The
old Jewish rabbis had a way of preaching and teaching that they called
stringing pearls. Rather than making one point and embellishing it, they’d add
story after story, insight after insight on the same theme until the sheer
weight of evidence convinced you that what they were saying must be true.
And
verses 4-14 of Hebrews Chapter 1 are a good example of that style of teaching.
The writer wants us to convince us of some truths about Jesus, and so he starts
stringing together some of his favourite pearls from the Old Testament to make
his case.
And
I thought it’d be fun today to follow suit; so instead of preaching one long
sermon, I’m going to preach a handful of short ones, broken up with some hymns
that relate to what I’m trying to say.
And
we’ll start this morning’s sermon down the pub. There were two pubs on the edge
of the Aston University campus where I did my chemistry. The Pot of Beer and
the Sacks of Potatoes. about 8 o’clock most nights, Roger Delleman, a redhaired
Mancunian student, would stick his head round the door of our flat and shout
‘G’int Pot?’ or sometimes ‘Gint Sacks?’ and like prairie dogs, heads would rise
from assignments or dinners and those who were interested would head out for a
drink.
The
pub was a way of life for Roger and some of the other guys, so I was never down
there as much as they were – but I always enjoyed it when I went. There was a
lot of good natured banter about me being a Christian, but after a drink or
two, once folk had lost their inhibitions, all their questions came tumbling
out, all their views about life.
And
I’ll always remember one of the guys, Jim, saying – ‘you know, Paul – I really admire you
‘cause you believe in something. I wish I could be like that. I don’t think it
really matters what you believe, you could be worshipping a tree or something,
I just wish I could believe in something.”
30
years ago this year, and I still remember that conversation.
Does
it really matter what we believe, or is it ok to believe anything as long as
you’re sincere about it?
Strikes
me that we’re living in a time when most people think it doesn’t really matter
what you believe as long as you believe it sincerely and you don’t hurt anyone
else in the process.
You
can believe what you want, but just don’t be up in my face about it, alright?
Live
and let live. Which all sounds fine, on the surface. But when you think about
it for five minutes you realise it’s codswallop.
It
was GK Chesterton who warned us that the danger when people turn their back on
orthodoxy isn’t that they end up believing nothing, it’s that they end up
believing anything. I think our society is more spiritually gullible and less
spiritually rooted than it’s ever been.
I
visited someone dying of cancer a while ago. Visited them regularly. Talked and
prayed a lot with them. They were having visits from an alternative therapist
too, and her physical treatments proved to be very helpful. But during her
visits this therapist started impressing on my friend her belief that cancer
can’t live with love; Those were the words she used. She held out to him the
hope that if he could just summon enough loving feelings then the cancer would
go into regression. I took his funeral a few weeks later. Guess he mustn’t have
tried hard enough.
Cancer
can’t live with love. Who holds her accountable for those words? What community
is going to call her to task for them? I
don’t doubt her sincerity, I just don’t believe that what she said was either
true or helpful.
Truth
matters. It matters when we talk about science and engineering. Would you want
to take a flight in a plane designed by someone who thinks that all answers to
the question ‘what is 2+2’ are equally valid? Don’t think so! So why should
truth matter any less when it comes to matters of faith?
The
writer of the letter to the Hebrews thinks that what we believe really matters.
He cares passionately about it. And the truth he wants his hearers to
understand isn’t so much a doctrine or a teaching, but a person – the one we
know as the Way the Truth and the Life. Jesus the Christ.
And
the whole thrust of this morning’s section is that Jesus is superior to the angels.
He’s far above even those exalted beings.
Now
we don’t know why that was such a pressing issue for him or the community he
was writing to. Maybe some of them were worshipping angels – that seems to be
the case in some of the congregations Paul wrote to. Or maybe they just needed
reminding of that truth. Perhaps they were a little disappointed in Jesus.
Maybe he was too down to earth for them.
