Hebrews 1:1-4 - Jesus is the Best Prophet and Priest

Pray

Father, thank you for the opportunity to preach your Word.

It’s always a privilege, every week, to be allowed to proclaim the glory of Christ in your Word.

I pray that you would open our hearts and minds to receive and understand your Word.

And I pray that you would use it and the power of the Holy Spirit to change us all into the likeness of your Son, Jesus.

Please, empower me to boldly preach your Word, and help me to exalt Christ and not myself.

It’s in his name I pray. Amen.

Intro

We’re starting a new series this morning through the book of Hebrews.

And I want us to work through Hebrews together for a couple of reasons.

First, I want us to see how our life in the new covenant is based on the foundation that God laid in the old covenant.

And the book of Hebrews presents that concept very well.

Second, I want us to see Jesus as better than everything else that came before the new covenant, and he’s better than everything else in our life that came before our faith in him.

And the book of Hebrews has a recurring theme word about Jesus.

It’s the Greek adjective, kray-TONE.

That word simply means, “better.”

That’s why I’ve titled this series, “Jesus is Better.”

Throughout the book of Hebrews Jesus is presented as better than a lot of different things.

He’s better than angels, better than Adam, better than Moses.

He’s better than the sacrificial system.

He’s better than the Tabernacle or the Temple.

He’s better than all of these things because he’s the sovereign God, ruler of everyone and everything.

The organization of the book of Hebrews follows the themes of Jesus being prophet, priest, and king.

But really, it’s how Jesus is the best prophet in chapters 1 through 6 because he’s the king of all creation as God.

And he’s the best priest in chapters 7 through 12 also because he’s the king of all creation as God.

And chapter 13 is what we are to do about it, the conclusion or application to this message about how Jesus is better.

The human author of the book of Hebrews is unknown.

And while it’s fun and interesting to speculate about who could have written it, God sovereignly left the name of the author out of the book of Hebrews so that we would focus on Jesus and his supremacy and not focus on whoever wrote this treatise about Jesus’ supremacy.

The original audience is also relatively unknown.

We know some things about them, but not exactly who or where they were.

We know that the gospel had already been preached to them.

Hebrews 2:1 “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

Hebrews 5:12 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,”

We know that they endured severe persecution.

Hebrews 10:32–34 “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

We know that they were tempted to go back to the rules and rituals of the old covenant because of their persecution.

That’s why Jesus is presented as better than the old covenant in the first place, to persuade them not to go backward in fear but to go forward in faith in Christ.

We all tend to do that, don’t we.

When the pressure is on and life is difficult we tend to look back at the good old days, the golden age when life was more manageable and more comfortable than it is right now.

Life gets hard and we think that the past was better than the way things are in the present.

And we try to revert back to what was comfortable and familiar rather than pursuing what is seemingly uncomfortable and new.

Now, this doesn’t always happen.

But when it does I hope you’ll see and remember that when we focus on Jesus and his sufficiency, we can move forward in our faith in him and not backward in fear of our circumstances.

We can see this in the entire book of Hebrews.

God has shown us how Jesus and following him is better than what was comfortable and familiar so that when life is hard we won’t revert.

We’re going to be looking at the first four verses of the book of Hebrews this morning.

And Hebrews 1:1-4 is sort of like a thesis statement for this essay or treatise about Jesus’ supremacy, how Jesus is better.

It shows us the outline for the rest of the book of Hebrews, how Jesus is better than the prophets and better than the priesthood of the old covenant because he’s the sovereign creator and sustainer of all creation, because he’s God.

Prophets and priests were very important in the old covenant because they both facilitated how God’s people could relate to him.

Prophets communicated God’s words, his revelation, to his people.

And priests communicated to and interacted with God on behalf of his people.

They each facilitated one of the two sides of that relationship.

And as we’re going to see in this thesis statement and fleshed out in the rest of the book of Hebrews…

Jesus facilitates our relation to God the Father as the best prophet and the best priest in one person so that we won’t revert to relating to God in insufficient ways.

How do we relate to God in light of Jesus Christ?

We relate to God through Jesus, God’s Son, as the best prophet and priest because he’s the sovereign ruler of everything.

So, we are going to address both sides of the relational coin one at a time as we see the main argument for the entire book of Hebrews laid out in Hebrews 1:1-4.

And first up, we’re going to see how Jesus is the best source of God’s revelation to us in verses 1 and 2.

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 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.

With this opening statement we see that…

Jesus is the Best Prophet (1-2)

Remember, our keyword throughout this entire book is the word, “better.”

