He's No Angel, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

0:11 I also want to thank God for the strong hands and volunteerism of both deacons and our AV team and our facilities maintenance for a spirit of efficiency to clear off all that orchestra stuff in a spirit time that we might continue to worship. We thank God for them. On this second Sunday of Advent, I want to read in your hearing what may seem to be a strange passage of Scripture to connect to Christmas. It's not a prophetic prediction of the coming of Christ as you would find in Isaiah. It's not a telling of the events around the birth of Jesus from Matthew or Luke. But rather, it comes from a strange passage of Scripture found in the very back of your Bible in the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is easily found if you go all the way to the back of Revelation and then go left a few pages.

1:08 You should find yourself in the book of Hebrews. And I would like to read in your hearing in the New International Version, beginning in chapter 1, verse 1. And later I will read in the King James Version as well. Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 1. And it is our custom to ask those who are physically able to stand with us as together we reverence the reading of the Word of God. Hebrews chapter 1, beginning in verse number 1. If you're there, won't you say amen? Amen.

1:39 In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom also he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son?

2:37 Today I have become your father. Or again, I will be his father and he will be my son. And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Do me a favor, share the sermon title with your neighbor. Look at someone and tell them, neighbor, oh neighbor, he's no angel.

3:04 You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. At the risk of ruining your Christmas joy, I want to confess to you that The fascination I had with Christmas as a child has begun to wane as I become an adult. As a matter of fact, my fascination with Christmas has almost been replaced by a subtle and sanctified frustration. Judy I find the older I get and the more candles I put on my birthday cake the less fascinated I am with Christmas and the more frustrated I've become the older I get the more I fight Charles Dickens' spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge and hear me I enjoy the festivities of Christmas I like decorating a tree I plan on buying mine tomorrow I like shopping online.

4:16 and finding that perfect gift to make friend and family smile. I enjoy apple cider and eggnog, spiced or unspiced, you take your pick. I enjoy watching my children on their best behavior for the next two weeks of life. I enjoy what's in Christmas. What I'm frustrated by is what's missing from Christmas. The thing that frustrates me most as a maturing Christian is the abject, blatant absence of Jesus Christ from Christmas festivities. Beloved, allow me just to share with you in my own way that Christmas has become so sanitized and politically correct that Christ in almost every instance has been edited out and Christmas has become just another ordinary holiday.

5:19 St. Patrick's Day, Columbus found or landed on the shores of America Day, Indigenous People day. It's become just another day because Christmas without a true recognition of what and who God is in Jesus, there's something just missing about it. Something out of order when we have all the festivities and the caroling and the trees and the decorations, but somehow or another we are missing the essence of the exalted Christ.

5:56 These Christmas celebrations just don't sit well with me, Judy. They're kind of like collard greens with no cornbread. Mashed potatoes with no gravy. Chicken with no hot sauce. Grits with no sugar. And all those in favor say aye.

6:24 This is the last time I'm going to say this, sugar belongs on grits. There's something missing in Christmas festivities that are absent and void of the majesty and the miracle, the splendor and the sovereignty, the grace and the grandeur, the beauty and the brilliance of recognizing the exalted Christ in our midst. And maybe it's that abject absence of Christ and Christmas celebrations that draws me to this passage in Hebrews that seemingly has nothing to do with Christmas. But if you allow me to unpack it for just a moment, it shares with us some things about the exalted Savior that I need you to understand before you put your tree up.

7:30 this book of Hebrews in the back of your Bible falls within that section called epistles or letters but I need you to know two things about Hebrews number one it is not a letter it is a sermon if you sit and listen to Hebrews it is missing and void of all the epistle components that you find in Paul's letter There's no salutation. There's no naming of individuals. There's no benedictory blessing. This is not a Pauline letter. It is a sermon. And it is a powerful sermon filled with the rhetorical artistry and rhythm and cadence and alliteration and contrast. All the things that make sermons oratorically beautiful.

8:26 It is so much an eloquent sermon that we know Paul could not have written it. Because the one thing we know about Paul, Paul could not preach. Paul could write a mean letter, but Paul's preaching was so boring that in the book of Acts, a young man named Eutychus was sitting in his window while Paul was preaching, and Paul preached him to sleep. He fell out the window and died.

8:56 Paul killed people with his sermons. But there's another brother connected to Paul who was a powerful preacher. His name is Apollos. We read about him in Acts 18 where it says he preached with power and passion. As a matter of fact, Apollos was such a powerful preacher that Paul had to write the church in Corinth and tell them, stop telling me y'all like Apollos over Paul because they found out that when Paul was preaching, nobody came to church. But when Apollos was in the pulpit, they packed the place out.