Other
religions had flashy temples and colourful gods and elaborate rituals.
Christians met in homes, shared bread and wine, pooled their resources, faced
persecution and misunderstanding. Maybe they were tempted to go for something a
bit more exotic.
Don’t
be deceived by appearances, says the writer. Jesus may have looked like one of
us, but he was far far more. He was, and is, no angel. He’s God’s only begotten
son.
But
what does that old word ‘begotten’ mean?
Well,
for me it’s never been better explained than by CS Lewis in Mere Christianity.
Lewis
reminds us that beget is to produce something of the same kind as yourself; and
that’s different from ‘creating’ or ‘making’ something.
Human
beings make cars and fridge freezers and medicines and jam. Birds make nests;
spiders make webs. Different kinds of things from themselves.
But
human beings beget babies; birds beget birds; spiders beget spiders. So by
extension, what does God beget? God.
This
child, born in the incarnation, baptised in the Jordan, lifted up on the cross,
breaking free of death and the tomb, this child, this man is nothing less than God
in human form. God’s only begotten son. And that’s the first way he’s different
from the angels.
Jesus Angels
Begotten
Son Created
beings
That’s
why Christmas is such a big deal; and that’s why we’re going to pause and sing
a Christmas hymn now – O Come All You Faithful.
Begotten,
not created. God of God, light of light. Did you hear it? It’s an assertion of
Jesus’ divinity.
And
so too is the beginning of verse 6 in chapter 1 of Hebrews. “when God was about to send his firstborn son
into the world, he said “All God’s angels must worship him”.
Now,
according to the Ten Commandments, which every child in Jesus’ day could have
recited, who are we supposed to worship?
God
and God alone. 1st commandment – no other Gods before me. 2nd
commandment – don’t make graven images, don’t bow down to them or worship them.
Do
you remember Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness? We haven’t looked at them
this year in Lent, but remember what the last one was? The devil shows him all
the kingdoms of the world and says “all these are mine, and I will give them to
you if you will only….”.
And
what does Jesus reply? “Away from me, Satan. For it is written ‘worship the
Lord your God and serve him only’.
We
are to worship God alone. And yet speaking about the Son here in verse 6, the
writer says ‘All God’s angels must worship him”. Again, it’s an assertion of
Jesus’ divinity.
I
told you a few weeks back that one of the ways Jehovah’s Witnesses depart from
orthodoxy is that they believe Jesus was just a created being, not God incarnate.
And
in their own translation of the Bible, every time the word ‘worship’ is used in
relation to Jesus, they translate it as ‘bow down to’ which is deliberately
ambiguous. You might bow down to a King or a Queen but that’s not the same as
worshipping them.
Years
ago I got my hands on a Jehovah’s Witness Bible just out of curiosity, and sure
enough all the references to worshipping Jesus had been carefully edited out. Except
one. This one in Hebrews. Somehow they’d overlooked this one.
And
the next time the JW’s called round, I did take some pleasure in leading them
up the garden path a wee bit.
So
who’s Jesus? I asked.
A created being – the best of them all – but a created being all the
same.
So
he’s not divine?
Nope. No siree. All that Trinity stuff’s just nonsense.
Ok.
So it’d be wrong to worship Jesus then?
Oh yes – Jehovah’s the only one we should be worshipping.
Ok
then. Have a little look at this verse here, then….
What
does it say - When God brings his
firstborn son into the world…..
Who’s
he talking about?
Jesus.
And
what does he say the angels have to do?
Worship him. Oh no. Hang on – that can’t be right. It doesn’t say
that in our Bible.
Oh
yes it does. This is your
Bible.
They
didn’t like that very much.
Interestingly,
all the more recent Jehovah’s Witness translations have ‘corrected’ that
oversight so that Jesus is never worshipped in their version of the Scriptures.
And
that’s their loss, because the Scriptures couldn’t be clearer. Along with the
Father and the Spirit, the Son is worthy of our worship because he too is
divine. He is the unique Son of God.
