Alright, if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Hebrews, we will begin our first sermon in Hebrews this morning. For a moment this morning, I want you to place yourself back about 2,000 years into the first century Israel. As a Jewish child, you were born, like most other Jews, to a very orthodox Jewish family. They were dedicated to their Hebrew heritage and the Mosaic Law. You grew up dedicated to temple worship and sacrifices. Growing up, you heard of the man named Jesus when He was alive, or while He was alive. You heard talk of His miraculous works. But you found out He was crucified. And now most good Jews spoke of Him as a blasphemer and a curse, including your family. But as you got older, a man came into your town proclaiming Christ. He explained Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Psalm 110, Psalm 16, among other numerous passages in the Old Testament in the person and life of Jesus. And you saw salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection. knowing you would face shock and major backlash from your family and your friends, you still gladly stepped forward to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You became a follower of Jesus. Over the next few years, though, things were hard. The initial excitement and fire in knowing the truth of your Messiah, Jesus, had faded to some extent. You had lost most of your friends. You'd been ostracized by the Jewish society as a whole in which you lived. and you were banished from every sacred thing you'd ever known. Your family quite literally held a funeral for you once they found out you believed in Jesus as Messiah, and to them, you were a dead man. All the while, part of you still loved the ceremony under the Mosaic Law. You loved the traditions and rituals which you grew up with. Those things continued to tug at you. So perhaps the thought started to creep in, is Jesus really better than what I had? Am I better with this life as a Christian than I would be as a Jew under the Mosaic Law? Should I just go back to that? The book of Hebrews was written to this person. This Jew struggling with either turning back to Judaism or the Jew knowing the truth of Jesus intellectually, but whose heart was still unconvinced as to the sufficiency of Jesus. And as to the setting of this book, or the date, it's unknown. Suggestions as to the date range from as early as the mid-50s all the way to 90 AD. There is internal evidence in the book, though, for me to feel pretty confident that the book was written prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. The author refers to the sacrificial system repeatedly in the book, and he refers to it in the present tense, meaning it seems to have been going on at that time, at the writing of the book. He writes as though the temple was still standing and the sacrificial system was still active. It is possible even that the author speaks of the coming destruction, the future destruction of the temple and the end of the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant in chapter 8, verse 13. So I do believe this was written prior to the destruction of the temple in AD 70. That said, while it is impossible to know the date for sure, as I mentioned, the majority of commentators ultimately agree that the most likely date or range of dates in which Hebrews was written was between AD 60 and AD 70, somewhere around those lines, or in that decade. While there are some who believe this book was written to a Gentile audience, I believe the overwhelming evidence and the overwhelming opinion surrounding the book says that this was written to a group of Jews. While there are some passages that address unbelieving Jews, primarily the bulk of chapter 9, the majority of Hebrews is written to Jews who have professed Christ, but again are struggling with the possibility of returning to the Mosaic Law. Most likely, again, this was because of persecution they were facing from family, friends, and their community as a whole. Now some of the recipients were still very immature in the faith, as we will see, and were still torn between the ceremony and tradition under the Old Covenant, which they had known for most of their lives, and the truth of Jesus and the New Covenant. They were torn between those things. As John MacArthur reminds us, keep in mind that the idea, and I think this is important for us to remember as we go through this book and as we remember first century Jews, but the idea of the New Covenant was not easy for Jews to accept. at least through the person of Jesus. Even after they accepted the new, it's hard for them to make a clean break with the old. I will add to that, their entire society, their family, their friends, patrons for whatever job they had, they were all still generally deeply entrenched in the ceremony and the rituals of the Mosaic Law. That's what they saw, that's what they were around. But whatever the struggle the Jew who read this book was facing, the author writes to them and reinforces to them to push forward in Christ. The author writes to encourage them to do something they had struggled to do to this point, and that was to just make that clean break with the foothold that they still had in the Old Covenant. Even though I feel confident the book was written