Good morning. Well, today we come to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews. So please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1. That's page 1001 of your pew Bible. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1. I've heard from many of you that you've been looking forward to this series in Hebrews, and I'm thankful for that. There certainly is something about the book of Hebrews. It's a captivating book. It's a beautiful book. It's an encouraging book. It's a well-structured book. And at times, it's a difficult book. I can remember when I was in college, and it was that part of the semester when students were preparing to select their classes for the next semester, and I remember word had gotten out. It was traveling around campus, did you hear, Dr. Bibza is teaching Hebrews next semester. And there was this kind of excitement amongst the students. And they would say to one another, oh, I got to get in there. Dr. Bibza is teaching Hebrews. I've got to make sure I get in that class. And it wasn't just because it was Dr. Bibza. In fact, most of you have no clue who Dr. Bibza is. It was because it was the book of Hebrews. There was an excitement, at least amongst the more ministerial-oriented students, there was an excitement about the book of Hebrews. There was a desire to dig into this book. As I remember, it was a packed class. It was every desk full, people sitting in the window wells, that sort of thing. Hebrews is an incredible book. The writing is superb. Those who know Greek far better than I do say that this writing is high-caliber writing, high-caliber Greek. And you can see some of it in our translation, even the English translation, the style, the words, the construction. I mean, even its rhetoric, its artful use of arguments and sub-arguments and proofs. And that's not to mention its contents, the stuff that's in this, the exaltedness of Christ, the magnificence of his priestly work, the encouragement again and again to faithfully pursue him. It's quite the book. In fact, I was half tempted the first week when I get up here to preach to actually not preach and just kind of read the book of Hebrews. Just open it up, 13 chapters, one long reading, hear it all in one shot. It wouldn't be so bad, would it? The pure, undiluted word of God. Maybe that's something you want to do this week. It is quite the book. But for all that, it's remarkable how much we don't know about the book of Hebrews. So for example, we don't know the audience. who it was written to. The author of Hebrews never specifies the audience. Now, this book has traditionally been referred to as the Letter to the Hebrews. That's been part of its name, part of its title, because it's fairly evident that the original audience consisted of Christians who were Jewish, Christians who were Hebrews, okay? And as we look at the contents of this letter, we'll see again and again that the author is seeking to encourage them to not go back to Judaism. And he's telling them about the superiority of Christianity over the Jewish faith, because they're Jewish by birth, or by original conviction, and they're tempted to go back. So they're probably Jewish Christians, but where? Where did the original recipients of this letter live? It seems that they were Hellenistic, which is just to say that they were Greek-speaking. And we say that because all of the Old Testament quotations are taken from the Septuagint, that's the the Greek translation of the Hebrew, so he didn't take them from the Hebrew itself. And so the recipients are likely Hellenistic, Greek-speaking, and that would rule out Jerusalem or Israel. It's probably not written to that region. Some have proposed that this was written to Alexandria in Egypt, the city of Alexandria, because there was a large population of Hellenistic Jews living there. But many commentators have settled on the city of Rome. In fact, at the end of the letter, the author writes, it depends on how you translate it, either of these two things. He either writes that those in Italy send you their greeting, in which case it seems that the author is in Italy sending greetings outside of Italy, outside of Rome, or it can be translated this way, and this is most often how it's translated. those who come from Italy send you their greetings. In other words, they're originally from Italy, and they are now sending their greetings back to Italy, back home, along with this letter going to Italy, going to the city of Rome. So it may be that the original audience was in Rome, but listen, we really don't know. We just don't know. And that's fine, because really, it helps us see that this is a universal letter. It's not just for some people in the distant past at some distant place. It's for all of us. It's for all Christians who would love to see more of Jesus Christ. We don't know the audience. There's more we don't know. We don't know the author. This book is anonymous. The author, perhaps because it was already known, perhaps it was out of a sense of modesty. But for whatever reason, he never states his name. He never says who he is. And so that's led to, of course, much speculation as to who is the author of the book of Hebrews. Traditionally, many thought that it was authored by Paul, by the apostle Paul. Early