Hebrews 1:1-3 The Supremacy of Christ

Alright. Go ahead and grab a seat. Today is an exciting Sunday because this morning we are kicking off a brand new sermon series on the book of Hebrews called The Supremacy of Christ.

And we will taking the next 8.5 months together to work through this book, which is one of the most difficult books of the entire NT to understand second only to the book of Revelation.

Even though some verses from Hebrews are some of the most treasured portions of Scripture, many

But even though it is one of the most difficult books of the Bible to interpret, I’m excited for our church to take the opportunity to study the book of Hebrews because it teaches us some of the most important theology of our faith.

From beginning to end, this book proclaims that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of God’s OT promises about the Messiah, and that Jesus is the eternal Son of God who alone has the power to save his people from their sins.

In its pages we are shown the significance and glory of everything Christ did for us on our behalf as God’s incarnate Son and Savior of the world.

I want us to do the difficult work of reading the book of Hebrews and taking its truths to heart so that after studying this book together, our church will treasure Christ more. That we will see his glory and everything he did for us in such a way that our only response will be to die to ourselves and worship him with all of our life.

and my hope for our church is that after studying this book we will all treasure Christ more.

But before we can understand all the wonderful truths of this book, we first need to know its context.

Context

That word may be unfamiliar to some of you so allow me to explain because understanding a book’s context is the only way you can rightly understand what God has said in his Word.

And with many of you beginning new Bible reading plans to start the new year, I want to help you make your time in God’s Word fruitful..

Context refers to both the historical circumstances surrounding a book as well as they type of literature a book is and you need to have both of these in mind as you read the Bible so that you can understand what God’s Word actually says.

You see, what tends to happen is that many Christians will start of with a ton of fire and passion to read their Bible more than ever before and then they get to the later parts of Exodus and first parts of Leviticus and they begin to lose heart.

They will start dreading their Bible study because they simply stop understanding it and all their effort to read the Bible starts to feel like a waste of time.

This even happens as Christians read the NT because there are passages and entire books, like the book of Hebrews that are so foreign to us and our context that we can’t make any sense of them so we give up reading the Bible to quote leave it to the professionals.

But I have good news for you. You don’t have to have a seminary degree to understand the Bible. As a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit who illuminates the Scriptures to help you understand what it says and how it applies to your life. You just need someone to explain how reading the Bible actually works.

IMAGE: Grasping God’s Word 46

I want to help you to read the Bible this year by giving you a five step process for interpreting Scripture.

In my experience, most Christians interpret the Bible by using the “feels-right approach.” Basically, they read the Bible and if something is easy to apply directly to their life, then that’s what they do.

But if they come to a difficult passage they usually resort to two options.

Option 1 they simply shrug their shoulders and move on to another passage completely ignoring that piece of Scripture.

This is wrong because the Bible tells us that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable” for our Christian life.

Therefore to ignore God’s Word is to ignore God himself and allows us to completely miss something God wanted us to know so that we could worship him.

Option 2, many Christians will take a difficult piece of Scripture and try to spiritualize it.

They will look at a piece of Scripture and try to conjure any truth the might feel right even if that is not what Scripture is actually saying.

For example, you will commonly hear people quote And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, and they will take that verse to mean that God doesn’t want anything bad to happen to those that love him. That if you just love God, everything in your life will be good.

That feels right doesn’t it? That God is a God of love who wants goo for us? How can that be wrong?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

But in context, Paul is talking about how broken our world is because of sin and how we can still experience this brokenness as we wait for Christ to return. Paul’s point is that even though we currently suffer because of the brokenness of sin, God promises to redeem all of it by using our suffering to make us more like Jesus.

But that’s not what that verse says. Paul is saying that no matter what happens to him in his service of the Gospel, Paul knows that he can make it through

isn’t a verse that says God only wants good things for you however you define them. It is a verse meant to comfort us by reminding us that no matter what happens in our life, no matter what kind of pain and suffering we endure while we wait for Christ to return and make all things new, God will not let a single bit of it be wasted but will use it to grow us to be more like Christ.

It is not good or helpful for us to use the feels-right approach to interpreting Scripture. Doing so will at best allow us to ignore parts of God’s Word or at worst pave the way for us to build our lives on man made lies instead of God’s truth.

We are not free

Instead there is a better way. Instead of reading the Bible and trying to create the meaning of a particular passage, our goal is to find the meaning that is already there.

When God spoke in his Word, he wanted to say something to his people. Our job in reading the Bible is to rely on the Spirit who wrote the Bible to show us the meaning of the passage that he intended to say.

Our aim in reading the Bible should always be to listen to what God has said, not to put words in his mouth. So how do we do that?

On the screen you’ll see an image from a book titled Grasping God’s Word. This is a book that was used in my Seminary but it was written in a way for the everyday Christian can understand. If you want to grow in your ability to read the Bible, I would highly recommend it to you.

