 |
||
JESUS THE GREATEST
GLENN PEASE
CHAPTER 1 THE GREATEST REVELATION
CHAPTER 2 THE GREATEST
VOICE Based on Heb. 1:2
CHAPTER 3 THE GREATEST
WEALTH Based on Heb. 1:2
CHAPTER 4 THE GREATEST CREATOR
CHAPTER 5 THE
GREATEST GLORY Based on Heb. 1:3
CHAPTER 6 THE GREATEST
IMAGE Based on Heb. 1:3
CHAPTER 7 THE GREATEST
SUSTAINER Based on Heb. 1:3
CHAPTER 8 THE GREATEST
SACRIFICE Based on Heb. 1:3
CHAPTER 9 THE GREATEST
RULER Based on Heb. 1:3
CHAPTER 10 THE GREATEST
NAME Based on Heb. 1:4
CHAPTER 11 THE GREATEST
SON Based on Heb. 1:5
CHAPTER 12 THE GREATEST
JOY Based on Heb. 1:9
INTRODUCTION
History has many who
in some way earned the name great. They did things that motivated people to add
great to their first name, such as Alexander the Great, Herod the Great, and
Catherine the Great. But nowhere in history has the name greatest been added to
a name. Many have become the greatest in certain categories, such as the
greatest mountain climber, the greatest runner, the greatest artist of a
certain period, the greatest mind, the greatest scientist, and the greatest in
numerous areas of achievement. But none have been called Alexander the
Greatest, or Einstein the Greatest. This makes sense, for no person can be
called the greatest until history is over, for no matter how great a person has
been in any area of life, someone might come along and be greater yet. Nobody
has, nor can, attain to the heights of being worthy of the name Greatest. No
one, that is, but Jesus. He alone is worthy of the name Jesus the Greatest, for
He alone has attained a level beyond which it is impossible to go. No one in
the past, and no one in the future can be greater than Jesus, and that is the
point of the book of Hebrews. It is a message so stressed in the first three
verses that there is no place in the Bible where Jesus is more exalted than in
these verses. The highest Christology you will find anywhere is right here in
verses 2 and 3 of this first chapter of Hebrews. Before we look at what they
say about Jesus being the greatest lets look at an introduction to the book as
a whole, which I call God’s Greatest Commercial.
GOD’S GREATEST
COMMERCIAL Introduction to Hebrews
The book of Hebrews could
be called God’s Greatest Commercial. Commercials are designed to tell people
that their product is the best. It is better than what you are now using, and
so switch to what is better. This whole book is saying switch to Jesus, come
back to Jesus, or never leave Jesus, for he is superior to all others. He is
better than the angels in heaven and the priesthood on earth. He is the best,
and so why give yourself to the lesser? Like commercials this book does a lot
of comparing of values in order to show that Jesus is better. All products
claim they are better than their competitors, and that is what Jesus is, the
best of what God has given. He is the final product and the most improved of
all God has given to man. Competition is a major issue in life, for there is so
much calling for our time and commitment, and we need to be able to choose the
best and give it priority in our lives, and that priority goes to Jesus if we
listen to this book.
This book is very
judgmental in that it says all other persons and values are not as good as
Jesus. They may have been okay before Jesus, but now that he has come and
finished the work of atonement, there is nothing better. He is the best, and it
is time to switch from what you are now exalting to the highest level and put
Jesus there. If you think your soap is good, now is the time to use Jesus for
he gets all things whiter, for even your soul needs to be cleansed from the
stains of sin. There is none better. God gave much good in the Old Testament,
but now we have the new and improved offer of forgiveness by a better way.
The commercial often
says come now, call now, buy now. There is urgency about the message, and so it
is here, for now is the time of salvation, and we must not wait, or drift from
it or neglect it. Someone has put together this outline that shows the whole
book is designed to promote that Jesus is better.
Jesus - The New And
Better Deliverer - Ch. 1-7
1. Jesus the God-Man - better than angels - (Ch. 1-2)
2. Jesus the new Apostle - better than Moses - (Ch. 3)
3. Jesus the new Leader - better than Joshua - (Ch. 4:1-13)
4. Jesus the new Priest - better than Aaron - (Ch. 4:14- 7)
B. Calvary - The New And Better Covenant - Ch. 8 - 10:18)
1. New covenant has better promises - (8:6-13)
2. And it has a better sanctuary- (9:1-14)
3. And it has a better sacrifice - (9:15-18)
4. And it achieves far better results - (10:1-18)
I have put this list
together of how Jesus is better just in this first chapter. Like any good
commercial, it shows us that Jesus is better than all who have gone before Him.
Better Messenger-the
Son
Better than prophets
Better than angels
Better power
source-the king of universe
Better name than
angels
Better relation to the
Father
Better in permanence
Better joy v. 9
Better victory that is
complete v. 13
Another list I have
put together shows how these first few verses exalt the superiority of Jesus.
1. He is superior as a
spokesman.
2. He is superior as a
son.
3. He is superior in
status. Heir
4. He is superior as
source. Creator of all
5. He is superior in
splendor.
6. He is superior in
substance. Exact replica of Father
7. He is superior as
sustainer.
8. He is superior as
sacrifice.
9. He is superior as
sovereign.
Advertising is an over
100 billion dollar a year industry and affects all of us throughout our lives.
We are each exposed to over 2000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most
powerful educational force in society. The average American will spend one and
one-half years of his or her life watching television commercials. The ads sell
a great deal more than products. They sell values, images, and concepts of
success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us
who we are and who we should be. Sometimes they sell addictions. Advertising is
the foundation and economic lifeblood of the mass media. The primary purpose of
the mass media is to deliver an audience to advertisers, just as the primary
purpose of television programs is to deliver an audience for commercials.
Bill Walsh writes
about what commercials say about us, and he tells us what we already know, and
that is that a good commercial has to capture our attention, and one of the
best ways to do that is by using a celebrity. He writes, "Real-life celebrities
like Michael J. Fox with that Pepsi ad where he was trying to sneak a Pepsi
during an opera and wound up on stage, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan trying to
out-do each other with trick basketball shots, and even football's Mean Joe
Greene, discouraged and limping, tossing his game shirt to some little kid who
offers him a Coke, are here also. What they all have in common, I think, is a
unique and instantaneously recognizable personality. It's interesting, although
it's carefully planned, that we often tend to link commercial products with
their spokespeople. It tends to humanize an otherwise inanimate commercial
commodity. And it works."
In this book of
Hebrews God is using the most celebrated celebrity of all time to get the
attention of Christians who may be tempted to go back to a lesser product,
which is the Old Testament system of sacrifice as a basis for forgiveness of
sin, and the legalism of the law as the basis for salvation. Jesus is the most
universal celebrity. In Italy Garibaldi is a great hero, but other nations do
not even know of him. In Germany they can celebrate Bismarck, but in France it
will be Napoleon, which England despises. Washington is a great hero in
America, but the rest of the world does not give him any attention at all. The only
person of universal fame is Jesus. The greatest commercial calls for the
greatest celebrity. If you want people to buy golf equipment you use Tiger
Woods. You use the best of who is related to your product to associate your
product with greatness. This motivates people to want your product so they too
might become great. Here are the key characteristics of great commercials.
COMPARE AND SHOW A
BETTER PRODUCT, NEW AND IMPROVED.
CONTRAST BY SHOWING
HOW THE OLD CANNOT KEEP UP WITH THE NEW.
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT
BY USING WELL KNOWN AND LIKED PEOPLE.
CALL FOR ACTION BY AN
URGENCY TO BUY AND TRY NOW.
Each of these are
basic components of the book of Hebrews. It compares Jesus with all that God had
given in the past and shows that He is superior. He is the new that does away
with the old and makes it obsolete. Not only is He exalted as the greatest
celebrity, but a host of the great people of God in the past are brought forth
in Hebrews 11 to confirm that faith and not law is the essential principle that
has always been foremost with God. And all the way through the book we are
urged to make Him our priority in all things, and to live a life that pleases
God by being as much like Jesus as we can be by His grace. We are urged to turn
our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith, and to be
loyal to Him alone as our Savior and King. This book is truly God’s greatest
commercial. If you want people to fall in love with Jesus, and see them fall
before Him in worship, then you can do no better than to direct them to this
book where He is shown to be the one who is better than everyone and
everything. No commercial can say that the product it promotes is the greatest
that has ever been, and that will ever be. That would be presumption on the
highest level, and so no one does it. But this commercial for Jesus does just
that, because the One it promotes is just that-the best ever, and the greatest
that can ever be.
There is no book of
the Bible that is more Christ centered than Hebrews. It is designed to show
that Jesus is superior to all that has ever been, or will ever be. He is the
final Word of God to man. There is no place to go beyond Jesus, and so this
book settles it once and for all that believers are to be Christ centered in
all that they believe and in all that they do. This is the very purpose of
life, for that alone fulfills the purpose of God. The only meaning to life that
counts forever is the meaning that comes to those who make Jesus the center of
all. This is the goal God seeks to reach by means of His greatest commercial.
St. Patrick got the
message and responded as God intended. We see this in his fifteen-hundred-year
old prayer, part of which goes like this: "Christ be with me, Christ in
the front, Christ in the rear, Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above
me, Christ at my right hand, Christ at my left, Christ in the fort, Christ in
the Chariot seat, Christ at the helm, Christ in the heart of every man who
thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me, Christ in
every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me." Here is a
Christ centered life, and it illustrates where God wants all of His children to
be.
Leonardo da Vinci
illustrates how we are to be Christ centered in all that we do. He was 43 years
old when the Duke of Milan asked him to paint the Last Supper. He worked on it
slowly and with meticulous care to detail. He spent much time making the cup
that Jesus held as beautiful as possible. After three years he was ready to
show it, and he called for a friend to come and see it. He said, "Look at
it and give me your opinion." The friend said, "It is wonderful. The
cup is so real I cannot take my eyes off of it!" Immediately Leonardo took
a brush and drew it across the sparkling cup! He exclaimed as he did so:
"Nothing shall detract from the figure of Christ!" This needs to be
the attitude we have in all that we do in life. We need to pray that nothing
will detract from Christ, for it is to Him that all eyes are to be fixed, and
not to the works of man.
Charles Spurgeon spoke
words that echo the conviction of all who love and preach the Gospel of Christ.
In his first words he spoke to his congregation when he became the pastor of
the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London he said this: "I would propose that
the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall
stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshipers, shall be
the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist; I do
not hesitate to take the name of Baptist; but if I am asked what is my creed, I
reply, "It is Jesus Christ." My venerated predecessor, Dr. Gill, has
left a [theological heritage] admirable and excellent in its way. But the
[legacy] to which I would pin and bind myself forever, God helping me,...is
Jesus Christ, who is the arm and substance of the gospel, who is in Himself all
theology, the incarnation of every precious truth."
Writers are warned not
to over use superlatives, for they lose credibility when they overstate their
case and try to say too often that this or that is the best and the greatest
and the most fabulous. But when it comes to Jesus you cannot overstate the case
for His being the best. The first three verses of this book are all that is
needed to put Jesus on a level beyond which the mind cannot go. Jesus is
exalted here beyond all that the rest of the Bible can do. There is no place to
go after this. He is the final Word of God to man, and the heir of all things,
and the one through whom he made the universe, and the one who is the radiance
of His glory, and the exact representation of His being, and the sustainer of
all by His powerful word, and the one who paid the price for all sin, and the
one who is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. What human language can
find a phrase that can go beyond these and exalt Jesus ever higher? You cannot
use language that overstates the case for the superiority and supremacy of
Jesus. There is no way to exaggerate his glory, power and position. There is a
prayer prayed by monks that uses only superlatives, for it is fitting to so
address Jesus. It goes like this:
"Creator of
Angels and Lord of Hosts, as of old You opened the ear and tongue of him that
was deaf and dumb, so now open my perplexed mind and tongue to praise Your most
holy Name, that I may cry to You:
Jesus, most wonderful,
Astonishment of Angels.
Jesus, most powerful, Deliverance of Forefathers.
Jesus, most sweet, Exultation of Patriarchs.
Jesus, most glorious, Dominion of kings.
Jesus, most desired, Fulfillment of Prophets.
Jesus, most praised, Steadfastness of Martyrs.
Jesus, most gladsome, Comfort of monastics.
Jesus, most compassionate, Sweetness of presbyters.
Jesus, most merciful, Abstinence of fasters.
Jesus, most tender, Joy of the righteous.
Whatever Jesus is, He
is the most, and the best, and the greatest. Jesus never comes in second in any
competition. He is always first and number one. He is Jesus the Greatest, for
in every comparison the book makes with other persons Jesus comes out as
superior and the greatest. If you were going to give this letter a name other
than Hebrews it would be appropriate to call it Jesus the Greatest. When you
begin to grasp the truth of this letter, and get grasped by the truth that
Jesus is the greatest, you will be compelled by the Spirit to pray and praise
like the monks have done for decades in this manner:
"Jesus,
pre-eternal, Salvation of sinners.
Jesus, my King
supremely powerful.
Jesus, my God omnipotent.
Jesus, my Lord immortal.
Jesus, my Creator most glorious.
Jesus, my Guide supreme in goodness.
Jesus, my Shepherd most compassionate.
Jesus, my Master rich in mercy.
Jesus, my Saviour, Friend of man.
Jesus, enlighten my senses, darkened by passions.
Jesus, heal my body, wounded by sins.
Jesus, cleanse my mind from vain thoughts.
Jesus, preserve my heart from evil desires."
There are not enough
titles of glory and greatness to adequately describe all that Jesus is, but
someone has put together a marvelous list that shows that the entire Bible is
really a commercial for Jesus. Everything in the Bible is directed toward
Jesus. He is the center of it all, for He is the center of God’s entire plan of
salvation from beginning to end. Many of these names and titles are dealt with
in the book of Hebrews. As you read these names you will begin to grasp why
Jesus should be the Lord and center of your life, for He is the ultimate, the
best, and the greatest of everything, and He should be everything to us. There
is no other name so exalted in all of history and in all of the universe. Can
language express it any more forcefully than these verses? "God exalted him
to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name"
(Philippians 2:9-10). When God raised Jesus from the dead, he "seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title
that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And
God placed all things under his feet" (Ephesians 1:20-23). Jesus is
the combination of all these names and greater, ones yet we will only learn in
eternity.
Jesus
Is the:
Almighty
Alpha and Omega
Amen
Angel of his presence
Anointed
Author and perfecter of our faith
Beloved
Bread of life Bridegroom
Bright and morning star
Brightness of the Father's glory
Captain of the Lord's army
Captain of salvation
Carpenter
Carpenter's son
Chief Shepherd
Chief corner stone
Chosen of God, Christ
Christ Jesus
Christ of God
Christ the Lord
Christ the power of God
Corner stone
Counselor
Dayspring
Day star
Deliverer
Door
Emmanuel
Ensign
Eternal life
Everlasting Father
Faithful and True
Faithful witness
Faithful and true witness
Finisher of faith
First and last
First begotten
First begotten of the dead
Firstborn
Foundation
Fountain
Forerunner
Friend of sinners
Gift of God
Glory of Israel
God
God manifest in the flesh
God of the whole earth God our Savior
God's dear Son
God with us
Good Master
Governor
Great shepherd of the sheep
Heir of all things
High priest
Head of the church
Holy one
Holy one of God
Holy one of Israel
Hope
Horn of salvation
I Am
Image of God
Jehovah
Jesus
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ our Savior
Jesus of Nazareth
Jesus, the King of the Jews
Jesus, the Son of God
Jesus, the Son of Joseph
Just one
King
King of saints
King of kings
King of glory
King of Zion
King over all the earth
Lamb
Lamb of God
Lawgiver
Leader
Life
Light
Light, everlasting
Light of the world
Light to the Gentiles
Living bread Living stone
Lion of the tribe of Judah
Lord
Lord of lords
Lord of all
Lord our righteousness
Lord God Almighty
Lord Christ
Lord Jesus
Lord of glory
Lord of Armies
Lord, mighty in battle
Lord of the dead and living
Lord of the sabbath
Lord over all
Lord, strong and mighty
Lord, your redeemer
Master
Mediator
Messenger of the covenant
Messiah
Messiah the Prince
Mighty God
Mighty one of Israel
Mighty to save
Morning star
Most holy
Most mighty
Nazarene
Outstanding among ten thousand
Only begotten son
Power of God
Physician
Precious corner stone
Priest
Prince
Prince of life
Prince of peace
Prince of the kings of the earth
Prophet
Rabbi Ransom
Redeemer
Resurrection and life
Redemption
Righteous branch
Righteous judge
Righteous servant
Rose of Sharon
Salvation
Savior
Savior of the world
Seed of the woman
Servant
Shepherd
Shepherd and bishop of souls
Son of the Father
Son of God
Son of Man
Son of the highest
Son of David
Star
Sun of righteousness
Sure foundation
Teacher
True God
True vine
Truth
Way
Which is, which was, which is to come
Wisdom
Wisdom of God
Witness
Wonderful
Word
Word of God
Word of life
As you study the book
of Hebrews you will see many of these names used to exalt and glorify the
Person of Jesus. Why is this book so persistent in portraying Jesus as the
greatest in every way and in every category of comparison? It is because it is
a world filled with competition to get your attention, and then your time, and
then your life devoted to some philosophy or value system that determines who
you will be. The goal of Hebrews is to get us to "..fix our eyes on Jesus
the author and perfecter of our faith…" If we do this it will determine
our philosophy, our life style, our goals, and our eternity.
A good commercial will
get your attention, and then drive home a message that gets you to focus on a
need you have that can be met by a product that is available, and then motivate
you to take action and get that product. We have a need for a Savior and a
compassionate intercessor to deal with our sin. We have a need for a Friend in
high places who can assure us of a place in God’s final kingdom. We have this
and much more in the book of Hebrews, but it is also filled with warnings of
the danger of not looking to Jesus and trusting Him as Lord. The bottom line
is, we must surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord of all, and the greatest of
all, to make it true for us that Hebrews is God’s greatest commercial. Now lets
look at the product this commercial promotes. That product is the Person of
Jesus Christ as the greatest in every category. He is the greatest in
everything that men most long for in life. There are 7 categories of what men
most long for, and in verses 2 and 3 of the first chapter of Hebrews Jesus is
the greatest in each, and each of them will be a chapter in this book. Men long
for-
Possessions, and he is
heir of all.
Power, and he is
sustainer of all.
Position, and he is at
the right hand of God.
Perfection, and he is
sinless.
Personality, and he is
the radiance of God.
Prestige, and he is
the Son of God.
Permanence, and he is
eternal.
CHAPTER
1. THE GREATEST REVELATION
Anne Graham Lotz in
her book Just Give Me Jesus begins her introduction with this story.
"Several years ago, Andrew Morton wrote a biography of Diana, Princess of
Wales. In his publicity tour for the book he said his information was based on
conversations he had with some of her closest friends. His book sold thousand
of copies. After Lady Diana’s tragic death in a car accident in Paris, Andrew
Morton’s book was re-released. This time he revealed that the source of his
information had not been intimate friends of Diana’s but Diana herself. He then
produced hours of taped conversations with the princess as proof. And his book
sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It made an enormous difference to the
reading public to discover the book was not hearsay but what Diana had said
about herself."
God has had many
spokesmen through history, and they have revealed God’s will for His people
faithfully, but they were only instruments through which God spoke. When Jesus
came into history God was doing something different. He was no longer just
using the bodies and minds of men to convey His Word. He was Himself in a body
and mind speaking directly to man. It was no longer just "Thus saith the
Lord," but "I say unto you." Jesus was God speaking to man, and
not just another tool God was using to convey His Word. He was the Word. He was
the greatest revelation of God because He was God revealing Himself. His
revelation is superior to all that had gone before Him because He was superior
to all that had gone before Him. He was superior to everyone and everything is
the major point of this whole book. The first three verses of Hebrews are the
greatest summery of Christology you will find anywhere in or outside of the
Bible. They reveal Jesus to be superior in these ways:
1. He is superior as a
spokesman. He is superior to all past spokesmen.
2. He is superior as a
son. God’s ultimate revelation.
3. He is superior in
status. Heir of all things.
4. He is superior as
source. Creator of all.
5. He is superior in
splendor. God’s glory.
6. He is superior in
substance. Exact replica of Father.
7. He is superior as
sustainer. By His powerful word.
8. He is superior as
sacrifice. Provided purification for sins.
9. He is superior as
sovereign. At right hand of Father.
Hebrews does a lot of
comparing to show that Jesus always comes out on top when compared with any
other person or thing. We see it is the first goal of the book to show us that
God has done a lot of revealing of Himself by speaking to men in various ways,
but that the highest and final way is in Jesus. It is of interest to note that
the first verse uses alliteration in that the five key words of "many
times," "many ways," "past," "fathers," and
"prophets" all begin with the Greek letter "pi." I am going
to follow that pattern as we look at the three kinds of revelation that the
book of Hebrews deals with. They are Past Revelation, Progressive Revelation,
and Perfect Revelation.
THE PAST REVELATION
The first things that
needs to be made clear is that the superiority of the revelation we have in
these last days through the Son does not mean that the revelation that came
through the prophets of old is not valid. It was the best that God was giving
at the time. It was incomplete, but it was the best that could be had in the
days of the prophets. Jesus did not come to destroy the law and the prophets,
but to fulfill them. They were the introduction, and Jesus is the completion.
They gave us fragments of God’s purpose, but Jesus gave us the final and full
revelation of God’s purpose. Through the prophets we come to know about God,
but through Jesus we come to know God, for He is God speaking directly and not
though the voice of another.
Jesus made it clear
that the Old Testament was God speaking to man about Himself, and that there was
a final revelation coming. In John 5:39-40 Jesus says to the Jewish leaders,
"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you
possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you
refuse to come to me to have life." Jesus is saying that the old
revelation was pointing to Him. He makes it even more clear to the two on the
road to Emmaus after he arose from the dead. In Luke 24:25-27 we read,
"How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then
enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he
explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
Later he appeared to the disciples and said in verse 44, "Everything must
be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the
Psalms."
Jesus made it clear
that the past revelation was valid and was revealing piece by piece the reality
of a final revelation, which was fulfilled in Himself. The bottom line is this:
As Christians we love the Old Testament as the Word of God, for it shows us how
God was working all through history to bring His Son into the world to be the
Savior. The whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the Christian Bible
because it is God’s revelation. The New is in the Old contained; the Old is in
the New explained. The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is in the New
revealed. The Old was the commencement of revelation, but the New in Jesus was
the climax of revelation. Next then we see,
THE PROGRESSIVE
REVELATION
God is not longwinded
in the sense that He speaks so long that it drives men crazy and they cannot
wait to get away. Some preachers can do this in speaking about and for God, but
God is one who gets to the point and does not go on and on. He speaks His mind
on the issue at hand and then waits for a more appropriate time to add new
insight into His will. He knows that the human mind cannot handle everything
all at once. So He gave guidance in the past in small bits and pieces, like a
parent feeding a baby, or a very small child. They just break off little chunks
at a time, for they know the child will choke on larger pieces. God knew His
people could not handle more than He gave them, for they failed to live up to
the partial revelation that they had. If your baby is choking on what you are
giving it, give it less. Less is more when more is too much to handle, and so
God just spoke briefly and in part in the Old Testament. "By progressive
revelation . . .God brings man up through the theological infancy of the Old
Testament to the maturity of the New Testament." (B. Ramm, Protestant
Biblical Interp.)
If you have ever been
out walking during the late afternoon, and you are walking away from the sun
you can see your shadow cast on the road ahead of you, and it can be the size
of a blimp as it stretches out dozens of feet before you. Much of the Old
Testament revelation was like that shadow. It was not real, but only the image
cast by the better things yet to come. It was the best at the time, and by
obeying the law of God, which was a shadow, you could please God and be a
righteous person. There was nothing false about the revelation in the past. It
came by means of authentic men of God, who were His prophets. It was good, but
it was far short of the best. It was just a shadow of what was to come. When
what it foreshadowed did come it was foolish to stick with the shadow and
ignore the reality. The Jewish Christians to whom this book was written were in
danger of doing that very thing by slipping back to the ways of Judaism that
were more familiar than the new ways of the Christian church. That is why the
New Testament makes an issue of the difference between the shadow and the
reality.
Heb 10:1"The
law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities
themselves."
Col. 2:16-17
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what
you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon
celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to
come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
What was fine in the
old days is now folly in these new days, for these are the last days. There is
no more revelation to come, for this is the final age, and there will not be
another age coming with some new revelation. Progressive revelation has an
ending point where you reach the peak beyond which there is no place to go. You
cannot keep climbing a mountain once you reach the top, and you cannot keep
getting higher revelation once you have received the highest and greatest that
there is. Progressive revelation ended with Jesus. He is the pinnacle of
revelation beyond which there is no higher place to go. Jesus said to His
disciples, "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because
they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to
see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear
it" (Mt 13:16-17). Jesus is that final Word that all the people of God had
been longing to hear.
God kept getting
closer and closer to mankind, and He became more and more intimate until He
actually became one with them and became a man. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. There was no way God could come closer and reveal Himself more
completely. There was no next step, for progressive revelation had reached its
final stage and highest level. Progressive revelation was concluded with the
coming of His Son. People often meet for the first time on the internet and
begin to share about themselves. They get to know each other quite well over a
period of time, and may even send pictures of each other. But the final
revelation of who they are is when they arrange to meet in person. Once that
happens, and they are conversing face to face, it is folly to think you can
know them better by type on a screen. The prophets are like type on the screen,
but Jesus is meeting God face to face. He is the superior, the final, the
ultimate, the greatest revelation of God.
Mike Bradaric has put
together a list of the ways that God revealed step by step more and more
information about the coming Messiah. He writes, "At differing times
throughout the OT, God was revealing more and more of himself and how he would
redeem a fallen humanity.
In Genesis 3:15 he
revealed that a Redeemer would come from the human race
In Genesis 12:1-3 he revealed that the Redeemer would come from Abraham
descendents
In Genesis 28:14 he revealed that the Redeemer would come from the seed of
Jacob and thence forth would be called Israel
In Genesis 49:10 he revealed that the Savior would come from the tribe of Judah
In 2 Samuel 7:16 he revealed that the Savior would come from the house of David
and that he would rule forever
In Isaiah 7:14 he revealed that he would be virgin born
In Micah 5:2 he revealed that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem
Psalm 22 he revealed the kind of death the Savior would die
In Malachi 4 he revealed that John the Baptist would come before him to
announce him
In Isaiah 53 he revealed not only the nature of his death, but manner of his
burial and his resurrection.
The Old Testament
saints had many pieces of the puzzle, but they could not get the full picture
of the Messiah put together until they received that large missing piece in the
center of it, and that piece was Jesus. Even when Jesus came He could not give
a full revelation of all God’s plan, for men were not capable of grasping it.
Jesus said he had many
things to tell his disciples but they were not ready. You do not tell your
young children about income taxes and wills, for they are not ready for such
things. So God’s people needed to be prepared for they were not ready. God is
like any intelligent parent and that is why He gives Progressive Revelation. He
tells people what they can grasp, and then builds on that to reveal more when
they are ready. It is called going from the known to the unknown, which is the
essence of education. Next we see-
THE PERFECT REVELATION
The goal of the book
of Hebrews is to so exalt Jesus that there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind
that He is the ultimate and supreme revelation of God. In these first three
verses the author makes it clear that Jesus is superior in every category. I
like the way one author described them as the narthex to a great cathedral. In
these opening words we begin to see the grandeur and majesty of the One this
book is all about. Lightfoot has called it "the most beautifully
constructed and expressive sentence in the New Testament" It may, in fact,
be the most expressive sentence ever written, for it says what is never said
elsewhere in such completeness. With less than a hundred words it conveys more
than can be found anywhere. It cannot be matched in any other part of God’s
Word. There is nowhere where Jesus is more exalted. Let me repeat the list
again:
1. He is superior as a
spokesman.
