Jesus: The Son of God

We understand that part of the progression of history is the continual advancement of technology. There are tools and devices that exist today that previous generations could only dream about.

There was a time before the invention of the wheel. There was a time before paper and napkins, a time before the printing press, before cars, before plastic and rubber, before airplanes, before indoor plumbing and electricity and light bulbs, before telephone lines, before concrete and batteries, and before cameras, television, credit cards, the internet, smartphones, and Artificial Intelligence.

Those kinds of inventions brought a dramatic shift to culture and society. They changed our everyday lives. But the change wasn’t just external; it didn’t just happen outside you. The change also affected the way we do business, the way we relate to one another, and even the way we think.

Historians and archaeologists can argue about what is was that brought about the greatest change in mankind and society, but any of the inventions I listed would be wrong.

The single greatest transition that has ever taken place in the course of humanity was the event honored today by our very own calendars. Time is marked before and after the coming of Jesus Christ. Historically, it doesn’t seem like we got the date quite right, but I think it was correct to use that event as the marker of a transition in history.

Many of the Christians in the first century were beginning to forget how monumental the coming of Christ was. The first generation of Christians was Jewish—just like Jesus and the disciples—and when oppression from the Roman Empire began to grow, and Christians were forced into hiding, many were tempted to revert back to the Judaism they had grown up with. Judaism wasn’t being attacked the way Christianity was.

These fearful Christians assumed that as long as they kept some form of religion in God, they would be fine. God would understand, and He would accept them. The truth was, however, that turning away from Christ would lead to their eternal judgment.

Some were genuinely saved, but needed to understand what it meant to follow Christ and how that differentiated them from the Jews of the Old Testament. Some of them were unbelievers who had professed the Christian faith, or had at least heard about and were beginning to accept certain aspects of it. All of these groups needed to be taught and to be warned.

You may not have grown up in a Jewish home, but the temptation to wander from Christ is something you face every day, to one degree or another. Every Christian faces it. Following Christ is painful. It’s difficult. It a whole lot easier to give in to your desires and to the ways of the world, than it is to say, “No,” and to persevere in the Christian faith.

What you and I need to hear, and to be reminded of, is the same thing that first-century Christians needed to hear: Do not stray from Christ. Do not neglect the gift we have been given by God in Him. You need to persevere, and you need to help each other persevere. You need to continually look to Jesus. Understand who He is and what He has done, and do not forget or walk away from Him.

This is the theme of book of Hebrews, and I’d like you to turn there in your Bibles. It’s near the end, but before the letters of James and Peter and John.

We can take technological advances for granted. We can forget the massive shifts that has taken place in culture, but we cannot forget the significance of Jesus Christ. And we can’t let others do it, either.

As far as we can tell, Hebrews was probably originally a sermon that was preached, and then it was written down and distributed among the early church.

This morning is simply going to be an introduction to the book as we look at the opening two verses and then get an overview of the rest of it. To begin, I’d like to read the opening paragraph, which is verses 1-4.

Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1-4 says this—Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Whoever the original preacher or author was, he opens this message, like I said, highlighting the monumental shift that has taken place in Jesus Christ. Verse 1 focuses on what it was like before Jesus came. More specifically, his focus is on the revelation of God.

The God of Scripture is not a God that is detached or distant from creation. God chose, over the course of history to make Himself known. He spoke with Adam in the garden. He spoke to Noah. He spoke to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses.

The revelation of God in the first part of human history was intentional and meaningful, but it was incomplete. The opening words of verse 1 tell us that God spoke at many times and in many ways. God’s revelation was coming to the world one piece at a time. And it didn’t come in the same way. There was a variety in the ways God made Himself known.

Adam walked with Him in the garden, but once sin entered the world, God no longer dealt with man in the same intimate way. For the most part, divine truth was passed from one generation to the other, but at some specific times, God made Himself known to a specific group of people.

The author of Hebrews summarizes this period by saying that God spoke to the fathers, but it came through the prophets. God’s message to mankind came through chosen men. The written, or the preached, message was preserved, but it wasn’t directly from God. The prophets had an exalted privilege, but they were not God. That was life before Jesus Christ.

The second verse of Hebrews tells us that’s not life anymore. As opposed to life “long ago,” we are now in “these last days.” Something has changed. We’re in a new phase of human history.

As opposed to God speaking to the “fathers,” verse 2 says God spoke “to us.” This is a personal message from God.

And most significantly, instead of God’s message coming through “the prophets,” God’s revelation to us has come through a Son.

“Son” is a very distinct term in the Hebrew culture. We associate it with a biological child, but for the Hebrews, “son” was a much more significant term. It points to the essential nature of something.

For example, James and John were known as the “sons of thunder.” That was a description of their personality. So, what does it mean to say that Jesus is God’s Son?

