets its man, it gets its woman, it gets its boy, it gets its girl. That calling that comes from heaven actually brings us to the son. It is not a calling that we say no to. It is a calling in which when God, the Father, calls us together, it is a calling that we say yes to because of the transformation that the son of God has made in our lives.

It is a call that we answer because it comes from heaven. You see, when God speaks, God's speaking acts. Let there be light and there will be light. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, that what God said on day one, He says into our hearts. He says into the darkness of your heart and the darkness of my heart, He says, 'Let there be light and there is light and we come home. We come home to the holy family, to Him, you see. ' Who is it that does the considering of Jesus? We do. The holy family. The holy family who has a holy and heavenly calling on our lives to be the very people of God. What is it that we consider? Well, let's look at the rest of the verse. Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus. This is so beautiful. You'll notice something that might seem a little odd to you if you're a Bible reader, calling Jesus the Apostle. This is the only time in all of scripture, the only time in all of scripture in which Jesus is called the Apostle.

This word is reserved for the apostles of Jesus and false apostles and the rest of scripture, but of all the words that the writer of Hebrews could have chosen to communicate an office for us to consider Jesus, to give our minds, consideration, our hearts, affection to the offices to put before us that are worthy of keeping us on Christ and holding fast to our confession. He chose these two offices. The first is Jesus the Apostle. An Apostle in the Bible is someone who is authorized by God and sent by God. And Jesus is the authorized one. Jesus is the sent one. We are to give consideration to this. We are to give thought to this. We are to give affection to this. We are to give attention to this. We are to give time to this. We are to give communion to this. That Jesus is our apostle, the apostle of the church and my apostle, as well as a child of God. He is our apostle, which means he was sent to us. He was sent for us, and he was sent to be God's final word to us. He was sent from God to speak for God as God, the word of God to us who need that word of God for life, you see.

That's what Jesus has come to do. In these last days, God has spoken and spoken and spoken. And in these last days, He has spoken in Son. That's what the Greek is. Just in Son. Just when you look at Jesus, He's the one, he's the apostle, he's the sent one. He's the one that you look at to find out what God is like and what God is saying, you see. And so the Gospels unfold for us, Jesus. And the epistles unfold for us, Jesus. And the Old Testament points to and anticipates and is a type of Jesus. Wherever we go, we find Jesus. And so that means that all of our communion can be had anywhere in the scriptures. We could give consideration to Jesus because He's the one on that page, you see. He's the apostle, the sent one to us to speak for God, to save us as God and to bring us home to God. You see, that's who Jesus is. That's not something we could ever get over. We never stopped listening to Him. We never stopped thanking Him and praising Him for saving us. We always look forward to and anticipate drawing near to Him, you see.

Jesus in the office, the apostle, makes all those things possible because of who He is. But He's not only that, He is the apostle and high priest of our confession. I'm only going to say one thing about the high priests because I want to leave it all for Pastor John next week. But there's something about the high priest. I mentioned this to Pastor Nate last Sunday, and he responded, Well, I didn't know that. I was like, Well, if he doesn't know something, then maybe you all don't know it either. But the high priest, when he went into the Holy of Holies once a year, he wore a necklace. If you know who Flav of Flav is, it would make him, he'd be jealous of this necklace. He wore this necklace and on this necklace, he had 12 gemstones. And on these 12 gemstones, one of them, each of them represented the tribes of Israel. And then he also had those same on his shoulder as well. I can't get into all the typology and symbolism of the sermon would be too long. But this is a brief sermon anyway, so there's no worry. So he had them on his shoulder and on his chest once a year, when the high priests went into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of the glory of God at the mercy seat, all of God's people were on the breast of the high priests to be represented there in that throne room once a year in the presence of God.

Jesus, as your high priest, has your name written on Him. And as your name is written on Him, He doesn't go into the Holy of Holies once a year and take you with him. He has entered into the Holy of Holies never to leave, which means you are always home. You are always home. As long as he is there, you are there. And nothing can ever, ever separate you from that. And you see our response to that is to confess Jesus. He is the high priest of our confession. You see, church, this is why we confess creeds in this church. We confess creeds after the sermon, and hopefully it's no longer lackluster anymore after I close with this. I want you to understand that all of this comes down to a confession according to the writer of Hebrews. He is the high priest of our confession. But listen to Hebrews 4:14. It says, Let us hold fast to our confession. Listen to chapter 10 and verse 23, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. Listen to chapter 13, which is our Priestley calling as holy brothers together. Listen to this. Chapter 13, Through Jesus then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that confess His name.

You see, our response to this word this morning, the response of God's people in this letter, is that at every point in time, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 10, chapter 13, all the way throughout this letter, every time the apostle leads somewhere in this sermon, it always leads to a confession of faith. To confess your faith, to profess your faith, to hold your faith, to publicly and sincerely and heartily and routily confess your faith in Jesus Christ as a holy family without shame for the one who is not ashamed of us. When we are a people, we are confessing people. We are a professing people. We are a people who publicly confess our faith before the world. We publicly confess our faith before one another. We are Christ confessers that is our heavenly calling. You can't mute your way through the creed, and you can't be ashamed when we confess the creed. You've got to grab those words and you've got to take them into your soul. You've got to say, These are my words. I stand on these words. I believe in God the Father. I believe in God the Son. I believe in God the Holy Spirit.

Here I stand. I can do no other. Let's pray. Our God in heaven, lead us to confess Christ and to not be ashamed to consider and have communion with Jesus. In his name, we pray, save me from a heart attack. Amen. Amen.

Advent III - Hebrews 4:14-16 - Pastor Jeremy Haynes

Please remain standing. We'll read from our passage for the day. It'll be out of hebrews four, verse 14. It says this. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God.

Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Please take your seats.

God in heaven, we thank you for this morning. We ask you now to give us eyes to see and ears to hear what you have for us in your word. I pray every thought, every word, every idea that's taught now is from your mind, from your heart, from your word to your people. Pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The Christmas season is a season that is known to be a season of joy. It's a season that for us christians, we get to remember the joys of our savior being born of a virgin. We get to celebrate that. We get to sing songs about that. It's a season where we get to feast with our family and our friends, and we get to enjoy the time together.

It's also a season where we get to experience the energy and just some of the celebration of the season, whether it's at work, whether it's at a school party, whether it's at a friend's. All the excitement of the season comes with this Christmas time, and it's a joyous time now with that season, there also comes with it some personal baggage. For some of us, sometimes not all baggage is bad baggage, but it's things that we have to deal with when we come to seasons like this. For some of us, we're part of the energy of having a home full of kids, and there's just the energy of having children during Christmas time. And that's a season of energy.

For some of us, we have a season of change where the dynamics in our home have changed. Dynamics in our family have changed. The season doesn't feel like it used to feel then. For some of us, it's a season of loss. This year, we may have lost a Parent, a friend, someone.

That's key to our life that we come to this time of year and we think about the weight of not having them with us. Then for some of us, it's a season of regret. There's things that you have done that make this time a hard time of year to be joyful. So I name all these emotions and realities of our lives, and I bring them right here to this morning to tell you this. Our elders have selected the book of hebrews in this passage today to center you on what matters most, so that whatever season you're in, you'll look to Christ.

And in this season, this season is about Christ. And so we want to center you on Christ this morning. And the way we're going to do that, the way I'm going to do that this morning, the way our author is going to do that this morning, is through two encouragements to your heart. Two encouragements to your heart from this passage. ThE FIrst encouragement is to hold fast to the profession of faith that you've been given by God.