On the left side of the image you have what the book calls Their Town. This would be the cultural context of the Biblical audience. Then on the right side you have Our Town. This is the time and place in which we live today as Christians here in 2020 Northwest Arkansas. The challenge is to get the meaning of the text of Scripture all the way from their town to ours so that we can live according to God’s Word. How does that happen?

Step 1: Understand the Text in Their Town

Question: What did the text mean to the biblical audience?

To do this, you actually will need to do some background work before you ever start trying to interpret a passage.

Every book of the Bible was written at a specific time, by a specific person, to a specific people, for a specific purpose.

This is what we call the historical context of the book and without it, you cannot truly understand what God’s Word says.

So before you even begin reading a book of the Bible you need to find out some information.

When was it written? Who was it written to? Who wrote it and why did they write it in the first place? What was going on in the world which they lived?

The answers to all these questions help give light to what any particular passage in the Bible actually means.

Not only do you need to know the historical context of a book, you also need to know the literary context of a book.

Is this passage a letter? Is it prophecy? Is it poetry or maybe historical narrative?

The kind of writing it is will determine how you read that passage. For example, if you started a Bible in a year plan, you might be coming close to the story of Noah in Genesis. That passage is historical narrative. That means it is describing what happened in the past, not necessarily telling you what God wants you to do.

Therefore, you shouldn’t leave here today and go buy all the lumber from Lowe’s to build a giant boat before you go to Petsmart to start getting two of each kind of animal. Genesis was just describing what Noah did.

And you definitely shouldn’t get drunk and fall asleep naked in a tent after a long boat ride on the lake. As historical narrative, Genesis is describing what Noah did, not necessarily what you and I are called to do.

If you are reading an epistle on the other hand, those were written to churches to instruct them in their Christian life, and as instruction, when the Bible says love one another, that is exactly what you are called to do. It is not describing something someone else needs to do.

The type of literature a passage is also determines its meaning.

Now I can already hear some of you saying, I’m not a scholar and I went to public school. How in the world am I supposed to find out that kind of information?

Step 2: Measure the Width of the River to Cross

Question: What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?

Step 3: Cross the Principlizing Bridge

Question: What is the theological principle in this text?

Step 4: Consult the Biblical Map

Question: How does our theological principle fit with the rest of the Bible?

Step 5: Apply the Text in Our Town

Questions: How should individual Christians today live out the theological principles?

This process is what you see me do every single week as I get up to teach you the Scriptures. There is nothing special about me or my words. My only aim is to help you understand what God’s Word says and to hopefully lead our church to be faithful to its message.

But I will tell you, I am not a good enough preacher to for the only time you study God’s Word to be what you hear from me. And even if I were, 1 hour and 15 minutes each week is not enough time in God’s Word for you to grow in Christ and live for his glory.

Jesus himself said Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. If you are going to nourish your spiritual life and grow in Christ, you must feed on God’s Word at least as much as you eat physical food to nourish your physical life.

You must read God’s Word and read it rightly so that you can build your life on God’s truth so that can be like the blessed man from whose delight is in God’s Word. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

Think of context like glasses that allow you to clearly see what God is saying in his Word. It informs and give shape to why the author of that book said what he did and what that would’ve meant to the original audience.

This is so crucial because without understanding a book’s context, we can’t begin to know what God was intending to say to us today.

Instead of reading the Bible and trying to create the meaning of a particular passage, our goal is to find the meaning that is already there.When God spoke in his Word, he wanted to say something to his people. Our job in reading the Bible is to rely on the Spirit who wrote the Bible to show us the meaning of the passage that he intended to say.Our aim in reading the Bible should always be to listen to what God has said, not to put words in his mouth.

This is because we have a unique issue when reading the Bible.

Context

The Bible wasn’t written to 21st Century Christians in NWA. So if we first want to understand a passage and how it applies to us today, we need to understand what it meant to the original audience.

Example?

Knowing the context of a particular passage in the Bible allows us to interpret its meaning.

Many Christians read the Bible as if it is a Magic 8 Ball that allows them to ultimately decide what Scripture actually means. Our job in reading the Bible is to rely on the Spirit who wrote the Bible to show us the meaning of the passage that he intended to say.Our aim in reading the Bible should always be to listen to what God has said, not to put words in his mouth.

Think about it like this. The Bible was written to a particular people at a particular time for a particular reason. You and I are not in their exact situation so we need to find the biblical principle of that passage so that we can apply it to our lives today.

We first must understand what the Bible is saying on its terms to the people it was first written to before we can apply to our lives today.

Maybe its helpful to think about it like this. When you read the Bible, your goal is to build a bridge from the world and culture of the original audience to our own.

And that bridge is the Biblical Principle being taught in that particular passage. It is the principle that God wants all Christians everywhere for all time to understand.

Sometimes this is really simple like in . Other times its more difficult like when you read one of the OT Prophets or Revelation.

