[0:00] I've given you the background of Hebrews and the author, we don't know, the recipients, Hebrews, the dates, 64 to 67 AD.
[0:18] Thank you. Talked about the themes, the purpose of the book and everything, so now we're actually going to get into the book. And notice behind me it says Hebrews the better way, and we're going to talk about Christ is superior to start off with.
[0:35] So that's where we're going to go today. So let's have a word of prayer before we begin. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your grace. Lord, I thank you for your work in our lives.
[0:49] Lord, I thank you for your watch care over us, Lord, and just so many different things that you do for us. Lord, I pray that you would just help us today as we look into your word, help us to learn, help us to grow.
[1:04] Lord, I pray for Casson's parents while they're taking Lucas down to West Point. Lord, I pray that you just watch over them, take care of them, and Lord, have your hand of protection upon them on their way home.
[1:17] Lord, just thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. Christ is superior in his majesty as the Son of God.
[1:29] Christ is superior in his majesty as the Son of God. So what's the purpose of Hebrews? The purpose of Hebrews is to demonstrate that Christ and the New Testament truths that have been taught are superior to everything else.
[1:45] They stand above. They are above the Old Testament, the Jewish beliefs and things. And it's all presented, notice, in the opening, yeah, let's try that again.
[1:56] The opening verse. Look with me at verse 1. We'll read down through verse 3. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
[2:31] Let's stop right there. The Hebrew faith had been written down as law by Moses when he wrote those first five books of the Old Testament.
[2:47] But now, the writer of Hebrews, whoever that may be, Paul or whoever, is going to show that Christ is superior to what was there.
[2:58] He is superior to angels. He's superior to prophets. He's superior to Moses. He's superior. And he's going to show that all throughout everything that we look at. So this morning, I want us to start with the expression of the sonship of Christ.
[3:14] The expression of the sonship. He's going to tell us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And we look at that in those verses we just read and see who Jesus is.
[3:27] You know one of the great things about the book of Hebrews? Is that God is giving us exactly what we need to show who Jesus is and to encourage those people the book is written to that Jesus is above everything else, including the law of Moses.
[3:48] You know, there was a pioneer missionary who was writing down his thoughts one day. And a little boy from the village came over and was watching what he was doing.
[4:02] And so the missionary is writing away and the boy is watching. And finally, the little boy just couldn't take any longer. He's like, what are you doing? And the missionary explained to him that he was putting his thoughts down on paper.
[4:15] Ah, the boy said, you're putting your thoughts in prison. The missionary replied, no, I'm setting my thoughts free. You know, we write those words down and put them on paper.
[4:28] He says, I'm letting those thoughts go free. And that's exactly what is happening here. The thoughts that God had, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So the thoughts that God had are now going out to people around him.
[4:43] And he's setting those thoughts free so that they can learn from it. First thing he does here, he's going to, I use the word expounds. Actually, it's not my word. I used it, J.B. Phillips commentary.
[4:54] That's the word he uses. He expounds the mind of God. He expounds the mind of God. He's showing what God's mind is like and what God's mind is doing.
[5:05] He's telling us exactly what God did when Jesus came. See, all throughout the Old Testament, what are they doing? They're trying to teach us that God was going to send the Messiah.
[5:19] And as God sent the Messiah, he's communicating to us by Jesus, just as he communicated to us before that. All throughout the Old Testament, he used men like Jonah and Jeremiah, Daniel, different ones, Moses.
[5:35] And he gave us things that he wanted us to know. But there was more to be said. And now he can fully express what he wants to express.
[5:48] He can express his heart and his mind to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to show us who God was. Notice he says there in that first verse, God, who his sundry times and a divest manner spake in time past unto the Father by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.
[6:10] Jesus Christ is the one who came to expound to us what God's thinking was, what God's mind was. And he also expresses God's will or executes God's will.
[6:23] Notice the last part of verse 2. He says, He says, In the person of Jesus Christ, God is telling us, This is my mind.
