The Better Source

As always it is a privilege to be given this opportunity to bring the Word of God to this congregation.

Today, we are embarking on a new series entitled “Better”.

There is a drive in all of us to want the “better and best” things in life. While we all do experience seasons of contentment or even complacency, we all want better. Parent’s want better for their children than they had it growing up. We want better health. We want better living conditions. We want better tech. Two years ago I told my wife that I wasn’t going to upgrade my phone until the one I had at the time was in pieces. Then flash forward to this past September and the newest model of the iPhone came out. I could see that it was better than the one I had before, but I still wasn’t going to get it. And then they dropped some new release upgrade deal that was basically giving me the brand new device for almost free. I thought a deal can’t get much better than that! So I went on and upgrade.

In our world there is a constant search for better. The timeline of better technological progress may be increasing exponentially, but humans have always been in the search for better. The Romans developed a system for indoor heating as early as 350 BC. It was accomplished by basically containing a wood fire in the crawlspace and letting the hot air flow under the floor and through the walls. This system lasted a while, but now we have better systems for heating that may be based on similar principles, but are safer and able to managed even from smartphones from miles away.

I bring up all of this to illustrate the idea that humans have always been on the search for better. We have made some improvements on systems and processes, but even those improvements continue to be evaluated for more growth potential.

The question is, why? Why do we have such a desire for better? You might say that’s a silly question. We want better because better is better and if what we had was better we wouldn’t need it to be better. But I think that the desire for better is deeper than just recognizing room for improvement. I think our desire for better is based upon the reality that humans innately know there is beyond this earthly existence. Ecclesiastes says that eternity is placed on the hearts of all people. CS Lewis argued that nothing in this world completely satisfies because we were created for another world. He said, “If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.” We are stuck in the search for better because in the deepest parts of our hearts we know that better exists.

But what if I told you that the better we all search for has been revealed? What if I told you that you wont find better in technological advances, health improvements, or financial success? What if I told you that you won’t find better at all, but in reality “Better” found you?

For the next few weeks, we are going to be walking through the beginning of the book of Hebrews to see how Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the messiah, the Christ, is better beyond all measure from anything we could ever imagine.

If you would, open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1. Today we are going to be looking just at the first three verse, but throughout this series we will be seeing how Jesus is absolutely better than anything else in a variety of ways. Today, we will see that Jesus is the Better Source. We’ll explain what that means as we go this morning.

Before we look at our text we need to know a little bit of background on the book of Hebrews. It was written sometime after the ministry and ascension of Jesus Christ and before the fall of the temple in 70 AD. This text was written for a Hebrew community and addresses three groups within that community throughout. It primarily talks to Hebrew believers who were struggling to live out their faith in Jesus Christ while the culture they were situated in opposed Christianity. But it also address those Hebrews who had an intellectual affirmation of Jesus without a true love of Jesus. And lastly it addresses those hebrews who were not Christians and were fully opposed to the movement. The author is interesting in that we really do not know who the author was. There have a been a myriad of suggestions as to who wrote it, but it is fitting that this author is unknown. The entire point of the book of Hebrews is to lift up and point to the all sufficiency and worthiness of Jesus Christ. Since we know that all Scripture is breathed out by God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, I am in agreement with one commenter (MacArthur) who suggests referring the author as simply, the Holy Spirit.

With that in mind, let’s begin walking through what the Spirit is saying to us about the superiority, “betterness” if you would, of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:1–3 (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. 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 important truth for all of us to understand. There is so much going on in these verse that I hope I can even begin to scratch the surface of the goodness the Spirit is teaching us here. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is in verse 1:

God Spoke

God spoke. It is crucial that we understand that the only reason we know anything is because God spoke. That’s it. God, in His great love and mercy, spoke to His creation, He spoke to the people He created in His image. Why is this so important to know? Because if humans are left to their own devices, they will never see beyond the natural world. It’s like in Lewis’ analogy, we may sense that there is something better, something divine beyond what we see in the hear and now, but without God’s divine intervention all we could do is create fantasies. Sin clouds our vision and Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers in such a way that they do not see the light and truth of the gospel (2 Cor 4:3-4).

