are not the traditional birth narrative, nor are they the non-traditional birth narrative. They're not a birth narrative at all. But they do have to do with our Lord Jesus. And we celebrate the fact that he was born because of who he is and what he came to do. And so this morning our focus is primarily on what he came to do. But for such a short message, I got an awful lot of scripture here for you. If you've been here for the Advent season you know, and if you haven't, we've been looking during the past four weeks at the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he had glory as God before his birth 2,000 years ago, that he rules and reigns, that his coming to earth is for a purpose, and that he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead as we confessed earlier in the service. This morning the focus really is on just a few words at the end of verse 17 of Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 2. But as I read to you these texts, take note of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the reason I want to read them to you. And then we'll focus, as I said, on just a few verses. From Colossians chapter 1, for he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation, for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things had been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning, the first born from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything where it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of this cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formally alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister from Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, speaking of our Lord Jesus, and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power when he had made purification of sins, the verse goes on, but skipping down to chapter 2 and verses 14 to 18. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil, and might free those who, through fear of death, were subject to slavery all their lives, for assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made by his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, or since he himself was tempted and that which he has suffered, he is able also to come to the aid of those who are tempted. So how many of you have watched a movie in 3D? Let me see your hand. All right, and most of you guys have. How many of you own a 3D TV? All right. I have never seen 3D, at least not yet. Except for maybe as a kid looking at comic books, they look silly little blue and red glasses or what have you, but I don't think that counts. I was listening to, I think, probably had to be in PR. I hardly listened to anything else on the radio, but it was about something like a helmet that you put on for 3D. And they said, other than it being completely isolating, I don't know where everyone around you, if there is, you see with just vivid high definition clarity, whatever you're watching in 3D. That's kind of amazing. They have high definition TVs today, you know why, right? The screens are so much bigger. When we only had 13 inches, that was good. And we liked it that way. The picture was plenty vivid, even if it was just black and white. But with HD, with high definition, it's clear it's more vivid. You see details that you might not notice otherwise. And I use that as an illustration to talk about what the angels proclaim to the shepherds, right? Because I think they see with vivid clarity him who was born in Bethlehem. And because they see that he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of God's nature, they can't help but shout, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those on whom his favor rests. They see, don't they? The glory of the one who is to come. And we have been looking at that, like I say, over the past few weeks and want that image to stay in our minds that he is the glorious one. He is the one that the angels knew created them in all things, visible and invisible thrones and dominions. Rulers all of it, he created everything. And he is the exact representation of the Father's nature and he does uphold all things by the word of his power. And this is the one who was born. We talked about last week, at least a little bit of why. Why did he have to be born? Why do we celebrate? It's not that we celebrate and mark his 2000th birthday or something like that. We celebrate and mark the fact that he did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He took care of our problems, our biggest problems. We looked at what I called our second biggest problem last week that he conquered the devil and he dealt with the devil's accusation. And I said, that was our second biggest because our first biggest is the fact that we have offended a holy God who is angry about it and just about it and we have hell to pay. That's our biggest problem. And I'd like to just kind of direct our thoughts there for a few minutes today so that in our celebrating, we give thanks to our great God who, for his own glory, sent his son and who for loves sake sent his son that we might be reconciled, friends with God, children of God. And I thought about that this morning that Christmas season is a season where families get together and those who are discouraged during Christmas often it's because of something interfering with the family, the death of a loved one or bad family experience something. But for most of us, we long, we travel to come together to be as families and how grateful we should be that God, the creator is God the Father who sent his son to redeem us, that we might be brothers and sisters of his son and children of God whom we call Father. That's just wonderful. Well, if we're going to look at this, I want to limit my words to just a few phrases. It's on your bulletin on page five on the outline, verse 17, just almost the last line there, one word on the middle line. It tells us, therefore, he, that's Jesus, had to be made like his brother and that's us in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God. Now, I'm not going to talk about that and things pertaining to God, that phrase, but I want you to know, I'm talking about it as explaining what's in the next phrase, the part we are looking at. And these are the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Jesus came to be our high priest to do things for us, things pertaining to God, that is to make propitiation for the sins of the people. We'll look just at that phrase and to understand making propitiation, it seems we