Well, let's turn together in God's word to the book of Hebrews this morning. Hebrews chapter four, and we will be looking together at verses 14 through 16. To give us some context, I'm gonna read for us from verse 11. Hebrews four, beginning in verse 11. Let us, therefore, strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So far, the reading from God's word this morning, may He add its blessing to our hearts. Please be seated. Well, this is the Lord's day, right before Christmas Eve and Christmas day. And so let us consider together something of the glory of God in the incarnation. Now in the Gospels, we have the great narratives, the stories, not the true stories, the stories of the birth of Christ. You have Matthew 1-18, which records the birth of Christ. Luke 2, verses 1-20. We're gonna look at one of the texts this evening. Ollie's going to preach to us from Luke 2, verses 1-7. And these texts and others, Vicodin, Matthew, and Luke, they give us the history of the great wonder of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have there the angel appearing to Mary to tell her that she will bear by the Holy Spirit this Savior of the world. You have the account of Joseph, where he is instructed in a vision, in a dream, not to divorce Mary, but to take her as his wife. You have the announcement of the angels in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and the song of praise that the angels sing. And as we've read this morning, you have the visit of the Magi, these wise men from the East. And even though some of these things are not taking place right at Christ's birth, there is a sense in which at Christ's birth and the things surrounding Christ's birth, they are written down in narrative form in the gospel account. And so, oftentimes, when it comes to Christmas time, we think of Matthew and Luke, and we memorize Matthew and Luke, and with good reason. That's where the glorious stories of the birth of Christ are found. But Hebrews 4, verse 14 through 16 is also a Christmas text. It is also a text that deals, helps us to understand the significance of Jesus Christ being born in the world. In some sense, it provides the framework or the theological understanding of the consequences of the accounts that you hear in Matthew and Luke. See, the Bible When it presents its narratives, when it presents its stories, it's not simply a series of neat stories. The Bible is not a history book about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't tell us everything that we should know or could know about the birth of Jesus Christ or what happened before or afterwards. It is a book that sets before us the significance of the birth of Christ as it seeks to explain the predicament of man who is alienated from God and how that alienated man is then reconciled to God. how God in his mercy brings about what man is unable to bring about. And so what we want to do this year as we think about the incarnation of our Lord, we want to interweave the theological explanation of Hebrews 4 with the things that we know from the stories of Jesus' birth. And as we do that, it is the word of God will set before us this truth, that the Son of God in his incarnation is the great sympathetic high priest of his people and showers them with his mercy. To learn that lesson, we're gonna look at a need for a high priest, that Christ is a heavenly high priest, that he is a sympathetic high priest, and that he has a ministry of mercy. So let's think together first about the need that we have for a priest. I want to read for you the extent of the specific information we have about the story of the birth of Christ. And I can do this in very short order because the only part of the Bible that tells us specifically about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is Luke 2 and verses 4 through 7. It says there, Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to a firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." That is the extent of the narrative that we have in the Bible about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is more in terms of what surrounded his birth, what happened immediately before, what happened immediately afterwards, but the birth of Christ itself actually occupies quite a small space in the record of Scripture. And that should do two things. First, It should show us that we should be very careful about embellishing and supplementing this account with our own imagination. And that's rampant as we think about Christmas celebration and however excited we are about Christmas celebration, we should be able to acknowledge that there's a fair amount of embellishment that's taking place about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's kind of the negative side of, or the cautionary side, maybe, of recognizing just how brief the account of Jesus' birth is. But at the same time, in the second hand, we should mark this event as something that is tremendously significant. What we don't want to do is look at the number of verses about the birth of Christ and then denigrate the significance of the birth of Christ. The birth of Christ, my friends, is an awesome event. It's cloaked in humiliation, but it is an amazing event where all that has been anticipated in the Old Testament is shown to begin. See, the Old Testament is all about anticipation. It's all about the anticipation of the Messiah. In our Sunday school class