Jesus God s One and Only Son Sermon Series on Hebrews Kenwood Baptist Church Pastor David Palmer February 12, 2017 TEXT: Hebrews 1:5-2:4 We continue this morning in our new series on Hebrews that we began last Sunday. The controlling image for our study comes from a Bulgarian designer who was inspired about the imagery of the Hagia Sophia, of this breathtaking mosaic of Jesus Christ that was a central piece of art from the largest church in the world for 1000 years. It is a piece of art that was covered over for 500 years and recently recovered and unveiled. We praise God for that. This controlling image of Christ is the one that orients our focus and attention. The Letter of Hebrews is unique in the New Testament: its author is unknown; the destination; its original recipients are unknown; but what is absolutely certain is that Hebrews holds a breathtaking view of Jesus Christ, and we desperately need this today at Kenwood and in our own cultural moment. Each week as we look at Jesus Christ in Hebrews, we are going to be drawn back again and again to fix our attention upon Him. There is a vision of the grandeur of the supremacy, of the authority, of the uniqueness of Jesus that gives us the meaning and purpose of our own lives in reflection of His radiance. We need this this morning. There is a study done by the Barna Group who surveyed members of the millennial generation. We mentioned over the summer how many in the generations coming up are moving away from a historic confession of Christianity, but within that, when you talk with people who have remained vitally connected to the local church and they describe their experience, the answers they give are surprising to us and are very important. Those who remain connected to the church expressed that they stayed connected to Christ because they were involved in churches that gave them a robust theological vision of Christ that helped them recognize their own calling and mission in the world. So, we need the greatness of Christ. It is not a small picture of Christ that holds our attention but the great and lofty one that we find in Scripture. Last Sunday, we began with the opening sentence of Hebrews, which in the original text is Page 1 of 11
Hebrews 1:1-4. In this opening sentence of Hebrews, we discover the announcement that the God who has spoken throughout Scripture has spoken climactically to us in the Person of His one and only Son. The Son of God is majestic in holiness and in power; He is the Heir of everything, the Agent of creation; He is the radiance of God's glory, the exact impression of His nature; He is upholding the universe by His word of power, even as we sit here this morning; the Son is the One with all authority and power, who actually offers Himself as the purification for your sins and mine and now sits enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on High. When we think of Jesus Christ this morning, we need to think of Him exalted, enthroned, holding all power in the universe, and this vision of Christ compels our own devotion and fuels our own service. As we look together at the rest of the chapter of Hebrews 1, we see the declaration that Jesus is God's one and only Son, and when we look at how it is that the God of the Bible who speaks throughout Scripture has now spoken in the Son and to us through the Son, we see the uniqueness of Christ. This is a contentious claim, and we need to be clear about that right from the beginning. There are many religions in the world that deny the exclusive Sonship of Christ. There are many today that would want to place Jesus as just one of the messengers sent by God. There are many voices in our culture today that would diminish the grandeur and glory of Jesus by putting Him in the background and letting the dominant noise of the culture take first priority. Hebrews 1 sets before us a picture comprised of several different mosaic tiles of the greatness of the glory of God's one and only Son, and the writer draws several important implications from the uniqueness of Christ that will apply for us. In some ways, Hebrews 1 is a complex chapter, and I'm going to plead with you to pay close attention using the language of Hebrews. We are going to look at seven Scripture quotations. It is a dense passage, but it has a single message, and preachers often wonder how this text will apply to their congregation and each individual. The great thing about Hebrews 1 is that the writer applies it in Hebrews 2, right at the beginning. We are going to follow this text right to how the writer applies it to me and then to you: God's one and only Son, God speaking, announcing His greatness, His authority and power. How does the writer of Hebrews express this lofty truth? The writer of Hebrews is a person who is saturated with the Scripture. There are 31 explicit quotations from the Old Testament in this 13-chapter letter or sermon or word of exhortation, as he calls it. There over 70 clear allusions, and the structure of Hebrews 1, after the breathtaking opening sentence, is to set before us a chain or catena of seven quotations. These quotations describe the uniqueness of Jesus as the one and only Son, and we want to follow this presentation of Jesus in Hebrews 1 and then allow the full implications and applications to land upon us. Keep your Bible open to Hebrews 1, and let's follow the narrative artistry of the unique glory of God's one and only Son. Page 2 of 11