For example, in God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous and to obey God’s commandments so that he will be prosperous and successful. However, God is not promising that if we obey him he will make us wealthy and successful in everything that we do.

The context of that passage is that Joshua was leading God’s people to conquer the promised land. So the principle for all God’s people everywhere, the bridge that we are looking for, is that if we are going to succeed in what the Lord has called us to do for his Kingdom, we must draw strength and courage from the Lord and obey his Word. We cannot bear fruit for the kingdom in our own power, we need the Lord.

That is how knowing a book’s context allows you to build the principle bridge of that passage from their time to ours so that you can live out what God’s Word says.

So in summary here’s how you read the Bible. You first try to understand what it meant to the original audience using a book’s context. Second, you find the biblical principle that applies to all Christians everywhere. And third you apply that principle to your life and obey God’s Word.

Sometimes this is really simple like in .

Other times its extremely difficult. Have you ever read the book of Revelation? The problem most Christians encounter from that book is they try to skip building the Biblical Principle Bridge and try to apply revelation immediately to our context.

But Revelation was written for 7 churches who were suffering persecution and false teaching in 1st Century Asia Minor. When they read the book, it meant something to them. They might not have understood everything, but they knew what John was talking about.

That’s because Revelation was written to encourage God’s people that no matter how chaotic the world looks, no matter how hostile to Christianity, God is still in control, and God is still working out his purposes. It wasn’t written to explain every nuance of Christ’s second coming although it does describe the Lord’s Return. It was written to be a book of encouragement. To remind God’s people that he is with them and nothing will stop him from redeeming all of creation. That is the biblical principle.

So at this point you might be asking, “Ok if context is so important, how do I find out what that is? I’m not a pastor and I’ve never been to seminary. How am I supposed to know all the historical information of a book written over 2000 years ago?

Thankfully, God has sovereignly blessed us to live in a time where this information is readily accessible.

The easiest way is to get a good study Bible. Before each book, there will be an introduction that will tell you everything you need to know to understand that book.

Some good ones that I’d recommend to you are the ESV Study Bible, the MacArthur Study Bible, or the Gospel Transformation Study Bible which is a great first Bible because its goal is to try to show you how the gospel is running through every passage of Scripture even in the OT.

You can also find this information in commentaries . If you don’t have it, a good single volume commentary on the entire Bible is the New Bible Commentary edited by DA Carson and I would recommend that resource to you.

If you want any help in how to read the Bible, please ask one of our pastors. We’d love to disciple you in God’s word and help you grow in your ability to read it for yourself.

All that to say, if we are going to understand a book, we need to know its context. So what is the context of the book of Hebrews?

And because Context is so foundational to how we interpret Scripture what is the context of the book of Hebrews?

Author: Unknown

First we want to know Who wrote the book? Ultimately we don’t know. Several possible answers have been suggested.

In fact, there are many reasons from the book itself to reject any notion that Paul wrote the book.

Some say Paul wrote it, but it doesn’t really fit his literary style and Paul repeatedly asserted his authority as an apostle in other letters so it seems odd that the author of Hebrews explicitly claims that he was not one of the apostles in .

Nevertheless, we know it was someone who was closely associated with Paul because they mention Timothy in showing that he at least ran in that circle.

First of all, it doesn’t have the normal

This has led some to propose that Luke wrote Hebrews, but Luke was a Gentile who wrote to other Gentiles. It would seem odd for him to write such a heavily Jewish book.

Others say it might have been a Jewish believer named Apollos who is described in as an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures meaning he was a great Bible teacher.

This is significant for two reasons. One, the Book of Hebrews is some of the most eloquent Greek written in the entire NT and Two Paul mentions Apollos in showing that A. Paul knew him, and B. Apollos was highly respected among churches Paul planted.

Still another option is Paul’s missionary partner Barnabas. Barnabas discipled Paul for a time and was a Jew from the tribe of Levi making him a Levite. This would help explain why the author knows so much about the inner workings for the Levitical priesthood that he references in the book.

But again, there is nothing in the letter itself that definitively tells us who wrote it.

And ultimately, even though we don’t know the name of the human author of the book of Hebrews, we do know the ultimate author is God himself because the Bible says that no Scripture was written from man’s own interpretation but men wrote it as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Audience: Jewish Christians

Now we come to our second question. Who was this letter written to? Who was the original audience?

Here again, we don’t exactly know the answer, but there are enough clues within the letter that help give us a fairly good idea.

While there isn’t any formal greeting in Hebrews like in other Letters from the NT to tell us who this book was written to, it is clear that the book was written to Jewish Christians given its heavy use of the OT and its deep understanding of Jewish worship.

While there isn’t any formal greeting like in other Letters from the NT to tell us who this book was written to, it is clear that the book was written to Jewish Christians given its heavy use of the OT and its deep understanding of Jewish worship.

