It might seem strange to jump from the
Christmas story to Hebrews. Aren’t we
supposed to talk about the Magi on the one the Sundays after Christmas? How did we get to Hebrews? We don’t even know who wrote it and yet it is
in our Bibles.
In the spirit of Christmas, we are
going to look at this bundle of joy wrapped up in swaddling clothes from the
perspective of the author of Hebrews.
Just who is this child? What
Child is this who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping.
We know from the Bible and the verses
that follow in the song that this is Christ the King whom shepherds guard and
angels sing.
He is Savior. He is Lord. He is God with us. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. He is risen from the dead
and he is Lord.
He was there at the beginning. Nothing that we know was made without him. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and
the End.
The author of Hebrews adds a few
more. Most of us remember this one. He is the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith
or some prefer the Author and Finisher of our faith. But
in Hebrews we gain even more insight into the person we celebrated at Christmas
as a Babe in a manger.
This Jesus that we claim as our Savior
and Lord and Master stepped out of heaven to enter this world as helpless baby
and endure the human life. He made
himself lower than the angels for a time so he could live completely as a
person like you and me.
The human child is perhaps the most
helpless of all of God’s creatures at birth.
Many animals stand upright, though a bit wobbly, moments after
birth. The sea turtle after getting a
mouthful of sand heads for the ocean.
The human child is virtually helpless in all things.
But Jesus stepped out of the heavenly
realm into this harsh world in a helpless state for us. He is all the things that were just
mentioned, and more: yet he came into this world as a child fully dependent
upon human parents.
When I went to Africa, part of the
introduction was that I had come from my comfortable bed in America to preach
the good news and teach pastors and church leaders. Of all the things that our friends in Africa
valued, the comfortable bed seemed to be among the best. They could have mentioned air conditioning,
modern indoor plumbing, highways in which paved meant more than splotches of
asphalt every few miles for aesthetic effect; but they mentioned comfortable
beds.
Imagine leaving everything that we
take for granted in America and living in primitive fashion for a couple of weeks. Most don’t want to go after looking at the
bathroom facilities.
Now consider stepping out of heaven
into the domain of humankind and being at the mercy of a human mother and
father for your first couple of years. Consider
stepping out of paradise into a world where sin and death prevail.
Consider that on top of just giving up the
perfection of the divine realm, entering into this world was accompanied by the
purpose of being a sacrifice for sin.
Human birth would require a human death, not from old age but from
crucifixion.
I’m thinking that I might have wanted
to hang out in heaven a couple more millennia and just sent out a universal
tweet that said, “Get your act together or burn in hell.”
But God is love and his love is for
his entire creation, but especially for us.
The psalmist queried the Creator of all things and asked, who are
we that you are mindful of us? Just how
did we deserve your attention, much less your love?
But we received much more than God’s
attention. We received life, real life,
and eternal life through this Jesus who came into our world as a Babe in a
manger and lived the human life for over three decades until it ended brutally
on a cross. He came so that we could
live and yet so many live as if he never came.
Too many see salvation only as a get
out of hell free card. So many see
believing in Jesus just only as a way to escape the flames of perdition. So many see salvation only in terms of what
we have escaped and not what we have come into.
Many of God’s Chosen People idolized
Moses. He led them out of slavery in
Egypt. That was a great thing and the
Passover was the remembrance of these mighty acts of God effected through
Moses. But the story of Moses is incomplete with considering that the Promised
Land was realized through Joshua.
Moses led the people out of slavery in
Egypt. Joshua led God’s people into the
Promised land. The people are incomplete
without both parts of the story.
Jesus delivered us from slavery to sin
and death. For some that’s the
definition of salvation, but for those who seek after the Lord, that definition
is incomplete. We have escaped death but
we have entered into life and realized our salvation. Our salvation is more than an escape; it is
knowing the fullness of a life lived for Christ.
Oswald Chambers once wrote: “All of heaven is interested in the cross of
Christ, hell afraid of it, while men are the only ones to ignore its meaning.”
It’s time to stop minimizing the work
done on the cross and live as people responding to the greatest gift of love
ever known. It is time to live knowing
the work on the cross was complete. We
are a forgiven people. We are
fully—completely—loved by God and that’s forever.
Let’s quit doubting that!
Here is our struggle as believers
seeking the fullness of salvation in Christ.
God placed everything under Jesus.
There is nothing that is not subject to his authority; yet, in the
present age we do not see everything behaving as if it is subject to Jesus. The creation still seems to be acting up like
a rebellious teenager.
Our challenge as disciples is to live
fully in the freedom that Christ gave us in a world that does not yet know it
belongs to him. Our challenge as a
disciple is—borrowing a phrase from Paul—to live by faith and not by sight.
We can’t see the creation in complete
obedience to God just yet but we can see Jesus—that is we can know Jesus as the
way and the truth and the life as John’s gospel quoted our Savior.