The writer begins with the first quotation in Hebrews 1:5a by asking: For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son, today I have begotten You? In the original text, Greek manuscripts have no punctuation. They have no quotation marks. There is no way to signal that this is in fact a quote, and yet it is. There is no system in place for referencing the citation. The writer assumes, maybe gratuitously, that we know the Bible very well and would immediately recognize this quotation. It comes from Psalm 2, and this is the first of God s speaking in Hebrews 1. This first speaking of the Lord God Almighty is a statement from Psalm 2:7-8. In Psalm 2, the Lord is being celebrated as the One who installs the messianic King who has authority over all the earth. God is enthroned in heaven. He has installed His anointed King. The nations counsel together against Him, and this is one of the few times in Scripture that the Lord God Almighty laughs. He laughs because the intention of the nations to war against His anointed King will not come to pass. The Lord instead speaks and tells of His decree, and the Lord's decree in Psalm 2 is a decree to the Son of God: You are my Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth Your possession. Psalm 2 was read as a great messianic Psalm depicting the grandeur and authority and universal scope of the dominion of God's anointed King, and the writer of Hebrews wants you and me to see that this anointed King is Jesus. He is this promised King, Savior, whose scope of dominion is universal. Isn't it great that there is no country that is outside Jesus scope of dominion? Isn t it great there is no people group who can look at Jesus and say: You don t have anything to do with me? The vision of Psalm 2 is this universal dominion, and Hebrews 1 says this King is Jesus. In Hebrews 1:5b, God speaks again, the second quotation. He says: Or again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son. Again, those of us who know the Scripture well should have bells ringing off. It's a breathtaking moment. One of my teachers said about this quotation, which is from 2 Samuel 7: I could teach the whole Old Testament in four passages: Genesis 12; 2 Samuel 7; Isaiah 53; and Jeremiah 31, and this would be one of them. This quote from 2 Samuel 7 is the moment in Scripture when God speaks to King David through Nathan the prophet. Nathan speaks a word from the Lord to David when he says in 2 Samuel 7:12: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. David would have a Son that God will raise up from his own ancestry, from his own loins, that He will raise up a son from him who will build a house for His name and will establish the Page 3 of 11
throne of His Kingdom forever. I love that, increasingly. I praise God that we live in a society where transitions of power are relatively peaceful. It doesn't mean that there isn t any rhetoric, but we haven't gone into outright war internally, praise God. But, praise God that the Son of David will inherit a Kingdom that is forever, that He will rule forever, everlasting King. Then He says: I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son, signaling the unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son, that the Son of David will rule and reign forever. The writer of Hebrews wants you to hear this morning God speaking a second time, that this Son of David is Jesus. He has more. In Hebrews 1:6, God is speaking again, the third quotation, and the writer says: And again, when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, Let all God's angels worship Him. Don t you just love that he says it again and again and again? He doesn t even give the citation; he just gives a portion of the text. The language he uses for firstborn signals Jesus' supremacy and authority. When He brings the firstborn into the world, God says: Let all God's angels worship Him. This is an extremely important word from God. This is a word from God the Father who says that the angels, the myriads of the heavenly host, should rightly direct their worship to My Son. This would be utterly blasphemous if the Son of God was not divine. The uniqueness of Christ emerges as we overhear, if you will, God the Father inviting the angelic host surrounding His throne to worship the beloved Son. This quotation comes from one of two places. It could be from Deuteronomy 32:43, especially in the Greek version of the Old Testament: Rejoice, ye heavens, with Him, and let all the angels of God worship Him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with His people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in Him; for He will avenge the blood of His sons, and He will render vengeance, and recompense justice to His enemies, and will reward them that hate Him; and the Lord shall purge the land of His people. Or, it may come from Psalm 96:7: Let all that worship graven images be ashamed, who boast of their idols; worship Him, all ye His angels. In either case, it is the astonishing invitation, summons, of God the Father for the heavenly host to give their worship to the beloved Son. Jesus is the Messiah whose dominion is universal. Jesus is the Son of David, whose Kingdom is everlasting. Jesus rightly receives the adoration and worship of the heavenly host by invitation of God the Father. God speaks again, the fourth quotation, as the writer of contrasts the glory and splendor and everlasting dominion and unchanging nature of the Son of God with the angels. He says: Of the angels He says, He makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire. Page 4 of 11
