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Advent

Jesus, Infinitely Superior to the Angels

Scripture Texts:  Hebrews 1:4-14

We have spent the past four weeks of Advent considering the Gospel accounts announcing: the coming of the Messiah, the conception of the Messiah and the appearing of the Messiah at His birth.  The incarnation of Christ is surrounded by angels from heaven.

We have witnessed the visitation to earth of the archangel Gabriel bearing news of a coming event that is greater than anything the world has ever seen before.

I have stressed the significance and importance of this remarkable inbreaking of the heavenly with the earthly, the eternal with the temporal, the infinite with the finite, the invisible with the visible.

I have pushed against our secular, materialistic, pragmatic, windowless, closed, anti-supernatural world.  The abundance of proof is we are not alone, we live on a visited planet, created, sustained and redeemed by the real, living God, who has sent messengers from heaven.

I haven’t had the time to say much about angels so I want to make a number of quick bullet points to keep us from going into a ditch on this topic.

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Angels.  Angels are real and they are involved in the lives of human beings.

Angels are created creatures, created by God on one of the days of creation week.  They are not created in the image of God, and they are not eternal, but they are immortal, they never die.  They are powerful but not omnipotent.  They are spirits but not omnipresent, they can only be in one place at a time.  They are intelligent but not omniscient.

Among angels there appear to be several kinds of heavenly beings mentioned in Scripture: seraphim, cherubim, the four living creatures, angels, archangels, and the Angel of the Lord.  Gabriel and Michael are the only two named archangels in the Bible.

They can take on the form of human nature.  When they are seen by men the response is always one of fear, trembling, terror, scared out of their wits.  They are not cute cubby cherubs, nor are they aren’t like Clarence.

Angels are of two moral categories, holy/elect angels (I Timothy 5:2) and fallen/evil angels (Jude 6).  The fallen angels are irredeemable, there is no mention anywhere of an angel repenting, they have no Savior and therefore no salvation.  Once fallen, always fallen.  Their number is fixed, they neither reproduce nor die.  How many are there?  A lot.

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Angels are significant to the Christmas story because Jesus’ birth was like none other.  Something truly miraculous happened when Jesus took on human flesh as a baby.  The presence of angels confirm the miraculous nature of Jesus’ conception and birth.

The Christmas story requires us to accept by faith the supernatural, invisible, presence of spiritual beings from somewhere beyond our visible, physical universe.

Angels are important, but their greatest importance is what they point to, what they are a messenger of.  This brings us to the importance of our text this morning.  Hebrews 1 is the most concentrated, sustained treatment of angels in Scripture.

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The Shepherd’s Angel

Scripture Texts:  Luke 2:1-20

The Christmas story begins with a decree of Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the vast Roman Empire spreading all around the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.  At this time in history Rome was at its greatest, at the height of its rule and success, and Judea was at its lowest, the most subject, now being taxed by Rome.

He was the great emperor, when he issued a decree, everyone submitted and obeyed.  If all we had of the birth story was the first seven verses, we would think this is a political headline, a political story about Emperor Augustus.

But when Luke tells the story, it is incredible how Caesar Augustus became just a bit player quickly moved to the wings of the drama,.  He only has a cameo appearance in the divine drama, and he is never heard from again in Scripture.  The only reason he is known in Scripture is he is the one God used to move Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Augustus like all kings was only a pawn on God’s chessboard.  Think about it, merely a pawn.

This is true of President Biden, President Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Hamas, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin.  They make their executive orders and issue their decrees, but every one of them is subject to and submitted to the sovereign decrees of God who is working all things for His glory and His redemptive purposes; for the glory of the kingdom of His Son who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Never forget the words of Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

Christmas puts Caesar in his place.  Don’t be impressed with rulers, kings, presidents, rich and famous and powerful people.  No matter who is in power, God will prevail.  Don’t be fooled, don’t make a big deal about what is not a big deal.  They are nothing compared to the Christ.

The times belong to God, the times are in God’s hands.

Let us never be anxious about events all around us.

God orders and rules all things in heaven and on earth.

Little does Caesar know that he is being used by God to lay the foundation of a new kingdom before which his kingdom and all the kingdoms of earth will bow down.

The political purpose of the decree was for a census and taxation.  God used it for spiritual purposes to fulfill what He promised in prophecy, to accomplish His plan for salvation.

Everything in this story is humble and great at the same time.

A baby has been born in Bethlehem.  So what?  Lots of babies were born in Bethlehem, before and after this.  What is the significance of this event?

Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus on earth takes seven verses.  Seven verses.  That’s it.  The same number of verses for Isaac, Jacob and Moses.  What if Luke had just stopped there?

This event is the greatest event that has ever taken place on earth, it’s the turning point of history, but it has no meaning unless God reveals the meaning to us.  We must be told; it requires explanation.  The announcement of the birth of Jesus Luke takes twice as many verses.  This is the most important part, pay attention to this.

What this means is all human historical events and experiences are penultimate, secondary, second to last in their significance.  There is always something more, something above them, something ultimate.  Their ultimate significance lies in the reality that transcends what we see and know here.

