JESUS THE GREATEST VOL. 2

By Pastor Glenn Pease

In volume one we looked at how the Book of Hebrews exalted Jesus as the greatest in every category in the first few verses. In this volume we want to see that this is the theme of the whole book, and all the way through Jesus is exalted as the greatest. Jesus is never just great along with many other great persons. He is always the greatest in every way, and in everything surrounding His being and His deeds He is the greatest.

 

CONTENTS

1. CHAPTER ONE. THE GREATEST PROPHET

2. CHAPTER TWO. THE GREATEST PARADOX

3. CHAPTER THREE. THE GREATEST WORSHIP

4. CHAPTER FOUR. THE GREATEST MAN

5. CHAPTER FIVE. THE GREATEST WARNING

6. CHAPTER SIX. THE GREATEST FOCUS

7. CHAPTER SEVEN. THE GREATEST REST

8. CHAPTER EIGHT. THE GREATEST CHANGER

9. CHAPTER NINE. THE GREATEST RUNNER

10. CHAPTER TEN. THE GREATEST RUNNER II

11. CHAPTER ELEVEN. THE GREATEST INTERCESSOR

 

 

 

I. CHAPTER ONE. THE GREATEST PROPHET

 

F. F. Bruce in his commentary on Hebrews concludes (Jesus) "is the prophet through whom God has spoken His final word; He is the priest who has accomplished a perfect work of cleansing for his people's sin; He is the King who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on High." Everyone agrees that Jesus is the prophet, priest and king in Hebrews, and this means that he sums up the whole revelation of God. But the fact is, we hear more about Jesus being the priest and king than we do about Him being the prophet of God. I have to confess that in 34 years of preaching I never dealt with this subject, and I do not recall ever reading a message on Jesus as a prophet. It is not a popular theme, but it is more significant than we realize. Hebrews begins by saying that the prophets were the spokesmen for God in the past, and that Jesus is the final spokesman of God in these last days. He is the final and the ultimate prophet, for He speaks God’s final answer to man.

God told Moses, who is considered the greatest prophet in Judaism, that He would send another prophet like him, and Christians have always considered this as a reference to Jesus. It says in Deut. 18:18, "I will raise them a Prophet from among their brothers, like you (Moses), and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Jesus was the very Word of God, and His words carried the most important message God ever spoke to mankind. Eternal life is in His words, and failure to listen to them and obey them leads to eternal rejection. It is a matter of life and death that we hear and heed this prophet who spoke, not just to Israel, but to all mankind, and who sent His church into all the world to teach them to obey all that He has commanded. No other prophet had such a powerful message, and no other prophet had such a universal message to all people. Jesus was, without a doubt, the greatest prophet. Isaac Watts wrote,

Great Prophet of my God,
My tongue would bless Thy Name,
By Thee the joyful news
Of our salvation came,
The joyful news of sin forgiv’n
Of hell subdued, and peace with heav’n.

Deuteronomy ends with these interesting verses. "And there has not arisen since in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great and awesome deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel." A prophet like Moses had to have more than words from God. He had to have deeds of miraculous wonder. Jesus fulfilled this image perfectly as He went about daily doing miraculous deeds as no one else in history has ever done. Elijah and Elisha did miracles too, but not on the scale of Jesus. He not only talked to God face to face as Moses did, but He was the very face of God confronting mankind. Never before, and never again has there been a prophet like Jesus in both word and deed. After He fed the 5000 we read in John 6:14, "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’" He was the second Moses in the eyes of those who saw His wonders. Those who heard his wisdom say the same thing in John 7:40, "Surely this man is the Prophet." No one had ever come to fulfill the prophecy of one like Moses until Jesus, and the people knew He was the one. The leaders of Israel should have known as well, for in Rabbinic literature there is a much repeated principle: "As the first redeemer (Moses), so the final redeemer (the Messiah)." They should have known He was the final Prophet fulfilling the promise to Moses.

There are a number of ways that Jesus parallels Moses. Both had their lives threatened as babies and they needed to be rescued from tyrants. Both reflected the glory of God on the mountain. From the mountain where he talked to God Moses gave the people the law of God. From the mountain Jesus gave the new law in the Sermon on the Mount. It is interesting that both of them fasted for 40 days and nights before giving the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Exodus 34:28 says, "Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant-the Ten Commandments." Moses fed the people with the manna from heaven. Jesus fed the multitude with bread he created by heavenly power. Moses led the people in the wilderness as they headed to the promise land. Jesus leads us through the wilderness of time to the ultimate promise land of heaven. There are numerous parallels, and Arthur Pink comes up with 75 of them in his final chapter on his study of Exodus. The point is Moses was the greatest in the Old Testament, and Jesus is the second Moses, who becomes the greatest Prophet of all time.

Here is a list of the testimonies of the people who recognized that Jesus was the prophet:

Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" and they answer, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Matt. 16:14

"And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet." Matthew 14:5 (compare with Matthew 21:26)

"And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." Matthew 21:11

"But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet." Matthew 21:46

"And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:" Luke 24:19

"The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." John 4:19

"Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world." John 6:14

"Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet." John 7:40

"And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people." Luke 7:16

"They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet." John 9:17

John the Baptist was the greatest born of woman Jesus said, but this greatest man of the Old Testament said he was not worthy to stoop down and until his shoes, as he refers to Jesus in Mark 1:7. Everyone who knew Jesus personally knew He was the greatest prophet ever, and many who only saw his works and heard his words knew it too.

Peter makes it perfectly clear that Jesus was this promised Prophet in Acts 3. He had just healed the crippled man at the gate called Beautiful, and this led to a crowd gathering in amazement. Peter spoke to them and quoted the words of Moses in verses 22 and 23, "For Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people." Peter says that Jesus is that prophet and by His power the man had been healed. He said all of the prophets spoke of this day, and Jesus as the final prophet came to them to turn them from their ways of wickedness. Peter knew Jesus was the Prophet Moses spoke of for He saw Jesus transformed on the mountain in the presence of Moses, and he heard God say, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" (Matt. 17:5) Then when they looked up they saw Jesus only. No longer were they to look to Moses and the prophets, but to Jesus only. They were to listen to Him only, who was the greatest Prophet.

Stephen in his final speech before he was stoned to death refers in Acts 7:37 to this same promise and says, "This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’" Then he goes on in verses 52 and 53, "Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him." There is no doubt that the early Christians saw Jesus as the Prophet God promised Moses He would send.

When Jesus went to the town of Nain he saw the only son of a widowed mother being carried out in a coffin. His heart went out to her and he said, "Young man, I say to you, get up." The dead man did just that and he talked to his mother. The great crowd that followed him was filled with awe and they shouted in Luke 7:16, "A great prophet has appeared among us.." Such a miracle was not the work of a mere prophet, for only a great prophet could do something like this, for He had raised the dead to life. It was this act of wonder and not anything that He said that made them see Him as a great prophet. The greater the wondrous acts of love and mercy, the greater the prophet, and this clearly puts Jesus in the category of the greatest prophet ever. Is there a record anywhere in history of one who did miracles on the scale that Jesus did them? The miracles of Jesus confirm that He was the great prophet that God was sending into the world. When we combine His words and His works we have a clear winner to the title of the greatest prophet in history.