We see how sinful man misses the mark of understanding and worshipping the one true God all throughout Scripture. Take a walk through Romans 1. Paul shows us how sinful man has exchanged the Creator, GOD, for the created thing, idols. He says in 1:18 that sinful mas has suppressed the truth of God by their unrighteousness. And so denying the truth of the authentic God, man builds its own fabrications. They rely on their own ability to digest the cosmos.

This ultimately gets us nowhere other than stuck in the cycles of false religion. We convince ourselves that the proper order of rituals will somehow unlock a temporal pleasure. Religion is man’s failing attempt to discover God. The truth of the matter is that man is utterly incapable of discovering God, but thanks be to God, the One True God, that He has revealed Himself to us! God spoke! We see in Hebrews 1:1 that He spoke through the prophets and now in the last days He has spoken to us by His Son. We come to realize that God is the initiator of true relationship to the divine. God came to us through Jesus Christ.

Luke 19:10 ESV

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Please know this, it absolutely, matter of factly, without a doubt-edly does matter what you believe! All other “faiths” are people dictating their views of the divine. Christ is better because the divine has made Himself known to the people. In the world of religion people can be praised for how pious they are, they retain glory for the magnanimous deeds they accomplish. Christianity is different and better because we understand that while we could never do enough to be made righteous, that God loved us enough to send us a Savior. We understand that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost sinners like us and He is the only one that gets the glory for that. Faith doesn’t rest in our abilities but in the completed work of Christ. Throughout all of history, God has been the initiator of salvation and the sole provider of divine revelation.

God spoke.

The rest of verse 1 shows how God spoke to His people throughout History. In the time of the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophets. Understand that Spirit has directed this letter to Hebrews. These are people who have grown up familiar with the Word of God being taught in the synagogues. The Holy Spirit is showing them, and us today, that the teaching of the Old Testament ABSOLUTELY was breathed out by God. God did speak to their forefathers at many times and in many ways through the prophets. The coming of His Son, as shown in Hebrews 1:2, does not invalidate the Old Testament, if anything, it illuminates it! Jesus is the key that shows all that the Old Testament was pointing to. Look at verse 1 again

Hebrews 1:1 ESV

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

The word for “times” in the greek caries the connotation of “many portions” like books. There are 39 books of the Old Testament, each of which was time in which God spoke through the author to give His Word to the people. God accomplished this through many ways. That is He spoke to them through dreams, visions, parables, symbols, types. He recorded His Word in various genres like law, history, and poetry. But all of is God speaking through men to His people. It is God being the Initiator of divine revelation.

This is important to understand because God has revealed Himself to be immutable, that is unchanging. And if He is unchanging then His message is unchanging. As God was speaking to the fathers through the prophets, the overarching theme of His message is consistent. All of the Old Testament, then, is God pointing His people to what He promised in the Garden at the time in which sin entered the world, the fall of mankind. In that moment God tells Satan that Satan will be defeated. In the New Testament, we get the fulfillment of that promise. Christ is victor who reigns forever.

This why we must not “unhitch” from the Old Testament but instead praise God for His faithfulness to fulfill His promise and as we study His Word we learn more about His great Character and we understand that all of the Old Testament is profitable for our teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteous that we may be equipped to serve God.

We read, cherish, learn from, and honor God through study of the Old Testament… but we don’t stay there.

Why don’t we stop with the Old Testament? Because in His great and perfect timing, God spoke through His Son. Look at verse two of Hebrews 1.

Hebrews 1:2 ESV

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.

The Son did not negate what was spoken through the Prophets, rather He is the culmination of their revelation. Jesus says Himself that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. In the fullness of time, God sent His Son to this earth. This is what the Old Testament was pointing to and in that way Christ is BETTER than the Old Testament Prophets.