This is God speaking in this passage coming from Psalm 104:1-4 in which God is celebrated in His greatness: O LORD my God, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent... He makes His messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire. God is honored for His glory and His power as Creator, and then He is differentiated from the angels who are created. We see in Psalm 104 that the angels, resplendent though they may be, are works of God's creative power. This is of the utmost importance. This is of such urgency for us to recognize because it unmasks the lie of many false religions, far and near, as we will see. You see, Jesus Christ is not among created things. Jesus is to be differentiated, just as God is, from the works of His creation. The angels, though they be glorious, are made. Humanity, though they reflect the image and likeness of God, are created. Jesus Christ is uncreated; He is the very radiance of God's glory. He is not created; He is the Agent and Author of creation, and the writer goes immediately to this glory of the Son and His everlasting nature. In Hebrews 1:8, the fifth quotation, He says: But of the Son He says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. Here we are invited to hear God speaking in a passage taken from Psalm 45:1:6. The writer invites us to hear God speaking to the Son and calling the Son God: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. Psalm 45 is a Psalm from the sons of Korah. It is called a Maskil in Hebrew, a song of instruction. It is also called The Love Song, a love song to the glory of the one and only Son, the Son who reigns forever, the Son who is distinguished beyond all comparison. As the text continues, the King, the Son, is described in Hebrews 1:9: You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions. Don t you love that? Don t you love that Jesus Christ loves righteousness and hates wickedness? I love that Jesus is uniquely able to hate sin and still love the sinner. We could take a good lesson from that. Sometimes we hate the sinner and miss His saving purpose. Jesus, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, hates sin and still loves the sinner. The Son in glory is the One who is anointed with the oil of gladness beyond His companions. This is the language of Christ or Messiah in the original text. In Psalm 45:7, we see the language of anointed: You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness beyond Your companions. Page 5 of 11
We see that Jesus is the anointed Son: Hebrew, Mashiach, the anointed One; in Greek, Christos, the anointed One. The Son is anointed, ruling, reigning forever, distinguished beyond all comparison, unique, the one and only. In Hebrews 1:10-12, the writer continues as God speaks a sixth time: You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe You will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.. This is taken from Psalm 102:25-27: Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but You are the same, and Your years have no end. When we come to Jesus Christ, we come to One who is eternal in power and unchanging. His glory does not fade; His character does not alter. As the writer will say in Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever. That doesn't mean that He is static or boring. It means that He is utterly reliable and that His dominion will never contract. He is unchanging, powerful, and mighty. The writer comes then in the seventh scripture quotation in this thick, rich opening statement. The seventh time that we hear God speaking comes from Psalm 110. The writer says in Hebrews 1:13: And to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet? This comes from Psalm 110:1, a Psalm of David: The LORD says to My Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool. David is allowed to see the glory and grandeur of Jesus Christ a thousand years before Jesus would be born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. David sees His glory and calls Him my Lord. Jesus stumped the scholars of His day with this quotation asking them what this text means. Psalm 110 celebrates the unique glory, the exultation, of Jesus as God's one and only Son. If we had another hour we would look at how these seven quotations in Hebrews 1 attest to the truth of the seven attributions of Christ that we saw in the first sentence. These seven lofty, radiant declarations of who Jesus is as the one and only beloved Son in the first sentence are essentially supported and confirmed by these seven citations, and so God, speaking to His people, reaches a climax in His address to us in His one and only Son. Page 6 of 11
God's word to us in the Son is ultimately a word to us about the Son, and this is why we need so desperately to hear it, because this climactic word is a word of salvation to us in and through the Son. I said at the beginning that this is a contentious claim, that the unique Sonship of Jesus Christ is a high-stakes declaration. It is a declaration openly denied by many in the world today. I mentioned last week the stunningly beautiful artwork of the Hagia Sophia, depicting the greatness and glory of Jesus. I want to show you a different dome and artwork that calls this claim into question. This is the Dome of the Rock, built in Jerusalem. The structure was constructed originally in A.D. 691. It was built less than 200 years after the Hagia Sophia. The architecture was deeply influenced by Byzantine architectural design, especially in the eightsided base of the Dome of the Rock. It was built by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-malik. The Dome of the Rock was recently, in many of our lifetimes, embellished and the gold covering on the top of this was added in 1961, and it was redone in 1993. So the Dome of the Rock was not covered with gold for most of its history. That is a recent development. Although I have been inside this building myself, the rules have changed and now only Muslims can enter. The Dome of the Rock is built over a rock, and that is why it's called the Dome of the Rock. It is built on the site were Abraham almost offered his beloved son Isaac. It is built over the rock that stood at the center of the Holy of Holies in the temple that would be built in Jerusalem where for thousands of years God's people would offer sacrifice for forgiveness. If you look up when you are inside the Dome of the Rock, the central dome in this structure is a beautiful, ordinate dome. It is set with geometric patterns. There is no iconography, no depiction, but there are Page 7 of 11