And for Jesus to be argued as better than something, that something needs to be presented accurately and then Jesus’ superiority needs to be presented.

No straw man arguments, only legitimate arguments.

So, our thesis statement accurately presents how in the Old Testament…

God spoke through the prophets (1)

How did God speak through the prophets?

Well, our text says that he spoke through the prophets, “long ago, at many times and in many ways.”

God spoke at various times

Because God has spoken to us through his Word, the Bible, I’m going to limit our look at prophets to only those who God used to write his Word.

God spoke through Moses back in 1400 B.C. when he wrote the first five books of the Bible.

He spoke through various prophets leading up to and during the time of king David.

He spoke through many prophets during the time of the divided kingdom.

And the last prophet he spoke through before the Messiah came was Malachi in about 400 B.C.

Over a period of about 1000 years, God spoke through the prophets revealing things as time progressed and written and compiled into what we now know as the Old Testament.

So, early prophets like Moses didn’t know some things that were revealed through later prophets.

Because God spoke at various times long ago, but also…

God spoke in various ways

Each of those prophets received God’s message in various ways.

Some of them received dreams from God.

Some received visions from God.

Moses was specifically spoken to directly and clearly by God.

We see that in Numbers 12:6–8 “And he (God) said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?””

There were many other ways that God spoke through the prophets including the use of angels, the Urim and Thummim, and direct verbatim messages the prophets were to convey on behalf of God.

God used all of these different ways and probably more that we are unaware of, but all of them were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write the Old Testament Scriptures as Peter says in 2 Peter 1:21 “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

But we also have to realize that…

God spoke through fallen human agents

God spoke through the prophets, and if you look at every human character in the Old Testament including the prophets, every single one of them exhibits some sin or failure.

I’ll give you just a few of examples.

Moses got frustrated with the complaining of the people and violently struck a rock to get water instead of speaking to the rock like God had told him to do.

And God told him the consequences of that sin in Numbers 20:12 “And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.””

Samuel arguably neglected his duties as a father, so that when his sons grew up and became judges like their father they perverted justice.

This is explained in 1 Samuel 8:1–3 “When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.”

How about Jonah, that’s a pretty famous one, how he flat out refused to take God’s message to the wicked city of Nineveh because he knew that if they repented, that God would forgive them since that’s who God is.

And after he was forced by God to obey by being swallowed and spat out by a giant fish, he was angry at God for rescuing Nineveh.

He explained this massive moral failure in Jonah 4:1–3 “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.””

Imagine hating a people group so much that you would rather die than see them repent and be saved.

All of this is to show that God used sinful broken human beings to convey his message, his revelation, in the old covenant.

So, the way God spoke long ago in the Old Testament was through prophets, but as great as the prophets were their function as messengers for God was still lacking a bit, it wasn’t perfect.

They spanned about 1000 years from Moses to Malachi, they received their messages from God through dreams, visions, signs, and other ways that were sometimes difficult to interpret, and they were all subject to failure and sin.

But all of those prophets looked forward to the best prophet who was still to come, but for us he’s already come.

Now, in these last days in the new covenant…

God has spoken through His Son, Jesus (2)

How has God spoken through Jesus?

And how is Jesus better than the Old Testament prophets?

Our text says that God spoke through his Son in these last days, and that his Son is the heir of everything and the creator of everything.

In contrast to the various times God spoke to the prophets of the Old Testament…

Jesus is the final spokesman

Where they had a thousand years of revelation progressively revealed, Jesus sums up all of God’s revelation in these last days.

The phrase “these last days” does not mean recent days, but final days.

The phrase uses the Greek word ES-ka-tos, meaning last, final, drawing to a close, ending.

The point is that Jesus is the last spokesman for God, the last prophet.

Now, there are other prophets who came after Jesus in the church, but their role was decidedly different from Old Testament prophets and different from Jesus.

The role of old covenant prophets was to proclaim God’s unfolding revelation to his people.

The role of new covenant prophets is to proclaim the revelation of Jesus Christ as the ultimate revelation of God.

So, Jesus is the final prophet, the final spokesman for God, but also…

Jesus is the sufficient spokesman

Each of the old testament prophets had only part of the message, only part of the revelation from God.

Many fallible prophets were needed to get even a hint of God’s revelation through many different ways that we looked at earlier.

But their insufficiency highlights Jesus’ sufficiency.

He’s sufficient because all the Old Testament prophets looked forward to him as the single best revelation of God.

Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

John 5:46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”

He’s sufficient because he’s the single clearest revelation of God, the Word of God.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

1 John 1:1–2 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—”

He’s sufficient because he’s not subject to sin and failure like the Old Testament prophets were.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So, Jesus’s sufficiency is seen in the fact that he is the focal point of all the Old Testament prophets, he’s the single clearest revelation of God, and he’s completely sinless and beyond failure.

But also…

Jesus is the authoritative spokesman

Our text says at the end of verse 2 that God appointed his Son, Jesus heir of all things, and that God created the world through his Son, Jesus.

Everything in all of existence, in every age, was made by God for Jesus and through Jesus.

The authority of a prophet was given by God and confirmed by God to the people through miraculous signs or by accurate predictions of the future.

God’s message to Pharaoh to let his people go was accompanied with miraculous signs so that Pharaoh would believe that Moses had authority from God to command this.

But Pharaoh hardened his heart and didn’t believe the signs and didn’t acknowledge the authority God had given Moses because he didn’t acknowledge God’s authority.

God also said through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:22 “when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”

So, God sent these authenticating signs to accompany a prophet to communicate the authority he had given them to speak his words to his people.

But Jesus’ authority is not ascribed or given to him, it’s inherent because he’s God.

He has authority as the one everything was created for, the heir of everything, the Son of God.

And he has authority as the one everything was created through, the Word of God.

In Genesis chapter 1, when God said “let there be” and there was… his speech, his creative spoken word was his Son, the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

This is a much higher authority than the Old Testament prophets had because this authority that Jesus has is the highest authority.

Now, Jesus’ finality, his sufficiency, and his authority mean that we ought to listen and obey whatever he has said, whatever he has revealed from God the Father.

So, don’t look for any other message anywhere else, don’t look for God to speak any other way.

He’s not going to audibly speak to you and reveal anything other than what he’s already revealed in Jesus.

At least not until you stand before him and he says “well done good and faithful servant, or depart from me I never knew you.”

And when you read the Old Testament prophets, read it in light of Christ.

It’s all pointing to Christ, the one who would finally come and rescue humanity from sin and death.

So, Jesus is clearly the best prophet because his message is final, because of his sufficiency as the single clearest and flawless messenger, and because of his highest authority to speak for God since he is God.

Not only is Jesus the best source of God’s revelation to us, but we’re also going to see in verses 3 and 4 that he’s the best way for us to interact with God.

Hebrews 1:3–4 ESV

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, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Here, we see that…

Jesus is the Best Priest (3-4)

Again, remember our keyword, “better.”

Jesus is better than the old covenant priesthood because he accomplished what that old priesthood was pointing to.

In these verses, the old covenant priesthood’s insufficiency is assumed.

And the argument jumps straight to Jesus and how…

His atonement is sufficient (3)

It’s assumed that the old covenant atonement sacrifices were insufficient because the priests who performed the atonement rituals were sinful human beings just like those they were interceding for, and they had to keep offering those sacrifices over an over.

The whole sacrificial system and priesthood necessarily looked forward to when it would be unnecessary.

The sheer amount of blood spilled, and the repetition of it day after day, year after year…

All of that was meant to put a longing into the hearts of God’s people for the day when it would finally be finished.

And Jesus’ atonement as the best priest and sacrifice is the very thing that the old covenant priesthood and sacrifices were anticipating.

So, how is Jesus’ atonement sufficient to put an end to the old covenant priesthood and sacrifices?

The answer is the gospel, the good news presented so clearly in verse 3 here.

Jesus is God

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.

Jesus has the exact same divine glory as God the Father.

He has the exact same divine nature as God the Father.

And he has the exact same divine power as God the Father.

God said in Isaiah 48:11 “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.”

And he said in Exodus 34:14 “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

So, for Jesus to have the exact same glory as God the Father means that he also must be God.

God’s divine nature is that of holiness, set apart as creator to his creation expressed in different ways like his sovereignty, how he is unchangeable, and how he is merciful and gracious and loving and faithful and forgiving but still perfectly just and perfectly righteous.

Basically, his self-description from Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before him (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

This is the nature of God, and Jesus has that very same nature because he’s God.

John said in John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Greek words used for “grace and truth” are the Hebrew equivalent of what God said in Exodus 34, how he is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

His steadfast love is his grace, and his faithfulness is his truth.

After God’s divine creative power is beautifully articulated in Psalm 104 his divine sustaining power is especially highlighted in Psalm 104:27–30 “These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”

Jesus has that very same divine creative and sustaining power.

He fed a massive group of people with just a little bit of food twice, showing his creative and sustaining power.

And Paul said of him in Colossians 1:16–17 “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.”