Don’t miss this, this world is created and ruled by God, there is always more to every story, more than just what our five senses pick up.  There is more to your story than what’s on the surface.  God is always at work working out your salvation.  Watch for it, look for it, notice the grace all around.

What those in authority say or do, what people say or do is never the last word.  God always has the last word.  Remember another Joseph who said what you meant for evil, God meant for good.

 

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The Reward of Christmas: Have Eternal Life

Passage: John 3:13-18, 36

Christmas and the gospel are synonymous.  That is why the summary of the gospel in John 3:16 makes such a great text for a series of Christmas sermons.

Christmas and the gospel have its origins in the love of God for a sinful and disobedient world.  That love springs into action in the giving of a gift, and not just any gift but the highest and best gift, the one and only Son of the Living God being given to the world and for the world.  The reason for giving the gift is to save the world from perishing.  The world is lost, dead in sin and in imminent danger of justly perishing in eternal hell.

What a contrast we come to this morning, between perishing and eternal life, the two ultimate extremes of human destiny, two eternal realities that are infinitely separated from each other.  We turn from the most terrifying and tragic possibility, to the most glorious alternative.

The reward of Christmas and the gospel is those who believe in Christ will not die but will live forever under the saving sovereignty of God.

This morning we come to the fourth and final aspect of the meaning of Christmas in John 3:16.

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The Reason of Christmas: That Whosoever Believes Will Not Perish

Passage: John 3:13-18, 36

We began the Advent Season considering the great revelation of Christmas which is there is a God and God is love and God loves the world.

Last week we considered the reality of Christmas and how incomprehensibly great is the extravagant gift of God in giving us His one and only eternally begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  God gave us His highest and the best.

This morning we consider the reason for Christmas, the great necessity behind the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

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The Reality of Christmas: He Gave His Only Begotten Son

Passage: John 3:13-18

In 1970 in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “One word of truth outweighs the whole world.”

John 3:16 is one of those truths, a truth that outweighs the whole world, a truth that silences a million lies, a truth that answers the hardest questions and erases the deepest fears, a truth that turns the world upside down.

There have been many great revelations of truth in this world of ours but none so great as this. There have been many great visitations by God in the past but none so great as the incarnation.

Last week we considered from this great text:

The Revelation of Christmas                  For God so loved the world

This week we consider:

The Reality of Christmas                        that He gave His only begotten Son

Forbes magazine once a year publishes a list of the wealthiest people in the world.  You know the names, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet.  But the only reason those men head the list is because of a serious oversight on the part of the Forbes researchers.  There is someone who makes those men look like homeless guys.

God is the richest person in the entire universe.  He not only owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but He owns the hills, the earth and everything in it.  He not only owns more than everyone else, He owns everyone else and He owns everything they own (John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p. 89ff).

Psalm 100:3 It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

When you create something it is yours, so everyone and everything is His.  We are just trustees or stewards.

Have you ever noticed what the NT says about the wealth of the richest person in the universe?  You don’t find much mention of all of God’s stuff.  He doesn’t talk about His cool toys and all the latest things He has made.  His wealth is not described in terms of what He has created or what He owns.

The wealth of God is described in terms of His glory which He has had from all eternity and long before He made anything.

Philippians 4:19 My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the supreme visible expression and display of the vastness and infinite extravagance of God’s wealth.  In Christ we see the unsurpassing display of the riches of the glory of all of God’s attributes.

In Christ we see the riches of God’s love and kindness, His mercy and grace, His justice and righteousness.  Jesus is the lavish display of God’s great love and mercy.  Jesus is the extravagance of God where we see His infinite wealth and power and mercy and love.

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us.

Ephesians 2:7 [God loved us] … so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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The Revelation of Christmas: For God So Loved the World

Passage: John 3:13-18

How many of you know John 3:16?  John 3:16 may be the most well-known verse in the Bible.  We see it at football games and sports events, on bumper sticker and license plates.  We learn it as children.  It got me to wondering if its popularity is just a modern thing or an American thing.

Then I read a comment by the famous pastor J.C. Ryle of England from 1878 saying that few texts are better known than this.  Then I came across Martin Luther’s statement that John 3:16 is “the Bible in miniature!”  The whole Bible in 24 words.

Is Martin Luther’s statement just exaggeration?  Is this verse the Bible in miniature?  If this were the only verse in the Bible, think about how much we would know about God.

This verse is an inexhaustible fountain of rich truth; the importance cannot be emphasized enough.  There are things here we must know or we will perish.  A person can be ignorant about many things and still go to heaven, but we cannot be ignorant about the things contained in this verse and go to heaven.  It’s that important.

This is way more important than how the Cougars or Huskies or Seahawks are doing.  It’s more important than the stock market and our retirement funds.  It’s more important than how many friends you have on Facebook, or what you get or give for Christmas.  It’s even way more important than your kids and grandkids.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this verse is too easy or too simple or just for children.  It is wisdom so simple a child can understand it and wisdom so profound an adult cannot fathom all of it.  I hope you and your family will memorize John 3:16-17 this next month.  Say it together at the dinner table before saying grace.  But also let’s not just memorize it but put it in our hearts and get the truths of it in our heads.

