Hebrews 1

Introduction

Most likely written in the mid-60s AD before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD

A common understanding is that the letter was written to Jews residing in Rome (13:24)

The author of Hebrews is unknown

Purpose: to exalt the person and work of Jesus Christ as the better covenant and message. Jesus is the final expression of God’s redemptive purposes

1. God Spoke in many times and ways (1:1a)

Hebrews 1:1 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,”

God spoke through the prophets for centuries

God speaking through the prophets was the first phase of history

The prophets were used by God to move along redemptive history

We have the words of the prophets in the OT

One glorious reality to see here is that God is a speaking God

God has graciously spoken many times and in many ways so that we get it

God wants us to get his message

God lavishly communicates

However, how often do we not like the ways and means by which God has spoken to us? Do we not often wish God would speak to us in other ways? Or speak directly to us?

The emphasis is that if God graciously and lavishly spoke through the prophets in phase 1, how much in phase 2?

2. Jesus is God’s final Message (1:2a)

Hebrews 1:2 “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Jesus is God’s final message in these last days

What do you think it means by “these last days”?

Jesus is more than a prophet. Why? Because he is God’s son.

There is no other message or revelation to come after Jesus Christ

Christ is the accumulation of all that has come before and he is all there is until he returns again

Do we not often cry out to God in desperate to reveal himself to us? To speak? That if we just had a clearer word or message from him than we would be ok or we could make some decision or we would be encouraged in our faith.

However, this verse is a gentle rebuke to that thinking

There is no greater message than Jesus Christ

God can give us nothing better or more than Jesus Christ

When we want God to speak to us in some new way or in some fresh revelation, we are saying to God that we have exhausted all there is to know, explain, and learn about Jesus Christ so we need something new

People, there is nothing after Jesus Christ. There is no third phase. Jesus Christ is it.

Until Jesus’ return or until we die, everything is about explaining and applying the message of God’s son

It is all about discovering more and more about the beauty and riches of the person of Christ

It is about going deeper and deeper into his life, his incarnation, his words, his death, burial, and resurrection, his intercessory work, his ministry of king, prophet, and priest.

It is about plumbing the inconceivable depths of the love of God in Christ.

The message of God to us in these last days is his Son. This is the final and only message we need.

If you need encouragement, go to Christ.

If you need help, go to Christ.

If you need wisdom, go to Christ.

If you need peace, go to Christ.

If you need satisfaction, go to Christ.

Everything you need is found in Christ.

So, as the final message of God, the question is now:

Who is God’s son?

The rest of verse 2 and all of verse 3 tells us who God’s son is.

A. Jesus is the Heir of all things (1:2b)

Hebrews 1: 2 “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

Why do you think the author of Hebrews, right after he says that God has spoken through his Son, says that his Son is the heir of all things? Why is that significant?

Because Jesus is the heir of all things we can trust his word; we can trust his promises.

Jesus is the possessor of all God’s promises and everything in all of creation so we can trust his word!

What does that mean practically?

Well, when Jesus says in Matthew 5:5 ““Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” we can trust that Jesus is able to do what he promises. Why? Because he owns the earth!

It says in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because God has made Jesus Christ the heir of all things, then we can surely trust that there is nothing in all creation or in the world that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus because Jesus is in control and owns everything in all creation!

This reality of Jesus Christ being appointed the heir of all things is extremely encouraging for believers

B. Jesus is the creator of all things

Hebrews 1:2 “but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

These two things: Jesus being the heir and Jesus being the creator are connected

One points to the end of everything: Jesus being the heir

The other points to the beginning: Jesus being creator

C. Jesus is the Radiance (revealer) of God’s glory & nature

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus shows us God

Jesus said “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father”

Jesus is not just someone who is representing God, like an emissary or ambassador of a king to a foreign land

Jesus is God radiating God!

Jesus is God streaming forth in another person of the Trinity who is the same divine essence as God the Father

The radiance of glory is the glory radiating

No one can see God

But through Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, we see God. We see God’s glory.

How does Jesus radiate God? Or how is he the exact imprint of his nature?

1. There is no time that God exists that the Son does not exist. They are both co-eternal. Where there is God, there is a Son of God.

2. The radiance is the glory radiating out. Or in other words, the Son of God is God. Just like the beams of light from the sun is the sun, so is the radiance of the glory of God, God.