Hold fast to that profession of faith that you made. The second one is to receive the good gifts that God, the giver, has given to you with confidence. First, we want you to hold fast to the faith that you professed in God, and then receive the good gifts the giver of life has given you with confidence. So first, let's hold fast. Look at our passage here, verse 14.

It says, since then we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, JEsus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The believers that we find in this book, the Book of Hebrews, we have an author who writes to a group of people, the group of people who are receiving this letter. They seem to be PeoPle who are very familiar with jewish tradition. They seem to be PeoPle who had a time in their life where they were on fire for God, a time in life where they were faithful to God. But now they find themselves in a different type of season, where the pressure of being a Christian or being a follower of God has started to mount up, and they're beginning to struggle. They're beginning to feel the weight, beginning to feel the burdens.

If you would turn with me to chapter ten, actually, I'm just going to read it to you, just to kind of give you an idea of what they're going through. The people in this community that this author is writing to, it says this. The author writes, he says, but recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, after you received the light, remember those days. You endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes you were even publicly exposed to reproach.

You were exposed to afflictions. Sometimes you were a partner with those who were so treated, for you had compassion on those in prison. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew. You knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one in Christ. Therefore, I say to you, do not throw away your confidence, which is a great reward.

You see, this letter is written to a people who were all in. In their faith. They had a day where they made a decision to follow the Lord. They had a day where they were suffering for Christ. They had a day where they were on fire for the Lord.

They had a day where they were willing to have someone take their home from them and joyfully receive that burden. They had a day where they associated with people who were suffering for their faith, willingly, publicly afflicted.

They were the people that used to hold on to their faith. But now, some of them have wandered. Some of them have started to give up. Some of them are struggling. And that's why this author is writing to these people.

He tells them a few things. He says, first of all, Christ is the final prophet that God has spoken about. And he's delivered through Christ the fulfillment of all of what God needs us to know. And then this author also says that this Christ, he's greater than Moses because Moses brought the people out of slavery into the promised land. But this Christ brings all people out of slavery to sin into the new heavens and new earth through faith in him.

ThiS ChrIsT is the high priest. He's not like the priests of ISrael who have to walk into a temple and offer sacrifices. He's the kind of priest who passes through the heavens, who sits next to God, the father on the throne, and looks at his father and says, I pray for these people. I offer prayers for them, offer myself as a sacrifice for them, because I am their high priest. I am their final high priest.

I am the perfect high priest, and I'm here to do this for you. This is what he prays in the heavens. So the author has done all these things through this book, and now we find ourselves where he's talking about what it means to call God ChrIst. This high priest.

Well, a couple things. We just named it. He's this high priest. So what does this mean? Well, first of all, this high priest, who is he?

He's ChrIst. And he is someone who sympathizes with our needs. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He knows where we're weak. He knows when we sleep.

He knows when we wAke. But he's not SAnta Claus.

He knows us more than a mythological character of the season. He knows our every thought, our every intention, our every failure, our every sin, our every mistake, our every dream. He sympathizes and knows us. But mostly this passage is saying he sympathizes with our weaknesses around our sin. You see, Jesus.

He knows what it looks like to walk the razor thin edge of being righteous and being tempted as a man and as God. He knew what it was like to almost want to murmur when his brother, not brother, but when his cousin was killed, John the Baptist, he wanted to murmur. I'm sure he knew what it was like to be tempted by Satan. When Satan says, just bow to me and all these things will be yours. He knew what it was like to want to slip into Self Pity when his favorite disciples couldn't stay up to pray with him.

He knew what it was like to have lust. Not to have lust, but to be tempted for lust. When Mary would bow herself low and take down her hair and anoint his feet with oil in this intimate moment, he knew what it was like to be tempted to lie to protect his life. He knew what it was like to be tempted to gloat when being accused by people that couldn't answer questions that he could answer. He was tempted in every way that we are.

Yet without sin. Do you realize that if he sinned one time, you'd have no hope? You'd have no hope. I'd have no hope. This group that's being written, this letter, would have no hope if he sinned one time.

None of us have hope. You're in a bad season now. It'll never get better. You're getting older, and you're about to die. That's the end for you.

If you blew up your business, you're really a failure.

You dishonored your family name. You have no honor. Every failure you've ever done has no hope. There's no redemption for you, ever.

He did not sin. And because he did not sin, he's the great high priest. He's the one who can pass through the heavens and look God in his face, God the father in his face, and say, I pray for them. I sacrifice myself for them. I do these things for them, to give them life.

Because me, I died. I paid the price. I paid the penalty for their sins.

The book of proverbs says this very powerful passage here about prayers to God. It says in proverbs 29 nine, if one turns away his ear from God's instruction, even his prayers are an abomination. Do you see, friends, even your prayers are an abomination to God if you do not follow his ways. But through Christ, our prayers are heard. We have no hope if he sinned, but because he did not sin, we have hope.

We hold fast to this confession. We hold fast to this reality. And so how do we firmly hold fast to this? That's the question. Well, we hold fast because we want to think about the things I just shared.

This is how you hold fast to it. You remember what he's done and who he is. You remember his faithfulness in your life. All of you have had by the grace of God. You can remember God's faithfulness in your life.

By the grace of God. You could remember his hand in your life. I can remember his hand in my life. Let's tell you a quick story. I got married, and I would say disproportionately or abnormally selfish.

So as soon as I got married to my wife, I wasn't quite ready to give up all of my own single things. I wanted to give her 90% of me, but I want to hold on to ten. I want to hold on to those 05:00 p.m. Workout sessions after. After work.

I want to hold on to a few of those times with the guys during the. During the month. I want to hold on to a few of my secret things that are just about me, and I really don't want to hear anything else about it. And so one month goes by, two months goes by. Three months goes by.

I'm hearing the same things about what you're doing. Four months goes by. Five months goes by. And finally the heat is starting to build in my marriage. And then one weekend, my wife goes away for a friend event with a friend of hers, and I was having too much fun to pick up the phone that weekend.

And so when she came home, and so when she came home, it was almost like God decided to speak through my wife, because she came home and she said, I want to move home.

You don't listen, and you don't care.

He spoke through her, and I heard what she said. And the truth is, I didn't listen, and I didn't care. But for the first time ever in my marriage, I listened and I cared. And it was like God grabbed me by the collar, and he took me one room over into my office, down to my knees, and I asked God to help remove this mountain from my heart, to give me a listening heart to my wife, to remove the self centeredness from my heart and my life. And it was like a miracle.

Months, days, years, God just keeps working, kept working in that prayer to where the desires that I didn't even have for my marriage, God gave them to me. The Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give the desires of your heart. Commit your way to him, trust in him, and he will act. So on that day when my sinfulness that I was holding on to was pushed in my face by my wife, I was able to, by the grace of God, by his spirit alone, turn from these things and then pray different prayers. I'd never prayed before.

And he began to change my life and give me desires. I never had to be a better husband than I ever could imagine. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I never could have been faithful the way that God has called me to be faithful without him. I hold on to that prayer of that moment. I hold on to that story of redemption when I think about holding fast to my faith.

How about you? How has God turned things around for you? How has God shown you hope in your life? How has God shown you that he matters? How has he done that?

This is my encouragement to you, to you today. Hold fast to your profession of faith. This is how you do that. Now, from that place, we must see what's said next in this passage. It says this.

In this passage back to our Hebrews four passage, it says this, let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So we must draw near to the throne. Now, for this context, the people who were receiving this letter, they're very familiar with thrones. We're not as familiar with thrones as they are. But if you can imagine there's a king on the throne and you have to approach that throne.