church history attests to that in different places. In fact, the early King James Version, the 1611 KJV, even referred to this as an epistle of Paul. So some have said, Paul, that's no longer the prevailing theory. One, there's the fact that Paul always includes his name in his letters. If you look at all his other letters, he states his name clearly, sometimes multiple times. And here he doesn't. The author doesn't. Two, the grammar and the syntax of this letter are far different than the grammar and the syntax of Paul's other letters, the letters that we know are Pauline. Now here, in some ways, we have to trust those who know Greek, but what they tell us is that the syntax, the writing, is different, and we can see some of it even in our translation. Three, and this one I think is pretty compelling, another third reason why it might not be Paul, In chapter two, the author says that our salvation was attested to us by those who heard. Our salvation, our faith, the fundamentals that we believe in, were attested to us by those who heard, which is an odd thing for Paul to say, since he was so insistent that he received his revelation directly from Jesus Christ. Not that it was attested to him by others, but that he received it directly from Jesus. And then four, The doctrines that are found in this book of Hebrews are virtually absent from those letters of Paul. You look at the other letters of Paul, and these doctrines come at you from different letters and overlap, and there's a lot of intermingling, but some of the major doctrines of the book of Hebrews, like the priesthood of Jesus Christ, you just do not find in the letters of Paul. So, who was it? Well, some have proposed Barnabas. He was a Levite, and so he would have had an intimate understanding of Levitical practices. And even though Quinn doesn't like that theory, there are some who believe it. Others have proposed Clement. Clement was kind of an early church father, and one of the reasons people propose Clement is because we do have a letter of his from the first century in which he quotes from Hebrews. And I think that's led some to say, well, maybe he wrote Hebrews. We could just say maybe he quotes from Hebrews. Some have said Priscilla. One of the top contenders is Apollos. You might know Apollos. Paul talks about how he watered, he planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth. There's that reference to Apollos. Remember Apollos at one point visits with Priscilla and Aquila and they have a good conversation with him. And Apollos, interestingly, in Acts chapter 18 is described as an eloquent man, an eloquent man, in other words, he speaks well, an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. If you know Hebrews, you know that's a good label for the author of Hebrews, competent in the Scriptures, who spoke fervently and boldly, and were also told that he loved to show from Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. He loved to show from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. Now on top of all that, Apollos was actually a Hellenistic Jew from Alexandria. So, I guess what we're saying is, if I had to put my money on someone, I might pick Apollos. However, I'm not a betting man. I'm not going to put my money on anybody. It is telling. It is telling that early church history, we have no record of any mention of Apollos as the author of Hebrews. It's an argument from silence, but it does seem like a pretty strong argument. So where does that put us? Well, in the end, we just don't know. We just don't know who is the author of Hebrews. One of the early church fathers, Origen, said this in AD 225. He said, who actually wrote the epistle? Only God knows. And that's true. Maybe it's best that we leave it there. Only God knows. And so, as I preach through the book of Hebrews, I will refer to the author of Hebrews as, get this, the author of Hebrews. And that'll save us some trouble. We don't know the audience, we don't know the author, so therefore we don't know the date, the date on which this letter was written. And I'm not gonna go into this one to great depth, but suffice it to say that I am convinced by the argument that because the author never makes mention of the destruction of the temple, and that's something that happened in the year AD 70, because he never mentions the destruction of the temple, and that would have been a significantly helpful thing for his argument. that the Old Covenant is passing away. Because he does not mention it, I believe it was written before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, perhaps in the mid-60s. Now, others argue a later date. That's fine. We know it really does need to be before the year 96, because that's when Clement wrote that letter in which he quotes from the book of Hebrews. It was already in existence. But listen, for all that we don't know about the book of Hebrews, we do know that it's a wonderful gift from God. It's given to us for our benefit. And so I'm excited to dive into this book in the months ahead. So let's do that now. That was a long introduction, just of the basics of the book. But let's begin to look at what serves here as the introduction of this book. It's verses one through four. I should mention this. My intention this week, as I sat down and studied this book, was for us to cover verses one through four this morning, but as I put my thoughts together and realized how much there was to say, I realized one through four was biting off more than we could chew. Maybe I could chew it, but I didn't want to make you chew it. So it's gonna come at you in two weeks. Today we're really gonna go through the first verse and a half. And next week I'll finish kind of this introductory section to the book of Hebrews. For this morning, I am going to read verses 1 through 4. Hebrews 1, starting in verse 1. 