CHRIST's Place

The Superiority of CHRIST   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  38:47
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Series: The Superiority of CHRIST
A Study of Hebrews
Hebrews 1
CHRIST's Place
Introduction
Baker’s New Testament Commentary (BNTC):
This Book calls the believer to stay faithful.
Hebrews 4. Priscilla

Origen, “But who wrote the epistle, to be sure, only God knows.” In the final analysis, authorship is not important. The content of the epistle is what matters.

Authorship? Apollos, Paul, Priscilla, Luke
Origen, “But who wrote the epistle, to be sure, only God knows.” In the final analysis, authorship is not important. The content of the epistle is what matters.
There are 32 direct quotes from the OT.
The Book of Hebrews bridges the gap between Testaments
Date: before AD 96. Clement of Rome wrote his epistle to the Corinthian church and incorporated a number of quotations and allusions from Hebrews in his epistle. The outer limit of dating the Epistle to the Hebrews is sure: sometime before A.D. 96. To determine a starting point for the composition of the epistle is difficult.

The epistle was used by Clement of Rome (e.g., 1 Clement 17; 36) probably also by Polycarp (To the Philippians 6; 12) and Hermas (Visions 2.3.2; 3.7.2; Similitudes 9.13.7). Therefore the author was an early Christian. The earliest reference to authorship is a statement of Clement of Alexandria that Paul wrote it in Hebrew and that Luke translated the work into Greek

NBC: A survey of the passages of warning and encouragement reveals something of the situation of those addressed. At least some of their number were in danger of drifting from the gospel and the salvation it offers (2:1–4). More specifically, they were in danger of hardening their hearts in unbelief, turning away from the living God, and missing out on the heavenly ‘rest’ promised by God (3:7–4:11).

1. GOD’s Plan (1-3)

A. Long Ago (1.1)
Hebrews 1:1 NASB95
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
1. GOD Spoke to the Fathers
Acts 2:30 NASB95
“And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne,
Acts 3:21 NASB95
whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
John Phillips: Instead of beginning with the name of Paul or James or Peter, it begins, “God.” It is no wonder that its human author fades into obscurity.
Exploring Hebrews: An Expository Commentary I. He Is Superior in His Majesty as the Son of God (1:1–2:4)

Hebrews discusses the relationship of the gospel to Israel’s ritual law. Great appeal is made to the Old Testament priestly ministry

EBC: God is constantly before the author; he uses the word sixty-eight times, an average of about once every seventy-three words all through his epistle.
2. In Many Portions:
3. In Many Ways:
Numbers 12:6 NASB95
He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
Joel 2:28 NASB95
“It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.
EBC: He spoke to Moses in the burning bush (Exod 3:2ff.), to Elijah in a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12ff.), to Isaiah in a vision in the temple (Isa 6:1ff.), to Hosea in his family circumstances (Hos 1:2), and to Amos in a basket of summer fruit (Amos 8:1). God might convey his message through visions and dreams, through angels, through Urim and Thummim, through symbols, natural events, ecstasy, a pillar of fire, smoke, or other means. He could appear in Ur of the Chaldees, in Haran, in Canaan, in Egypt, in Babylon. There is no lack of variety, for revelation is not a monotonous activity that must always take place in the same way. God used variety.
B. GOD Speaks to Us: 1.2
Hebrews 1:2 NASB95
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
1 Peter 1:20 NASB95
For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you
C. In HIS SON: 2
Hebrews 1:2 NASB95
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Psalm 2:8 NASB95
‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
EBC: “Heir of all things,” then, is a title of dignity and shows that Christ has the supreme place in all the mighty universe.
D. Through HIM 2
Hebrews 1:2 NASB95
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
John 1:3 NASB95
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
1 Corinthians 8:6 NASB95
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
Colossians 1:16 NASB95
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

2. HE Is (1.3)

Hebrews 1:3 NASB95
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
A. The Radiance of HIS Glory:
Isaiah 6:1–5 NASB95
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
B. The Exact Representation of HIS Nature:
2 Corinthians 4:4 NASB95
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Colossians 1:15 NASB95
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
C. Upholds All Things:
Colossians 1:17 NASB95
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

3. CHRIST’s Work: 1.3

Hebrews 1:3 NASB95
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
A. Made Purification
Titus 2:14 NASB95
who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Hebrews 9:14 NASB95
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
EBC: It is clear from all this that the author sees Jesus as having accomplished a many-sided salvation. Whatever had to be done about sin he has done.
The word “purification” is most often used in the NT of ritual cleansing, but here it refers to the removal of sin. It also points to the defiling aspect of sin. Sin stains. But Christ has effected a complete cleansing.
The verb “provided” is in the aorist tense; the cleansing in question, being based on a past action, is complete.
The purification was accomplished at Calvary. The genitive “of sins” probably means that Christ took the sins away rather than that the person was cleansed “from sins.”
The word for sin (hamartia) occurs in this epistle twenty-five times, a total exceeded only by Romans with forty-eight.
B. HE Sat Down
Mark 16:19 NASB95
So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Romans 8:34 NASB95
who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Hebrews 8:1 NASB95
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Hebrews 10:12 NASB95
but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
Hebrews 12:2 NASB95
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
BNTC: The kingdom belongs to him and God has given him “the name that is above every name, 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”
Philippians 2:9–11 NASB95
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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