Sing The Good News! -- Word of the Father Now in Flesh Appears! -- 11/28/21

For all of humanity, sin in our live separates us from the presence of God. So, it is common for people to feel as if God does not exist or if He does exist he doesn’t care about us as individuals. Even as Christians, we can allow ourselves to take on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that cause us to question God’s presence with us and even the faithfulness of His love toward us.

Our Scripture this morning, shows us how the Father sent His Son to prove that our heavenly Father is with us and cares for us through coming to us a human being. Today we will see God in human form in three portraits:

· Jesus is God’s Message Given to Us in Flesh

· Jesus is God’s Glory Given to Us in Flesh

· Jesus is God’s Majesty Given to Us in Flesh

Each portrait shows us a different perspective that leads us to adore Jesus Christ the Lord.

Sing with me,

O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord! Jesus is God’s Message Given to us in Flesh

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” (Hebrews 1:1–2, NIV)

The first thing to notice here is that God wants to communicate with us. He wants us to understand exactly who He is. He wants us to understand his nature, his character, his purposes, his will, and how he works in the world and in our lives.

God revealed himself at many different times and in many ways in the past; but now, “in these last days” he has spoken but one time and in one way by His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s message to all humanity in flesh, blood, and bone. This Son of God who came to speak with us is . . .

The appointed heir of all things (v.2)

This designation of the Son as the heir of all things, does not imply that at any moment the Son did not possess all things. As the Son of God all things were His. The phrase magnifies the position and status of the Son when he enters the world. Jesus said, “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” (John 16:15)

When Jesus entered this world as a baby lying in a manger; that baby already owned all creation. Jesus was Lord at his birth because the Son was

The one through whom God created the universe (v.2)

God, the Father created the world through His Son. The Father spoke his will “let there be light” and through the miraculous power of the word of the Son of God, there was light and then everything else which exists.

O come all ye faithful, to come to Bethlehem and behold him. Come to Bethlehem, the City of David where it was foretold the Messiah would be born. Come to Bethlehem and see the creator of the universe, the one who owns it all – a baby wrapped is swaddling clothes and laid in a manager, because there was no room for the Lord of all.

Sing:

O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord! As we adore the Son, what does the Father require of us? The Father requires that we receive and believe that Jesus is His message to us human flesh.

· When we doubt that God cares about us, we must receive and believe Jesus is God’s message that He cares for us enough to send his Son to die for us.

· When we are confused about what we believe, we must receive and believe that Jesus is God’s message of the way, the truth, and the life.

· When the troubles of life tempt us to give up on Jesus; we must receive and believe that Jesus is God’s message in flesh that He will never give up on us.

· When people treat us badly because we belong to Jesus, we must receive and believe that Jesus is God’s message to us in the flesh as Jesus overcame all the evil in the world; so shall we triumph over all evil.

We must receive him and believe in Jesus, for the life Jesus give us is our only way out of our doubt and confusion. The life of Jesus in us the only way we will successfully endure the troubles and persecutions of this life.

How is that we can receive and believe Jesus as God’s message in flesh and blood to us? That too is a merciful act of God’s grace. We come to receive and believe in Jesus when the Father draws us to believe in the Son.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” (Ephesians 2:8, NIV)

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.” (John 6:44, NIV)

The apostle Paul wrote,

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:16, NIV)

Therefore, when the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s child; then we know that we have received and believed that Jesus is God’s message to us.

If we do not yet, believe that Jesus is God message to us, we can pray that God will draw us to Jesus. If you can willingly and sincerely ask God to draw you to himself, that is already evidence that God is at work in your life to do just that, because you could not pray that prayer with out His gracious mercy causing you and helping you to do so.

Because this baby in a manger is the creator of the universe and Lord of all that exists,

Jesus is God’s Glory Given to Us in Flesh

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory

Jesus contained all the perfections of God in his character. Jesus was perfect in goodness, perfect in love, perfect in grace, perfect in mercy, and therefore Jesus was perfect in judgment. Jesus radiated the perfect character of God, which is the essence God’s glory. Remember, when Moses asked the Lord, to show his glory. The Lord told him; I will cause my goodness to pass before you. The visual image of the Greek word translated “radiance” is one of the brilliant rays of light of a glorious sunrise. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a new day glorious day broke on all the darkness of humankind, because God himself was here in flesh and blood to tell and to show us that he loved us and does not want any of us to perish for our sins against but want us to have eternal life this is the radiance of God goodness – it is His glory.

Jesus is exact representation of God’s being

Nothing is lacking in Christ’s representation of the Father to us Everything we need to know about the Father is fully represented to us in Jesus. In John 14:9 Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father.” In Jesus, the Father has caused his glory – his goodness to pass before us. We first see God’s goodness in the act of creation – all that he created was good and that which was good was create through the Son.

Jesus sustains all things by the power of His word

That same miraculous powerful word of the Son of God now sustains all that he created - including you and me and everything good comes to each of us. Jesus never turns his attention from us even for a second if he did, we would cease to exist. This teaches us that our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ is active and laser focused on delivering everything that is necessary for our well-being.

The point of it all was to show that our good . . .