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. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, would you help us by your spirit through your word to see your son? Help us to see him. Help us to hear him. Lord, help us to do more than hear him. Help us to listen to him. Help me as I preach. Lord, would you sustain my tongue so that I speak that which is true and beneficial for these people? We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, perhaps it's a bit late now, but as you're preparing for Christmas, let me tell you that the Book of Hebrews would make a great addition to your Christmas decorations. Maybe print off a few copies of Hebrews and fold it into your garland and your mistletoe. It's a wonderful thing to decorate with because the overall message of the Book of Hebrews is remarkably parallel to the basic message of Christmas. All right, what's the basic message of Christmas? Well, it's basically this. God has given us Jesus. This Jesus is the supreme son of God. Therefore, we must remain dedicatedly faithful to him. Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Come, let us adore him. That's the message of Christmas. And that is the main message of Hebrews. Jesus is here. He's superior. Therefore, remain faithful. Adore him. The author is earnestly concerned that the Hebrews might not remain faithful to Jesus Christ, that they might give up under persecution or try to revert to their old Judaism and his single main argument for why they should remain faithful. If I had to whittle it down to one thing, it would be this. You should remain faithful because Jesus is superior. He's the best. Remain faithful to the superior one. In fact, that's perhaps why there's no traditional greeting at the beginning of this letter. Did you notice that? In most letters, you've seen enough of the epistles in the New Testament, you'll see this in Paul, you'll see this in Peter, you'll see this in James. In most letters from this time period, the letter would start with a greeting, a salutation. It would include the name of the author and the name of his recipients, but not here, why? Well, it's almost as if his message is so important that he wants to just get right down to business. The greeting stuff actually kind of occurs at the end in chapter 13. But for now, what he's got to say is important. And so he gets right down to business. He wants to focus their immediate attention on the superiority of Jesus Christ. It's so important, so urgent, so exciting that he's willing to skip the pleasantries to talk about it. It's like two guys, they're good friends, they're good buddies, maybe they even grew up together, who love the same sports team. They're both fans of, name your sports team. And they know the stats, they know the players, they know the team manager, they watch every single game. Now imagine these two buddies have not seen each other for a while, and when they finally get together, when they finally meet up, There's none of this, you know, like, hey man, how's it going? How's the family? Like, whatever it is that guys do when they greet each other. There's none of that. They get, it's immediately, the first words out of their mouths are, did you see that game? Right? It's as if, as if they get right down to business, they dispense with the greeting because there's something else more important. Let's talk about our team. That's what happens here. He gets right down to the superiority of Jesus Christ. Even the social conventions of the day get swept aside because we need to talk about Jesus. Brothers and sisters, we need to talk about Jesus. We need to hear this. The Hebrews, they needed to hear this. They were tempted to go after their old lifestyle. They were tempted to return to Judaism with its rituals and its practices, the warm community that they grew up in. They were tempted to go back to that, and so are we. We are tempted to go to the things that are less than Christ, things that are associated with our pre-Christian days, flirting with sin, flirting with the world, wanting to go back to it. And we need someone to dispense with the pleasantries and tell us to wake up. Wake up! What are you doing? See the greater superiority of Jesus Christ. That's the book of Hebrews. Scattered throughout this book are at least seven exhortations to remain faithful, to press on, to persevere. Jesus is superior, so don't settle for anything less. In fact, let me just say something about the structure of this book. So this book alternates between doctrine and exhortation, alternating back and forth. It continually goes back and forth. He'll make a doctrinal theological point, and then he'll exhort the Hebrews, and he'll go back and forth. Now, what