2. He is superior as a
son.
3. He is superior in
status.
4. He is superior as
source.
5. He is superior in
splendor.
6. He is superior in
substance.
7. He is superior as
sustainer.
8. He is superior as
sacrifice.
9. He is superior as
sovereign.
There is no higher
source of revelation, and there is no other that can compare, for Jesus is in a
class by Himself. It is folly to even dream of finding a greater source, and a
greater Savior. To drift away from Jesus and begin to look for some greater
source of knowing God and His will is like giving up on the sun for a source of
light and raising fireflies in hopes of meeting your need. Hebrews makes it
clear that Jesus is the supreme revelation of God, and that there is only
judgment ahead for those who will not receive Him as God’s final and perfect
revelation. The author compares all of the values of the Old Testament to what
we have in Jesus, and shows that what was in the past was good, but that what
we now have in Jesus is far superior, for it is the best. Your crayon was good,
but your ballpoint pen is better. Your candle was good, but your electric light
is better. Your well was good, but your indoor faucet is better. We could go on
and on illustrating the point that the old was just fine at the time, but now
there is that which is far superior. That is the theme of Hebrews as it shows
us all that was revealed was good, but in Jesus we have the better and perfect
revelation. The old was a preview, but Jesus is the full feature. Someone has
made a top ten list in Hebrews that goes like this:
10. Better than the
prophets.
9. Better than the
angels.
8. Better than Moses.
7. Better than Joshua.
6. Better than Aaron.
5. Better message.
4. Better maturity.
3. Better covenant.
2. Better sacrifice.
1. Better rest.
Someone else has made
lists of what is better and perfect in Hebrews, and they are:
BETTER
1:4 Christ is better than the angels
6:9 Better things that belong to salvation
7:7 The less (inferior) is blessed by the better (superior)
7:19 A better hope is introduced
7:22 Jesus is the surety of a better covenant
8:6 Christ is the mediator of a better covenant
8:6 New covenant established on better promises
9:23 Better sacrifices
10:34 Heaven a better substance or possession
11:16 Heaven a better country
11:35 They obtain a better resurrection or life
11:40 God had provided something better for us
12:24 Christ's blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel
PERFECT
2:10 Perfect through suffering
5:9 Being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who
obey Him
6:1 Let us go on unto perfection (KJV)
7:11 If perfection had been obtainable by the Levitical priesthood...
7:19; 9:9 Law made nothing perfect
7:28 ...the Word of the oath... appoints a Son who has been made perfect
forever.
9:9 Sacrifices cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper
9:11 Greater and more perfect tabernacle
10:1 The Law and sacrifices cannot make perfect
10:14 His single offering has perfected for all time those who are sanctified
11:40 Old Testament faithful not made perfect apart from Christ
12:23 Spirits of just men made perfect
13:21 Make you perfect in every good work
I have made my own
list of what is better just is this first chapter. There is really no end to
the lists you could make, for if you compare Jesus with anything or anyone, He
always comes out better.
Better Messenger-the
Son v.2
Better than prophets
v. 2
Better revelation of
God v. 3
Better relation to the
Father v. 3 & 5
Better power
source-the king of universe v. 3
Better than angels v.
4
Better name than
angels v. 4
Better joy v. 9
Better in permanence
v. 11
The goal of the book
of Hebrews is to make it so plain that what we have in Jesus is so much better
and so superior to all that God has given in the past that no sensible person
would dream of forsaking Jesus for the old ways of Judaism, or, for that
matter, the ways of any other religion. When you have the best and the perfect
revelation you do not put your trust in anything less. From the point of the
incarnation on everything that is pleasing to God must be Christ-centered. This
is the standard by which we measure and judge all teachings and beliefs. Jesus
is the final, supreme and greatest revelation. As one author wrote, "The
prize jewel in the treasure chest of Hebrews is Jesus." We still study the
revelation of the past and treasure it, but it always needs to be upgraded by
comparing it with what Jesus said. He would say often, "You have heard
what it was said to the people long ago…….But I tell you…." Matt. 5:21-22.
Jesus was always upgrading the Old with the final revelation of what God wants
man to be and do. In Him the revelation becomes perfected. Consider the
following questions-
Is everything you say
of equal importance?
Is everything the
President says of equal importance?
Is everything God says
of equal importance?
We are to live by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, but does that mean that all are
equal? Is the Old Testament equal to the New Testament? This book of Hebrews
answers all of these questions with a resounding No! God updates his Word to
man in Christ and what he says through Jesus is more important than what he
said in the Old Testament. Much of the past Word was to prepare for the final
Word in Christ. When the fulfillment came the preparation was finished and
completed. This means that many of the laws that God laid down for Israel are
now obsolete for us as Christians. The ceremonial and Sabbath laws are no
longer in effect, for they were fulfilled in Christ. They were God’s ultimate
Word at the time they were given, but when God upgraded His Word in Christ the
old became obsolete. That is the theme of much of the book of Hebrews. When the
sun rises you can put away your candles, and when the real Savior comes you can
put away your types that pointed to Him.
The practical value of
knowing that Jesus is the greatest revelation we can have of God is that it gives
us a way to evaluate every situation in life. The "what would Jesus
do" theme is our guide. He is the revelation of what God would do. He
responded to every need of every individual He met with compassion. We cannot
do what He did in terms of healing and raising the dead, but we can show the
same love and caring spirit He showed. We can have the same hatred he had for
the legalism of the Pharisees that made religion a burden. We can have His same
heart that desires to forgive and bring about peace and reconciliation for
those who have gone astray. In every situation of life it is valid to ask the
question, "What would Jesus do?" He is the revelation of God’s will
in every situation. We do not know what Jesus would do in every situation, but
we will be more likely to respond as He would if we are looking to Him as our
highest example, and the most perfect revelation we have of God’s ideal person.
The Old Testament was
like the alphabet and the New was the beginning of reading. They needed the
foundation of the alphabet before they could understand the full revelation of
God. The world is full of truths, but only in Christ do we get the full truth.
He is the highest revelation of who God is and what his plan is. Christians do
not have a monopoly on truths, for there are truths in Judaism and most other
religions, but the fullness of truth is in Jesus. He is the truth and the last
word on truth because He is the greatest revelation.
We often long for
things to happen that would frighten us into wishing they would not have
happened. One of these things is that God would talk to us directly in an
audible voice. We have no conception of what this would be like to hear the
voice of God. The people of Israel did hear it once and they were so frightened
that they begged Moses to tell God never to do it again, but to speak to them
through the voice of a man. In Deut. 5:22-23 it says that God spoke to them out
of the darkness as the mountain was ablaze with fire. It was scarier than
listening to ghost stories around any campfire. They felt they would die if
they ever heard God speak directly to them again, and so they requested that
Moses go near to God and listen, and then pass on to them what God had to say
to them. God’s voice was too awesome for them, and they did not want to hear it
anymore. They survived it once, but did not want to risk ever hearing it again.
Apparently God talks
too loud for the comfort of the human ear. He does not even need any loud
speakers when He speaks from the top of a mountain to the people in the valley
below. If you have even been in a storm where the lightning and thunder have
kept coming in a continuous series of loud bangs that startle your ears, then
you have a slight concept of what it must be like to hear God’s voice. Spurgeon
said in one of his sermons, "It might well have occurred to a Jewish mind
to have called the thunder the voice of God, when he considered the loudness of
it, when all other voices are hushed; even if they be the loudest voices
mortals can utter, or the most mighty sounds; yet are they but indistinct
whispers, compared with the voice of God in the thunder." The people who
heard it said never again do we want this experience. We want God to speak to
us in a quieter voice. No man can shout loud enough to frighten us like the
voice of God, and so from now on they preferred to hear God through the voice
of man.
God was not offended,
for He knew His voice was not the best for public speaking. The ears of man
were not designed to listen to such loud tones. He agreed to keep silent and
speak through the voice of man, and especially a very specific man. This is how
he responded:
"And the Lord
said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise
them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which
he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him" (Deuteronomy
18:15-19).
This is a messianic
prophecy that refers to the coming of Jesus Christ into the world to speak the
Word of God. God sent many prophets, but Jesus was the Prophet who spoke in the
name of God. When Jesus spoke it was the very voice of God that men heard, and
God holds all men responsible for what they hear from the voice of Jesus.
Hearing Him is hearing God directly, and so the voice of Jesus is the greatest
voice in history, and the greatest voice in the universe, for it is the voice
of God. It is a softer voice, and it is easier on the ears, but it is just as
authoritative as the thunderous voice of the Father. Heb. 1:2 says, "..in
these last days He has spoken to us by His Son,…" God spoke in a variety
of ways in the Old Testament, but now He has spoken directly again by the Word,
and the Word was with God from the beginning, and the Word was God. Jesus was
the very voice of God in human flesh. Jesus was God speaking to man again
directly and not through an agent. God speaks through nature, music, poetry,
books, sermons, and a host of different ways, but these voices are not the
greatest. There is only one that is the greatest and that is the voice of
Jesus. Other voices tell of God, but the voice of Jesus is God speaking, and
his voice shows us God.
In Heb. 12:18-19 this
Old Testament event of hearing the voice of God is referred to again, and tells
of how the people begged not to hear the voice of God again. It was so
frightening that even Moses was trembling with fear it says in verse 20. It
goes on in verse 25 to warn believers not to refuse to hear the voice of Jesus,
for there is no escape from judgment for those who refuse to listen to the
voice of God in Him. He will shake up more than a mountain. He will shake up
both earth and heaven the passage goes on to say. Jesus is the greatest voice
any person will ever hear, for His voice is the voice of God. It is a quieter
voice, but it should still frighten us to think of not obeying it, for not
obeying the greatest voice will lead to the greatest judgment. Rather than fear
this voice, however, we should be praying often the prayer of Saint Makarios of
Alexandria (300 - 394 AD).
Eyes of Jesus, look on
me;
Lips of Jesus, smile
on me;
Ears of Jesus, hear
me;
Arms of Jesus, enfold
me;
Hands of Jesus, bless
me;
Feet of Jesus, guide
me;
Voice of Jesus, speak
to me;
Heart of Jesus, love
me;
Spirit of Jesus, abide
in me;
now and forever...
Amen.
We want to look at
some of the characteristics of the voice of Jesus. Because His voice is the
very voice of God it is a subject too vast to cover in one message, but I want
to share some basic ideas. First of all-
IT IS THE LORD’S
VOICE.
There are many
passages of Scripture that deal with the voice of God, and when you look at a
series of them you can get a clear impression that the voice of Jesus is the
voice of God. Here is a series of examples:
Genesis 3:8 And they
heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and
Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the
trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:10 And he
said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I [was] naked;
and I hid myself.
Isaiah 6:8 Also I
heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here [am] I; send me.
Jeremiah 7:23 But this
thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye
shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that
it may be well unto you.
Jeremiah 7:28 But thou
shalt say unto them, This [is] a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD
their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from
their mouth.
Jeremiah 42:6 Whether
[it be] good, or whether [it be] evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our
God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice
of the LORD our God.
Matthew 17:5 While he
yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of
the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear
ye him.
John 10:3 To him the
porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by
name, and leadeth them out.
John 10:4 And when he
putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him:
for they know his voice.
John 10:5 And a
stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the
voice of strangers.
John 10:16 And other sheep
I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd.
Hebrews 3: 7 Therefore
(as the Holy Ghost says, To day if you want to hear his voice,8 Do not harden
your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.
He who is of God hears
the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God.
(John 8:47)
Truly, truly, I say to
you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he
does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)
He who rejects me and
does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be
his judge on the last day. (John 12:48)
Jesus was the voice of
God, and in Him we have the final Word of God. He is the ultimate authority.
Secondly-
IT IS A LOUD VOICE.
It may not always be
as loud as the voice of the Father who scared the wits out of people when he
spoke and shook the very mountain, but it is loud enough to be clearly heard so
that there is no excuse for not obeying it. In Rev. 1:10 John writes,
"..,I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet…" He turned to see
and discovered it was Jesus. Jesus knows how to speak loud enough to get man’s
attention. Revelation 3: 20 has Jesus speaking, "Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in
to him, and will fellowship with him, and he with me." He knocks loud
enough to be heard.
In John 10:27 we read,
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…"His
voice is always loud and clear enough for us to hear and open the door to Him,
or to follow Him in obedience as our Shepherd. Two hymn writers have conveyed
the idea that we can clearly hear and we can respond in obedience to the voice
of Jesus.
Hark, the voice of
Jesus calling,
"Who will go and work today?
Fields are ripe and harvests waiting,
Who will bear the sheaves away?"
Long and loud the Master calls us,
Rich reward He offers free;
Who will answer, gladly saying,
"Here am I, send me, send me"?
The voice of God is
calling its summons in our day;
Isaiah heard in Zion and we now hear God say:
"Whom shall I send to succor my people in their need?
Whom shall I send to loosen the bonds of shame and greed?"
"I hear My people
crying in slum and mine and mill;
No field or mart is silent, no city street is still.
I see My people falling in darkness and despair.
Whom shall I send to shatter the fetters which they bear?"
We heed, O Lord, Your
summons, and answer: Here are we!
Send us upon Your errand, let us Your servants be.
Our strength is dust and ashes, our years a passing hour;
But You can use our weakness to magnify Your power.
From ease and plenty
save us; from pride of place absolve;
Purge us of low desire; lift us to high resolve;
Take us, and make us holy; teach us Your will and way.
Speak, and behold! We answer; command, and we obey!
Another hymn writer made
it clear that all who will listen can hear the voice of Jesus calling them into
the family of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. This
voice of Jesus is going out over our planet constantly by means of radio, video
and print, and it is loud enough so that many daily make the choice to listen
and respond. In 1846 Horatio Bonar wrote-
I heard the voice of
Jesus say,
"Come unto me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down
thy head upon my breast."
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"Behold, I freely give
the living water; thirsty one,
stoop down and drink, and live."
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
and now I live in him.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
"I am this dark world's light;
look unto me, thy morn shall rise,
and all thy day be bright."
I looked to Jesus, and I found
in him my Star, my Sun;
and in that light of life I'll walk
till traveling days are done.
One day the voice of
Jesus will be so loud that it will wake the dead. "Truly, truly, I say to
you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the
Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:25) When John says,
"and now is," he is referring to the fact that those dead in sin now
can hear the voice of Jesus and rise from the dead to new life in Jesus. The
ultimate will be, however, when Jesus comes again and by His voice raise all
who are in the graves to face their judgment and reward. Ray Stedman gives an
account of just how loud and powerful a voice Jesus has in raising the dead in
sin to newness of life. He writes,
"Yesterday
morning I gathered with about 650 other people to hear former Senator Harold
Hughes, ex-Governor of Iowa, tell how God had drastically changed his life.
When he was a hopeless alcoholic, wallowing in his own vomit, so despairing he
was ready to take his own life, God met him and delivered him through much
struggle and pain, and led him to a place of prominence and power. I sat on the
platform watching people hanging on his every word, listening to a man describe
what God could do.
Listening to Senator
Hughes, I was again impressed by this phenomenon. He spoke of reaching a point
in his life where his wife and children had left him and he had lost his work.
He ended up drunk, sitting in a bathtub, with the barrel of a gun in his mouth
and his finger on the trigger. He sensed within an agonizing cry of despair.
Then he called out to God and immediately felt a spreading sense of peace
within that delivered him from the crisis of the moment. Through much pain,
heartache, and failure, God led him along until he was at last free from the
grip of alcohol. He eventually became the governor of his state and a United
States senator."
The voice of Jesus is
loud enough and power enough to accomplish all that God wants to do in history
and in lives. Thirdly-
IT IS A LOVING VOICE.
Jesus was just like
His Father in heaven. He was the express image of the Father, and, like the
Father, He was always seeking to encourage those who followed him in obedience.
He loved deeply and longed for them to have his joy. It says of the Father in
Zeph. 3:17 "The LORD your God is with you...He will rejoice over you with
singing" Only once do we read of Jesus singing, and that is when the Last
Supper was over and He and His disciples were ready to follow Him to the
garden. It says in Matt. 26:30, "When they has sung a hymn, they went out
to the Mount of Olives." Jesus was in human flesh and so He did not have
the powerful voice He had before the incarnation. We cannot imagine what it
would be like to hear His voice in heaven as he sang in joy over His people.
What a divine duet it must have been for Father and Son to join in a song of
joy over the people of God when then walked in obedience. We know that He also
sang the blues, for so often His people did not walk in obedience. But the
voice of God and that of Jesus is a voice that loves to sing in joy. Love songs
are His favorite, and we will get to hear His songs for all eternity.
We tend to hear only
about how we will praise God and the Lamb of God for all eternity, but we have
every reason to believe that we will also have the opportunity for all eternity
to hear them sing to us, or over us, with joy. Talk about a concert! This will
be the mother of all concerts when we hear the Father and the Son join is a
concert of love songs for the people they have redeemed and made a part of
their family forever. The Hebrew word describing how God sings means a loud
shout expressing extreme joy and gladness. Imagine a vast choir with voices
like that of Pavarotti, and you still will not get the thrill it will be in
hearing this divine duet. For all eternity we will hear the loving joyful voice
of our Redeemer singing over the Bride He loves so dearly that He died for her
so she could be with Him forever. There will be no blues in heaven, but only
joyful love songs. We will sing them to our Savior, and we will listen to them
as we hear the loving voice of Jesus, and never again have to hear his voice of
judgment.
Unfortunately we still
need to hear His voice of judgment in this life because we do not always walk
in obedience. But the fact remains, that even in time we hear most often the
loving voice of Jesus giving comfort and encouragement as we run the race of
life. Thomas Troeger in The Parable of Ten Preachers tells this story that
comes to a conclusion that the Scripture clearly supports.
... A youngster...had
asked a spontaneous question during a church service... The child was standing
on the chancel steps with other boys and girls who had come forward for the
children's sermon. Before [the preacher] had spoken her first words to them,
the boy asked, "What does the voice of God sound like?"
...The little boy's
question had preempted the [prepared] children's sermon...All were waiting to
see how their pastor would answer the question, "What does the voice of
God sound like?"
...She began slowly,
saying "The voice of God sounds like...." and drew the words out as
long as she could while she prayed desperately that God would speak and give
her an answer.
She started once
again: "The voice of God sounds like ... like your best friend, like someone
you trust, someone you can really talk things over with. The voice of God
sounds like your mother or your father or your favorite baby sitter when they
comfort you because you're having a bad dream in the night. You hear them next
to your bed, calling: "Everything's all right. Everything's all right. I'm
right here beside you."
One of the main themes
of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus became fully human that he might fully
understand and sympathize with us in our temptations and trials. Chapter two
stresses that he became just like us in order to understand what we go through,
and then in 4:15-16 we read, "For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are-yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne
of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help
us in our time of need." Again, the hymn writer has expressed it-
The great Physician
now is near,
The sympathizing Jesus;
He speaks the drooping heart to cheer,
Oh! hear the voice of Jesus.
We can hear the loving
voice of Jesus time and time again by reading the many promises He gives us in
the Gospels. For example:
Come unto me, all you
who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
These things I have
spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John
15:11)
Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give to you . . .. (John 14:27)
I have said this to
you that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but be of
good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
So, if the son makes
you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36).
I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and
whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. (John 11:25,26)
I came that you might
have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)
The more you listen to
a voice the more easily you can identify the person who is speaking. Some people
call on the phone and you can know who it is right away by the first word they
say because their voice is known to you. Mary Magdalene though it was the
gardener she saw that first Easter morning, but when He spoke her name she knew
it was Jesus. She knew His voice well, for she spent much time listening to Him
teach. We need to listen to the voice of Jesus often so we can distinguish
between his voice and the voice of impostors who try to pretend to be the voice
of God. That which does not conform to the voice of Jesus is not the voice of
God.
The world is filled
with the voices of those who seek to give you religious guidance, but these
voices often convey that which leads us in different directions from that of
the voice of the Good Shepherd. The only way we can be sure of any guidance is
to compare it with the voice of Jesus in His Word. The more we understand the
Bible the easier it is to detect what is false guidance. So much that sounds
good is not truly of God, and the only way to know this is to listen often to
the voice of God. When you hear what is truly His voice often enough you will
be able to detect right away what is contrary to His voice, and also what is
consistent with His voice.
I read an account by a
pastor who knew by experience how sheep can hear the voice of the shepherd and
respond. He wrote, "We just didn't have many sheep running around where I
grew up on the south side of Chicago. So I listened with fascination the other
day when my father-in-law told about being the shepherd for his family's flock
of sheep. He was just a boy, the only child, and Mom and Dad left the sheep
pretty much with him - and he was with them a lot. One day he and his parents
were watching the flock and he said, "Would you like me to call one of them
out?" Right, kid - like one sheep is going to know it's him you want? So
Mom and Dad kind of laughed. The little shepherd asked them to pick a sheep
they wanted called out . . . and then he made a little bleating sound . . . and
the selected sheep proceeded to leave the flock and come right to him. Mom and
Dad were still skeptical. "Pick another sheep", he said. Another
bleat - this one a little different - and Mr. Sheep answered the call. And no
one else could get that kind of response. That little exercise was repeated
several times, until there was no denying the amazing fact - those sheep had
such a personal relationship with their shepherd that his was the only voice
they followed."
The point is, if we
spend a lot of time listening to the voice of Jesus as our Shepherd we too can
hear when He calls to give us guidance, comfort, and encouragement. We will not
be led astray if we know how to distinguish His voice from the many voices that
seek to entice us to follow them. All the stress on reading the Bible and
prayer is not just a legalistic duty, but it is so that we can be familiar with
the voice of Jesus, and respond in obedience when we hear his call. The call
often comes through the voice of a man, and that is why Jesus has ordained that
the Gospel be preached in all the world.
By the voice of
pastors, missionaries, and teachers of all kinds, Jesus speaks today. Spurgeon
once said, "And now tonight Jesus speaks to us in the gospel. So far as
his gospel shall be preached by us here, it shall not be the word of man, but
the word of God; and although it comes to you through a feeble tongue, yet the
truth itself is not feeble, nor is it any less divine than if Christ himself
should speak it with his own lips." Jesus confirms this, for he said in
Luke 10:16, "He who listens to you listens to me…" When we speak the
Word that God has revealed in Jesus, we too can become the voice of God.
Ray Boltz and Steve
Millikan wrote a song called When He calls, and it end with this chorus:
"When
He calls, When He calls
Just say "Lord I am listening"
When He calls, When He calls
Just be ready to obey.
For there's no greater joy
Than hearing Him call . . . your name."
There is no greater
joy than hearing Jesus call, for there is no greater voice than His. Jesus has
the highest recommendation in the universe, for when Jesus was transfigured a
voice from the cloud said in Matt. 17:5, "This is my Son, whom I love;
with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" No matter how poor a listener
you are, it is your highest obligation to listen to Him. Without a doubt, Jesus
is the greatest voice.
THE RICHEST PERSON IN THE UNIVERSE
There was a day in the
history of our nation when a measly 20 million dollars could make you the richest
man in America. This was the case with John Jacob Astor, who came to this land
with only five pounds sterling and seven flutes that he got from his brother
who sold music instruments in London. Then you had Cornelius Vanderbilt who
gained that title with 105 million. Then came Andrew Carnegie with his 175
million, followed by John D. Rockefeller with 250 million. All of this was like
petty cash to the wealthy of our day. Bill Gates, for example, is not just the
richest man in America, but the richest man in the world. His wealth soared
over 100 billion at one time. Recently it has fallen to 55 billion and less,
but he is still the richest man in the world. He started Microsoft in 1975 and
has made on average since then about one million dollars per hour if you figure
14 hours for every working day since that beginning. That is wealth beyond our
imagination.
There is one person,
however, who is so much richer than Gates that he can only be given the title
The Richest Person In The Universe. That person is none other than the man
Christ Jesus. In His divine glory for all eternity He was the Lord of the
Universe, for He created it and guided its formation. But it is as the Son of
Man that Jesus died for the sins of the world and then ascended to heaven where
God placed him at His right hand on the throne next to Him. The whole point of
the book of Hebrews is that it is the man Christ Jesus who is on the throne of
the universe. The phrase that we want to focus on in this message is that in
verse 2 which says of the Son, "..whom he appointed heir of all
things." The implications of this are even more staggering than the riches
of Gates and all of the other over 500 billionaires in the world today. In
essence this phrase is saying that the lowly carpenter of Nazareth, who died
with nothing but the clothes on his back, and who did not even have a place to
be buried, is now the richest person in the universe. He is heir of all things,
and this is not an isolated idea, but is supported by many Scriptures.
"For from him and
through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen."
Romans 11:36
"To be put into effect when the times will have reached their
fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one
head, even Christ." Ephesians 1:10
"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head
over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills everything in every way." Ephesians 1:22-23
"He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the
heavens, in order to fill the whole universe." Ephesians 4:10
"..and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the
cross." Colossians 1:20
Jesus spoke on this
subject, and He made it clear that God had full confidence in Him, and that He
had given Him all authority. "All things have been handed over to me by
my Father . . . " (Matt 11:27a, NRSV). "The Father loves the
Son and has placed all things in His hands" (John 3:35, NRSV).
"The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing . . .
" (John 5:20, NRSV). "The Father judges no one but has given
all judgment to the Son . . . " (John 5:22). "For just as the
Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in
Himself . . . " (John 5:26, NRSV). " . . . the Son of Man will
give you. For it is on Him that God the Father has set His seal" (John
6:27, NRSV). " . . . the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent
into the world . . . " (John 10:36, NRSV).
There is no one who
can ever match such wealth, power, and authority, for he is appointed to
inherit all things. Everything God has made is going to the Son. He will be
rich beyond all human calculation. And the next best thing to being rich is
being related to one who is, and so all who are in Christ will be wealthy
forever. Paul writes in II Cor. 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so
that you through his poverty might become rich." It is clearly stated that
one of the goals of God for all his children is that they be rich. His only
begotten Son became poor that he might become a perfect sacrifice for our sins,
and make it possible for us to become partners in the eternal riches he would
inherit from the Father. The dream of every human being is to be so wealthy
that they can enjoy all the wonders of what God has made possible for man to
enjoy. This goal will be achieved, and we will be joint heirs with Jesus, the
richest man in the universe.
We want to look at
three aspects of these riches of Jesus that he inherits from the Father. First
we want to look at the fact that they are-
SUPERIOR RICHES
The richest person in the
world has to be wealthy in more than physical and material possessions or it is
irrelevant, for once one has millions and billions it is superfluous to have
more. It is a meaningless title to be the riches person in the universe if
there is nothing you have that is not also possessed by the millions of
millionaires of the world, and even by those with much less. Jesus inherits all
things, but if we read the whole chapter we see that his wealth includes far
more. Jesus is superior to all other beings that God has made. Verse 9 says
that because he loved righteousness and hated wickedness God has set him above
his companions by anointing him with the oil of joy. This means Jesus is rich
in the love of the Father, and this makes him the happiest person in the
universe.
It is possible to be
very rich in material things and be unhappy, and so the greatest riches are in
having a joyful spirit along with the wealth of things. When one combines the
riches of the inner life with the riches of all that gives external pleasure,
then one has the superior riches beyond which none can go. You cannot be any
happier than Jesus, for he is the happiest person in the universe. He is rich
in glory so that all the angels worship him, and rich in love, for he is loved
by God, the angels, and man. He is rich in joy because his kingdom will be
eternal and all his enemies will one day be defeated, and all who love him will
reign with him and inherit the salvation he purchased for them on the cross.
