Hebrews: Jesus is superior to everything!

Bible Reading

Today we are looking back in order to look forwards. Last week we finished the book of Acts and we thought about how the church is built and spread throughout the early new testament times.

So it is appropriate for us to take a Pause here today, and think about Just where we are in our journey from Garden to Garden city.

Because we are in fact nearing the end of the series. We have only a few letters to go before we hit Revelation and finish the story.

But to get there we have to look back and sum up what we have said so far.

And actually the new testament gives us a book to help us do exactly that - the book of Hebrews.

So today we are going to be looking back via the lens of Hebrews in order that we can look forward to Revelation.

Now what the book of Hebrews allows us to do is to see exactly how Jesus is superior to all of the ways in which God guided and sanctified his people throughout the old testament.

Now Hebrews is kind of like a sermon manuscript from ancient times. And it is like a 4 point sermon with a large bit of application to the hearer at the end. And so today we are going to be following the same structure as we look at the book of Hebrews together...

The theme of Hebrews is JEsus is superior to everything, therefore live for him.

Now firstly we must understand that the way Hebrews is structured is that it in each of it’s sections it has a claim about JEsus’s superiority, and then an application and warning as a result.

Now the first claim is that Jesus is the superior message

And the first thing the author of Hebrews wants us to see is that Jesus is the superior message and superior messenger (both angels and prophets).

Jesus is the superior message (chapter 1-2)

Hebrews 1:1–4 CSB

1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 4 So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The first thing the author hebrews needs his hearers to understand is that Jesus is the superior message.

What was the message God has been speaking all throuhtout the history of earth? His message is himself. He has been revealing himself throughout all of history to the world.

Now this as we saw was neccessary because in the fall of sin, the knowledge of God was obscured. Was broken and corrrupted.

And so all throughout history God has been revealing himself to the world.

So how did God speak before JEsus? He revealed himself htrough his special people, ISrael to the world, and to ISrael through the prophets, angels and priestly system.

But now the problem is that that message is incomplete, is corrupt too. Because israel wasnt the revelation of God to the nations they were supposed to be. They ended up rejecting God, rejecting his ways, and they did not communicate God’s character to the world.

And so if you wanted special revelation you would go to prophets or look for special miracles or angel messengers.

but that era has passed.

As an aside, where are you looking for your revelation?

And so things change when JEsus comes.

If you wanted to know who God was, look at Christ. He is the exact expression of God’s glory, the one who sustains all things through his word, the radiance of God’s glory.

Jesus is the superior message.

And when this message comes, when Jesus comes, what is the message he actually ends up communicating?

And what is the message the Jesus brings as the fulfillment of all the previous ways God spoke? Repent and believe. Believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth and you will be saved.

In essence Jesus brings the message humanity has been aching for ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. How do you get a restored relationship with God, how do you fill that God shaped hole in your heart?

You need to repent and believe and accept hte free gift of salvation offered through Jesus.

That is how the problem of sin is fixed, through Christ, who brings the true and better message from God.

But then the author of hebrews makes gives us the first warning:

If Jesus is the superior message, and the superior messenger, then

Hebrews 2:1–3 CSB

1 For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, 3 how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation had its beginning when it was spoken of by the Lord, and it was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

If Jesus is brings the superior message - listen to him!

you israel didnt listen to his previous messengers.

Jesus said even if someone rose from the dead they wouldnt believe.

but we are in a different era.

so we need to listen to the superior message from the superior messenger.

repent and believe.

Otherwise you will not escape the just vengence of God on judgement day. Repent and believe and you will be saved.

Jesus is the superior message.

But also,

Jesus is the superior leader (chapter 2b-4)

Having established that Jesus is the greater message, and greater messenger, the author now wants us to understand that Jesus is the superior leader. And he picks on Israel’s two great establishing leaders: Moses and Joshua.

Now all throuhgout Israel’s history, Moses is considered to be the leader par excellance. He is the one who brought ISrael out of Egypt, he is the one who got the laws to govern Israel, he is the one who led ISrael thrugh the desert and established them as a nation.

Joshua was the great leader who led Israel into Canaan and conquered the land so that the ISraelites could find their rest and peace in the promised land.

But in these chapters Hebrews makes the point that yes Moses and Joshua led the people through to the promised land, yes they got to enter the land of rest. But the rest was temporary because of their disobedience.

Because Israel rejected God, he promises that they will never enter his eternal rest as a nation. So the promised land was really just a forshadowing of the eternal rest, the eternal shalom we will have with Christ in eterntity.

But how do we get this rest?

Well listen to the message - repent and believe, and you will be saved.

And don’t reject the salvation offered in Christ.

And so having established that Jesus is the superior leader offering a superior rest, the author of hebrews gives us his second warning:

So Warning 2: Don’t be like ISrael - dont get locked out of rest because of a hardened heart. Don’t reject the rest offered.