9:37 Apollos was a powerful preacher. And most scholars agree that this sermon in Hebrews is written by Apollos. Its eloquence is inescapable. Tom Long homiletician from memory university said that these words of Hebrews 1 are to resonate along with some of the other oratorical rhetorical powerful phrases you know like when you hear Abraham Lincoln say four score and seven years ago triggering the end of slavery Franklin Delano Roosevelt the only thing we have to fear is fear itself bringing us out of the depression. Martin Luther King standing just a few miles away declaring, I have a dream, pressing racial equality into the fabric of America.

10:32 Along with that are these words of Apollos. You miss the eloquence in the New International Version, but you hear it clearly in the King James Version. Kyle, for all the problems of the King James translation, Some scripture just don't sound right if it ain't in the King James. Psalm 23 cannot be recited outside of the King Jimmy version. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. There's some things you need to hear in the King James. Listen to the eloquence of Hebrews 1 in the King James Version. God, who at sundry times, you don't even know what that is, and...

11:32 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by 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 on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much more better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. God, at sundry times and in divers manners, has spoken in times past to the fathers through the prophets.

12:29 There's an eloquence there. And Apollos in this sermon is trying to press two realities into the Christian life that we ought never forget as we celebrate who Jesus is. Number one, he wants us to remember that God in Jesus has proven that Jesus is greater than the prophets. Jesus is greater than the prophets. Watch what Apollos wants you to understand. If you don't get anything out of verse 1, get this. We serve a God who speaks to us. We serve a God who speaks to us. We don't serve a God who hides himself. We don't serve a God who plays games trying to disguise his will so that you don't know what he wants of you.

13:29 We don't serve a God who sends you on a scavenger hunt to try to piece it together and find out what God's will for your life is. No, we serve a God who speaks to us. A God who argues with us when we say no. A God who summons us when we stand in wrong places. A God who commands us when our life is out of order. A God who shouts when you ain't listening.

14:02 And a God who whispers when you're too busy. A God who invites us into great things. We serve a God who speaks to us. and we are the recipients of God's revelation. Now the reason that ought to put an early amen in your mouth, when you realize that God desires to speak to you, you ought to say amen because everybody in here knows about two folk that don't talk to you.

14:39 You know some people right now who are so fed up with you so disgusted by you, so turned off by what you've done that they have made up in their mind they will never speak to you again. They've washed their hands of you. They don't want to have anything to do with you. And yet our God, my God, your God, who knows everything about you, everything you are and everything you are not, that God has decided that he still wants to speak to you and share his will with you. Ooh. You already at least thinking amen. Because you and I know that if you tried to get something through to someone so long and they kept on acting like they wasn't hearing you, at some point you would just quit trying.

15:40 But God, with as rebellious as you've been, as unfaithful as you've been, as ratchet as you've been, that God continues to reveal His will to you and speak to you because God has never given up on you. As a matter of fact, would you do me a favor? Would you notice somebody tell them God's never given up on you?

16:09 God speaks to you. And what Apollos wants us to see, this is deep. God speaking to you did not wait until you got saved. God was speaking to you in your B.C. days. Before Christ. God didn't wait for you to walk down that aisle, say yes to Jesus, get baptized before the Lord start to speak. God's been speaking to you a long time. God's been revealing God's self to you a long time. And Apollo says, listen, before Christ, the Lord spoke, and there are three dynamics of God speaking before Christ. that you need to understand. God spoke many times in various ways through the prophets.

17:09 If you're taking notes, get it. God spoke many times in various ways through the prophets. Say the third time of the charm. God spoke many ways, many times, various ways through the prophets. Number one, God spoke many times. Why did God have to speak many times? because you slow. because you don't always get it. So before you gave your life to the Lord, God had to speak many times to you. Judy, that phrase many times in Greek, it literally connotates fragmented. That before the Lord enters your life, the Lord speaks to you, but it's not continuous. It starts and it stops. It's here and there. It comes and it goes. And so without Christ, the problem of God speaking is our problem of continuity.

18:07 That the revelation of God is not continuous. It's fragmented. It's in many times. It starts, it stops. It's here and there. You don't have continuous revelation. That's why you know what it's like to come to church and get nothing out of it. That's why the choir can sing and it don't even move your spirit. That's why you can pray and feel like God isn't answering. That's why you can read your Bible a whole five good minutes. and still walk away empty-handed because we in our flesh have a continuity problem hearing from God. Can I push it? God speaks many times, and God speaks in various ways. Here's the reality.