3. Jesus is not a created being. He is begotten, not made

4. By Christ we see God. When you see Christ, you are seeing God. By light we see light

D. Jesus is the Upholder (sustainer, bearer) of all things

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus is the reason anything and everything exists

Without him upholding everything in the universe, everything would cease to be

If Jesus wasn’t upholding the chair you are sitting on, it wouldn’t just crumble underneath you, it would be completely non-existence

He holds together every molecule in the universe

Everything that is, only is, because he sustains it

If he chooses not to sustain something, then it is nothing

That includes you

Christ is everywhere, at all times. He is above, beneath, behind, in front of everything

Nothingness is the opposite of Jesus upholding the universe

We are utterly dependent upon the will of Christ

E. Jesus is the Purifier of Sins

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus accomplished a perfect redemption

Purification for sins was complete and final

All your sins were purified once and for all

No other purification is ever needed again

You might sometimes think that he forgave you for all your past sins when you became a Christian, but now when you sin or are sinning you aren’t purified and something else is need

This is a hideous and dark lie

Jesus’ purification of sins was for past, present, and future sins

Christ purchased our justification, sanctification, and glorification in a single moment of time with a single sacrifice and nothing else will ever be needed again

Hebrews 7:27 “He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

Hebrews 9:12 “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 9:25-28 “Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

Hebrews 10:10–14 ESV

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Understand, that Jesus Christ died for sins once and that one sacrifice was sufficient before God the Father to cleanse all those who would believer from all sins. Jesus died for them all and there is nothing else for anyone to do.

F. Jesus is the Exalted Ruler

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

I don’t want to get to particular, but the grammatical point of everything that we have covered in verse 3 is this right here: that Jesus Christ “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Because of who Jesus Christ is and because of what he has done, it is only fitting that he ascended into heaven and sat down at God’s right hand

You could say it like this:

Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory, so it is fitting that he sat down

He is the exact imprint of God’s nature, so it is fitting that he sat down

He upholds the universe by the word of his power, so it is fitting that he sat down - we owe Jesus our very being

He made purification for sin, so it is fitting that he sat down - we owe Jesus our forgiveness

But what does it mean that Jesus sat down?

It means that Christ’s work is finished. He accomplished the eternal redemptive purposes of God by becoming a man, living a perfect life, suffering and and being nailed to a cross, bearing the wrath of God for the sins of all who would believe, dying, being buried for three days, rising again, and ascending to heaven.

Christ’s work is done and now he has been exalted as King in heaven because his work is done!

Before we move to the next section, we need to pause and think about what we have just studied.

The whole book of Hebrews hinges upon what the author of Hebrews has just communicated to us.

The author of Hebrews is exalting Christ as high as is humanly possible and he is calling his readers to come up with him.

This Jesus Christ that we just studied is not the everyday, common, casual, cheap Christ that is so often talked about in Christian circles.

This Jesus is not just for Sundays for an hour and a half.

Let me tell you something: if you don’t get this Christ, if you don’t worship this Christ, if you don’t love this Christ, if you don’t serve this Christ, if you don’t believe in this Christ, then you are not a Christian or you have a very low Christianity.

Worshipping and loving this Christ, is Christianity because this is who Christ is.

This Christ is the heir of all things, the creator of all things, the upholder of all things, the reflector of God’s glory, the purifier of sins, and the exalted ruler

People, if you don’t know this Jesus, it is time to acquaint yourself with him.

If you have a casual relationship with him, sometimes hot sometimes cold, it is time to get serious.

Jesus is God, and yet we are going to see in the coming weeks, that he is a very personal God. He wants to know us. He wants to commune with us. He wants to know our prayers and struggles and can have compassion on us because he is acquainted with our struggles.

Don’t have a low few of Jesus.

Don’t think little of him.

Know him and worship him for who he truly is.

Pray that you would know this Jesus better.

That all these different things that Christ is wouldn’t just be information to you, but would impress themselves upon your heart and you would experience him for yourself.

Seek to know God as your personal redeemer, creator, sustainer, revealer, king.

Seek to know by the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s final message in these last days.

Now, in verses 4-14, the author is going to show us how Jesus is better than angels.

The question you might be asking, is why the author of Hebrews would spend so much time talking about angels.

There are severals reasons for this.

Many Jews believed that it was angels who brought the Old Covenant to them and who were the mediators of the Old Covenant

Acts 7:51-53 ““You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.””