Now, for these people, and I would imagine for many people, approaching the throne can come with some real concerns. And for a lot of people, especially if you're thinking about God and approaching the throne, you know, you know, you know that the only thing you deserve before the throne of God, if your faith is not in God, is judgment. That's what you know. And if you don't know that, that's the truth. If you approach God without faith in his son, all you receive is judgment.

And so when these people look to the throne, they can't come with confidence, because that's all they see. They know that they've not followed the instructions of the king. And so if they're going to stand in front of him. He's going to go, what are you doing here? You're guilty.

They know that they were given an assignment by the king, but they haven't done it. They know when they approach the king, he's going to say, you've dishonored my name. These are all the things that people could have. And I would say even a problem that might hold people back from approaching the throne, and that problem that people have in approaching the throne is at least fourfold as far as responding to that problem. The problem is people don't feel like they can confidently approach the throne.

And so what do people do with it? That lack of confidence? Because they know judgment's there.

First thing I think people do is they deny. They deny their need for the throne. They deny their need for the grace. They deny their need for the mercy. And so they just don't approach the throne because they just don't need it.

Second thing they do is they drown. They know they have a throne they should be approaching, but instead, they drown their lives in all the desires of this life, to numb out the conscience towards right and wrong, towards good and evil that God has given. Another thing people do when they just aren't ready to approach the throne is they go into a state of paralysis. I should do this, but I want to do this, and I should do this, but I think this, and I just don't really know. Making sense of their lives without God.

But there's a fourth way that this author is encouraging people to approach the throne, and they are to approach the throne with confidence. And how could you approach the throne with confidence? Because the man on the throne, better yet, the person on the throne is not a man. The person on the throne is Jesus. You see, if it was just a man, all of your failures would be held against you forever.

But if it's Jesus who it is, all of your failures and all of your sins and all of your struggles can be forgiven by the person on the throne. So now we get to draw near to this throne.

We get to hold fast to who Christ is, what he said, what he's done, and we get to draw near to this throne. We get to receive mercy. See, mercy is the withholding of the wrath you deserve. Grace is giving you the merit you did not earn or the favor you did not earn. See, both of these gifts are at the throne for you.

Both these gifts are at the throne. For me. Both these gifts are at the throne for us. Through Christ, he's there offering mercy, offering grace in our time of need. It is him.

So when we think about the seasons we face and all the things that might come with different seasons and even Christmas season, we must remember the kind of people that received this gift from the past. We must remember Amary and how she received the gift. She didn't go, no, Lord, that's not my job. I just can't do that. I'm not good enough for that.

And she received it with humility, and she moved forward and did what God called her to do. We think about Joseph. Joseph received that job, that assignment, to go be by Mary's side in faith.

We think about the shepherds even reading and thinking about this, this season. They saw the angels and they moved with awe and wonder and praise. You see, we receive from God and we move with him. This is the prayer. This is the life we have.

And so with that reception of the grace, I want to encourage you now to hold fast to the faith that you profess. Even now, brothers and sisters, whatever seed, whatever you're going through in your life right now, it's easy to fall into murmuring, complaining, struggling in a way that doesn't honor God. But there's also a way to have needs, have weaknesses, have struggles, and then bring them to God and to his people and be healed, be encouraged, be loved. This is who we are at this church. Every single one of you here today, we know your name, we've got your back.

We want to encourage you forward, to press on, and to hold fast to the faith that Christ has given you in Christ, with Christ, through Christ. And then we want to encourage you to receive all the good gifts, even as we did the baptism this morning, my beautiful daughter Rowan gets to receive the good things of God. We all get to receive this. And so in that reception, I want to ask you to bow your heads, and I'm going to read the way that Mary received the good news, and I'm going to pray for us today. So if you would bow your heads with me and just listen to the words I read right now.

As I read the words of Mary receiving the good news of the baby that would come to her, here's what she says in her prayer, her exaltation moment. She says these words, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. And his name is holy, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers and to Abraham, into his offspring forever.

Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you. It is you.

It is you. You are the one who we profess as Lord. You are the one we profess as savior. You are the one we profess as God. You are the one we profess as high priest, great high priest.

Lord, we ask you to help us now to hold fast to our faith in good times and bad times, whatever we face, even with joy. Because in your example, it was the joy set before you that you endured the cross. Help us to have the same heart, the same mind. And then, Lord, with that, we ask you to help us to have confidence that you are the one who offers mercy. To have confidence that you are the one who offers grace, that we can draw near to you.

As Mary, as all the prophets have come before us, all the apostles and all the believers, all the years that have come before us. Now, this year is yours. This day is yours. Our lives are yours. This church is yours.

We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Advent II - Hebrews 2:14-18 - Pastor David Deutsch

As you remain standing, please open your Bibles to the Book of Hebrews, which is where we are at during this advent season. Chapter two of Hebrews. I was going to say I forgot the study, but no, I didn't. Hebrews, chapter two. I might have forgotten my voice, but Lord willing, I did do a little study for today. Hebrews 2, we're going to be in verses 5:13 today. And then next Lord's Day, Pastor Jeremy is going to be in verses 14-18. Hebrews 2, hear the word of God. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything and subjection under his feet. Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. That is the word of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Our God in heaven, we would this morning receive the exhortation of the writer of the Book of Hebrews. We would see Jesus this morning. We have not gathered here for any other reason. We have not gathered here for any other purpose. We have not been called here or summon here for any other reason under the sun, except for Jesus. Jesus is the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning and the end, the first and the last. We would see Jesus today in the scriptures revealed to our hearts, so that our hearts might say yes and receive him by faith.

Faith comes from hearing the word of God. That as we see Jesus, we might be then led to follow him on the pathway that He has blazed, the trail that He has blazed for us through suffering into our eternal inheritance that awaits for your people. And so we thank you for Jesus, who is the better Adam, he is the better Captain, and he is the better brother than any could ever have. In Jesus' name, we pray and Amen. Amen. The Book of Hebrews is actually a sermon. It's one sermon, and that's the way the writer talks of it at the very end in chapter 13. He says, Bear with me in my word of exhortation. He considers the entire letter that he has written a word of exhortation, a sermon to be delivered to God's people when they receive it. And in this sermon, the writer of Hebrews continually calls us to see Christ, to look to Christ. Over and over and over and over again. It is Christ that is put before us. We look with me in verse 9 for a moment. There's something we do not see in verse 8, but in verse 9, we see Him, namely Jesus.

We see Jesus because He's revealed to us right here in the scriptures. Chapter 3:1 says, consider Jesus. If you're going to do anything, look to Christ. Consider Christ. Think on Christ. Muse on Christ, love Christ, consider Christ, the writer says. In chapter 12, we are familiar with these words, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Verse 3 of chapter 12, consider Jesus over and over and over again in this sermon that the writer of Hebrews has given to us. We are told to never allow Christ to be eclipsed from the sight of faith. Never, ever, ever leave our eyes off of Christ in the race of endurance that we are running. We can never find ourselves looking anywhere else at all except for Christ and Christ alone. Horatious Bonar said this, For every one look at your circumstances, take 10 looks at Christ. For every one look at yourself, take 10 looks at Christ. In other words, always be looking away, away from yourself and away from that which weighs you down, and always be looking to Christ, always. And the reason why we want to look to Christ always is because He is the only one that can get us to our destiny.