you'll see is that the exhortations are very similar, very repetitive, but that the doctrinal sections build. They are progressive. So while the doctrinal argument is developing and growing and advancing throughout the book of Hebrews, the exhortations are always, in essence, the same. Remain faithful. Press on. Don't give up. Jesus is better. Now this introduction, verses one through four, can be divided kind of in half into two parts, and you'll actually see how closely it matches with the message of Christmas. First, God has definitively spoken through Jesus. That's the part we're gonna look at this week, that God has definitively spoken through Jesus. And then second, that this Jesus is supreme. That's what we're going to look at next week. And so, for this week, this is kind of like point one in your outline, but point two doesn't come until next week, point one, God has definitively spoken through Jesus. God has definitively spoken through Jesus. If you're sitting there and you're wondering, what's so great about this Jesus? Pastor up there, he keeps talking about how great Jesus is. What's so wonderful about this Jesus? If you're looking for a reason to listen to Jesus, please understand that this Jesus is the final definitive word from God. That sounds pretty huge. The final definitive word from God. Look at verses one and two. It says, long ago, At many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. That, by the way, in itself, is amazing. We could just stop right there. God spoke. God spoke. He didn't have to. He didn't have to speak to us. He could have left us in the dark, no words from God. There's nothing written into his contract that says he must communicate with mankind. There's nothing that makes it imperative for him to speak to us. And yet, for some reason, he did. He spoke to us. He could have left us in the dark. We could have been without a special word from God. And listen, dark it would have been. dark it would have been if God had not spoken. Our situation would have been dark. It would have been desperate. It would have been despairing. I mean, yes, there would have been the general revelation of God. We would have seen his fingerprints on creation. The heavens would have continued to declare the glory of God. His eternal power and his divine nature would have been clearly known. But we would have lacked any knowledge of how to be made right with this God, how to be saved. We would have lacked special revelation. But instead, God spoke. He spoke. But then it gets even better. Look at verse 2. It says, But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. He's spoken to us by his son. Now, we're going to have to wait until next week to study the incredible description of this son that follows. I read it before, and you got a taste of it. He's the heir of all things, the creator of the world, the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of God's nature, and on it goes. Consider this to be like a Christmas present that I've put under the Christmas tree. You've got some sense of what it is, but next week, we're going to unwrap that Christmas present. But for now, understand that this incredible Jesus is the definitive, final revelation from God. There's an amazing amount of parallelism between verse one and the first half of verse two. In fact, we could kind of put them side by side, and if we did that, we'd get a nice little chart, a nice little diagram. When I was a teacher, we'd call it a T-chart. I'd draw a big T. on the board, and over here we'd put verse 1, and over here we'd put verse 2, and then underneath we're going to compare and contrast using this chart. What's similar? What's different between verse 1 and verse 2? Well, you can see some of that right here. Look at the comparison of verse 1 and verse 2. They both say, what happened? Verse 1, God spoke. Verse 2, God has spoken. They both talk about when, right? Verse 1 says, long ago. Verse 2 says, in these last days, right? So it's a comparison of long ago to in these last days. Now that phrase, last days. That was a phrase used by the prophets in the Old Testament to point to that day of new covenant fulfillment, things that would happen in the future in the last days. The last days started with the fulfillment of the things that were predicted. It starts with Jesus Christ. So the last days starts with Jesus Christ and it will continue until he returns, which means, you're following me here, aren't you, that we are now in the last days. So it's saying that yes, Yes, God spoke long ago, but he's also spoken to us in these last days. He's spoken to us now. It's not just archaic and old. It's not just something dusty from the past. He's speaking to us now. As we continue our chart, both verses also have a recipient. In verse one, God spoke, it says, to our fathers, that is to the ancestors of the Hebrew people. Think of everyone from Abraham, Jacob, Isaac on through. In verse two, it says God spoke to us. This is something that we have experienced. Both verses have an agent, an agent. In the past, it says, God spoke by the prophets. But in these last days, how has he spoken? You see it there in the text. In these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. I mean, think about that. You may have thought