The disciples saw Jesus as a prophet, for Cleopas said of Jesus in Luke 24:19, "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people." They recognized Jesus as a prophet, but they did not recognize that the prophets of the past were speaking about Him. Jesus then goes on to speak to these two on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, and He shows them that the Jesus they knew as a prophet was the one all the prophets were speaking of. He says in Luke 24:25-27. "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?" The Luke goes on, "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." Jesus is saying here that he is the Messiah that the whole Old Testament was pointing to.

The words of Cleopas that Jesus was a prophet powerful in word and deed give us an insight about a prophet that we seldom take note of. A prophet does not just speak the truth of God, but he also acts out the truth of God. It is by both word and deed that he conveys the message of God to man. This prophetic ministry in deeds is an aspect of the prophet’s life that is neglected by us, but it was a major aspect of the ministry of Jesus. Some of the old prophets had to act out their prophecies. Ezekiel had to act out the horror of the Babylonian captivity with his own body, and Hosea had to marry a harlot to act out the grace and mercy of God in loving the unfaithful Israel. Isaiah goes naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem to symbolize captivity (Is 20:3ff). Someone called these enacted prophecies. They were like the drama we see in present day churches. They were plays that conveyed a message that was also spoken, but the play was visual rather than just verbal. God used the visual way back in the Old Testament to give a picture of what He was trying to communicate. Many of the miracles of Jesus can be seen as visual images of the verbal message He spoke. They were enacted prophecies that said God loves people and cares about their every need, including those of food and health. They conveyed the message that God will deliver from the forces of evil. They prophesied that there is coming a kingdom that will be forever where love reigns supreme, and where evil is no more. All that Jesus did, as well as what He said, was prophetic about what God was going to do in the future for His people.

Jesus not only said there would be a resurrection of the dead, He acted it out and raised Lazarus. And then He raised Himself to demonstrate that death was conquered. He not only said there was a heaven, He ascended into the clouds before His disciples to demonstrate it. He not only said sin leads to death, He took sin upon Himself and died. Everything Jesus did, as well as everything He said was prophetic and the fulfillment of prophecy. He was the prophet par-excellance.

When Jesus was in His home town He claimed the title of prophet by saying in Matt. 13:57, "Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honor." He experienced the typical welcome of the prophet, for they were almost always, rejected by the people God sent them to. People do not like those who speak for God. There is something about the truth of God coming through a human channel that turns people off. It seems like audacity for any man to say, "Thus saith the Lord," and so they refuse the message because they despise the messenger. The prophets were the primary means by which God got His communication to the people. The priest were so by heredity, but the prophets were specially called by God to be His spokesmen. It was a high and holy office, but often not held in high respect by the people of God.

The folly and tragedy of God’s people is summed up in II Chron. 36:15-16, "The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy." The consequence was the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and they were carried away captive to Babylon. The greatest tragedies in the history of God’s people all have the same source, and that is that they would not listen to the prophets. The greatest tragedy in life for every person in history is when they do not listen to the greatest prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a matter of life or death not to listen to the prophets of old, but not to listen to Jesus is a matter of eternal life or death.

The Prophets say such high and lofty things, for they are speaking for God. Jesus, however, did not speak for God, but as God. He was the very voice of God, and when people heard His Word, they were hearing God speak, and not just His spokesman. That is why Jesus is the greatest prophet. He was God speaking directly and not through another person. All other prophets pointed to one who would come, but Jesus is the prophet who was the fulfillment of those prophecies. People were meant to believe the words of the prophets, but they were meant to believe, not just the words of Jesus, but they were to believe in Him. Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:3, 4). No other prophet could give eternal life, but Jesus could, for He was the ultimate prophet. He was the very presence of God in human flesh.

Arthur Pink has some great comments on this text. He writes, "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 excellency, 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 bright 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."

"Now it is something very much like this that we see here all through the Hebrews Epistle. The Holy Spirit takes up one object after another, holds each one up as it were in the presence of the all-excellent "Son," and as He does so, their glory is eclipsed, and the Lord Jesus is "found alone." The prophets, the angels, Moses, Joshua, the Levitical priesthood, the Old Testament men of faith, each come into view; each is compared with Christ, and each, in turn, fades away before His greater glory. Thus, the very things which Judaism most highly esteemed are shown to be far inferior to what God has now made known in the Christian revelation."

The prophets of old did both foretell and forth tell the Word of God. Much of their foretelling was about the judgment that was coming if God’s people did not change their ways. Imagine you are at a playground with a group of mothers watching their kids play. You see a small child who has climbed up high and is about to jump down, but who does not realize there is another child right below who will be seriously hurt if they fall on him. You quickly turn to the mothers and say, "Look at what is about to happen." You can see that the near future is going to produce a very negative scene if someone does not intervene. One mother screams at her child about to jump, and the other runs to scoop up the child below. The tragic future that was about to be has been avoided because of your prophetic message. Knowing the future is going to be bad can be extremely helpful when you respond to change the present so that the future will be different. That was the whole purpose of the prophets. They would tell Israel what was ahead if they did not obey God’s Word, and if they repented of their disobedience the future was bright rather than dark with judgment. All too often they did not listen and had to suffer the judgment that was prophesied.

Jesus was the greatest prophet of all because He not only predicted what would happen to Israel, but He predicted what would happen to all people if they did not receive God’s final and full revelation in Him. In Matt. 24 and 25 we have two of the greatest chapters of prophecy anywhere in the Bible. Jesus is the prophet and He tells the whole world for the rest of time what the future is going to be, right up to the time of the final judgment. All other prophecy has to be interpreted in the light of the words of the greatest of all prophets. The entire book of Revelation is the revelation that God gave Jesus to show to his servants what was to be. Jesus is the ultimate and supreme prophet, for it is by His revelation that we know what will be for the end of time and for all eternity. There is no competition for the title The Greatest Prophet, for there are none who can even qualify to foretell what Jesus foretells. You have to die, be raised and ascended to the right hand of God just to qualify. Everything we need to know about the future we know through the words and teachings of Jesus. If we need to know it, He has shown it. He has given us an all-sufficient revelation of who God is, and the complete revelation of what shall be forever in the presence of God in heaven. In Mark 13:23 Jesus said to his disciples, "I have told you everything ahead of time."