So, Jesus is God, but in order to sufficiently make purification for our sin…

Jesus became a man, died in our place, and rose from the dead

His dual divine-human nature is necessary for his atonement to be sufficient.

He needed to be both 100% God and 100% human so that his death would be sufficient to pay for our sins.

His full divine nature was necessary for him to be sinless, so that his death would not be used up on atoning for his own sins.

And it was necessary for him to even be able to bear the full weight of the world’s sins and the full weight of God the Father’s judgment against our sin.

A weak, frail human being could never take that weight.

But his full humanity was also necessary because he had to die as the payment for our sin, and he had to die as the representative of humanity.

He had to be human to die in the first place.

And he had to be human to represent humanity and sufficiently die in our place.

Lambs and bulls don’t cut it.

And he did that… he died in our place on a cross as he took on all of our sin and God the Father poured out on his own Son his full wrath against our sin.

Similar to the old covenant sacrifices, but better because Jesus is sufficient to actually pay for our sins instead of just reminding us of what the penalty for our sin is.

And then he didn’t stay dead.

He rose from the dead proving his power over sin and death, proving that his atonement was sufficient to pay for our sins, and proving that we will also be raised to new life, eternal life with him when we put our faith in him.

And now that he became a man, and died in our place, and rose again to never die again…

Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf

This part of our text is the first of many allusions to and direct quotes from Psalm 110 in the book of Hebrews.

After making purification for sins through his incarnation, death, and resurrection Jesus ascended to heaven to the right hand of the Majesty on high.

What does it mean that Jesus sat down after making purification for sins?

Well, the old covenant priests never got to sit down.

Sure, they had some time off and rotated duties so that individually they could each get a break and have a seat and rest and sleep.

But the priests as a group had to keep offering sacrifices, atonement, purification for sin over and over and over.

And Jesus made purification for sins by sacrificing his own life, and that purification was sufficient so that we never have to make purification for our sin again.

It was a once-for-all-time sacrifice that never has to be repeated, so he can sit down.

But specifically sitting down at the right hand of God the Father also means that he is interceding for us.

When we sin, Jesus intercedes with the Father on our behalf.

He leans over from the Father’s right hand and says, “I already paid for that.”

When Satan accuses us before God, Jesus shuts him up by simply showing the scars in his hands and feet and side, evidence of his once-for-all-time payment for our sin.

Again he says, “I already paid for that!”

The sufficiency of Jesus’ atonement on our behalf is the gospel, and that sufficiency makes his priesthood better than the entire priesthood of the old covenant.

And the thing about the priests of the old covenant is that before Israel had a king, it was the priests who ruled as mediators or judges between God and the people.

They were the rulers under God who was the sovereign ruler of the nation of Israel, and so is Jesus.

Their rule was sometimes contested as people refused to follow their judgments, especially in the book of Judges.

But with Jesus as our great high priest…

His rule is uncontested (4)

As we read in Psalm 110 earlier in the service, and as we will see later in the book of Hebrews, Jesus’ priesthood is not like the priesthood of Aaron or the Levitical priesthood.

Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

We’ll get into who Melchizedek was when we get to that part of the book of Hebrews.

But for now, just know that Jesus’ priesthood is better than the old covenant priesthood because his rule is absolute and perfect and eternal.

Verse 4 of our passage presents Jesus’ priesthood as uncontested in relation to the angels.

And the rest of chapter one will explain exactly how Jesus is better than the angels.

But we’ll look at those details next week.

For now, it’s enough to note that Jesus’ priesthood, his rule is better than the old testament priests and the ministering angels because of who he is, and what he’s done.

He’s better, he’s uncontested…

Because of his identity as Sovereign God

This is who he is.

We already looked at how Jesus has the same glory, the same nature, and the same power as God the Father.

And his identity as Sovereign God makes his rule as great high priest uncontested and absolute.

There is no higher authority.

There is no one to contest his authority.

And there is no one outside of his rule.

Sure people can disobey, and they do disobey all the time.

Paul mentions this in Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

People disobey Jesus’ rule all the time, but they won’t get away with it.

God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against those who disobey Jesus’ uncontested rule.

So, don’t suppress the truth of Jesus’ identity as sovereign God, Lord of everything and everyone.

Don’t suppress it, submit to it.

So, Jesus’ rule is uncontested because of who he is, his identity as Sovereign God.

But he’s also uncontested…

Because of his atonement as our Savior

That’s what verse 4 is talking about when it says that Jesus became superior to the angels.

This isn’t saying that Jesus was less than the angels before his incarnation, death and resurrection.

His identity as God from eternity past argues against that.

This is saying that he was already superior to the angels, but he became even more superior to them because of what he did.