I could sit around all day and talk to you about how much my wife and I enjoyed tubing down the lazy waters of Crystal River, Florida. I could attempt to explain that the water was so clear that we could see every grain of sand and speck of moss on the floor of the river. I could tell you about the joy we felt as we watched a family of otters playing on the side of the bank just feet away as we wandered down the river.

I could tell you about all of that. But you know what would be better? To experience it yourself. To see it. To feel it. To watch it with your own eyes.

The Old Testament is great, true, necessary, and a gift from God. But its purpose was to point to and bring in the new covenant that comes with Jesus Christ. “The Old Testament was given in pieces. To Noah was revealed the quarter of the world from which the Messiah would come. To Micah, the town where He would be born. To Daniel, the time of His birth. To Malachi, the forerunner who would come before Him. To Jonah, His resurrection was typified. Every one of those pieces of revelation was true and accurate; and each one related to the others in some way or another. And each one in some way or another pointed to the Messiah, the Christ. But only Jesus Christ Himself was everything brought together and made whole. In Him the revelation was full and complete.”

God has fully expressed Himself to us in Christ.

So now we must ask ourselves who is this Christ? Why is He such a big deal?

Well for the remaining time that we have together I want to present to you five “excellencies” as some commenters call them, of Jesus Christ. These are five descriptions of the greatness of Jesus Christ as presented in these first few verses of the book of Hebrews. These “excellencies” should should leave us humbled, in awe of who Christ is, and understanding that He is worthy to be honored, served, and praised.

Let’s begin here in verse two. its says Christ is “appointed the heir of all things”. The first excellency of Jesus Christ is that He is

The Heir

Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, the only begotten Son is the heir of all things. We need to think about this very carefully. John Dagg wrote “The Father is God. The Son is God. the Holy Ghost is God. There is but one God.” This is truth that goes beyond our comprehension but simply because we are unable to understand does not make it any less true. Never forget that Jesus Christ is FULLY God. We will see from His other excellencies that it is impossible for Him not to be full deity. We will see that He has always been existent. Thus when we think about Christ being the Son and the Heir, these are not terms of chronology, but rather terms used to describe legal inheritance! The first born Son is the rightful heir! Jesus is the rightful heir of all of creation! This is explained further in Colossians

Colossians 1:15–16 ESV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 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.

Here we see that Christ is the firstborn, but not in that He is the first created thing. We see that all things were created by him. So rather than Him being the first things created, Paul is telling us Christ is HEIR of all creation. All things were created through him AND FOR HIM.

Christ is the Victor. He will reign forever. The whole earth is groaning for this time, waiting for when sin will be no more. Romans 8 paints the picture of all creation eagerly awaiting for that time of glory in which Christ shall reign in full glory. Creation is His. Christ is the Heir and the marvelous thing is that all those who believe in Christ as Savior and Lord will be joint-heirs with Him!

Romans 8:16–17 ESV

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Those who are saved by God’s grace through Faith in Jesus Christ are adopted as children of God. “Every adopted child will receive by divine grace the full inheritance Christ receives by divine right.”

Christ is the rightful heir and in God’s great love and grace, those who have faith in Him will be joint-heirs with Jesus.

Christ is the Heir which is most excellent, but there is more

Hebrews 1:2 (ESV)

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.

Christ is the

The Hand of Creation

We can bask in the might of Christ in understanding that He created the world. As John introduces Him in his gospel, we get a bigger picture of the power this entails. Allow me to read it to you:

John 1:3 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Nothing in all of existence was made if not made through Christ! Think about the scope of that statement. Think about the sheer expanse of this universe. Every tangible thing exists because Christ made it so. Now let’s all blow our minds even more. If you take your attention back to Hebrews 1:2 it says Christ created the World. But understand that the greek is a very interesting word for World. This word refers not just to the physical objects that we see, the trees, the bushes, the animals, etc. But this word refers also to all of what is beyond the eye can see, it refers to all of time and space. Everything, every order, every process in existence comes from God and Jesus Christ is the hand of that Creation.