this morning, Brian led us through a consideration of what God promises right after the fall. In Genesis 3.15, that's where the anticipation of the birth of Christ begins. Now, did they understand all that they were waiting for? Probably not. But the promise was made first there, Genesis 3.15, where the Lord, even in uttering a consequence for sin, promises to Eve that from the seed of the woman, from her seed, will come one who will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. So all that happened in Eden, in the sin and the rebellion against God, will be rectified one day by the birth of one who comes from Eve and her children. The seed of the woman is promised. And from that moment on, creation has been waiting, waiting for his arrival. And in the Old Testament, there are all sorts of answers that are provided that give information about who this Messiah would be. So as we read together in Matthew 2, the Magi know that Jesus is to be the king of the Jews. And there's different places. You could go back to Micah 2, where we were reading, where it says that he's going to be a ruler among his people. Maybe they knew from that. You could go to Jeremiah 23, verse 5, which talks about the shoot of Jesse being a king among his people. So There is knowledge that can be gleaned from the Old Testament that says this one, this seed of the woman who is coming, is to be a king. You know it from the promises that God gives to David, that David's son will rule on the throne of Israel forever. So when the Magi say, where is he who is the king of the Jews? Where is he born? That comes from an understanding and anticipation that this Messiah is coming. Or even think about the information that's provided in scripture about where this Messiah will be born. The scribes of the day of Jesus' birth knew where this Messiah was going to be born. They knew exactly, and they cited, again, Micah 5, verse 2, where it talks about how he would be born in Bethlehem in Judah. Now, what was the problem with the scribes? The scribes knew the facts. They knew the factual answers. They knew the prophecies. They knew the information. but they fail to recognize the birth of Jesus of Nazareth as the specific event that ushers in the fulfillment of all that anticipation. Now Hebrews makes it unmistakable for the Christian. The book of Hebrews gives us the theological explanation of how we should view Christ's birth. Now we're parachuting into the middle of Hebrews 4, verse 14 through 16 specifically. That is not a fair thing to do to a book, to just kind of drop yourself into the middle of a book and then expect to understand from the three verses all that's being said. So let me just give us a little bit of understanding. as we come to Hebrews 4. The opening of this letter has spent some time glorifying Christ. In fact, it's the mission of the book as a whole. The book of Hebrews is all about glorifying Christ and showing how Christ is greater than any other thing. And so, in the beginning, the glorious majesty of Christ is manifested in that He is greater than the angels. And the glorious majesty of Christ has been manifested in that Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses, who is not a son in the house, he is a servant in the house. So Jesus is greater. He is glorified. And then starting in chapter three of Hebrews, this letter has begun to warn the reader about the rebel. to warn the reader about the unbeliever, and it uses Israel as an example, the Old Testament people of God. The Old Testament people of God brought out of Egypt. They heard God's voice on Sinai. They saw his wonders in the land of Egypt, these plagues that were brought to bear on Pharaoh's people. Those people who heard the voice of God and saw his wonders, what happened to them after they got out of Egypt? All but two of them died in the wilderness. All but two of them perished because of their unbelief. And so there is this warning, this warning, this thing that we are to pay attention to by way of alerting us to the danger that we have, when it gives this recurring line in Hebrews 4, in verse 3, when it talks about these people who perish in the wilderness, it says, they shall not enter my rest. And it's not enough just to say it once, in verse 5 it repeats it, that they shall not enter my rest. And by way of contrast, the reader is exhorted to enter that rest with a sober reminder in verse 13 that I think we have to understand if we're going to understand the significance of Christ's coming and his description in verse 14 through 16. So what is verse 13 all about? It says, no creature. is hidden from his sight, is God who is the one who declares that they shall not enter his rest. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." What does that mean? That means that though you may keep your secrets from the people around you, all that you have thought, and all that you have said, all that you have muttered under your breath, and all that you have done is as if there was no covering in the sight of God. And so, if we were to think fairly and honestly about God seeing us as if we were naked and exposed before the one for whom we must give an account, we see there, in short, a summary of the Bible's message. That God, the creator, patiently governs his people in the midst of their sin. In the beginning, God created. That's where the Bible starts. And in chapter 3 of this glorious opening book, what do you have? You have the fall. And man's sin and rebellion against God. He dies that day, man does, in the inner being and his body begins to decay. And every sinful thought is naked before God. None of the sins of any person are unknown to God. God knows your idolatry. He knows the ways in which you worship Him according to your own pleasure. He knows the times when you do not view His name as holy, but you blaspheme His name. He knows the time when you neglect his worship, when you assess his worship as insignificant and unimportant. Something else in your life maybe takes precedence over the worship of God. He sees the moments when you live in rebellion against those who are in authority. He knows your murderous thoughts. He knows your anger. He knows how you speak ill of the people, maybe even in your own mind. He knows your lusts. He knows your adulteries. He knows you're stealing, you're taking what He's given to another. He knows how that's taken root in the inside, in covetousness. And He knows your lies. All of that is as if it were uncovered in the presence of God. Is it not true that if we were to come before the Lord with our bag of works and presented this to Him, Would he not say to us, you will never enter my rest? That's the need. That's the need that every person has. Now, as we talked about in our confession of sin this morning, we are tempted to think of sin before God and the things that would cause us to not enter his rest as the bad sins. But the Bible defines our obligation at its most basic level. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when you fail to do that, I didn't say if, when you fail to do that, that is naked and exposed before the God for whom you will give an account. That's how God summarizes his law, an overarching love for him in every area of your life. So all of man's lack of love for God is known to him. And the glory of the birth of Christ is that God knows all these things and yet sends his son into the world to begin what he has promised. Isn't that glorious? That is glorious, my friend. that God looks at your heart, my heart, knows everything, sends His Son into the world to express His love for His children who do not love Him as they should. In Isaiah 9 verse 2, It says, by way of anticipation, this is part of the movement of the Old Testament to the birth of Christ. It says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The Lord Jesus Christ is that light, the light in the darkness. He is the long-anticipated Messiah who will be a priest for his people. He will stand between the judgment of God and the sins of his people, and he will bear the guilt of the sins of his people. His birth is so glorious because it marks the beginning of the end of waiting. That's the glory of the Messiah's birth. The world has been waiting for 4,000 years for this Messiah to come. And when the angels come and announce that he has come to the shepherds, that he is born in Bethlehem, the reason there's so much joy among the angels It's because the world has been waiting for 4,000 years to see the fulfillment of this promise that God has made. Think of it this way. Maybe we can put it in human terms. The Titanic sank on April the 14th, 1912. And 700 of the 2200 people on board that ship survived the horror of that night. But what happened when the ship was under the surface and all the cries of the dying in the water stopped? You had 700 people in the middle of the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the dark. and they waited there for hours. They were not picked up until the next day. Imagine the excitement and the joy of the people in the lifeboats when they saw the rescue ship appear on the horizon in the morning, when the Carpathia came and picked up the surviving passengers of the Titanic. There was joy the moment that ship was seen. Can we imagine that? It's not enough that the ship is seen. The actual significance of the arrival of the Carpathian is when they get hoisted up on board and they are brought to safety. but the arrival of the Carpathia on the horizon is enough for joy and thanksgiving. And that is the significance of the birth of Christ. It is seeing the light for the first time, not a promise of the light, but the light itself. The Old Testament has prepared us for the same kind of response with regard to the birth of Christ as the surviving passengers of the Titanic must have had. There has only been darkness, but here's light. There has only been death, but here's the promise of life. And all of that informs us as we know that all that we are is laid bare before God, that all our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds are known to Him. And though He knows them, yet the Son is sent." See, knowledge of sin. Knowledge of sin, this is the great paradox of Scripture. But knowing your sinfulness, makes you rejoice in the goodness of God all the more. There should be no one so excited about the birth of Christ as the one who knows that he is a great sinner. Because in the birth of Christ comes the promise of the accomplishment of redemption, step one. Who can hide us from the terrible judgment of God for our sin? Who will be our priest? In the Old Testament, they had Aaron's sons. But Hebrews is saying, this Jesus who was born, he is a better priest. He is a greater high priest. In Luke chapter 2, Jesus is presented in the temple, and this old man, Simeon, takes