Christ is the only one who can get you to the end. Christ is the only one who can carry you and lead you all the way to that which God has waiting for you in terms of your inheritance in the future. And so because Christ is the only one who can get you to your destiny, why would you look anywhere else? Not only can nothing else get you to your destiny at all by turning away from Christ. We misunderstand that what the destiny itself is. Look at verse 10. For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory. You see, that's your destiny. That's your future. That's your hope, is that you will be brought fully and finally to the glory that Adam fell short of. The glory that Adam fell short of, Christ himself has come so that you might actually make it to that glory that Adam fell short of. Well, what is that? That glory? What is that destiny that waits us? This is where we struggle sometimes because we've been lied to for so long. Our destiny, what awaits us in the future, that which Christ takes us to and he makes sure we get there, is right there before us in verse 5.

For it was not to angels that He subjected the world to come. You see, there is a world to come. There is a city to come. There is an age to come. There is a kingdom to come. There is a destiny that awaits for all who are in Christ Jesus, and it is a new heaven and it is a new earth. And in that new age and in that new kingdom and in that new world that's broken in now but will not be consummated to the end, there is waiting for you, listen, a share in the very reign of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ will share the seat of his throne with you. And you will not only rule over angels, as Paul says, 1 Corinthians 6, you will exercise a Dominion over the creation that will fully cooperate with your leadership, so that according to who Christ has made you, you will bring your imprint of life upon the new heavens and the new earth as you exercise Dominion alongside of Jesus in the world that is to come, and you will do so as a receiver of everything that Jesus is the inheritor of.

And according to what Pastor John preached last week, Jesus inherits everything. Everything was created so the son might inherit it. Listen, everything was created so that the son might inherit it. And you were created so that the son might share with you, and you were redeemed so that the son might share his inheritance with you. And you were redeemed so that the son might shareinheritance with you. So what your future is, your future is sharing in the reign of Christ, sharing in the glory of Christ, and sharing in the inheritance of Christ. That is your destiny. And that is why all those who have looked to the city to come, all those who have seen the age to come in the scriptures, all of those who have looked past the temporary character of the things that we are involved in now, all of them who have looked to that future have done the most in this life. You see, because their lives became what? Expendable for the kingdom that is coming, you see. And Jesus Christ is the one who is going to make sure that you get to your inheritance. And Jesus Christ is the one that's going to make sure that you get to your destiny.

He's going to make sure that you get to it and that it gets to you. Well, how is that possible? How did Jesus do that? How does Jesus become the one in which we can look to so that we are assured that He will get us to our destiny? The answer is incarnation. The answer is Christmas. The answer is that God became man. That's how. In order for man to get to his future destiny, God had to become man. The son of God had to take our dilapidated humanity to himself. Now, please understand this, church. We can't to mentalize the incarnation. It was not a silent night. There was blood on the ground. You could hear a woman cry in the alleyway that night on the streets of David's town. Mary birthed the baby, just like every other woman, births the baby with all the pains and all the agonies and all the terror and all the trying. And that bumming Joseph helping her out at her side with no other women there to help her. Just that guy. We got to quit sentimentalizing that. But we also have to not sentimentalize the fact that the incarnation is not Jesus coming into a world that was compatible with the world that the first Adam was in.

The first Adam was created into a world was already working his way, was already waiting for Him. Everything was where it should be, waiting for him to move it where it was supposed to go. Jesus doesn't come into a world equal to Adam's first world. Jesus comes into our world. He comes in east of Eden with all the darkness, all the death, all the sin, all the suffering, dying. Jesus chose to come into a world of darkness, a world where He would face everything that we would face. He would face it as an infant, having His parents having to run for their lives to Egypt. He would face it as a child at the temple, misunderstanding. He would face it as a youth, losing his father, probably in death, because Joseph is no longer seen anymore. He knows what it's like to go through that season of life where you lose a parent when you're a youth. Later on, he knows what it's like to be abandoned by his friends. Every facet of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, he was submitted to and gave himself to the very sufferings of our lives so that he could be that high priest for us in every way.

He did not remove himself from the fabric of a life that faces death, sin, and adversity, and trial, and suffering in every way. You see, Jesus entered as incarnation in order to live his life out inside the brokenness of the story so that He could repair it from the inside. Nothing of that which is hostile to us did Jesus relieve Himself from. He was willing to come in and face everything that was hostile to us so that He could bring us home to glory and into our inheritance. And how did Jesus do that? He does that in three ways. Number one, first, He's the better Adam. Secondly, he's the better Captain. And thirdly, he's the better elder brother. Jesus taking up those three offices, being better than all of those. Other brothers we could have, other captains we could have to lead us and other Adams. Jesus himself ensures that you will get to your destiny. And what he ensures, listen, is that your life with all of its brokenness and your life with all of its suffering and all of its darkness and all of its triumphs and all of its goodness are folded in to the future glory that will be yours on the other side so that nothing in your life is wasted.

Nothing in your life is wasted. So let's look at Jesus first as the better Adam. Let's go. Start with me in verse 5. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. The angels are not the inheritors of things. They are the servants of things. And now He moves on from there and making sure that we understand that the world to come does not belong to the angels. But originally that world to come belonged to the first Adam. And so what the writer of Hebrews does here is He moves us to Psalm 8. But remember that Psalm 8 is a commentary on Genesis 1, okay? So we have to have that echoing in our souls. And so as we move in, it is not to angels that He's subjected the world to come. Verse 6 says, It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything and subjection under his feet.

Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. So God created Adam. And as God created Adam, He created him to be a little lower than the angels for a little while. Please understand this, okay? Adam was created in his originality a little lower than the angels, but that was only going to be for a little while. Because Adam himself had a future, a future that he would grow up to, a future that if he had obeyed the Lord by faith, he would have matured to. And eventually, Adam would have had everything subject to him, including the angels. In other words, God began by giving Adam a small Dominion. And the more that Adam matured and the more that Adam grew, the more that Adam obeyed, and the more that Adam trusted, and the more that Adam remained faithful, his Dominion would have grown andexpanded, and eventually it would have moved outside the garden and it would have moved across the whole world, and eventually even would have included Adam growing up and himself exercising Dominion over the angelic world. The whole world to come, you see, was promised to Adam from the beginning, and nothing was left out.

God promised Adam and Eve everything. The whole of everything will be yours, Adam and Eve. You don't have to do anything for it. I'm just giving it to you. You just have to trust me and obey me, and it's all yours. And someday, even though you are a little lower than the angels now, you will be exalted above the angels. I'm not holding anything back from you, Adam. The tree is temporary. You being a little bit lower than the angels is temporary. When you yourself prove yourself, I will move you above those things. That's the whole story of Adam. Adam had a future and a present in front of him. But then the end of verse 8 comes. Well, if that's the case, God gave all that to Adam, why does the end of verse 8 in the way it does? At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Adam. Why is everything a mess? Why is everything a wreck? Why is there so much hostility and evil in the world? Why do we not yet see what God promised we would see? Everything under an Adam. Well, because the first Adam forfeited it.

The first Adam had to go through what we call a disinheritance. He lost his inheritance. He lost his inheritance because he refused to wait upon the Lord, refused to wait for God's timing to move him forward to in the story. He wanted everything and he wanted it now. He wanted it prematurely. He wanted it early. Gk Chesterton talks about opening Christmas presents early. He talks about those who can't wait during the season of Advent, who just have to have it all now. He talks about the fact that we wrap the presents up. And then maybe if we wrap up this doll, maybe an arm or a leg will flop out under the tree and hang there the whole time and you get a chance to look at it. And Chederson says, I think we should do the same thing to people who want to celebrate Christmas early and refuse to add them. We should wrap them all up like that and put them under the tree, and maybe one of their arms will just fall out and hang out too. You was like, You got to stay in the pace. It's Advent is waiting time.