to a group of Jews, where those Jews were located is really just a guess as well. Greece has been offered as a location in which it was written or the group of Jews it was written to. That makes some sense based off of the nature of the book and the fact that the Septuagint is quoted consistently and constantly throughout the entire book. MacArthur, again, offers a general location in the east, outside of Israel. That's just as good as any guess, I guess. We just don't know for sure, but again, I do feel confident it was written to a group of Jews. Now, as to the author, while there are question marks as to the date, and even perhaps the intended recipients of the book of Hebrews, the amount of evidence as to who the author is, is almost zero. There have been several names throughout the history of the church which have been suggested as the author of this book. They include Barnabas, Silas, Philip, Priscilla and or Aquila, Clement of Rome, Apollos, the Apostle Paul, Luke, and even a combination of Paul and Luke. Among those names suggested though, the two most commonly believed authors or accepted authors have been Apollos or the Apostle Paul. And just in full candor, the Apostle Paul has been believed the author for much of church history. Dating back to the late 300's and early 400's, three separate councils decided on Paul as the author. This is why you see in many of your older translations, like the KJV, they actually refer to the book of Hebrews as the Epistle of Paul, the Apostle to the Hebrews. You'll see that written as the title of the book. That title is not inspired though, so don't get too hung up on that. It's actually ironic, I think, that they labeled Paul the apostle to the Hebrews when Paul himself stated he was an apostle to the Gentiles in Romans 11, verse 13. All that said, very few people try to suggest there is enough evidence in the book or in the way it was written to be sure who wrote it, to be dogmatic either way. I would suggest, along with many others actually, that I'm pretty confident that the Apostle Paul was in fact not the author. In chapter 2 of this book, verse 3, the author of Hebrews writes, How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That salvation, first spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard. This verse seems clear to me that the author is saying he, along with others, including the recipients of this letter, received the message of salvation, or the gospel, from those who heard the message directly from the Lord Jesus. This, of course, would rule out the apostle Paul as the author, as well as the other apostles, because they are the men who did receive the message directly from the Lord, right? They were the ones tasked to witness to the world. Now while I believe this does rule out Paul, in my opinion, whoever the author was did know Timothy and seemed to know him quite well as the book ends in chapter 13 verse 23 by stating that the author hoped to come and see the recipients of this letter with Timothy. So he hoped Timothy would go with him to see the recipients of this letter. The only sure conclusions I think that we can make concerning the author is that he was a male, as the personal pronouns in the book are always male, are always of the male gender. And outside of that, we just don't know who He is. We know that for sure, I think. But we can be certain that whoever the author is, He was inspired by the Holy Spirit just as every author of the other 65 books of Scripture. Now as to the theme and style of Hebrews, it is fitting that the author never names himself, nor hints at who he is, and ultimately we can't be certain as to who he is. The author is basically one of obscurity in this book, and I believe that is fitting because the book's focus is not the author. The book's focus is Jesus. Now we can say that about every book in the Bible, right? Every book in the Bible is about Jesus. But the book of Hebrews is perhaps the most Christological book in the entire New Testament. The book of Hebrews sets out with one primary and overarching theme, and that is showing the preeminence of Jesus. Simply put, Jesus is better and greater than everything. The author approaches this from a very Jewish perspective, as we've talked about. He shows Jesus to be better than the Jewish prophets and heroes of faith. He is better than the angels, and he is better than the old covenant system, including the priests and the sacrifices. Now I do think, as an aside, that a good understanding of the book of Leviticus will actually be helpful in the understanding of the book of Hebrews, as the author will speak a lot of the priesthood and the sacrificial system. Hopefully we will do a good job of giving you guys that understanding as we preach through this book, but I'd also encourage you to go read through Leviticus on your own time. For any of you reading through the Bible in a year, you're probably approaching Leviticus soon anyways. I know that's not everybody's favorite book to get to when you're reading through the Bible in a year. But I do believe it will be helpful as we go through Hebrews to some extent and give us even a better understanding of Hebrews. A good way to summarize the style of Hebrews was offered by Douglas Moo. Now Hebrews was not purely or