Hebrews 1:1-3

Now: (Book and Passage)

I am fascinated with ships, the ocean, and sailing. I always have been. Reading stories of the voyages of discovery and the great explorers of both poles always captures the imagination. A consistent theme of every level of exploration is the need to find a safe anchorage—a place for rest and refit and a location out of the path of danger. In the Mediterranean sea, to the south of Europe, the weathers and seas are mild, but due to the depth, sudden storms can wreck a ship on the rocks, even at anchorage. A vessel's safety depends on the anchor's quality and the strength of the attachment to the anchor.

Then: (Book and Passage)

Today we start our series in the Book of Hebrews titled "Anchored Faith." As you can guess from the title, the book's theme is faith, and throughout, the author uses many nautical terms to address the issues he brings up. The word faith is used over 32 times in the book, and each case is handled with a command to "don't drift" and "hold fast." The author is concerned with the church to ensure a strong attachment to the anchor. The climax of the letter makes the point abundantly clear,

Hebrews 10:21-23 (read), "and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 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 with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful"

Throughout the book, we see some items which will weaken attachment to the anchor, and the list is surprising: Angels, the law, misunderstanding the priesthood and misunderstanding the sacrificial system, among other items. We can summarize many of the issues in the bucket of "religious preferences." It is a sobering thought that our religious preferences can weaken our attachment to the anchor. But what is the anchor we are attached to? Therein lies the problem. Many of the preferences became anchors of low quality. They were not sturdy enough to survive rough seas, and a ship, or in this case, a church, would crash upon the rocks of this world. Modern versions of the preferences we will look at are Doctrine, preaching style/celebrity preachers, size, denominationalism, tradition, and spirituality, to name a few. But what is the anchor?

The identity of the anchor is the point of our passage today. And the author of Hebrews wants the church to stay anchored to Jesus Christ. He is our sure and steady anchor. Suppose we fail to attach ourselves to Christ firmly. In that case, we start to drift, and we do not hold fast, and ultimately, we will neglect our salvation, which is a crucial exhortation in the letter; we are to avoid neglecting our salvation because if we neglect it, all sorts of problems crop up. A key question is Hebrews 2:3 (Read): "How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?"

One important point to dwell on: the encouragement and rebukes in Hebrews exist because the church struggles with them. The church, in every age, needs a reminder and refresher on who our anchor is and his quality. So this brings us to our big idea for today, the single truth we need to understand as we start our journey through Hebrews:

Always (B/I): Jesus is the anchor of our faith because he is the eternal prophet, priest, and King, so we obey his word.

Let's read...

Read: Hebrews 1:1-2:1 (larger passage for context)

Section One: Hebrews 1:1-2a (Read)

The truth of the phrase "God spoke" changed everything for humanity. Humans who needed divine leading and inspiration had access to the word of God. And after the fall of Genesis three, we see God speaking to men who would deliver the word to the people. In our Genesis series, we saw some of them: Abraham and Noah, and moving forward in the history of God's people, we met others such as Elijah and Elisha, Isaiah, Moses, and Jeremiah, just to name a few. Each man received the word of God and then transmitted it to the people. The promises of God were received and remembered.

But then we move forward to the first part of verse two, "but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son." (V 2a). Together verses 1-2a explain a concept to us that is also throughout the New Testament, the idea of progressive revelation. The term is a fancy way of saying that God made himself known and his plan known through time. God's revelation of himself was for his glory and to give us salvation. However, many misuse or misunderstand the term when they come to such verses as we just read. The tendency is to think of the Old Testament as incomplete truth and the New Testament as completed truth, or the Old Testament revelation was less worthy. The New Testament revelation is more worthy, but that is not accurate either. Progressive revelation is rightly understood in verses 1-2a as promises made and promise fulfilled. We see God's mercy in the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Gospel in the Old Testament, and the New Testament; the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. We see his arrival in the New Testament.

God spoke of mercy and judgment in the Old Testament, and Jesus affirms in the New Testament God spoke of the meaning of the promises, and Jesus affirms the meaning of the promises. Jeremiah 31:33 (Read) speaks of the New Covenant that is coming, and the function of participation, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." God spoke through psalms, prophecy, and promises, as we saw in our Genesis series in chapters 12 & 15.

But God's final word did not arrive until the son came in the flesh. When Christ appeared, he completed the revelation and fulfilled all the promises. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, in 2 Cor 1:20 (read), "For all the promises of God find their "yes" in him. That is what it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his Glory." We live in a time of fulfillment. We live in the time the people we read about in Chapter 11 of Hebrews continually dreamed about and longed for. This is the time to be alive! We have the Word and the mission and the Spirit! It is a phenomenal time to serve the King. Christ is our anchor; through him, we have completed faith and a claim on the unfailing promise of God. But if Christ is the anchor, how do we know his quality? His effectiveness? Look at the rest of verse 2 and verse 3 with me.