Galatians 3:19 “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”

Angel were highly respected and regarded

Paul even warned the Colossian church about angel worship (Colossians 2:18 “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,” )

It is probable that many of the Jews that the author of Hebrews was writing to believed that Jesus was either just an angel or believe that angels were better than Jesus

So, the author is seeking to show that Jesus is better than angels, that he is a a better mediator than angels, and that he is a better mediator of a better covenant

How does the author do this? By showing from scripture, that Jesus is better than angels.\

How is Jesus better than angels?

3. Jesus has a better name

Hebrews 1:4 “having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

So, the first thing the author does is to tell his audience that Jesus is better than angels because he has a better name

The author then gives scriptural proof to show how Jesus is superior.

A. Jesus is God’s Son

Hebrews 1:5 “For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?”

Jesus is better than angels because he has inherited a more excellent name and this more excellent name is that Jesus is God’s Son!

The author quotes Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7:14

2 Samuel 7:14 ESV

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,

The words quoted from Psalm 2 were mostly part of a kings coronation ceremony and would have been announced over him as he was being enthroned

This is the idea that the author of Hebrews is seeking to communicate: God is proclaiming Christ as the victorious enthroned Son

Never has this been said of Angels

B. Angles are to worship the Son

Hebrews 1:6 “And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.””

This “again” is most likely referring to Christ’s second coming when he will return and all the hosts of heaven will worship the returned King!

Angels are God worshipers. This what angels are called to do

So, Jesus is better than angels because angels are commanded by God to worship the Son!

Side note, Christians are Jesus worshipers.

Just like angels, we worship Jesus

If you don’t worship Jesus, you are not a Christian

Worshipping Jesus is what makes us Christian

C. Angels have a specific, God given ministry

Hebrews 1:7 “Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.””

I will return to this when we mention verse 14, but the important thing to notice is that they have a specific ministry they were created for that is unique to them

But this is another way that we see how Jesus is better than angels: we see how angels were “made” but in the next verse we see how Jesus is eternally God!

D. Jesus is the Eternal God

Hebrews 1:8-9 “But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.””

Here we see one of the clearest place of Jesus’ divinity

Here we have Jesus honored as God by God!

Psalm 45:6-7 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;”

In the OT, this passage is ascribed to God, but here it is ascribed to Jesus

We see that Jesus is better than angels because Jesus is the eternal God!

The writer wants us to see that Jesus as God

Question: do you worship, love, serve, commune with Jesus as God?

E. Jesus is the Eternal Creator

Hebrews 1:10-12 “And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.””

This is drawing from what was already said in verse 2

What is ascribed to God is ascribed to Jesus

We are called to ascribe to Jesus the same things we ascribe to God: his eternality and immutability

Psalm 102:25-27 “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.”

Again, Jesus is better than angels because he has no beginning or end. He is unchanging. He created all things and will bring all things to their proper end. Jesus was not created like angels

Jesus is unchanging and eternally God

F. Jesus is the exalted ruler

Again, the writer is driving the point home that to angels God has never said that they should sit at his right hand

This honor is only for Jesus Christ as the Son of God

Jesus is better than angels

G. Angels are ministering servants of believers

Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”

Here we see how Jesus is better than angels because angels have a specific ministry

Angels have two purposes: to worship God and to serve the saints

You can see the contrast: Jesus is sitting as King on a throne, but angels are sent out to do his bidding

We need to understand this: we are the focus of the ministry of angels

Worshipping angels are sent by king Jesus to serve us

Oh, this should provide us so much comfort and encouragement

Here we see there is angelic help in the universe for saints who are to inherit salvation

How do angels serve us?

Angels are dispatched to serve so that we inherit salvation.

They are blocking enemies from destroying you.

They help us make it to our inheritance

They are involved in subduing Christ’s enemies: “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

You might be wondering, ok this is all well and good, but why are angels and all this talk of angels important to me? How does it apply to me?

Here are some reasons why this is important:

Chapter 1 of Hebrews is written to create a passion for the risen and enthroned Son of God

If nothing else, this is a practical reason why this whole chapter matters to you

So, do you have this passion???

Do you have the appropriate sense of awe, wonder, and fear of Jesus Christ?

Here we have learned about the true Jesus

We have learned some of who he is and what he has done

This chapter is meant to correct wrong or base thinking about who Jesus is

Is Jesus littler or large to you?

Do you neglect this Jesus?

Do you trivialize him?

Do you tremble at this Jesus? You should, because he is God and he owns and upholds all things including you

Finally, understanding, comprehending, and experiencing everything we just covered matters because of what is said in Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

We are going to study this next week, but these things we have learned will help us not drift.