is not purely written as a letter in a way that Paul wrote many of his epistles, right? I mean it began with a greeting and salutation and opening and it clearly stated who wrote the book and who it was to. No, Hebrews is written more like a sermon. In fact, it opens in such a way. But there is an intimate nature to the book as well, and the book does end with a postscript as a letter would. So Mu describes Hebrews, and I thought this was good, as a sermon put into a letter. And again, I think that describes it rather well, the style of the book. I would offer this overall outline for the book if you're note-takers. Chapter 1. Through chapter 4, verse 13, speaks of the superiority of Christ as the Son of God. Chapter 4, verse 14, through chapter 7, verse 28, speaks of the superiority of the priesthood of Christ. Chapters 8, verses 1 through 10, or excuse me, chapter 8, verse 1 through chapter 10, verse 18, speaks of how Christ is superior to the Old Covenant. And then chapter 10, verse 19 through the end of the book speaks of the superiority of the believer's faith in Christ through the New Covenant. There's several ways in which this book could be broken down in a sense, or at least the titles, but those breaks are, I believe, very good chapter breaks, and where most of these sections break off is we will go through the book. So I think that's a solid outline for us to keep in mind. Now, there are a few sub-themes. I mean, we've mentioned that, again, the theme itself is that Jesus Christ is better, right? Better than everything. But there are a couple of sub-themes, if you will, that underscore that primary theme. The first of these sub-themes is that of warning. There are five critical points of warning that the author writes in this book. The first warning is found in chapter 2, and it is a warning about disregarding the salvation of God, which has been preached to them, and the warning of drifting away, therefore. In chapter 3 through chapter 4, we will find a second warning. There, the author warns against not believing in the sufficiency of God. This combined with a third warning go hand-in-hand with the overarching theme of the book, which is again the preeminence of Jesus. If Jesus is superior to everything, then he is also all-sufficient, right? We find the third warning in chapter 5 through chapter 6, and this warning is a warning of apostasy, and more specifically, it is a warning to not discredit Jesus as the Son of God. Then the fourth warning is found in chapter 10, and there the author warns against despising the Spirit of God and His witness. And then finally, in chapter 12, the author issues that last warning, and it is to not disobey the summons of God or the call of God on the life of a believer, but instead to press on or persevere. A second sub-theme written in Hebrews is the eternal, complete, and permanent nature of salvation through Christ and the New Covenant as opposed to the works and the ceremony of the Old Covenant. We will find that throughout, really, in various places in this book. And then a third sub-theme is just that of exhortation. The reader will spend a lot of time in this book reading how the author is trying to stir the reader to action and greater faith. And this is due, again, in large part, obviously, to the threat of that drifting away from the faith by these Jews, right? So instead of drifting away, the author exhorts the reader here to push forward, to be one of action and of greater faith. So with that introduction in mind with Hebrews, we will kind of jump in a little bit. We're not going to go through a lot of the first chapter. We're going to just try to cover the first chapter, verses 1 and then the beginning of verse 2. And then we'll be done for this morning in our introduction to Hebrews. Beginning in verse 1, we read, 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. Okay, so with our introduction out of the way, I want to just dip into this book this morning for a minute and cover these first two verses, not quite even full the first two verses. So, as we see, the author opens the book and immediately he just jumps into deep waters. Like I said before, there is no greeting here, there's no statement of love, there's no prayer by the author where he identifies himself and states he's praying for them as, again, we see Paul often do. No, this is straight to the point. And the first point is really a major point that will impact not only the theme of the book, but also how we view the Word of God in general. Immediately, we need to recognize here that God speaks to His creation. He speaks to us and He has done so from long ago. Look, Yahweh is not as the deist believes. The deist believes in a God, but he believes that God just created things and that He stepped back and has little to no involvement in His creation. That is not Yahweh. That is just some fanciful attempt by men to be their own God, really. Now, the writer of Hebrews tells us that God has spoken to us from long ago. We're all familiar with 1 Timothy 3, verses 16-17. Paul writes to Timothy there, All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for the training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. All Scripture is theanoustos, God-breathed or inspired. So we have 66 books