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So our text this morning is going
to be Hebrews chapter 1, and we're going to be looking at
the first four verses. I will just say that it will
be a high-level look at these verses. There's a lot there. But as you are turning to Hebrews
chapter 1, let me just provide some quick observations to the
text. The first thing that we'll notice when we read the text
is that there's no greeting to this letter. The writer just
jumped right in, you know, long ago and at many times, you know,
so there's no greeting, very interesting. And then when you
think about that, the entire book of Hebrews, which I highly
recommend you take time to read, it reads more like a sermon than
it does a letter. But there's also one other observation
that I see here, and that is the beginning of Hebrews is a
lot like the beginning of Genesis. And that is, the writer does
not attempt to prove that God exists. He assumes, that's the
premise, that God exists, and here in Hebrews, he's not only
saying God exists, but that God has spoken. He has made Himself
known. And we know He's done that, not
just from Genesis or from Hebrews, but there's other texts, like
Romans chapter 1, in verse 19 to 20, where we read, "...for
what can be known about God is plain to them." God has shown
it to them, for His invisible attributes, namely His eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since
the creation of the world, in the things that have been made,
so they are without excuse. And if you remember when we worked
our way through the book of Colossians, we read this in chapter 1. 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, and He is before all things, and in Him all things
hold together." So God does exist and He has made Himself known. But here in these first four
verses of chapter one of Hebrews is a kind of a summary, but it's
still a description of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And I see that in five ways in
these verses. That Jesus is high and exalted,
He's lifted up. He's the second person of the
Trinity. He's the perfect sacrifice for sin, and His place is at
the right hand of the Father. And He is greater than the angels. So these four verses are just
rich with meaning and significance, and we're just going to scratch
the surface of that this morning. So with that said, let's read
the text, follow along as I read the first four verses of chapter
one. 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. So what we see in our first point,
which I'm going to work through pretty quickly because I want
to spend most of our time on our second point this morning.
But the first thing we see is that God has revealed himself
to mankind. And we see that in a few ways. The words that we see, long ago,
many times, in many ways, He has shown Himself to us. And
when I think of long ago, the first thing I think of is really,
ever since God created the world, He has been revealing Himself
to us. The whole of creation alone is
enough to show that God exists and He is reaching out. But it
also says He spoke to us many times. There's a lot of things
we can mention here, but let me just mention a few individuals
that were at different times that God has used. For example,
Adam. After Adam's sin, what did God
do? He came. And that's where we see the first
mention of the Gospel in Genesis 3, verse 15. God's sacrifice
to cover Adam and Eve. God spoke to Abraham. He established
His covenant with Abraham. And the Savior would come through
that Abraham line. He spoke to Jacob, and that's
where we see that Christ would come through the tribe of Judah.
He spoke to David, and we know that Christ is going to be of
the line in the household of David. He spoke through Micah,
where he told us that the Savior would be born in Bethlehem. He
spoke through Isaiah, showing that the Savior would be born
of the virgin, as we know, Mary, from the New Testament. So there
are many times that God has spoken and made himself known. But we
also see that he's made himself known in many different ways.
Now we have an advantage here in the 21st century, and have
had for many years, because we have the full counsel of God,
known as the Bible. And so we have the advantage
of seeing how the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation all
work together perfectly, and we see the harmony of the Scriptures.
And as a result of that, we see how God used various means of
Revelation. He would use angels. He would
use dreams, visions. There were times where he actually
used his very finger to write on a wall when King Belshazzar
was having a feast. He used prophets, as we see in
our text. He said, he spoke to our fathers
by the prophets. And I understand, by the title
of the book, we know that the writer is speaking to Jewish
Christians. So when he said, spoke to our
father, they immediately knew what he was talking about. That
is, the patriarchs. And so God has used all these
persons and ways to communicate to us. Let me try to illustrate
what I mean when I talk about the harmony of the scriptures.
Think about an orchestra. And the maestro that's standing
there in front of that entire group of musicians and he has
a score of music in front of him. And this score of music
is not something like what we see in our hymn book. This is
several lines of basically the same line repeated but with all
the different instruments. And so the maestro is having
to follow all that and direct that orchestra. And as he's directing
the orchestra, And they're following their maestro. That song that
they're playing is just beautiful. And it plays together and works
together. This is the harmony of the scriptures.
And this is what we have seen when God has revealed himself.
It's beautiful music, if you will. But it goes even beyond that. It says, the text tells us that
He has spoken to us by His Son. So we've seen how God spoke to
us in the Old Testament through many ways and many means. But now He is speaking to us
through His Son. This is very important because
Jesus When He was born and He lived on this earth, He fulfilled
all the Old Testament prophecies perfectly concerning Himself. There's not one that was left
not fulfilled or partially fulfilled. He's fulfilled them all. And
when we think of the prophecies that have yet to take place,
and I'm thinking of those end-time prophecies, those too will be
fulfilled perfectly. But it says He has spoken to
us through His Son in these last days. What are the last days?
