The Fullness of Time: Christmas According to the Epistles

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 24
• Hymn — Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Apostles' Creed
• Scripture Reading — Isaiah 12
• Hymn — While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
• Sermon
• Hymn — As with Gladness Men of Old
• Benediction

---

Sermon Title: The Fullness of Time: Christmas According to the Epistles

Scripture: Hebrews 2:14-18

I. The Salvation of the Incarnate High Priest

A. The children share in flesh and blood; Christ likewise partook of the same (Hebrews 2:14-15)

1. Christ became man because mankind, not angels, is the object of his redemption (Hebrews 2:16)
2. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin (Hebrews 10:4); Christ must offer his own righteous blood as our perfect substitute

B. The medieval Ransom Theory held that mankind's greatest problem is Satan; Anselm of Canterbury corrected this — mankind's greatest problem is a holy and righteous God

1. Christ comes to make propitiation for sin (Hebrews 2:17) — to satisfy and appease the wrath of God, not Satan
2. Satan's power over mankind is likened to a blackmailer: his weapon is the information (God's righteous condemnation) he holds over sinners
3. When Christ is put to open shame at the cross, bearing the full cup of God's wrath, Satan's greatest weapon — the fear of death — is vanquished
4. Martyrdom mocks Satan; the Christian who dies confident in Christ's finished work witnesses that death's power is destroyed

II. The Service of the Incarnate High Priest

A. The writer emphasizes the reality and fullness of Christ's incarnation

1. Hebrews 2:14 — the Greek places emphasis on blood first: Christ most truly and really took on our blood
2. Hebrews 2:17 — he was made like his brothers in every respect
3. Philippians 2 — he did not grasp equality with God but made himself nothing, an infant utterly dependent on his Father

B. Christ's service to God is one of total, childlike dependence from the womb to the cross

1. John 5:19 — "The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing"
2. Christ's faith is the model of utter dependence on the Father — the childlike faith he calls us to (Matthew 18:3)
3. Even in Gethsemane, facing the cup of God's wrath, he says "Not my will, but yours" — never leaving his Father's lap
4. Application: husbands, wives, parents, children — does our daily faith reflect independent self-reliance or infant-like dependence on the Father through Christ?

III. The Sympathy of the Incarnate High Priest

A. Christ's humanity is the necessary basis of his merciful and faithful high-priestly ministry (Hebrews 2:17)

1. Without total solidarity with those he represents, he cannot fulfill his high-priestly duty in a merciful and faithful fashion
2. As the high priest represented the people before God, Christ cannot represent us unless he has been made like us in every respect
3. The analogy of veterans: only those who have experienced war truly understand it — Christ has faced the full battle with sin, death, and Satan

B. Christ's temptation was more intense than ours, not less (Hebrews 2:18)

1. What relieves the pain of temptation for us is giving in to sin — Christ never gave in, so he bore the full weight of temptation without relief
2. He faced the cup of God's wrath and said "Your will, not mine" — a depth of suffering under temptation we will never know

C. The intercession Christ currently makes at the right hand of the Father is warm, caring, zealous, and sympathizing — not cold or mechanical

1. He helps those who are tempted as a merciful and faithful high priest who has himself suffered
2. Assurance: those found in Christ by faith have a fully divine and fully human intercessor pleading for them before the Father right now