Most likely, the Jewish Christians this letter was written to were Hellenistic Jews because when the author quotes the OT, he uses the Greek translation called the Septuagint.

Hellenistic Jews were Jews who for the most part lived outside of Jerusalem. As a result, they commonly spoke Greek instead of Hebrew because their day to day life was lived in the hustle and bustle of the Roman Empire which spoke Greek.

And Hellenistic Jews lived all over the Roman Empire, mostly in cosmopolitan areas so are there any hints where these Christians were actually located?

The only inkling is in which says Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Now this could just mean that the author was in Rome and the sister church he was writing from wanted to say hello, but another possibility is that there were some travelers who were with the author when he wrote hebrews who wanted to say hello to their brothers and sisters back home meaning the Hebrews would actually be the ones located in Rome.

But again, saying that the letter was written to Jewish Christians living in Rome is little more than our best guess although I think it is a good guess.

The only thing we can say with confidence is that they were Jewish Christians who most likely lived outside of Israel and were immersed in the Greek speaking culture.

However, there is something else we can say about

Date: 60s AD

When was it written? Most likely the book was written before 70AD probably around AD 64 around 30 years after Jesus ascended to heaven.

Why do we say that? The biggest reason is that in AD 70 the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple where they worshiped the Lord.

Ever since then, the Jews have not been able to offer sacrifices or worship as God commanded and in a book that is all about showing how Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises and hopes of Judaism, it seems odd that the author would not mention the temple being destroyed because it would have bolstered his argument.

In fact, he writes as if it is still functioning as normal in the lives of the Jewish people.

And we say around 64 AD because in 10:32-33 the author mentions that there was some earlier persecution suffered by the Hebrews suffered but he also notes in chapter 12 that they haven’t yet suffered to the point of shedding their blood.

Also, there’s some evidence from the persecution the author mentions.

The Roman Emperor Claudius persecuted both Jews and Christians in 49 AD which could be a reference to the prior persecution mentioned in chapter 10 and 15 years later in AD 65, Emperor Nero began persecuting both Jews and Christians again by putting them to death.

These two facts together might tell us that the letter was written sometime between 49AD and 65AD but given that persecution is beginning to ramp up in the book it is better to place the date of the letter closer to Nero’s reign.

Type of Literature: Sermonic Letter

This leads us to the type of Literature the book is.

This is important because you read different types of Scripture differently. Narrative mainly describes what actually happened, Poetry and wisdom use similes and metaphors to say what God and the Christian life are like and the Epistles are more prescriptive giving practical instructions the church.

Hebrews is most definitely a letter because it has salutations at the end with clear instructions for the Hebrews to follow.

However, its not exactly structured like other letters of the NT because it lacks a greeting and contains long, intricate arguments to prove its point.

Given how much the letter exhorts or encourages the Hebrews to persevere, it is best to understand Hebrews as a sermonic letter. Basically, think of Hebrews like a sermon in written form. The author was not there to preach, so instead he wrote what he wanted to say.

And finally we come to the...

Purpose: To encourage Jewish believers to persevere in the faith by showing the supremacy of Christ to the Old Covenant.

And finally, the several exhortations actually provide us insight into the overall purpose of the book.

You’ll see time and time again the author encourage his readers to not give up. To keep following Christ.

This is because persecution for these Christians was beginning to ramp up, and many of them were being tempted to return to Judaism.

Not only were these Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire and the culture around them just for being Christian, they were also being persecuted by their Jewish families and friends for following Jesus as the Messiah.

They weren’t yet being killed in an organized effort by the state, but they were suffering ostracism and prejudice from every side of life for following Jesus.

To make matters worst, the High Priest at the time issued a mandate that had all Christian Jews banished from holy places. That meant these Christians were effectively excommunicated from their families, friends, and culture because so much of Jewish life was wrapped up in Jewish worship.

All of this led to the these Christians beginning to doubt whether following Jesus was worth it.

Think about it, they were already hated by the pagan culture around them even without following Jesus because they believed in the One True God of the Bible.

But now, they were even hated by their families and friends. So the Hebrews were starting to wonder if they could just go back to Judaism and still worship Jesus as the promised Messiah.

I mean, they would still be worshiping the God of the Bible so maybe they could avoid some of this persecution and still follow Jesus.

But the point of the book is to tell these Christians that returning to Judaism is not an option for them. If they go back to Judaism it will confuse the gospel with religious legalism and hurt their faith and their witness to the gospel of Christ.

That’s why the author at every turn is trying to show how Christ is the supreme fulfillment to all the OT. He is trying to encourage these Christians to keep following Jesus. To not go back to Judaism because Christ has ushered in a new and better covenant through his death and resurrection.

So when we read the book of Hebrews, we read it with two lenses.

First we want to see how Christ was God’s ultimate plan for salvation all along. That everything in the OT pointed to Jesus.

