Hebrews 1 The Supremacy of Jesus Christ // INTRO When it comes to the book of Hebrews, most of the churches in the eastern part of the Roman Empire believed that it was Paul who authored the book, and this was what led to its early acceptance into the Canon by the churches in those areas And even though Clement of Rome drew much from Hebrews in his late-first-century letter to the Corinthian church (which is not in the Canon of Scripture), many in the Western church pointed away from Paul as the source of the book Candidates such as Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, and even Clement of Rome have been considered as possibilities But, the unknown authorship of this book should not shake our confidence in its authority Hebrews makes very important theological contributions to the biblical Canon,and it has been drawn upon as sacred Scripture since the late first century So Christians for over two millennia have consistently upheld the divine inspiration and, therefore, the canonicity of the book of Hebrews All that to say, Hebrews is legit! What we know for sure is that the human author of Hebrews remains unnamed And he starts with a powerful declaration of the preeminence of Jesus, which means that He is superior to all others, bar none I did say HE because while women are included in the texts of Scripture, there have been NO female authors of Scripture I only add that because we live in a revisionist climate in these days We know that Jesus has superiority over all things, and that this extends to the angelic realm They are lesser beings than God, having been made by God And it is important to be clear that the Son of God is unique, and not an angel He is not a created being, but is uncreated, and has always been, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit And He upholds the universe by the Word of His power This literally means that He spoke, and all existence came into being In the past God spoke through prophets But now, He speaks by His one and only Son, who is The Word in flesh He is the express image of God’s personage He is better than angels He has purged us of our sins And He sits at the right hand in majesty There are cross references aplenty, but let me just give you 2 for the moment! Psalm 2 and 2 Sam 7:14 emphasize the Sonship of Christ We are told that He is worshipped by angels, which naturally means that He is greater than they are His throne is an everlasting throne The universe will perish, but the Son remains forever The book of Hebrews was likely written around AD 64–69 It is highly significant that the book makes no reference to the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in AD 70, and the author wrote as if the sacrificial system were still in existence With its many references to Hebrew customs and the Old Testament, it was likely sent to a Jewish Christian community, possibly in Rome Hebrews is important because it clearly lays out the present priestly ministry of Christ in the life of the believer Jesus is both the divine Son of God and Himself completely human, and in His priestly role He clears the way for human beings to approach the Father in heaven through prayer (as we’ll see in Ch 4) This message of the superiority of Jesus would have been particularly important to Jewish Christians in Rome, because they were struggling under Nero’s persecution and were considering going back toward the Mosaic Law The writer to the Hebrews showed these Jewish-Christian believers that even though they were faced with suffering, they were indeed following a better way And it was this message that gave them hope and courage to persevere // TEXT & EXPOSITION [1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, In the Jewish tradition, a prophet is a man or a woman whom God has entrusted with a message Adam, Seth, Mahalalel, and on and on…down through time And in those days, in that time, God has face-to-face conversations with people And many of the forefathers had encounters with Him, at various times and places But the written Word was not complete for humanity to have But these men and women of old told their stories of encountering God, and those were were passed down Not at all like the telephone game They saw Him and spoke with Him I assure you, if you meet the Lord, you will know it and not forget it A prophet in the Old Testament was someone who was used by God to communicate His message to the world accurately There were some like Jeremiah, who tried to keep silent but found he could not (Jeremiah 20:9) There were those, like Jonah, who tried to avoid their responsibilities and were corrected by the Lord (Jonah 1:3–4) And still, there were others, like the unnamed prophet from Judah who directly disobeyed the divine command, and lost his life (1 Kings 13) Prophets were also called “seers” because they could “see,” spiritually speaking But it was always God who gave them insight There are even some some anonymous prophets in the Old Testament, such as the unnamed prophet in Judges 6:7–10 But the primary function of the Prophets was that they were to remind God’s people that there are positive commandments we are supposed to do and (and sometimes neglecting) And also, they were to remind God’s people that there are negative commandments concerning what we are NOT supposed to do that we have been ignoring The job of the prophet was to rebuke the people, awaken the conscience, and get God’s people back on the right path The Lord did not search out the most eloquent and stately men, but those who were ordinary, but who loved God and His ways From a Jewish perspective, it is even more amazing that God would choose fallible, sinful humans to do this work at all He did use angels from time to time, but it was very jarring to see an angel (much less a legion of them) [2] 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. So why the change? God has always had a timetable, and as time ticks on, His plan comes to fruition There is an ascension, if you will In the Garden, Man was close to God until the Fall Before that Adam and Eve were friends of God and experienced innocence, until the time that they took the Forbidden Fruit and were estranged from Him, and the relationship sundered But even then, God had a plan to bring us back into relationship with That plan involved the Prophets of old, to whom God would give His Word God is our King, and when a King wants to send a message in days of old, he would send a Messenger He has used angels, and occasionally animals, but mostly people to get His message to others And someone right now might be rightfully asking in their heart, “Well, what is that message?” I think we can succinctly answer that question with 3 statements: Jesus created the world Jesus is the Son Jesus is the rightful Heir of all things And we’ll be unpacking this more as we go through Hebrews [3] 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, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So Jesus is the exact imprint of God the Father’s nature The Trinity never bickers or disagrees, but is always unified 100% of the time Not only so, but consider that Jesus, the Son upholds the universe with the WORD of His power In other words, He says it, and it is DONE! 100% And Jesus is the One who was able to make purification for sins The Jewish nation, God’s chosen people, had to constantly make sacrifices because of sin having entered the world and touching everything, and