written by many different authors over thousands of years, and the main thing that they all have in common is that God breathed His words into them, and they wrote inspired by God. So in our passage this morning in Hebrews, God tells us how and when He spoke to us through inspiration. First, God spoke to us long ago. This spans back to the first book of the Bible, really the first five, as they all share the same human author. God first spoke to Moses with the purpose of him recording the Word of God. But God did not choose to have Moses begin the story of Scripture with his life, right? He didn't skip thousands of years to get just to Moses' life. No, God breathed into Moses the very story of creation. So Moses certainly wrote long ago, but he also wrote of things as long ago as time can go, right? Of course, Moses is not the only author long ago, right? No. Verse 1 goes on to tell us that God spoke at many times. This word, many times, could also be translated as many portions. So this could read, long ago and in many portions. The sense here is, in many periods of time, God has spoken, which are recorded in many portions or many books. The writer of Hebrews is speaking of the entire Old Testament here. As John Owen, he offers this explanation of this declaration here of in the past or long ago, he says, "...this word comprises the whole time from the giving of the first promise up to the end of all public revelation under the Old Testament." All 39 books then recorded over thousands of years there in the Old Testament. That is what the author here is speaking of when he says, and at many times." Not only did the author state here that God spoke at many times, though, or in many portions, but He also spoke in many ways. God did not reveal His Word to the one He inspired in the same way every time, basically, is what the author is saying. At times, God sent His Word directly to the author, as in the case of Moses. Sometimes He revealed His Word in a dream, as He did often with Daniel. Sometimes He revealed it in a vision, as He did with Jeremiah. Sometimes God's Word came in a parable or in a poem. Further, God chose to reveal His Word to the intended audience in many different ways. Oftentimes they would receive the Word in verbal sermon form. Sometimes they received His Word in an action sermon, as we see most often in the book of Ezekiel. Sometimes God revealed Himself in miracles, as He did with Elijah. So long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke. But who did God speak to, according to the author? Well, the writer says He spoke to our fathers. Who do we know received God's Word directly and had God's Word to study, teach, and live out? The nation of Israel, right? The writer here includes himself in this group of the sons of Scripture and declares that our fathers, the people of Israel, were spoken to by God long ago in many times and in many ways. And look, the writer concludes God's description of Old Testament revelation here by saying that this revelation was given by a specific group of people. He says it was given by the prophets. That's who spoke to the fathers many times in many ways long ago. Many of these prophets have books or portions of inspired word named after them. But it was through prophets, often called the man of God or men of God, who God spoke His Word to and then sent to the people of Israel to tell them the message that God gave. And let me say this as well. Prophets didn't choose to be prophets. They couldn't just call God up and tell Him, hey, I want to be your prophet. God chose His prophets. Before we leave the Old Testament, this portion concerning the revelation of the Old Testament, I think we must make note of two things concerning these prophets. First, if one was a prophet of God, they always and only spoke under the authority of God. They didn't have the authority in and of themselves. It was only in the message given to them by God. They had no authority beyond the exact message God gave them. That is why you so often see them begin a sermon or begin a message to the people with, thus says Yahweh, or declares Yahweh. The message was not theirs and they knew it. It was Yahweh's. And because of that, there's a second essential thing that we must remember concerning the prophets of the Old Testament and the Word of God. And it's that they had zero license or right to change the message given to them. Not one word. They had no authority to dream up their own words, or to add, or to take away from what God had given them. If God remained silent to them for years, the true prophet of God remained silent in his prophecy. This was so important as God revealed His word through the ages that He had Moses give this warning to any would-be prophet in Deuteronomy 18, verses 20-22. Moses writes this, he says, And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that Yahweh has not spoken? Basically, how should we know if this is a false prophet who's coming and not really speaking your word, Yahweh's word? Moses goes on and says, when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is the word that Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of them. Now look, in baseball, If you get a hit 3 out of 10 times, your batting average is 300. If you play long enough, there's