There can be no one in the same category with Jesus when it comes to riches. He
is the riches person in the universe in every way that one can be rich.
This phrase, however,
does focus on things, and so we need to see that Jesus will be the richest
person in the universe in terms of material possessions. It has been the dream
of powerful rulers all through history to rule the whole world. Some have come
close to ruling the known world of their day, but none have come close to
having possession of power over the whole planet. This is the kind of riches we
see that Jesus will have. Psalm 2, which is quoted in verse 5, states it
forcefully in 2:7-8, "I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to
me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I
will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your
possession." In other words, Jesus will be the first and only person to
ever be King and ruler over all the nations of the world. He will be rich in
power far superior to all the emperors and kings of history. Even before Jesus
ascended to the throne he said, "All power in heaven and on earth is given
unto me." On that basis he sent his church into all the world to take it
over for the kingdom of God.
There is more to the
universe than the visible and the material, and so the riches of Christ go
beyond just possessing the nations of the world. His riches include the
ownership and Lordship over the entire universe of beings that we know so
little about. Paul gave us some insight into this vast mystery when he wrote,
"For by Him all
things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him. And he is before all things and in Him all
things consist. And He is the head of the body, the ecclesia, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should
dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him whether things on
earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His
cross." (Colossians 1:16-20) Such words make it clear beyond dispute that
the riches of Jesus are superior to all other being who are and who will ever
be. Secondly we see they are-
SOVEREIGN RICHES.
This richest man in
the universe will be sitting on the throne of God as the sovereign of the
universe. His riches will be the wealth of the eternal King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. Under His reign we will have universal wealth. Paul makes it clear in
Phil. 2:9-11 that Jesus is sovereign over all the universe. He writes,
"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in
heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father."
Never have people had
such a powerful and rich King. The book of Hebrews is above all
Christ-centered. He is the center and the circumference. He is the alpha and
omega, the beginning and the end. The goal of studying this book is that we
will often fall at the feet of Jesus and say with Thomas when he saw the risen
Christ, "My Lord and My God." John 20:28. Many acknowledge Jesus as a
great man, and there are masses who will admit he was the greatest teacher that
ever lived. Jesus is rich in honors bestowed upon him from every source
imaginable. But all of these fall short of seeing who Jesus really is. He is
God. He is sovereign over all the universe. We do not grasp who he is until we
worship him as our Lord and King.
You can find quotes
from great minds all through history who exalt Jesus as the greatest man who
ever lived. It is so obvious that he was the greatest teacher to ever live that
today we have Atheists For Jesus. Here is the testimony of the founder of this
group: "My name is Ken Schei, I'm the founder and President of
"Atheists for Jesus". And yes, as the name implies, I am an atheist
for Jesus.
"Now, I'm sure
that at least some of you (perhaps it would be more accurate to say all of
you) are asking: "Just what in the heck is an Atheist for Jesus?"
Fair enough! I realize that this may well appear to be a contradiction of
terms, so I'd best start out with an explanation of just what I mean by my use
of the terms.
"First of all,
what I mean by the term "Atheist", is that I do not believe that any
deity is probable, nor do I believe that any deity that I have ever heard of is
possible. While I do not claim omniscience--and can, therefore, not absolutely
rule out the existence of some sort of deity--I feel confident that my
definition will identify me as an atheist to the vast majority of the populace
(and thus avoid the confusion which often results from the use of term
Agnostic.
"Secondly, when I
say that I am "for Jesus", I do not mean to imply in any way that I
have converted to Christianity or that I now believe Jesus to be a god. What I
do mean is that I have come to have a great deal of respect for the teachings
of Jesus. My respect for Jesus is not based on the Cross, but rather on the
Mount--not on His death and supposed resurrection, but on His teachings as
exemplified by the Sermon on the Mount." This is the end of his testimony.
I share this because
it is the ultimate in praise to Jesus from a humanist viewpoint. Volumes could
be filled with such testimony from all over the world. This makes Jesus the
greatest man who ever lived, but it falls so far short of who he really is.
This book of Hebrews starts off by making it clear that Jesus is superior to
all that has ever been, or that will ever be. He is superior as God’s final
revelation; He is superior as heir of all things; He is superior as the Creator
of all the universe; He is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact
representation of his being. He is seated at God’s right hand as the ultimate
in Royalty. He is the King over all. All praises of Jesus that do not make him
the Royal King of the universe fall so far short of who he is that they are
false. He is the greatest man who ever lived, and the greatest teacher who ever
was, but to stop there is to deny the revelation of God as to who he really is.
He is the richest person in the universe because he made it all, redeemed it
all, inherits in all, and reigns over it all as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. He is the richest of all royalty that has ever been, or who could ever
be, for there is nowhere to go beyond owning all that is. Thirdly we see they are-
SHARED RICHES.
Jesus does not keep
all of this enormous wealth to himself, but he shares it with all who become a
part of the family of God. There is no poverty in the family of God in
eternity. The poor you always have with you in time, but in eternity all will
be rich, for He who owns all will share it abundantly with the whole family.
Jesus will ultimately solve the poverty problem of the world.
Once when Caesar
Augustus had bestowed a princely gift upon one whom he wished especially to
honor, the recipient was so overcome with the gift’s magnitude that he
exclaimed, "This is too great a gift for me to receive." "But it
is not too great a gift for me to give," Caesar replied, pleased with his
own bounty. Christ will have an even greater bounty, and an even greater
generosity. "My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in
Glory by Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:19.
The purpose of Jesus
coming into the world was to make as many people rich as possible by means of
his atonement for sin. This sacrifice made it possible for sinners to come to
God, be forgiven, and be reconciled to God as His children. Jesus was no
Prodigal Son who took his inheritance and squandered it in folly. He left his
inheritance at home with the Father and entered into poverty on earth. He lived
the perfect life of love and laid down his life for us so that we could join
him in heaven where he could share his inheritance with us. His joy is in
giving and sharing just as it was in his earthly life. Jesus was always giving
of himself, and all of his miracles were for the meeting of the needs of
others. He will be a sharer of wealth unlimited for all eternity. He is heir of
all, and he will share all of which he is heir.
Arthur Pink writing of
Isaac says, "As we have seen in our previous studies Isaac, typically,
represents sonship. In perfect consonance with this we may note how he was
appointed heir of all things. Said Eliazer to Bethuel, "And Sarah my
master’s wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given
all that he hath" (Gen. 24:36). Observe how this is repeated for sake of
emphasis in Genesis 25:5-"And Abraham gave all that he had unto
Isaac." In the type this pointed first to Abraham’s greater Son,
"Whom He (God) hath appointed Heir of all things" (Heb. 1:2). But it
is equally true of all those who are through faith the children of Abraham and
the children of God-"And if children, then heirs: heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:17). As with Isaac, so with us: all the
wealth of the Father’s house is ours!"
The riches we have in
Christ are to eventually include material wealth, for we will be in a new
heaven and earth that will be ours to have and enjoy as we have eternal
pleasures at God’s right hand. We will reign with Christ over this new creation
and all we ever dreamed of concerning unlimited resources will be ours. But
right now we have the greatest wealth in the realm of the non-material
treasures that God has for us. We are rich in all the fruits of the Spirit, and
in all of the spiritual values that we see in the life of our Lord. These are
superior right now in this fallen world where there are so many problems
connected with physical wealth.
Many who are rich try
to hide the fact because of the problems connected with it. The wealthy are
plagued by those who try to take advantage of them. There is the constant
threat of their children being kidnapped. People pretend to care about them,
and seek to marry them for their money. They are resented and envied for their
money. Sarah Stein gives us some insight into how some of the rich act to keep
their wealth hidden. She said, "The hardest thing for me is being truthful
about my wealth. I feel like, if someone knows I'm wealthy, I'll be in a lions'
den. I lie a lot. I lie a lot! Like, 'Oh God, I want to buy this Lexus, but I
can't afford it.' " She lives in a state of ambivalence because, as she
says, "I know people like me for my money, and I know they don’t like me
for my money."
The shared riches of
Christ with all who love him does not lead to such problems as does material
wealth. We are joint heirs with Christ of a whole new universe where there will
be no envy and jealousy, and no one is going to take advantage of anyone in
that universe, for it is free of all the consequences of sin. We still live in
a fallen world now, and even as the children of God we have to suffer many of
the consequences of sin. But the fact is, we are even now the richest people in
the world because we have received the love of Jesus our King. Someone has written
this prayer that conveys the riches of what we have in Him.
"Lord Jesus, Your magnificent power and wisdom are so
far beyond our minds that we stagger under the thought of them. And yet, in all
this might and knowing, You care for each of us. It is Your will, your desire,
that no one would perish. Your hand is reaching out to everyone. You know our
names, our cares, our likes, our heart's desires and our days. Such intimate
care seems to contradict the limitless strength. But it is all used to Your glory
and our benefit . Thank you for that love and care. Keep us mindful of it.
Teach us to love You and each other better as the days pass, even though we can
never expect to return the smallest fraction to You by comparison. Amen."
Jesus does not expect
us to return anything but our thanks and love, for he already has everything.
What do you give to the man who has everything, and to the man who is the
richest person in the universe? You give him praise and worship, for he is
worthy of worship, and the only one who is so worthy as he reigns alongside his
Father in heaven. He does ask, however, that we share with one another all the
love and values he has shared with us. John Hendrick Bangs tells a story that
illustrates the point.
"One night a
little boy cried for the moon. So his father, who was a kind
and generous, as well
as a wise man, gave it to him. "You may have the
moon," said the
father, "Only you must not be selfish about it. The very best
place to keep the moon
is up there in the heaven where it will give you light
by night, and of
course you want it to give light to me and your mother and
other people also. You
may have the moon just as long a you are unselfish,
but when you grow
greedy then the moon will belong to someone else who
will make better use
of it." And one day when the lad wanted the ocean his
father gave him that
also on a similar condition. "You must not carry it away
and bottle it
up," he said. "It is yours, but you must not be selfish. Let other
people bather in your
ocean and sail boats on your ocean. Indeed, it is very
much better for you to
have others using your ocean, for it would not be
nearly so interesting
without ships sailing up and down to all parts of the
world to bring you and
me and your mother tea and coffee and bananas,
and other fishing
boats going out to catch our fish for us." So when the lad
wanted a great forest
the father gave it to him, and when he asked for the
mountains the father
gave him the mountains also. Until by and by he owned
the whole universe.
But always on condition that he would not be selfish but
would let other people
enjoy his moon, and his ocean, and his forest, and his
mountains with
him."
God has given all the
universe to His Son, but the Son does not hoard it as His own. He shares it
with all, and he expects us to share with others the blessings that are ours in
Him. "Those who become children of God through the operation of faith are
called, "Heirs of God and JOINT HEIRS with Christ." Rom. 8:17. This
heirship suggests partnership. If you have a joint account at the bank with
your wife or business partner it simply means that both parties can draw on the
account. As joint heirs it means that God’s believing child can draw upon the
Divine resources for all his needs." Someone has put together a partial
list of what riches we have in Jesus.
A love that can never
be fathomed;
A life that can never
die;
A righteousness that
can never be tarnished;
A peace that can never
be understood;
A rest that can never
be disturbed;
A joy that can never
be diminished;
A hope that can never
be disappointed;
A glory that can never
be clouded;
A light that can never
be darkened;
A happiness that can
never be interrupted;
A strength that can
never be enfeebled;
A purity that can
never be defiled;
A beauty that can
never be marred;
A wisdom that can
never be baffled;
Resources that can
never be exhausted."
When we love Jesus as
our Lord and King we are heirs of all the riches that he received from the
Father, and this makes us the riches people in the world. Paul writes in
Galatians 4:7 "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a
son, then an heir of God through Christ."
"In his splendid
book of anecdotes entitled Bible Windows, Ivor Powell tells the story of a rich
man who died and left no heirs. When his household goods were auctioned off, an
elderly lady dressed in shabby garments was the only one to bid on the picture
of the dead man’s son. It had been greatly cherished by the wealthy father because
his only child had died at an early age. But the crowd that had gathered for
the sale showed no interest in it. When the woman who bought the portrait was
asked why she wanted it, she said she had been the boy’s nurse many years
before, and had loved him dearly.
Later she examined the
picture closely and noticed a bulge in the heavy paper on the back. Making a
small cut, she removed an envelope, which turned out to be the man’s missing
will. The document very clearly stated that he wanted to leave his property to
the person who still held dear the memory of his beloved son." That is how
every person can become rich forever. It is by loving the Son whom the Father
sent to save men from the consequences of sin.
We are rich because we
are brothers and sisters to the richest person in the universe. We may not yet
have material wealth, but we all have riches that are beyond measure in the
realm of wisdom and truth in Christ. It is our obligation to share this with
those who are poor because they do not have these riches. Jesus sent his church
into all the world to share these riches. He has made us all rich enough to
have plenty to spare that we can share. We will do so more freely and more
often if we keep reminding ourselves that we are part of the family of the
richest person in the universe.
Harriett Buell wrote
the words for A Child of the King one Sunday morning while walking home from
her Methodist church service. She sent her text to the Northern Christian
Advocate, and it was printed in the February 1, 1877 issue. It is a song that
every person can sing with meaning when they have trusted Jesus as their
Savior.
(1) My Father
is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the
wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and
diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are
full,-He has riches untold.
Chorus: I’m a child
of the King,
A child of the
King!
With Jesus, my
Savior,
I’m a child of
the King.
(2) My Father’s
own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered
o’er earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is
reigning in glory on high,
Preparing a
place for the sweet by and by.
(3) A tent or a
cottage, why should I care?
They’re
building a palace for me over there!
Though here I’m
a stranger yet still I may sing;
All glory to
God, I’m a child of the King!
If we have trusted in
Jesus as our Savior we are rich now and will be rich forever. Man had the
richest life possible in Eden, but he lost it by disobedience. Jesus won in all
back for us by becoming a man, and by living in full obedience to the Father’s
will. To as many as receive Him God will make His children, and so we will be
rich forever, for we will be related by blood to the richest person in the
universe.
The story is told of
the teacher who asked her class to write down what they thought were the 7
great wonders of the world. They could be the ancient wonders or the modern
wonders. The choices were many and one little girl could not finish her list.
The teacher said just read what you have and maybe I can help you. The little
girl said "I think the 7 wonders of the world are to touch, to taste, to
see, to hear, to run, to laugh, and to love." This was a surprise to the
teacher and the whole class for they were all thinking along the lines of the
Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Golden Gate Bridge. But this little
girl was thinking, not of the wonders that man had made, but the wonders that
God had made in making us in His image. Man is the wonder of the world, and
even of the universe, for we know of no creature in heaven that has been given
greater honor than man. Jesus never became a Seraphim or Archangel, but He did
become a man who did all of those things the little girl listed as the wonders
of the world. Our goal in this message is to show that Jesus is the Creator of
the universe.
JESUS IS THE CREATOR
OF THE UNIVERSE
Man has created some
marvelous wonders, for he was made in the image of God and creating is a part
of his nature. The world is filled with works of art and architecture that
witness to the fact that man is a creator, and that he has been given the gift
of creativity. It is impossible to judge who has been the greatest creator of
wonder and beauty in the history of the world, but it is no problem determining
the greatest creator in the universe, for the Bible makes it clear that this
honor and title goes to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2 of this
great book of Hebrews says that it was through Jesus that God made the
universe. God spoke the Word and said, "Let it be," and Jesus was the
Word that made it happen. He was the agent of creation, and everything that is
wondrous and marvelous about creation is due to His power and wisdom. It is
clearly stated that he created in many other passages.
A. THE WITNESS OF
SCRIPTURE.
Later on the author of
Hebrews says in Heb1:8 &10 "But to the Son He says: "Your throne,
O God, is forever and ever;-You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of
the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands." This is God’s
testimony to the fact that His Son is the Creator. If you do not accept God’s
testimony there is no higher authority to appeal to, and so you take God’s Word
for it, or you reject God as your final authority.
In John’s Gospel it is
stated as strongly as possible for it says in John 1:1-3 "In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not
any thing made that was made." This is as comprehensive as a statement can
get. If it was made, Jesus made it. If we could turn all of the stars and
planets over and find the mark of the Maker it would say MADE BY JESUS. What
was made without him? Nothing! The origin of the universe is not found in any
mysterious power, but in the person of Jesus Christ.
John 1:10 "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not." The world was created by those very hands that were
nailed to the cross for our redemption. The creature turned on the Creator, but
even killing him could not rid the world of him, for he had the power to take
his life back again. He made all life, and so he could make it again when man
took it from him.
Col 1:16 "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for
him:" It is not only all that we can see, but all that exists that we can
never see that is a part of his handiwork as Creator. We do not see the atoms
out of which all matter is made, but these invisible energy packets have their
origin in the mind of Christ. There are realms of beings other than man also in
the universe, and they too have their origin in Him. Nothing, and no being, has
an independent existence, for he is the reason for all that is. If it is real,
it is because Jesus made it real.
"...yet for us
there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we
live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and
through whom we live" (1 Corinthians 8:6). This makes it clear that the
Father and the Son are one, and that all creation came from both of them. There
is no point in trying to decide if the Father created or the Son, for they both
did equally. Those who try to say the Bible contradicts itself by sometimes
saying the Father created and other times the Son, are ignoring the plain fact
that the Bible clearly teaches that they are one, and all that each does the other
does.
These verses leave one
with no alternative but to believe Jesus is the Creator of all things, or to
deny the Bible as their authority. Those who believe the Bible can see that
Jesus is the greatest Creator in the universe because he is the Creator of the
universe. It is a universe and not a multiverse because it all came from the
same mind. There is a unity in the entire nature of all that exists because it
is not the work of many, but the work of one mind.
Even when Jesus came
into the world in human flesh and took on some of the limitations of manhood he
still continued to be a Creator. His first miracle was at the wedding of Cana
where he changed the water into wine. This was a direct act of creation where
something that did not exist was brought into existence immediately by the
power of his word. He did the same thing when he fed the four thousand and the
five thousand by turning a small portion of food into a large supply by the
power of his word. In some of his healing miracles he had to create new tissue,
muscles and nerves on the spot. When he raised Lazarus he had to give him a
great deal of new tissue, for his body was already decaying. When he first made
Adam he took lifeless dirt and breathed into it the breath of life and made a
living man. He took the lifeless body of Lazarus and breathed into it the
breath of life and restored him to life again. Jesus demonstrated that he was
the Creator even in his manhood.
B. THE WITNESS OF
SCIENCE.
Man’s choices as to
the origin of the universe are reduced to two. It either came by chance
circumstances, or it came by the mind and power of a Creator. Those who choose
chance as their source of all reality will often criticize those who choose a
Creator by saying they do so by blind faith. This is a major mistake in
thinking, for the fact is, it takes far more blind faith to believe that all
the marvelous order and design of the universe came by sheer chance than by the
working of an intelligent mind.
What are the odds of
the universe coming about by means of chance? Some have calculated this and
have come to this conclusion: "Calculate, if you like, the odds against
life ever coming about spontaneously. Take an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of paper
and put the number "1" in the upper left-hand corner. Type zeros
after it, single-spaced, until you fill up the whole page with zeros; turn the
sheet over and type additional zeros upon the entire page. Continue filling
pages with zeros until you produce a volume three inches thick. Compile enough
volumes to spread across the whole United States. Stack volumes until they
reach past the moon. That is the number of volumes necessary to contain the
number of chances to one that life would ever come about by spontaneous
generation. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. To hold that position, one is
exercising faith, not upholding evidence, which is overwhelmingly in his favor.
Such a position is held basically because, as Wald says, one chooses not to
believe in God."
Dr. Hugh Ross in his
book The Creator and the Cosmos gives another example of the odds against
chance being the cause for the precise balance of electrons to proton mass. He
writes, "One part in 1037 is such an incredibly sensitive balance that it
is hard to visualize. The following analogy might help: Cover the entire North
American continent in dimes all the way up to the moon, a height of about
239,000 miles (In comparison, the money to pay for the U.S. federal government
debt would cover one square mile less than two feet deep with dimes.). Next, pile
dimes from here to the moon on a billion other continents the same size as
North America. Paint one dime red and mix it into the billion of piles of
dimes. Blindfold a friend and ask him to pick out one dime. The odds that he
will pick the red dime are one in 1037."
We can only conclude
that it takes an amazing kind of faith to believe in chance. The odds of chance
being the cause of what we have in this world are similar to the chance of the works
of Shakespeare being produced by an explosion in a printing factory, or as the
result of monkeys scampering across the keys of a typewriter over many
centuries. The bottom line is this: It takes more faith to believe in chance
than to believe in Christ as the Creator of all.
Now faith is essential
also to our belief that Jesus is the Creator of all the universe, but it is a
faith that is based on the combined sources of Scripture and science. In Heb.
11:3 we read, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at
God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."
Science now confirms this completely, for it has established that all the
material universe is made up of atoms, which are unseen, and which are
basically energy. Many authorities in science conclude that matter is congealed
thought. It is very close to what we call an idea. Christian theologians have
said the universe is really a thought in the mind of God. Jesus spoke it all
into existence. It was first a thought in his mind before he created it, and it
is still in existence by the power of his thought. Mind is behind it all, and
mind is what sustains it all. To turn from Christ to chance is to reject all
that the Bible says, and all that has been learned by modern science as to the
nature of matter. The greatest Creator in the universe is not chance, but it is
Christ.
The study of the
design of the universe is what supports the Christian faith that Jesus is the
mind behind all that is made. There was a time when Christian faith and science
were at odds. Much of this was the fault of Christians because they based their
beliefs about the universe on the authority of Aristotle, and when he was
proven wrong the scientific world thought they had proven Christian faith
wrong. All they proved was that Christians had built on the wrong foundation.
If the Bible alone is the authority on which we build there is no conflict
between science and the Christian faith. Robert E. Kofahl has written,
"To believe in
divine creation does not make one "unscientific." It is logical and
satisfying for the person who desires to place his faith in the intelligent,
purposeful Creator God, rather than in dumb atoms. This faith is not satisfying
to the person who desires to trust in chance and dumb atoms in a purposeless
evolved universe. The choice between these two faiths is a religious choice,
not a scientific one. It is an act of faith. But the believer in the God of
Creation finds that he has much scientific evidence, which supports his choice.
This evidence is the whole vast system of interdependent design features which
can be seen in the nuclei of atoms, the laws of physics and chemistry, in the
fitness of the earth-sun-moon-galactic environment which affords the human race
the only known habitable home in the entire universe, in the complex designs of
living things, and, most persuasively, in the personal nature of
man--intellect, affections, moral capacity and will. To believe our personal
nature was designed and created to show forth and glorify the Creator is better
than to believe we are nothing but slime improved by chance without purpose,
without goal, without reason for existence."
This view is held by a
host of scientists, and even by those who do not profess to be Christians. They
are just convinced that the evidence supports the reality of a Creator rather
than chance as the origin of the universe. One of the leading Physicists of our
day, Dr. Freeman Dyson, said when he received the Templeton Prize, "Atoms
are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They
make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the
laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity
to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe is also
weird, with its laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I
do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind
becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension." John
Archibald Wheeler, the former president of the American Physical Society and
professor of physics at Princeton University, who received the Einstein Award,
likens all existence to an idea. Numerous others agree, and this fits perfectly
with Jesus being the Creator of the universe. He is the Mind that is the source
of all the energy that the universe is made of. When science studies the
universe it is studying the mind of Christ.
Dr. Gerald L.
Schroeder in his book The Hidden Face of God, from which I have gotten the
above quotes and information, points out that the insights of Einstein have
shown that material reality is a form of condensed energy, and if you heat any
matter in the universe hot enough it will revert to pure energy. All matter is
congealed energy, or another way of saying it is, all matter is thought in
concrete form. It is an invisible idea that has become visible by its energy
being compressed into a form that can be seen by human eyes. This is the
scientific confirmation of what the Bible says in Heb. 11:3, "By faith we
understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen
was not made out of what was visible."
When we begin to study
specific examples of the wisdom and design built into creation, we cannot help
but praise God for what He has done through Jesus. It is incredible that people
can continue to believe in chance when they see the evidence. But man does not
like the alternative, for the only alternative to chance and evolution is God.
So they go on defending mindless chance as the author of such marvels as the
following.
We all know that
dolphins are very intelligent, and that is why they can be trained by man. But
does anyone believe they developed the amazing sonar power that they have? This
power is not just better than man’s development of sonar used in submarines. It
is not even just ten times better. It is over 100 million times better than
anything man has been able to develop. Are we to believe that chance gave them
this superior sonar that is far beyond what the most intelligent creature on
the earth, which is man, can develop? Did they get this by means of evolution
over many millions of years? Or is this a gift from their Creator? It takes
more faith to believe this is due to chance than to believe it is a purposeful
gift from the mind of Christ.
Some of the most
outstanding scientists of our time have urged that Creation be taught in the
schools, and not limit the exposure of young minds to evolution alone as the
only theory of the origin of the universe. They have seen the design and
intelligence in the creation, and they see it is the most logical explanation
of its origin to be the mind of a Creator. For example, "Wernher Von Braun
was one of the world's first and foremost rocket engineers and a leading
authority on space travel. His will to expand man's knowledge through the
exploration of space led to the development of the Explorer satellites, the
Jupiter and Jupiter-C rockets, Pershing, the Redstone rocket, Saturn rockets,
and Skylab, the world's first space station. Additionally, his determination to
"go where no man has gone before" led to mankind setting foot on the
moon. Wernher von Braun is, without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in
history. His crowning achievement, as head of NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center, was to lead the development of the Saturn V booster rocket that helped
land the first men on the Moon in July 1969." What were the views of such
a man of science? He tells us in a letter he sent to the California State Board
of Education. Here is a copy of that letter:
"Dear Mr. Grose:
In response to your inquiry about my personal views concerning the
"Case for DESIGN" as a viable scientific theory for the origin of the
universe, life and man, I am pleased to make the following observations.
For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the
necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe
without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all. In the
world around us, we can behold the obvious manifestations of an ordered,
structured plan or design. We can see the will of the species to live and
propagate. And we are humbled by the powerful forces at work on a galactic
scale, and the purposeful orderliness of nature that endows a tiny and ungainly
seed with the ability to develop into a beautiful flower. The better we
understand the intricacies of the universe and all it harbors, the more reason
we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based.
While the admission of a design for the universe ultimately raises the
question of a Designer (a subject outside of science), the scientific method
does not allow us to exclude data which lead to the conclusion that the
universe, life and man are based on design. To be forced to believe only one
conclusion - that everything in the universe happened by chance - would violate
the very objectivity of science itself. Certainly there are those who argue
that the universe evolved out of a random process, but what random process
could produce the brain of a man or the system of the human eye?
Some people say that science has been unable to prove the existence of a
Designer. They admit that many of the miracles in the world around us are hard
to understand, and they do not deny that the universe, as modern science sees
it, is indeed a far more wondrous thing than the creation medieval man could
perceive. But they still maintain that since science has provided us with so
many answers, the day will soon arrive when we will be able to understand even
the creation of the fundamental laws of nature with a Divine Intent. They
challenge science to prove the existence of God. But, must we really light a
candle to see the sun?
Many men who are intelligent and of good faith say they cannot visualize an
electron? The electron is materially inconceivable and yet, it is so perfectly
known through its effects that we use it to illuminate our cities, guide our
airliners through the night skies and take the most accurate measurements. What
strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electron as
real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they
cannot conceive Him? I am afraid that, although they really do not understand the
electron either, they are ready to accept it because they managed to produce a
rather clumsy mechanical model of it borrowed from rather limited experience in
other fields, but they would not know how to begin building a model of God.