Then to add to the greatness of this greatest of prophets we note that He is the only prophet who is also a great priest and king. Hebrews exalts Jesus as a unique high priest who ever lives to plead our case before God and offer His own blood as the atonement that merits our forgiveness. None of the prophets had such ability, and nowhere are they sought out to give forgiveness. Only Jesus has the right to be our intercessor before God. Then He is also the King of Kings. A king could be a prophet, as was the case with David, but he was not a priest. Nobody ever combined all three roles of prophet, priest and king like Jesus did. He is the superlative prophet because of the multiplicity of His offices, but more importantly because of the superiority of His message. All of the prophets spoke the message that God gave them, but none of those messages were as clear and profoundly significant for the future of God’s people as the message that came from the greatest of prophets.

We may not think so, but the fact is, the task of the prophet is the most difficult of all the roles that Jesus played. The priest is the conserver of the past, but the prophet is one who breaks new ground. He looks to the future and all the possibilities that lay ahead depending on whether people obey or disobey the messages that God gives through them. They are disliked and hated because they do not conform to the status quo. Nothing stays put for the prophet, for the future is open to a host of new things. It will be filled with God’s blessings or God’s judgments. They give us pictures of the paradise that is possible, but also of the hell that is potential. Since people are almost always going along in sinful and indifferent ways that will lead to judgment, they do not like to hear warnings that disturb them. And so the job of the prophet is often one that is filled with rejection, and Jesus knew this to the highest degree. Jim Sanders, a Bible scholar, was talking about the profession of being a prophet, and its risks: "Do not set out to be a prophet unless you look good on wood." Jesus was crucified because of the message He brought from God. But He still speaks today and we need to recognize that if we do not listen to Him our houses will fall flat when the rains come. The only solid ground on which to build for eternity is obedience to the words of God’s greatest Prophet.

By word and deed Jesus sums up the whole of what God wants to say to man. Jesus said: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5,17). "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and who rejects me rejects him who sent me." (Luke 10,16). Jesus is the Prophet that all must hear or forever pay the consequence of rejecting God’s Word. There are numerous ways in which Jesus parallels the words and deeds of all the Old Testament prophets, but we have seen enough evidence to make it clear that Jesus was the greatest Prophet of all time.

 

II. CHAPTER TWO. THE GREATEST PARADOX

 

 

Jesus was a paradoxical person. How could He not be when He was both God and man? He was the most unique being that has ever been, and the result is we see Him exhibiting opposite characteristics at the same time. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as He went through the experience of Gethsemane and Calvary. It was literally hell he went through as He bore the sins of the world and endured the agony of separation from the Father. And yet at the same time we read in Heb. 12:2, "…who for the joy set before him endured the cross…." No one but the Son of God could experience both heaven and hell at the same time, for no one but the Son of God was also the Son of Man. Jesus was a person with two natures so that He could experience the greatest sorrow and the greatest joy simultaneously.

Because we have a problem in grasping the dual nature of Jesus we tend to focus on one aspect of Him and neglect its opposite. This is especially true when it comes to the matter of sorrow and joy. Historically the focus has been on the sorrow of Jesus because the cross is so central to Christian theology. Artists through the centuries have portrayed Jesus in a state of agony as He sweats drops of blood in Gethsemane, or when crowned with the ugly thorns that pierce His forehead, or when carrying the cross with His weak and bleeding body due to a severe whipping, or when He hangs God-forsaken upon the cruel cross. All of this is a true picture of the price Jesus paid for our redemption, but the truth of it has been so overwhelming that it has blinded our minds to the other side of the experience of the God-Man. This brings us to our text in Heb. 1:9 where we get an insight into the paradox of the Man of Sorrows being also the Man of Joy.

This text goes beyond saying that Jesus was a man of joy to saying that He was the most joyous person to ever live. He was the happiest man alive, even as a man of sorrows. Listen to this text: "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." It was by means of the oil of joy that Jesus was set above His companions. In other words, His joy was the greatest, and there is none who can compare with Him when it comes to joy. Jesus is only hours away from the cross, but we hear Him saying to His disciples in John 15:11, as He is teaching them to love Him and to love one another, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." Jesus was heading to Gethsemane and Calvary, and all that led Him to be the man of sorrows, but it was with complete joy. He was the greatest of paradoxes. He was the happiest sad man in history. What He had he wanted to pass on to His disciples, and so He prays in John 17:13, "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them." You do not get any greater joy than the joy of Jesus.

This verse starts off with the paradox of Jesus being a person of great love and great hate. Again, we tend to focus on the love of Jesus and forget that He was also a great hater. We forget that if you really love righteousness you must hate its opposite, which is wickedness. Opposites have to coexist in all of us, for you cannot be truly loving if you do not hate what is unloving. Hate of evil is a part of love for the good. If you love peace, you will hate violence. If you love generosity, you will hate greediness. If you love loyalty, you will hate betrayal. If you love truth you will hate falsehood. You can go through every virtue and see that you cannot truly love any of them without a hate for their opposites. Love cannot be complete without hate of what is not love, or what hinders and destroys love. The more we love Christ and what He loves, the more we will hate what He hates. It is a paradox but a fact that hate is a part of love. Not understanding this leads to a superficial understanding of the statement that God is love. Yes He is, and that is why He is a God of judgment on all that is not loving. Complete love hates evil and demands judgment on it.

Every positive virtue is paradoxical because it has to contain within it the hatred of what is opposed to it. Love without hate is incomplete, and that makes love a paradox. Jesus was the greatest paradox because He was perfect love, and that means He had to have a perfect hatred for what was the enemy of love. The joy of Jesus was also paradoxical in that joy cannot be complete without sorrow. If you are joyful over what is good, then you have to be sad over that which is not good, or over sin. Sin made Jesus the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but joy over the sacrifice that made salvation from sin possible for mankind made Jesus the greatest person of joy to ever live. We are all paradoxical in combining opposites in our nature, but Jesus combined them to the highest degree, and so He is the greatest paradox. In this message we want to focus on the paradox that the man of sorrows was the most joyful man who ever lived.

Jesus is more joyful than the angels, for they do rejoice over every sinner who repents, but Jesus has a greater joy, for He is the one who made their repentance possible by His sacrifice for them. The angels sing for joy over the marvels of God’s creation, but Jesus is filled with joy because He was the agent of creation and the agent of salvation. He is the King of joy and gladness, for all that is beauteous, glorious, and wondrous in both the physical and spiritual universe is the work of His hands. God anointed Him with the oil of joy above His companions. Christ means the anointed one, and so He is the Christ of Joy, or Jesus of Joy. He is the greatest of joyous persons. There is no greater joy than the joy of Jesus. No matter how joyful the angels are over sinners who repent they cannot match the joy of Jesus. Jesus is always happier over what is righteous and good than any other can ever be. The Hebrew word for joy in Ps. 45:7, which is quoted here, can be translated gladness, rejoicing and mirth. The Greek word used here for joy means leaping with gladness. It is an overflowing joy that can be called hilarity.