And second, because Jesus is clearly God’s plan for salvation , we, like the Hebrews, must continue to follow him. We can’t have one foot in and one foot out of Christ. That we can’t desire the world’s acceptance so much that we tone down the Jesus stuff and make following Jesus a private affair just to avoid being hated by the world around us.

We must die to ourselves and see that we were purchased by his blood and all our life belongs to him. That is what it means to be a Christian.

And Hebrews starts its exhortation to follow Christ no matter the cost with which says...

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

The book opens with one of the most glorious descriptions of Christ in all of Scripture.

He is the Son of God. He is the heir of all things, the agent of creation. He is the radiance of God’s glory and his power upholds the universe simply with his word.

From its opening lines Hebrews makes it clear that Christ is supreme. That there is none more perfect. None more righteous. None more glorious or powerful. None who makes God known more than Jesus, his Son.

Because this passage is all about how God reveals himself to sinful people perfect in his Son Jesus Christ.

And so If you are taking notes, the BIG IDEA I want you leaving with today is that God has perfectly revealed himself in the Son because Jesus is God incarnate.

To see this amazing truth, let’s start with verse 1 where we are told that...

I. God is a God Who Reveals Himself

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

God spoke. These two words are the very foundation of our Christian faith.

From the very beginning of creation, God has been speaking. When he created the world, God spoke it to existence.

When he created Adam and Eve he spoke to them. After we sinned in the Garden of Eden, God came to Adam and Eve and spoke again by preaching the first gospel.

From the first chapters of Genesis and all throughout the Bible God speaks thousands of times to his people.

This is what theologians call the doctrine of revelation. That God initiates relationship with human beings by making himself known to them.

That God wants to be known by his creation, by people like you and me because he made us to worship his glory. Our lives were always meant to be lived for him and to offer praise to him for who he is as our Creator, the One True God of all that is.

And God reveals himself two primary ways.

General Revelation

First there is what we call general revelation. This means that God reveals himself to all people everywhere , and general revelation includes 3 parts: 1. Creation, 2. Common Grace, and 3. Conscience

1. Creation

2 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

This Psalm says that we know God exists because the created world shows his handiwork. There is something amazing about looking at a mountain range or out at the ocean, or a beautiful sunrise over a lake that makes us say “Wow.”

And that Wow is meant to be given to God in worship.

This is why Isaiah is able to say in Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!

Paul even expands on this in . He said For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Paul’s point is that every person is accountable for their sin because God’s created world makes it clear that he exists and is worthy of our worship.

All throughout creation God has made himself known through his power, love, glory, wisdom, majesty and goodness in everything that he has made.

There is also common grace.

2. Common Grace

There is also common grace. The church Father Augustine used the term common grace because it is grace given to everyone, and therefore common to all human beings.

Through God’s common grace, he shows his love to all people, though it is not in a saving way.

From the water we drink, food we eat, children, happiness, joy, everything good that all people experience is God’s act of revealing who he is as our Good God in Common grace.

In fact, it is God’s common grace that encourages us to love our enemies. Jesus said, But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

God reveals his kindness, goodness and mercy in the common grace that he gives to all people, even those who are his enemies.

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness.

3. Conscience

Finally, the last form of general revelation is conscience.

As God’s image bearers, every person has a conscience that guides them in moral truth.

Almost everyone knows it is wrong to murder, lie, commit adultery or steal because God has written his law, or morality, on human hearts.

While people can ignore and even break their conscience, the fact remains that all people generally know what is right and good.

This kind of general revelation makes it clear to everyone that there is a higher power that is holy and just. We are not free to live however we see fit. We are bound by our conscience to live our lives according to some external standard.

The world calls this standard morality or being a good person, we call it God’s Law.

Positively, general revelation means that all people can and do know God in a general way. However because of sin, people suppress the truth about God and worship false idols making their condemnation for their sin just and deserved.

However, general revelation is just that, general. While it can show people that God exists and give them insight into his nature and character, it does not tell them how to deal with their sin or be forgiven. For that, we need what is called special revelation.

Special Revelation

This is the kind of revelation is talking about. It is direct, verbal, intentional revelation that comes from God’s very mouth.

While general revelation is good and true and can even show us that we are sinners who deserve condemnation, it doesn’t tell us the significance of God becoming a man in Jesus Christ and died on the cross in our place for our sins and rose again three days later.

For that we need God to speak to us through his Word.

That’s why God sent the prophets of the Old

Just seeing the created world doesn’t tell us how to be saved. How to be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life in Christ. God had to tell us clearly and intentionally which he ultimately did in the incarnation of Christ who is God’s Word made flesh.

And today, God continues to speak his Word through holy Scripture. The Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant, and authoritative Word that tells us everything God accomplished in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

When Scripture speaks, God speaks. And he gives divine revelation of who he is and how we might be saved.

I need you to understand this because unless you see how glorious the doctrine of revelation truly is, you will not see the point the author of Hebrews is trying to say in verse 2.

