Christmas Series: The One Worthy of Worship

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. All of mankind worships.

We're all captivated and defined by something or someone. The question is not whether or not we will worship, but what the object of our worship will be. In today's message, Pastor Rich lays out four reasons that Jesus is the only one who is worthy of our worship. He is the one worthy of our full surrender and devotion. Let's listen to this message from the book of Hebrews chapter 1. This is the second part of a message titled, The One Worthy of Worship.

It was first preached on December 15, 2024 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. He says that will be to him a father. So in the historic context, what this quote is referring to is God speaking of Solomon, the first one in David's line, who will be king over Israel, king over and then king over Judah.

Because it is through Israel and then through Judah specifically that Messiah would come. So this is a Davidic covenant. And God is saying, I have made a promise. There is this plan that I have had in place before the world even existed. That a king would be born and a king would rule a perfect kingdom forever.

That's good news. And this is the promise that God has made. You might have caught something in there when he says after he talked to that promise, he will be a king forever. He says, and if his children disregard my law, I mean, okay, that wasn't Jesus. It just shows Jesus is in the Davidic line. But it also shows that human can do one who can complete and fulfill a promise like this.

No mere human can do that. Jesus, the God-man, God with us, fully God, fully man, he alone is the one that can ultimately eternally fulfill this promise as the Prince of peace. If we were to look in the book of Psalms, turn there with me now, go back to Psalms and go to chapter 89. Psalm 89, let's begin at verse 26. Back up to verse 24. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him and in my name shall his horn be exalted. Horn is a symbol of strength in Old Testament terminology.

Okay. And I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers and he shall cry to me, you are my father, my God, the rock of my salvation. And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

My steadfast love I will keep for him forever. And my covenant will stand firm for him. My covenant will stand firm for him. So this is a promise, this is a covenant that God has made with his people. My king will rule. Here's the problem, in Psalm 89, this is a post-exilic Psalm.

There's no king in Israel right now. Hear what's going on, look, he says, look at verse 38, but now you have cast off and rejected, you are full of wrath against your anointed, you have renounced the covenant with your servant, you have defiled his crown in the dust, you have breached all his walls, you have laid his strongholds and ruins, all who pass by plunder him and he has become the scorn of his neighbors. And that's the note that the Psalm ends on.

You say, what happened? And that's what the Psalm, and that's the beauty about the Psalms, they are God's people praying their emotions. And that Psalmist was asking a question, Lord, you made a promise, you had a covenant with your people, I don't see it happening.

But it did. And it happened, and it was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the answer to verse 49, look at Psalm 89, verse 49, Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, by which your faithfulness, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

Jesus is the answer to that question in verse 49. As we studied in ABF this morning, the book of Matthew begins the genealogy of Christ, the son of Abraham, the son of David. There is so much significance in that reality, because it takes us from God's eternal plan all the way through the Old Testament and then into the New Testament. Here's, you hear many people today, mostly secular people, they will say Jesus Christ was the founder of the Christian religion.

Not true. There is one God, and he has established purpose and the course of history, and he has established and accomplished redemption, and that was foretold at the very beginning of time. And it was carried out through the Old Testament and into the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it foretells the Messiah coming, and you have his family, and you have the prophecies of this Messiah coming. All of that, that's what the whole Old Testament is about.

God bringing that about in history. And then Messiah comes to earth, and he accomplishes the work that his father sent him to do. There's a real, this is interesting, and this was pointed out in the ABF this morning too, so no, I did not write the sermon after the ABF this morning, for those of you who were here. Psalm 110, it's up on the screen, look at Psalm 110 here. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. This is the Lord speaking to the King of Israel, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And then Jesus quotes this in Luke chapter 20 in verse 42. For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So Jesus is asking the Pharisees the question, if he is his son, why is he calling him Lord? And what's the answer to that? We sang it this morning, the one who made Mary now has become her son.

What is he saying? He existed, he pre-existed. He didn't, I mean, that's a misnomer. He existed from eternity. He is an infinite being. And then he chose to limit himself and he came in the form of a person. You know what's so funny, it's pointed out this morning too, after that the Pharisee said, you know, we're just not going to ask him any more questions.

Wise decision. No, actually they should have asked more questions. The problem is they should have been honest enough to hear his answers, but they were not. So what is this saying here? He is the eternal fulfillment of a promise. In other words, Christ has a position that a mere man cannot fulfill.

And history bears that out. And that's why he was foretold to the prophet Isaiah, unto us a son is given. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And of his government, there will be what? No end.

There will be no end. So because he is the Prince of Peace, because he is the fulfillment of a promise, an ultimate and eternal fulfillment of a promise of God, he is worthy of our worship. And that means that for us, our outlook, for we who are in Christ, for we who worship Christ, our, listen to me, please, our outlook is one of peace. Our outlook is one of peace.

Isn't that good news? So worship him and live in the reality that, indeed, for we who are in Christ, our outlook is one of peace. Reason number two is resurrection. You say, Rich, I don't see resurrection in Hebrews chapter one.

Well, I'm glad you asked. Because turn with me to the book of Acts now, back in the New Testament, book of Acts, and chapter 13, Acts chapter 13. This is where we find Saul's name changed to Paul. In this chapter, it begins with Saul and Barnabas, and then they're in Antioch, Pisidia, and then all of a sudden it starts talking about him as Paul. And Paul is giving a message here, and he's talking through the history of Israel and then leading up to the person of Jesus Christ. Look with me at verse 30, but God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. Verse 32, and we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son today, I have begotten you.

Did you know that that Psalm, that Psalm 2, in that statement in that Psalm was a Psalm about the resurrection of Jesus Christ? That's pretty key, that Jesus, why would he have to be resurrected? This is not a hard question, because he would die. What manner of death did he die? He died a substitutionary death, a sacrificial death, because what did he do in verse 3 of Hebrews 1?

He made purification for sin, and so he did die. And he said, as he told his followers, John chapter 10, verses 17 and 18, it's up here on the screen, look at this, for this reason the father loves me, because I do what? I lay down my life, that I may what? Take it up again.

Look what he says, listen, you can't just say this, you can't just say this, unless it's true. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on Weekdays at 10am.