Section Two: Hebrews 1:2b-3 (Read)

He is the Son of God, but what exactly does that mean, and how does that qualify him to be our anchor? Hebrews gives us seven facts to help us identify and understand Jesus in this role as Christ. Let's walk through them:

"heir of all things." This ties into one of the Psalms that will play a part in the rest of the book, Psalm 2:8 (read), "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession." The text of Hebrews expands the promise of God to the Son in Psalm 2:8 to be a universal inheritance. We will revisit this in 2:5-9. "He created (made) the World/Universe/Ages." Depending on your translation, all would work. Christ is the agency through how God created; numerous verses affirm this but let's look at John 1:3 (read), "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made." Christ glorifies God in Creation, and God glorifies the Son in Creation; a mutual love comes through the verses."He is the radiance of the glory of God." An idea in the Old Testament regarding God's glory is that it has weight and value intertwined with God's presence and character. The term used for radiance would also be used to describe sunlight. Sunlight does a couple of things: it warms the earth so that life can occur and leads to reproduction so that life can swarm and team. "And the exact imprint of his nature." The writer means the character representation, the imprint of God's very essence. Think of a coin. We see a president's head on one side. It gives us an idea of what the man looks like. But the idea of an imprint goes further; the idea means "the very essence of who God is" resides in Christ. To see Christ is to see what the Father is like; to know Christ is to know the Father. "He upholds the universe by the word of his power." In Genesis chapter one, God speaks, and things are created, God speaks a creative word, and Christ is the agent. And Christ participates in another precise way; he issues a sustaining word. Col 1:16-17 (read) puts it this way, "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together." Jesus is intimately involved in the universe's operation. The idea of "upholds" also has a meaning of guidance. So as Christ sustains creation, he guides it to the final destination. "Afer making purification for sins..." From cosmic guidance to personal mercy, Christ is involved. In Hebrews, we will see how central the priestly work of Christ is to our salvation, and the priestly work is tied to administering the sacrifice which God provides. Not to jump ahead, but the sacrificial system in the Old Testament was elaborate for various reasons, but the primary one was to emphasize the need for holiness. There is a corporate nature to the priestly work, but in Christ, it also becomes very personal, he forgives our sin, yes, but he forgives "your' sin, personally. Why is that important? (Gospel) Because the King of Glory is the King of you, personally. Christ came to earth, born of a virgin, lived out a sinless life, fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Father, died for our sins in our place, and rose again so we can have a new life if we repent and believe. Often we try to depersonalize faith or over-personalize it; the writer of Hebrews is asking us to recognize Christ for who he is, the King of glory and the King of you. "sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." This statement speaks to the supremacy of Christ, only the son of David sits in the presence of God; we see this in 2 Samuel 7:18.

Do we have enough to recognize the anchor? Yes, the writer is comprehensive. We do not have time in one service to touch on every verse that could be referenced. The verse is a masterful description of our King and anchor. But why did the writer need to put this down on paper? Or papyri? Because the church he is writing to was struggling to stay anchored securely to Christ and to recognize the true anchor. And then the Holy Spirit put it in the New Testament because it is a common problem. So let's turn to just a few summaries of the temptations and problems the church faced then and now.

Applications:

Application 1: A temptation exists to anchor to other things, to major in the minors. As I stated at the beginning, religious preference is the big bucket where many of our false anchors live. When the New Testament was written, celebrity preachers were already a thing. Paul admonishes the church not to prioritize certain teachers based on preference. Paul in 2 Timothy and Titus emphasize character in preachers and teachers, not your preference in speaking styles or looks. Celebrity preachers are a false anchor. Doctrine and traditions are false anchors, and the writer will address both. The Apostles Paul and James bring up the issue repeatedly in their letters. Many in the church valued knowledge over love, and disunity and conflict resulted. The shipwreck of churches is all over the New Testament landscape. Doctrine is important, traditions are helpful, and gifted speakers and teachers are needed, but none of them replace Christ himself. He is our anchor and identity.

Application 2: Humanity does not like the Christ of Scripture, he has expectations and demands and can only be pleased on his terms, so humans try to create a Christ who is less than Scripture that we can please on our terms.

The world is mainly OK with a Jesus of your own creation, just do not talk about or promote the Jesus of Scripture. Do not fall for a different Jesus, and do not fall for a Jesus defined outside of Scripture. In verses 1-3, you have the description of Christ from Scripture, and if you take the time to look up every reference, you will spend hours looking in awe at the detail in which God laid out his identity for us over 2,000 years of history.

It is a huge temptation to compromise on the identity of Christ, but you must resist, or you will neglect your salvation, and you will not like the consequences, and there are consequences that the writer will lay out for us as we go. It is his colossal temptation to get you to compromise on the identity of Christ because if Satan or your own sinful heart can get you to budge, then ANYTHING goes. The letter is a warning written to the church, and as we walk through the letter in the weeks and months ahead, we need to be mindful and watch for the signs of drift, and if we see them, grasp on to our anchor as our lives depend on it.

Conclusion:

Jesus is the anchor of our faith because he is the eternal prophet, priest, and King, so we obey his word. The priesthood and the sacrifice of Christ are the cross legs that support our faith. They also are the critical quality components of our faithful anchor - Christ. If we are faithful and true, if we fight to stay attached to Jesus, he will not fail and see us safely home.

Response:

Christian: Are you trying to anchor to something besides Christ? It might seem reasonable on the surface, but ultimately, it will fail. You cannot reach the destination God intends for you if you are anchored to a preference instead of Christ.

Non-Christian: Christ is exactly who he is described to be in this passage: the Son of God, who has all the rights and privileges of God and yet came to earth to be born as one of us. He lived among us, taught us, and loved us, and at the right time, he died for us because we are sinners in need of a Savior, and he is that Savior. But he rose again, in the flesh, so you can have new life if you repent and believe. Jesus is the King of Glory and the King of you.