a good chance you'll end up in the Hall of Fame based off your average and based off how well you hit. Now, imagine a hitter getting a hit 99 times out of 100 during the course of his career. Let me just go ahead and tell you this too, that's impossible, that can't happen, that's never happened, it never will happen. In fact, Ty Cobb owns the highest career batting average in Major League Baseball history and his final career average was .367. So the man with the highest batting average of all time in Major League Baseball didn't even get a hit four out of 10 times during his career when he went to bat. For those of you wondering, Ted Williams hit .344 and Babe Ruth hit .342. Those are incredible averages. They are considered some of the greatest of all time to play the game. So if someone got a hit 99 times out of 100 over the course of their career, their batting average would be 999, and they would be far and away the greatest baseball player to have ever played the game, no questions asked. Why do I tell you that? Because you know what a prophet in the Old Testament would be considered if he got 999 prophecies out of 1,000 right? Dead. You know why? Because God does not make errors, nor does He tell lies. When He spoke to a prophet in the Old Testament, the prophet remembered every word that he was required to remember. He didn't wake up in the middle of the night to write it down afraid he was going to miss something or forget something. He remembered every vision He was given with precise clarity. He might not have always completely understood what he saw or what he heard, but he completely and fully delivered the Word of God to the people as it was given. So the Old Testament is the complete revelation of God's Word to the fathers. Now hear me right now, hear me right. I didn't say a complete revelation period. I said complete revelation to the fathers. So everything God wanted to and chose to reveal to Israel prior to going silent after the book of Malachi, Israel got and we have today. Okay, so what happened after long ago? What happened after the Old Testament? Did God speak again after the close of the Old Testament and at the end of the prophets of old? Well, the writer tells us in verse 2 that He in fact did. In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. God once again tells us when and how God spoke after the conclusion of the Old Testament. First, he says that God has spoken in these last days. What are the last days? Well, the Jew would have understood what that term meant. We have explained, I think, here as well what that term is, so I hope we have an understanding of what the last days are. But just to be sure, we kind of give a description or definition. For the Jew who read this, they would have understood that term, last days, to be an expectation of new and final revelation of the will of God to be made by the Messiah. Oddly enough, the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 tells Jesus the same expectation. She says, I know that the Messiah is coming, but when that one comes, He will declare all things to us. That is the expectation, even though she was a Samaritan, that is the expectation also of the Jew. So the last days would have been a term they directly connected to the Messiah. But the Jews rejected their Messiah. And He has ascended to the right hand of the Father, waiting for the day when He will make His enemies a footstool. Or when His enemies will be made a footstool. And at that time, He will return, right? And so the last days, then, are the period of time we live in until the return of Jesus. However long that might be. Okay, so in the last days, God spoke to us. How? Through His Son. This is clearly speaking of Jesus. Jesus is the one and unique Son of God. What does the writer mean here, though? Has anyone here actually seen Jesus? Have we talked to Him face-to-face? Have we had that face-to-face conversation with Him? Is He still giving revelation to a select group of people? Well, to answer that, let us first look at John 1. If you want to turn there, you can. I'll read a couple of verses in John 1. In John 1, verse 1, John writes, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John, of course, writes of Jesus here, right, as the Word of God, who was God in the beginning. John continues on in chapter 1, verse 14, and he states, And the Word became flesh, and He dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. So Jesus, the Word of God, became flesh, became a human, and He dwelt among us, and He revealed His glory to us during His life, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. So the life of Jesus was a clear revelation that He was the only Son of God, and that He was full of grace and truth. What does John mean by grace and truth there? He tells us in verse 17, "'For the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So much like the writer of Hebrews who speaks of revelation long ago being the Old Testament, or through the Old Covenant, revelation through Jesus the Son is New Testament revelation. Jesus was the embodiment of truth during His life. Further, John states in one sentence what the writer of Hebrews will describe in a much deeper way throughout this book, that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. The