Jesus is anointed with the oil of hilarious joy. The angels are joyous creatures, but they cannot match Jesus, for He is set above these companions. Some commentators feel the companions are Christians, and this does fit too, but since the whole context is about Jesus being superior to angels, it is best to see them as the companions referred to here. It does fit his human companions, however, for when the 72 that Jesus sent out to go to every town to prepare the way for Him came back with joy it says in Luke 10:21, "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." The disciples were joyful, but Jesus was absolutely filled with joy, for he saw what none other could see. Jesus says in 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." Jesus had the greatest joy because He knew more of what God was doing in history, and how the kingdom of God was coming in greater power. The greater our knowledge of what God is doing the greater our joy in being a part of it, and Jesus was fully aware of what God was doing.

In the light of this truth we need to get a more complete picture of the human life of our Lord. He was a man of sorrows in the final week of His life because of the horrible treatment He had to suffer at the hands of sinful people, but this one week of His life should not be the way we see Jesus for all of His life. The facts will not support that He was anything less than a very happy person. If he was filled with joy even as He faced the cross, how much more when He was going about preaching the truth that changed lives before His very eyes every day. And how could he be anything but filled with joy as He watches the happy faces of families as they saw their loved ones being healed from hopeless situation. Tell me, if you dare, that Jesus did not rejoice with those who rejoiced, as well as weep with those who weeped. Most all of His ministry Jesus lived in the midst of people who were praising God for His loving and compassionate heart that met their needs as no other could. Jesus was not merely happy, He was the happiest of all men, for He loved righteousness and hated wickedness, and He was seeing righteousness win over evil power every day.

God’s greatest pleasure is in doing good. He loves people and He loves to do what is good for people in time and eternity. God is good oriented by His very nature, which is good. In Jer. 32:41 God says about His people, "I will rejoice in doing them good…." In Zeph. 3:17 we read, "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." God is a happy God who loves to sing and rejoice over his people. Jesus, as God in the flesh, had the same nature, and there is no way He could feed the hungry, heal the sick, and raise the dead and not feel great joy in doing so. Only once do we read of Jesus and His disciples singing a hymn just before they left the upper room to go to Gethsemane, but there is no doubt that after many a day of ministering to happy delighted people they had served, they sat around the camp fire at night and sang songs of joy. Jesus had to be the happiest man on earth during those years of ministry.

Peter Marshall in his famous "Christianity Can Be Fun" sermon said something we need to hear: "God is a God of laughter as well as of prayer….a God of singing, as well as of tears. God is at home in the play of His children.

He loves to hear us laugh. We do not honor God by our long faces…our austerity." We serve a God of joy and a Savior who is the most joyful being in the universe, and He wants us to have His joy in us completely. How in the world has anyone gotten the idea that there is anything sacred or holy in being solemn? There is a place for solemnity, for even the happiest man alive wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but this is the exception, and not the pattern of daily life. Eccles. 3:4 says, "There is a time to weep and a time to laugh." It is mighty poor theology to think that more time should be spent weeping than laughing. Jesus spent most of His days in rejoicing with a complete joy, as He was filled with the Spirit, who is the author and giver of joy. The joy of Jesus was not based on circumstances, but was a part of His very being, as it was of God’s being, and the Spirit’s being.

Erma Bombeck once wrote about her experience of being in church when a small boy turned around in the pew and smiled at the people behind him. The mother slapped the child and said, "Stop that grinning! You’re in church!" Erma said, "I wanted to grab this child and tell him about my God; The happy God. The smiling God." It is unfortunate that so many people have a misconception about God and Jesus when it comes to their joyfulness. The point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is the greatest and best of everything. If angels are great, Jesus is greater. If Moses is great, Jesus is greater. If Aaron is great, Jesus is greater. The point of this verse is, if anyone is happy and joyous, Jesus is more joyous and the greatest that can be when it comes to being happy with eternal joy. There is no being in the universe more joyful than Jesus.

When you look at what Jesus saw as God’s plan for His life you can see why He would be so happy. In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus in reading in the synagogue from Isa. 61:1-3, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is one me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

 

Jesus said this was being fulfilled by Him that very moment. Jesus came to reverse the effects of the fall and restore man to fellowship with God and to a life filled with the blessings of God. One of His goals was to pass on His own anointing with the oil of joy. He wanted His people to be people who are anointed with the oil of gladness where mourning and despair are out of place except on rare situations. For some strange reason some Christians want to remain prisoners of darkness and negativity, and resist the joy of the Lord, which is their strength. The more I focused on the joy or Jesus the more I was compelled to try and convey His joy in going to the cross in poetry. The whole purpose of the plan of salvation to bring many to glory with Jesus was being fulfilled by His act of sacrifice. It was the saddest and the gladdest event ever, and I have tried to say it in this poem:

Joyful is the Lord of glory-

Son of God and Son of Man.

There’s no more glorious story

Since the creation began.

He was full of joy and laughter,

As He walked this earthly road.

There will never be one after

Who could with joy bear His load.

For the joy that was before Him

He went to the cross to die.

He would never let that joy dim

In spite of His fearful cry:

"Why, my God, have you forsaken

Me in this most awful time?

Cruelly my life they’ve taken.

It’s mankind’s most gruesome crime.

Father, they know not what they do,

So I pray you forgive all.

I soon now will be home with you,

As I break through death’s dark wall.

It’s the thought of this victory

Over Satan and all foes

That makes me finish this story

In spite of trials and woes.

My joy never could be complete

If I returned home alone.

I want billions of sinner’s feet

Marching past me on my throne.

For this joy I came down to earth

To give my life for mankind.

It’s my goal to give a new birth

To all who saving faith find.

My sacrifice could save all men

If they would just call on me.

My greatest joy of all is then,

Billions in eternity.

For this joy I lay my life down.

For this joy I intercede.

For this joy I gave up my crown,

So that my plan could succeed.

There’s no greater sorrow than mine

That men in such bondage be.

There’s no greater joy that is mine-

My shed blood will set them free."

And so we see how it is that Jesus could be a man of sorrows and a man of joy at the same time. It was the saddest time in history when men could be so blind to love that they crucified the Lord of love. It was also the gladdest time in history because that Lord of love was willing to give His life so that even the worst of men could become children of God by faith in Him. Jesus saw this end result of the cross and that is why He could face the cross with a joy that made Him the most joyous person in the universe.

 

III. CHAPTER THREE. THE GREATEST WORSHIP

 

 

No other being in all of history has been held up as one to be worshiped by all the angels. God Himself gave the command that all of His intelligent created beings are to bow down to His Son. He forbids that anyone worship any angel, but He demands that His Son be worshiped. This should settle it once and for all that Jesus is God, for no one but God is to be worshiped. He is not an angel, not even the highest of the angels, though He did play the role of the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, but the One that all angels are to worship. Jesus is the greatest object of worship in the universe, for in worshiping Him we are worshiping the God of the universe along with all the superior beings in the universe. Those who thought that worshiping angels would be the highest form of worship are clearly told here that this is folly, for all the angels worship the Son of God. He is the One we are to worship. If you want to be a follower of angels, then do what they do, and exalt Jesus as the ultimate object of worship. If angels are to worship Jesus, how much more are we to do so?