Christmas is celebration time. Don't rush them. Don't move them. Adam couldn't wait, you see. He had to have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil early. He wanted authority over the angels too early. He wanted everything right now. And what happened was he disobeyed the Lord. And in his disobedience, his dominion became troubling, and his inheritance went away. And he was cast out of Eden and disinherited. But you see, God had an eternal plan for a better Adam, a better Adam to come and actually carry us to the glory that the first Adam fell short of. You have to read Romans 3:23 that way, for all of sin and Adam and fall short of the glory of God. We ourselves are short of what Adam was short of, and that's the glory of God. But you see, a better Adam comes to make sure that his sons get to glory, you see. The better Adam makes sure we get to our destiny. Look at verse 9. We do not see everything in subjection to the first Adam, but verse 9, but we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.

Where do we look now? What do we look to now that we live downstream from the consequences of the first Adam's disinheritance. Where do we look now that we live downstream and in our very lives under the disobedience of the first Adam? When the consequences of the first Adam wreak havoc on the world, where do we look? We look to the better Adam. We look to the better Adam who's come to bring about a reversal and a restoration to reverse what the first Adam got us into and restore to us what we lost in the first Adam. And that's what verse 9 is about. We see Jesus who what? Look at it, who took our place. Jesus, who was the son of God eternally. Not only is Jesus above the angels, Jesus created the angels. They were his artistry as the divine, eternal logos of God. I'll make this angel this way and that angel that way and that angel that way. I'm going to give this angel this name, Gabriel. I'm going to give this angel this name, Michael. And I'm going to give this angel this name. And all Jesus is the creator of all of that angelic host.

And all that those angels have known for the whole heavenly life that they have lived is that the son of God is full of splendor and wonder, and they have worshiped him for ages upon ages. And now he is made, the son of God, he is made for a little while lower than the angels. You see, Jesus comes as our representative and he steps in to our humanity, but it's our dilapidated humanity. It's in the likeness of sinful flesh. You see, Jesus didn't have a superhumanity. Jesus had the humanity that could get sick and have a cold when he preached in the synagogue. Jesus had the humanity that could get hungry and get tired. Jesus had the humanity that could grieve when he was betrayed. Jesus had the humanity that could get angry when he saw injustice. So the humanity of Jesus is a humanity in the likeness of sinful flesh yet without sin, the Bible tells us. And so Jesus subjected Himself in the incarnation to be for a little while lower than the angels. Why? Because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.

You see, church, listen, you have an enemy and I have an enemy. And Adam had an enemy. An enemy that God told Adam very clearly. Adam, listen to me, Adam. Listen to me, Adam. Adam, in the day that you eat, it all dies. It all dies. You die. Your relationship with God dies. Your relationship to the creation dies. Your relationship to your wife dies. Your relationship to your kid dies. Your relationship to yourself dies. All of your relationships, Adam, all of the related life that you have in the day that you eat, Adam, it all dies. You die. Everything that you stand for, everything that you represent as Adam dies. You see, that's the one thing that we can't fix is the death of things. It cannot be fixed. But you see, there's a better Adam who has come. The better Adam who has come in his name is Jesus. And he was made for a little while lower than the angels so that he could answer that death issue. That death of your relationship with God, that death of your relationship with creation, that death of your relationship with other people, that death of your relationship in the homes, and that death of your relationship with yourself, right?

Because guess what? Apart from Jesus, you're nuts. And in Christ Jesus, you're still nuts, just only partially so. Someday you won't be nuts at all, right? Because of this, because Jesus Christ suffered for you. He entered this world and He took every single point of suffering that was possible. And He met it and He absorbed it in Himself. Pastor Jeremy is going to talk about this next week. This is what makes Christ the high priest that you can take every single bit of your troubled life to. But not only just any suffering, but the suffering of death. He was willing to face the greatest enemy we have and to answer it and to overcome it, you see. And he did it. He tasted death for everyone. He went through the suffering of death because of the grace of God, you see. The lavish heart of God. You want to talk about a Christmas present? You want to talk about a Christmas present? You want to talk about a big giver? This is the big giver. This is the best Christmas present you could ever ask for. That the lavish grace of God would give you His incarnate son to take all of the suffering of life upon Himself and face the ultimate suffering itself, which is death.

And not any death, but death on the cross. And because Christ went through that, you see, because Christ went through that suffering of death. That was not the final answer, you see. Because this better Adam, because he stayed true, where the first Adam did not stay true. Because this Adam remained faithfulful, where the other Adam was unfaithful. And this Adam remained faithful where you are not faithful, where you are unfaithful, because this Adam remained faithful, Jesus at every point. Look at what it says in the middle of verse 9, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. You see, Jesus has entered in. He's the only one who has entered into the destiny. He is there. He is the one crowned and He is the one with glory. The reason why He can bring you to the future is because He's already there and He's blazed the trail. He's gone through the suffering, out the other side, raised from the dead, ascended on high, and now Jesus is crowned with glory and honor, and He's waiting to crown you with the same. You see. He's waiting to give that and to share that with you. And you're going to say, Well, I'm going to turn around and throw it back at His feet.

Fine. That's fine. That's a great passage in Revelation. But it doesn't mean He didn't crown you. It doesn't mean He didn't glorify you. It meant that you did the right thing with it. When you got it, you knew it all came from Him. So you offered it right back to me. It doesn't mean it's not yours, you see. But He is the one who's already there, you see. And because He's there, He's guaranteed to get you there. He didn't fall short like the first Adam did. The first Adam is east of Eden going, How did I get here? The second Adam is crowned with glory and honor. He knows exactly how he got there because he suffered death for you, and he suffered death for me. And so that's why Jesus is the better Adam. But he's also the better captain. Look at verse 10. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist, and that's the father, okay? The Father, along with the son and the Holy Spirit, is the one for whom and by whom all things exist. The father is involved with the son in the economy of salvation, and the father is involved in bringing many sons to glory.

Look at it. It was fitting that he, the father, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering, you say. Look at that verse. God, the Father... Church, listen, God, the Father, and God, the son have conspired together to make sure that you and I, and all of God's people make it to our inheritance. God, the father and God, the son have conspired together to make sure that you make it to glory, that you make it to the Dominion, that you make it to the world to come, that you make it to the age to come. You see, this is not only the work of the son, this is the work of the father, as well as the plan and purpose of the Father for whom all things exist to make sure that you, yourself, come into a share of that and bringing many sons to glory. It's not a question of whether it will happen or not. Okay? It's as guaranteed as His name is guaranteed. But I want you to notice something, that the fittingness of this in getting us there.

And I want you to notice that the writer of Hebrews does not want this lost on us. In getting us to our destiny and the father's involvement in that included the father's relationship to the son. Son, as the father of the son, taking the captain of our salvation. And I want you to see this language at the end of verse 10, Making the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. I want you to think about that for a second. What does that mean? Was Jesus imperfect before suffering? No, Jesus was not imperfect before suffering. Well, what does it mean for the father to lay suffering upon the son so that he could bring him to a place of perfection so that the son might bring you and I to glory? What does that mean? How does Jesus become perfect through suffering? You see that Greek word there, suffering, comes from the word tellos, which is goal. What this means is there was a goal for the humanity of Jesus that Jesus had to reach in order to bring you to glory. Okay? A goal out in front of Him. From conception, from the conception of Jesus through the cradle into the world, there was a trajectory that Jesus was on, a goal, a tell us that He had to meet in order for us to come to glory.