need to start with the sins of the people, so we'll start there. And I've tried to put the outline in words that are very personal. If you are here as one who hasn't embraced Jesus Christ, if you don't believe in the faith of Christianity, you may not want to fill this out because I've put it in terms of those who do believe. If you're exploring and you want to write it there to get the way to what the Word of God has to say, that I think would be appropriate and not hypocritical, but I just wanted to spell that out. I guess at the beginning, that the outline is the interpretation of the text made personal for you. And so the first fill in the blank is this, I have sinned against God and God must punish sin. Again, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, the sins of the people is the phrase we're thinking about here. And thinking about the fact that we've sinned, it uses the word sin, and I'd like to define that for you by giving you actually three words from Exodus chapter 34. You may remember that Israel was redeemed out of Egypt by God, and as they were traveling about, the God gave them the 10 commandments on the Holy Hill, and Moses stayed up on that hill to talk with God in about 40 days down the road. The people got tired of waiting, made a golden calf, and there was a big problem. Well, Moses during that problem asked to see God's glory, and he was allowed to go to a mountain and hear the voice of God. See the glory of God, at least the hindquarters has God passed by, and God spoke to him. And in verse seven, just breaking into God, revealing himself, God says about himself that he keeps loving kindness for thousand, and he says, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin, and yet by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquities of the Father and on it goes. So he's forgiving, and yet doesn't leave sins unpunished, very important to this idea of making propitiation. But those three words, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, we'll start with sin because that's the Hebrew's word. It means to miss the mark, to fall short. In fact, it's hard to think of it without Romans 3.23, at least in my mind, for all that's in and fallen short of the glory of God, we've missed the mark, we've erred, we haven't done all that God wanted us to do. That's what's behind that word, and God being just requires us to do what is good, what is just, what is holy, what it looks like to be made in his image, because that's what we are, the image bears of God. The idea of iniquity is a little bit different in the Hebrew, it's the idea to bend or to twist, to twist and therefore to distort. It's kind of like what the devil did in that first lie that he told, when he met with Adam and Eve in the garden, you will surely not die, he's twisting the truth. There was a real death that happened. There was a spiritual death that happened, right? We'll talk about that more in just a second. But that's that idea of iniquity, and then transgression is just rebellion, so there's kind of a descent, right? From just kind of missing the mark to twisting what is true to just outright rebellion. Those are kind of the words, when I say that I have sinned against God, I really have all three of those ideas in mind, and I think the scriptures do too, that's why we need to have propitiation because God is just. Just a few kind of word pictures about the idea of I have sinned to help kind of put it in our mind, and I'll use Bible word pictures today, but one is enslavement. The Bible talks about our addiction to sin. That would be a modern word picture, wouldn't it? As enslavement, that we can't help ourselves, that the good that we would we don't do, but we do the very evil we don't. We even know when we're doing wrong, and it's not necessarily that we're hypocrites, although we are, we can't help ourselves. We're like slaves. And so the scriptures talk about our being enslaved to sin. We used as an assurance of pardon Titus chapter three, if we had started just a verse earlier, what it said, for we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, pending our lives in malice and envy, and on it goes miserable stuff, but the assurance of pardon is great, but God in his kindness and such. It's enslavery. The another picture would be that of well being dead. In the day you eat, you will surely die, and Paul will take that up in Ephesians chapter two and say, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. It's like that enslavement, if there's a third one I would use, and I'll do this one rather quickly. Those two are kind of work with everyone, with all of humanity, we've all fallen short. Whether we're believers or unbelievers, the God who created us would say, you haven't done what I've wanted, you're not reflecting accurately the image, and I've referred to Adam and even, they would say, yeah, it started there. But for the people who profess faith, who say, I'm a Christian, and yet by their lives there's no indication that they even want to fight against sin. It's not like they're enslaved to it and fighting it, or something like that, but they just kind of like, yeah, but I'm gonna do whatever I want. There is another word, another word picture, and that is of adultery, spiritual adultery. And I use that because for me that conjures up that other aspect of it, the punishment aspect, right? Because if, well, how do I say this tenderly, if Sarah committed adultery, I would just be, against me, I would be so filled with rage and anger, the hurt and all that, yeah, but we can, I think God gives us that word picture so we can understand that the stuff is terrible, that it shouldn't be that way, that vows are broken, that this is horrible what the person has done. And that does move us to that other part, right? Not only I have sinned, but God, because God is just, he must punish sin. And he does, that's what the scriptures teach all over the place, that in his very nature, he's just, that he's always just, and he'll always do what is right. And that has to do with sin. And so that confusing verse from Exodus, that he forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Wow. There must be punishment, because he's just, his nature won't allow for anything else. So how does he do that? Well, propitiation. Propitiation, common word, we use it all the time, right? Hey, man, what are you so upset about? Why don't you just be propiticated or something? Okay, we'll talk about that one just a little bit more, then. I put it in