it was pretty amazing when God gave his word through prophets, but now he has given us his word through his son. The very son of God was sent with a message for us. You know, before, the message came through humans. Now it comes directly from God himself. To use a more contemporary analogy, between the old way and the new way, we know the difference between receiving communication through some other medium, like a telephone or a Zoom call, and receiving a communication in a face-to-face conversation. In the past, he spoke to us in that way, through a messenger, through a medium. Now he speaks to us face-to-face, he speaks to us directly. And so we would do well to pay attention to this one who has come to speak to us directly. Do you remember the words of God at the scene of the transfiguration? You remember that scene? There's Peter, James, and John. They go with Jesus up on the mountain. Jesus begins to glow with His glory. He's talking with Moses and with Abraham. And then suddenly there's a voice from heaven. It's the voice of God the Father. And what does He say coming down from heaven? He says, this is my Son. Listen to Him. This is a direct revelation of God. Listen to Him. He brings the definitive Word of God. Now let's be careful here. That's not to say that all the previous revelations were lesser. that the stuff of the Old Testament is less true, it's more primitive, and that we should be people of the New Testament, not people of the Old Testament. As one pastor down in Atlanta, actually I don't know if he deserves the title pastor, one heretic down in Atlanta has said, he has said, let's unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. Let's get rid of that Old Testament. We don't need that thing anymore, which of course is hogwash. It's ridiculous that we would throw out the Old Testament. I mean, after all, are we pretending that that's from some other God? And now we've got the revelation from the God? No, that's the revelation that comes from the very same God, the God who does not change, the God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So his revelation then, we ought to take alongside his revelation now, right? what does 1 Timothy say? It says that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful. But it is to say that this revelation, this revelation in Christ, is more full, more complete. God's revelation has been given progressively. It wasn't all thrown at us at once. It was like an opening crescendo. We're given more and more of God's revelation. And so now in Jesus Christ, what it's saying is we've come to the end of the crescendo. We now have the fullest revelation. There were things that Old Testament prophets, they just didn't get. In fact, we're told that they longed to see these things that we have now seen. But now, in Christ, we see the fulfillment of those promises. We see the substance of what was once shadow. And so in Christ, everything becomes yes and amen. The New Testament is the same substance as the Old Testament, it's just that we now have more of it. We bite off a bigger chunk of it. Brothers and sisters, how blessed we are to live in these last days. How blessed to be able to see with crystal clarity what was once shadowy and foggy and obscure. How blessed to, with unveiled eyes, behold this Jesus Christ and to listen to Him. To listen to Him. Oh, that we would do that. Now, as we've held verse one and verse two up in parallel, as we've kind of put together this T chart, comparing and contrasting, you may have noticed that there's one element that's in verse one. that is not paralleled in verse two. It has to do with the manner in which God spoke. So notice verse one, it says, long ago, God spoke at many times and in many ways. And by the way, in the Greek, it's actually very beautiful. It's alliterative. So it reads, polymeros kai polytropos pilai. And it goes on from there. It's a beautiful start. In fact, he front loads that at the beginning of the sentence, which is not in our English. And so it actually starts with, at many times and in many ways, God spoke. I like how the old King James translated this. It said, at sundry times and in diverse manners. sundry times and in diverse manners. That's how God spoke in the past. But I want you to notice that when you get to verse 2, there is no parallel statement. So verse 1, in the past God spoke by the prophets at many times and in many ways. Verse 2, in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, period. nothing about the manner in which he spoke. Now, why is that? Why is there no parallel? Well, I believe it's because we are meant to see the finality and the singularity of the revelation of Jesus Christ. the finality and the singularity of his revelation. His is not just another revelation among many. His is not the first of more to come. No, in these last days, God has spoken at one time and in one way, and that's through Jesus Christ. And really, what is all of the Old Testament? Take your 27 books of the New Testament. What are they? They are the recording of this new revelation in Jesus Christ. I mean, think about it. The Old Testament, many times and in many ways. Many times, you look at it, you've got this revelation of the Old Testament that's stretched over, you understand, over