We have been living in the last days for a little over 2,000
years. It's from the time when Christ
rose again and ascended into heaven that that began these
last days. And it's important to understand
these last days because what that is telling us is that Jesus
Christ is the final revelation. There is nothing more to be revealed. This is how we know we're in
these last days. Matthew Henry puts it this way,
quote, the times of the gospel are the last times. The gospel
revelation is the last we are to expect from God, unquote. So there's nothing more to add. We have the full revelation in
what we call the Bible. I want to circle back just a
little bit to the phrase, He has spoken to us. You know, spoken
means just exactly what it says. It's to talk. It's to utter words
or to preach. And this is hugely important
because, you know, we've heard the quote, preach the gospel
at all times, and if necessary, use words. Now, I understand
the premise of what the individual was saying, but I don't fully
agree with that, because at some point, the gospel has to be proclaimed,
and it has to be proclaimed with words. And you say, well, Bruce,
how do you know that? It's easy. Romans chapter 10
verse 14. Paul said this, How then will
they call on him in whom they have not believed? How are they
to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are
they to hear without someone preaching? So the gospel must
be proclaimed. Our deeds are not sufficient. Although we should hope that
our actions line up with our words. So when we think of Christ
being the final revelation, we need to communicate what Christ
has done for us, and that is shed his blood on the cross for
our sin. Now I know I went through that
part very rapidly, but let's turn our attention now to the
seven statements I want to focus on that describe or speak to
us about the glory of Jesus Christ. So if you look at verse 2, we
read, Jesus is heir of all things. So this raises a question for
us. How is Jesus the heir of all things? Because he created
everything. In John chapter 1 we read, all
things were made through him, meaning Jesus, and without him
was not anything made that was made. So let's go back to the
creation account again, because this is important. When God created
Adam, God gave Adam dominion over the earth. In Genesis 1.26
we're told, then God said, let us make man in our image after
our likeness. And let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and
over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so it's important
to understand this because Dominion speaks to rule. Adam was given
authority over God's creation. He was to care for the garden. He was to name the animals, name
the plants, and he did all these things. If there was something
he needed, all he had to do was ask. But there was a problem. There's a tree that God put in
the center of the garden, and He said, you can have access
to everything you want, but you can't eat of that tree. But they
did. And therefore, sin entered the
world, and what that did is it disrupted the whole thing. And
Adam no longer had dominion over the earth. Sin took that from
him. Fast forward now to Jesus Christ. When he was born of the Virgin
Mary, he came as a humble child, but he came also as the God-man. We call that the hypostatic union,
and if you've never heard that term, it simply means that it's
how it describes Jesus Christ, how God the Son, Jesus, took
on human nature and remained fully God at the same time. Jesus has always been God. We see that in John chapter 8
verse 58 and chapter 10 verse 30. But at the incarnation, Jesus
also became a human being as we see in John 1 14. And what
we also see with Christ's ministry is that he performed miracles
in every realm. For example, Jesus has full control
over the human body. We know that because he healed
the sick. He raised the dead. He has control
over nature. We know that because remember
the disciples? They're on a boat and the storm
is raging. They're scared to death. They're
going to die. And they wake Jesus up because,
well, he was at peace sleeping in the boat. What did Jesus do? Stood up. Peace, be still, and immediately
the lake was calm. Jesus has full control over food. Remember, He fed the 5,000 with
just five loaves and two fish. Even on another occasion, He
fed 4,000. The point in bringing all that
up is this, that Jesus recovered all that Adam lost. And therefore,
He is the heir to all things. The second thing I want us to
see is that Jesus created the world and all there is. We see
that also in verse 2. See, Jesus wasn't only present
at creation, he was an active participant. We saw that when
I read the Colossians 1 passage a few moments ago. In Genesis,
we read that God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis
1-1. In Genesis 1-2, it says the Spirit
of God was hovering over the face of the earth. And we read
in the Gospel of John, the first three verses, and the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
So we see the Trinity at work together in creation. And so Jesus was there. He was
creating. But what is really interesting,
at the end of verse 2, we see the word world. That word does
not mean cosmos. It's actually aeon. And what
it does is it speaks to ages and it's going beyond the creative
act of creating the world. And so trying to think how to
illustrate this, I want you to picture in your mind eternity
on a horizontal line. And I want you to picture this
pulpit as time. So you have eternity past to
the left, your left, and you have eternity future to the right. But we have this time, this period
of time is this pulpit. I don't know when time began
on the whole linear line of eternity, but at some point God spoke the
world into existence. But it's a parenthesis, there's
a beginning and there's an end. But the Trinity, God, He is outside
of time. He is inside of time. So God
knows the end from the beginning, as we read in Isaiah 46.10. And thinking about that, think
about an author who's a mystery author. When they're getting
ready to write a novel, that is going to be compelling and
captivating, they have to know a few things, right? They need
to know how that's going to begin, they need to know how it's going
to end, so they can fit the stuff in between. This is the power
of God, because He knows the end from the beginning. He has
a purpose for everything that He does. For example, God had a plan of
redemption before the foundations of the world. And so everything
that he has done has been to fulfill his plan of redemption
through Jesus Christ on the cross. It leads us to a third description
of the glory of Christ, that Jesus is the radiance of God's
glory, the exact imprint of God's nature, verse 3. Think of that
word radiance, reflected brightness or efflugence. I think about
our sun, S-U-N. We can't really know the full
glory of the sun because if we look at the sun straight on,
it's going to blind us, it's going to burn our retinas. We
can't look directly at it. And that is what God's glory
is like. If we were to be standing in front of God in our Flesh
as we have it, we would be killed immediately. We can't stand in
God's glory without the blood of Christ covering us. And Paul
tells us that God lives in unapproachable light. In 1 Timothy 6 we read,
He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings,
the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in
unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see,
to Him be honor and eternal dominion forever. But when we think of
Christ, Jesus is that manifestation of God's glory in the flesh.
