Christmas Day, 2002
Hebrews 1:1-5

The children of celebrity fathers often have a tough time. Kathy Cronkite experienced problems as the daughter of Walter Cronkite. Family meals in restaurants were often interrupted when fans approached the table to ask her father for his autograph. And when people did talk to Kathy, the first words out of their mouths often were to ask her what it was like to be Walter Cronkite's daughter.

The son of a TV movie star carried a similar burden. He remembers: "When I was a kid in grade school I knew my father was special because of the way my teachers fawned on me. In high school it wasn't just the teachers, it was also my friends. I never knew who my real friends were because I found out that a lot of them wanted to come over to my house just to see my father. The only guys I felt comfortable with were kids whose fathers were as well known as Dad was."

"What was the message my father gave me? He said very little to me because he wasn't around much. I saw him more on TV than in person."

A father's relationship to his son can be a blessing or a curse depending upon the father's love and wisdom. It is curious that the Church has appointed Hebrews chapter one as our epistle lesson for Christmas Day. The theme has to do with the fatherhood of God and the sonship of Jesus. We'll see what this has to do with Christmas, and how it applies to us now. Reading Hebrews 1:1-5. [Read them.]

"I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son." Originally the prophet Nathan comforted King David with these words (2 Samuel 7:14). The promise Nathan delivered to David is known as the Davidic Covenant. David's son Solomon would build the temple and God would establish his throne forever. That word "forever" is key. A throne that lasts forever points beyond Solomon to Jesus. In Christ, the Davidic Covenant finds fulfillment. The author of the letter to the Hebrews does not hesitate to use these words to prove the divine sonship of the Lord Jesus. God never told any of the angels, "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son."

How was God a Father to Jesus? How was Jesus a Son to God? No doubt, God is also the Father of the Church, and the Father of all believers. In a far more fundamental sense, however, the name is applied to the First Person in the Trinity in His relation to the Second Person. This is the original Fatherhood of God. All earthly fatherhood is but a faint reflection of God the Father. There is great mystery involved in the persons of the Trinity. On the one hand all three persons are one in their essential being. The Athanasian Creed that we just recited makes that abundantly clear. With regards to ontology, or being, the Persons of the Trinity are not subordinate the one to the other. On the other hand, in terms of creation and redemption there is a hierarchical order in the Persons of the Trinity. The Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Spirit third. The Father generates the Son, the Son is generated by the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son. Hebrews chapter one focuses on this special relationship between the first Two Persons of the Trinity.

In sending the Son to earth, God the Father planned to give Him great glory. As we survey the life of Christ from His manger to His tomb we must keep that in mind. God the Father's long-term goal was to bless His Son. Jesus was to end up more blessed than if he had never suffered His life upon earth. This explains why God dealt with Jesus the way He did. Even at His birth the Father blessed His Son. How did He bless and glorify Him?

God the Father sent John the Baptizer to herald His Son's approach. He commissioned angels to proclaim His advent to the shepherds. He surrounded His mother Mary and Him with worshippers, the wise men, who laid royal gifts at the baby's feet. He protected, with marvelous care, His early life from the designs of the murderous Herod. He arranged the Lord's long apprenticeship under Joseph as a carpenter. At His baptism in the Jordan River, the Father displayed a dove as a sign of the Holy Spirit's descent upon Him. The Father at that moment audibly announced His satisfaction with His Son: "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased" (Luke 3:22). During His fast of forty days and nights in the wilderness, He comforted Him in His hours of satanic temptation and then sent angels of encouragement. He spoke to Him many times. He answered His prayers. At the Mount of Transfiguration He glorified Him with rays of blinding radiance. He sustained Him in all His suffering. He verified Him as His Son in everything. He raised Him from the dead, exalted Him to His own right hand, and made Him King over Heaven and earth.

In these ways and many more we see how God the Father cared for, and loved, God the Son. However, it would be a mistake to merely focus on the happy times. All along, God was firm with Him. Tough love is the other side of the coin. Consider the passion and agony of Christ.

God the Father humbled His only-begotten Son in the dust. He made Him poor. He exposed Him to the jest and the scorn of cruel people. He handed Him the bitterest cup that had ever been drunk. He afflicted His body; He afflicted His mind; He afflicted His spirit. He drove the spear into His soul. He let "His own friends and family" misunderstand Him, abandon Him, deny Him, and betray Him. He left Him to be hunted down by persecutors. Yea, the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. During His ministry in Judea, God the Father let His Son suffer fatigue and tedium. He placed Him in constant contact with murderous people, with the proud and conceited. He subjected Him to the most outrageous insults. He laid on Him a mountain of work to do. He forsook Him. He made Him go through impenetrable darkness. He let His body and soul suffer sorrow and misery. He cast him into Hades. He treated Him as the utter outcast of heaven and earth. On the cross, he loaded upon Him the sins of the elect. He permitted Him to hang on the Tree and shed His blood. He cursed Him with the full fury of His holy wrath. God the Father dealt with the Son of God, the holy, the pure, the immaculate One, as if He were all sin, and nothing but sin. The words of the prophet Isaiah were fulfilled when he wrote, "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him."