And the pathway, listen, this is very important, the pathway that Jesus had to walk to get to that end. The road that He had to take to get to that end was a series of sufferings that would move him in exorbitantly towards that goal. And he had to meet every suffering point in order to get to the next one. And so this is important for you guys to understand, in the Adamic humanity of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ did not obey from imperfection to perfection. He did not obey from unrighteousness to righteousness. He obeyed from lesser maturity to more maturity. He listened. He obey from the obedience of a child to the obedience of an adult. Every single time that Jesus suffered, it increased His capacity to suffer more. And then Jesus would suffer more and it increased His capacity to suffer more. And then He would suffer more and it would increase his capacity to suffer more. Throughout his humanity, Jesus was receiving greater and greater capacities for suffering through the pathway of life that the father was leading him on. This is why he had to come as a baby, you see. He came as a baby so that he might move through all the seasons of life and meet the suffering of every season of life and overcome it so that he had greater capacity for the next one and then overcome it.

And then he had a greater capacity for the next one and then overcommit. And then he had a greater capacity for the next one. All of those led to the Garden of Gethsemane. You see, the Garden of Gethsemane was that ultimate moment. Whether or not Jesus would accept the ultimate suffering on our behalf, would He willingly drink the cup? What you have to understand that is three years before that, Jesus was not ready for the cup. Five years before that, Jesus was not ready for the cup. Ten years before that, Jesus was not ready for the cup. The entire human life of Jesus was a growing in his capacity to suffer, to bring him to the place where he would reach the goal, where he could look the cup in the face and say, not my will, but your will be done and to receive the silence of heaven and go to the cross, you see. That's what it means for Jesus to be made perfect through suffering. He made it to the goal so that He could go to the cross for you and for me. But he did not have the capacity for the cross when He was 30.

He did not have the capacity for the cross when He was 25. He did not have the capacity for the cross when He was 15. But he had the capacity for the cross when he was 33 and a half. And at that capacity, he had suffered throughout his whole life, and every previous suffering had prepared him for this suffering. That's what it says in Hebrews 5, if you just listen to these words, and I'm actually not going to be able to finish the last point, Hebrews 5, listen to these words. Hebrews 5:8, Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered and being made perfect. Do you see that? As a son, he learned obedience. What did Jesus? Was he disobedient? No. He moved from obedience to obedience as he moved from suffering to suffering. Although he was a son, he learned obedience. How? Through what he suffered. And then what happened? He reached the tell us. And being made perfect, he reached the goal where he could say yes to the ultimate. He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, you say.

Jesus is this one who was willing to subject himself to the Father's suffering so that he could finally get to the place where in his humanity, he could stare the cross in the face and say yes to the cross, which means through that, you will make it to the end. But what that also means is that as you follow the captain of your faith, Jesus, your road will be like His. Your road will be like His. It will include the sufferings of Christ along the way. And the sufferings of Christ are moving you towards the tell us the goal of ultimate Christ likeness and bringing many sons to glory. I'm not going to be able to finish this sermon this morning because of time. But let me leave you with this. We come this morning to see Jesus, to look to Christ. Why? Because He is the better Adam for you, and he is the better captain for you. And because of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, you will make it to your destiny because He's already there and He's going to make sure that you stand with Him on that day. Amen. Merry Christmas.

Let's pray. Our God in heaven, these are the best gifts we could ever have. Truer words, Lord, that we could ever receive. Bless us today as we receive these words and as we look to Jesus Christ alone. It's in His name that we pray. Amen. Amen.

Advent I - Hebrews 1:1-4 - Pastor Jon Noyes

All right, guys, just remain standing while we pick up our sermon. It's going to be in Hebrews 1. If you want to flip there, feel free. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He's spoken to us by His son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 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, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Father God, we come before you, humbled. Humbled that not only are you God, not only are you the creator and the sustainer of the world, but you are God who's there. You're imminent. You're a God who calls us into your presence, and you're a God who, despite ourselves, showers us, lavishes us with your love, as only seen in the face of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

This morning, Lord, would you give me an unction to preach your word? Would it be your words that we hear and would they be transforming words? Father, don't allow any one of us to leave this place unchanged. Help us look just a little bit more like Jesus today, Lord. We love you. Help us love you more and each other better in Christ's name, Amen. Would you have a seat? The first thing to notice, I think, in our passage is the abrupt beginning. Notice the author of Hebrews who I think is Paul, and we can talk about that at a later date. If you disagree with me, you're wrong because David told me that I'm right. But notice here, it's abrupt, the beginning. There's no introduction. There's no greeting. Instead, the author begins by introducing us to perhaps the most important Christiological statement in all of scripture. Just as God broke through the silence 2,000 years ago, the author of Hebrews breaks through with a theological atomic bomb of sorts. This is Jesus. And as we enter Advent, in this season, Pastor David already introduced that we're going to be in Hebrews. Jesus is our theme.

As elders, it's our hope for you that you're going to see Jesus in Hebrews this Christmas season. Christ, the everlasting prophet, priest, and King, Christ is Lord. And often we wait for... Let me start before I dig in. This sermon today is going to be just a little bit different than what I normally do. And I'm happy to answer questions that you might have after if you want to come up and talk with me, I'd love to. But try to track with me as we go. Because I was prepping for this sermon last week or two, I've been thinking about it and thinking about our Christmas celebrations and how we do Christmas as a culture. How I've done Christmas, I mean, gosh, for the first almost 30 years of my life until I met Jesus. Oftentimes, I think the Christmas celebrations, we wait with anticipation, bated breath, only to have the celebrations pass entirely too quickly because we become content to celebrate them on an entirely earthly level. The things we enjoy, like family, reunions, time-off, food, the exchanging of presents and gifts become the entirety of our celebration. And these things, guys, these things are good in and of themselves.

I'm not saying they're bad. The giving of gifts are good. The eating of food, especially in the company of others, is good. And in family reunion and time spent together is good. They're good things. And we rejoice in them because each and every one of them is a symbol and a true gift from God. But if Christmas time is just these things, we miss something incredibly important. In mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis says this, aim at heaven and you'll get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you'll get neither. And he goes on in that same passage to say, We shall never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object. We must learn to want something else even more. And then in another one of his works, The Weight of Glory, Lewis says this, We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is off at us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud plies in slums because he can't imagine what's meant by the offering of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased, is what Lewis says.

As we come to the beginning of this advent season, I think it's important for us to gaze, for our gaze to be shifted and lifted from Earth and to heaven, and to accept the offer of infinite joy found in our four short verses of this morning. Actually, in the Greek, these four short verses are just one sentence instead of finding temporal joy in the things of the world. I'd like to find rest, and I'd like you to find rest in the reality that the things in our verse this morning point us to, and that is Christ. One of the ways we do this is we spend time with God in His word, and we turn to the pages of scripture and the historicity of it. And when we do so, we're confronted with the awesome and true claim that the baby in Bethlehem is God incarnate, God made man. And growing up, I don't know where you guys come from a lot of you. I don't know what your houses looked like, but for me, we made it entirely through the Christmas season without ever thinking about these things. God was never mentioned, and Jesus was nothing more than a myth.