Jesus in his arms and says, Lord, now you are letting your disservant depart in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation. Simeon is just holding step one in his arms. The great significance of his coming is in his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, these things, but in his birth there is celebration because now I have seen the salvation that God has promised. And so that's all the background, and then we get to Hebrews 4 verse 14 and following, which shows us the significance of Christ's priesthood, and how in his birth we have the arrival of a priest who is far greater than any priest we could ever have. And so that's what we want to do with the remaining time that we have, to think together about how Christ is a heavenly priest, how he's a sympathetic priest, and how his priesthood is marked by his ministry of mercy. So in verse 14, It assumes that Jesus is our great high priest, that he is our great high priest who has passed through the heavens. It refers specifically to Jesus, the son of God. So at Jesus' birth, what do we have? As we celebrate his birth, we have the arrival of this heavenly priest. Verse 13 of Hebrews 4 should remind us of this spiritual shame that we carry around with us. Now, what do we do with that spiritual shame? Well, the Bible is a book of good news. The Bible is not a book that desires to have people wallow in their guilt. It's a book of good news. It shows us our sin, but it shows that to us in such a way that we do not lose heart. The good news of the Bible is that we will not stand before God with our sins naked and exposed. Why? Because we have a better priest, one who was born in a manger, laid in a manger. It talks about our great high priest as one who has passed through the heavens. Well, when did our high priest pass through the heavens? There's two options, that either the Divine Son before the Incarnation, which would be advertising to us the sufficiency of His coming death, even in His birth, or it could be speaking of the man Jesus after the Incarnation, describing His ascension as being seated at the right hand of God. And it doesn't really matter which one you choose. Because either way, the point is that no priest of Aaron has ever experienced passing through the heavens as our great high priest has done. So at the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the birth of this greater High Priest. And since our great High Priest has passed through the heavens, it says in verse 14, that it is enough that we would hold fast our confession. That same language is used in Hebrews 3 verse 1. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession. Well, what is our confession? It's not defined for us. Well, not in that place. But I think you can go right to the beginning of Hebrews and see the confession that the book of Hebrews expects the Christian to make. Let me read it for you. Verse 1 of chapter 1. Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, the anticipation of the Old Testament. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. 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. 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." That is the good confession of the Christian. That is the reason why the world which dwells in darkness looks to the great light which has come. The great high priest is born in Bethlehem, but he's not just any great high priest. He is the great high priest who has passed through the heavens And so that's why the angels sing their song of praise the night when he was born. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased because our priest is heavenly. His coming, his ministry is sufficient. It is adequate. He is not one man standing in the place of another man. He is the man, God and man. with all the merit, the eternal merit of his perfect obedience, applying his priesthood to sinful people. Instead of a great amount of fear before God, instead of being anxious about whether we will enter into his rest, the birth of Christ and the knowledge of Christ should cause us to confess with joy the work of our great High Priest, that his merit is infinite, and we know that because he's passed through the heavens. but we also know that he is a sympathetic priest. And that's perhaps more so the focus of the incarnation, an understanding that Christ is our sympathetic priest. And so at Christ's birth, we also marvel at the arrival of a sympathetic priest. The fact that Jesus is the born heavenly priest may make it seem like he's unrelatable. Sometimes we talk about our politicians as unrelatable. They live, they grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth and then they're trying to relate to blue collar people who are living paycheck to paycheck and so on. There's a disconnect. And so we can think about the Lord that way too. If he's only seen as divine, fully, truly God, and we forget that he's truly man, we can lose sight of the fact that he is a sympathetic priest. that he is relatable to us, or that, more accurately, that he relates well to us. The person and the work of Christ is not just done in the abstract. He has taken on human flesh and dwelt among us. He is heavenly, but he is able to sympathize with us in our weakness. He has passed through the heavens, But in John 1, verse 14, it says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He knows humanity because he took humanity on