He became a man, died on the cross in our place, and rose from the dead so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God and live with him forever being freed from the power and penalty of our sin.

None of the angels could ever have done that.

And in doing that Jesus became even more superior to them than he already was.

When Jesus became a man he lowered himself to be less than the angels, but after his death and resurrection he became even more superior to the angels than he was before.

Paul explains this idea of Jesus becoming less than he was by becoming human and dying on a cross but being exalted much higher than he was before in Philippians 2:5–11.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

This is what Psalm 8:4–6 refers to, “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,”

This is quoted in Hebrews chapter 2, but it also explains how when Jesus became a man he humbled himself and entered into the state that mankind is currently in, “a little lower than the angels.”

But after his death and resurrection he is crowned with glory and honor having dominion over everything including the angels, and he brings all of us to join him in that ruling priesthood when we put our faith in him and submit to him as our Lord and savior.

That glory and honor spoken of in Psalm 8 is the name bestowed on Jesus in Philippians 2 and inherited by Jesus in our passage in verse 4.

Jesus’ priestly rule is also uncontested…

Because of his inheritance as the Son of God

There are a lot of different names for Jesus in the Bible, but the name that verse 4 is referring to is more like his reputation than something he would write on a name tag.

And his inherited reputation is a combination of his sovereignty as God and his sufficiency as our Savior.

His reputation is how he is worthy to rule all of God’s creation because he created it, he sustains it, and he redeemed it.

John wrote about this in Revelation 5:9–10 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.””

But it’s interesting that in our passage the word “inherit” is used.

Jesus inherited this name rather than earning this name.

You don’t earn an inheritance, you receive it as it’s given by the one who has the authority to give it at the proper time to give it.

You see, Jesus’ atonement was not something that earned him this name.

It was something he did because of who he is.

He’s the Son of God, and he inherited the name, the worthy reputation to rule as our great high priest because he acted as the Son of God.

And as the Son of God he had this inheritance, this worthy reputation given to him by God the Father who determines the end from the beginning.

Jesus’ atonement was always plan A, and his inherited name, his worthy reputation was given to him because he did what he was always going to do as the Son of God.

Conclusion

So, we saw how Jesus is the best prophet and how we should only look for God to speak to us through Jesus, and the whole Bible is about him.

And we just saw how Jesus is the best priest because his atonement was sufficient where the atonement of the old testament priests was not because they performed their priestly duties looking forward to the coming sufficiency of the Messiah, the Christ.

And Jesus is the best priest because his priestly rule is uncontested since he’s sovereign, he’s our savior, and he the Son of God.

Because he’s the best priest we ought to put our faith in him alone for our salvation, for our forgiveness and reconciliation to God.

Don’t put your faith in anything or anyone else.

Not the old covenant rules and regulations.

Not the old covenant priests.

Not your pastor.

Not your own pursuit of righteousness.

The only sufficient savior is your great high priest, Jesus.

He’s the only one who can save you from your sins, and he’s the only one who can intercede on your behalf before God the Father.

And because he’s the best priest we also ought to submit to him as the sovereign ruler of everything, even your life.

He’s Lord of your life whether you submit to him or not.

So, submit to him because he’s worthy and he’s a better ruler of your life than you could ever be.

Even as believers we need to constantly recognize aspects of our lives that need to be submitted to him.

Now, if you haven’t put your faith in Jesus and submitted to his rule in your life, then I beg you to do that now.

Believe that Jesus really is God who became a man and died in your place and rose from the dead so that you could be saved from sin and death just by putting your faith in him and submitting to him as Lord.

And, if you are willing to do that today, then simply tell God in prayer that you believe and that you submit to his rule in your life.

And let us know if you’ve done that so we can rejoice with you that Jesus has revealed himself to you and rescued you from sin and death.

As the best prophet and priest.

Pray

Father, thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus.

Thank you for revealing yourself so clearly through him.

And thank you for the prophets in the old covenant who laid the foundation and looked forward to when your Son, Jesus would come.

Thank you for providing your Son as the only sufficient way to relate to you.

He’s the only way for us to be truly forgiven and reconciled to you, and he’s the only way we can come before you.

I pray that you would help us look to Jesus and submit to him as the only one who can facilitate our relationship with you.

Help us to put our faith in him and help us to obey him because he’s worthy of the name you’ve given him.

He’s worthy of all of our obedience and loyalty.

I pray that you would help us exalt Christ in every aspect of our lives and to help each other do that, too.

As we do that, Lord, I pray that you would draw us closer to each other and closer to you.

I pray this in Jesus’ glorious name. Amen.