All through human history, God has revealed himself through his Word. Whether it was His Word proclaimed by the Prophets of the OT, the perfect revelation of the Word made flesh Jesus Christ, or today through his Word the Holy Scriptures, every single word of God’s revelation of himself is an act of amazing, unheard of, unbelievable grace.

Normally, when we talk about grace, we only think about salvation, but we must also remember God’s grace in the context of his revelation.

The Scriptures are clear, all of us were dead in our trespasses and sin. And because of this, we were are blind, futile in our understanding, and hard hearted towards God and we had no desire to know him and couldn’t even if we had wanted to.

Instead, in our sin, we settled for speculation. The opposite of revelation is speculation and this is the best that any religion, spirituality, or philosophy can hope for outside of God’s self-revealing grace.

Every religion and worldview outside of Christ is a vain attempt of man to save himself. They are little more than man’s endeavors to try and find God and eternal life.

But Christianity is not about us reaching up to God to save ourselves. It is about God reaching down to us in Jesus Christ so that we can truly know him.

It is nothing but pure grace that God would speak to us. Because of our sin we rejected him and rebelled against his authority as our Creator, and we do not deserve his life-giving, saving words.

If God were not gracious enough to speak and reveal himself, we would have been left in our darkness and ignorance with no hope of salvation.

But God did not leave us in our sin and ignorance, but he sent his Word. And his revelation first came through the mouths of the OT prophets to tell us that he would one day come to save us from our sin.

OT Prophets

That’s why the author of Hebrews says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

The Prophets refers to all the prophets throughout Israel’s history. They were were God’s messengers that spoke God’s word on his behalf and called God’s people to repentance.

And the fathers are the ancestors of these Jewish Christians who God revealed himself to.

So what the author is saying is that God has always been pursuing his people and proclaiming to them how they might be saved. Long ago he did this for their ancestors through the prophets, but now God has revealed himself through his Son.

II. God Has Perfectly Revealed Himself in His Son

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...

This but is a very important word in the author’s argument. In this verse, the author is contrasting two distinct periods of time. One that took place “long ago” through the ministry of the prophets, and one that has now taken place in Christ.

What he is saying is that with Christ, God ushered in a new era of revelation. This is why he says in these last days. Whenever a Jew saw or heard the words “last days,” they immediately knew what someone was talking about.

He was not talking about a period of time that just happened to take place more recently the time of the prophets in the OT.

It was a reference to the time when God’s Messiah would come.

The last days were when God would fulfill his promise to send the Messiah to save his people.

So the writer is essentially saying, “Long ago, God revealed himself through the prophets who spoke to our ancestors, but now, in these promised last days, the Messiah has come and spoken God’s final revelation to us. The last days were culmination and fulfillment of the salvation God has been promising all along.

Now before we go any further, I need to make something explicitly clear. Some Christians will take passages like this and will twist them to devalue the OT.

They will read the OT assuming that it doesn’t have anything to say to Christians today. That the OT was for the Jews whereas the NT belongs to the church.

Even implicitly Christians will functionally believe that they don’t need to read or understand the OT because that was all before Christ and all I need is the New Testament.

So even while affirming with their mouths that all Scripture is God breathed and profitable for the Christian life, many Christians will simply ignore the OT.

Even implicitly Christians will functionally believe that they don’t need to read or understand the OT because that was all before Christ and all I need is the New Testament.

They don’t read it, know it, or understand it A. because it is difficult, but mostly B. because they don’t think it has anything to say about the Christian life.

But the OT cannot be ignored. It is the bedrock that provides the foundation for understanding the gospel.

The author of Hebrews is not saying the the Old Testament is inferior to the NT. It is still God’s Word. All he is saying is that the OT didn’t give the full picture of salvation. It only gave bits and pieces of what God would accomplish in Christ, and now, in these last days we see what that is perfectly through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

This is key for how we as Christians should read and understand the OT. We can’t read the OT as God doing one thing then only to do something completely different once Christ shows up.

No. We read the OT as promises that point to Christ and what he would do, and we read the NT as describing how Jesus fulfilled those promises and what that means for us today.

The Bible, from beginning to end, is all about Jesus. He is the point of not only the NT but the Old.

This is precisely how Jesus understood God’s revelation in the OT. In You search the Scriptures [Old Testament] because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.

Even after his resurrection, Jesus opened up the OT with his disciples and showed them how he fulfilled all the Scriptures in And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

All that to say, when Scripture is rightly interpreted, it is all about Jesus as our God and Savior. The OT looks forward to his coming and prepares God’s people for what he would do on their behalf, and the NT looks back to Christ and proclaims all the he accomplished in his life, death and resurrection.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

So in saying, “but in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son,” the author is laying the ground work to encourage the Hebrews to remain faithful to Christ.