19:04 God has multiple ways of speaking to you. God speaks through signs and wonders. God speaks through extraordinary experiences you go through. God speaks through the simple day-to-day things you experience. God speaks loudly through his word. God can speak quietly in prayer. God can speak through wonders and miracles. God has various ways of speaking. But the problem is that in our humanity, we often misinterpret what God is saying. So not only do we have a continuity problem, Alexander, we got a clarity problem. Because we are prone to misinterpreting the various ways that God is speaking. Okay, let me say it to you like this.

20:00 Don't get mad. Just act like I'm talking about somebody else. Everybody in here, Stephanie, has gotten God wrong at some moment in your journey. At some moment in your walk, you misunderstood God. You misinterpreted everything God was saying to you. Everybody in here, regardless of how sanctified you are, you have messed up God's word at some point. You thought God was saying yes and you found out it was really a no. You thought God was saying go over there and God was saying come sit down right here. You thought God was saying him. And God was really saying, me. Everybody in here has run a red light with God. Everything around you says stop, sit still, don't go.

21:01 You stepped on the gas, ran right through the will of God to find yourself. Matter of fact, can I just pause and take a sermonic survey? Are there at least two folk in here? And I'll make three who ain't ashamed to testify that I have missed God. I've run some red lights. I've done what God did not call me to do. Because we have a clarity problem. We have a continuity problem. But here's the third one. We've got a contamination problem. God speaks many times. That's a continuity problem. Various ways, that's a clarity problem. Through the prophets, that's a contamination problem. God speaks through other humans.

21:57 God spoke through Moses and Miriam. God spoke through Elijah and Esther. God speaks through Jeremiah and Judy Fentress Williams. God speaks through human flesh. There's good news and bad news about that. The good news is that God uses us. Here's the bad news. The bad news is that all human flesh contaminates the Word of God because we're all sinful. Don't let the collar fool you. Don't let the title get it twisted. Don't let the robe hoodwink you. Because under the collar and behind the robe is nothing other than a broken vessel that is as sinful as anyone else you know.

22:47 God speaks through Noah. but Noah's drinking contaminates it. God speaks through Moses but Moses' anger issue contaminates it. God speaks through Miriam but Miriam's jealousy contaminates it. God speaks through David but David's lust contaminates it. God speaks through Elijah but Elijah's depression contaminates it. God speaks through Howard John Wesley but his, none of your business, contaminates. that all human flesh contaminates the Word of God. And you've got to be careful of putting your faith in the vessel when the vessel ain't nothing more than a broken, sinful creation of God.

23:47 Would you do me a favor, lean over to somebody and tell them, the vessel is broken. That's the problem. Here it is. I love the Bible. Verse number one, we got a problem. Continuity problem. Clarity problem. Contamination problem. That's verse one. Verse two brings the answer. The problem is in verse one. The answer is in verse two. because verse 2, Kendall, says, but God. Let me just pause right here and tell you that any time you see but God, get your shout ready. Any time you hear but God, get your praise warmed up because when you hear but God, things are about to change. Wish I had a witness. Sick but God, laid off but God, struggling but God, confused but God, depressed but God, is there anybody here who knows the power of but God?

24:57 Somebody holler, but God. Yeah. He says, but God, but God, in spite of many times, various ways and prophets, but God has now spoken through Jesus Christ, his son. That when God recognizes you got a continuity problem, and when God recognizes you've got a clarity problem, when God recognizes we've got a contamination problem, the Lord says, let me fix it. Let me step out of my throne room of heaven, step down through eternity, land in Bethlehem, and reveal who I am to fix your problem. Jesus is God's answer to our problems.

25:56 Yeah, that's why you ought to get happy about Christmas. It's God fixing everything that is wrong in our life and in our world in Jesus Christ. I feel mighty Baptist right here. Watch it. Here's the answer. Here's the answer. So you got a continuity problem. So Jesus comes, and the Bible says he comes to purify our sin because our sin is what stands in the way of having continuous access to God. So when Christ comes, Christ deals with the stuff that causes you not to have access to God 24-7. Because of Jesus, you've got continuous access to the will and the word of God.

26:47 That's why Paul would say, what can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? And then he started to run the list because I am persuaded that life can't do it. Death can't do it. Sickness can't do it. Demons can't do it. Devils can't do it. Problems can't do it. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. He fixes my continuity problem, but Jesus also fixes my clarity problem. You see, I don't always get it right. So God decides to come and show me who God is in Jesus Christ. Apollo says that the Son is the exact representation of God. Let me give you a millennial translation.

