Vison Comes When We Love …

As Jesus Loves the Word

Text: Hebrews 1:1-3

Proposition: Jesus loves the Word because the Father inspired it, revealing truth to man that all would know the Father and His Son Whom He sent for them.

Introduction: Walt Disney was a dreamer and his crowning vision was EPCOT; Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He envisioned the perfect city of 20,000 using all of the most modern advances of technology. Built on a 43 square mile section of land in central Florida, it would be a place of such innovation people from all over the world would come to see what a city could look like. His vision for this place saw it being able to be replicated in other countries around the world, a viable way to have life and peace. Walt Disney died before his dream was ever realized. His vision was so big and complex and outside the box that no one else in the Disney company ever caught the idea so Walt Disney’s EPCOT ended up being a giant amusement park.

Jesus left a blueprint for His church vast, marvelous, and innovative plan. It’s a blueprint for a living, breathing, expanding organism that would permeate and transform the whole world. It demands a vision built upon a plan that was laid out for those that followed proclaiming that there is a way past the ruin of sin and the deceptions of Satan. It’s a plan that has a master architect who envisions a future built by holiness in glory. Last week we began a seven-part series that is all about vision. It holds the simple premise that vision for the church is found in loving what Jesus loves. We listed seven things that Jesus loves:

Jesus loves the Father

Jesus loves the Word of Scripture, truth

Jesus loves the lost, sinners, rebels, His enemies

Jesus loves the least, little children

Jesus loves the lonely, widows and orphans

Jesus loves the unlovely, beggars, lepers, the blind, the outcasts

Jesus loves the church, the Body of Christ          

So why does Jesus love the Word? How we answer that is key if we are to love what Jesus loves. If you agree that vision is centered around what is important to Christ then let’s ask why Jesus loved the Word so passionately. Have a look at Hebrews 1:1-3 as we begin this week’s focus of vision.

I. God, Who at Various Times and in Various Ways Spoke…                                  

The writer of this begins by reminding us that God spoke in many different ways. Sometimes it was through the actions or visions of people like Isaiah, Nathan, Samuel, Gideon, Joshua, Moses, Abraham and Noah. In each unique case God spoke in some way and with a considerable purpose in view. You remember the words of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We understand this to be a reference to the eternally existent Christ being with Father before the creation of time, space and matter. From the beginning Jesus is God’s Word. It can’t help but recall for us the words of Genesis 1:3, “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Again and again over six days God spoke and creation came to be. To these words in Genesis we add this clarification from Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” The ‘Him’ is a reference to Jesus. The Father directs the Son with the Holy Spirit to do the effectual working of Their will. So when the Word spoke in creation and then to the prophets it involved the whole Trinity. But the point isn’t just that God spoke, it’s that Jesus loves the Word, He loves what God spoke. He regards the Word as being historically accurate. Jesus acknowledged that Adam and Eve were the first married couple (Matthew 19:3–6). He believed the accounts of Noah and the Flood (Matthew 24:37–39), of Lot and his wife (Luke 17:28–32), of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15), of Jonah and the big fish (Matthew 12:40–41) and on and on. So my premise is that in all the various times and ways that God spoke, Jesus was present in the process of that. In fact the whole Trinity was involved every time. So why does Jesus love the Word? It’s because Jesus loves the Father, He loves the truth of what the Word reveals about the purposes and person Father. So Jesus loves the Word because He knows it is true, He was there in the pages of the Old Testament acting according to the Fathers will with the Holy Spirit causing it to be. He knows what the Word can do.  

II. In These Last Days He Has Spoken to us by His Son…                                      

John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” Certainly Jesus did this at various times and in various ways speaking to the disciples and others about the truth of Who God the Father is and what it is He requires of them. One of the most effective ways that Jesus used to make the Father known was to reference Scripture. He did it with Satan in the temptation, He did it in Nazareth in the beginning of His ministry in the synagogue, He did it constantly as He corrected the Pharisees. He used Scripture to justify the cleansing of the Temple from the money changers, He quoted the Scriptures when challenged about picking and eating grain on the Sabbath. Time and again Jesus said, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak..” (ESV Jn.12:50) What becomes more and more evident is that Jesus not only knew the Scriptures wellbut also that the Father directed Him in the remembrance and expression of them. I believe that Jesus loved the Word because of this very thing, that it became a line through which the Father would speak to Him and through Him.

In these last daysthe Father has spoken to us through His Son, “whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”. Why does Jesus love the Word, because it is used to “uphold all things by the word of His power.” Think for a moment about the power of the spoken Word of God in creation. Then think for a moment about the power of that same Word now in written form referred to in Heb. 4:12, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” It’s the same power of God at work, creating life, casting out darkness, establishing His order. Jesus loves the Word because of the power of God that works through it. So how does the truth that as we love the Word as Jesus loves the Word shape our vision for Faith Community Church? Let’s ask a few questions that direct us in that:

1. Do we believe 2 Timothy 3:16,17 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Do you believe that we will need these very things for a sound vision? Then love the Word.

2. Do we believe in the power of God to do what is beyond our reach, a power that is resourced in the Word? Then it becomes critical for vision to be equipped with the Word.

3. Do we believe that godly vision will be a target of attack for Satan and his forces? The Word is what Jesus used to deflect and extinguish Satan’s attack on Him. The armor described in Ephesians 6 says the Word both gives grip to our feet and is a sword of defense in our hands.

4. Do we believe that whatever our vision is it must ultimately be aimed at revealing the glory of God? In Psalm 138:2 it says, “I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”His Wordmagnifies His Person, His promises magnify His faithfulness, His Son the Word is our Savior. Vision sourced in His Word glorifies Him.

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