He is saying that all those prophets you are wanting to go back to in Judaism, were all pointing to Jesus. You can’t go back and still follow the Lord because we don’t live long ago before Christ had come. We live in these last days where Christ has come and spoken God’s final Word concerning salvation because he is the fulfillment of everything the OT prophets said.

But that’s not all. Not only is Christ the fulfillment of what God said in through the prophets, he is also qualitatively different than the prophets who spoke long ago.

Jesus wasn’t just another man. That’s what the prophets were. They were just men chosen by God to speak his Word. But Jesus was something more. He was God’s own Son. He is God’s Word made flesh. He is the fullest, most complete revelation of the Father possible because he shares the Father’s divine nature as the second person of the Trinity.

Before we go any further let me help you keep straight what is happening in this passage . In , he author is setting up his argument that will course through the whole book for why these Jewish Christians can’t go back to Judaism in the face of persecution.

First he tells them you can’t go back to Judaism because all of Judaism points to Christ. Its all fulfilled in him. How can you go back to looking forward to the Messiah when you know the Messiah has already come?

And then in verse 2, he tells the Hebrews why it would be foolish to go back to listening to the prophets while completely ignoring the Son because Jesus isn’t just another man like those prophets. He is something more.

He is the Messiah. He is God’s own Son. He is God’s Word made flesh. He is the fullest, most complete revelation of the Father possible because he shares the Father’s divine nature as the second person of the Trinity.

The Hebrews could not go back to Judaism and ignore how God revealed himself in the Son because the Son is Fully God and fully man.

But Jesus wasn’t just another man. That’s what the prophets were. They were just men chosen by God to speak his Word. But Jesus was something more. He is God’s own Son. He is God’s Word made flesh. He is the fullest, most complete revelation of the Father possible because he shares the Father’s divine nature as the second person of the Trinity.

III. Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man

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. 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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

The first thing you’ll notice is that God has appointed the Son as the heir of all things.

The fact that Jesus is described as the heir of all things explicitly points to the fact that Jesus is God.

That the Son is the second person of the Trinity.

As Christians we believe that God is Trinity. That is God is one God who eternally exists as three distinct persons - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are each fully and equally God sharing one essence.

This is one of the most confusing and difficult doctrines of our faith because it is a mystery. The Father Son and Spirit all three are eternally God and equal in nature, power, and authority sharing one nature.

This does not mean that there are three different Gods we worship or that there is merely One God who manifests himself as either Father Son or Spirit as if those are masks he can put on and take off whenever he wants.

Instead, the doctrine of the Trinity teaches three crucial truths.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons

Each person is fully, equally, and eternally God

There is only one God. God is 3 in one.

If you are confused you are not alone. This is one of the most confusing and difficult doctrines of our faith because it is a mystery, but it is one that we must affirm as Christians.

The first century Jews would have understood exactly what the author was saying in calling Christ the heir. He has the same authority as the Father. To do business with him, was to do business with the Father.

And when these first century Jewish believers read that Jesus is the heir of all things, they would have understood exactly what the author was trying to say.

Now some people will mistakenly look at that word appointed and say that Jesus became something he was not before. That there was a time when Jesus was not equal with the Father but that the Father appointed Jesus to make him equal with himself

The implication of course is that if Jesus was not eternally equal with God, then he is not actually God because by definition, God is eternal.

But the author of Hebrews is not using the word appointed to describe when the Son became an heir. Instead, he is using it to affirm the Son’s status and identity as the heir who has the full authority of the Father.

That means Jesus is equal with the Father as the God of all creation. So the author is clearly saying Jesus is truly and fully God.

As the heir, he is the one who has authority over all things that exists. As Paul said in For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

This is a stunning statement because Jesus was a man who walked on the earth nearly 2000 years ago, and here the author of Hebrews is clearly saying that Jesus was not just a man, but that he was actually God incarnate.

What that means is that the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, became a man in Jesus and accomplished salvation on our behalf.

If Christ has authority over all things as the heir, that means he shares authority with the Father making him equal with God.

All things exists for Christ

But in saying that, we don’t mean that Jesus ever stopped being God when he was on the earth because He was always fully and equally God.

Instead, what we mean is that in his incarnation the Son added to himself humanity. That he emptied himself as says and laid aside his right to exercise his divine power in himself, instead choosing to willingly live as a man filled with the Holy Spirit. He was still God while on the earth, he was just God living as a human being.

So not only do we as Christians believe in the mystery of the Trinity. We also believe in the mystery of God’s incarnation. That Jesus was one person with two distinct natures, those being divine and human.

This is what theologians call the hypostatic union. Jesus is one person with two distinct natures. He is truly and fully divine and truly and fully God. and this theology was necessary for Jesus to serve as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.

The incarnation is such glorious and amazing doctrine because long ago God sent other men to preach his word but in these last days God himself came to us in Jesus Christ to preach peace and forgiveness to anyone who would believe in him.