And this is the way in which God fulfilled His promise to His own Son: "I will be to Him a Father." This is what a Father's love is. This was the Father's method with His Son. The incarnation was a strange combination of love and tenderness, pain and death. It was all for the purpose of bringing about the final reward of glory, an eternity of love and joy. The ultimate purpose was not pain, but peace; not death, but everlasting life.

Never forget that in your own dark hours. Never forget how God was "a Father" to Jesus. He is also your Father. In the midst of trials keep in mind the big picture, the long-term purpose, the final reward. God rules the world, He is your Father, and ultimately He plans the best things for His children. Although in this life His blessed purpose is often hard to see, know that all things work together for good to those who love God.

Second, how was Jesus a Son? We have seen how God was a Father. How did Christ behave as a Son to His Father?

Jesus always set His heart to do His Father's will. He was always willing. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. Under interrogation, He did not shame His Father. He never turned back. He never gave up. He pressed on constantly to the cross. When He was an adolescent, he insisted to everybody that He "must be about His Father's business." He could have, at any moment, called on twelve thousand angels to help Him, yet He never did. He never shirked His redemptive duty in order to escape hardship.

Furthermore, He maintained the closest communion with God the Father, even at the very time His Father was chastening Him. He poured out all His sorrows to His Father in prayer; and never, for an instant, mistrusted Him.

The absence of pride and selfishness is also astonishing. Every word He said, and every mighty act He performed, He gave all the glory to His Father. In the power He displayed, in His ministry of teaching, and in the compassion He showed to others in His miracles and healings; in all these things, He gave the credit to God the Father alone.

To the very end He was obedient to His Father. Living, he magnified Him; dying, He trusted in Him; rising, He praised Him; ascending, He returned to Him. The center of every thought was, "My Father will!" The longing of His soul was, "My Father's Glory."

He did not attempt to elude His sonship. Jesus Christ was infinitely great; in His divinity, He was of one and the same substance with the Father, and yet being equal, He made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:7). He was obedient, self-sacrificial, humble, devoted, trusting, "He was a Son."

If you want to know what a Father is, follow the life of Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary. If you want to know what a Son is, follow the life of Christ from Bethlehem to Calvary. On this Christmas Day, as we contemplate the Babe lying in a manger, it is fitting to remember God's promise, "I will be to Him a Father; and He shall be to me a Son."

What does the Divine Father-Son relationship have to do with you and me today? If Christ is the Son of the Father, He can do all things. If the Son asks the Father anything, the Father will not refuse His Son. Our Savior is a High Priest forever at the right hand of God, and He is always interceding for you and me. The Son is our only Mediator and Advocate.

Moreover, the Son reveals the Father. In order to know the Father, you study the Son. For "He who has seen the Son has seen the Father" (John 14:9). All things that belong to the Father, belong to the Son. Are you in need? Go to your elder brother Jesus. "All that the Father has, are the Son's." In prayer, ask the Lord Jesus for your needs. As a King, the Son has command over the kingdom. He is the one who prepares your mansion. Do you want a place in Heaven? Seek it in the Son.

The mystery of our salvation is wrapped up in, "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son." When Christ was born, this day, He was born not a Son only, but a Representative Son, a Son of the New Covenant. To those who believe, the perfect righteousness of the Son is transferred to their account. By grace, they are declared justified. They are born into the Family of God. Christ becomes their Savior and Elder Brother.

What God is to Christ, God is to them that have been born again. Is Christ your Savior today? If so, you are in union with Christ. Just as God said to Jesus, "I will be to Him a Father," so He says to you, "I will be to you a Father." What a wonderful promise and privilege! Can you grasp it? When God tells you, "I will be to you a Father," it is for time and eternity. He is a Father to you both now and forever. There may be chastening, trials, affliction. God may seem to be absent for a while; but still He is your Father; faithful, winsome, loving, unchanging. He is always your Father.

The sonship of our Lord Jesus, the fatherhood of God, and the corresponding doctrine of adoption are some of the richest and most comforting truths you will encounter on this side of eternity. They are for you to learn and live this Christmas Day. Come now to the Son. He offers you His Body and Blood. Come to your Heavenly Father. Give Him your love and gratitude.

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