Since we have a better leader, a better Moses, who promises a better and eternal rest, hold on to obedience in faith, lest we get thrown out.

What does it look like to hold on to the obedience in faith? You listen to and obey Scripture:

Hebrews 4:11–13 CSB

11 Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall into the same pattern of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

Jesus is the superior message, listen to him, Jesus is the superior leader, so obey him as he reveals himself through his word.

But also, Jesus is the superior mediator.

Jesus is superior mediator (ch 5 - 8ish)

Here the auhtor of Hebrews wants his reader to now compare JEsus to Aaron the high priest.

And he makes the point that yes,

Aaron was the first high priest, but he was sinful himself. As were all the high priests who came after him. And this is a problem, because high priests therefore can’t be perfect mediators between God’s people and God because of their own sin.

And so whenever the high priest in Israel wanted to atone for the sins of hte people, he first had to make sacrifices for his own sins. He had to be cleansed himself.

And so the sacrifices he offered and the nature of his atonement is by definition limited. The sins had to be washed away again and again. Because the high priest was flawed his work was essentially incomplete.

But Jesus Hebrews tells us, is not like the high priests of the past.

He is a wholly different kind of high priest.

Listen to what he says about Jesus.

Hebrews 5:8–10 CSB

8 Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 and he was declared by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is a different kind of high priest. He is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

And again because we all know our bibles so very well, we know all about Mechizedek don’t we?

No?

Well the last time we saw melchizedek was way back in Genesis 14

Now this is way back in the days of Abraham and Lot. And what happens is that lot gets captures, and Abraham goes and saves him from the people who captured lot.

And as he takes the plunder back home, Abraham comes across this strange figure, the king of Salem, whose name is Melchizadek, who Gen 14 makes clear was a priest of God.

And then, Abraham does something extremely odd, he tithes a tenth of all the plunder to this Melchizedek as a way of showing him honour and reverance.

Now we don’t have time to go into this today, and i wish we did, but we need to know a few things.

The name Melchizedek means the king of righteousness, and this king of righteousness is listed as the king of Salem, salem meaning peace.

And so this priest king, is the king of righteousness, and the king of peace.

He is a prefigurement of Christ, and he rules like JEsus rules, as a priest king.

But critically he sits outside of the family line of Abraham. Melchizedek is not a levite, and all high priests had to come our of the levitical tribe.

But Jesus is the greater high priest, who can mediate not just for the ISraelites as would have been the case if Jesus was a levite, but he is a high priest of the order of melchizedek - the king priest who can mediate for teh whole world.

And this has signficiant implications to us.

Hebrews 7:26–28 CSB

26 For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.

and What this means for us,

is that we can have full assurance that our sins are forever forgiven.

The argument is this:

Jesus brings a better message - repent and believe and you will be saved. He can do this because he is a superior leader to Moses and Josuah, and for those who repent and believe he offers an eternal rest in the heavenly realms.

And we can be assured of this because his high priestly work, is of a better and more eternal nature than the weak earthly high priests of Aaron’s line. His atoning work is Melchizedekian, not Aaronic.

The implication then is, we can have full assurance that our sins are truly and eternally forgiven if we repent and believe.

For the author of Hebrews, this is what it means to be mature in the faith. To have this full assurance.

He goes into this warning schpiel about now being mature in Christ, not wanting spiritual milk any more and instead needing to move on to spiritual meat.

But what that is all about, I think, is about having the full assurance that our sins are truly forgiven.

And he says, when we doubt that, when we who truly believe, doubt that we are fully forgiven we are holding JEsus in contempt.

So he says, Grow up. You don’t need to constantly go back to needing the foundations of your salvation laid down again and again.

Grow up. IF you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth, you are saved.

So now stop worrying about that, and start living in obedience to him.

How can you do that, by remembering that JEsus is the superior mediator, a high priest in the order of melchizedek.

Ok, so how are we doing, we following alogn so far?

Jesus is the superior messenger, who brings a superior message - repent and believe.

JEsus is the superior leader, leading you into a superior rest - eternal life with him.

He can do this because he is the superior mediator, a high priest in the order of melchizedek, not needing to make sacrifices over and over, and sinless himself.

But, and this is the 4th point he makes, he is the superior sacrifice.

Jesus is the superior sacrifice (ch 9-10)

Hebrews 9:11–14 CSB

11 But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), 12 he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

So Jesus is not only the special high priest who can offer sacrifices unblemished by sin.

No he is also the sacrifice itself.

He could enter the most holy place, stand before God himself sinless, and offer himself as a sin offering for all his people, sprinklilng his blood over us to cleanse us of our sin.

But his sacrifice is superior to the prevoius sacrifices.

In the past it was the blood of goats, an bulls and the ashes of a young cow. These things were temporary, they only pointed to the true sacrifice.