The Father sent the Son to provided purification for sins

Here is the message of God in Jesus’ on words,

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”” (John 14:6–7, NIV)

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:13–15, NIV)

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28, NIV)

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;” (John 11:25, NIV)

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” (John 8:28, NIV)

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” (John 10:17–18, NIV)

“Knowing that everything had now been finished, . . .. Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:28, 30, NIV)

After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples.

“He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations (Luke 24:46–48, NIV)

“While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” (Luke 24:51–52, NIV)

Having paid the price for the purification of our sins in His own flesh and blood, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. That is Jesus sat down at the right hand of His Father, in the seat of honor and power to receive the worship that is due Him.

God of God, light of light, the full radiance of the Father’s glory came to us born of Mary a young virgin, adopted by Joseph, her husband, and was known as a carpenter’s son. The babe lying in the manager came to lay down his life for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of the world.

Sing:

O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

As the glory of the Christ child shines on us, what does the Father require of us?

The Father requires that we worship Jesus as God. For each of us, our worship of Jesus begins with our daily and weekly priorities. What priority do I give to my private, personal worship of Jesus? What priority do I give to joining in the worship of Jesus at least weekly with my church family? Beyond our private and corporate worship, we must worship Christ the Lord in and before a world that does not receive and believe that Jesus is God’s message in flesh to everyone, everywhere, for all times.

How can we be faithful in our private worship, our worship together, in our unbelieving world?

· we set aside time daily to spend time growing in our relationship with Jesus through devotional Bible reading and prayer. We are faithful to gather with our church family for worship on Sunday morning and at other time of worship, times of prayer, and times for serving each other and others.

· We help others in need.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27, NIV)

We become like Jesus in worship and we care for those in the world as Jesus did.

· We are attentive to those who are seeking to know more about Jesus and/or the church. This is the Holy Spirit at work. We engage these persons in most normal and natural conversations and actions as possible. Trusting that God has put us in the right place at the right time and He will show us what to say and do.

Because Jesus, the Lord of all, the creator and sustainer of all the radiance of the Father’s glory, and the God who in His flesh and blood paid the price for our sins, we receive and believe that

Jesus is the Majesty of God Given to Us in Flesh

Majesty is a quality of a person’s strength, power, and authority. Verse 4 begins with “So,” which means, because of everything we have said concerning Jesus this follows:

“he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” (Hebrews 1:4, NIV).

In this passage Jesus’ name is the chief indicator of Jesus’ superiority to angels. The name Son speaks indicates Jesus’ strength, power and authority as heir of all things, creator of all things, sustainer of all things - including the angels. Jesus is therefore superior in status to angels.

Son speaks to Jesus’ special work as Savior of all creation. While on earth Jesus showed us God’s ruling majesty in his control over disease and death, his mastery over nature, and dominion over Satan and his demonic hosts, and his perfect atonement for the sins of humankind, securing the grace and mercy of forgiveness for all who will receive and believe. Mere angels could never fulfill this work. This work requires the Son of God. Jesus is therefore superior to angels in his ability.

Yet, there is more. Son speaks of relationship, the intimate relationship between Father and Son. Verses 5 reads, “For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?” (Hebrews 1:5, NIV) . The answer we are meant give to these questions is “the Father never said this to any angel.” Jesus is ultimately superior to angels because Jesus is family and angels are the family servants. Through Jesus Christ the gift of God to us in human flesh, we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God - we are family too!

Because of Jesus’s superiority to all the heavenly host, the Father says, “let all my angels worship Him.” Angels do worship. They worship with all their might. Angels worship with us because like us they see that Jesus is superior to all things in every respect because Jesus is God in flesh in flesh and bone. Jesus is the Word Word-the Message of God to us. Jesus is God’s glory and God’s ruling Majesty come to us. All the fullness of God, within fully human Jesus.

Sing choirs of angels, sing in exaltation sing glory to God, glory in the highest!

Sing:

O come, let us adore him, O come, let us adore him,

O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord!

As we stand in awe of the ruling majesty of the Lord of all cradled in the manger, what does his Father require of us. The Father requires that we bend our knee in willing submission to His Son.

· When what we want conflicts with what we know through our knowledge of the Bible and the inward witness of the Spirit, we must yield to the majestic rule of Jesus.

· When our loyalty and service to anyone, any organization, or any cause becomes more important to us than knowing and doing the will of our Lord Jesus, we must realign our priorities to align with the majestic rule of Jesus in our life.

· When the world pressures us to abandon our faithfulness to Jesus in any way; we must bow our knee only to the majestic reign of Jesus.

We submit to majestic reign of Jesus in all these situations and more when we receive and believe that Jesus is God’s message to us in flesh. Echoing John 1:14, our carol rings the words “Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.” The apostle John wrote,

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NIV)

In our worship privately, corporately, and in the worship of good works done for others in the name of Jesus, we submit to the majestic reign of Jesus. In refusing to give into private or public attitudes, teachings, and behaviors that treat Jesus as anything less than God Almighty we submit to the majestic rule of Christ the Lord.

All of this is only possible, however, as we submit to the life of Jesus in us. The life of Jesus in living in us is the grace, mercy, and power that enables us to receive and believe him, to worship him, and to submit to his reign in our lives, in our church family, and in the world. We can’t do it in our strength and power. But we can certainly do all this and more through the power of Jesus who creates and sustains all things through his powerful word. The power of the life of Jesus grows strong in us we make it our greatest desire and our greates investment to “come and adore him, Christ the Lord.”