I have discussed the aspect of a Designer at some length because it might
be that the primary resistance to acknowledging the "Case for DESIGN"
as a viable scientific alternative to the current "Case for CHANCE"
lies in the inconceivability, in some scientists' minds, of a Designer. The
inconceivability of some ultimate issue (which will always lie outside
scientific resolution) should not be allowed to rule out any theory that
explains the interrelationship of observed data and is useful for prediction.
We in NASA were often asked what the real reason was for the amazing string
of successes we had with our Apollo flights to the Moon. I think the only
honest answer we could give was that we tried to never overlook anything. It is
in that same sense of scientific honesty that I endorse the presentation of
alternative theories for the origin of the universe, life and man in the
science classroom. It would be an error to overlook the possibility that the
universe was planned rather than happening by chance.
With kindest regards.
Sincerely,
(signed) Wernher von Braun
The point I am trying
to make by all of these quotes from great men of science is to show that the
belief that Jesus is the greatest Creator in the universe is not a far-fetched
idea without support of sound reason and evidence. The Christian does not need
all of this evidence, for the Bible teaches it clearly and that is sufficient,
but all of the support of science backing it up gives us what is needed to
appeal to the skeptical world. Jesus gave evidence to support his claim to be
the Son of God, and we need to give the world some evidence to believe that
faith in what the Bible says is not blind faith, but faith that is moving in
the direction that the light is pointing. It is easier for unbelievers to look
into the claims of the Bible when they see the evidence of science to support
what it claims. Science becomes an important ally in reaching a skeptical world
with the truth of the Bible. And that truth is that Jesus Christ is the
greatest Creator. This will be even more evident in the new heaven and earth He
will create, for all of the awesome wonder and beauty of this world are just
the warm up. The best of the best of His creative power and genius is yet to be
seen by those who acknowledge Him as the Greatest Savior as well as the
Greatest Creator. Let me conclude with a poem I wrote on a passage in
Colossians.
JESUS IS FIRST, Based
on Col. 1:15-20. This can be sung to the tune of Hymn to Joy by Beethoven
|
He's the image of Deity,
Icon of God's own Being. In Him invisibility Can by human eyes be seen. First
Born over all creation; All that is was by Him made. All things both in earth
and heaven, He their foundation has laid. Visible and invisible, All was
created by Him. Every power conceivable, Was created just for Him. He existed
before all things, No exceptions can be found. He's the source of power that
brings Order by which all is bound. He holds everything together, And He's
the Head of the church. There is no need to ask whether We should for another
search. He is the very beginning; He's the firstborn from the dead. None can
over Him be winning; He is supremely ahead. God was pleased to have His
fullness Dwell so completely in Him, And through His divine completeness, Reconcile
all things to Him. Nothing on earth or in heaven Will make God suffer a loss,
For peace He has just the weapon, Through His blood shed on the cross. |
The Hubble telescope
has discovered a star in the center of the Milky Way that is startling in its
brilliance. The report of its brightness is astounding, for scientists say it
glows with the awesome radiance of ten million suns. That is power, glory and
brilliance that is beyond our minds to comprehend. Before this discovery the
brightest star was Sirius, which was over 20 times brighter than the sun. This
new star makes Sirius pale in comparison.
The more we know about
God’s creation the more we understand that God is light. The first thing he
created was physical light. The very first words of God revealed in the Bible
are in Gen. 1:3 where God says, "Let there be light." Light is of the
very essence of God, and of the very essence of creation. Creation came from
the Creator, and they have something in common, and that something is light.
All of life is
dependant upon light. Plants absorb light from the sun and produce life, and
animals eat the plants for life. Take the light of the sun out of our solar
system and all life will cease. Life and light are one, for you cannot have
life without light. That is why hell is eternal death, for it is darkness
without light, for it is the absence of God, which is the absence of light.
Heaven has no darkness or night, for it is everlasting light in God’s presence,
for God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Physicists who study
subatomic particles realize that all matter is made up of vibrations and light.
In other words, all of reality is made in the image of God, who is light. All
that the Creator has made has a part of Himself in it, and man is especially
made in His image. Jesus was the light of the world and he said that we as his
followers are to be the light of the world. This means that all people have
some of the light of God, for they were made in God’s image. The believer in
Christ rises to a higher level of light, for they are to have the light of
Christ within them that can shine out for the world to see. But Christ is the
most glorious person in the universe, for he is the very radiance of God’s
glory. Some of God’s glory is radiated by all things and beings, but Jesus is
the full radiance of His glory. In other words, He is equal with God the
Father, and to see Him is to see the Father.
Words wobble, language
limps, and communication collapses in its attempt to describe the glory of
Jesus. No tongue can ever tell, and no pen can ever write the words that could
convey the glory of the site-of Jesus, the radiance of God’s glory. But those
who love Jesus have tried to do so in poetry. Here is one of my attempts to
convey who Jesus is in these first verses of Hebrews.
Glorious is your
radiance.
You’re the essence of
all light.
Your majesty’s
magnificent.
You’re the most
wonderful sight.
But the eyes cannot
behold you;
Human words fall
impotent;
All our words of praise
is due you,
Lord of all
omnipotent.
The tongue, nor pen,
can ever tell
Of the glory of the
Son.
There’s no other that
ever shall
Shine brighter than
this great One.
Even the darkness of
life’s hell
Can never dim His
great light.
Let joyous praise in
our heart swell,
For He rids our life
of night.
He’s the radiance of
glory.
He’s the image of our
God.
And there is no other
story
Like that of the Son
of God.
He is seated at the
right hand
Of the Majesty on
high.
He’s the King of
everyone’s land,
For He came for all to
die.
Even in life’s stormy
weather
He’s the One in full
control.
He is holding all
together,
Body, spirit, and the
soul.
We will praise His
name forever,
King of Kings and Lord
of Lords.
Because of His great
endeavor,
We will share in His rewards.
Here we are looking at
a Son who is more glorious than all of the suns of the universe put together,
for He is the radiance of the glory of God, which is the cause of all the glory
and radiance of the universe. The awesome glory of the new star that has been
discovered is but a candle in the light of the glory of Jesus. There are no
words to convey the brightness of that one star even, let alone words to convey
the brightness of the source of all light in Jesus. All we can say is that
Jesus is the most glorious person in all the universe. No one else has ever
dreamed of challenging that title, for His splendor is as far beyond that of
all other beings as the splendor of that new star is beyond the light in your
flashlight. History is filled with great men and women who have lighted up
their generation with their great gifts and leadership that changed history for
all time, but none can match the glory of Jesus, even in time.
This is not to say
that the Glory of God cannot be seen in others, for the Bible makes it clear
that it can. In Ex. 34:29 we read, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his
face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord." He was so brilliant
that the people were afraid to come near him, and he had to put a veil over his
face. Moses reflected the glory of God in a unique way, but that glory faded.
It was a mere reflection that was not permanent, for it was not a part of the
essence of Moses. Jesus did not just reflect the radiance of God’s glory. He is
the radiance of God’s glory. It is who He is. It is His essence.
Believers have always
been able to reflect some of the glory of God. Ps. 34:5 says, "Those who
look to him are radiant…" In II Cor. 3:18 we read, "But we all, with
open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" We are
in the process of being glorified all through life as we spend time in the presence
of Christ, and as we open ourselves up to be reflectors of His glory.
Progressive glorification is what Christian living is all about. It will be
completed when we are changed in the resurrection or rapture and become like
Him when we see Him as He is. We will radiate God’s glory for all eternity. But
no one will ever be the radiance of God’s glory but Jesus. He, and He alone, is
the exact replica of God’s being. He will always be the most glorious person in
the universe. Again I am compelled to try to say in poetry what cannot ever be
said in any adequate way.
What art can reveal
such brightness?
What words can pen
ever write?
Jesus is God’s very
likeness;
He shines with
glorious light.
He shines with radiant
glory;
No eye could gaze on
His face.
Wonderful is the great
story,
We can still His light
embrace.
He is our radiant
Jesus.
He is our Savior on
high.
He ever looks down and
sees us
As those He will
glorify.
One day our eyes will
behold Him.
In all His glorious
light.
And we’ll sing this
eternal hymn
As we praise Him with
delight.
Glory! Glory! Unto you
Lord!
You’re the brightest
star of all.
It is our greatest of
reward
To before your glory
fall.
You are the radiant
Savior.
You are the source of
all light.
We will not cease this
behavior,
Praising you all day
and night.
He is radiance and
brightness. He is glory, splendor, light. He is the source of all the energy
that rids eternity of night. The sun and moon need shine no more, for life does
not depend upon them as before. Forever and ever the great I AM will shine upon
us with the light of the Lamb. The greatest of pleasures will ever be there in
that glorious radiance beyond all compare. We will stand and praise His glory.
We will bow and praise His name. It will be our ceaseless story praising Jesus
that He came. He brought glory to the earth. He brought glory to the sky. He
brought glory of the new birth, so that we need never die. We will live with
Him forever, walking ever in His light. And we’ll never, no not ever, be out of
his glorious sight. He’s the most glorious person, who has been, or who can
ever be. And it is just for that reason, He will be our song eternally.
Drew Worthen wrote,
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory" This little phrase shows us
that the Father and the Son are one in nature. To radiate God's glory is to
shine with the brightness of His glory. To do that you must be of the same
essence. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory because they are of the same
nature. That's why Jesus said to His disciples in John 14:7 "If you really
knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and
have seen him." If we want to see what God is like, we look to Jesus, for
when we see Jesus we see God, for He is God. We do not look to angels, to Moses,
to the Law, to the priesthood, or to any other person, place or thing for our
assurance of salvation, or for our knowledge of the greatness of God.
The word used here for
radiance, or brightness as in the KJV, is used only this once in the Bible. It
means the out-raying of divine glory. Just as you cannot have the sun without
its rays, so you cannot have the glory or light of God without the rays of that
glory and light. The two are one, and Jesus is as one with the Father as the
rays of light are one with the sun from which they radiate. The glory of God is
His combined attributes, and these attributes are seen fully in the Son, just
as the rays of the sun convey the attributes of the sun. The sun and its rays
are one, as the Father and Son are one. The sun shines and we see its glory in
its rays. The Father’s majesty and glory shine, and we see it in the life of
our Lord. He is the manifestation of all that is to be admired, adored and
worshiped in God.
John MacArthur has
written, "The phrase "being the brightness of His glory" is very
simple. The brightness is the word apaugasma. It means "radiance." It
means "to send forth light," or "to send forth brightness."
It's simply saying He is the shining forth of God. Just as the radiance of the
Sun reaches the earth to light us, to warm us, to give us life and growth, so
in Christ do we sense the warmth and radiance of the glorious light of God
touching the hearts of men. The brightness of the sun is of the same nature as
the Sun. It is as old as the Sun. And never was the sun without its brightness.
The brightness of the sun cannot be separated from the sun and yet it is
distinct. And so, Christ is God and yet distinct. He is God and yet He is the
manifestation of God. He is the glory of the Lord who shouts the reality of
God, which is only whispered and spoken in time past. He is the Son of
righteousness risen with healing in His beams."
S. Lewis Johnson
writes, ""Who does not see," asks Athanasias, "that the
brightness cannot be separated from the light, but that it is by nature proper
to it and co-existent with it and is not produced after it." For example,
we do not think of the sun as having been created and then given light later
on, but rather that light belongs to the sun and is part of its being. "Think
not," St. Ambrose admonishes, "that there ever was a moment of time
that light existed with radiance." And we read here that the Son of God is
the brightness of the glory of God! There never was a time in which the glory
of God did not have brightness and our Lord possesses that brightness! Thus,
when you look at Jesus Christ, you see all of the rays of the glory of the
attributes of the Everlasting God. And only God Himself may reflect the glory
of God. So this is a testimony to the deity of the Son of God. When you look at
Him, you look at God. When you look at Him you see the true light that lights
every man, that has come into the world."
If you want to see a
picture of God, and a perfect picture of Him, then look at Jesus, for in seeing
His glory you are seeing the glory of God. Louis Evans writes, "The
character of God must radiate; He must express Himself. Jesus Christ is the
earthly and human expression of God, God’s own character in human form… When we
analyze Jesus Christ we learn about the radiant source, the glory of God… ‘He
who has seen me (recognized my true identity, accurately analyzed me) has seen
(understood, comprehended) the Father’ (John 14:9)." A small boy was
looking at a picture of Jesus, musing long over it in thoughtful silence. Noticing
the boy’s studious quietness, his father asked, "what are you doing,
son?" "Looking at this picture of Jesus." Then with an approving
and decisive nod of his head, the boy added, "Hmmm, best picture God ever
had taken." When we see Jesus we are looking at the face of God. Again, I
try to say it in poetry.
We cannot see God the Father;
The Holy Spirit leaves no trace.
These facts our faith need not bother,
For in Jesus God has a face.
God has a face that we can see
In both time and eternity.
He joined the human race just so
His heavenly Father we could know.
The eyes of man are so finite
There’s much of God in shades so dim,
But Jesus came to give the light
That we might get a glimpse of Him
You cannot see and live to tell
If God’s glory comes your way,
But Jesus came and bore our hell
And by it tore the veil away.
He let the light of heaven shine
On this dark world of sin and shame.
He took away your sin and mine,
To show love was his aim.
He came to show to our blind eyes
What can be found no other place.
He made it clear as sunny skies,
That God has a loving face.
God has a face and we can see it
If we in his light will run.
God has a place and we can find it
If we say "Thy will be done."
God has a grace and we can feel it
If all evil ways we shun.
God has a space and we can fill it
If we make Him number one.
God has a face and we can see it
In the person of His Son.
We cannot look into
the sun for any length of time without going blind, and we could not look at
the glory of God for a second without going blind, and more than likely,
without going out of existence in a puff of vapor. But we can behold the glory
of God in Jesus, for He brought that glory down into a human existence where
men could see the nature of God. In John 1:14 we read, "The Word became
flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The
earthly life of Jesus was a taste of the glory of God, but Jesus wants his
followers to have the full dose of his glory, and so he prays in John 17:24,
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am , and to
see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the
creation of the world." We will obviously have new bodies and eyes that
are capable of seeing such glory without being vaporized. In heaven we will see
the fullness of God’s glory in Jesus, and He will be forever the most glorious
person in the universe.
Jesus gave some of His
disciples a brief glimpse of His heavenly glory on the Mt. of Transfiguration.
His face began to shine like the sun and his garments became bright with
glorious light. God spoke from heaven saying He was pleased with His Son. Moses
and Elijah appeared representing the law and the prophets. The whole picture
was revealing that Jesus was superior to all that God had done and spoken
before. They were now to listen to the Son, and all of this supernatural
expression of glory was to convince them that Jesus was God final and supreme
authority. That is also the primary purpose of the book of Hebrews, and
especially in these opening verses, which exalt Jesus above all that has ever
been, or could ever be. He is the very radiance of God’s glory and none can
surpass that glory, and so it is folly for the Hebrews, or anyone else, to even
think of turning back to the law and prophets, or any other authority, as a
foundation on which to build. When you have found Jesus, you have found the
very best, and everything and everyone else is like a candle in comparison to
the glory of the noonday sun.
Arthur Pink makes this
comment: "Someone has suggested an analogy with what is recorded in
Matthew 17. There we see Christ upon the holy Mount, transfigured before His
disciples; and, as they continue gazing on His flashing excellence, they saw no
man "save Jesus only." At first, there appeared standing with Him,
Moses and Elijah, and so real and tangible were they, Peter said, "If Thou
wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, one for Moses, and one
for Elijah." But as they looked "a blight cloud overshadowed
them." and a Voice was heard saying, "This is My Beloved Son: hear
Him" (Luke 9:35). How significant are the words that immediately followed:
"And when the Voice was passed, Jesus was found alone." The glory
associated with Moses and Elijah was so eclipsed by the infinitely greater
glory connected with Christ, that they faded from view."
A poem written in
Venice in 1495 and translated from the Latin by John M. Neale expresses the
glory of this experience.
O wondrous sight! O
vision fair
A type of those bright rays on high
Of glory that the church shall share,
Which Christ upon the mountain shows,
Where brighter than the sun He glows!
From age to age the
tale declares
How with the three disciples there
Where Moses and Elijah meet,
The Lord holds converse high and sweet.
The law and prophets
there have place,
Two chosen witnesses of grace,
The Father’s voice from out the cloud
Proclaims His only Son aloud.
With shining face and
bright array,
Christ deigns to manifest that day
What glory shall be theirs above
Who joy in God with perfect love.
And faithful hearts
are raised on highBy this great vision’s mystery;
For which in joyful strains we raise
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.
O Father, with the
eternal Son,
And Holy Spirit, ever One,
Vouchsafe to bring us by Thy grace
To see Thy glory face to face.
Peter was so impressed
with what he saw that day on the mountain that he gave his testimony about it
in II Pet. 1:16-19. "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we
told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were
eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the
Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This
is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard
this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred
mountain." Peter uses terms like majesty and Majestic Glory, for these are
the highest terms he can find to express just how glorious the sight was. These
are terms used of royalty and their grandeur. He was seeing Jesus as the King
of Kings with a majesty never experienced or expressed by any other king of
history. It is because His glory was expressing the weight and worth of God
Himself.
The Amplified Version
says, "He is the sole expression of the glory of God the Light-being, the
out-raying of the divine and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's]
nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by
His mighty word of power." Note, He is the sole expression of the glory of
God. There is no other who can convey the fullness of God’s glory, for there is
no other who is the fullness of God. The fullness of all God’s attributes is
His glory, and these can be seen nowhere but it Jesus. All other glory is but a
faint reflection of the fullness of Glory we see in Jesus. Nobody ever really
knows God until they know Him in Jesus. Blot out the rays of the sun and you
will see no sun. Take Jesus out of your view of God and you have no God, but
only some man made image. You have no sun without its rays of brilliance, and
you have no God without the radiance of Christ. Jesus said, "He who has
seen me has seen the Father." We cannot see God directly, but we can see
Him by looking at Jesus.
"The Sun of God
in glory beams
Too bright for us to scan,
But we can face the light that streams
From the mild Son of man."
Paul put it in 2
CORINTHIANS 4:6 "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." There is deep Christology is
this one phrase of Jesus being the radiance of God’s glory, and Dr. Gouge in a
commentary way back in 1650 did a great job of expressing it. Let me conclude
with what he wrote: "No resemblance taken from any other creature can more
fully set out the mutual relation between the Father and the Son: ". The
brightness issuing from the sun is the same nature that the sun is-cf. John
10:30. 2. It is of as long continuance as the sun: never was the sun without
the brightness of it-cf. John 1:1. 3. The brightness cannot be separated from
the sun: the sun may as well be made no sun, as have the brightness thereof
severed from it-cf. Proverbs 8:30. 4. This brightness though from the sun is
not the sun itself-cf. John 8:42. 5. The sun and the brightness are distinct
from each other: the one is not the other-cf. John 5:17. 6. All the glory of
the sun is this brightness-cf. John 17:5; 2 Corinthians 4:6. 7. The light which
the sun giveth the world is by this brightness-cf. John 14:9 . . . Thus the Son
is no whit inferior to the Father, but every way His equal. He was brightness,
the brightness of His Father, yea, also the brightness of His Father’s glory.
Whatever excellency so ever was in the Father, the same likewise was in the
Son, and that in the most transplendent manner. Glory sets out excellency;
brightness of glory, the excellency of excellency." There can be no doubt
that Jesus is the most glorious person in the universe.
This third verse of
Hebrews 1 does not merely say that Jesus was like God, or that he was a
reflection of God’s nature, but it says He is the exact representation of His
being. It is not approximate, but the exact representation of His being. In
other word, Jesus is exactly like God. He is the greatest image of God we can
have because we have in Jesus exactly what we have in God the Father. Like
Father, like Son, for they are closer in identity than identical twins. When
you see Jesus you see the Father. God had forbidden that His people ever
worship any idol that was built to supposedly represent Him. There is nothing
on earth or in heaven that can represent God, and so it was folly to ever have
anything to be an image of Him. But when God came into history in the person of
His Son He was here in person. It is now legitimate to have an image of God to
worship when that image is the person of Jesus Christ. To worship His is to
worship God, for they are one and the same. It sounds like heresy, but the
reality is that we, as Christians, worship an image of God, and that image is
Jesus.
When you have a seal
that can make a mark on paper, that mark is an exact copy of the original seal.
It may be a seal that is used to put its mark on clay or wax, but it is always
just like the original. The reason all our coins look the same is because they
are made from the same mold that stamps them as identical to the original.
There can be nothing different from the original in the copy. The point is, God
is represented perfectly in the copy of Himself, which is Jesus. There is no
difference between God the Father and God the Son. Any characteristic you find
in Jesus will be a characteristic of the Father, and vice versa. As Pink says,
"All that God is, in His nature and character, is expressed and
manifested, absolutely and perfectly, by the incarnate Son." In Col. 1:15
we read it again, "He is the image of the invisible God…" All that we
cannot see of God because He is invisible, we can see in Jesus who is His
image. We know exactly what the original seal looks like because we have the
image and impress of it. We know exactly what God is like because we have an
exact copy in Jesus. He is the visible manifestation of the invisible. J. B.
Phillips put it, "Jesus is God in focus."
This is Christology at
its highest level, for in essence it is saying that Jesus is God. Paul spelled
it out even more clearly in Col. 2:9 where he says, "For in Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form….." Jesus is the fullness of
Deity means that He is fully God. Those who do not accept the New Testament
revelation that makes clear that Jesus is God are not New Testament believers.
Pastor Worthen writes,
"The Greek word used for exact representation is (charakter) which is
where we get our English word character, which could mean a symbol used to
describe a particular letter of the alphabet. And so by inference they're
interchangeable. If I say the letter A, you think of the character which has
two slanted lines coming together at the top with a vertical line in between
connecting the two slanted lines. If I were to show you this character you
would immediately think of A. (One and the same)."
His point is, just as
when you see the character A you know that it is A, so when you see Jesus you
know it is God you are looking at. He is the character that represents God, for
He is the image of God. All people are made in the image of God, and this means
that even though fallen with a marred image they still have some of the
characteristics of God that no other creature has. But Jesus has them all in
perfection and fullness. He is the exact representation of God.
What this means is
that all the virtues, graces and attributes of God are combined in Jesus in
complete harmony. He is all that man was meant to be in perfection, for He has
all of the image of God in fullness and completeness. Every attribute of God
that we can study equally applies to Jesus. No one can compare with him - not
Mohammed, not Krishna, not Buddha and not Confucius. Not even Moses can compare
with Jesus. As with all of the other statements in these first three verses of
Hebrews, comparison is impossible, for there are no others in any of the
categories where Jesus is exalted. He is the ultimate and the greatest in every
category, and this is certainly true for this category of being the exact image
of God.
Jesus was a character.
We often say this about someone who is strange and unusual in behavior. This
certainly fits Jesus, for He was always doing something out of the ordinary. He
was not your usual personality. He was a character, for He was God in human
flesh. We would expect God to be somewhat unusual and different from the
average person. He loved people that others hated and wanted nothing to do
with. He healed people who others would just avoid and say they deserve what
they suffer. He befriended people that were rejected by society. He violated
the legalism of the religious leaders of his day. He spoke in private with a
woman, and let women follow him and even supply the money needed to keep his
group in operation. He was a radical in numerous ways, but when he had the power
to escape from his enemies he voluntarily went to the cross to lay down his
life, and while dying forgave those who nailed him there. He was a real
character, for He had the character of God. God’s character was stamped on
Jesus’s very being, and so He had to be as different as God is different from
fallen man.
It was because man is
fallen they could not see who Jesus was. Paul says it in II Cor. 4:4, "The
god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
It should not be surprising that there are so many who are not impressed with
Jesus. He is still despised and rejected by many who will not see Him as
anything but a religious fanatic. But for those who are enlightened, He is the
greatest character that ever walked this earth, and He is the greatest image of
God because He was God in human flesh.
One commentator adds
to our grasp of what this means in these words: "Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4
and in Colossians 1:15 says, "Christ is the image of God." And he
uses a different word, the word is eikon which means "an exact
reproduction, an exact image or a precise copy." So whether it's charakter
or whether it's eikon, Jesus is the stamp of God, the mark of God, the seal of
God, the image of God, the reproduction of God, the precise copy of God. And
may I hasten to add that those words even at their best come short of the
reality of the truth because it's impossible to express that He is in fact the
very essence of God in any analogous way without losing something. I think it's
best expressed in Colossians 2:9 where Paul says, "In Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily."
The Father and the Son
side by side showing how Jesus is an exact reproduction and representation of
the Father. Some of the parallels are weak, but over all it is clear that Jesus
and the Father are one.
God is the only Savior
in Isa. 43:11, and Jesus is the only Savior in Acts 4:12 and I John 4:14
God created the
universe in Isa. 44:24, and Jesus created it in Heb. 1:10 amd Col. 1:16
God is the first and
the last in Isa. 41:4, and Jesus is the first and the last in Rev. 1:17
God forgives sin in
Psa. 103:2-3, and Jesus forgives sin in Mark 2:5
God is our redeemer in
Isa. 63:16, and Jesus is our redeemer in Titus 2:13-14
God is the holy one in
Psa. 78:41, and Jesus is the holy one in Acts 2:27
God is worshipped in
Matt. 4:10, and Jesus is worshipped in Matt. 9:18
God is from
everlasting in Ps. 93:1-2, and Jesus is from everlasting in Micah 5:
God is the I Am in Ex.
3:14, and Jesus is the I Am in John 8:58
God is the Judge of
the whole earth in Ps. 94:1-2, and Jesus is the Judge of all in John 5:22
There are many more
parallels, but you can see what Jesus meant in John 14:9 where he said,
"He who has seen me has seen the Father." If God looked into a mirror
He would see Jesus, and Jesus doing the same would see the Father. They are
identical, even though they are two distinct persons. If you see Jesus full of
compassion and love for those with any need, you are seeing God responding to
people with acts of love. If you see Jesus forgiving the sinner, you are seeing
the grace of God being expressed. Every good thing you see in Jesus is a
picture of the mind and heart of God. I have tried to say this in poetry.
Jesus is the exact
image Of the Majesty on high.
He is the Lord of
every age, But He stooped for us to die.
There is no one who is
like Him, For He’s just one of a kind.
Victories like His
none can win, Nor a better Savior find.
He’s exactly like the
Father, No one can tell them apart.
To divide them do not
bother, They are One in mind and heart.
Jesus is the visible
manifestation of the invisible God. He is the paradox resolved, for God cannot
be seen, but we do see Him in Jesus. Jesus shows us God. Jesus explains God.
Jesus reflects God. Jesus reveals God. Jesus is God. And that is why He is the
exact representation of God, and why He is the greatest image in the universe.
He, and He alone, is the perfect image of God, and He alone is the perfect
image of Man made in the image of God. There can be no comparison with other
great religious leaders and founders, for He is truly unique and one of a kind.
No one else is exactly like God, for no one else is God but Jesus. In Him we see
God, and I express it in poetry to end this message.
We cannot see God the
Father;
The Holy Spirit leaves
no trace.
These facts our faith
need not bother,
For in Jesus God has a
face.
God has a face that we
can see
In both time and
eternity.
He joined the human
race just so
His heavenly Father we
could know.
The eyes of man are so
finite
There’s much of God in
shades so dim,
But Jesus came to give
the light
That we might get a
glimpse of Him
You cannot see and
live to tell
If God’s glory comes
your way,
But Jesus came and
bore our hell
And by it tore the
veil away.
He let the light of
heaven shine
On this dark world of
sin and shame.
He took away your sin
and mine,
To show love was his
aim.
He came to show to our
blind eyes
What can be found no
other place.
He made it clear as
sunny skies,
That God has a loving
face.
God has a face and we
can see it,
If we in his light
will run.
God has a place and we
can find it
If we say "Thy
will be done."
