A Better Word than the Prophets

A Better Word than the Prophets’

Heb 1:1-3

What we know about the recipients

• Hebrew Christians (1:1-14).

• 2nd Generation Christians (see 2:3).

• Have existed as a community for some time (10:32-34).

• Have suffered from persecution (but not to death--12:4).

• Generously supported fellow Christians in need (6:10; 10:34).

• Under doctrinal pressure (13:7, 17).

• Some have stopped in their growth (5:11-12).

• Method of Comparison

• Syncresis**** .

– The device is a comparison between something good and something better.

– Christ is better than Moses and Angels. His priesthood is better than Aaron’s. His temple is better than the older one. His temple is more enduring

Location of Recipients

Only one real clue: 13:24, “Those of Italy greet you.”

•Some take it to mean expatriates from Italy. (Thus the letter was written to Italians, i.e., to the west from the east).

•Others take it to mean Italians (people in Italy; i.e., to the east from the west).

•Based usually on commitments about Pauline authorship.

Occasion & Purpose

At least some of the Jewish-Christian recipients apparently were in danger of slipping back into a form of Judaism.

•The purpose, then, was to encourage the believers to “stay the course”. The writer does this by magnifying Christ.

1:1- God Has Spoken

At many times

i. What was the scope of time that the writer is referring to here?

In many ways

i. What ways did God use to communicate?

To our Fathers i. To all of our Fathers or to a specific few?
By the Prophets i. What made a prophet a prophet?

ii. What was the test?

Calvin suggests… i. But as the common office of the prophets was to hold the Church in suspense, and at the same time support it until the advent of the Mediator; we read, that the faithful, during the dispersion, complained that they were deprived of that ordinary privilege. “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long,” (Ps. 74:9). [1]
JBBs would understand the weight of this verse i. “That’s right…they had a word from the Lord. Where is ours?”

1:2, 3- God Speaks

By his Son i. Through Christ, God has a word for you.

1. He has a word for us…a word we desperately need

2. We need the communication of God though Christ of his greatness, magnificence, splendor, righteousness, holiness, wrath, judgment, grace, love, and comfort.

ii. Far better word

1. Jn 1:1-5, 14-18

2. Jn 6:66ff

3. Jn 12:49-50

4. Jn 17:6-8

5. 2 Cor 4:6

1:2- Authority

i. Heir of all things

1. Eph 1:19-23

2. I cor 15:24-28

3. Jn 5:27

4. Mt 28:18

Eternal i. Heb 3:3- more honor than his creation

ii. Heb 11:3- we believe he used his word to create

iii. John 1:1-He was with God in the beginning

Equal with God in essence i. Radiance of the glory of God

1. As light radiates from the source and fills the room, so Christ fills us with very God of very God

2. Nicene 325-God of God, Light of Light, very God of Very God.

ii. Glory

1. Ex 24:17

a. devouring Fire

b. Ex 24:16-cloud of covering

2. 2 Chron 7:2- fills

3. Ps 24- strength and might

4. Ps 29- Holiness

5. Ps 49- fame

6. Kabod- root, weightiness, heaviness.

7. Psalm 145:5- glorious splendor of your majesty

8. 45 times relates to visible manifestation of God

a. Directly related to his self disclosure and desire to live among men- tabernacle and Ezek temple

b. Is 4:2 the righteous branch

9. Doxa- opinion/ view.

a. Adopted in LXX to translate Kabod

b. Remolded from opinion to something very objective

10. Radical change from the classical idea of opinion to radiance or brightness or refelction

11. Whitefield- It has been observed by some, and very properly too, that it is one mark of the divine goodness to his creatures, that he is pleased to let light come in gradually upon the natural world. If the sun from midnight darkness, was immediately to shine forth in his full meridian blaze, his great splendor would be apt to dazzle our eyes, and strike us blind again: but God is pleased to make light come gradually in, and by that means we are prepared to receive it. And as God is pleased to deal with the natural, so he has dealt with the moral, with the spiritual world. The Lord Jesus Christ did not appear in his full glory all at once, but as the sun rises gradually, so did the Lord Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, rise gradually upon men, with healing under his wings

Functions to communicate the nature of God to the world i. Exact Imprint of his nature

1. karactayr-from etching tool, later in minting, the image of the ruler on the coin

2. LXX- scar, likeness between a parent and child

3. NT- only here

4. Christ is the exact imprint of the nature of God.

ii. ***These two clauses are synonymous in that God’s glory is his nature***

iii. HE IS ONE IN ESSENCE WITH THE FATHER AND HE IS THE COMMUNICATION OF THAT ESSENCE TO THE WORLD.

Word is powerful to uphold the universe i. Uphold- carry or sustain or uphold

ii. But not in his hands…by his word of power

iii. Col 1:17- in him all things hold together

iv. Rayma and logos

1. Rayma is a specific word…Jesus’ very words hold the universe together…not just an abstract idea but a concrete communication of God.

He accomplished for us what no prophet ever did i. After making purification for sins he sat down

1. Finished work

2. Luke 23:69- Honor, rule and authority

3. Phil 2:10,11

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[1]Jean Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translation of: Institutio Christianae Religionis.; Reprint, With New Introd. Originally Published: Edinburgh : Calvin Translation Society, 1845-1846. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), II, xv, 1.