A little more than two weeks ago, on Saturday, January 13 (2018), at 8:07 in the morning, everyone in Hawaii received a text alert from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency: "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL." It turned out to be a false alarm, but it took the agency 38 minutes to send a follow-up alert correcting the error.
Why did it take so long? Well, a week ago Friday (January 19, 2018), Hawaii’s governor, David Ige, reported that he and his team took so long to post a message about the missile alert being a false alarm, because he didn't know his Twitter username and password. He had forgotten it, so he had to track down his communications staff spokeswoman, Cindy McMillan, to get the message out (Fox News and The Associate Press, 1/22/2018).
Contemporary forms of communication are wonderful things when they’re working. The Governor can text everyone in the state, and I just learned that the president of the United States can text everyone in the country if necessary. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The President of the United States can mass-message the entire phone-carrying nation at the same time whenever he deems it necessary” (Christopher Mims, "Here's A Thing: The President Can Text Everyone in The US at Any Time," The Wall Street Journal, 2-18-15). However, if you do get a presidential emergency alert and you're on the phone, it won't show up until after you've finished your conversation. I guess the apocalypse can wait?
I had to laugh when I read that; because despite the wonders of technology, it’s still hard to get the word out.
Even God Himself had trouble communicating with His creation. For centuries, He tried dreams and visions, tablets of stone, and human prophets. He spoke “at many times and in many ways”, but not many of us were listening. So God had to get our attention in a way we could not ignore. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Hebrews 1, Hebrews 1, where the Bible describes what God did to get our attention.
Hebrews 1:1-2 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 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. (ESV)
When all else failed…
GOD SPOKE TO US IN A SON.
He came to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. When the ancient text messages didn’t work, He paid us a personal visit.
You see, Jesus is none other than God in the flesh. He owns it all as “heir of all things.” He made it all, and He is Lord of all.
Hebrews 1:3a 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. (ESV)
Wow! That’s a mouthful. Let me unpack it for you.
1st, Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God” – i.e., the outshining of God’s brightness. In other words, Jesus is not a reflection of God’s glory; Jesus is the light of that glory Himself!
More than that, according to vs.3, [Jesus is also] the exact imprint of his nature. i.e., the stamp of God’s essence, or the precise representation of God’s being. The Greek word for “imprint” is the same word used in Bible days to describe the imprint on coins, and sometimes to describe the instrument itself that stamped out the coins.
Several years ago (November 1994), on a family vacation in Colorado, we toured the Denver Mint. It was quite a sight where we saw sheets of metal being fed into big machines, which stamped out pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters by the thousands.
It was all automated except, every once in a while, we saw a human inspector come along and inspect the quality of the coins. The inspector was looking to ensure that the image on those coins was an exact imprint of the stamp in the machine. And if there was the slightest variation, they stopped the machines and discarded the coins.
Those coins had to be exact, or they were no good. So it is with Christ. He is the exact imprint of God Himself. In fact, He is not the image made by the stamp; He is the stamp itself!
Jesus is God in the flesh, who #3, “upholds the universe by the word of His power.” In other words, Jesus not only made it all; he holds it all together.
He also sits in the place of all authority above even the angels themselves.
Hebrews 1:3b-4 After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (ESV)
The “right hand of the Majesty” is the seat of all power. As God, Jesus outranks all of the angels. His authority (or name) is far superior than any other being on earth or in heaven. Jesus is the Sovereign Lord over all the angels! That’s the point of this whole chapter with 7 Old Testament quotes to back it up. Let’s take a quick look at those quotes.
Hebrews 1:5a For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? (ESV)
That’s a quote out of Psalm 2, a coronation psalm, which celebrates the coronation of Israel’s king. This psalm was sung at the coronation of every Israeli king since David, and it describes that king becoming a “son of God” on the day of his coronation. It’s not talking about a physical birth here. It’s talking about the day he was declared a “Son of God.” You see, God had told David that He would be a Father to all of David’s successors on the throne, and that’s what the next quote is all about.
Hebrews 1:5b Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? (ESV)
This comes from 2 Samuel 7, where God promises to establish David’s throne forever and be a Father to all who sit on that throne. This is why Israel’s kings received the title, “Son of God.” So, when Jesus claimed that title for Himself, He was claiming to be Israel’s King, who would rule the world someday, according to the ancient prophets (Psalm 2:8-9; Isaiah 42:1).
Jesus is Lord, who deserves the worship of creation’s highest beings, the angels themselves. That’s what the third quote is all about
Hebrews 1:6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” (ESV)
The “firstborn” here is a title, not a reference to the timing of His birth. It means first in rank and was a title given to the head of the tribe, whether or not he was actually born first. However, Jesus is not just the head of His tribe; He is the head, “the firstborn”, of all the world!