But now Jesus blood, cleanses us completely. Eternally, and once for all.

His sacrifice is superior, because the one who offered the sacrifice was better.

His sacrifice is superior, because the blood was better.

And His sacrifice was superior because it lasts forever, for those who repent and believe.

His sacrifice was better because it was offered willingly.

His sacrifice was better because it was effective and actually cleansed people.

and his sacrifice was better because it finally bridged the sin gap that has existed since Adam and Eve’s day.

In every way, the Jesus is the superior sacrifice.

And his sacrifice is so superior and so effective, that we can now waltz right in to holy of holies, in a way that is both shocking and borders on scandalous.

But that is how clean we are:

Boldly we approach the throne, blameless now were coming home.

By his blood we’ve come, welcomes as his own, into the arms of majesty.

Do you get how scandalous this is! How shocking this would be to a jewish, hebrew hearer.

For all of their existence, the Holy of Holies was off limits and a place of fear and judgemnet. But now, through Jesus you can walk in there boldly.

Because of Jesus’ blood. That is amazing.

But now.

Having established this, the Author of Hebrews does something a little bit unexpected.

You see in each of the warning sections before this, the application was directly linked to JEsus’s superiority.

So Jesus brings the superior message - so listen to him and actually repent and believe.

Jesus is the superior leader, offering the superior rest so obey him as he speakd through his word.

JEsus is the superior mediator, so trust in his work by having full assurance that your sins are forgiven.

But then he says,

Jesus is the superior sacrifice, who actually cleanses sin: therefore come to church.

Check this out:

Hebrews 10:19–25 CSB

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus— 20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)— 21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Do you see how important the church is to your faith. So much so that the author of hebrews links your gathering together with other Christians, TO THE VERY SACRIFICE OF CHRIST.

Superior message - repent and believe.

Superior leader - follow and obey him.

Superior mediator - trust in his work.

Superior sacrifice - gather with other believers to spur one another on.

That is startling isn’t it.

Why is this so important?

Because I need you to spur me on. You need me to spur you on. Because even though all those things are true - we are erring humans, prone to wander.

Excluding yourself from the church community, is spiritually dangerous, because if tempts you to let go of the conffession of our hope, it tempts us to waver in our convictions.

So don’t neglect meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.

So Jesus is the superior message, he is teh superior leader, he is the superior mediator and high priest, and he is the superior sacrifice.

That is the flow of the book.

And then the writer to Hebrews gets to the big now what.

Given that all those things are true, now what?

Now, live by faith, even if you can’t see the benefits of faith in this life but suffer terrible persecutrrion.

So then, live by faith even against terrible persecution.

Hebrews 12:1–3 CSB

1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

Hebrews 11:13–16 CSB

13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. 14 Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

See what the author of hebrews does here. He says, look at the past, look at the faith of all those people in Israel who lived for God.

Look at Adam, and Abraham, and Sarah, and the patriarchs. Look at how they trusted God, had faith in God.

And here is the critical part - look at how in their faith, they didn’t receive the promise.

The saw the truth of their faith, the promised land, the blessing for all nations, the way Israel was going to be the way God redeems the world,. they saw all these promises from far of. From a distance.

But they didn’t get them.

Here is the truth, these Jewish christians needed to hear, in the midst of persecution so sever that some of them fell away from the faith.

In this life, you may not get what you think God promised you.

Your life may just be a life of quiet faith, and you may not see the amazing deliverance you expect.

That is what a life of faith looks like.

But look not just at the witness of those who came before in Israel. Look at the witness of those martyrs of the faith that you see in your own day!

Hebrews 11:35–40 CSB

35 Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. 38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

They did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us.

Something better than a safe and secure life. Something better than wealth, and health, and the ability to prosper.

What is that something better? God provided Christ.

Superior in every way, to every thing,

something, someone so good, that these Christians were willing to be sawn in two, cut by the sword, stoned, destitude and afflicted.

These things are nothing, compared to the all surpasssing greatness of knowing Jesus.

We live increasingly in a time where it will cost us to love Jesus. Where it will cost us to follow Christ.

Where it will cost us to listen to his superior message and live lives of repetance and faith.

We live in a time where following our superior leader and sticking to what his Word actually says, and so enter into his rest, is going to cost us more and more. It will cost us Jobs, and friendships, and family relationships.

Wer live in a time where following our superior mediator, our better high preist is going to cost us more and more. In a world that tells us all roads lead to God, Jesus is just one option among many, for us to insist that he is the way the truth and hte life is going to be costly.

We live in a time where trusting in Jesus superior sacrifice on the cross is all the more costly precisely because it is so offensive to this world.

It is ever more costly to be a Christian.

and here is the scary truth Hebrews teaches us.

it is ever more costly to be a christian,

And you will fall away,

unless.

Unless you value Christ as superior to everything the world offers.

So is Jesus superior in your life?

Amen