And
that’s a second difference. Jesus is worshipped. Angels, like us, are
worshippers.
Jesus Angels
Begotten
Son Created
beings
Worshipped Worshippers
HY
201 – Worship The Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
When
you’ve buying something you want to make sure it’s going to last. We’ve just
replaced our washing machine after about 15 years of hard service – it was a
Bosch, and after managing to cope successfully with our family laundry for 15
years, it’s hardly surprising we went for another Bosch. Not the cheapest make,
but they’re certainly built to last.
A
few years back when we were looking to get a people carrier for the first time,
I visited Brian at Newmachar Motors and narrowed things down to a Volkswagen
Sharan and a Citroen Picasso, both about the same age and the same mileage. I
asked Brian for a bit of advice and he smiled and said ‘always buy German. The
French don’t make cars. They make wine. The Germans know how to make cars!”.
In
this last section of Hebrews 1, the writer’s making a contrast between the
time-bound nature of created beings, and the eternal nature of God.
“about
the angels God said, ‘God makes his angels winds and his servants flames of
fire’ (Heb 1:7) – in other words, in comparison to God, they’re relatively
insubstantial.
But
about the son he says ‘Your Kingdom, O
God, will last forever and ever!....
You are always the same and your life never ends’.
(Heb 1:8, 12b)
So
the contrast here is between what’s eternal, and what’s temporal. Who is the
Lord and who are his servants.
Jesus Angels
Begotten
Son Created
beings
Worshipped Worshippers
Permanent Fleeting
Lord Servants
And
he rounds things off by identifying Jesus with the work of Creation.
Isaiah says – “Do
you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the
earth.” (Isaiah 40:28)
The
writer of Hebrews, 750 years later, says of Jesus “You, Lord, in the beginning
created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens.” (Heb 1:10)
So to our list we
can add one last pearl. That Jesus is Creator, while the angels are created.
Jesus Angels
Begotten
Son Created
beings
Worshipped Worshippers
Permanent Fleeting
Lord Servants
Creator Created
He’s
spent a long time on this argument, the writer. It’s a truth he thinks we need
to get a hold of, because both then and now it’s entirely possible that we
could miss the reality of who Jesus is.
Sure,
crowds went out to see him and hear him; but plenty of other people walked past
him in the street and didn’t give him a second look. He didn’t have a
Ready-Brek glow and a halo. Just looked like an ordinary guy until you spent
some time with him. Started listening to what he said, started seeing how he
behaved.
Don’t
miss this – the writer’s saying. Until you understand who Jesus is, none of the
rest of this is going to make sense.
He’s
no angel. He’s the only begotten Son of the Father, come to us in human form.
Don’t let appearances fool you.
Story
about three young priests who were travelling across on a ferry to a remote
Greek island to visit a monastery where there was a monk of great renown and
wisdom they wanted to meet. The journey
took over a day, and because the boat was full of pilgrims, the passengers
asked the priests if they’d lead a couple of services for them, which the young
men were happy to do.
There
was an older man on board, also dressed as a priest, who approached the younger
men and asked if he might help them out in some way. But he was a bit
dishevelled looking and slow on his feet, and without much thought or respect
they gave him the brush off. This was their gig, thank you very much, and they
had important work helping the pilgrims get ready for their trip to the
monastery and this meeting with the eminent father.
When
they got to the island they headed for the monastery and were welcomed
cordially and told that they would have an audience with the monk later that
evening.
And
when they sat down to dinner, there, at the head of the table, was the man
they’d come to see, this eminent monk, smiling down at them. It was the old man
they’d met on the boat, now dressed in his monastic robes.
Don’t
be fooled by appearances, says the writer to the Hebrews. This one, who looked
of so little consequence, is to be worshipped as the Son of God, the Creator of
the Universe, the Lord of All.
Do
not reckon him less.