The angels were for the Jews the highest beings they could conceive of, and William Kelly has this comment on that: "If any beings had special account or stood highly exalted in a Jew's eye, the holy angels were they; and no wonder. It was in this form that Jehovah ordinarily appeared, whenever He visited the fathers or the sons of Israel. There were exceptions; but, as a rule, He who made known the will and manifested the power of Jehovah in these early days to the fathers is spoken of habitually as the angel of Jehovah. It is thus He was represented. He had not yet taken manhood, or made it part of His person. I do not deny that there was sometimes the appearance of man. An angel might appear in whatever guise it pleased God; but, appear as He might, He was the representative of Jehovah. Accordingly, the Jews always associated angels with the highest idea of beings, next to Jehovah Himself, the chosen messengers of the divine will for any passing vision among men. But now appeared One who completely surpassed the angels. Who was He? The Son of God. It ought to have filled them with joy."

 

One of the things we have in common with all intelligent beings that God has created is the object of our worship. With the angels we bow before the Son of God and acknowledge Him as our God. The Father and Son are one, and so to worship the Son is to worship the Father. If Jesus was not God then it would be idolatry to bow to Him and worship Him. But God demands that all bow and worship the Son, and so God is clearly revealing that the Son is equal to Him and worthy of worship. John Bunyan was right when he said, "If Jesus Christ be not God, then heaven will be filled with idolaters."

It is the worship of Jesus as the Son of God that makes Christianity unique from all the religions of the world. All religions may pay tribute to Jesus as a great person in many ways, but only Christians will worship Jesus as Lord. The easiest way to determine if any group is truly Christian, or not, is to ask if they worship Jesus as God. If they do no, then they are not a Christian group, even if they have many biblical truths and values. No one is truly biblical and obedient to God who does not worship the Son as equal with the Father.

When the angels praised God at the birth of Jesus they were not idolaters but obedient servants of God, for they were commanded to worship the Son and they did so verbally the very instant that He became a person in history. The Incarnation was a time of angelic worship, for God was doing something never before done in the universe. His Son was becoming a man, and as the God-Man He was a valid object of worship, for even as a man He was still God. It was not idolatry to worship this man, for He was God in human flesh. He was still the God who created all the angels, and they were to convey their loyalty to Him as their God by their worship. It is of interest to note that even the fallen angels felt obligated to worship Jesus. They may have hated it but they could not escape their duty that was a part of their nature, and so we read in Mark 3:11, "Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, ‘You are the Son of God.’" They could not help themselves, for they knew He was their God, even though they were in rebellion against Him. All supernatural beings have to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and wise men all through history join them. I say it in poetry:

All those of the heavenly host

Watched the Son on this earth trod,

And each of them does gladly boast,

We worship Him, the Son of God.

Even the demons, who in hell roast,

Knowing they'll feel His judgment rod,

Must admit from their dark post,

He truly is, the Son of God.

Men join in from coast to coast,

As through their daily toil they plod,

And they praise Him they love the most.

He truly is, the Son of God.

Pfitzner points out that worship is a theme at the beginning and the end in Hebrews. It begins here in the first chapter with all the angels commanded to worship the Son, and in 12:22 we read, "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly." In the end all the redeemed will join the angels in worshiping the Son. We see this final experience of worship in

Rev. 5:11-14. "11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 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! 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! The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped." Every creature God has created will one day join the angels in worship of the Son.

We are to worship with the angels, but we are not to worship the angels. This was a strong temptation for early Christians who came out of both Judaism and Paganism. The temptation even came to one as strong in the Christian faith as the Apostle John, but the lesson he learned is recorded for all to learn that angels are never to be worshiped. Listen to his experience: "I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!" (Revelation 22:8-9 NIV)

The amazing thing is that John had already been warned not to worship an angel earlier. In Rev. 19 he is overwhelmed by what he saw and heard and we read in verse 10, "At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The very fact that John, who was the most mature of Apostles, was tempted twice to worship an angel points out how easily it is for men to be amazed by the supernatural and wondrous, and so be tempted to worship someone other than Jesus. This is idolatrous worship, and dangerous worship, and forbidden worship. The world is filled with all kinds of worship of beings and creatures that are not valid forms of worship, and that is why the focus of Hebrews is on the worship of Jesus alone as the only valid worship, and, thereby, the greatest worship.

Anyone who seeks for our worship must be God Himself, or it is idolatry. Ray Stedman wrote, "There is no angel who has ever existed who has ever been worthy of one moments worship. No angel would ever ask us to worship him, no angel would ever accept our worship, no angel would ever desire our worship. The angels of God desire one thing and one thing only, and that is to do God's will! They just want to worship the Lord, to do His will, and to bring glory and honor to His holy name." Since, as we saw in the Rev. 5 passage above, all created beings will worship Jesus, it follows that no created being is to be worshiped themselves. This includes angels and all other beings, including men. But Jesus received worship without any objection, and He thereby made it clear that He was acknowledging Himself as God. Copeland has compiled a list of the places where Jesus received worship.

Jesus received worship!

a. From the wise men - Mt 2:11

b. From the leper - Mt 8:2

c. From the ruler - Mt 9:18

d. From His disciples in the boat - Mt 14:33

e. From the Canaanite woman - Mt 15:25

f. From the man born blind - Jn 9:38

g. From the women and other disciples following His

resurrection - Mt 28:9,17

h. From disciples after His ascension - Lk 24:52

We live in a day where people are not too different from those to whom the book of Hebrews was written. Angel superstition is very popular. People pray to angels and have angel pins that they wear for good luck charms. There are numerous books on angels that are valid Bible studies on their ministries, but also many books that deal with them as if they were gods worthy of worship. This is clearly idolatry, for the whole point of Hebrews is that absolutely no one, and no being in the universe, is worthy of worship but Jesus. The angels were to worship only God in the Old Testament, and now in the New Testament they are to worship Jesus, because He is their God.

HE ALONE IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP

Because He is a Son and not a servant.

Because He is born of God and not created.

Because His kingdom is everlasting and not temporal.

We have looked at His being the Son of God in a previous message. This made Jesus superior to the angels. In this verse we see the stress on Jesus being the firstborn as a basis for the angels to worship Him. Jesus is not a created being like the angels, but is one born of God. He is part of the very being of God. The angels know this and know that He alone is worthy of their worship. Angels are not fools. They know God has never said to them that they are worthy of worship. They know God has never said to them that they are to sit at His right hand. They gladly sing along with the saints the words of Tillit S. Teddlie:

In Deuteronomy 6:13 we read, "For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him only’" The angels are not stupid. They know that it is forbidden for any worship to be directed toward any other being but God, and yet here they are commanded by God to worship the Son. God is declaring that the Son is God, for if He is not, then God is violating His own law by demanding worship of one who is not God. The angels recognize Jesus as their sovereign Lord. He reigns over all creation from the very throne of the Father. They are His servants doing His will in the world, but He is the everlasting King. Angels always serve, but they never reign, for that is not their role in God's plan, but it is His role for the Son. From their point of view nothing is more absurd than to be worshiping them, for it is the Son alone who is worthy of worship. He is the King of kings, clothed in majesty, and seated on the throne with all the glory of the Father. How they must grieve at the folly of men who exalt them above their sovereign King.