himself. If you think about the account of the birth of Christ, when he is born, his mother, like all other children who are born, his mother takes him in her arms and cares for him. She wraps him in swaddling cloths and lays him in a manger. Again, as the Old Testament anticipates the coming of this Messiah, yes, it anticipates him as the king who will rule, but it also describes him in Isaiah 53, verse three, as a man of sorrows, one who is acquainted with grief. You know sorrow? Are you acquainted with grief? Well, so is your high priest. Your great high priest is sympathetic. He knows your sorrows. He's able to sympathize. And yet there is one key difference, isn't there, when it comes to the sympathies of our great high priest. He is tempted as we are in every way, in every respect, it says, but what's the qualifier? yet without sin. That's the good news that we're waiting for, all of the Old Testament that we're looking back now in time of the New Testament. This Savior, it's not talking about all the details of the temptations that Jesus endured. It's talking about the reality of the temptations that Jesus endured. As the devil tempted Adam in Eden, So he tempted Christ in the wilderness. And where Adam fell in Eden, in the wilderness, our Savior obeyed. Our Savior was faithful. He is familiar with temptation, but he is not familiar with falling into sin. And for that reason, he is our great high priest. abounding in measure far beyond any Aaronic priest. No priest of Aaron could ever claim that he was only familiar with temptation and never fell into it. So he's a heavenly priest, but he's a sympathetic priest. And finally, we see that he is a priest whose ministry is one of mercy. Through the birth of Christ, we see the starting point of the working of his ministry of mercy. Christ is the great high priest who passed through the heavens. He is sympathetic because he knows our weaknesses. He's tempted as we are, yet without sin. And He is the one who stands between the creatures who have just heard Hebrews 4, verse 13, and the sins of the individual. The judgment seat of God is averted because of the birth of Christ and all that it led to. The Christmas hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Why does it plead for that? and ransom captive Israel. That is our high priest's ministry. In verse 16, we draw near with confidence to the throne of grace to receive what from our great high priest? Mercy and grace. How are these available? Because Christ has paid the ransom. He can only pay the ransom as he enters into the world, as he takes on flesh and the things that flow from his birth. The failure and the sins of Adam condemn all those who are born of him to death. But the ransom paid by the second Adam elevates those who are born of God to eternal life. So we see in scripture two representatives. Adam, our representative unto death, and Jesus, our representative unto life. Talks in another place of things that are born of the flesh being flesh. That's Adam's seed. but that which is born of the Spirit is Christ's seed. Now, which category of seed you belong to is eternally significant. Again, in Sunday school class this morning, we read from Romans 5, 17, where it says, See, that is the wonder of the Incarnation. The Incarnation marks the beginning of that significant change in the life of God's people. The High Priest Aaron will always be inadequate because he is like his people, but also is sinful. He offers bulls, he offers goats, and he has to do so for himself. And he's offering up sacrifices that can finally never take away sin because they're not of like kind with the sinner. But Christ is born a man. Even though he has passed through the heavens, he has taken on human flesh and dwelt among us. He can sympathize with us because he also has lived under the effects of sin in this world, even though he himself did not sin. And that's why we can sing, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, because all of Scripture anticipates is coming. That's why we sing, joy to the world, the Lord is come, because the weight of life in a fallen world is crushing man. And it has crushed man from the beginning, from the fall. But in the birth of Christ, there is the beginning of the fulfillment of all the symbols and all the prophecies of the Old Testament. It's all the things that are pointing ahead to one who is to come. His birth says he is here. He is here. The Savior is born. He is Christ the Lord. He is born in Bethlehem in a manger. This is the joyful news of Christmas. This is the theology behind Christmas contained in verses 14 through 16 of Hebrews 4. It's not just a story of a baby born in poverty. It's not the story of a man who came to be a good example, to show and model love to all the people who could imitate him afterwards. No, this is the beginning of redemption. which is accomplished when the great high priest who passed through the heavens takes on human flesh to be like man in every way except for sin. And in that sinless life, and by that sinless and perfect sacrifice, he offers himself a ransom. that we can stand confidently before God, who knows all that we've said and done and thought, who sees everything, but we can stand before Him, knowing that in Christ Jesus, our great high priest, grace and mercy will be extended for all who believe. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let's pray together.