old covenant was law, a law that could not be kept. That's what came through Moses. The new covenant through Jesus is salvation through mercy. Then John finishes his prologue there in chapter 1 in verse 18 by stating this, So no one has seen God. God is a spirit and cannot be seen by human eyes. But John states, Jesus, as the only God who is at the Father's side, He has made the Father known. As Paul writes in Colossians 1 verse 15, he, being Jesus, is the image of the invisible God. The life of Jesus then was the revealing or the explanation, the exposition of God. Jesus revealed God in His Word during His life in a way that no Old Testament prophet could. He spoke as God. Excuse me, I lost my place for a second. Jesus taught with the authority of God. His life, His death, and His resurrection, they were a picture of the perfection of God, the mercy of God, and the truth of God. It is through the life and teachings of Jesus that we understand the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus then tasked the apostles with the job of being His witnesses to Israel and then all of the world, right? They went forth and they taught what Jesus taught them. They witnessed the truth of His life, the truth of His death, and the truth of His resurrection. We have four Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus which were written either by an apostle or by someone who was close to an apostle. The remaining books of the New Testament were written in the same way, either by an apostle or someone very close to them in the first century. That is why we believe in a closed canon. No one else is qualified to be a direct witness to the life and teaching of Jesus. Any authority we have now can only come from what has already been revealed. Could Jesus still give revelation today? Of course He could. He can do anything He wants to within the confines of His nature, obviously. He could if He chose to, but He has not chosen to. For one reason, there's no need to. All we need for salvation and for an understanding of Scripture is already revealed to us. What more truth can some random person give to us today that has already not been revealed to us in the Scripture that we have? No one today sat at the feet of Jesus learning or watching His life. No one alive today is able to walk, live with, or speak directly to an apostle of Jesus who themselves walked, lived with, and spoke directly to Jesus, right? Not only that, but there is not a self-proclaimed prophet alive today who has never gotten a revelation, and I say a revelation in quotations, wrong. No one is batting a thousand today. They speak then presumptuously as Moses described a false prophet in Deuteronomy chapter 18. So we have no need to fear them or listen to them. In fact, we shouldn't fear them or listen to them. Lastly, the way the author puts this, There's finality in these words. The writer of Hebrews says God has spoken, right? Not God is speaking or God will speak, but God has spoken. Okay, so the writer of Hebrews has told us how God has spoken to us in times past and now through the greater revelation of and by Jesus. Jesus is the fullest, final, and ultimate revelation of who God is. Let me say this quickly, though. This passage is not saying that the Old Testament revelation that we have is irrelevant or wrong. It is still the God-breathed Word, right? It is still infallible, just as the New Testament is. But as Michael Kruger puts it, it is just incomplete, like a play without a final act. The final act we get in the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews here, he will go on in the next couple of verses to give credentials of the Son, so to speak, and then launch off further into the superiority of Christ. A study I am greatly looking forward to getting into. That will be for another week or another few weeks though. Let me conclude by just saying this. Much like the book of Romans, Hebrews is a very meaty and very rich book. It is easy and apparent to see the abundant love that the author of Hebrews has for Jesus as we read through this book. As Kruger again observes, the author thinks Jesus is amazing, magnificent, extraordinary, and wonderful. He is all in all. Look, this book oozes with the greatness and superiority of Jesus Christ. It serves as a doctrinal anchor for exactly how and why Jesus is better than everything else. That is a truth I think we all know, and we all profess. But I don't know that it's a truth we always hold in a dear way, the way we should. We probably go far too often between being truly gripped by the greatness and majesty of Jesus. And for some, while we might not be struggling with going back to the Mosaic Law, as we never were under that and that was never part of our culture or part of our old lives prior to conversion, We might be struggling with turning back to the life we had prior to Christ or some version of it. We might be struggling with love of the world as we once had. We might be asking, was life better then? This book is for us. This book is for all of us in some way. I hope that as we study through this great book, it will weakly renew our hearts to the wonders of our Savior. I hope that we truly see in each study that Jesus is better. He is better than everything. Stand with me.