God has a grace and we
can feel it,
If all evil ways we
shun.
God has a space and we
can fill it,
If we make Him number
one.
God has a face and we
can see it
In the person of His
Son.
CHAPTER
7 THE GREATEST SUSTAINER
Anne Graham Lotz in
her book Just Give Me Jesus tells of her father Billy Graham being given a watch
by a friend, and after some time it stopped working. His wife took it to a
jewelry store to get it fixed, but they could not do it. She took it to several
and they all said it could not be fixed. Then when she went to Switzerland she
took it along and sent the watch to the company that made it. They returned it
fixed for they made it and they knew how to make it work again. So Jesus who
made all things can repair them and sustain them and make them work again. He
can save all things as well as people. We seldom think of it, but there has to
be a power that keeps all things going in this universe. Everything is in
motion from the particles in each atom to the largest stars in the galaxy. The
energy to keep all things moving is beyond imagination and calculation. Hebrews
makes it clear that Jesus is the source of all that vast energy, for He is the
sustainer of all things.
The Deist idea that
God just made the universe and then let it run on its own as He turned His
attention to other things is not the picture the Bible gives us. The Creator is
actively involved in the operation of all He has made. The laws of nature are
His energy at work to keep everything working according to plan. He maintains
what He has made to keep it in working order. The material creation is not
independent of its Creator, but needs someone to manage and maintain it in
order for it to continue its existence and progress.
Jesus has the whole
universe in His hands, and if He should let go and cease to sustain it, it
would collapse into a massive heap of rubble, and then fade into extinction. We
think of dead matter as having no life, but the fact is even the inanimate
creation is made up of atoms in constant motion. If the energy of that motion
ceases, it would cease to exist. All things are in motion, and the energy of
that motion is in the powerful word of Jesus. He made it all come into being by
His Word, and He keeps it sustained and maintained by that same all-powerful
Word.
Jesus is a hands on
Creator. He does not just sit on a heavenly throne and watch what happens to
His creation. He is actively involved in its continuous operation. He is the
infinite source of energy that keeps the entire universe functioning as it was
meant to function.
We have a picture of
Jesus here that is totally different than what we usually get, for He is Lord,
not just of the spiritual realm, but of the natural realm. There is no
distinction between secular and sacred with Jesus, for He is Lord of both
realms. His Word not only saves the sinner, but it also saves the material
universe. It upholds the universe of matter. It supports, maintains, and
preserves the physical reality of all that man can see and study. We usually
only think of Jesus as the Lord of the spiritual realm with angels and saints singing
His praises as Savior and King of Kings. But here we get a picture of Jesus as
the One that is the power behind all that men study in Physics, geology,
astronomy, and all studies that have to do with the material realm of what
exists. Jesus is actually the center of everything, and not just those things
we call spiritual. Everything man studies has a source of energy and order
behind it, and that source is our Lord. He is Lord of all, and this means, not
just all people, but all things. He is the Greatest Sustainer, because He
sustains everything. He brought everything into being and He sustains its
being, or it would cease being. Nothing exists independent of His power to
sustain it.
There is no
competition for this title of The Greatest Sustainer, for there are no others
who have ever claimed to be the source of the energy that holds all things
together. In Col. 1:17 Paul says of Jesus, "He is before all things, and
in Him all things hold together." The things said of Jesus cannot be said of
any other person in history. If He is not the Son of God, and equal with God,
it is preposterous what is said, and even blasphemy, as the Jews said who
killed him. He is not in the same category with other great religious leaders
at all, for none made such claims, and no such claims are made for them. Jesus
is not only superior to all others, He is supreme over all others and all other
powers, for the power of His Word is the ultimate power. It is first-
UPHOLDING POWER
The KJV has
"Upholding all things…." Williams has, "and continues to uphold
the universe…" Amplified has, "upholding and maintaining and guiding
and propelling the universe…." You get the picture of one who supports the
universe, and that if He did not, it would collapse, for it does not have the
strength on its own to stand and continue operating. There are those who do not
like this word upholding because it pictures Jesus like Atlas holding the world
up on his shoulders. The word here is more active than that, and it has to do
with motion. Jesus is the power that keeps everything in motion. You have many
electric particles revolving around every atom in the universe, and every body
of matter in the universe is revolving. The whole of reality as we know it is
in perpetual motion, and there is some source of power that keeps it going, and
that power is Jesus. Take Him out of any equation and you have death. Jesus is
the life of all being, for He is the power that makes it possible for all
things to continue to exist, and this includes us.
In Psalm 37:17 we
read, "For the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds
the righteous." We have the upholding power of the universe at our side,
so if we fall, He is able to uphold us and keep us going. In verses 23 and 24
of this same Psalm we read, "The Lord delights in the way of the man whose
steps he has made firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord
uphold him with his hand." The same word is used in Psalm 119:116, but is
translated sustain. "Sustain me according to your promise and I will
live;.." In Psalm 145:14 we read, "The Lord upholds all those who
fall and lifts up all who are bowed down." In Isaiah 41:10 we read,
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand." The point is, there is a power in this universe that cares about
life and order and the continuation of all that is good and righteous. That
power is Jesus, and He is the one who upholds us, as well as the world, and all
of the galaxies of space. The book of Hebrews stresses that Jesus became man in
order to fully understand man and what he experience so that he could
sympathize and give them encouragement to uplift them in times of temptation
and trial.
There is hope and help
for our sighs and tears,
For the wound that
stings and smarts.
Our God is at home
with the rolling spheres,
And at home with the
broken hearts. -Arthur Petrie.
It is so wonderful that
we can know the Person behind the Power that upholds and sustains all that is.
He is our Savior, and the One who upholds us in the race of life. We get weary
and stumble and sometimes want to give up, but He upholds us and gives us the
energy to keep going. By His power we will persevere to the end. Everything He
created will by His guidance and providence attain the end for which it was
made. He is able to uphold all, including those who trust in Him, and save all
from the evils that tend to deprive them of life. We have no concept of the
battles that may be going on in this universe with the principalities and
powers in heavenly places. All we know by God’s revelation is that Jesus is the
supreme power and He is our assurance that the victory will be won over all the
forces that seek to destroy what He has made.
Beneath
His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guard His children well. -Doddridge
II. UNIVERSAL POWER
Sometimes we tend to
think that because Jesus finished the work of salvation on the cross that he
has little to do now as he rests on His throne in heaven. But the fact is He is
in charge of administering the entire universe as well as being our advocate
before God. He is ever interceding for the saints, and He is ever maintaining
the order of the whole creation. There is nobody anywhere more busy than Jesus,
but fortunately His power is infinite and so He gets all His work done by the
power of His Word. You can get a lot done even while sitting when you have
unlimited power in your words. In fact, you can get everything done, and you
can govern the whole universe. It does not take a great deal of insight to
recognize that this makes Jesus superior to everyone. The power that keeps the
universe going is a Person, and that Person is Jesus. It makes me want to write
a poem to express that Jesus is the power behind all that impresses us in our
study of the universe. All the awesome energy and beauty in the universe has it
source in Him. I say it in poetry-
There is power beyond
measure
In this universe we
see.
And this truth we
greatly treasure:
It’s no it, but it’s a
He.
Jesus is the greatest
power,
On the land and on the
sea.
He from the very first
hour
Sustains all that came
to be.
By His power all has
begun.
He started all in
motion.
He made every star and
our sun,
And every sea and
ocean.
Everything moves as
directed
Some great power all
does bind,
And it is clearly
detected,
That behind all is a
Mind.
There is nothing that
is by chance,
For behind all is a
plan.
There is a universal
dance
Written by the Son of
Man.
This universal dance I
refer to is the dance of life that Jesus has put into all reality, and that
includes what we call inanimate matter. It is dead matter we call it, but we know
that even dead matter is alive with motion. Every atom in a rock is filled with
motion. In fact, in the Old Testament Jesus was the rock that gave forth the
water to the people of God as the wondered in the wilderness. Paul writes in
I Cor.10:4, "…for
they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was
Christ." There is life in rocks even, and that is why the mountains and
the hills can break forth in praise of God. If people did not praise Jesus even
the rocks would cry out. The point is that there is life and motion in all that
exists. Everything is moving in harmony with the tune Jesus writes for the
dance of creation.
Dr. J. Brown writes,
"The term ‘uphold’ seems to refer both to preservation and government. ‘By
Him the worlds were made’-their materials were called into being, and arranged
in comely order: and by Him, too, they are preserved from running into
confusion, or reverting back into nothing. The whole universe hangs on His arm;
His un-searchable wisdom and boundless power are manifested in governing and
directing the complicated movements of animate and inanimate, rational, and
irrational beings, to the attainment of His own great and holy purposes; and He
does this by the word of His power, or by His powerful word. All this is done
without effort or difficulty. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it
stands fast."
What holds everything
together? This is a question that science asks and seeks for an answer, but all
they have found is that it takes an incredible amount of power to hold even an
atom together. If you split them there is a release of enormous energy. The
power in a small amount of matter is amazing, and man has learned how to use
that power and have atomic energy. But they still do not know what the source
of that power is that holds all things together. The Bible tells us that it is
Jesus. COL 1:17 says, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together." Philo said that the Logos, the Word, is the bond of the
universe. Jesus is called the superglue that holds the universe together. If He
did not sustain it, it would fly apart and be destroyed. By His releasing His
power over anything He can cause it to explode into fragments. I found this
interesting example:
"A Navy pilot was
describing his complex helicopter to his parents one day. He told them that a
small hexagonal nut held the main rotor to the mast of the helicopter.
"Guess what we
call that nut?" he asked his mother. She could only shrug her shoulders.
With a smile, the pilot answered his own question: "It's called a Jesus
nut."
That may sound
irreverent, but here's an explanation. If that small piece of metal ever came
off, the helicopter would not be able to stay in the air but would come
crashing to the ground. So it's understandable why pilots in the Vietnam War
gave that little part the name "Jesus nut."
The whole universe is
like a helicopter. It depends on some power to hold it together, and if that
power that does so did not function, the whole universe would fly apart and
crash into oblivion. Everything owes its existence and preservation to the
universal power of Jesus Christ. He sits on the throne of the universe for He
is King over all. The praises of all creation that we read of in the Psalms is
very appropriate when we realize the truth of Jesus as the sustainer of all.
Everything that exists has reason to praise the Creator, for He is also the
source of the power that keeps them in existence moment by moment. Paul said in
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." And
this applies to all that exists, and not just to people.
Jesus demonstrated His
power over all things to some degree in his earthly ministry. The winds and the
waves responded to His word. He could make sickness dissolve before people
eyes, and body deformities would vanish at His word. Lifeless bodies would come
to life again when he commanded it. He had control of things even in the
limitations of the flesh. He made all things and He knew how to fix them when
they were broken. After His resurrection he said that all power in heaven and
on earth was His, and so now as He sits at the right hand of God He is in
control of the entire universe. We owe Him thanks, not only for saving us, but
for sustaining us, for we cannot even live without His sustaining power. Our
very existence depends upon His sustaining power. We cannot even have
existence, let alone salvation, without Jesus. If He did not preserve us moment
by moment, we would cease to exist. And this is true of all the universe. In Him
it all lives and moves and has its being. One word from Christ and anything
that is can cease to be, for it He is the power that sustains it, He is also
the power that can let it collapse and cease to be. There is nothing and no one
who is independent, for God alone is independent and self-sufficient. All else
is dependent upon His power for its being and continuing.
The whole context here
stresses the universality of Jesus and His power. He is not just the sustainer
of many things, or even of most things, but of all things. These first verses
of Hebrews stress the all things. He is described as-
The receiver of all
things.
The creator of all
things.
The revealer of all
things.
The sustainer of all
things.
The redeemer of all
things.
The ruler over all things.
Chrysostom, the great
preacher of the fourth century wrote, "He holds together what would fall
to pieces; For, to hold the world together, is no less than to make it, but
even greater (if one must say a strange thing). For the one is to bring forward
something out of things which are not: but the other, when things which have
been made are about to fall back into non-existence, to hold and fasten them
together, utterly at variance as they are with each other: this is indeed great
and wonderful, and a certain proof of exceeding power." Today we have a
far greater understanding of just how exceeding great is the power needed to
preserve life and order just on our small planet.
Our earth must be
maintained at just the distance it is from the sun or we would burn if it got
closer, or freeze if it got further away. Life depends on the maintaining of
the exact distance we are now. Our planet is tilted on an exact angle of 23
degrees, which gives us our four seasons. If it was not tilted and maintained there
the vapors from the ocean would move north and eventually fill the earth with
ice. If the moon was not kept at the right distance the ocean tides would flood
the world. If our atmosphere thinned out, we would be bombarded by meteors. We
could go on and on about all of the things that need to be kept in perfect
balance to maintain life on this planet. Jesus is the one who is doing the
maintaining. If He lets go of the reins of power, it is all over, and the end
of the world. We only survive day by day because He sustains the order
necessary for life.
Elisabet Sahtouris
writes a lot about the dance of earth, and about how some power maintains the
balance that makes life possible. Here are a few examples:
"The atmospheres
of the other planets in our solar system all make sense chemically as stable
mixtures of gases. Only Earth has an atmosphere that is quite impossible by the
laws of chemistry. Its gases should have burned each other up long ago.
If they had, Earth
would have no living creatures. And of course it does. They make and use almost
the entire mixture of gases we call the atmosphere, ever feeding it new
supplies as they use it and as it burns itself up chemically. This activity of
living things always keeps the atmosphere in just the right balance for the
life of Earth to continue. We can compare it to the activity of our cells in
producing, using, and renewing the blood, lymph, and intercellular fluids
flowing around them. Living creatures, for example, produce four billion tons
of new oxygen every year to make up for use and loss. They also make huge
amounts of methane, which regulates the amount of oxygen in the air at any
time, and they keep the air well diluted with harmless nitrogen. In fact, the
Gaian atmosphere is held at very nearly 21 percent oxygen all the time. A
little more and fires would start all over our planet, even in wet grass. A
little less and we, along with all other air-breathing creatures, would
die."
There are a number of
scientists today who are writing about this intelligence that is seen in all of
creation. It is as if matter itself has wisdom and is able to act is such a way
as to do what is best for the system as a whole. Science can never discover
what the Bible reveals, and that is that there is wisdom in matter because the
all-wise Creator is sustaining and maintaining it so that it accomplishes His
purpose. There is purpose in the universe because it is maintained by the
wisdom and intelligence of the Creator, who is Jesus Christ. Without Jesus you
have a universe that is a machine, which makes itself and repairs itself. This
is harder to believe than believing that there is an intelligent Creator behind
it all. Science and faith are in agreement that the universe is full of
intelligence and order and purpose, but many scientists are not willing to
agree that that intelligence is personal. But this is the heart of the Biblical
faith. When a scientist explains the universe he often explains it in terms of
the dance going on in all matter. For example:
"Physicist
Fritjof Capra, who pioneered our understanding of the intriguing parallels
between Western quantum physics and Eastern mysticism, put it this way:
"Modern physics
has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in
the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but
is also the very essence of inorganic matter. According to quantum field
theory, all interactions between the constituents of matter take place through
the emission and absorption of virtual particles. More than that, the dance of
creation and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter, since
all material particles "self-interact" by emitting and reabsorbing
virtual particles. Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle
not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating
process of creation and destruction."
All of the
multiplicity and variety of energies in the universe have one common source,
and that is Jesus. That is why it is a universe and not a multi-verse. It is
multi in many ways, but the source of all its multiplied variety is the same.
Jesus plays the tune to which all reality dances. Just as there is oneness in
God’s essence, even though He is a multiple of Persons, so there is a oneness
to all creation, even though it is filled with a multiplicity of differences.
This means there is an ultimate oneness to all reality, including Creator and
creation, because there is only one source of all the power in existence, and
that is Jesus. It is pure folly to ever put Jesus into the same category with
any other person or group of persons, for He is so unique that one of a kind is
the only way to describe Him. He is God, and nothing less can describe who
Jesus is.
Science knows there is
an amazing power holding all things together, but they cannot figure out what
it is. Lee Chestnut wrote a book called The Atom Speaks. In it he wrote,
"Consider the dilemma of the nuclear physicist, when he looks in utter
amazement at the pattern that he has drawn of the oxygen nucleus. For here are
eight positively charged protons closely associated together within the
confines of this tiny nucleus. With them are eight neutrons; a total out of
sixteen particles: eight positively charged; and eight with no charge."
Dr. James MacDonald makes comment on this:
"Now if you’re
not scientific, you think that’s not a big deal. But hang on. Coulomb’s Law of
Electrostatic Force states that like particles, when put together, repel each
other. So scientists begin to wonder, "What holds the nucleus together?
Why doesn’t it fly apart? Why don’t all atoms fly apart?" Scientists admit
that there is an incredibly powerful force that holds all of these teeny
particles together, but they have no explanation for why it exists."
One of the physicists
who developed the Big Bang Theory puzzled over how we could live in a world in
which practically every object was a potential nuclear explosion, and yet not
be blown to bits. Carl Darrow, a physicist at Bell Laboratories, wrote that these
particles have no right to be alive at all-they never should have been created
and, if created, they should have blown up instantly. Yet there is something
that relentlessly holds them together.
What is this force
that keeps the universe intact? Where does the power come from to keep the
universe from instantly dissolving into one massive nuclear explosion? The
answer is found in Colossians 1:17, which teaches that it is Jesus who upholds
all things: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold
together." Not only did Jesus Christ create all things (verse 16), He is
the one holding it all together. Jesus Christ is the power behind every
mysterious force in the universe."
This is also who the
book of Hebrews is teaching by saying Jesus is the sustainer of all things. We
have the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of science, and than answer is
that Jesus is the greatest sustainer in the universe, for He sustains and holds
together everything in the universe. If this is not enough to get you to
glorify Jesus and worship Him as Lord, then there is nothing that can. Those
who grasp just who Jesus is will join the universal chorus of heaven that we
read of in Rev. 5:12-14. "In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the
Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and
honor and glory and praise!" 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and
on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and
glory and power, for ever and ever!" 14 The four living creatures said,
"Amen," and the elders fell down and worshipped." Let us join
them in praise to the Greatest Sustainer.
CHAPTER
8 THE GREATEST SACRIFICE
One of my favorite
poets is William L. Stidger, and I want to begin this message with one of his
poems.
I SAW GOD WASH THE
WORLD
I saw God wash the world last night
With his sweet showers on high,
And then, when morning came, I saw
Him hang it out to dry.
He washed each tiny blade of grass
And every trembling tree;
He flung his showers against the hill,
And swept the billowing sea.
The white rose is a cleaner white,
The red rose is more red,
Since God washed every fragrant face
And put them all to bed.
There's not a bird, there's not a bee
That wings along the way
But is a cleaner bird and bee
Than it was yesterday.
I saw God wash the world last night.
Ah, would He had washed me
As clean of all my dust and dirt
As that old white birch tree.
We know it was not dust and dirt that he longed to have cleaned, for he did
not need God’s help to
wash that off. He could have taken a bath or a shower, or even jumped into a
lake to achieve that goal. What he is longing for is the universal desire to be
forgiven and cleansed from the dirt of the soul so that he could be free from
all guilt for his sins. The good news is that God has made this possible. He
did not do it last night, and He did not do it by means of rain. He did it at
Calvary by means of the sacrifice of His Son. We used to sing the old hymns
that went-What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus, and Wash
me and I shall be whiter than snow. I have written what Stidger could have
written -
I saw God wash the
world that day
When His Son died on
the cross.
His Son Jesus had hell
to pay
To spare us eternal
loss.
He shed His blood for
all sinners,
Now all can be
forgiven.
In Him we all can be
winners,
Living forever in
heaven.
It was the greatest
sacrifice
That any had ever
made.
For cleansing sin it
did suffice
All our debt has now
been paid.
I saw God wash the
world that day
When He gave His Son
to die.
He washed all of our
sin away,
And from guilt did
purify.
That is what Heb. 1:3
is saying by the phrase, "After He had provided purification for
sins…." That is when He ascended and sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty in heaven. Jesus accomplished His goal for coming to earth when He died
for the sins of the world, and by that sacrifice made it possible for any who
put their trust in Him to be cleansed and made fit to join Him in the presence
of God forever. There has never been a sacrifice that achieved so much for so
many. History is filled with sacrifices that have saved the earthly lives of
many people, but never has their been another sacrifice that cleansed from sin
and saved people for all eternity. Jesus has no competition in this area, for
there are none who even claim that they have been able to make it possible for
all sin to be forgiven by their sacrifice. Jesus is the greatest in every area
where He competes, but in this area there are no competitors, and so His is the
greatest sacrifice in the universe.
If you study the word
sacrifice in the New Testament you will discover that the book of Hebrews uses
the word more than all the rest of the New Testament together. The Hebrew
Christians it is written to have grown up all their lives going to the temple
and depending upon the sacrifice of animals and the ministry of the priests and
high priest. It is the only sacrifice they knew, and they needed to be educated
in understanding the once for all sacrifice of Jesus that did away with all
that was basic to their Old Testament faith. Once they could grasp how superior
this sacrifice was they could let go of the old without fear and anxiety that
they were forsaking the plan of God.
Hebrews does recognize
that the old system was God’s plan at the time, but that in Christ there is a
better and complete plan. In Heb. 9:23 we read, "It was necessary, then,
for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these." Then he
goes on to say in verse 26, "But now he has appeared once for all at the
end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." In 10:10
we read, "…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all." The in 10:11-12 we read, "Day after day
every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he
offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this
priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God." Hebrews is making it clear that the once for all
sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was greater than all the billions of animals
that have been sacrificed for atoning for sin. All of them together did not
cleanse from a single sin, but His once for all sacrifice made it possible for
every sin to be cleansed. It was, without a doubt, the greatest sacrifice ever.
The author of Hebrews
is trying to prevent the Hebrew Christians from going back to their old trust
in the temples sacrifices. They are suffering for becoming Christians and there
is a temptation to go back to what was safe and escape the persecution they had
to endure by becoming Christians. He is trying to make the point that it is
better to suffer in following Christ and being loyal to Him than to go back to
what will not cleanse from sin and make them acceptable to God. Change has been
hard on them, and costly, but it is worth any price they have to pay to gain
the eternal benefits of the sacrifice of Jesus. They have to suffer by their
choice to be loyal to Jesus, but it is still better than continuing in the old
system that does not work, for that is fatal. No number of animal sacrifices
will make them acceptable to God.
An ideal example of
what their conflict was all about is the agony of defeat video seen by millions
on "The Wide World of Sports" program. The skier is coming down the jump
when all of a sudden he falls off the side and goes smashing against the rail
and tumbles down the hill. It looks like he will spend the rest of his life in
a wheel chair if he survives this terrible accident. But the fact is, it was
his choice to make that painful fall. He realized half way down the ramp that
he was going too fast and that if he completed the jump he would land on level
ground, and this could be fatal. He had to abort the jump and take that awful
tumble. We see it as the agony of defeat, but he may have saved his life by
doing it. He suffered only minor injuries by that fall, but may have ended his
life by continuing. Those Hebrews who continued to trust in the sacrifice of
animals for their sins were risking their lives, but those who took the tumble
of suffering to trust in Jesus alone, and His once for all sacrifice, were
paying a small price for such an ultimate success. It was preventative
suffering, just as it was for that skier. In essence Hebrews is saying to take
the fall for Jesus. Sticking with the old is fatal, but trusting Jesus is only
painful for a time. It may look like the agony of defeat, but it is the way of
the greatest wisdom and the greatest success.
The reason that the
sacrifice of Jesus was the greatest ever is because it is the only sacrifice
that ever worked. All the animal sacrifices just pointed to the need for blood
to be shed and life paid for cleansing from sin. God’s justice demands that
when His law is violated there is a penalty that has to be paid. The wages of
sin is death, and so that is the penalty that must be paid if the guilty are to
be set free. Death came upon all, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. The only hope would be a substitute who could die in our place so
the penalty would be paid, and we could be free from it, and not have to pay it
with our own lives. Jesus became that substitute and took on himself the guilt
of the whole world. As the perfect Lamb of God he died for the sins of the
world. It is beyond our comprehension why He would do so. We know He is a God
of love and compassion, but it is still hard to comprehend why He would take
our place and suffer the penalty that is rightfully ours. We need earthly
illustrations to help us grasp the wonder of this great sacrifice. We get a
taste of what God did in this true story that I read about.
"After a few of
the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church's preacher slowly stood up, walked
over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly
introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the
introduction, the preacher told the congregation that the guest minister was
one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few
moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for
the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to
speak.
"A father, his
son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast," he
began, "When a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to
the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an
experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept
into the ocean as the boat capsized." The old man hesitated for a moment,
making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the
service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister
continued with his story, "Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make
the most excruciating decision of his life: to which boy he would throw the
other end of the life line. He only had seconds to make the decision. The
father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son's friend
was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of
waves. "As the father yelled out, 'I love you, son!' he threw out the life
line to his son's friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to
the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the
black of night. His body was never recovered."
" By this time,
the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for
the next words to come out of the old minister's mouth. "The father,"
he continued, "knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and he
could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity
without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son's friend. How
great is the love of God that he should do the same for us. Our heavenly father
sacrificed his only begotten Son that we could be saved. I urge you to accept
his offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line he is throwing out to
you in this service." With that, the old man turned and sat back down in
his chair as silence filled the room. The preacher again walked slowly to the
pulpit and delivered a brief sermon with an invitation at the end. However, no
one responded to the appeal.
"Within minutes
after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side.
"That was a nice story," politely stated one of the boys, "but I
don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son's life
in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian." "Well, you've
got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn bible.
A big smile broadened his narrow face, he once again looked up at the boys and
said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? But I'm standing here today to
tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God
to give up his son for me. You see --- I was
that father and your
preacher is my son's friend."
J. Allen Peterson
gives this simple illustration: "I read about a small boy who was
consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him one day that
he must be home on time that afternoon, but nevertheless he arrived later than
ever. His mother met him at the door and said nothing.
At dinner that night,
the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water.
He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father
remained silent. The boy was crushed. The father waited for the full impact to
sink in, then quietly took the boy’s plate and placed it in front of himself.
He took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy, and
smiled at his son. When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "All my life
I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night."
Another illustration
is in the story of a one-room schoolhouse in the mountains of Virginia where it
was nearly impossible to get a teacher to stay because of the roughness of the
boys. No teacher had been able to handle them. The teller of this story goes
on, "Then one day an inexperienced young teacher applied. He was told that
every teacher had received an awful beating, but the teacher accepted the risk.
The first day of school the teacher asked the boys to establish their own rules
and the penalty for breaking the rules. The class came up with 10 rules, which
were written on the blackboard. Then the teacher asked, 'What shall we do with
one who breaks the rules?'
"'Beat him across
the back ten times without his coat on,' came the response.
"A day or so
later, . . . the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. 'The thief was
located-a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.'
"As Little Jim
came up to take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. 'Take your coat
off,' the teacher said. 'You helped make the rules!'
"The boy took off
the coat. He had no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the
teacher hesitated with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to
take the boy's licking.
"'Very well,
there is a certain law that one can become a substitute for another. Are you
all agreed?' the teacher asked.
"After five
strokes across Tom's back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. 'Little Jim
had reached up and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. "Tom, I'm
sorry that I stole your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you
till I die for taking my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!'"
This is to be our
response to the sacrifice of Jesus in taking our place in paying the penalty
for sin. By so doing he provided purification for sin, or as some versions have
it, "He made an expiation for the sins of men." Others have it,
"He had effected our cleansing from sin," or, "He had brought
about the purgation of sins." The bottom line is that His sacrifice made
it possible for us to escape the penalty of sin, which is our justification;
the power of sin, which is our sanctification, and the presence of sin, which
is our glorification. Our complete salvation was purchased by the greatest
sacrifice in the universe, and how can our response be less than that of the
little boy who said, "I will love you forever?"