millennia. You go from the days of Adam and however you want to date that, perhaps 4000 BC or wherever you're going to put that. The days of Adam and you trek through and you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and you see the judges and you see the kings and you go on through the prophets all the way until you get to the very last prophet before Jesus Christ, which is John the Baptist in 30 AD. 4000 BC to 30 AD, God spoke at many times. And God spoke in many ways. He spoke to Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. He spoke to Abraham with visions and visitations, angelic visitors. He spoke to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend. He spoke to Elijah with a still, small voice. He inspired the prophets in diverse manners. They wrote poems and proverbs. They wrote songs and psalms, histories and prophecies, words of command, words of comfort, words of rebuke. They wrote genealogies and stories and laws and love letters. Do you see what I'm saying? It was given at many times and in many ways, but Jesus Christ It was the revelation found in one man at one point in history. His was a revelation that was final and singular and complete. In him is the fullness of revelation. In him is the final word of God. Why? Because he himself is the word of God. We read it together earlier from John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is the Word of God and so he is the final revelation of the Word of God. Now if we had time... We could go on and we could look at the rest of verses one through four, and those verses offer further reasons for why the revelation of Jesus Christ is so ultimate, so supreme, so definitive. That's a present that's under the tree, and we will unwrap that next week. But for now, let's just press into the fact that God has spoken. In fact, verses one through four in the original Greek are all one sentence. That's one sentence going from verses one through, verse one through verse four. It all runs together, no punctuation, no end point punctuation, no periods. And do you know what is the main clause? Sorry if, students, this is too hard for you as we approach Christmas, but the main clause, the main subject and verb of those four verses, it's there in verse two. He has spoken. Main subject and verb. He has spoken. God has spoken by his son. Well, what point does the author most want to press home at the beginning of this letter to the Hebrews? What point does he really want to make sure that they hear? It's that God has spoken to us through his son. And so what will you do? Will you chase after other revelations, revelations that are more comfortable, revelations that are more affirming? They're out there, you know. They want to tell you that you're OK in your sin, that you don't need Jesus, that the Bible, rather than being the definitive revelation from God, is rather old and dusty and mired in culturally-bound practices and archaic moral codes. It's old-fashioned. Those revelations are out there. They'll give you those revelations. Or maybe you're looking for further revelation from God. You're waiting for Him to speak to you in signs and visions and prophecies, but all the while ignoring His Word that is right in front of you, a Word that is full and final and comprehensive. Listen, forget those other so-called revelations and listen to His Word. Listen to His beloved Son. You know, at Christmas we We think of that baby lying in the manger. Of course, he's a baby, so he doesn't speak. We even have that song that we sing about how no crying he makes. I'm not sure that's exactly true. He's a baby, he doesn't speak, but let me tell you, he speaks. Oh, he speaks just in the very fact of his incarnation. He speaks by his very coming into this world. He speaks a grand fulfillment of all of the former revelation of God. He speaks, but then We watch him as he grows into a man. Boy, does he speak. He speaks and crowds are amazed. They don't understand who this is. How does he speak as one having authority? He speaks and religious hypocrisy is exposed and the Pharisees can only stutter in response to him. He speaks And Old Testament shadows that were so obscure and fuzzy are suddenly made clear. He speaks, and those who oppose him are angered and bitter, and they rail against him. But he speaks, and his children, they come to him. Sinners are humbled into repentance. The lonely find loving acceptance, and the downcast finds great joy. He speaks, and things happen. It's not just the red letters of the Bible. It's not just that stuff from His ministry in which He speaks. We can see Jesus in all of His Word. All of His Word points to Him. All of it is a message to you. He is speaking, He is speaking, He is speaking. Will you listen? 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. Let's listen. Let's close in prayer. Oh Lord, we want to be those who listen. When we're in our sober frame of mind, when we're horrified by our deafness to you by the ways in which we push you away, we drown you out with all the other voices and all the other noises. Lord, would you send your spirit to open our deaf ears? Give us ears that will listen. Lord, would we see Jesus as superior? Would we value him above all else? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.