inscriptions all along the inner walls. When you look around these walls along the inside of the Dome of the Rock, the claim of Hebrews 1 that Jesus Christ is God's one and only Son is overtly and explicitly denied. The Arabic inscription begins: In the name of Allah, the Merciful the Compassionate. There is no god but God. He is One. He has no associate. The text continues: God and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet Muhammad. It continues with this open and polemical declaration, referring to Christians: O People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning God save the truth. And here is the crucial line: The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of God, and His Word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. God is only One. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son. One of these statements is true and only one: either the declaration of Hebrews 1 that Jesus is the One and only unique Son, reflecting His radiance and power and upholding the universe and holding all authority and power, who chooses to come into this world and offer Himself for your redemption, or that statement is blasphemous and this inscription inside the Dome of the Rock is true. It is one or the other. These are irreconcilable statements. Some of you are thinking: This is not my issue. This is not my problem, and you are making the sermon inapplicable to you. Let me bring this a little closer to home, about 500 feet from where we are standing right now. The next place to worship up our street is the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses have picked up an ancient heretical teaching starting from Arius that denies the eternal nature and divinity of Jesus. Pulling information straight from their website, jw.org, they try to present themselves as Christians. They say, and I quote: We follow the teachings and example of Jesus. We honor Him as our Savior, thus we are Christians. When you look at another place on the website, they also say: However, we take Jesus at His word and we do not worship Jesus and we do not believe that He is almighty God. Hebrews 1 is calling you to believe that Jesus is the radiance of almighty God; that He is eternal; that He is everlasting; that this whole cosmos is under His dominion. What would such a declaration have to do with us? How could you apply such a majestic opening statement, that Jesus is the climactic, ultimate, eschatological word to humanity? We need to look no further than to see how the author himself applies it. Look at what he says next, and this is one of the moments in Scripture where I think the chapter division is not placed in the right spot. Remember that the chapter divisions in the bible are not original. They were put in by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, while he was traveling on horseback, so occasionally some are off, like the first one in Genesis where he cuts off the ending of the creation narrative. Maybe he was so overwhelmed by the beginning of Hebrews 1 that he just cut it off at the end. But, actually the point continues in Hebrews 2:1-4, so let us embrace these Page 8 of 11
three applications for us. Number one: Pay really close attention to Jesus as our point of reference. The writer says: Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Pay attention; not just pay attention, but pay closer attention. Pay your very best attention to what you've heard about Jesus as God's one and only saving Son. Pay your very best attention to these things lest you drift away from it. Pay really close attention to Jesus as your first point of reference. God has spoken about Him and in Him and through Him to the world, and we need this He says, lest we drift away. There are all kinds of ways to drift. The word that he uses for drift is sometimes used of rings that slip off your finger without your realizing it. You never know what you are going to find when you show up at Kenwood at odd hours. One time I came recently in the middle of Sunday afternoon, and I saw a man standing outside of the church. He was trying to get in, and I thought, If I were Jerry Steiner, would I let him in? He seemed like a good guy, so I unlocked the door and let him in. Before he made it into the church, he said, I want to thank, to thank you so much, because my wife and I come on Sunday afternoons to the Chinese Language and Culture School here and my wedding ring, that I have never taken off, slipped off my finger while we were here, and someone at the church found it and gave it back to me. Thank you so much! Lest it slip like a wedding ring off our finger; lest we drift, the writer says, like a ship when we've taken our hand off of the rudder. You can drift in a variety of ways. You can drift theologically; you can drift away from a riveting, compelling focus on Jesus. I have a close friend who was fired from a church in New England. When he asked why they were firing him, they told him: Because you talk too much about Jesus! The church was really drifting into a Unitarian type of theology. You talk too much about Jesus around here! You can drift theologically; you can drift culturally when other things gain the upper hand of your attention and affection. I want to make this very specific in how we can drift personally. We can drift personally when we wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is check our phone. We can drift personally when the first word of the day is from the New York Times. You know, people are going to be wrapping their catfish in the printed version in a few days. Not that I m just anti- New York Times, let's keep things in perspective, right? You can drift personally if you give away the first word of the day that you need to hear. The first word of the day needs to be the Word of Christ. It is revolutionary for us as people when we start the day with a Psalm or a chapter Scripture or hearing Christ first. We can drift personally when we stop talking about Jesus overtly and explicitly as the subject of our sentences. I am not saying that everywhere you go you give a three-point sermon, although that wouldn't be bad. What I am saying is that when we talk, talk about what Jesus is doing. This can be safely done with within your family. I love when we gather around the table at dinner and we are looking for what God is doing in our Page 9 of 11
