Its All About Jesus. We Have No Other Message

In reminding us that God's Son is superior to the angels, the writer to the Hebrews quotes seven OT passages as proof. Two of them are about angels, the others are about Jesus and His glory (Hebrews 1:5-13 ESV)

Consider how he quotes Psalm 2 and then refers to Psalm 89:3-4, 26-27

For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"? Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? - Hebrews 1:5 ESV

In the second Psalm he sees Jesus firmly established on Zion, the holy city of Jerusalem. In his eyes the whole story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection was foreshadowed in this psalm. The apostles Peter and John ascribed the psalm to David in their prayer after they were released by the Jewish rulers (Acts 4:24-26). But they insisted that David wrote about Jesus. And even though the Sanhedrin forbad them to speak or teach about Jesus, they would continue to do so.

"Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." - Acts 4:19-20 ESV

This then is the major point of the entire letter to the Hebrews—and a lesson for all of us who call ourselves Christian. The entire Scripture, Old and New Testaments, is about Jesus! He is the eternally begotten Son, sent by His Father to set us free from the power of sin and the devil. We must speak about Him. He is the center of our message. We have no other. Jesus Himself declared,

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, - John 5:39 ESV

Yes, we have nothing else to teach, nothing else to preach, nothing else to talk about if we do not preach and teach about Jesus, God's Son. Everything flows from and back to this message about Jesus and His cross.

The angels are mighty beings, but none of them compares in glory, majesty and power to God's Son. This, as you may know, was a huge point of controversy in the history of the church. It still is among some, like Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims and others who claim to honor Jesus, but deny His deity, deny that He is God's eternal Son.

The Nicene Creed addressed this question with what they prayed was a clear statement about Jesus being God.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.

The Messiah promised in the OT is Jesus! He is no mere creature. He is the eternal Son of God. His entrance into this world of men was through the blessed Virgin Mary, but His conception was not through the normal means of the union of a man and his wife. It was rather by the wondrous working of the Holy Spirit. He who was begotten in the Father's endless Day, has humbled Himself to now become one with us.

Here then is the mystery and wonder of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. He is both God's Son and the Son of Man. Yes, He was and remains truly a man crucified under Pontius Pilate. He did indeed suffer and die on that Roman cross on that hill near the outskirts of Jerusalem. He was indeed buried in the grave loaned to him by Joseph of Arimathea. But He rose from the dead on the third day after His death and now rules in and over all things as Creator and Redeemer.

But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; - Hebrews 1:8-10 ESV

He concludes this first chapter with a final reference to the ministry of the angels. We'll take a one more look at that ministry next time before moving on.

Judging According To The Flesh

Yesterday as I wrote about the rapidly changing views on marriage and sexual license here in the United States I was painfully aware of how different my views are from those self-styled enlightened voices calling for such changes. To most of us who follow Jesus, it seems so very obvious. The definition of marriage is clear : one man and one woman for life! Period, end of discussion. This is what Jesus teaches clearly in his Word. This is how he, our Creator, Master and Lord designed human life. We have no choice but to follow his way of life. He is LORD. He brings light. He is the Light of the world. And when we follow this Light our personal, family and community lives are blessed.

But my conclusions are not at all obvious to those outside Christ's Kingdom, to those who do not accept his authority nor that of the Scriptures as God's Word. You can see this clearly as we pick up the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus has just declared himself to be the light of the world.

So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true." Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. - Jhn 8:13-16 ESV

"You judge according to the flesh!"

Like the talking heads who decided which candidate won the recent series of televised presidential debates here in the United States, the Pharisees brought their own personal agendas into this conflict between themselves and Jesus. They judged him, says Jesus, "according to the flesh!" And as a result they did not accept him nor the light he brought into the world.

Flesh in Jesus' usage refers not to the soft substance that covers the bodies of men and beasts. Rather, it refers to that sensuous, sinful nature of a man or woman with a self-centered agenda. To "judge according to the flesh" is decide on the basis of "what's in it for me." The apostle Paul puts it this way:

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. - Rom 8:7-8 ESV

In the minds of the Pharisees, Jesus was nothing more than some self-promoting carpenter from the nothing-town of Nazareth. "You are bearing witness about yourself," they shouted. "The claims you make are empty and meaningless."

Jesus countered, "Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me." 

They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" 

Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." - Jhn 8:16-19 ESV

Earlier in the Gospel of John we hear Jesus equating the Scriptures to the voice of his Father.

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. - Jhn 5:37-40 ESV

The Pharisees and learned Scribes rejected the witness of the very Scriptures they so highly treasured. Driven by their flesh, they persisted in the belief that they could earn the blessings of God by their righteous lives. In this belief they were blind to what these same Scriptures say about sin and about Jesus as the only Savior from God's judgment upon sin. They continued to "judge according to the flesh!"

Bottom line: when we Christians despair about how the morals of this world are changing, let us remember that that this is the world of men and women who "judge according to the flesh!" It has always been so. It will always be so until Christ returns. Until and unless they are reborn by the power and working of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5-6), there will be no changing of their minds. We must ever be conscious of this truth. Jesus' kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).