Turn with me to the opening verses of the gospel of John. From the very beginning, John wanted to make clear who Jesus was and is. Many of you know this verse. John 1, verse 1 says this—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Down in verse 14, it says this—And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Tracing this theme in John’s gospel, jump over with me to chapter 5. John chapter 5, verse 17. This was on a Sabbath day, and Jesus had just healed a man who couldn’t walk. The religious leaders were enraged by His actions because they thought this was a violation of the Sabbath, which was a day of rest.

John 5:17 has Jesus’ response to them—Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

And then verse 18 says—This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

In the section that follows, Jesus continues to assert His identity and His authority. Look at verses 22-24. Jesus says—For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, [23] that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. [24] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Jesus said that to hear His words is to believe the One who sent Him, which is God. Jesus said that He is the only way escape the judgment of God.

Just a few chapters later in John 10, verse 30, Jesus gets even more explicit. We have His famous words: I and the Father are one. And for that, the Jews picked up stones to kill Him, because He was equating Himself to God.

Later in chapter 14, Jesus talks with the disciples about their heavenly inheritance. In chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus says—I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.

Verse 8—Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” [9] Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

In Jesus Christ, God did something He had never done before. God came to be born and to live as a man. Why? Don’t just accept that as theological or doctrinal truth, think about what it tells us about God.

The God of all creation wants to speak. He wants to make Himself known. And while He made Himself known for generations, in Christ, God came to us.

He didn’t use a spokesperson. He sent His Son. He sent another person of the Trinity, or the Godhead, as it’s called in theology, who is of the same essence as Himself.

To know Jesus is to know God. To talk to Jesus is to talk to God. To hear from Jesus is to hear from God. This was the shift that took place when Christ came to the earth.

Jesus’s arrival was a fulfillment of the Old Testament, but it was also superior to it. It wasn’t just more revelation. It was God Himself visiting us.

The old ways of long ago were done, and a we entered into a new era, the era of Jesus Christ, in whom God spoke to us. What had been happening in various ways and in various times has now taken place in one person. God spoke to us in Christ

The question, then, is this: Are you listening? Are you paying attention to what God has said in Jesus Christ. Do you know and understand and live out the message of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ?

This is the question that gets asked over and over again in the book of Hebrews. The author continues to hold up Christ as superior to anything in the Old Testament, and he calls us to persevere—to keep our focus on Jesus.

You can go ahead and turn back to Hebrews now. I want to point out the major flow of this letter, and then we’ll be done for today. Hebrews chapter 1 opens by exalting the authority and supremacy of Christ in His essence. He is eternal God, and He is superior to the angels. That’ll be our first series of messages in chapters 1 and 2.

Look with me at chapter 2, verse 1. Here, again, is part of the exhortation of the letter. Hebrews 2:1—Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

In chapter 3, the message is that Jesus is greater than Moses. And that comes with a warning against hardening our hearts against Him. It also comes with a call to exhort one another every day.

Chapter 4 tells us that in Jesus, we have a better rest than what the Old Testament promises, and we need to enter into that.

And then, there is going to be a longer section focused on Jesus’ role as our Great High Priest. We don’t need anyone or anything else to grant, or to strengthen, our connection with God. All we need is Jesus. We need to deepen our understanding of Him and our relationship with Him.

The final section of the book, beginning in chapter 10, calls us to endurance in the race of our faith. We need to persevere. We need to look to those who have come before us, and we need to live for the glory of Christ.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Almost at the end of the book. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 25. Remember, this was probably a sermon at first, and verse 25 hints at that. This was a spoken message before it was a written letter.

Hebrews 12:25—See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

We have something the Old Testament fathers did not have. It is an amazing privilege, but it comes with warning. Do not ignore Jesus Christ. Do not walk or wander away from His message.

And what a critical message this is for all of us today. With all the technological advances that have come, we are being pulled at from every angle and at every moment of the day. This world is begging for, and demanding, your attention.

You wake up, and you’ve got emails and news to catch up on. You’ve got stuff that needs to be posted and published. You’ve got work that needs to get done.

But in all of that, is your heart turned to and listening to what God has said in His Son Jesus Christ?

Jesus gave His message to His trusted Apostles. He promised that Father would send the Spirit who would teach them and remind them about all that He taught. And what we have today in the New Testament is the message of the Apostles—the message of Jesus Christ.

Are you paying attention to this? Is your heart inclined to the message of Jesus given through His Scripture? Do you read it? Do you think about it? Do you pay attention? Do you live it out, for the glory of Christ?

You might own a Bible, but does the word of God own you?

We are living in a new era. God has made Himself known. God has spoken to us in the Son. Let’s prepare our hearts to hear and to heed His message.