sinning No human born of Adam and Eve could correct this situation That’s why it took a Person who was born of human woman AND whose Father is God Himself Only Jesus could accomplish the work that needed to be done [5] For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? V5 is a rhetorical questions meant to defeat any notion that the Son has been created or made The 3rd Person of the Trinity not made - He is begotten! The phrase “only begotten Son” occurs in John 3:16, which reads: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The phrase "only begotten" translates the Greek word “monogenes” (mono-gehn-EES) This word is variously translated into English as "only," "one and only,"or "only begotten" Now, false teachers have latched onto this phrase to try to prove their false teachings that Jesus Christ isn’t God They say that Jesus isn’t equal in essence to God, as the Second Person of the Trinity They see the word "begotten" and immediately say that Jesus is just a created being And their reasoning is that only someone who had a beginning in time can be "begotten” And in our limited experience on earth as humans, that’s generally the case, but it is not the case with Jesus When you start to deep-dive on this word, MONOGENES, the first definition is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship" We have an example of this in Hebrews 11:17 when the writer refers to Isaac as Abraham’s "only begotten son" (which is how it’s worded in the KJV) Abraham had more than one son, but Isaac was the one and only son he had by Sarah, and the was the only son of the covenant Therefore, it is the uniqueness of Isaac among the other sons that allows for the use of monogenes in this context It can also mean "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind." This is the meaning that is implied in John 3:16 John was primarily concerned with demonstrating that Jesus is the Son of God, and he uses monogenes to highlight Jesus as uniquely God’s Son, because He shared the same divine nature as God This is different from Believers who are God’s sons and daughters by adoption Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son! “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.” Ephesians 1:5 The bottom line is that terms such as "Father" and "Son," which are descriptive of God and Jesus, are human terms that help us understand the relationship between the different Persons of the Trinity If you can understand the relationship between a human father and a human son, then you can understand, in part, the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit But be careful! The analogy breaks down if you try to take it too far and teach, as some pseudo-Christian cults do (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses), that Jesus was literally "begotten" as in “produced” or “created” by God the Father That would be, what we would call heresy! [6] And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” [7] Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” [8] But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. [9] You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” Here is a contrast to show the difference! Jesus is the Firstborn - not begotten Angels worship him, therefore He cannot be merely a Man And Jesus is not merely human He is both the biological offspring of Mary, and He is the eternal Son of God It’s not an “either/or”situation, but it is a “both/and’ And this is unique to Christianity But go back and look again He is worshipped by angels He has an eternal throne His ministers - those who He sends out to do His bidding - are flames of fire and His angels winds In other words, there are things you cannot touch or hold or grip or grab, which is NOT to say that they aren’t real But it is to say that they are ministering Spirits John 1 claims that he was the eternal Word, God himself, who created everything that exists, became flesh and dwelt among us Philippians 2:6 makes it clear that He is God, and that he set aside the use of some of his attributes to take on the form of the human, and to die for the sins of the world Praise be to God!! Titus 2:13 equates Jesus with God Romans 9:5 describes him as God, who is blessed forever, Amen! And Revelation 5:13 - 14 portrays Christ as deity These are just a few of the New Testament passages that anyone can look up in the Bible! [10] And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; [11] they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, [12] like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” The Lord God simply spoke, and the Cosmos came into being in a moment Jesus was there BEFORE “In the beginning”, and He will be there when the earth experiences it’s heat death along with all that has been made And only those who are IN Christ will be with Him [13] And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? [14] Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Angels are His ministers, and they do God’s bidding without hesitation No angel has ever been invited to sit at God’s right hand in glory - only the Son Psalm 91:11 - For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 103:20–21 - Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! // APPLICATION The ancients created idols fashioned of wood and stone Modern society has set aside that type of idol in favor of new idols—idols of fancy gadgets, material wealth, a comfortable lifestyle We even worship other people made in God’s Image and likeness, despite God’s express prohibition Human beings have seen and experienced almost limitless idolatry We seem determined place some created object or person in the place of the one true God So as I close this morning, I want to ask you just one question that I hope you will take into your week, and consider it… What idols do you hold dear in your life? The letter to the Hebrews makes clear that only one Person deserves to hold the primary place of worship in our lives While we are busy idolizing our move up the corporate ladder or placing all our hopes in our kids, Jesus offers us a better position, a better priest, a better covenant, a better hope, and a better sacrifice than we could ever make for ourselves Only when we give Jesus His rightful place in our lives will everything else in life fall into its rightful place. Let’s pray! // PRAY // SING // GO I sent this in the all-church email this week, but I want to remind us once more about what’s coming up very soon as we get ready for Easter/Resurrection Sunday! I want to challenge us all to remember the joy of the Lord in His conquering Death! And maybe you know of a family member who is just existing in a marriage that has gone bad? Or a neighbor that is complaining about how much stress he or she is under? Maybe it’s a stay-at home mom that is struggling to find any life outside of being surrounded by children? We all know people and situations like these, but I want to challenge you… Resurrection Sunday/Easter is one of those days in our year when people are more open to coming to church So with that in mind, I want to challenge you right now to think about your ONE Pick ONE person and start praying for them today, if you aren’t already Then I want you to pick the phone, or walk over and knock on their door, and invite them to join you on Sunday, April 20 Ask them to come to Emmaus Road with you on Resurrection Sunday! Invite. Pray. Repeat. Find your ONE! Emmaus Road, YOU ARE SENT!!