More often than not, a cussword, a legend at best. And why is that? Well, because I was never confronted with the claims of scripture. I was never challenged by the words of Isaiah, behold your God. It wasn't until I turned to the Bible when my notions of Christmas and God were shifted and changed and ultimately completely shattered. The scriptures don't allow us to dismiss Jesus as some cardboard Christ or holiday gimmick. It won't allow us to find Jesus stripped of his authority and anything less than divine. So as we come to Advent and in Hebrews, I'd like us as a church to focus on Jesus. And in verse one and two, our author here, he does just this for us. Long ago, and at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He's spoken to us by His son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom he created the world. You see, in the past days, this is the BC time before Christ, God spoke to us in dreams and burning bushes and wind and pillars of fire and clouds and prophets and that still small voice.

But notice the butt here in verse 2, the butt that starts verse 2 sets us up for a very important point. Yes, we've received in the past all the benefit from all the ways God has spoken to us, but now God has spoken to us in his son. God's relationship with man has been changed. God hasn't changed because he's unchanging. And the point isn't that the older revelation is somehow lesser either. Instead, the means of the revelation has fundamentally changed and become greater. You see, Saints of God, we find ourselves this morning, as you sit here this morning in these seats, in this gymnasium, in this town, in this city, in this state, in this country, and in this world, you find yourself at a very, very specific time in history. We find ourselves here at the apex of divine revelation. And it comes not merely by the lips of a prophet, but from the lips of God's own son, the truer and greater prophet. It comes not by the forgiveness of sins through a Levitical priest, but the forgiveness of all of your sins forever from a truer and greater priest. Not by the leadership of an earthly king, but by the perfect leadership of a truer and greater king, Jesus.

And it's not the true versus the untrue, but it's about the promise of the past now being made evidence in the fulfillment through the person in the work of Christ. And Christ is called the son of God, who's been appointed as heir of all things through whom he created all things. Now the author is going to focus our attention on a lot of the human nature of Christ, the work Jesus did in the flesh while always setting before us the divine nature and the excellence with which He's done everything that He's done. Jesus has created all things. And for me, when I was going through this, it brought me back to John, right? So it should remind us of how John begins his gospel. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him. And without Him, there was not anything made that was made. You see, without Jesus, nothing was made and everything is his. Why is this important? Well, I'm an apologetic junkie. You guys know this. So just let me get my apologetic stuff out a little bit.

Simply put, why is this important? This is important because Jesus is the best explanation for the way the world really is. Now Jesus is the uncaused cause, physicists and cosmologists need to explain where everything came from. Saints, that means that that baby in a mansor caused everything to exist. And there in that mansor, humanity found the unifying principle that all the forces of the universe cry out for. Jesus makes sense of everything. I used to dismiss Christians, I'm just being honest with you guys. I used to dismiss Christians as simple minded, stupid even. And now I realize the answers to the questions most plaguing scientists, the ones that I used to like to bring up as evidence or arguments against the existence of God, those questions, those answers aren't found in the ivory towers of elite universities and educational institutions or their state of the art laboratories. No, the answers are found wrapped in rags in a majors. One scientist, Robert Jessrow, in his book, God and the Astronomes, I love this quote, For the scientists who's lived by his faith and the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He's scaled the mountains of ignorance.

He's about to conquer the highest peak, and he pulls himself over the final rock, and he's greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. You see, at the end of the line, the mystery of the universe finds its beginning here in God, the creator and sustainer of the universe. And when we have these things on our minds, we got to remind ourselves that nothing lies because He's the creator and sustainer of the universe. Nothing lies outside the embrace of the work of God. The creation of the universe, the continuation of the universe, the consummation of the universe are all under the control of God. Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power. Friends, God created with the incarnation in mind. You see, there's more for us to understand here. God's eternal plan included the incarnation first, then the creation. In other words, the creation serves the incarnation. God uses creation to fulfill the word, become flesh. The stuff, all the stuff that exists, the stuff facilitates the purposes of the God man. See, church, the creation that we've been talking about, that I've been talking about from this pulpit this morning, isn't creation generally considered?

It's creation specifically in relation to the history of redemption, ultimately redemption of the entire cosmos. This is why we celebrate Christmas from the beginning, a new beginning. Christmas was always the plan. And then this crushes me when I think about this. I have the privilege. We elders here at Solie, we get the privilege to dedicate time to study in God's word to bring to you, hopefully, God's word. And sometimes it crushes us. It does me. The first Christmas gift is the eternal word entering the first creation as the word of all creation to rescue all creation. Saints of God, the birth of Christ is this timeless event that invites us to believe that the cries of a broken world have actually been heard. A savior has actually been born, and the vault of heaven has truly been opened and flowing out of the work of creation comes redemption. You see, on that Christmas morning, long ago, God gave to mankind the agents of rescue to save humanity and set the cosmos right again. Later this morning, we're going to sing these words, Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.

Well, why do the sons of earth need raising? Because the record of history shows that despite all of our human desires and all of our human efforts, humanity will never be able to satisfy a fatal flaw at the center of the human story. You see, there's a flaw that presents us, or prevents us rather, from reaching our ultimate destination. There's a flaw that each and every one of us possess that prevents us from reaching our full potential. And we have a longing for something more. Again, Lewis, he's right on when he says, We find ourselves with desires that nothing in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that we've been made for another world. And this longing in our hearts, in our minds, one that, students, you will struggle with your entire life if ever apart from Christ. This longing that we have, it points us, yes, in the right direction. It points us to where we want to go. And this is what Advent is all about, longing, waiting. And the popular Christian songs or Christmas songs, rather, that we sing about bells giggling and Santa kissing and present opening. They lay flat on our dispositions and consciousnesses.

There's a melody in our minds we've never heard in a journey that we've never taken. And this is one of the indications of the flawedness of our lives. There's a longing in our hearts for something we can never reach on our own. Though we might try, which is why we search for significance in earthly treasures at Christmas time. And instead of allowing the simplest of things to satisfy this deep desire, Jesus, friends, is enough. And this is what the author of Hebrews points us to. Jesus 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 and and having become as much superior to the angels as the name he's inherited is more excellent than theirs. See, friends, the only thing that will satisfy our longing, and in any ultimate sense, is to know Jesus. The only way to get to know Jesus is a result of revelation. You see, God chose to place Jesus in our realm of perception. And as He does, He renews our fallen understanding of all things, an understanding that's been clouded as a result of that fatal flaw that I've been talking about, namely sin.

We often think the flawed nature of society has nothing to do with our minds, our intellects. We often think that our flawed nature doesn't affect how we think. We like to think that sins sometimes are always just simply actions. Actions taken on or against other human beings. And with that comes the, I think, misunderstanding understanding that we think that we have free reign in our ability to think and understand properly. It's not true. Sin has affected our ability to reason and to think. And unless God renews our understanding, we can't simply think our way to God. The only way for God to be known is for God to place Himself in the realm of our perception and to renew our ability to think rightly. Friends, this is significant in the incarnation. I mean, this is the significance of the incarnation. God comes and then places Himself in the realm of our perception. He doesn't shout down from on high. Our God, He's not this God that created everything and just watched as it got messed up and just peace out. That's not who He is. He comes down and He meets us. Right here where we're at.