The angels are servants who change constantly to fulfill the purpose of God. They are, as we see in verse 7, like the winds and flames of fire. They vary with the moment and the tasks they are assigned to do, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the Rock, and as verse 12 says, He remains the same and unchanging forever. Angels are the servants, but He is the everlasting King of an eternal kingdom. Angels change and creation changes, and everything is always changing, but Jesus never does. He is the solid rock foundation of all reality. He is worthy of worship because He alone is a foundation on which we can build for eternity.

Scott Grant has written what we all know to be true: "Nothing else and no one else is like Jesus. Everything and everyone else changes. People change; moods change; jobs change. Times change; fashions change; computers change. Leaders change; bosses change; interests change. In our age, technology has changed everything. And technology is changing so fast that we can't keep track of the changes. Products of new technology are obsolete by the time they're out the door. Such rapid-fire change frays the edges of our psyches, for we don't know where the next change is coming from, or even if we will notice it at all." In such a world as this we need some basis for stability, and we find it in Jesus. Wind and fire are wonderful servants, like the angels, but we do not worship the wind and the flames, for they have no stability, and are part of the ever-changing environment in which we live.

There is no question about Jesus being superior to the angels, and that He alone is worthy of their worship, but there is some question about just when it is referred to that they are commanded to worship the Son. It says when God brings His firstborn into the world. This is ambiguous, for the Son was brought into the world in His incarnation, but He is also brought into the world in His Second Coming. Some prefer one or the other of these two times. It really does not matter, for Jesus is always the Son worthy of worship by the angels. There has never been a time when this was not the case, and there will never be a future time when they will not worship their Creator and King, the Lord Jesus. But for sake of argument we want to look at the reasoning behind the convictions of Bible interpreters.

First we look at those who see this command to worship the Son as being at the time of the incarnation. Calvin is of this persuasion, and he wrote, "The subject is Christ manifested in the flesh, and the Apostle expressly says, that the Spirit thus spoke when Christ was introduced into the world; but this would not have been said consistently with truth except the manifestation of Christ be really spoken of in the Psalm. And so the case indeed is; for the Psalm commences with an exhortation to rejoice; nor did David address the Jews, but the whole earth, including the islands, that is, countries beyond the sea. The reason for this joy is given, because the Lord would reign. Further, if you read the whole Psalm, you will find nothing else but the kingdom of Christ, which began when the Gospel was published; nor is the whole Psalm anything else but a solemn decree, as it were, by which Christ was sent to take possession of His kingdom. Besides, what joy could arise from His kingdom, except it brought salvation to the whole world, to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews? Aptly then does the Apostle say here, that he was introduced into the world, because in that Psalm what is described is his coming to men."

 

Another author that I do not remember has this excellent defense of the incarnation being the time referred to: "Make no mistake about this, the angels will surely be worshiping Him when He comes again--but that is not the point of our text. It is when He was "brought into the world" the first time that particularly accentuates His superiority. This is Jesus in a humbled state, having divested Himself of all of the prerogatives of Deity. When, at birth, He was "brought into the world," He could neither bless or curse, pray or preach, guide or feed. He had to be cared for, nourished, and protected. He had to be rescued from Herod, and raised to "increase in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:40,52). It was then, in that humbled condition, that the cry went out in heaven, "Let all the angels of God worship Him!" Who can forget the arresting words of Scripture: "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:12-14).

"Such things never occurred at the birth of anyone else. As great as were Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, the heavenly hosts did not praise God at their birth! The praises of angels were not even heard at the birth of John the Baptist! But when God brought His only begotten Son into the world, the angelic order was called into activity. An angel announced His birth (Luke 1:26-29), revealed the name of the Holy Child (Lk 1:31), allayed the concerns of Joseph (Matt 1:20), and directed him in the care of the Child (Matt 2:13,19). Angels ministered to Jesus in His temptation (Matt 4:11), and one these holy ones strengthened Him in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43)."

William Kelly adds to this view by writing, " It is not predicated of the Son as eternally such; there would be no wonder in this. None could be surprised, assuredly, that the Son of God, viewed in His own eternal being, should be greater than an angel. But that He, an infant on earth, looked at as the son of the Virgin, that He should be above all the angels in heaven - this was a wonder to the Jewish mind; and yet what had in their scriptures a plainer proof? It was not to an angel in heaven, but to the Babe at Bethlehem, that God had said, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee;" and, again, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son" - words said historically of David's son; but, as usual, looking onward to a greater than David, or his wise son, who immediately succeeded him. Christ is the true and continual object of the inspiring Spirit."

 

The above arguments sound very convincing to me, but there are powerful voices who disagree and see this command as reference to the coming of Jesus into the world at His Second Coming. Arthur Pink sums up this conviction with these words: "And again when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world," etc. Commentators are divided as to the meaning and placing of the word "again," many contending it should be rendered, "When He shall bring in again into the habitable earth the Firstborn." There is not a little to be said in favor of this view. First, the Greek warrants it. In the second part of verse 5 the translators have observed the order of the original-"and again, I will be unto Him," etc. But here in verse 6 they have departed from it-"And again, when He bringeth in" instead of "when He shall bring in again." Secondly, we know of nothing in Scripture which intimates that the angels worshiped the infant Savior. Luke 2:13, 14 refers to them adoring God in heaven, and not His incarnate Son on earth. But Revelation 5:11-14 shows us all heaven worshiping the Lamb on the eve of His return to the earth, when He comes with power and glory. Scriptures which mention the angels in connection with Christ’s second advent are Matthew 13:41; 16:27; 24:31; 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

That verse 6 has reference to the second advent of Christ receives further confirmation in the expression "when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world." This language clearly looks back to Jehovah putting Israel into possession of the land of Canaan, their promised inheritance. "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance" (Ex. 15:17). "To drive out the nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance" (Deut. 4:38). In like manner, when Christ returns to the earth, the Father will say to Him, "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Ps. 2:8).

In addition to what has just been said on "when He bringeth in the firstborn" into the world we would call attention to what we doubt not, is a latent contrast here. It is set over against His expulsion from the world, at His first advent. Men, as it were, drove Him ignominiously from the world. But He will re-enter it in majesty, in the manifested power of God. He will be "brought into it" in solemn pomp, and the same world which before witnessed His reproach, shall then behold His Divine dominion. Then shall He come, "in the glory of His Father" (Matt. 16:27), and then shall the angels render gladsome homage to that One whose honor is the Father’s chief delight. Then shall the word go forth from the Father’s lips, "Let all the angels of God worship Him."