We may not know, we
cannot tell,
What pains he had to bear,
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.
And because we believe
it, we will praise Him forever for this great salvation. He paid an enormous
price that we might have everlasting peace.
He was betrayed by
Judas.
He was denied by
Peter.
He was abandoned by
the disciples.
He was persecuted by
the scribes.
He was railroaded by
the Pharisees.
He was mocked by the
priests.
He was hated by the
chief priest.
He was spat upon and
condemned by the crowd.
He was scourged and
betrayed by Pilate.
He was crucified by
the Romans.
He was forsaken by His
Father.
The book of Hebrews is
written to warn believers not to add to the suffering of Jesus by trampling under
foot the blood of Christ by ignoring and forsaking such a great salvation. What
Jesus did for us demands a lifetime commitment of love and loyalty. Nothing is
to come between us and our Savior. We are to be faithful unto death, for no
sacrifice can compare with the sacrifice he made for us. He made the whole
universe by merely speaking the Word, and He sustains the universe by
omnipotent power that does not exhaust Him at all. But the work of atonement
for sin was hard beyond our comprehension. As the Son of God Jesus never had to
work so hard, but as the Son of Man He had to work harder than any man has ever
had to work. He had to resist all temptation and overcome all evil, and then
lay down His perfect life in sacrifice for all who yield to temptation and
submit to all evil. This called for physical, mental and spiritual labor harder
than any other being has ever had to endure. No wonder that His one act of
sacrifice was greater than all other sacrifices put together. All others never
cleansed one sin, but His cleansed for all sin.
This hymn called the
Akathist Hymn to the Divine Passion of Christ should be a prayer from the heart
of every Christian.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of the Living God,
Creator of Heaven and earth, Savior of the world,
Behold I who am
unworthy and of all men most sinful,
humbly bow the knee of my heart before
the glory of Thy majesty and praise Thy Cross and Passion,
and offer thanksgiving to Thee, the King and God of all,
that Thou wast pleased to bear as man all labours and hardships,
all temptations and tortures,
that Thou mightest be our Fellow-sufferer and Helper,and a Saviour to all of us
in all our sorrows, needs, and sufferings.
I know, O all-powerful
Lord, that all these things
were not necessary for Thee,
but for us men and for our salvation Thou dist endure Thy Cross and Passion
that Thou mightest redeem us from all cruel bondage to the enemy.
What, then, shall I
give in return to Thee, O Lover of mankind,
for all that Thou hast suffered for me, a sinner?
I cannot say, for soul and body and all blessings come from Thee,
and all that I have is Thine, and I am Thine.
Yet I know that love is repaid only by love.
Teach me, then, to love and praise Thee.
Trusting solely in
Thine infinite compassion and mercy, O Lord,
I praise Thine unspeakable patience,
I magnify Thine unutterable exhaustion,
I glorify Thy boundless mercy,
I adore Thy purest Passion,
and most lovingly kissing Thy wounds, I cry:
Have mercy on me a sinner,
and cause that Thy holy Cross may not be fruitless in me,
that I may participate here with faith in Thy sufferings
and be vouchsafed to behold also the glory of Thy Kingdom in Heaven.
Amen.
The act of atoning for
the sins of the world is so significant that it is put in a list of the
greatest things that can be listed. Jesus is the heir of all things, and He is
the Creator of all, and He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of God’s being, and he sustains the whole universe, and sits at
the right hand of God. This is the most impressive list you will find anywhere
in the Bible, and in that list is added this one, that He provided purification
for sins. What Jesus did on the cross for us is right up there with the
greatest truths in the universe. It is so big and important that it makes the
headlines in the greatest newspaper of the universe. Call it The Trinity
Tribune, The Gospel Gazette, or the Heavenly Herald. It is the paper read by
all in heaven, and in bold letters taking up a full page is the story of the
angelic reporter who was assigned to cover the crucifixion. It is titled I
WATCHED GOD WASH THE WORLD LAST NIGHT. That is what God did at Calvary, for the
shed blood of Jesus made atonement for the sins of the world. The more we know
God, the more we will recognize how important it was in His plan to provide
purification for sin.
Saphir writes with
eloquence of what Jesus did by His sacrifice."Why has this wonderful and
glorious Being, in whom all things are summed up, and who is before all things
the Father’s delight and the Father’s glory; why has this infinite light, this
infinite power, this infinite majesty come down to our poor earth? For what
purpose? To shine? To show forth the splendor of His majesty? To teach heavenly
wisdom? To rule with just and holy right? No. He came to purge our sins. What
height of glory! what depths of abasement! Infinite in His majesty, and
infinite in His self-humiliation, and in the depths of His love. What a
glorious Lord! And what an awful sacrifice of unspeakable love, to purge our
sins by Himself"! It is no wonders that Boreham could not speak too highly
of the cross even when he spoke of it as "the climax of immensities, the
center of infinities, and the conflux of eternities." You cannot
exaggerate the wonder of and the importance of the sacrifice of Jesus by which
he made possible the cleansing of sin.
It is in ignoring this
greatest of truths about Jesus that the world goes astray. He was God in human
flesh dying as a substitute for man that man might be forgiven and cleansed
from sin and all its consequences. There are so many willing to acknowledge
Jesus as a great teacher, and even the greatest teacher to ever live. This
sounds good, but the fact is, to stop there is to be a fool, for if Jesus was
not much more than that, and even God and the Savior of the world, then he was
not a great teacher at all. One of the most often read quotes on this issue is
that of C. S. Lewis. Let me share it again, for it gets to the point that is
crucial.
"Jesus
told people that their sins were forgiven. This only makes sense if He really
was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. I am
trying here to prevent the really foolish thing that people often say about
Him: ‘I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept
His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was
merely a man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is
a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for
a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His
feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing
nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to
us. He did not intend to."
The words of Jesus are
not just the teachings of a great man - on par with other great human teachers
of history - they are the words of God Himself. When we read them, we are
hearing God! Even more than that, when we get to know Jesus, we are getting to
know God, Himself. Anything short of seeing Jesus as God is what some call
Jesus lite. It is taking something true of Jesus but not the whole truth.
Hebrews gives us the whole load of who Jesus is, and Jesus lite is worthless in
the light of the full story. He did far more than teach great truths, for He
did something by His sacrifice that is the greatest truth. He washed us white
as snow by the shedding of His blood. We do not really know who Jesus is, or
for that matter, who God is, until we see what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
The poet has captured this truth.
"Where is
God?" inquired the mind:
"To His presence I am blind. . . .
I have scanned each star and sun,
Traced the certain course they run;
I have weighed them in
my scale,
And can tell when each will fail;
From the caverns of the night
I have brought new worlds to light;
I have measured earth
and sky
Read each zone with steady eye;
But no sight of God appears
In the glory of the spheres."
But the heart spoke
wistfully,
"Have you looked at Calvary?" Thomas C. Clark
Jesus sat down at the
Father’s right hand because He finished the work of atonement, which made it
possible for John to write in I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness." No sin has to be paid for again, for Jesus paid the
price so all sin could be forgiven and cleansed. The finished work of Christ
does not mean that there is no more for Him to do. The blood has to be applied,
and so there is no end to the follow up of the work done on the cross. If the
blood was not applied to the doorpost when the angel of the Lord passed over
Egypt the firstborn would die. The blood had to be applied then, and the blood
of Jesus has to be applied today, and all through history. We apply it by
confessing our sin and seeking forgiveness through our interceding Savior who
will plead His blood before the throne of God. Jesus ever lives to intercede on
our behalf, and so He is ever busy in a world where sin is so common. The lost
sinner can do nothing to save himself, for Jesus has done it all, but he still
must come to Jesus and ask for the salvation he purchased and will freely give.
An Englishman by the
name of Ebenezer Wooten had just concluded a preaching service in the village
square. The crowd had dispersed, and he was busily engaged in loading the
equipment. A young man approached him and asked, "Mr. Wooten, what must I
do to be saved?" Sensing that the fellow was trusting his own
righteousness, Wooten answered in a rather unconcerned way, "It’s too
late!" The inquirer was startled. "Oh don’t say that, sir!" But
the evangelist insisted, "It’s too late!" Then, looking the young man
in the eye, he continued, "You want to know what you must DO to be saved.
I tell you it’s too late now or any other time. The work of salvation is done,
completed, finished! It was finished on the cross." Then he explained that
our part is simply to acknowledge our sin and receive by faith the gift of
forgiveness. Jesus is the one he must go to and ask for this forgiveness. It is
free, but it still has to be asked for, and this is the continuing work of
Jesus as follow up of His completed work.
Jesus now administers
the plan of salvation that he purchased by His sacrifice. It is like there is
an insurance company for all His saints and sinner who desire to become saints.
All the premiums are paid up for life, but there is still the need for
applications to be submitted and for the transfer of merit to cover the cost.
We make application for coverage when we confess our sins to Him, and then he
intercedes and pleads His blood as sufficient payment for them, and then God
wipes them from the record leaving it clean. Jesus is ever busy in making what
He did on the cross practical in the lives of believers. By His Spirit He
empowers them to overcome sin and bring them through their trials and
tribulations. He is ever helping them to overcome all the enemies of their
faith. He dispatches angels to minister to them, and gives them the gifts of
the Spirit to enable them to serve the kingdom of God with power and purpose.
Peter said on the day
of Pentecost in Acts 2:33, "Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received
from the Father the promised Hold Spirit and has poured out what you now see
and hear." Peter said again in Acts 5:31, "God exalted him to his own
right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness
of sin to Israel." Jesus administers the work of the Holy Spirit and the
vast work involved in forgiveness of sin. What He did on the cross was once for
all, but the administration of His cleansing blood is a never ending task. The
heavenly work of Jesus will never be complete until every possible sinner is
cleansed by His sacrificial blood and made fit to dwell with him in heaven.
That is why the author of Hebrews can write in 10:19-22, "Therefore,
brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his
body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near
to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our goodies washed
with pure water." Jesus paid it all, and He want to apply His blood to
cleanse all who will come to Him and confess. The greatest folly in the world
is to ignore and neglect what we have available in Jesus because of the
greatest sacrifice in the universe.
We are ahead of our
time when we bow to Jesus, for one day every knee will bow and every tongue
confess him as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Back in 1917 at the Annual
Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London, Charles Butler exhibited a painting
he had worked on for three years. It is called the King of Kings. Jesus is the
central figure standing at the foot of his cross and is receiving the homage of
the royalty of the world. 158 portraits are there of great rulers including
George Washington. So luminous is the halo around the head of Christ that many
thought there must be a light behind it, but not so. It was due to much prayer
as the artist mixed his paint to capture the superiority of Jesus over all
other rulers.
Jesus is, without a
doubt, the greatest ruler there ever was, or ever will be. The question in
verse 12 is, "To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right
hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’" This is to
make it clear that Jesus is superior to any and every angelic power ever
created, but it equally applies to all other beings in the universe. There has
never been, and there will never be anyone who receives such an invitation to
that exalted place at God’s right hand, for Jesus alone has taken that
position, which makes Him the greatest ruler in the universe. The book of
Hebrews is not alone in its emphasis on Jesus being exalted to the highest
place of power and prestige at God’s right hand. Here are all the texts that do
the same.
Ephesians 4:8 -
"ascended up an high"
Ephesians 4:10 -
"ascended up far above all heavens"
Acts 2:33 - "by
the right hand of God exalted"
Acts 2:34 - "into
the heavens"
Acts 7:55-56 -
"standing on the right hand of God"
Romans 8:34 - "at
the right hand of God"
Ephesians 1:20 -
"at his own right hand in the heavenly places"
Colossians 3:1 -
"where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God"
Hebrews 1:3 -
"sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"
Hebrews 8:1 -
"set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty In the heavens"
Hebrews 18:12 -
"sat down on the right hand of God"
Hebrews 12:2 -
"set down at the right hand of the throne of God"
I Peter 3:22 -
"Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God"
This is an impressive
amount of evidence that supports the conviction that Jesus is the greatest
ruler in the universe. He governs the universe from this position of equality
with God the Father. Paul in Eph. 1:19-21 sums up the point beautifully.
"That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and
every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one
to come." This is conclusive, and it settles it once and for all for those
who accept the Bible as God’s revelation.
Jesus is above all
other rulers and powers in the universe, and He is the greatest ruler that will
ever be. All other rulers will come and go, but His throne will endure forever.
In Christ we are under a government that will never pass away. What Jesus did
for us on Calvary to atone for our sin is completed and will remain in effect
for all eternity. His pardon is not one that can be overturned by a new
administration. Verses 10 through 12 stress that everything in heaven and on
earth can change and pass away, but Jesus will remain the same forever. In 13:8
it is stated, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever." We have a friend in high places, or, rather, the highest place,
and it will never change. No revolution can alter the government of the
universe. The throne of power is securely held by our Lord and Savior, and this
is the basis for our assurance. The whole universe can collapse, but His throne
will endure for eternity. Our text stresses two positions that Jesus has as the
greatest ruler in the universe, and we want to look at the significance of each
of them.
POSITION ONE-HE SAT
DOWN
When you sit down you
are usually finished with something and are ready for a time of resting. God
rested after Creation, and we see Jesus resting after Crucifixion. He said on
the cross, "It is finished," and after he had completed the atonement
for our sin he sat down at God’s right hand to indicate that the plan of
salvation he came to achieve was completed. There were no chairs in the temple
for the priest to sit on, for they were never done with their activity. There
was no place to rest after they were finished offering sacrifice, for they were
never finished. The only completed salvation in the universe is that which
Jesus accomplished on the Cross. His being seated in this highest of all
positions in an indication of at least three major things: His Authority, His
Approval, and His Achievement. His authority is equal with God the Father. He
has the highest approval rating possible for His labor of love in dying for
man’s sin. He has achieved the ultimate goal of making it possible for man to
live forever in fellowship with God.
No one had ever sat
down along side God before, because no one but Jesus had ever finished a work
making them worthy of such a glorious honor. He is being rewarded for a job
well done. He humbled himself even to the point of the cross, and God exalted
him to the point of the highest honor possible. Eventually every tongue that
ever existed will join in praise of Jesus, for His name is the name above all
names. By His life and acts of obedience He became the Savior, not only of
mankind, but of the entire creation. A new heaven and new earth our in the
future, and they will be free from all sin and darkness, and it is all because
of the universal redemption based on the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus earned the
right to sit at the right hand of God. Unlike Lucifer who tried to take that
place of honor and power by force, Jesus takes it as a deserved reward, for He
paid the price a Savior must pay to redeem a lost world.
In Chapter 10:10-12 of
Hebrews this difference between Jesus and the priest of the Old Testament is
spelled out. "10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the
sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every
priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the
same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had
offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of
God." Jesus could sit down because His one sacrifice was superior to all
the sacrifices of history, and His one time act of sacrifice finished the job
that trillions of others could never achieve. His work is done, and He is
seated in a position of highest power. Because He is there, we can have perfect
peace about the forgiveness of our sin. We can be fully assured of salvation in
Christ, for He is seated where He could only be if He had done all that is
necessary for us to be reconciled with God.
We need to recognize,
however, that this is only symbolic of his finished work and His triumph over
the kingdom of darkness. Jesus is still busy interceding for us. Paul says in
Rom. 8:34 "Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us." You can get a lot done while seated on a throne, and
Jesus does, for he ever lives to intercede for us says Heb. 7:25. He is also
busy beyond our comprehension as the sustainer of the universe. He is not a
lazy Lord sitting around doing nothing, but is actively engaged in all of life
to assure the successful outcome of the total plan of God for an eternal
kingdom wherein dwells righteousness forever.
There is not other
being worthy of being seated at God’s right hand. All creatures in the presence
of God are standing in obedience to carry out His will, or they are bowed
before Him in Adoration. Only Jesus has the right to be so relaxed in the
presence of Majesty. A man named Lear was once hired to give Queen Victoria art
lessons. It was in the palace so often that he began to feel too much at home
and was too relaxed in the presence of the Queen. One of her servants
recognized this and urged him to move about the room more. He got the point
that it was not good etiquette to be too relaxed in the presence of royalty. It
was being too familiar with one on a superior level and was not acceptable.
This rule applies to all beings in the presence of God, except Jesus, for He
can sit at the right hand of God and be very comfortable, for He is on the same
level with God, and is fully acceptable to God, for He is God.
All other beings are
subjects, but He is Sovereign. When you are an employee you do not remain
relaxed in the presence of the boss or owner of the business. You act busy even
if you are not, for you do not have a relationship with him that gives you the
right to relax in his presence. So you make sure you have something to do when
he is coming by your area. If you are to the son of the owner, however, you can
relax, and look like you have nothing to do if you choose, for you have a
relationship with the owner that allows you to feel comfortable and free of any
pressure or condemnation. Jesus has this comfort level with God, as no other
being can ever have. Next consider-
POSITION TWO-RIGHT
HAND
Jesus is God’s right
hand man. He governs at God’s side with the full authority of God himself. The
right hand of God is His hand of power. In Ex. 15:6 we read, "Your right
hand, O Lord, was majestic in power. Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the
enemy." If you can put it on your resume that you are seated at the right
hand of God, you do not need to apply for any other position, for you are
already at the top. There is no place to go from the right hand of God, for
this is the place of ultimate power and authority. Jesus is the final
authority. When someone tries to give you guidance in life that goes contrary
to that which we have in Jesus, it is like this experience I read that was
shared by another pastor:
"The story is
told of a famous actress back in the early 40’s. Her name was Billie Burke, and
she was quite impressed with herself. Once, when she was on a transatlantic
ocean trip, she noticed a man getting some sun on the deck who seemed to be
suffering from a very bad head cold. "Are you uncomfortable?" she
asked him. The man nodded his head. "I’ll tell you just what to do,"
she said. "Go to your room and drink lots of orange juice. Take two
aspirins. Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold
out. I know just I’m talking about. I’m Billie Burke from Holly wood."
"Thank you," the man said. "I’m glad to meet you. I’m Dr. Mayo
from the Mayo Clinic."
Jesus has the highest
qualifications for giving instructions on how to have a healthy soul, for He is
the Great Physician, and He is on the throne at God’s right hand. The world is
filled with religious leaders and teachers who have dozens of different ways to
deal with sin, and with living a spiritual life pleasing to God. Much of it is
consistent with the teachings of Jesus, but much is not, and when it is not, it
is to be put aside, for Jesus is the final authority on what pleases God. When
He says, "No man comes to the Father but by me," we had better
listen, for when He speaks it is God speaking. The highest authority in the
Catholic Church is the Pope when he speaks ex-cathedra, that is from the
throne. All through history kings and rulers have made decrees from their
thrones which become the highest law of the land. But everything Jesus speaks
is from the throne of the universe, and it is the highest and most powerful and
final word of authority. By His Word He made the universe, and by His Word He
sustains the universe, and it is by His Word that He give us wisdom and
guidance. He is the greatest ruler ever, and His Word from His throne at God’s
right hand is the greatest authority in the universe. Paul says in Col. 2:10,
"and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every
power and authority."
The significance of
this highest position in the universe is that Jesus has now become the ultimate
man. God created man to have dominion over the world of His creation. Man fell
and lost that dominion. Jesus became a man and won the right to again reign
over all creation. He is now what God intended man to be. He is not just Lord
of man, but He is Lord of all, and that means absolutely all. It was all made
for Him, but man lost control. He regained that control, and is now the
greatest ruler that can ever be, for He rules over all the universe, and this
includes the invisible realm as well as the visible. ( for more on this see the
message The Greatest Sustainer.)
In conclusion let me
share some comments from others that make it clear that this verse does teach
that the greatest ruler in the universe is Jesus.
Calvin comments,
"Hence to sit at the right hand of the Father is no other thing than to
govern in the place of the Father, as deputies of princes are wont to do to
whom a full power over all things is granted. And the word "majesty"
is added, and also "on high", and for this purpose, to intimate that
Christ is seated on the supreme throne whence the majesty of God shines forth.
As, then, he ought to be loved on account of his redemption, so he ought to be
adored on account of his royal magnificence."
Pink has a comment
that makes it clear that the heavenly position of Jesus assures us that His
reign is universal. He writes, "The first time that Christ is referred to
in this Epistle it is as seated at "the right hand of the Majesty on high"
(Heb. 1:3), for it is with a heavenly Christ that Christianity has to ‘do: note
the other reference in this Epistle to the same fact-Hebrews 1:13, 8:1, 10:12,
12:2. In perfect accord with Hebrews 1:3, which strikes the keynote of the
Epistle, in addition to the heavenly Christ, reference is made to "the
heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1), to "the heavenly gift" (Heb. 6:4),
to "heavenly things" (Heb. 8:5), to "the heavenly Country"
(Heb. 11:16), to the "heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22), and to
"the church of the First-born, whose names are written in Heaven"
(Heb. 12:23). This emphasis is easily understood when we remember that our
Epistle is addressed to those whose inheritance, religious relationships, and
hopes, had been all earthly."
Ann Graham Lotz lists
the 6 ways Jesus is King
King of the Jews=a
racial king
King of Israel=a
national king
King of
Righteousness=a moral king
King of Ages=an
eternal king
King of Heaven= a
universal king
King of Glory=a
celestial king
The point is, He is
the King of Kings, and there never has been, and there never can be any ruler
who is greater than Jesus. Seeing this, we have no alternative but to bow to
Him as our Lord and King. I express my own allegiance in poetry.
Lord Jesus you reign
in splendor
Enthroned at God’s own
right hand.
At your glory we in
wonder
Before your majesty,
stand.
You have all power in
heaven
King of kings on earth
you are.
We before your throne
are driven
Praising you for who
you are.
God to you has given
all things,
And by you all things
were made.
You are sustainer of
all things,
And the price for sin
you paid.
You have done your all
to free us
From the judgments of
the fall.
Therefore we proclaim
you Jesus
King of kings and Lord
of all.
Pastor Don Fortner has
done an excellent job of thinking through all of the implications of Jesus
being seated at God’s right hand. I have found no one who has done as much
thinking as he has, and so let me share with you the fullness of what he has
put together. He freely gives permission to use his material.
"Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he had finished all the work which his Father gave him to do upon
the earth as our Substitute, Surety, and Mediator, "sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high!" Let me show you something about what that
means. Here are seven reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our
Mediator and Substitute, sat down upon the throne of grace, on the right hand
of the Majesty on high.
1. He sat down because
his work was finished (John 19:30; Rom. 8:33-34; Heb. 10:10-14).
2. He sat down because
God the Father accepted his sacrifice as our sin-atoning Substitute (Isa.
53:10-11).
The Lord God sees of
the travail of his soul and is satisfied. The law and justice of God, the
righteousness and truth of God, the holiness and purity of God cannot demand
more than Christ paid for the sins of his people! Now, God can be and is, both
just and the Justifier of all who believe on his dear Son. He is both "a
just God and a Savior".
3. The Lord Jesus
Christ sat down in heaven as our great High Priest upon the throne of grace,
because he is now, as the God-man our Mediator, the sovereign Monarch of all
the universe (John 17:2; Rom. 14:9).
4. The Lord Jesus took
his place in glory at the right hand of the Majesty on high, because this Man
is himself God.
The throne of God is
his throne! He was given this place as a man; but it was always his as God; and
he took it. He "sat down" as the God-man, our Savior!
5. The Lord Jesus
Christ sat down upon the right hand of God as the Representative and Forerunner
of his people (Heb. 6:20; 1 John 2:1-3).
Yonder, in Glory Land,
upon the very throne of God, is a Man, a Man who is himself God, who
incessantly pleads our cause with the Father. Because our Forerunner is there,
we soon shall be.
6. The Lord Jesus
Christ sat down in heaven, because he has now opened the way for sinners to
come to God (Heb. 10:19-22).
7. The Lord Jesus sat
down in heaven as a mighty Victor, a Conqueror whose enemies shall never rise
again, whose enemies must and shall be put under his feet (Phil. 2:8-11).
Because Christ sat
down in glory, as the mighty Captain of our salvation, our salvation is a
matter of certainty. We are now more than conquerors in him (Rom.
8:28-39)." This truth makes me again respond with poetry.
Next to God Jesus is
seated;
In humility we bow.
Never will it be
repeated;
Sin has been atoned
for now.
He has won the right
to reign there
On the throne at God’s
right hand.
None can with His
glory compare.
We in awe before Him
stand.
In Him we find all our
treasure.
None can surpass His
great name.
In Him is our greatest
pleasure.
Praise the Lord our
Savior came.
None in heaven, nor on
the earth
Is superior to Him.
We now with the most
joyous mirth
Surrender our all to
Him.
We His praises will
ever sing
As before His throne
we fall.
We acknowledge He is
our King;
King of kings and Lord
of all.
Pastor Steve Zeisler
has one of the best illustrations I have ever read of the significance of Jesus
being seated at God’s right hand. He writes, "The Boston Celtics used to
have a coach named Red Auerhach. One of the best basketball coaches of all
time, he put together the Celtic dynasty that won championship after
championship. He had a habit that always psychologically destroyed opposing
coaches ante players. He would conclude at some point in a game that the
Celtics were far enough ahead that the opposition could no longer catch up.
Until then Auerhach would coach energetically pacing and waving his arms. Then,
at that point, he would sit on the bench, light his cigar and watch the rest of
the game. When Red sat down, the game was over. Nobody came back against the
Celtics. Once he perceived that the team had won, he would sit down. This was
psychologically devastating to the opposition because they knew that nobody beat
the Celtics once Red sat down and lit his cigar.
Jesus is seated at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. All opposition is conquered, all questions
answered, all needs met. There are no doubts about what will be the end of
history. We only wait to see in time the heavenly reality of the reign of
Christ."
When Jesus walked this
earth He had an opportunity to become a ruler, for Satan tempted Him by
offering Him the rule over the kingdoms of the earth if He would bow in loyalty
to him. Jesus refused that offer and remained loyal to His Father in heaven. He
lived in perfect obedience, which took Him to the cross, but the pay off was
that God exalted Him to the place of ruler over all the universe. It was a long
way down from the glory of heaven to the gory cross, but in the end it was no
loss, for because He humbled himself God exalted Him above all others, and made
Him the greatest ruler in the universe. How can we help but sing-
Crown Him with many
crowns, the Lamb upon His throne.
Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.
Crown Him the Son of
God, before the worlds began,
And ye who tread where He hath trod, crown Him the Son of Man;
Who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast,
And takes and bears them for His own, that all in Him may rest.
Crown Him the Lord of
life, who triumphed over the grave,
And rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.
His glories now we sing, Who died, and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.
Crown Him the Lord of
love, behold His hands and side,
Those wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified.
No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends His burning eye at mysteries so bright.
Crown Him the Lord of
Heaven, enthroned in worlds above,
Crown Him the King to Whom is given the wondrous name of Love.
Crown Him with many crowns, as thrones before Him fall;
Crown Him, ye kings, with many crowns, for He is King of all.
Here is a powerful
story of a man who made a great name for himself and left a name that is long
remembered. I quote another’s account: "World War II produced many heroes.
One such man was Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to an aircraft
carrier in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a
mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that
someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel
to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to
return to the carrier. Reluctantly he dropped out of formation and headed back
to the fleet.
As he was returning to
the mother ship, he saw something that turned his
blood cold. A squadron of Japanese Zeroes were speeding their way toward the
American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie and the fleet
was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back
in time to save the fleet. Nor, could he warn the fleet of the approaching
danger.
There was only one
thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.
Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of
Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 calibers blazed as he charged in, attacking
one surprised enemy plane and then another.