I asked you the question this morning, have you met God? Have you met Him? Because it'll change your life. It has mine, immeasurably and continually. Calvin explains this in terms of the three-fold offices of Christ. We're introduced to him as a prophet, revealing God. We're introduced to him as a priest, reconciling us to God. And we're introduced to him as a King who reigns as God. And then friends, this is nothing new. I very rarely do I... I would venture to say never do I have anything novel for you. New. It's not my job to give you new things. My job is hopefully to just present Christ to you and offer clarity. My goal is to constantly point you to Christ. So let me take just the rest of our time this morning to do that, just point you to Christ. In these offices, first, Jesus is prophet. You see, Christ is himself God's full and final word. He makes God fully known to us. And as we've already discussed, God has spoken many times and in many ways, mainly God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. The speaking that was begun in the prophets, what was incomplete is now been brought to completion in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Lagos. Jesus is the very word of God. God has spoken, and He's spoken finally, fully, and savingly. God hasn't spoken to give us a concept to wrestle with either. He hasn't spoken to give us a philosophy to adopt, but He's spoken to give us a person to trust and to obey. And we need a prophet to reveal God because we're ignorant in the dark, on the inside. You see, Paul says that before Christ, we were darkened in our understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that was in us due to the hardness of our hearts. He'll go on in Ephesians 5:8 to say, For at one time you were in darkness, but now you're in the light of the Lord. When Jesus comes and brings the kingdom of God through his miracles and preaching, one of the responses he gets almost immediately is, surely a great prophet has come, but all the expectations of what a great prophet should look like failed to sustain the abnormity of who Jesus is and what he's really come to do. And this is why the three-fold offices of prophet, priest, and king, they can't be viewed separated from each other.

They have to be viewed in light of each other. The prophets came to inform and Jesus came to transform. And it started when the second person of the Trinity, he took on flesh that Christmas morning, or nine months before, I should say. And then the prophecy continues today as he's preaching from behind pulpets just like this one in churches on today, on Sunday mornings, all over the world, we're still hearing Jesus's voice. The Lagos is still speaking today through His servants, through the elders of every Biblical church, which is why we have to add solely in and in churches in our community and around the world, which is why we have to dedicate to preach Christ courageously and consistently with conviction and compassion, because ultimately Christ is the preacher. Our goal as preachers on Sunday mornings is not for you to pat us on the back and say, Well done. Our goal on Sunday mornings is for Christ to gather us and hear the words of our Father, Well done, good and faithfulful servants. We're servants of Christ, the true prophet. Christ is the preacher. Christ is the one that leads us in song every Sunday morning.

And Christ is the one who welcomes us to his table. It's always about him, not just during Christmas. So Jesus is the prophet revealing these things. Next, Jesus is the priest reconciling. Verse three says, After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right-hand of the Majesty on high. Oh, my gosh, I wish I had so much more time. Guys, you have... This is incredible. What happens here. This is incredible what happens here? And do you guys know the history of the temple and how the priests, the Levitical priests, they would offer sacrifices, and they would go in once a year. It was a terrifying experience. And they would tie a rope around their waist and then wear a bell. And they'd say to their buddy waiting outside, If this bell stops ringing, yank as hard as you can because I don't want to die in there. Because God is so magnificent and so awesome and so horrifying beautiful that any exposure to Him results in instant death, this sight of glory. And now you fast forward and you fast forward and Jesus, the truer and greater priest, he enters the temple. No need for a rope, no need for a bell because he doesn't need to veil his face from God.

And he goes and he sits down right there next to the most high. It's unbelievable. If we look forward to Hebrews 10:19, we read this, Therefore brothers, since we've confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, you see, Jesus has entered the holy place now, so we can enter without fear by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from any evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. I mean, do you guys understand? I cried enough last time I preached. I'm trying not to. I know. But it's just like... Do you know what has to happen in order for Jesus, the priest, to bear our sins? In order for something to get cleaned, something has to get dirty. Christ dirtied himself with our sin in order that we might be cleansed by the power of his blood. This, you see, friends, is the mystery of the incarnation. If the damage to our flawedness is going to be repaired, someone has to pay.

Someone always has to pay. Either you pay, which will take forever, or Jesus pays for your debts. Either you pay or Jesus pays. Our Jesus, your Jesus pays for our debts by providing purification for our sins. Come thou long-expecting Jesus, born to set thy people free from our fears and sins, release us. Let us find our rest in thee. Did we just sing that song? Do we understand the immensity of the finished work of Christ and as having provided once for all a purification for sins, saints of God. This means that we have right standing before a holy and a just God, not because of our righteousness or our good works, but because of the righteousness of Christ and the work of this cross. Christ has taken on himself all of our flawed, ugliness and given to us gratuitously the wonder of His righteousness. This is what Christmas is all about. This is what Christmas is all about. So Jesus is a prophet revealing, he's a priest reconciling. And finally, Jesus is a King reigning. See, Jesus, he sat down at the right-hand of the Majesty on high. And once Jesus completed his work of revelation and then reconciliation, God raised him up to sit on his throne.

And this is why we come to the Christmas event and then and look on the cradle. We have to, in order to do that, we have to first look back at the words that point us forward to that cradle, through the cradle, to that cross. And then from the cross forward still to these words here in Hebrews 1, where Christ is crowned as ascending King now. God has stepped down from outside of time down into time and born into shame and obscurity. We find him in a cradle. And when we find this complex humanity, we find him on a cross ultimately at the culmination of the story. And friends, I am so messed up. Do you guys ever get confronted with how messed up you are? There's only like two of you shaking your head and one of you is, you are messed up. You're messed up. And I think I'm probably more messed up than all of you. If you guys knew me, in my mind. And the only way, the only way for me not to be messed up, for me to get unmessed up, is for him to get messed up on my account.

But the story doesn't end there, thank God. This Christ is now enthroned in glory, and in notice, he upholds everything by the word of his power. This gets back to what I was saying just a little bit earlier. If Christ, friends, were to take his hand off everything would collapse. I don't know if you guys see what I'm saying. If we're going to take this stuff seriously, we can't just dismiss Jesus. We're confronted with the fact that not only is Jesus a prophet who spoke so to deal with our ignorance, he's not just a priest so to deal with our sin, but he's a King who reigns so that our destiny will be dealt with. So we can come to Jesus as our source, our sustainer, and our goal of all created reality. He upholds everything by the power of His word because He's Lord of all. And those words mean something. There's nothing outside the realm of Jesus' interest and concern, either. And this should bring comfort. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal Spirit, rule in all our hearts alone, by thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne are the words that we sing.

Because of these things, because of who Jesus is, He's totally reliable. We can trust Him with our successes, and we can trust Him with our failures, and we can trust Him daily, relying on His promises because He doesn't ever break His promises. That's why promises like, My grace is sufficient for you are so important. We can lay it all at the feet of Jesus and rest in the one who's triumphed over even death. You see, as I try to land this plane, that the story begins with God taking the initiative and coming to us in Christ. The story is not about you, and it's not about me. It's not about trees and lights and gifts and family and friends and food. The story is about God coming to us, seeking the lost so that they might be found. If the things we've been talking about are true, isn't the only rational response now simply to come to God through Him, through Christ? This is a compelling message, and let me encourage you, as I did last week after leading liturgy, this is the message the world is dying to hear. Allow us to share it.

So with this, these are the things that I'm thinking of this Christmas season. Christ, the everlasting prophet, priest, and King, Christ is Lord, Lord of all. And He's here. He's here at this table. He's here in the cup and in the bread. And as we gather, we get to celebrate that. God has not left us to our own devices. He's rescued us in what God rescues. He rescues completely. So let me be the first to tell some of you guys, I hope. Happy Christmas. And I can't wait to celebrate this season with you guys. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time that you've given us. Thank you for your word. But most of all, thank you for the best gift we could ever imagine. Thank you for Christ. We love you. God. In his name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.