"Our minds naturally turn back to the first advent and what is recorded in Luke 2. But there the angels praised the Sender, not the Sent: God in the highest was the object of their worship though the moving cause of it was the lowly Babe. But when Christ comes back to earth it is the Firstborn Himself who shall be worshiped by them. It was to this He referred when He said, "When He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s and of the holy angels." The "glory of the angels," i.e. the glory they will bring to Him, namely, their worship of Him. Then shall be seen "the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (John 1:51). May we who have been sought out and saved by Him "worship" Him now in the time of His rejection."

My own conviction, after reading all of the above arguments, is that there is no way to exclude either of the times. Jesus was always the eternal Son superior to the angels, and so He was worshiped by the angels in His pre-incarnate state, His incarnate state, and will be worshiped in the fullness of His glory when He comes again. There is no point in limiting the worship of Jesus by the angels to any particular time, for there has never been a time when this was not appropriate and expected, and there never will be such a time. When it comes to the worship of Jesus the name of the game is inclusion and not exclusion. You do not seek for a time when it is excluded, for it does not exist, and that is why worshiping Jesus is the greatest worship. If there was a time when Jesus was not worshiped, then He would not be equal with the Father, and so it is not wise to try and find a time when these words of command to worship Him do not apply. Consider this, He was also "brought into the world" at His resurrection, returning from the region of the dead (Ps. 26:10; Acts 2:27; Rom 10:7). This was also a time to worship Him as victor over the greatest enemy of man. Worshiping Jesus is the greatest worship because it is never ending worship, and everlastingly appropriate, for He is always worthy of worship.

 

The obvious conclusion is, if the angels are to worship the Son as Lord, how much more are we to worship Him as our Lord? He is the King over all creation, and He is our King now and forever. We are to join the angels in perpetual worship of our sovereign King. We are to honor Him just as we honor the Father. John 5:21-23 says, ""For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him" (John 5:21-23 NKJV).

Don Styles in an editorial makes these comments on the above text: "Honor" is a component of worship, but in this context we can go further and recognize it actually means to "worship." Consider the following:

1. "Honor" is used as a synonym for "worship" in Matt. 15:8-9: "…And honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me…" Their worship was only with their lips, by which they "honored" or "worshiped" God.

2. Throughout his ministry Jesus was "worshiped" by many -- Mt. 8:2 a leper; 9:18 a ruler; 14:33 the twelve; 15:25 a gentile woman, etc. - and Jesus never corrected these people from doing so.

3.The authority to raise the dead and to pass judgment belonged to Jesus during his ministry -- to Martha, Jesus said: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25) and proved it by raising Lazarus from the dead; in other words, the Son had authority even then to give life. To the thief on the cross Jesus pronounced, "You will be with me in paradise," pronouncing at that moment the eternal judgment of the penitent thief."

Jesus was worshiped in His manhood, and Jesus is worshiped in His deity, and forever both angelic and human beings will worship the God-Man on His throne. Can there be any doubt that worshiping Jesus is THE GREATEST WORSHIP.

IV. CHAPTER FOUR. THE GREATEST MAN

 

 

Ivan Maddox has pointed out that there have only been three perfect people in this world, and they were Adam, Eve, and Jesus Christ, who is called the second Adam. So two Adam’s and an Eve make up the total population of that mini list of people who were perfect. That list is quickly reduced to one when we make the list consist of those who stayed perfect by never sinning. Jesus, by the process of elimination, becomes the only person to survive on the list of people who have been perfect and who have stayed perfect all of their lives.

Each of the three who started perfect did so because they were direct creations of God, and did not come by means of human reproduction only, as did all other humans who have ever lived. Adam was a direct creation, and Eve was made from his body by supernatural creation. Jesus came from a mother, as have all others, but He had no natural father, but was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and so was created by a combination of the supernatural and natural. The fact that Jesus was the only man to ever live that never fell out of fellowship with God because of sin in His life is basis enough to call Him the greatest man who ever lived. But there is far more that makes Him worthy of that title.

Charles Jefferson in his book The Character of Jesus gives a list of great people in history who were all very different from each other. He then writes,

"What characteristic is common to all? In such a heterogeneous company is it possible to find any mark which makes them akin? It is possible, and the quality which is common to all is an extraordinary capacity for achievement. These men all did things, enduring things, so that the world was not the same after they had gotten done with it. They carved statues or painted pictures or led armies or ruled states or composed music or framed laws or wrote poems or made discoveries or inventions which enriched the lives and homes of men. They achieved something worth while. They made a mark on the mind of the world. The product of their genius is an imperishable possession of our race."

In the light of that paragraph we must ask, "What did Jesus leave or achieve?" We have no great books from His pen. We have no art or sculpture, or any physical creation or invention from Him. He never led an army to any victory, nor did He ever lead a government. His greatness is not like the greatness of any other man, but it is greater than that of any other man. Charles Lamb said, " "If Shakespeare was to come into this room, we should all rise up to meet him; but if Christ was to come into it, we should all fall upon our knees." We honor the greatness of others, but we worship the greatness of Jesus, for His is the greatest of greatness.

We cannot minimize the awesome impact of the teachings of Jesus on all of history. His Sermon of the Mount has been praised by most all the religious leaders of the world, but it is not as a teacher that Jesus is the greatest of men, for there have been many great teachers. Jesus was great in a different way than other great people have been great. He was great at being a man. He was the greatest human being that ever lived. He was not great just because of what He did, but because of what He was. Others became great because of the things they were able to create, or deeds they were able to accomplish, but Jesus became great because He was the only man in history who was everything that an ideal man could be. He was the ultimate man, for He was what God intended man to be, and what man will be when history ends and eternity begins with all of the redeemed being like Jesus.

 

Jefferson points out that all other great men in history were great at what they could do or produce, but they were not great as people. Their manhood was defective. Alexander the Great was great as a general, but as a man he was pathetic. He was a man of anger and drunkenness, and in a fit even killed his own friend. Other great generals, like Napoleon, were also, in spite of their gifts of leadership, pygmies as men. They were immoral in many ways and were not examples to follow for the good life. Even the great men of the Bible were far from ideal. God used them and blest them out of His grace and not because they were worthy. Noah got drunk and cursed his own grandson, Abraham gave his wife to Pharaoh, Moses was a murderer, and David was a murderer and an adulterer, Solomon married idolaters and became one himself, and all of the Apostles Jesus chose were men of pride and prejudice. Jefferson writes again, " It is one of the saddest of all surprises to discover on reading the biographies of the world's immortal workers how many of them have been narrow and superstitious, selfish and envious, sordid in their ambitions and groveling in their aims, achieving one significant or beautiful piece of work in the glory of which the shabbiness of their character has been swallowed up." Study the lives of all great men and you will have to conclude that no great men are the greatest of men, and that is why Jesus stands out as the most unique of all great men. He was the greatest because He was the ideal man.