And as such, every angel should worship Him. This is a quote from Psalm 97, which talks about YHWH, Jehovah God Himself, who is King of the universe! Well, here, the Bible applies that Psalm to Jesus Christ. He is YHWH God Himself, the King of the universe, who deserves the worship of creation’s highest beings, the angels themselves.
The angels are but servants, who don’t deserve the honor Jesus does. They don’t deserve to be worshipped like Jesus. That’s what the fourth quote from Psalm 104 is all about:
Hebrews 1:7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” (ESV)
The angels are quite spectacular creatures! They are like the wind and flames of fire, but they are only “ministers”, servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John Paton was a 19th Century Scottish missionary on the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific, now known as the nation of Vanuatu. 19 years before Paton went to the islands (1858), the first missionaries there were killed and eaten minutes after they arrived (1839). Paton was warned, “You will be eaten by cannibals!” (“You Will Be Eaten by Cannibals! Lessons from the Life of John G. Paton”, Courage in the Cause of Missions, 2000 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors; www.desiringgod.org/ messages/you-will-be-eaten-by-cannibals-lessons-from-the-life-of-john-g-paton)
He and his wife went anyway, and soon afterward found themselves surrounded by hostile natives. They had approached their house after dark, intending to set the house on fire and kill the Paton’s as they escaped. Paton and his wife prayed all during that terror-filled night, and when daylight came, they were amazed to see their attackers leave.
A year later, the chief of the tribe came to faith in Christ, and Paton asked him why he didn’t burn their house down that night. The chief was surprised by the question, and asked Paton, “Who were all those men with you there?” Paton didn’t remember anybody else being there that night but he and his wife. However, the chief said he was afraid to attack, because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling their house (Bible Illustrator #143-149, 1/1992.1)
Those big men in shining garments were the angels God had sent to protect His people. They’re spectacular creatures, but they are only servants.
On the other hand, Jesus is the Sovereign Lord! Look at the fourth Old Testament quote.
Hebrews 1:8-9 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.” (ESV)
This is from Psalm 45, a wedding psalm for Israel’s King. As the King comes to get His bride, the people praise Him for His greatness, and this King is so great, they address Him as “God.” Did you see it there in verse 8? – “Your throne, O GOD, is forever and ever.” And then again in verse 9 – “Therefore GOD, your God, has anointed you.”
Israel recognized God as their true King, no human monarch. Now, Israel’s kings represented God by virtue of their position. But only one King could actually BE God by virtue of His nature, and that King is Jesus Christ.
He is Israel’s true King, the only One God Himself and the creator of the universe! That’s what the 6th Old Testament quote says about Jesus. Look at it.
Hebrews 1:10-12 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” (ESV)
This is a quote from Psalm 102 where it talks about YHWH God as the Creator of all, who will outlive it all. Well, here that Creator is identified as Jesus Christ. He is the unchanging, eternal God, who made it all.
That’s good news, my friends! We are NOT the product of chance. We are made with a purpose, perfectly designed by our Creator! Take a look! (Show video: From Atom to Whole Universe)
Isn’t that amazing! How could all of that happen by chance? There’s no way! Such design requires a Designer, and that Designer is Jesus!
One of the most astonishing discoveries astrophysicists have made in recent decades is that if gravity were just 0.000000000001 (one-trillionth of one) percent stronger, our universe would have reversed course long ago. It would have collapsed catastrophically, ending in a big crunch, the opposite of the big bang. Likewise, if gravity were just 0.000000000001 (one-trillionth of one) percent weaker, our universe would have flown apart so rapidly that planets, stars, galaxies—all the basic constituents of the universe—would never have had a chance to coalesce. We'd all be dust in the wind.
Is it an accident that everything turned out so well?
Sir Fred Hoyle, the late University of Cambridge astronomer and avowed atheist, didn't think so, not for a second. After doing innumerable computations, Hoyle discovered that the odds of our being accidents of nature are comparable to the likelihood of a tornado sweeping through a junkyard and assembling scrap metal into a fully functioning Boeing 747. “So small as to be negligible,” he said, following his calculations, “even if a tornado were to blow through enough junkyards to fill the whole universe.” Hoyle said, “One arrives at the conclusion that biomaterials with their amazing measure or order must be the outcome of intelligent design.” (Dr. Michael Guillen, Amazing Truths, Zondervan, 2016, pages 68-69; www.PreachingToday.com)
And you and I know the Designer. He is identified as Jesus Christ right here in Hebrews 1.