27:46 You're going to like this. Jesus is God's selfie. that when God takes a picture of God's self, God sends it to you in Jesus. That's why John says, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. Matter of fact, the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, that when we see Jesus, we see God clearly. He fixes our clarity problem. He fixes our continuity problem. But he also fixes the contamination problem. Because when you find out that the preacher is just a person, and when it goes live that the soloist is still a sinner, and when you find out the musician is all messed up and when you're ready to throw in the towel and walk away because church folk are just church folk, here's the good news, that when your preacher, your priest, and your pastor has failed, we have another high priest.

29:06 According to the order of Melchizedek, who was in all points tempted, but yet without sin, and his name is Jesus. So watch this. So when Jesus is in my life, I don't need a preacher in the pulpit to know what God's doing with me. When the Lord is in my life, I don't need a daily horoscope to tell me what's about to go down. When the Lord is in my life, I have direct access to God himself.

29:45 Jesus is greater than the prophets. But watch this. He's not done. Apollo says, and secondly, I need you to know Jesus is greater than the angels. Ooh, this is about to get good. Touch somebody something. This is about to get good. This is about to get good. Jesus is greater than the angels. Now, you've got to wonder, Apollos, why bring up the angels? Why does Apollos say in verse 4 that Christ is superior to the angels? Why bring the angels into this? Well, let's talk about angels for a moment. There are a few things the Bible teaches us about angels. Number one is that angels are created by God. They are not eternal. They are not preexistent to creation. God brings them into creation the same way God creates heaven and earth. Angels are created beings.

30:41 We don't know how many there are. The Bible says sometimes that they are innumerable. You can't count how many angels. Mom, we do know that they fall in three categories. Seraphim, cherubim, and what Revelation says are living creatures. We do know three of their names. There are only three names of angels given in Scripture. Pop quiz. Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer. The only three angels we know are Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer. We do know that humanity always feared and revered angels because in God's order of creation, angels were placed above humanity. Go and teach Bible, Pastor. So David sits down to write Psalm 8 and listen to what he says. Oh, Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.

31:38 He drops on down and says, God, what is humanity that you are mindful of us? For you have made us a little lower, going with your Bible reading self, than the angels. That in the hierarchy of creation, angels are above humanity. and humanity has always looked up to angels because angels serve three purposes for humanity. I feel like teaching Bible. Three things angels do for humanity. Number one, angels are messengers of God's word. When God wants to tell Mary what's going on, he sends Gabriel. When Zacharias needs to know the name of the baby, he sends Gabriel. When Elizabeth needs to know she's about to get pregnant, God sends Gabriel the angel. When Gideon needs to know that he's a mighty valley warrior, God sends an angel.

32:35 Oh, when God wants to speak to Elijah, he sends an angel. Angels are messengers of God's word. That's Gabriel. Not only are angels messengers of God's word, angels are protectors of God's people. that when God wants to protect us, God has a way of sending angels to keep us safe. Bible says that when the Israelites are leaving out of Egypt, when they got to go to sleep at night, God is worried that the Egyptians will come into the camp. So the angel that was in front of Israel moved to the back of Israel and built a wall so that the Egyptians could not grab them. When Daniel was in the lion's den and the lion wanted some fried Daniel, the Bible says that an angel shut the lion's mouth because angels know how to shut stuff down.

33:45 Angels know how to watch your back. Angels know how to protect you. and there are at least five folk in here who can look back over your life, and you didn't see it, but you can testify. The only reason I walked away from that thing, the only reason I survived that thing, the only reason I'm in the land of the living It's because God put some angels all around me. Is there any angelic witness in this house that God must have assigned an angel? Yeah, yeah, that's why that old song says all night and all day, angels watching over me.

34:50 Messengers of God's word like Gabriel, protectors of God's people like Michael. there's a third angel his name was Lucifer and Lucifer was the original music director the praise and worship leader in heaven he got terminated for insubordination but his because the third function of angels are worshipers of God's glory the angels are meant to teach us how to worship Bible says in Isaiah 6, Isaiah is testifying about his walk with God. It says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He said, let me tell you what I saw. I saw cherubim and seraphim, angels, in the throne room of God.

35:47 And they had six wings. Wish I had a Bible reader. Two of them, they covered their face. Because they knew they couldn't look at the holiness of God. With two of them, they covered their feet because they knew they were on holy ground. And with the last two, they flew around the throne of God. And they could only sing one song. Because when they thought about who God was and how good God had been and how glorious the Lord was, All they could holler was, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. That our God is holy. These angels that were messengers and protectors and worshipers. Apollo says, now let me tell you something.