We can stop short if we want at the get out of hell free card or we can live
as God has intended us to live from the inception of the world.
It is a new year and while we have
arrived with the same bodies and minds that we ended the previous year;
somehow, we are disposed to raising the bar of our expectations at this time of
year.
What if, we began this year knowing
with certainty that the blood of Jesus took away my sin and that
death—separation from God—is not something that I will ever know. I have been saved by the blood of Jesus. I am redeemed. I have been rescued. Sin and death do not own me anymore.
Now get rid of those two words—what
if?
Begin this year knowing with certainty
that the blood of Jesus took away my sin and that death—separation from God—is
not something that I will ever know. I
have been saved by the blood of Jesus. I
am redeemed. I have been rescued. Sin and death do not own me anymore.
What if that is our starting point for
this new year? Now, let’s remove the what if from that statement. That is our starting point for this year. We will only revisit these things in a spirit
of thanksgiving to our Lord who rescued us.
We will not wrestle with them.
The fires of hell or eternal separation from God are things that we will
never know and we will stop fighting battles that are already won.
OK.
I’m in. So what is next?
Living! Living fully and completely doing our very
best to bring glory to God.
Mark Twain once said: "The two most important days in your
life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why."
Isn’t it time to find out the “why” of
our lives. Isn’t it time to live the purpose
that God gave us. Isn’t it time to stop
going from one day to the next and just live this day as fully as you can
trying your very best to bring glory to God?
Isn’t it time to take the gifts and
talents and abilities that we have and put them to use fully and completely
without any hint of doubt.
We have been set free from sin and
death having power in our lives. What we
do in response to that should be to please God.
Isn’t it time to start living the “why” of our lives with everything
that we have and that we are.
Too often we try to equate the “why”
of our lives with educational and vocational choices. Too often we try to restrict the why of our
lives to our geography, or genealogy, or even
the chronology of events.
We come to know the “why” of our lives
as we come to know Jesus more and more. In
the year ahead we will study many of the parables of Jesus. Parables give us unique insight because Jesus
has unique insight into heaven and into living a human life. Parables set one thing beside the other.
In the year ahead, I challenge you to
permeate you prayer life with the words, “Lord, your will not mine.” Do it without fear. That means without caveat to your prayers. What do I mean?
Lord, I am yours. I am ready to do whatever you have planned
for me, with the following exceptions…
This year, let’s take a big step in
discipleship and just pray, “Thy will be done.”
This year, begin or continue in a
serious reading plan. Make it more than
what we are reading for Sunday school or Wednesday night groups. Just set out on a course of reading that is
just you and God.
This year, live in hope. Too many Christians forget that hope is a big
part of who we are. The author of
Hebrews said we can’t see everything coming into obedience to God but we know
that it will because we know Jesus. We
live knowing that everything will one day be reconciled. We live in joyful obedience to God now not
having to wait for someday.
In the year ahead, start doing things
that you might have been afraid to do because of what others might think of
you. Fear does not govern in our
lives. Perfect loves casts out
fear. Jesus is our Lord. We live to please him and not public opinion.
In the year ahead, take the first
steps to reconcile relationships that are broken. Be the first because we are not afraid of
failure in our human relationships. Our
relationship with our Lord is intact and permanent and that gives us permission
to be bold where there is brokenness among us.
In the year ahead, live as if Jesus
really is your friend. We are his
brothers and sisters. We can live with
the utmost reverence and in the most intimate friendship. The two are not exclusive. He is Lord.
He is friend. He is God. He is Brother.
Sportscasters talk about playing in
the zone. That’s what we should be doing
as his disciples. Fear does not come
into play. Fear has been taken out of
the picture. We are liberated from death
and now we live liberated from the fear of death.
Jesus is the captain of our salvation. That’s a cool title but what it translates to
is that Jesus is saying “Follow Me,” and we as his brothers and sisters need to
do so because he is our Lord and because he is our teammate.
We respond by saying “Thy will be
done.” We respond knowing that his will
is the best will for us and contained within that will is the “why “of our
lives.
We respond by living the words of the psalmist as he said, “Calm down, stop fighting, be
still and know that God will bring everything into order.” God is God and he is on our side. He is with us and wants us to live completely. He wants us out of fearing anything in the
world to include death.
Let’s be still and know that God is
God and he is not letting go of us.
Jesus, our High Priest and closest
Friend, knows what it is to live in these fleshly vessels and he has liberated
us to live without fear of death.
He has atoned for our sins, actively makes
intercession for us, and wants us to live fully liberated from the fear of the
world and the fear of death. Jesus wants
us to live in the zone.
Today’s message is about heading into
a new year unencumbered by fear, ready to really live for Jesus, and in the
words, “Thy will be done,” fully expectant of knowing the “why” of our lives.
That’s a year that I am looking
forward to living.
Happy New Year and Amen.
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