Unlike the angels, Jesus made it all, and He is Lord of all! That’s the message of the 7th and last quote from the Old Testament. Look at it.
Hebrews 1:13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? (ESV)
This is a quote from Psalm 110, where YHWH invites our Lord to sit at His right hand, the place of all power, the place of all authority.
God never gave any of the angels that kind of authority. In fact, when one of the angels tried to seize that kind of authority, God cast him out of heaven. Lucifer, the highest archangel, lost his place in heaven when he sought the place of all authority (Isaiah 14:12-15).
It’s a place reserved for only One Person, the God of the universe. And that person is identified here as Jesus Christ, the Lord! He and he alone is the Sovereign Lord. The angels are but servants.
Hebrews 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (ESV)
The angels serve those who will “inherit salvation.” In other words, the angels serve us, who have trusted Christ!
On a blustery winter day many years ago (1978), Susan and Richard Russell drove from their home in Miami to a deserted Miami Beach. They were on a mission of mercy to rid their English springer spaniel of a bad case of fleas. They had tried powders and baths, but nothing worked. Some neighbors suggested taking him to the beach and getting him into the salt water.
When they arrived at the beach, their 6-year-old daughter, Hilary, made a beeline for the water and waded into trouble. Her parents yelled at her to come in, but it was too late. Hilary was caught in a riptide. Susan, a former lifeguard, “knew” her child was going to drown. There was no one around, and she wasn’t strong enough to fight the riptide.
Then Richard suddenly noticed a dark-haired man of about 30 standing about eight feet beyond Hilary. When the stranger saw she was in trouble, Richard says, he “just plucked her out of the water and held her in his arms.”
The man, with little effort, strode through the waves, which reached only to his chest, and back on shore, he put Hilary in Susan’s arms. Susan said, “Thank you, thank God,” and the man replied, “That’s okay” and smiled. The Russells embraced, but when they looked back, the man was gone.
Back home, Susan named him “Hilary's Angel”, saying “It occurred to me that maybe he really was an angel.” (Peter Castro, Tom Gliatto, Samantha Miller, “Angels in America,” People, 12-22-97, p. 79; www.PreachingToday.com)
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of stories like that, because angels really do exist. They exist to serve God’s people.
They are servants, but Jesus is the Sovereign Lord, through whom God spoke to the world. When other forms of communication failed to get our attention, God spoke to us in a Son, the Son of God, the Sovereign King of the Universe. That is to say God Himself became one of us and paid us a personal visit. Therefore, we better…
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION and not ignore what Jesus has to say.
Listen closely to the Good News of Christ, and heed His message.
Hebrews 2:1 Therefore – since God communicated to us personally through Jesus – we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Pay attention so you don’t drift. Listen closely to Christ, so you don’t wander off course.
Years ago, Charles Paul Conn, president of Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, talked about seeing a Yellow Pages ad for a restaurant in the Atlanta area called “The Church of God Grill.” He was struck by the unusual name for a chicken restaurant, so he called and asked the manager for the back-story. Here’s what the manager told him:
“We started a little church down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. People liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After a while we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving the chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that’s Church of God Grill” (Charles Paul Conn, Making It Happen; Charles Tucker, “Remember Who You Are”, Tucks Blog, http://denbigh.org/tucks-blog/remember-who-you-are/)
How sad, especially since the restaurant itself has since closed its doors. You won’t find it listed in the yellow pages anymore. That church drifted from its original purpose and eventually ceased to exist altogether.
Don’t think it can’t happen here. That’s why we must listen closely to Christ. The Gospel has to be at the center of everything we do; otherwise we are wandering off course. Pay attention to Jesus so you don’t drift.
More than that, pay attention to Jesus so you aren’t disciplined. Listen closely to Christ, so you don’t get in trouble.
Hebrews 2:2-3a For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
The “message declared by the angels” was actually the Old Testament Law. You see, according to Acts 7:53 and Galatians 3:19, God transmitted His law through angels, and that law had consequences for disobedience. How much more so if we disregard Christ, who is far greater than the angels.
Now, this is NOT a warning to unbelievers who are unsaved. This is a warning to believers, to you and me who have trusted Christ and have already received His salvation. Do you see it there in verse 3: “How shall WE escape if WE neglect such a great salvation?” The author includes himself in this warning, along with his readers, whom he calls “holy brothers” in the beginning of the next chapter (Hebrews 3:1).