where God's radiance is veiled because Christ is in the flesh.
Matthew Henry again, he describes that this way, quote, the person
of the Son is the true image and character of the person of
the Father. Being of the same nature, he
must bear the same image and likeness. In beholding the power,
wisdom, and goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold the power,
wisdom, and goodness of the Father. For he hath the nature and the
perfections of God in him, unquote. So, going back to the Son, S-U-N,
as we see the rays of the Son, we feel the heat of the Son,
and those things are communicating to us what the Son is like. Well, that is what Jesus is doing. He is revealing to us what God
the Father is like. But the text tells us that Jesus
is the exact imprint of the Father. That word exact imprint in the
Greek is where we get our English word character from. It's kind
of the idea of this impressed image from a steel engraving. He's the exact character of God
in the flesh. Christ is the revelation of God
because he is God. In John chapter 14, we read about
this interaction between Philip and Jesus. Philip said to Him,
Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said
to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not
know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen
the Father. And when we went through Colossians,
we see this in chapter 2. For in Him the whole fullness
of deity dwells bodily. The fourth description of the
glory of Christ is found also in verse 3, where it says, Jesus
holds creation together by the word of his power. The Greek
word that is translated word here is rhema. What it means
is utterance or an omnipotent command. So what we're being
told here is that Jesus spoke the world into existence. And vice versa, if he wanted
to, he could speak the world out of existence. His word is
powerful. And I've mentioned this before,
that it is a wonder to me that when Jesus Christ took his last
breath on the cross, it's a wonder to me this world didn't literally
explode and disintegrate. And so let me ask you, how powerful
do you think the Word of the Lord is? That the very Creator
could die on a cross and yet this world stayed together. Because
Jesus Christ holds it together by the Word of His power. 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. He is before
all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians chapter
1. The power of Jesus Christ is
unfathomable, and it is awesome. So much so that He could die
on the cross and creation is still held together. And Jesus continues to hold creation
together through the power of His Word. The next thing we see
describing the glory of Christ is also found in verse 3. Jesus
is the perfect purification for sin. Jesus is the perfect purification
once for all for sin. The best way to talk about this
is actually found in Hebrews chapter 10. You're welcome to
turn there and follow along. I'm not going to read all 18
verses. I would encourage you to read it later, but follow
along if you want as I read verses 1 through 4 and then we'll skip
down. Verse 1, for since the law has but a shadow of the good
things to come, instead of the true form of these realities,
it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered
every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would
they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having
once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness
of sins? But in these sacrifices there
is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Jump down to verse
11. And every priest stands daily
at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for
all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right
hand of God." We're going to end reading there. Again, I encourage
you to read the entire chapter, but it brings us to our very
next point and that is Jesus now sits at the right hand of
the majesty on high. We see that in verse 3. So after
Jesus accomplished the work of redemption on the cross, he ascended
back into glory And the text tells us that he sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high. He sat down. And what
that means, what that indicates, is that the work that he was
sent here to do has been finished. Redemption has been accomplished. It's complete. And so he sits
at the right hand of the Father, but he didn't sit down because
he was tired or that he needs rest. Not at all. In fact, He
continues to work and He's very much involved in our lives today. Because He intercedes for us. He intercedes for the saints.