lives. If we ask our children how their day was, we get all kinds of answers. It is very different to say: How did you see the Lord today? How did the Lord use you today? It is very different when we talk about our daily life and we actually make Jesus the subject of our sentences. I want to challenge us to do that. I am not a huge social media user, but I feel the urgency to at least speak of Him occasionally in that medium, so I want to challenge you to make Him the topic of your tweet, make Him the face of your Facebook post. We drift when we are silent about who He is and what He has done. So number one: pay close attention to Jesus as our first point of reference. Number two: Paying close attention recognizes that there is a real danger for which we need a healthy fear. Pay attention realizing the danger of not doing that. It is important to receive the exhortation to pay attention, and there is a positive motivation for that. But it is also important to recognize that there actually is a very profound spiritual danger of neglecting Christ and the Word of Christ. Hebrews 2:2-3 says: For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? The word or message declared by angels is a reference to the Old Testament, to the Word of God spoken on Sinai. Deuteronomy 33:2 says: The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; He shone forth from Mount Paran; He came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand. When the Lord came to Sinai, there happened to be 10,000 angels with Him. In Acts 7, Stephen describes the Torah as delivered through angels. The writer wants us to see that if that Word was binding or reliable or had authority in our lives, and he knows that when God's people neglected the Word that was spoken, it led them to exile and death, then when we neglect the Word that God speaks to us, it brings us into terrible places; it brings the covenant curse down upon us. It is different to drift unconsciously, and the warning is what happens when we neglect it neglect such a great salvation. I hope many of you realize that this whole statement is another great example of a Qal va Homer, that is, the frequent Scriptural reasoning that if proposition A is true, then how much more is proposition B true. If that Word was reliable, and if God rightly brought a judgment when we neglected it, how much more is the case that we face real danger if we neglect this work. Beware of neglecting this great salvation. Number three: The writer invites you and me, if you've heard this climatic, decisive Word of God s one and only Son, to become an active disseminator of the Word of God to us in Christ. How does the Word of Christ, the Word of God's one and only Son, actually reach us? The writer tells us how it reached him. It is very beautiful. Look at the ending of Hebrews 2:3-4. He says that this climactic Word about God's one and only Son: Page 10 of 11
It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. That is to say, this doctrine, this teaching, this revelation, this Word that Jesus is God's one and only Son, unique and glorious in power who offers Himself for your forgiveness and mine and sits enthroned this day, we heard this first from Jesus. This is Jesus' own teaching. Look then what happens. This is so amazing. This Word that we heard from Jesus: it was confirmed to us; it was attested; it was made reliable to us by those who heard Him. That is to say that the people who heard Jesus shared it, and it reached us. If you have heard the Word of Jesus, then you get to share it, you get to actively disseminate it. So, we see these three applications fit together: pay attention; make Jesus explicit in your life, the first word, and watch out for neglecting it it leads to disaster; and then become an active disseminator of this Word reliably spoken by Jesus. This is why no one can ever say, as I had someone say this to me this this week, This high view of Jesus is a later invention of the church. That is not the case. This is Jesus' own self-presentation, and it was passed on by those who heard Him. And look at this last statement. How does God the Father testify? The writer says that God Himself co-testifies. He testifies to the climactic truth of His Son with signs and wonders and various miracles and portions or gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. You and I are summoned to use whatever gifts, whatever He has given you in His service, to attest of this lofty and glorious picture of Jesus as God's one and only Son, the One to whom we rightly fix our eyes. Let s pray. Lord Jesus, we delight in You and we honor You. We magnify You this morning. We ask, Lord, that You would shine in the darkness. We ask, Lord, that You would give life to us. We pray that You would exercise Your sovereign power, our Lord and King, and we confess that there is none like You. Jesus, we praise You that You never change, that You reign forever, and that You offered Yourself once, for all time, for our salvation. Lord, we ask that You would forgive us for losing our focus in whatever way that expresses itself. We pray, Lord, that You would help us anew to resolve to rivet our gaze upon You, to hear You as our first Word. In Jesus Name, Amen. Page 11 of 11