Great men are themselves a testimony to the greatness of Jesus. It would be hard to find any famous person who has ever made a comment about Jesus who did not admit His uniqueness and greatness. Let me share just a few quotes from great minds. Someone has put together a much larger list, and I am just lifting out some of them.

Philip Schaff, Swiss-born U.S. biblical scholar, 1858

"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 matters human and Divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke much words of life as were never spoken before or since the produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions…than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."

 

Michael Faraday,one of the greatest experimental philosophers; Doctorate from Oxford University, holding 97 unsought for distinctions who discovered Electricity

"I bow before him who is Lord of all."

Mark Hopkins, American educator and theologian, president of Williams College (1836-1872), 1802-1887

"No revolution that has taken place in society can be compared to that which has been produced by the words of Jesus Christ."

 

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French (1804-1814). A brilliant military strategist, 1769-1821

"Between him and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by himself. His ideas and his sentiments, the truth which he announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained by human organization. The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me - everything remains grand, of a grandeur which overpowers."

Ernest Renan,French historian, religious scholar and linguist

"All history is incomprehensible without Christ."

"Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed."

H. G. Wells,British writer, 1866-1946

When asked which person left the most permanent impression on history, he replied that judging a person’s greatness by historical standards:

"By this test, Jesus stands first."

"I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history."

"Christ is the most unique person of history. No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth."

Kenneth Scott Latourette,former President of American Historic Society

In A History of Christianity:

"It is evidence of His importance, of the effect that He has had upon history and presumably, of the baffling mystery of His being that no other life ever lived on this planet has evoked so huge a volume of literature among so many people and languages, and that, far from ebbing, the flood continues to mount."

"As the centuries pass by, the evidence is accumulating that measured by its effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting."

"No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind."

 

Sholem Asch, Polish-born American Yiddish writer, 1880-1957

"Jesus Christ is the outstanding personality of all time. No other teacher - Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Mohammedan - is still a teacher whose teaching is such a guidepost for the world we live in. Other teachers may have something basic for an Oriental, an Arab, or the Occidental; but every act and word of Jesus has value for all of us."

 

There is no need to go on, for it is a fact, not even the enemies of Christianity have bad things to say of Jesus. He is even recognized by famous atheists to have been truly great. There is no debate here, but there is debate as to the reality of the manhood of Jesus. One of the first heresies in the early church was called Docetism, which got its name from the Greek word dokeo meaning "to seem." They taught that Jesus did not become a real man in the flesh, but just took on the form of a man. He seemed real, but he was not an authentic man. He was a pretend man. This was a rejection of the Incarnation and the Word becoming flesh, and it was rejected by the early church as heresy. We want to look at how strongly the book of Hebrews stresses the reality of the humanity of Christ. If He was not a real man, then He does not count as the greatest man, or even a great man, for if He was just God pretending to be a man, then the competition is not fair at all. His perfect manhood would be all fake, for it would be no problem for God to pretend to be a man. His humanity had to be real to fulfill the plan of God, and we will see why, but first consider the evidence for-

 

 

I. THE REALITY OF HIS HUMANITY

Verse 11 says Jesus is of the same family with the children of God. Verse 14 says that He shared the same flesh and blood. Verses 10 and 18 say that He suffered, and verse 18 says that He was tempted. Jesus called men His brothers, and He was just like them, even to the point of being able to die. He was a real man in every way that a man can be a man. He was without sin, but He lived in a body and a world that was under the influence of sin everywhere, and so He suffered the limitations and weaknesses of the flesh. He got hungry and tired, and He got frustrated with people, especially His disciples. He wept in times of sorrow, and He rejoiced in times of celebration. He lived a completely authentic human life. The following list of Scriptures has been compiled by Diane S. Dew that make it clear that Jesus was not a fake, but a real man.

 

Physically, He was the same as we are.

A. He was born of our flesh, of a woman.

Genesis 3:15
Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23)
Matthew 1:16, 21, 25
Luke 1:31, 32; 2:7
John 1:14
Acts 2:30
Romans 1:3; 8:3
Galatians 4:4
Hebrews 2:14-18

B. He grew physically.

Isaiah 53:2
Luke 2:40, 52

C. He had a body of flesh and bones.

Luke 24:39
1 Timothy 3:16
Hebrews 2:14

D. His veins contained blood.

John 19:34

E. He hungered.

Matthew 4:2 (Luke 4:2)
Matthew 21:18
Mark 11:12

F. He thirsted.

Psalms 69:21
John 19:28

G. He became weary and slept.

Matthew 8:24 (Mark 4:38)
John 4:6

H. He died.

Matthew 27:50 (Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30)
1 Peter 3:18
Hebrews 2:9, 14

We can see that He also had all the same emotions as we do. When He saw injustice he became angry as in Matt. 21:12,13, 23 where He cleansed the temple of the racketeering. He had great mental anguish as in Luke 22:44. He could be filled with great joy as in Luke 10:21. Jesus had to struggle in prayer just as we do, and he had to fight off temptation. It is hard to find any emotion that Jesus did not share with us. The record is clear that His life was not just an act, but it was a real life of a man.

 

II. THE REASON FOR HIS HUMANITY

First of all, you need to be a man to understand a man. You cannot understand any animal completely because you do not know how they feel or think, if they do, about anything completely. You can see the dog wag its tail and understand they feel happy and glad to see you, but when you scold them and they walk away with their tail between their legs, how bad do they feel hurt, and what are they thinking? You can’t know, and you cannot understand how they feel about most of life’s experiences because you are not like them. They cannot understand you either, because they do not have the body and mind of a man.

To fully identify with a person you have to have similar experiences. If you have never lost a mate by divorce or death, you can understand the pain of what it must be, but you do not really know what it is like. If you have never had a serious disease you cannot fully grasp what it is like for those who do. If you have never been tempted to a particular sin, it does not make a lot of sense to you, for it is so easy to not do those things that have no appeal. Only those with the same attraction to a particular sin can understand it in others. We could go on and on with thousands of experiences and show that you have to be one with someone to really identify with them. That is why Jesus had to become a man and go all the way into the life of a real human. If we were to have a high priest who could understand us and intercede for us, we needed one who had been where we are, and so knows what the battle really is. The suffering of Jesus was not just the cross, but the being tempted in every way like we are, but without sin. Not to ever give in to temptation is a pain we can never know, for all men do give in at some point, but Jesus never did. To never fail, and to never give in to some temptation out of God’s will is to live a hard life. We tend to thinks it was a snap to be perfect, but the fact is, it was the hardest life that could be lived. Jesus lived the greatest life ever lived, but it was also the hardest ever lived. Try and be perfect