During these four weeks of Advent we will slow down long enough to consider what a vast amount of truth and wisdom is contained in this little verse.  This verse reveals to us the meaning of Christmas.

The Revelation of Christmas            For God so loved the world

The Reality of Christmas                            that He gave His only begotten Son

The Reason of Christmas                           that whoever believes in Him should not perish

The Reward of Christmas                          but shall have eternal life!

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Christmas Day: What Then Shall We Say to These Things?

Passage:  Isaiah 12:1-6

This advent we spent time in the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 6-11.  For four weeks now we have been caught up in Isaiah’s great prophetic vision of God’s redemptive purposes in history.

Chapter 6 gave us that glorious temple vision of the Messiah and Isaiah’s heartfelt cry of repentance followed by his atonement with coals taken from the fire on the altar.

We heard the incredible promise in chapter 7 of a virgin giving birth to a child called Immanuel.  Then in chapter 9 another prophecy of a child being given and a son being born.  Finally, last week in chapter 11 we heard of a shoot coming out of the stump of Jesse bearing great fruit.

When you consider the condition of the heart of Israel, cold, hard, rebellious, resistant, and you see the righteous wrath of God, and the judgment that came through the armies of Assyria, you can’t help but be stunned by these prophetic promises of God.

Have you ever made a mess of something in your life and then by the grace of God it not only works out, but works out better than before?  Have you ever deserved nothing and then receive more than you could ever hope or imagine?

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A New Shoot From An Old Stump

Passage:  Isaiah 11:1-10, 16

Have you ever had one of those conversations with an excited four-year-old who has so much they want to tell you and they use “and” about a hundred times as they string together one excited thought after another.

Isaiah 11 is like that.  Every single verse except verse 9 starts with the Hebrew word for and.  Just in our verses printed in our bulletin there are 27 ands in the original (19 in the ESV).

We should read this with a sort of breathless pace, with an increasing heart rate as Isaiah describes the Messianic reign with excited anticipation, piling on one detail after another.  It should be the way we think about the future second coming of the Messiah, excited expectation.

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The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts

Passage:  Isaiah 9:1-7

This Advent we are considering the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah.  These prophecies were spoken over 700 years before the birth of Jesus which makes the details in them all the more staggering.  Who will refuse to believe the God who speaks about the future and it comes to pass?

Last week we were helped to understand the prophecy of a virgin birth by knowing some geography and history.  That is true for this prophecy of a great darkness and a great light.

Israel is a country divided, like ours only different.  Judah is the southern kingdom made up of two tribes under evil King Ahaz.  Israel is the northern kingdom of ten tribes under an equally evil King Pekah.

The northern most part of Israel is the region of Galilee and around the Sea of Galilee are two of the northern tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali.  These two tribes being in the far north were the first to take the brunt of any invading army.

II Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured … Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.

The northern kingdom had been faithless, the had broken covenant with God.  As a result, God disciplined them  by the Assyrians.  When we read of the yoke and rod of oppression and being trampled under warriors boots, that’s Assyria.

But God.  God refuses to let go of His faithless flock.  God has a tenacious memory, He never forgets His own, He never forgets His covenant promises.  Even when they are beaten down and destroyed, when they are lead away into captivity, even when they have been cast out into a land of deep darkness, God’s grace never completely lets go.

Chapter 9 opens suddenly with a brilliant display of a great light.  Listen to the incredible fulfilment of this prophecy as Matthew quotes our text.

Matthew 4:13-17 Leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—

16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light,

and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus came to Zebulun and Naphtali, to the Galilee of the Gentiles.  These most northern tribes who had been plunged into darkness by the Assyrians and sin, were the first to see a great light from the Sun of righteousness.  Jesus who is the light of the world began His ministry in the darkest part of Israel.

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The News of Immanuel

Passage: Isaiah 7:1-16

Before our text let me give you a very brief context.  After Solomon died, Israel split into two nations.  The 10 northern tribes were Israel, which is also sometimes referred to as Ephraim and the capital is Samaria.  The two southern tribes were Judah, sometimes referred to as the house of David, and the capital of Judah is Jerusalem.  At the time of our text Pekah is king of Israel and Ahaz is king of Judah.

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In the basement of the West Wing of the White House there is a large room called the Situation Room, or War Room.  It is a place where high level secure meetings take place, often meetings filled with tension, drama and serious consequences.

Crises have a way of bring the worst and the best out of people.  Crises have a way of exposing our faith, they test what we are trusting in.  That has been illustrated over and over these past three weeks in our county.  I wonder how much prayer has ever gone on in that White House Situation Room?

What is going on in Israel is a Situation Room kind of experience, so significant that it merits a supernatural sign from heaven which has serious consequences.  The situation and the sign.

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