36:45 Jesus is greater than all that. put all the angels together and they still don't amount to what Jesus is in your life. I had to wonder, why is Jesus greater than the angels? Well, there are a couple reasons. The Bible says, number one, that he purified our sins. That he was the one that took care of our sin problem. Angels did not do it. Christ did it. Number two, after he took care of our sins, Apollo said he is exalted and he's sitting on the right hand of majesty. The right hand. The right hand. Judy, why not the left hand? Well, no offense to left-handed folk like Judy.

37:40 but in Bible left was a sign of weakness or disrespect right was the sign of power as a matter of fact there are instances when a child was known to be left-handed and they were forced to learn to use the right hand because the right hand is the hand of power so what Apollos recognizes is that Jesus is not on the left hand of God because he's not weak Jesus is on the right hand because Because Jesus symbolizes the power of God to be at work in your life. So, I know this ain't a sanctified church and you ain't got no oil and you ain't talked in tongues. But I'm about to tell you something you need to know. You need to know five words to speak over your life. Can I give them to you? Write it down, tweet it. In the name of Jesus.

38:37 You've got to learn to say in the name of Jesus because that activates the power of God over every circumstance you speak it over. Mama, you need to look at your child in the name of Jesus. Husband, look at your family in the name of Jesus. Look at your sickness in the name of Jesus. Go on your job in the name of Jesus. There's something about that name.

39:14 Right hand, right hand. Somebody say right hand. There's another reason it's the right hand. Brother Hal, in the Jewish judicial system, there were certain seats assigned when a trial was going on. Y'all stay with me. The judge would sit in the middle. The accused would stand out front. the attorney, the plaintiff would be on the left, and the defense attorney sat on the right. So when the accused stood before the judge, and the one on the left made an accusation, the one who sits on the right, his job was to make a defense for the one who'd been accused. It is the seat of my defender. Can I tell you why I love me some Jesus? Because I know I've been guilty. I know I've been accused. But somehow, someway, my Savior interceded.

40:10 And is there anybody here that knows God excused your case? God erased your record? God let you walk? He's on the right hand. He's greater than the angels. He's greater than the angels because, watch this, whenever you see angels in Bible, they're always temporary.

40:42 Angels do not have eternal assignment. Angels do not have unlimited power. They are dispatched and they are recalled. They come and they go. And what makes Jesus better than the angels is simple. He reigns forever. He reigns forever. He reigns forever and evermore. I got some good news for somebody. The kings may come and go. but he reigns forever.

41:22 Presidents will be elected and impeached but he reigns forever. Nations will rise and nations will fall but our kingdom of our Christ, it stands forever. I gotta leave you. Apollos just wants you to know Jesus is greater than the prophets. He's greater than the angels because no one can be compared to Christ. At the end, Apollo says, who has God ever said this to? Nobody measures up to Jesus.

42:00 And Donald, that's what makes him so fabulous because any other great person you know, there's someone they can be compared to. If I say Moses, you could say Elijah because you can compare him. If I say Esther, Judy could say Ruth, because you can compare her. If I say Martin, you can say Mandela. They can be compared. If I say Jordan, you can say LeBron. They can be compared. Well, no, he can't. If I say Toni Morrison, you can say Maya Angelou. If I say Booker T, you can say W.E.B. If I say Boyz II Men, you can say New Edition. If I say Prince, you can say Michael Jackson. If I say Anita Baker, you can say Patti LaBelle.

42:55 If I say Beyonce, you can say... I'm sure there's someone you compare to. But when you say Jesus, when you mention the one who died on the cross, when you remember the one who made ways for you. We remember the power that's in his name. When you remember the name Jesus, who can be compared to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, whose name can be mentioned in the same sentence as Jesus? That's why Paul said, therefore For God hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is above all names.

43:54 Because there's no one like Jesus, greater than anyone we've ever known. And my prayer is that in this season of awaiting his return and proclaiming his birth, that everyone who crosses your path will know through your witness of life who our Christ is. Greater than anything or anyone is our Jesus. And that, beloved, is something we should never forget. On the front of this table, etched in this cloth that veils the table, are the words in remembrance. When Jesus gathers his disciples together for this moment of breaking bread and sharing cup, he says, do it in remembrance of me. Because he knew that we have a tendency to forget.

44:53 We get hustled and bustled in the movement of our day and we forget who Christ really is. and so this table is meant to remind us to remember to put back together the exalted essence of Jesus not only in our Christmas celebration but in our daily life