The incarnation is so amazing bcause long ago god sent other men to preach his word but in these last days God himself came in Jesus Christ to preach peace and forgiveness to all who would believe in him. What grace god has loved us with to be willing to condescend himself to become a man so that we could know him and worship him.

How loving and gracious is God to be willing to condescend himself to us by becoming a man that we could see and hear in the flesh so that we could know and worship him.

The implication of course is that if Jesus was not eternally equal with God, then he is not actually God because by definition, God is eternal.

But the author of Hebrews is not using the word appointed to describe when the Son became an heir. Instead, he is using it to affirm the Son’s status as the heir who has the full authority of the Father.

So Jesus is God because all things belong to him as the heir. But that’s not all.

Then the author says that God created everything through the Son. This immediately brings to mind In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

By saying that Jesus was in the beginning with God, the Bible is clearly saying that Jesus is eternal God. That he existed before creation.

Jesus was not a created being but actually the agent of creation through whom everything was made. This again points to Jesus being the eternal Son, the second person of the Trinity.

There are basically two spheres. Creator and Creation. By saying that Jesus is the agent of creation in and , we believe that Jesus is in the Creator category making him equal with God.

Then the author says, 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.

This is one of the clearest statements in all of Scripture that says Jesus is God.

When the author says he is the radiance of God’s glory, it means that Jesus is the light who cuts through the darkness and reveals who God is to his people.

Go back to ; ; In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...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...No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory because he shares the Father’s own nature as the second person of the Trinity and he has made God known to all who believe in him.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...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...No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

That is why the author of Hebrews is able to say that Jesus is the exact imprint of his nature, To really understand this you need to see what the author is saying in Greek The word used for exact imprint is the same one use to talk about the impression that a stamp would make on wax or a metal die would make on a coin when it is made.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Jesus is the perfect, personal imprint of God’s glory and nature in human form. This is exactly what Paul said in ; He is the image of the invisible God...For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

He is the image of the invisible God

Then finally, the author of Hebrews closes his argument for why we must listen to the revelation of God in his Son because Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power.

This speaks to the Son’s power. Because where the Father created all things through his Word, the Son, who is the Word of God, upholds all things that are created.

I think that this was meant to be a great encouragement to the Hebrews.

But I think he was being intentional in order to encourage these Christians who were wavering in their faith.

The book of Philippians was probably written around 5 years before Hebrews and since we know the author ran in Paul’s circle, it is likely that the Hebrews would have been aware that Paul wrote, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

When Christ begins a work in the lives of his people, he is strong enough to uphold it and carry it through to the end. The author of Hebrews is saying, If Jesus is able to uphold all creation by his power then surely he can uphold you in your Christian walk.

As God, Jesus is strong enough to keep his people faithful even when following him seems impossible and it is so much easier to turn back. In the same way that he upholds creation, Christ holds on to us and will see our faith through to the end.

What an encouragement because I don’t know about you, but when I look at my life and see the weakness of my faith and my Christian walk, I thank God that Christ is faithful, able, and willing sustain me to the end.

Conclusion

The author of Hebrews opens his letter by laying the foundation for his entire book. Christ is God and the only way to know God is to know Christ.

All the OT pointed to Jesus as the Messiah and today, God has revealed himself to us through his own Son who is the second person of the Trinity.

We know God because of Christ. we don’t know him through second hand knowledge like some

The first three verses of this incredible book teach us a wonderful truth. God has spoken, and he has spoken clearly and finally and perfectly in his Son.

The first three verses of this incredible book teach us a wonderful truth. God has spoken, and he has spoken clearly in his Son. We could not reach up to God so God broke into our world to reach down to us. The Incarnation reveals God because it shows us that God is the God of salvation and that he has sent his own Son to save us from our sins.

For application, I just have two quick notes for our church from this passage.

1. Worship the Lord for Revealing Himself

Unless God had taken the initiative to speak to us and reveal himself and his salvation, all of us would still be dead in our sins with no hope.

Praise God for his grace to reach down to us in Christ when we were too sinful, blind, and broken to ever reach up to him.

Praise God that he loved us so much that he sent his Son to show us who he is and save us from our sins.

2. Listen to what God has said in Christ

Christ is God’s supreme revelation because he is God incarnate.

To not listen to their Jewish families and friends or listen to the pressures of the pagan world around them urging them to forsake Christ, but to trust that what God has said in Christ is true and the only way we can be saved is to follow him.

In his life, death, and resurrection Jesus showed us that God is holy. Righteous. Loving. Kind. Gracious. Compassionate. Merciful. Generous. And forgiving.

Jesus showed us that God is holy. Righteous. Loving. Kind. Gracious. Compassionate. Merciful. Generous. And forgiving.

And if we want to know this God and worship him, then all we must do is listen to his Son and trust in him through faith.

Let’s Pray

English Standard Version Chapter 1

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,

Scripture Reading

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

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