Butch weaved in and
out of the now broken formation and fired at as many
planes as possible until finally all his ammunition was spent. Undaunted he
continued the assault. He dove at the Zeroes trying to at least clip off a
wing or tail, in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and
rendering them unfit to fly. He was desperate to do anything he could to keep
them from reaching the American ships. Finally, the exasperated Japanese
squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved Butch O'Hare and his
tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.
Upon arrival he
reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The
film from the camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent
of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He was recognized as a hero
and given one of the nation's highest military honors. And today O'Hare Airport
in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man."
Jesus is the greatest
hero in history for the believer, for He was able to win a victory over the
greatest enemies of man, and He gained a name that is above every name. Jesus
is the greatest person in the universe, and he is the greatest in every
category of the roles that he plays in life. There is nothing we can do to make
him any greater than he is, but we can magnify his name. Psalm 34:3 says,
"O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." We
cannot make him greater than he is, but we can make him greater in our minds
than he is now. We can give him a greater place in our thinking until he is the
greatest, and above all others. We can magnify him until he is the primary focus
of our life, and the greatest influence in our life. We can lift him up until
he is truly Lord of all in our lives. We can magnify him until there is nothing
and no one larger in our lives and in our love, and this is to fulfill the
first commandment of God, which is to love him with all our being. It is the
purpose of the book of Hebrews to help us do this, for it gives us a clear
revelation of how Jesus is the greatest in every category in which he competes
with others for our love and loyalty. God gave his very best when he gave his
Son Jesus. Isaac Watts wrote,
Join all the glorious
names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That ever mortals knew,That angels ever bore:
All are too mean to speak His worth,
To poor to set my Savior forth.
The Psalmist knew God
was a big wonderful God but he is saying, "O magnify [in your thinking]
the Lord with me, and let us exalt [lift up to the place where it rightfully
belongs] his name together." The same thing is given in Psalm 35:27:
"Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yea,
let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified." That is, let Him get
bigger and bigger in our minds until He is the greatest reality in our lives.
We cannot make God bigger than He is, but we can make Him the biggest and
greatest influence in our lives. He belongs as the number one power in our
lives, and it is by magnifying His name that we get Him to that place where He
belongs.
The first names that
we learn as a child are mama and dada, and they are the most important and
influential names in our lives for years to come. As we grow older we begin to
learn many names of family and friends. Then in school we learn the names of
teachers and of famous people in history. More and more the names of
contemporary famous people become a part of our awareness. We go on all our
lives learning more and more names of authors and others who influence our
thinking and choices. Name recognition becomes a major aspect of our
intellectual growth. We discover that the only way we know what is going on in
the world is to learn the names of those people who are making the news and
playing the biggest roles in the events that are making history. We also learn
that knowing people by their name can make a big difference in the success we
have in many fields of endeavor. Success if often dependant upon who you know
by name. The point is, names of people play a vital role in our lives from the
beginning to the end. The names you most honor and exalt in your value system
determine the kind of person you are.
If you love the names
of movie stars, and they become the names you most often think of and admire,
and if you dream about their lives and put their pictures on your wall, you are
magnifying their name. They have become a primary factor in your value system,
and this will influence in a very strong way the kind of person you will be.
This same thing will happen if the names you most admire are famous wrestlers,
racecar drivers, sports heroes, writers, politicians, or any number of other possibilities.
The names you exalt will be the major influence in your life, and you will
become like those whose names you magnify. Whatever name is greatest in your
life is the greatest influence on your life. That is why Christian growth has
not reached its highest level until the name of Jesus is the greatest name in
your thinking. We need to magnify the name of Jesus until there is no greater
name, for only when this is true, is it true that Jesus is Lord in our lives.
As long as any other name is greater in our lives, we are not totally submitted
to His lordship, and we border on being idle worshippers.
Jesus made two
comparisons in Matt. 12:41-42 that sound like pride, but are really just
revealing the fact of who He is. He said, "The men of Nineveh shall rise
in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented
at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
Then He said, "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with
this generation, and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is
here." The most successful prophet and the wisest king are not to be
compared to Jesus, for He is greater than all of the greats of the past, and
when you are greater than all, you are the greatest. That is the theme of
Hebrews and the whole New Testament.
Paul makes this clear
to the Philippians when he writes to them about how Jesus gave up equality with
God and humbled himself to become a man and become obedient all the way to the
cross. Then he writes in Phil. 2:9-11, "Therefore God exalted him to the
highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." God has given Him the greatest name for all eternity, but it is
our responsibility to give Him the greatest name in our lives for all time. We
will have no choice in eternity, for every knee will bow before His lordship,
but in time we have a choice, and the purpose of the book of Hebrews is to
persuade us to make it our choice to magnify the name of Jesus as the greatest
name in our lives.
Every nation has its
heroes whose names are learned and exalted in their schools so that children
grow up admiring them for the role they have played in their history. We have
great names like Washington and Lincoln, and we come to love and admire these men
for what they did that so influenced the history of our land that we are
blessed because of them. We have been saved from tyranny and slavery because of
these great men. We could go on and on with the names of others who have saved
our freedoms, and who have saved us from ignorance of all kinds. We have been
saved from diseases of all kinds because of great names in medicine. We have
been saved from drudgery by the many famous inventors that have made our lives
so much easier. We are among the richest people in history because of the great
names in our history that have enriched us and saved us from innumerable
negatives. But none are greater than the One who saved us from our sins. Matt.
1:21 says, "And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." He alone could save
us from that which would lead to the loss of all that is good and best in the
future, and that is why His name is the greatest of all names, and needs to be
exalted to the highest place in our thinking and in our lives. Jesus is the
greatest possible name that we can have in the hierarchy of values in our
lives. Charles Wesley wrote,
Surrounded by a host
of foes,
Stormed by a host of foes within,
Nor swift to flee, nor strong t’oppose,
Single, against hell, earth, and sin,
Single, yet undismayed, I am;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
What though a thousand
hosts engage,
A thousand worlds, my soul to shake?
I have a shield shall quell their rage,
And drive the alien armies back;
Portrayed it bears a bleeding Lamb
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Me to retrieve from
Satan’s hands,
Me from this evil world to free,
To purge my sins, and loose my bands,
And save from all iniquity,
My Lord and God from heav’n He came;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Salvation in His Name
there is,
Salvation from sin, death, and hell,
Salvation into glorious bliss,
How great salvation, who can tell!
But all He hath for mine I claim;
I dare believe in Jesus’ Name.
Not all values are
equal. There are many things that are true, but they are not all equally
valuable. It is true that Thomas was an Apostle, but he was not the most
valuable of the Apostles, for he was not used of God like Peter, John and Paul
to write so much of what was God’s Word to be read for the rest of history.
There names are greater in Christian history because of what they wrote. They
were to the New Testament what Moses was to the Old Testament. They were the
great authors God used to communicate what He wanted to say to man. But they were
all servants, and the Son is always greater than the servants, and that is the
point of Hebrews. Jesus is the Son of God, and the Son is superior to all of
the servants of God, and the angels have been great servants of God all through
history. The New Testament does not put the angels down, for they play a major
role in the life of Jesus and the Church. They will play a major role in the
way history ends, and they will join the church of the redeemed in eternal
praise of the Redeemer Lamb upon the throne. They are the most numerous and
loyal of servants, but as great as they are they do not compare with the name
above every name, the Lord Jesus.
The name of Jesus is
above the name of any and all angels. Because this truth was neglected there
have been cults all through history that have idolized angels. They have
exalted angels to the place of the highest value in their lives and their whole
life revolves around the seeking to know them and depend upon them for guidance
and protection. Angel worship has been common in the ancient world and has been
revived again in the modern world. It is not that they are not fascinating
beings that we need to study about and be aware of, for they are among the
greatest messengers of God in the Bible. Bible students need to know plenty
about angels, for they are major players, but when they become more important
to us than Jesus, and when we become more involved with them than Jesus, then
we have let the good become the enemy of the best. This is what is constantly
happening in our value system if we are not magnifying the name of Jesus. Very
good and valid truths and beings can rise to the level of first place in our
thinking and value system if we are not constantly exalting Jesus to the top
level as the greatest name in the hierarchy of names that we honor and magnify.
The danger is not that bad things will be given the priority, but that good
things, and good values, and good beings will be given priority. The good
always becomes an enemy of the best when it is exalted above the name of Jesus
in our value system.
The danger of idolatry
is never far away from the believer, for it is so easy to begin to let some
good thing or person rise to the level of first place in our lives. The cults
thrive on this tendency. They come with what is a neglected truth, and it is so
reasonable and possibly even biblical, and we get excited about it and go off
on a tangent promoting this truth to the point that we neglect exalting Jesus
as the greatest truth that we have to promote. This happens to believers all
the time, and we cannot blame the cults for all of it. Evangelical believers
can get so hung up on some newly discovered system of theology dealing with the
end times, or some other aspect of theology, such as the debate between Calvinism
and Arminianism, that they exalt this issue above Jesus. They no longer care
that others love Jesus and claim Him as Savior and Lord. Now all that matters
is whether or not they think the same about their pet view of theology. Jesus
is no longer the highest name in their value system. It is now Calvin or
Wesley, or Dispensationalism, orPremillennialism, or Amillennialism, of any
number of other isms. All the isms will one day become wasims, but Jesus will
always be the greatest name for all eternity. If His is not the name that is
the highest value that guides your thinking and actions, then you are an
idolater, even as a Christian, and you will live on a sub-Christian level in
some area of your life, and be a hindrance to others seeing the glory of Jesus
in you.
I know of what I
write, for when I was younger I was one of those who got so excited about some
aspect of theology that it became more important in its effect on how I related
to other believers than did the fact that they loved Jesus. Jesus was not the
primary value that determined my love for others. If they held to a theology
that differed from mine, I felt they were inferior and foolish, and not worthy
of my respect and love. I was an idolater and had no idea I was, for I felt I
was being more loyal to God and My Lord by being uncooperative with those who
thought differently from me. It often takes a lot of reading widely and a lot
of exposure to other people with other view points before one realizes that the
only thing that can create unity among believes is their common love for Jesus.
He, and He alone, is the power that holds the universe together, and He alone
can hold people together in the oneness that He seeks in His body the church. I
still do not agree with everyone in viewpoints on many issues, but I feel I
have grown in maturity by being able to love and call brothers in Christ all
who name the name of Jesus as Lord of their lives. This is part of what
magnifying and exalting the name of Jesus means. It means letting His name be the
primary value by which we determine fellowship, and not the names of authors of
a variety of theological viewpoints. I may be wrong in some of my views, but I
can never be wrong in loving all who love the name of Jesus.
Someone said,
"Jesus is not valued at all until He is valued above all." This is
too strong a statement, for Jesus may still be among the highest values, even
when He is not the highest, but when this is the case, He is not Lord of your
life. This was the problem the author of Hebrews was dealing with. The Jewish
Christians he wrote to were seriously thinking of returning to Judaism and
exalting the angels again to the highest level. They were in danger of
idolatry, and this book was written to prevent that. We may not be in this
particular danger, and the angels actually play less a role in our thinking
than they should. But all of us face the danger of putting some other value
above the name of Jesus. It could be the name of our family, the name of our
company, the name of our church, the name of our denomination, the name of our
school, or the name of our nation. Any one of these things could become a idol
in our lives and have more influence on our thinking and actions than that of
the name of Jesus. When this is the case we are idolaters, and are in the same
need of the teaching of Hebrews as were its first readers. Nobody is all the
Christian they can be until the name of Jesus is the name they magnify and
exalt to the highest place.
Mike Bradaric has put
together a list of the ways this name is so significant.
1. It is the name that
every tongue will confess
2. It is the name to which every knee will bow
3. It is the name, the only name, given under heaven by which men and women can
be saved.
4. It is the only name through which your sins can be forgiven
5. It is a name that is above every title that can be given, not only in the
present age but also in the one to come.
6. It is the only name that is majestic in all the earth
7. It is the only name that stretches to the ends of the earth
8. It is the only name that endures forever
9. It is a name that is a strong tower
10. That is a holy name
11. That is a righteous name
12. That is a mighty name
13. That is an eternal name
14. Whose glory cannot be shared with any other
15. It is a name by which we will be known
16. It is a name by which he will know us
17. It is a name that will be written upon our foreheads forever
18. It is a name foolish not to know
19. It is a name foolish not to name
20. It is a name foolish not to call upon
21. It is a name we can lean upon
22. It is a name you can believe on
There is no angel who
has a name like Jesus, for no angel is the Son of God, and no angel is the
Savior of the world. They are created; He is Creator. They are servants; He is
the Son. They had a beginning; He is eternal. They work for God; He is the God
for whom they work. We do not know of any higher beings in this universe that
are above angels except God Himself, and Jesus is one of the Persons in the
Triune God. The point is, you cannot go higher than Jesus, for His is the
greatest name in the universe. It is greater even than the name God, for He is
God who became one of us, and so is closer to us than any other name by which
we name the name of God. He is God as we know God best. He is superior to all
other beings, and, therefore, has a name that is superior, and which is to be
magnified above all others. I try to say it in poetry-
His name the greatest
name ever,
In all heaven and the
earth.
A greater there will
be never,
None can ever give it
birth.
God Himself gave this
name Jesus
To this one His only
Son.
Only His name from sin
frees us;
He alone salvation
won.
There is no need for
another
To come and release
from sin.
Jesus is our final
brother;
He every battle did
win.
No angel can ever
match Him;
None would even care
to try.
He took the full cup
to the brim
When for us He came to
die.
Even angels bow to His
name,
For they know Him as
their Lord.
Heaven has never been
the same
Since they sing now in
accord.
Our Lord Jesus is the
greatest;
No name can with His
compare.
His name has eternal
greatness;
There’s none greater
to declare.
It is saying something
very powerful to say that Jesus is superior to the angels, and that they are
subject to Him, and that they ever bow and worship Him. We need to keep in mind
that they were the key supernatural beings all through the Old Testament, and
that even the pre-incarnate Christ appeared in the Old Testament as the Angel
of the Lord. It is important to know why the angels were so important to the
Jews, and even those Jews who became Christians, in order to understand why the
book of Hebrews make so much of Jesus being greater. Let me quote an old writer
who says so much in a brief paragraph.
"Being made so
much better than the angels." To appreciate the force of this we must,
briefly, consider the excellency of the "angels." Angels are the
highest of all God’s creatures: heaven is their native home (Matt. 24:36). They
"excel in strength" (Ps. 103:20). They are God’s
"ministers" (Psalm 104:4). Like a king’s gentlemen-in-waiting, they
are said to "minister unto the Ancient of days" (Daniel 7:10). They
are "holy" (Matthew 25:31). Their countenances are like
"lightning," and their raiment is as white as snow (Matt. 28:3). They
surround God’s throne (Rev. 5:11). They carry on every development of nature.
"God does not move and rule the world merely by laws and principles, by
unconscious and inanimate powers, but by living beings full of light and love.
His angels are like flames of fire; they have charge over the winds, and the
earth, and the trees, and the sea. Through the angels He carries on the
government of the world" (Saphir).
To have a name greater
than these beings is to be great beyond comparison, as we have said. When you
are greater than the greatest, then you are truly the greatest conceivable, and
that is who Jesus is. He is the greatest beyond which none can be conceived to
be greater. It is not in the mind of man or God to conceive of one greater in
importance than Jesus. That is why His is the greatest name. In another message
we will deal with the specific name that the first chapter of Hebrews is
focusing on, and that is the name "Son". We will look at this in a
whole new message called THE GREATEST SON.
It is a story often
told, with a variety of versions, but they all illustrate a great truth. A
confederate soldier sat outside of the White House at the end of the Civil War.
He was depressed because he needed to see the President and tell him of how his
farm in the South was unjustly taken from him. He knew Lincoln was a just man,
and that he would help him with his problem. He could not get past the Federal
soldiers who marched in front of the gate and turned him away. All that
changed, however, when a young boy saw him and asked why he was so sad. When he
explained his situation the boy took him by the hand and led him through the
gate as the soldiers stood aside, and then to the White House library where the
President was resting. He introduced the soldier to his father. The boy was Tad
Lincoln, the son of the President. The son could do for the man what no one
else could do. That is the case with all men and God. "No man comes to the
Father but by me," said the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Son can take us
where no man can go without the Son. This is often true on the human level, and
if you know the son of a famous or influential person you have the key to their
presence. God’s presence is the highest in the universe, and it is gained by
means of knowing the Son, and so this makes Jesus the greatest Son in the
universe. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Knowing Him is the highest
knowledge. Loving Him is the highest love. Serving Him is the highest service.
Heb. 1:5 has God saying to Jesus, "You are my Son." God said it again
at the baptism of Jesus. God's voice from heaven proclaimed: "This is my
Son, whom I love." (Matthew 3:17). Again at the Transfiguration: God's
voice proclaimed: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him." (Mark
9:7.).
Ray Stedman tells of
his experience of knowing a son: "I once visited a ranch as the guest of
the hired man on that ranch. When we came onto the property we had to drive around
the big house and go to the bunkhouse in the rear. I stayed with him there in
the bunkhouse and never once got into the big house with him. There were some
beautiful sorrel horses in the pasture and I suggested we take a ride. He said,
"Oh, no, I'm not permitted to ride those horses." So we had to ride
some mangy fleabags out to the pasture.
A few weeks later I
became acquainted with the son of the household, and he invited me out to the
ranch. When I went out with him, it was entirely different. We went right into
the big house and he took over as all teenagers do. After a sumptuous meal we
went out and rode the sorrel horses all over the range. What a wonderful time
we had.
That is the difference
between a son and a servant, and that is the difference between Christ and any
angel. He is greater because of his relationship, the fact that he is a Son.
Blood is always thicker than water."
Jesus was special to
God, for He was the only person in history to have God speak from heaven and
acknowledge that He was His Son. This had to mean the world to Jesus, for in
His flesh He had to live a truly human life with so many limitations. He was
still the second person of the Godhead, but, as Paul tells us in Phil. 2, he
gave up the equality He had with the other two persons of the Godhead. He
emptied himself and became fully human and humbled himself even to suffer death
on the cross. History has been filled with many famous sons and daughters who
did great things, but never has there been a son or daughter who did for God
and man what Jesus did. He made it possible for all mankind to get a second
chance to avoid judgment and achieve heaven. He made it possible for God to
forgive the sins of men and welcome them to come home as forgiven prodigals.
That is why Paul goes on in Phil. 2 to say that God exalted Him and gave Him a
name above all names. Someone wrote this song of praise to His precious name.
There have been names
that I have loved to hear,
But never has there been a name so dear
To this heart of mine, as the Name divine,
The precious, precious Name of Jesus.
There is no name in
earth or heav’n above,
That we should give such honor and such loveAs the blessPd Name, let us all
acclaim,
That wondrous, glorious Name of Jesus.
That is the name that
Paul says will have every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that He is
Lord. Jesus is the sweetest name we know as believers, but the title of Son is
the focus of the verse before us. The author says that God never said to any
angel, "You are my son.." It is the title son that is being exalted
here, for it is a title exclusive to Jesus, and no other supernatural being is
entitled to it. It is true that the angels as a group were called sons of God,
but never is an individual angel called the Son of God. Redeemed humans are
also called sons of God, but none are called the Son of God. All of the saved
can say "I am a son of God," but none can say, "I am the Son of
God."
Jesus is called
"Son" eleven times in Hebrews. They are, 1:2,3,5,6,8, 3:6, 4:14, 5:8,
6:6, 7:3,28,10:29, 11:17,24, 12:6-7 Son of man in 2:6 The son was honored along
with the father in the Jewish heritage, for every father wanted his son to
carry on the family, the faith, and bring honor to the name. Genealogies were
father’s begetting sons. The full title of Son of God is used 4 times in 4:14,
6:6, 7:3 and 10:29. One commentator writes, "What is distinctive about
Hebrews, however, is its use of the title without the definite article (1 :2;
3:6; 5:5, 8; 7:28). This anarthrous construction with huios occurs nowhere else
in the New Testament. As with "High Priest," so here with
"Son," the intention is evidently to lay stress on the nature or
character, rather than the personality, of Jesus. The point here is that when
we see Jesus we see One who is Son, that is, One who possesses all the
characteristics and qualities to which that title points."
Oscar Cullmann, in his
book The Christology of the New Testament, points out that the kings in ancient
Babylon, Assyria and Egypt were considered to be sons of God, and in Greek
religions those who were believed to possess unusual powers were called sons of
God. Another author writes, "We can produce a catalogue of Hindu, Sufi,
and Hellenistic holy men who made such claims, not to mention Mizra Ali Muhammad
(the Bab) and Hussein Ali (Baha'Ullah), founders of the Babi and the Baha'i
Faiths respectively." The point is, history is filled with many who have
made the claim to be a son of God.
Jesus has no
competition when it comes to being the Creator and Sustainer of the universe,
and none claim to be the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation
of His being. None have claimed to have sacrificed their lives for the sins of
the world, or that they have been seated at the right hand of God. But when it
comes to claiming to be the Son of God Jesus does have competition. This means
that people are always in the same boat as those to whom the book of Hebrews
was written. Jesus had to compete in their minds with Moses, Joshua, the High
Priest, the Law, and all of the heroes of the past. The whole argument of the
book is to show that Jesus is better and superior to all the leaders that have
ever been. That is really the goal of the whole New Testament. Believing in the
unique and exclusive Son-ship of Jesus is a vital aspect of New Testament
revelation.
Peter said to Jesus,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (John 6:69; Matthew
16:16). Belief in the Son decides our destiny. "He who believes in the Son
has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36; see also John 3:16-17).
It is the spirit of antichrist that denies Jesus as the Son of God. In
Scripture we read: "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does
not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father
also." (1 John 2:22-23). "Who is he who overcomes the world, but he
who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:5). Andrew Murray
commenting on Hebrews sums it up this way: "Our whole epistle is the
unfolding of the glory of the person and work of the Son." He could have
said this of the whole Bible. The very essence of Christian theology is belief
in Jesus as the Son of God. It is His being the Son of God that makes Him the
greatest son in the universe.
There are those who
doubt the Sonship of Jesus, but the Scripture leaves no doubt. Just a portion
of the texts that reveal it clearly are enough for those who accept the Bible
as God’s revelation. Here are some clear verses and thoughts collected from a
number of sources:
They all asked,
"Are you then the Son of God?" He (Jesus) replied, "You are
right in saying I am." (Luke 22:70)
The Annunciation: The
angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary that her son would be called "the Son
of God". (Luke 1:32,35)
The Baptism: God's
voice from heaven proclaimed: This is my Son, whom I love." (Matthew 3:17,
etc.)
The Transfiguration:
God's voice once again proclaimed: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to
Him." (Mark 9:7, etc.)
The Crucifixion: The
Roman centurion and his men confessed at the time of Jesus' crucifixion:
"Surely he was the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:54)
The Resurrection: St.
Paul writes that Jesus' resurrection from the dead declared Him to be "the
Son of God". (Romans 1 :4)
Madmen and even
unclean spirits confessed to Jesus: "You are the Son of God." (Mark
3:11; cf. 5:7; Matthew 8:29; Luke 4:41; 8:28) . Jesus' disciples also confessed
that He is "the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God" (Matthew
16:16; cf. 14:33). Jesus, as a true Son, preferred to give glory to His Father,
but He too would not deny His Sonship (Matthew 26:63f.; Mark 14:62; John
10:36). Of interest in the first two of these passages (and others) is the
close association between the terms "Messiah" and "Son of
God".
It is also interesting
to note how closely Jesus' Sonship is associated with His suffering (Romans
5:10; 8:32; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 5:8; 6:6) . When Jesus was famished after a
long fast, the tempter said to Him: "If you are the Son of God, tell these
stones to become bread" (Matthew 4:3, etc.). When Jesus was in agony on
the cross, the passersby mocked Him and said: "Come down from the cross,
if you are the Son of God!" (Matthew 27:40).
Matt 16:13-17 13 When
Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
saying, "Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?"
14 And they said, "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias
(Elijah); and others, Jeremias (Jeremiah), or one of the prophets."
15 He saith unto them, "But Whom say ye that I am?"
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
Living God."
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona
(Peter): for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father
which is in Heaven."
Every man in history
except Adam has been a son of someone, but Jesus alone is the Son of God. By
faith in Him we become a part of the family of God, and we are His brothers,
and that makes us sons of God, or children of God. We only become this by our
relationship to Jesus as our Savior, but He has been the Son of God for all
eternity. Many have the right to claim to be a son of God, but no one but Jesus
has the right to claim to be the Son of God. It is the uniqueness of His
Sonship that is stressed in the words that call Jesus the only begotten Son.
Abdullah Ibrahim has
this interesting study on the word: "The Greek word for "one and only
son", "mono-genes", means literally, "one in kind,
unique" and has sometimes been incorrectly translated into Enlish as
"only begotten". This rendering is wrong because
"Mono-genes" is also used in Hebrews 11:17 to describe Isaac as
Abraham's "one and only son", namely the one who was promised by God
to Abraham and his wife Sarah. (Genesis 15) Since Ishmael too was Abraham's
son, but through his servant Hagar (Genesis 16), the term "one and
only" distinguishes Isaac as being uinque in his kind but not as the only
begotten." The point he is making is that no matter how many sons God may
have, Jesus is unique in His Sonship. He is not like any angel, or man, or any
other being that God may take into His family. He is one of a kind, and there
will never be another like Him. He is the greatest Son for all eternity past
and future.
Jesus made His
uniqueness very clear when He said in Luke 10:22, "All things have been
committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and
no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses
to reveal him. (Luke 10:22) Other examples can be found in John 5:22-23, Luke
20:9-19 and Matt. 3:17. In John 1:18 we read, "No-one has seen God; but
God's only Son, He who is nearest to the Father's heart, he has made him
known."
"Son of God, Thy
Father’s treasure,
He yet gives Thee all
to me;
Angels vainly toil to
measure
What I have in having
Thee.
Grace so vast
bewilders heaven;
God to me His Christ
has given." Author unknown
When the text asks the
question, "To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today
I have become your Father?’" the implication is none at all. This means
the teaching of some cults that Jesus was the highest angel is false, for God
never calls any angel, not even the highest, by this name. C. S. Lewis points
out that angels are all created beings, and all that is made is of less value
to one than what is begotten. What is born to you is a part of you, and Jesus
is the only begotten Son. He is a part of the very being of God and so far more
precious to God than any created being. What is begotten is like us, and what
is made is different from us. Jesus is just like the Father for He is begotten,
and not just made, of the Father.
Only the Son can be
the exact image of the Father, and only the Son could be the spotless Lamb of
God to provide purification for sins and then set down at the right hand of the
Father. The cross is the center of history because of what Jesus did there for
all mankind as the greatest Son in history. An unknown poet expresses the
conclusion of the centurion who stood at the cross and saw the awesome events
of nature surrounding that event.
Yonder - amazing sight! - I see
The incarnate Son of God
Expiring on the cursed tree,
And weltering in His blood.
Behold, a purple torrent run
Down from his hands and head,
The crimson tide puts out the sun;
His groans awake the dead.
The trembling earth, the darkened sky,
Proclaim the truth aloud;
And with the amazed centurion, cry,
"This is the Son of God!"
The glory and
brilliance of all other beings fades into the shadows when we behold the glory
of God in the face of the Son. Even the glory of men like Moses and Elijah
fades into the background when Jesus is transfigured and we see who He really
is. That is the major point of Hebrews, that Jesus is so superior to all that
has ever been and all that can ever be that we must keep our eyes on Him and
Him alone as the ultimate authority, and as the ultimate basis for our hope of forgiveness
and eternal life. No angel, and no man can ever be adequate to do what Jesus
alone can do, for He is The Son. To take your eyes off of Jesus as you run the
race of life is as foolish as running through a dense woods in the pitch
darkness of the night when you can choose to run in broad daylight. When the
sun is available you do not use a candle to light the way, and when the Son is
available you do not use angels or any other being for your guide to knowing
and doing the will of God. The wisdom of Hebrews and the whole New Testament is
simply this: look to the Son, for He is the greatest.