In the theme of Better, Jesus Christ is the better and best creator beyond all measure and comparison because He created all of this ex nihilo, out of nothing. Even the most imaginative and inventive thinkers and creators of our day are working in the sandbox our Lord created.

He is the Hand of Creation.

Continue on to verse 3

Hebrews 1:3 (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.

We will look at three more of His Excellencies here:

First. He is

The Radiance

We are told that Christ is the radiance! He is the light that goes out into the world of darkness. “just as the rays of the sun light and warm the earth, so Jesus Christ is the glorious light of God shining into the hearts of men.”

John 8:12 ESV

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

The Radiance of Jesus Christ is the only true light in this world. In the warmth of His radiance is the eternal light of life. There is no other belief system or religious order that can be the light of life like Jesus is. In fact anyone preaching anything that salvation through faith in Christ alone are being used by Satan to blind unbelievers to the exclusive truth of the Gospel. Check out

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The little “g” god of this world, the devil uses false religion and man made ideologies to blind unbelievers from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Christ is God incarnate and the only God incarnate. That is what the end of 2 Corinthians 4:4 is talking about with the image of God and it points us to the next excellency of Christ in Hebrews 1:3

Hebrews 1:3 (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.

Christ is

The Imprint/The Image/The Representation

This is another excellency that is hard for our finite minds to understand. How is Christ both God and the image of God?

This is best understood by using Scripture to interpret Scripture.

Colossians 2:9 ESV

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

This points to the fact that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. We saw earlier today in Colossians 1:15 that its shows Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.”

Thus, when we think about Christ being the imprint, the image, the representation of the nature of God, that is pointing us to the fact that Christ IS divine and that in His incarnation He is not less than God.

Let’s look at one final excellency in verse 3 for this morning.

Hebrews 1:3 (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.

Christ is

The Administrator

The universe is upheld by the very word of his power. This corresponds with the idea that He is the creator of all things. He is also the Sustainer.

Really dwell on that for a moment. Jesus is the glue keeping the universe together.

You might say, Brad the universe is held together by the laws of physics. I wont deny you that we as humans are dependent upon regulatory processes in the way we interpret the going ons of the universe. I won’t deny that there are observable process like gravity or even thermodynamics. Our world has many scientists that discover many astounding things. But please understand, “scientists that discover great and amazing truths are doing nothing but discovering a few of the laws Jesus designed and uses to control this world.” Jesus never has been and never will be subservient to science or the natural order. Science and the natural order are subservient to Jesus. He is the administrator of this world, holding it together.

We assume that the way things are happening now are how they always have been and how they always will be. But throughout Scripture we see God bending the laws of physics to His Will. It is utter pride to think that God must work within the natural order when He created the natural order. Its pride because we are saying that God must always have acted in only the ways I have seen Him act now. But Christ is the Administrator of this World. He can produce miracles in accordance with His will. The only response we can have to such power is submission.

Today we have seen the awesome power of Jesus Christ. We have seen that He is heir of creation, the hand of creation, the radiance, the perfect imprint of God, and the administrator of this whole universe. Those facts alone should be enough to leave us in awe of who He is and produce a desire to serve Him.

But what we didn’t get into deeply today, that we will talk more about next week, is that That great and powerful Jesus we described today, also died on the cross to pay the cost of sin for all those who would ever believe in Him. That one to who is the heir of creation beaten and whipped, the hand of creation was nailed to a tree, the radiance of the glory of God took the wrath of God for sin upon Himself, the perfect imprint of God died on that cross and was placed in a tomb, and then the administrator of this whole universe rose on the third day and in so assures all those who believe in Him eternal life.

So let me ask this morning, do you understand that the historical Jesus is the eternal Son of God? Do you see the power He has over this creation? Do you grasp the great sacrifice He made to pay the debt of sin for all those who believe in Him? Are you being drawn to Him repent from sin and submit to Him? I can tell you this He is worthy. If you answered yes to those questions I’d love to talk to you more about it. Would you come forward during this coming hymn of response?

Let’s pray.