these words for you on your outline. Jesus took the just punishment for my sins, the just punishment for my sins. And really, there's two aspects here I want to talk about. The just punishment is written out, and that's good. I guess I'm glad I have it there. If I had it to do over, I may put another word, a different way of saying it, and I will say it to you in a minute, but just that just punishment, that sin really is treason, rebellion. Offensive to God is true, and that it's punishment, because it's against God is so severe. That's the cross, right? But something that I refer to with the adultery picture is something we need to keep in mind. When Jesus was born, he was born to reconcile us to God, and that meant he had to take care of this sin problem. He had to satisfy the punishment. There had to be the punishment of sins, because God had clearly said, yet I will by no means pardon the guilty. There has to be punishment. This is important, where there's forgiveness. There's still a debt. There's still a substance that has to be dealt with, and even for God, that substance had to be dealt with for him to forgive that. There still had to be justice. When we forgive, it's a struggle, depending on the size of the offense against us, and we can ruminate on it, and why? And it's just not right, and how do we let it go? And the way we do it is by giving it to God because God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And for the believer, it's like God is just, and he will deal with it, whether at the cross for that person, or for that person, he's just, and we're able to forgive that way. But there's always a cost. There's always a burden to be born. That's justice. But we need to see that there's also wrath, there's also anger. The wrath of God is poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, we escape the wrath of God and propitiation has to do with both of them. God's justice is satisfied at the cross because Jesus took partaking in our humanity, dies in our places, our substitute. And so a real human is dying on the cross, justice is being paid, but then there's the wrath problem, the anger, the fury of the Lord. That's the, by the way, wrath in the Greek, it's orge. We get the word orge, it has to do with this frenzied, kind of almost out of control idea. And we might not like to think about God being that way, but the scriptures don't have any problem talking about God that way. They say that the wrath of God is poured out, that he's angry with the wicked every day. And so this is what we celebrate, that God who is just and loving and has set his affection on you, wants you, and deals with our biggest problem. He satisfies what we say, divine justice, ultimate justice, cosmic justice, holy justice, justice on the God scale of things. And all his anger, all his wrath, all his fury, and think about the prayer, the art prayed, all the pain, all the suffering, all the misery, it's okay to be mad about some of this stuff. You know, it's just wrong. And God is, but for you who call on his name, that wrath is totally consumed at the cross. It's no longer there. And that's why the text will talk about making peace through the blood at the cross, peace. There is therefore now no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. And that takes us to the table who are in Christ Jesus, propitiation in verse 14. Therefore he had since the children's share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through his death he might, et cetera, it goes, into the context, the final fill in the blanks for this third point on your outline is the Lord's supper, the Lord's supper affirms, God's grace to me. It's incarnation, it blows my mind. Look at these words, we don't have, I just, we're not going to take the time today to explore this fully, but let me, at least give you something to chew on while you're eating steak or whatever else you're going to be eating today. Look at these words from 1 Corinthians 10, 16, and 17. It's not the cup of blessing which we bless, a sharing in the blood of Christ. You know it's talking about communion, right? It's not the cup of blessing. This is it, a sharing, you know what the word sharing is? Are you Greek scholars? Coenania, right? Coenania fellowship is how we usually translate it. Sharing, partnership, a participation in ownership in. Is not the cup of blessing which we share, which we take part in, which we have ownership in, a sharing in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread that, let me find it and read it, that which we break, a sharing in the body of Christ, same thing. Since therefore there is one bread, we who are many are one body, we all partake of the same bread. Now that verse in 14, therefore since the children share Coenania, same word, since we have as our common ownership, flesh and blood, we all have flesh and blood. It's what we share in our common humanity, right? Since we, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partuckets communion language. He partucked the same. He was made like us so that when Jesus tells the Jewish people,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will have no life in you. For my blood, my body is true food and my blood is true drink. Or when he took the bread and broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. He was taking, he was saying, look, I have become man. I have partaken of what you hold in common as all humanity, so that justice would fall on me on your behalf, so that wrath would fall on me for you and that in me because we have fellowship, because we have this common bond you're forgiven, drink from this, all of you. For this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many or the forgiveness of sins, Christ himself left the glories of heaven to be born and to live a perfect life that he might be a faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. That's great. Father, such knowledge is too wonderful, just amazing. Love and justice, mercy, not wrath, how amazing.
We come to this table, we thank you for your mercy and grace. We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We set this bread and this cup apart from their common usage to represent and to be the sign and seal of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And our hearts ponder his being made man, partaking and flesh and blood
in order that he might serve as our high priest before you.
Thank you for the forgiveness of sins and we pledge our lives to you through Christ our Lord, we pray, amen.