Phillip Schaff said:
"This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions
than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed and Napoleon; without science and learning, He
shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars
combined; without the eloquence of schools, He spoke such words of life as were
never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach
of orator or poet; without writing a single line, He set more pens in motion,
and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes,
works of art and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient
and modern times."
The Hebrew Christians
were in danger of drifting away from making Jesus the greatest light in their
sky. They were suffering for being Christians and the old ways of Judaism
looked so much more peaceful and free of trial. They were tempted to look away
from what they had in Christ and go back to the law of Moses and the worship in
the temple. They were forgetting what they had in Jesus that was of infinite
value. Many years ago a man in North Carolina picked up a beautiful rock from a
stream-bed and used it as a doorstop for his cabin. Years later a geologist was
hiking in that area and noticed the rock. He had the knowledge to be able to
identify it for what it was. It turned out to be the largest gold nugget ever
found east of the Rockies. He was using a great treasure as if it were nearly
worthless. That is what these Christians were in danger of doing with the
greatest Gem God ever sent into this world. Jesus was their Rock, but they were
tempted to use Him as a trivial part of their lives and exalt angels and the
Old Testament laws as having priority.
The goal of Hebrews is
to so exalt Jesus that only the most blind and foolish would ever dream of
forsaking the Son of God as their Rock and turning to some other source for
salvation. No other person in history has had such things written of them as we
have of Jesus. Some unknown author has written a paragraph that has been
published for all to read. It has circled the world, and I want to share it
again.
"Jesus Christ
came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He put on humanity
that we might put on divinity. He became Son of Man that we might become sons
of God. He was born contrary to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was
reared in obscurity, and only once crossed the boundary of the land in which He
was born-and that in His childhood. He had not wealth or influence and had
neither training nor education in the world's schools. His relatives were
inconspicuous and un-influential. In infancy He startled a king. In boyhood He
puzzled the theologians. In manhood He ruled the course of nature. He walked
upon the billows and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without
medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book and yet all
the libraries of the world could not hold the books about Him. He never wrote a
song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters
together. He never founded a college, yet all the schools together cannot boast
of as many students as He has. He never practiced medicine and yet He has
healed more broken hearts than all the doctors have healed broken bodies. This
Jesus Christ is the star of astronomy, the rock of geology, the lion and the
lamb of zoology, the harmonizer of all discords, and the healer of all
diseases. Throughout history great men have come and gone, yet He lives on.
Herod could not kill him. Satan could not seduce him. Death could not destroy
him and the grave could not hold him."
Only a Son like this
could be exalted to sit at the right hand of the Father on His throne. No one
else is seated there, for no one else is the unique Son of God. Being seated
there signifies that Jesus completed all that He came into the world to
accomplish. It means that He now has the authority and power He claimed when He
said, "All power in heaven and on earth is given unto me." It means
He is the closest person to the Father and is the only intercessor needed. In
Rom. 8:24 we read, "Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-more
than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding for us." He is the only one who has the authority to take us
to the highest place and be seated there with Him. In Rev. 3:21 we read these
words of Jesus to the church: "To him who overcomes, I will give the right
to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on
his throne." It is no wonder we are to look to the Son as we run the race
of life, for He alone has made it to the finish line, and He alone can make us
ultimate winners. Heb. 12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the
cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God."
Jesus has always been
the Son of God, but now He is the Son of Man also, and it is as the God-Man
that He sits at the right hand of God. God made a radical change in His very
being in order to save man and make him a part of His eternal family. Jesus
will always be the greatest Son, for He is the one that made it possible for
others to become sons of God. Galatians 4:4 we read, "But when the
fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman . .
." He was already God’s Son when He came into the world. There has never
been a time when God was not a family in His very being as Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. As a man, however, Jesus became the Son in a unique sense that was not
true for all eternity past, for He became a mixture of deity and humanity,
which He never was before. He was the greatest Son forever in time past, but
now He has become the greatest Son for all eternity future as the God-Man Son.
He was never this before, and so those who say God never changes have not
thought deeply about the implications of the Incarnation. The well known hymn
sung by millions around the world conveys the dual sonship of Jesus, and that
we worship Him as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. His sonship is one of
ultimate beauty, for He combines the best of both God and man.
Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy and crown.
Fair are the meadows,
fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing.
Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
Than all the angels heaven can boast.
All fairest beauty,
heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer, fairer or dearer,
Than Thou, my Savior, art to me.
Beautiful Savior! Lord
of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
Now and forever more be Thine.
Jesus prayed in John
17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory
which I had with You before the world was" Jesus was going back to the
glory He had for all eternity past, but He was going back as a Son with a dual
nature so as to be both God and man, and the ideal mediator between God and
man. As the God-Man Son he has equal honor with the Father. In John 5:23 we
read, "All should honor the Son just as the honor the Father. He who does
not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." Only one who is
God or the Son of God could dare to receive worship. No angel can do so, for
they are created beings, but Jesus accepted worship as the Son of God. We see
this in John 9:35-38, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He answered
and said, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" And Jesus
said to him, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with
you." Then he said, "Lord, I believe!" And he worshiped
Him."
History is filled with
sons who have brought great pride to their fathers, and son who did great
service for mankind, but none can compare with Jesus in what He did to glorify
His Father and benefit mankind by making their salvation possible. He, and He
alone, deserves the title THE GREATEST SON.
THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN
THE UNIVERSE based on Heb. 1:9
My wife and I
sometimes debate as to which of us loves the other the most, and we each make
the claim that "I love you more." The other responds, "No, I
love you more." It is one of those debates that can never have a winner
because there is no love measuring device by which we can measure our love to
see which is the greatest. It is also impossible to measure joy and happiness.
No one can say I am happier than someone else, for without a way of measurement
it is a meaningless statement. However, if the God who made us, and who knows
all things, says that someone is happier and more joyful than others, then we
have a basis for the claim that a person can be the most joyful and happy
person there is. That is what verse 9 of Hebrews chapter one tells us about
Jesus. It says,
"You have loved
righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above
your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."
The anointing with the
oil of joy is translated by Moffat as. "with the oil of rejoicing beyond
thy comrades." TCNT has it, "with the festal oil more abundantly than
thy peers." Today's English Version renders it: "The kingdom that God
has given you will last forever and ever. You rule over your people with
justice; you love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your
God, has chosen you and has poured out more happiness on you than on any other
king."
The greatest joy comes
to those who are in fullest agreement with the nature and purpose of God, and
that means those who love what is good and hate what is evil. All people do
both to some degree, for if you read the statements of crime leaders you learn
that they want their children to grow up and be legitimate and not criminals.
Everyone loves good and hates evil to some degree, but only one person in
history loved and hated in perfect agreement with God, and that was Jesus
Christ. He was the happiest man in history, and the happiest being in all the
universe, because he had the very joy of God.
Is God actually happy?
Does He have a heart filled with joy? It seems like He might be sad most of the
time because of the sin and rebellion of man, and the mess they constantly make
of His beautiful world, but the fact is, God is a God of joy. One of the great
texts of Nehemiah is in 8:10 where we read, "..for the joy of the Lord is
your strength." It is God’s joy that makes it possible for Him to put up
with a fallen world, and this joy was the joy that gave Jesus the strength to
go all the way to the cross and to the depths of hell for lost sinners. Heb.
12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our
faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Without the joy of
the Father Jesus could not have had the strength to go through with the plan of
salvation. He needed joy and the power it provides to fulfill His purpose for
time and eternity.
Webster's Dictionary
defines joy as - pleasure caused by the EXPECTATION of good. Jesus expected to
see billions of redeemed sinners in glory, and enjoying pleasures forever at
God’s right hand with Him in the Father’s house, and it was this expectation
that filled Him with joy. No one in history has ever been able to expect such
success from what they do. No other sacrifice in history has ever come close to
doing so much for so many. He purchased by His blood that which is of infinite
value. It is beyond measure what will be because of His sacrifice, and that is
why it is beyond measure to determine the greatness of His joy. It can only be
describes as a joy equal with the joy of the Father whose will He accomplished
by going to the cross.
The Nehemiah text is
talking about the strength that the joy of the Lord can give to men, and so
Jesus, who was the greatest of men, could have this strength in far greater
measure. Spurgeon in a sermon on the text shows just what power is available to
all believers in the joy of the Lord. He writes, "Let us endeavor to
analyze that special and peculiar pleasure which is here called "The joy
of the Lord." It springs from God, and has God for its object. The
believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God himself;
he is happy because there is a God, and because God is in his person and
character what he is. All the attributes of God become well-springs of joy to
the thoughtful, contemplative believer; for such a man says within his soul,
"All these attributes of my God are mine: his power, my protection; his
wisdom, my guidance; his faithfulness, my foundation; his grace, my
salvation." He is a God who cannot lie, faithful and true to his promise;
he is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy. Why, the
contemplation of God to one who knows that this God is his God for ever and
ever, is enough to make the eyes overflow with tears, because of the deep,
mysterious, unutterable bliss which fills the heart." One can only ask:
How much more would knowing God as Jesus did, fill His heart with joy beyond
measure?
The point I am making
is that even those of us who are redeemed sinners can experience great joy, and
if that be so, how much more could Jesus, who was sinless, experience the
fullness of God’s joy? We read such texts as Isaiah 51:11, "Therefore the
Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing into Zion: and
EVERLASTING JOY shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and JOY
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." I John 1:5 says, "And these
things write we unto you, that your JOY may be full (having ALL it can contain,
abounding.)"....OVERFLOWING!!! I Peter 1:8 says, "Whom you have not
seen, you love; in whom though you see him not, yet believing you rejoice with
JOY unspeakable and full of glory." What can be said of the saints can
obviously be said in the highest degree of the Savior who made them saints. The
logical conclusion is that Jesus was and is the happiest and most joyful person
in the universe. His oil well was a joy well, and by the power of that joy He
became the Savior of the world. The most precious oil on this planet was the
oil of gladness by which the Father anointed His Son.
This truth has some
powerful implications for all believers. It makes it clear that with a Heavenly
Father of joy, a Savior of joy, and the Holy Spirit, whose fruit is joy, we
have an obligation to be a people of joy. How great students of the Bible could
ever conclude that it was a duty to be only solemn in church is beyond me.
There was a time when laughing in church would be a sin. It was borderline even
to smile. This is totally out of harmony with the nature of God. If we are to
be like Jesus, then we are to be people of joy, and that means faces, bodies
and voices that communicate that joy. The Old Testament is often thought to be
the harsh part of the Bible, but the fact is, there are 27 different Hebrew
words for some aspect of joy. The Jewish Encyclopedia states that no language
has a many words for joy and rejoicing as Hebrew. Joy is the very goal of life
in the Old Testament. We read in Psalm 16:11 "Thou dost show me the path
of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are
pleasures forevermore." Even in the Old Testament the saints could taste
in time of what was to be the total meal in eternity. An unknown poet wrote,
The joy of the Lord is
our strength for life's burdens,
And gives to each duty a heavenly zest;It will set to sweet music the task of
the toiler;
And soften the couch of the laborer's rest.
Yes, the joy of the Lord is our strength for life's trials,
And lifts the crushed heart above sorrow and care,
Like the nightingale's song, it can sing in the darkness,
And rejoice when the fig tree is withered and bare.
The joy of the Lord is our strength for temptation,
And counts it the testing of patience and grace;
It marches to battle with shouts of salvation,
And rides o'er its foes in the chariots of praise.
Charles Woodard makes
a statement about the joy of the Lord that will give balance in our
understanding lest we think that joy is all emotion. He writes,
"What is the joy of the Lord? Is it finger snapping, hand clapping, foot
stomping? I think not. Is it singing Jazzy choruses and yelling hallelujah? I
think not. Is it guitar-picking and dancing the charismatic two-step? I think
not. "Joy" is an inward emotion that may or may not have an outward
manifestation. The joy of Jesus, or that Jesus had, was in keeping the Father's
commandments: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;
even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."
(John 15:10) Then Jesus said: "These things (above) have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be
full." (John 15:11) The joy of the Lord is His joy abiding in us! We
may be full of His joy by keeping His commandments." This balance is
necessary, for we do not see Jesus doing a lot of dancing before the Lord, as
David did. We do not see Him clapping and shouting praises. The worship
practices of Jesus are hidden, and all we know is that He spent a lot of time
in private prayer, but His joy is seen most clearly by the life He lived in
obedience to His Father in heaven. His greatest joy was to do the will of His
Father.
It is, however, a
great mistake to take this to mean that Jesus did not have the usual emotions
that accompany joyfulness. All too often Jesus is portrayed as if His whole
life was lived with the same negative emotions He had to endure the last days
and hours of His life on earth. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief at that time, and that dark period of His history has been imposed on all
of His history. This is clearly folly when you look at what the Gospels reveal
about Jesus.
Jesus made it clear
that He did not want His disciples to be like the gloomy Pharisees who would
look like death warmed over because they were fasting. They were looking for
credit for their being miserable. Jesus said His disciples were to wash their
faces when they were fasting and to look as radiant as possible, for they were
to be lights in the world and not clouds. Joyfulness was an obligation on the
part of those who followed Him. Henry Van Dyke, who wrote the words to Joyful
Joyful We Adore Thee, wrote also,
Joy is a duty-so with
golden lore
The Hebrew Rabbis
taught in days of yore,
And happy human hearts
heard in their speech,
Almost the highest
wisdom man can reach.
But one bright peak
still rises from above
And there the master
stands whose name is love,
Saying to those whom
heavy tasks employ,
Life is divine when duty
is a joy.
When Christians fail
to do this duty you have scenes like the one described by Erma Bombeck when she
was in church. A small child turned around and smiled at everyone. The child's
mother slapped him and said, "Stop that grinning! You're in church!"
Erma wrote, "I wanted to grab this child . . . and tell him about my God.
The happy God. The smiling God." We might see a little of this attitude in
the disciples when they tried to push the children away from Jesus, but we do
not see in it Jesus, for He said let them come to me, for of such is the
kingdom of God. He loved children and they loved to come to Him. He exuded joy
and friendliness and that is why people of all ages wanted to be near Him. He
had His times when He was down and frustrated, especially with His disciples
slow pace in spiritual growth. He had to lament, "How long do I have to
put up with you?" They often debated who of them was the greatest, and
Jesus had to rebuke them for their pride. The Pharisees made Him angry with the
way they made religion a burden rather than a blessing as God intended. He had
His share of negative emotions, but in His public life He attracted all people
because He had the spirit of joy is great measure. He was filled with the
Spirit, and joy was one of the fruits of being so filled. Eccles. 3:4 reminds
us there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, and Jesus had the balanced life
that He expects all of His followers to have.
Can you imagine Jesus
not laughing along with Mary and Martha when Lazarus came walking out of that
tomb alive. They had been weeping for days at his loss, and now they have him
back again. They would be overwhelmed with joy. It is in that context that we
read in John 11 that Jesus was so moved by their tears when He arrived that he
wept. Can we conceive that He would be moved by their tears to weep and not be
moved by their joy to join them in praise and laughter at the great miracle of
resurrection. Jesus would not be truly human if He did not laugh and rejoice at
such a time. He would be lacking basic human emotions, and this is not possible
in the only perfect man to ever live since Adam. Multiply this over and over in
all of the situations Jesus was in month after month as He healed people of
their diseases. The people would be delirious with joy to see again, and walk
again, and be able to go back from the life of a leper to live with their
family again. Imagine all of the joy in the crowds day after day, and then try
to imagine the author of all this joy not cracking a smile. It is nothing short
of sacrilegious to think that Jesus was some sort of freak who could not join
in the joyful celebrations all around Him. No one has ever lived who had more
reason to be filled with joy and laughter at the marvelous love and grace of God
to fallen people.
Leslie Weatherhead
wrote, "I want us to see that Jesus Christ was and is the most radiant
personality in history." He goes on to help us see this by describing some
of the situations in the life of Jesus that can only be explained by seeing His
sense of humor. It is a long quote, but even this does not cover all of the
humor of Jesus. Elton Trueblood has a whole book called The Humor Of Christ, in
which he covers thirty jokes of Jesus. Weatherhead covers some of the obvious
ones. He writes, "Probably we shall have to emphasize almost to the point
of exaggeration the gayer sides of Christ's character before we can correct the
picture of Him which is in most people's minds. Many people, for instance, are
still quite shocked at the thought that Jesus ever made jokes or was
deliberately 'humorous. Yet how else can one interpret some of His sayings? He
tells a story of a man grumbling at the speck in his brother's eye when a great
' plank ' -for this is the meaning of the word translated ' beam '-is sticking
out of his own. He pictures a Pharisee drinking. It may have been soup. He does
not say. But he carefully strains out a gnat, and gulps down a whole camel.
Whether the Pharisees laughed at that I don't know, but I am sure the little
boys sitting round his feet and playing on the edge of the crowd did.
"Does a man light
a lamp, He asks in one of His addresses, and put it under the bed ? Do you
think that question could have been asked seriously ? Take the story of the
friend at midnight asking for three loaves. The response is a sleepy ' Go away!
I am with my children in bed.' I believe that is an obvious touch of humour.
Then, you remember, the friend goes on pestering him till at last the man
rises, ' not because the other is his friend, but because of his importunity,
and gives him whatsoever he desires.' In other words, he does not want to be
troubled, but the other makes such a noise that at last the father says that if
only he will stop making that noise, which may wake the baby at any moment, he
will give him the whole house. Jesus paints another picture of Pharisees
invited to a feast. One of them excuses himself on the ground that he has
bought two oxen, another that he has bought a field, another that he has
married a wife. Fancy a corpulent old Pharisee missing a free meal because he
had to try his oxen or look at a muddy field, or, we should say, hold his
wife's hand! Surely there is the ring of real humour in His voice and a sparkle
in His eyes!
" I think also that
the radiant humour of Jesus probably explains many passages that he sound
harsh. Unfortunately we cannot recapture the flash in His eye, or the tone of
voice on which the character of many of His replies depends. For instance, you
will remember the story of the Syro-phoenician woman who comes to Him, and to
whom He says a thing that sounds cruel and hard, even rude: ' I was not sent
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. . . . It is not meet to take
the children's food and cast it to the dogs.' What an awful thing to say! But
you cannot see His eyes. You know He was joking from the woman's answer. She
would never have dared to answer a rabbi as she did unless she had seen in His
eyes that He was only teasing her. 'No,' she said, ' but even the puppies (she
uses a different word from His word for dogs) eat the crumbs under the table.'
And then He did what she had asked Him to do. Sometimes, when I hear these
matchless stories read in church by some solemn, pompous person, I imagine
Peter and John sitting together in the back pew, and the former nudging the
latter and saying, ' He wouldn't read it like that if he had been there, and
heard Jesus say it."
There are many hints
about the joyful nature of Jesus in the Gospels that we tend to ignore because
of the history of art that pictures Jesus as so sad. His enemies called Him a
winebibber and a glutton, and a friend of publicans and sinners. This was due
to the fact that Jesus was often at celebrations like weddings and banquets.
Often it was with people who were not the most respectful. And seldom did He
fast, or expect His followers to do so. He was a party lover because that is
where He could get to know people. The Pharisees saw all of His fun loving
times as a disgrace for a religious teacher and they called Him the worst of
names by saying He was a winebibber and glutton. Dr. Glover called this,
"the most precious bit of slander that ever slipped from slimy lips."
He said this because it reveals just how radiant and attractive Jesus was to
all kinds of people. He was fun to be with, and the life of any party. This
picture of Jesus is becoming more and more acceptable, and there are numerous
paintings of Jesus which show Him laughing and with a big smile. This was once
very unacceptable because people let the culture and the times dictate how they
see Jesus rather than the Word of God.
Spurgeon points out
that it was not just the death of Jesus that caused God to anoint Him with the
oil of joy, for it was also for His perfect life. He wrote, "On account of
our Lord's perfect life he is now rewarded with superior joy. Others there are
to whom grace has given a sacred fellowship with him, but by their universal
consent and his own merit, he is prince among them, the gladdest of all because
the cause of all their gladness. At Oriental feasts oil was poured on the heads
of distinguished and very welcome guests; God himself anoints the man Christ
Jesus, as he sits at the heavenly feasts, anoints him as a reward for his work,
with higher and fuller joy than any else can know; thus is the Son of man
honoured and rewarded for all his pains." Jesus feasted joyfully on earth
without sin, and the result is He will feast forever in heaven where sin is no
more, and where joy and laughter will be endless. Their will be many companions
sharing the eternal feast, but Jesus will always have a greater measure of joy
than any angel or man, for it was His obedience to the Father that made all
this joy possible. His anointing with the oil of joy is an eternal anointing, and
none will ever be more joyous and happy than Jesus. Spurgeon writes again,
"The Man of Sorrows is the fountain of all joy to others, and is the
possessor of all the joys of heaven and earth, by virtue of his triumphs. He
has experienced joys in proportion to his sorrows; as he once waded through
deep waters of grief he has now climbed to the highest mountains of happiness.
For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame,
and now having sat down at his Father's right-hand he enjoys pleasures for
evermore."
It is easier for
people to accept the eternal joy of Jesus, but they seldom think of the many
reasons Jesus had for being the most joyous man who ever lived while He was on
the earth in the flesh. It is always cause for joy when we are doing a good
job, and when we are complimented for it. God spoke to Jesus at His baptism
just before He was going into the desert to face His greatest temptation, and
He said to Jesus that He was well pleased with Him. Jesus heard His "Well
done, good and faithful servant." This was a great source of His joy. God
was ever with Him, and giving Him full assurance of His favor. When we are
doing what gives God pleasure, we are filled with pleasure ourselves, and Jesus
was always doing what pleased God. He grew in favor with both God and man it
says in Luke 2:52. He was a spiritual and a social success, and that leads any
person to joy. He never failed to please God, even though not all men were
pleased with Him, and that is why He was and is the happiest man who ever
lived.
Can you imagine the
joy of Jesus after His ordeal with Satan in the wilderness. The angels came to
minister to Him, and that had to be a scene of joy beyond what most can ever
experience. Jesus had faced the worst enemy of God and man and He came through
the fire without a singed hair. He had won over the most powerful force for
evil in the universe. I saw how people celebrated when we won World War II. I
was just a young boy, and I was down town in Sioux Falls, South Dakota when all
of a sudden whistles started to blow. People stopped there cars in the street
and got out to dance on the road and hug strangers. Paper was flying out of
window in the upper stories of the buildings. It was a wild celebration, for
victory had been won over an enemy. Such joy is rare to see, and I have never
seen it again like that, but I can imagine the depth of joy Jesus felt after
winning the greatest victory possible. Jesus had every reason to be the
happiest man in the universe.
Spurgeon waxes eloquent
in his defense of the happy Jesus by suggesting it would be impossible for a
normal man to not be filled with joy in doing all of the good that Jesus did in
His daily ministry. He writes, "Do you think, brethren, our Savior lived
in this world, doing so much good, without receiving some joy in his acts of
mercy? To teach, to labor, and to make men holy, must give joy to a benevolent
mind. It could not be otherwise than pleasant to a good man to do good. If God
delighteth in mercy, surely his express image must do the same. To restore the
dead to their sorrowing relations, was this no satisfaction? Did the widow's
grateful eye in the gates of Nain kindle no joy-flashes in his heart? Bid the
thankfulness of Mary and Martha inspire no comfort in the Life-giver? Think you
that it was not gladsome work to feed the famishing multitudes? Who could look
upon the feasting thousands without rejoicing? To heal the leper, to restore
the lame, to give eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf, who could do all this
and not be happy in distributing the boons? Surely, brethren, there were some
hosannas in Jesu's ears, and though he could always bear the cry of
"Crucify him! Crucify him!" yet he must have felt the wondrous joy of
doing good, which is one of the delights entailed on all self-sacrificing
lovers of others." He concluded that a man who lives in full obedience to
the will of God all of his life must be a man full of joy. He writes,
"Indeed, my brethren, there is more than enough of evidence to prove that
a rich anointing of gladness rested on the head of the Man of Sorrows."
It is important that
we see this side of Jesus, for those who did not, but saw Him only as stern and
somber, developed the kind of atmosphere that appealed to none but pessimists
about human nature. Jesus had the perfect human nature and it was one that
delighted in all that God had made. He loved people and nature and all of life,
and this is the example of the kind of Lord we want to exalt as our example. If
He did not enjoy life, but just endured it, then He is a poor guide for us. But
if He loved life and enjoyed each day of it, then He becomes the image of God
that we want to imitate, and the one that will appeal to all people. Sad and
depressed looking people do not attract others. I never heard anyone say,
"I love to spend time with so and so because they are always complaining
about life and sad over everything. They are never for anything and excited
about the future, but always against anything and see the future as being worse
than the miserable present." If you know anyone like this, send them a get
well card quickly. You can count on it that Jesus never received such a card,
for He was a happy person. In fact, none was ever happier, for He was the
happiest person who ever lived, and the happiest person in the universe. His
was THE GREATEST JOY.
CONCLUSION
The chapters above
would seem to say about all that could be said to exalt the greatness of Jesus,
but the reality is that they are just the introduction to a book that goes on
to give us many other ways in which Jesus is the greatest. It would take a
series of volumes to cover all the ways in which He is not just great, but the
greatest. I will list the ways that I have discovered so that you might be
motivated to search this book for yourself, and possibly find even more ways in
which it exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. Here are the ones I have found.
HEB. 2
2:1-4 THE GREATEST
MESSAGE
2:5-9 THE GREATEST MAN
2:10-13 THE GREATEST
BROTHER
2:14-17 THE GREATEST
DEATH
2:18+2:10 THE GREATEST
SUFFERER
2:18 THE GREATEST
TEMPTATION
HEB. 3
3:1-6 THE GREATEST
LEADER
HEB. 4
4:14-16 THE GREATEST
HIGH PRIEST
HEB. 5
5:7-11 THE GREATEST
OBEDIENCE
HEB. 6
6:1-3 THE GREATEST
MATURITY
HEB. 7
HEB. 8
HEB. 9
9:11 THE GREATEST
TEMPLE
9:12 THE GREATEST BLOOD
9:23 +10 THE GREATEST
SACRIFICE
HEB. 10
10:20f THE GREATEST
WAY
HEB. 11
HEB. 12
HEB. 13
13:8 THE GREATEST
STABILITY
will close with a
famous quote from an unknown author that I have read many times, but it still
gives me a thrill, for it makes clear that even on the human level Jesus was
the greatest person who ever lived on this planet.
"Jesus Christ
came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He put on humanity
that we might put on divinity. He became Son of Man that we might become sons
of God. He was born contrary to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was
reared in obscurity, and only once crossed the boundary of the land in which He
was born-and that in His childhood. He had not wealth or influence and had
neither training nor education in the world's schools. His relatives were
inconspicuous and un-influential. In infancy He startled a king. In boyhood He
puzzled the theologians. In manhood He ruled the course of nature. He walked
upon the billows and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without
medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book and yet all
the libraries of the world could not hold the books about Him. He never wrote a
song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters
together. He never founded a college, yet all the schools together cannot boast
of as many students as He has. He never practiced medicine and yet He has
healed more broken hearts than all the doctors have healed broken bodies. This
Jesus Christ is the star of astronomy, the rock of geology, the lion and the
lamb of zoology, the harmonizer of all discords, and the healer of all
diseases. Throughout history great men have come and gone, yet He lives on.
Herod could not kill him. Satan could not seduce him. Death could not destroy
him and the grave could not hold him."
In other words, He is
Jesus the Greatest.