Hebrews chapter 7 tells us in verse 25 that He is able to save
to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since
He always lives to make intercession for them. So He is working on
our behalf. What he's doing is what Chris
was talking about over these last couple of weeks. Sanctifying
us as Christians. He's preparing us for glory. So I ask you this morning, what
do you need? Everything we need is found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. So what do you need? Come to Christ. Find your rest
in Him. Then the seventh description
that describes the glory of Jesus is found in verse 4. Jesus is
superior to angels, and his name is more excellent than angels. We read about angels all throughout
scripture. They are God's ministering spirits. We see a lot of examples of angelic
ministry. They have been sent to announce
things. They have been sent to announce
judgment. They have been sent to protect. So it's clear that angels are
very important in God's order of things. However, Jesus is
superior to angels. How do we know this? Well, let
me just do a little compare and contrast. Angels are created
beings. Jesus Christ is not created.
He is eternal. Angels do what they are commanded
to do. It is Jesus who tells them what
to do. He is their commander. In fact,
scripture describes Jesus in this way, Lord Sabaoth, which
means he is the Lord of the angelic hosts, the hosts of heaven. Angels are not relatives of God. Jesus Christ is the very Son
of God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. Angels do not have an inheritance,
but as we've already talked about this morning, Christ is the heir
of all things. So as we conclude this morning,
I have a simple question. What is the implication of this? What is the implication of God
speaking and revealing Himself to us? And are we listening to
what He is saying? Again, Romans 1 tells us that
we are without excuse because God has shown us, He has provided
evidence of His existence through all of creation. To kind of illustrate
that, when Donna and I were up in New York visiting my sister
and dad and brother, one evening we sat down to watch a documentary
that my sister Brenda had watched before and she just thought it
was so neat and she wanted us to watch it, so we did. And this
documentary was about a year-long, give or take, interaction between
a certain man, a diver, and an octopus. I will tell you, it
was fascinating to watch this documentary. It really was. But
I remember when it was done, my response to that was actually
out loud. And I said, how can you say there
is no God? Because that octopus Just one
small piece of creation screams, God created me by the way that
octopus carried on. Sadly though, as most documentaries
on anything with nature goes, it has that evolutionary bent.
As Pastor Pat says on several occasions, you eat the meat and
discard the bones. So ignore the evolutionary part.
But it was fascinating to watch. that whole year-long event. So again, I say to you, God is
speaking. Are we listening to Him? See,
the real implication about God speaking and revealing Himself
to us is that there's only two responses that are possible to
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first response is
you respond by faith and you surrender and you give your life
to Christ as you believe on Him. As we see in Ephesians chapter
2, 8 and 9, for it is by faith we are saved. The other response
to the Gospel is a total rejection of the One who is speaking. And
so I ask you, how are you responding to the Gospel? Have you responded
by faith? Or have you responded by rejecting
the one who is speaking? And you may say, why is that
important? It's important because the consequences
of your response to the gospel are vastly different from one
to the other. If you respond to the gospel
by faith, you will enjoy eternal life. If you reject the one who
is speaking, All you have waiting for you is damnation and eternal
death in hell. There's no middle ground, folks.
There's no fence to sit on. It's one or the other. It's black
or white. And I say that strongly on purpose because Jesus Christ
one day is going to stand up in heaven. He's going to mount
a white horse and he is going to return to this earth. And he is not coming back as
a little baby humble in a stable. He is coming back as a conquering
king. He is coming back to judge the
earth and those upon it. And folks, you and I, every one
of us, I don't care if you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior
or not, you are going to stand before the very God of Heaven
and be judged. There are two judgments that
we read about. You have the judgment seat of Christ. That's where
Christians, believers, will go. And we will be judged by our
works, and they will pass through the fire, and those things that
are burned up, we will suffer loss, but those things that remain,
we will have reward in Heaven for. But then there's the Great
White Throne Judgment, where those who have rejected Jesus
Christ, who have rejected the gospel, they are going to stand
before the God of the heavens, and he is going to judge them
based on their sin. And the consequence and the justice
that is deserved for sin is death, hell, and destruction. Which judgment are you approaching? We don't know when our last days
are. We don't. We've heard of two people this
morning who are in very serious, life-threatening cancer battles. We gotta take this seriously,
people. Take it seriously. And no creature, in Hebrews chapter
4, no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked
and exposed to the eyes of Him whom we must give an account. Also in chapter 3 of Hebrews
we read these words, Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden
your heart. Also in chapter 3, but encourage
one another day after day as long as it is still called today
so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
So today, folks, is the day of salvation. Respond by faith if
you haven't already. Do not reject the one who is
speaking. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and be saved. Amen? Let's pray.
The Glory of Jesus Made Known
God has revealed Himself to mankind from the very beginning of creation. He has done so many times and in many ways. Most importantly, He has revealed Himself to us through the Glory of His Son Jesus Christ.
| Sermon ID | 727252239306547 |
| Duration | 34:22 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 1:1-4 |
| Language | English |
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