These are not people who have rejected their salvation. These are people who are in danger ignoring or neglecting the salvation they already have from Christ. You see, there are a lot of people who trust Christ for their salvation, but they never go any further with the Lord. They don’t take the time to understand and appropriate the salvation that God provided them. They just go on their merry way, neglecting the riches of heaven at their disposal, careless and clueless as to the power that’s available to live as Christ wants them to live. Then they wonder why they get into so much trouble.
Don’t be that kind of Christian. Get to know who you are in Christ, what resources are at your disposal, and live the life He wants you to live! It’s all contained right here in the New Testament, so at least read it every once in a while; pay attention to what you read; and with God’s help, put it into practice.
Dr. Paul Borden, former pastor and seminary professor, talks about getting his first driver’s license. At the time, his father tried to give Paul a short lecture on car maintenance. He told Paul, “There's one gauge you never have to worry about – the fuel gauge. If you run out of fuel, the car stops.”
Paul’s first car was a '51 Studebaker – “twenty miles to the quart”, he says, and all he worried about was the gas gauge. He couldn’t let it get past half. Then, a year later, as Paul was going down the freeway, the back wheels locked and never came unlocked again. That’s when he understood his father’s advice, which he had ignored. Pay attention to the oil gauge; because if you run out of oil, you're in deep trouble. Pay attention to the temperature gauge; because if you run out of water, you're in deep trouble. On the other hand, if you run out of gas, the car just stops, but there’s no damage done. (Paul Borden, "Choices," Preaching Today, Tape No. 68; www.PreachingToday.com)
Too many Christians are paying attention to the wrong gauges: the money gauge, the popularity gauge, or the comfort gauge. But those are the ones you don’t have to worry about! If you run out of money, no big deal! You just stop buying stuff until the next paycheck. No!
The only gauge you need to worry about is your relationship with Jesus Christ. Whatever you do, don’t neglect that “gauge”, because if you do, your whole life gets locked up. Pay attention to Jesus, so you don’t drift. Pay attention to Jesus, so you aren’t disciplined.
And finally, pay attention to Jesus, because His Word is dependable. What we have right here in the New Testament is certain. It’s sure.
Hebrews 2:3b-4 It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (ESV)
The New Testament is not just a bunch of fanciful stories made up by its authors. No! The New Testament is eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and did, which God confirmed with miracles. You see, the primary criteria for recognizing the authority of a New Testament book was its authorship by someone who had direct contact with Jesus. The authors of the New Testament were eyewitness, whose testimony was confirmed with miracles.
That’s why Peter healed the lame man at the temple (Acts 3) and did many other miracles. That’s why Paul raised Eutychus from the dead (Acts 20). He was a man who had fallen asleep during one of Paul’s sermons and fell out a window. God was confirming their eyewitness testimony with miracles!
And we have their eyewitness testimonies recorded right here in our New Testaments. Unlike any other work of ancient literature, nearly 10,000 manuscripts attest to the accuracy of those testimonies. So you can be sure that what you read in the Bible is what Jesus and His apostles actually said.
God has indeed spoken to us in His Son, so pay close attention to Him. Pay attention, so you don’t drift and find yourself shipwrecked on the rocks of disobedience.
Some time ago, a rash of flying accidents for single-engine planes occurred across North America. When a comprehensive study was conducted of 44 of those fatal accidents involving Cirrus aircraft, a few lessons stood out.
First, all but one of the accidents listed pilot-related causes.
Second, and most surprisingly, experienced pilots were responsible for a majority of the accidents. A few of the accidents were caused by pilots with less than 150 hours of flight time, but over 75 percent of the accidents were caused by pilots with over 400 hours of flight time. Apparently, those pilots assumed that because they already had a lot of hours under their belts they could cut corners and get sloppy.
By contrast, beginning pilots with fewer hours were extremely careful, even painstaking in their preflight routines, meticulously inspecting every rivet of the airplane. They did it by the book.
The study concluded that pilots who get overconfident and stop pursuing ongoing safety training are four times more likely to have a fatal accident. (Dave Hirschman, "Surprising Cirrus Stats," AOPA Pilot blog, 12-10-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
Let that be a warning especially to those of us who have followed Christ for some time, the 400-flying-hour disciples. Overconfidence can lead us to neglect the Book. We stop studying the Word of God. We compromise on devotions… We slump on allowing the standards of Scripture and the Holy Spirit to inspect every “rivet” in our hearts and lives. We go on day after day cutting corners, wondering why we lose power on the climbs, and we stall. (Wayne Cordeiro, Jesus: Pure and Simple, Bethany House, 2012, pp. 121-122; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t let that happen to you. Pay attention to your relationship with Christ, so you don’t crash and burn, but rather soar to heights you never thought possible.