[6:53] This is what I want you to know. He's telling us, This is my will. Here's how I want you to live. This is what I want you to do. He's translating his mind, his thoughts, to Jesus.
[7:06] Who's Jesus? Well, when we talk about, you know, he's the Messiah and everything. Do you remember when John chapter 1 was talking about Jesus was going to come? In verse 14, it says, The word was made flesh.
[7:20] Jesus is a human expression of who God and who he is. He's going to show us God by his life, by his words. You know, the interesting thing is, Jesus, as the Son of God, inherited everything.
[7:37] This whole world is his. This whole universe is his. He's just a stranger and a pilgrim going through. It belongs to him, but he's just going through. But he's heir of everything that we have as well.
[7:51] You know, even the tomb that he was laid in, you remember, was borrowed. Belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It was given to him to use because he needed a temporary place.
[8:06] Everything belonged to him. Notice the last part of verse 2 there. It says the fact that he made, he's appointed heir of all things.
[8:21] Everything has been given to him by the Father. He claims all things, not only by inheritance, though. Did you notice the last part of verse 2 there?
[8:33] The last part, it says, also he made the worlds. As the creator of everything, he owns everything. So he is the inheritor.
[8:47] He is the creator. Everything belongs to him. A guy was talking about the fact that one day, he was trying to do a book about the heavens, and he was looking for an illustration of the heavens.
[9:03] And so he went to a local planetarium, and he was going through different things there. And as he was going through things, he found a picture of the Orion Nebula. He said, oh, I want that picture.
[9:14] I want that to be part of my book and part of my stuff. So he got it, and he went to the cashier there and wanted to pay for it.
[9:27] Asked how much it was. Where the person said, there's no charge. No charge, really? The guy said, well, we don't own Orion. To which he replied, oh, do you know the one who does?
[9:45] He said, the salesperson changed the topic really quick. But, yeah, he doesn't own it. God owns it. Jesus owns it. It was all his. I want you to look at verse 3 again with me.
[9:57] I know I keep reading things, but look at verse 3 for me, and listen to what I say. Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express energy of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of his majesty on high.
[10:19] Did you notice all those? His glory, his person, his power. It all belongs to God. It all belongs to Jesus. When Isaiah was doing his prophecies and things, remember how he describes when he saw the seraphim and all of them and the throne of heaven and the glory that was there?
[10:45] It is the brightness of his glory. When we get into Revelation and we talk about the fact that what's it going to be like when we get to heaven? How is it going to be lit? No sun, no moon.
[10:58] Jesus is the light thereof. It is his glory that we see. You know, think about Paul. How did Paul get saved?
[11:11] Well, he was on the road to Damascus, a bright light came. What? A bright light came. Jesus is the brightness of his glory.
[11:21] We need to keep that in mind, that Jesus is everything. He is the express image of God, it says. Notice that phrase, express image.
[11:33] What does that mean? He's the express image. Think of, I don't have any coins in my pocket. Think of a quarter. That quarter is a piece of silver or whatever else it's made out of now.
[11:49] And it's been stamped. And there's an impression. George Washington, in God we trust, the United States, anything. On the backside, there's an impression.
[12:01] That's what it means to express the image of his glory. He has the impression. Jesus Christ is the impression of God. The way J.B. Phillips put it was this.
[12:14] Jesus is God in focus. Think about that. As you look at Jesus, as you study Jesus, as you look at what the Bible says, God in focus.
[12:28] You want to know who God is? Look at Jesus. You want to know who God is? Learn about Jesus. Study his life. He is also the expression of God's heart.
[12:44] The expression of God's heart. He's not only creator, but he's the redeemer. Look again there at verse 3. And he says, let me read again, who is the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins.
[13:12] Did you catch that? His glory. His, I want the glasses back on. His person. His power. And what did he do with all of that?
[13:26] Purged our sins. Think of that. God sent Jesus to take care of our sin. And that single sentence that's written there, think about what happened.
[13:42] He's taken us all the way from Calvary, from creation, to Calvary. He did all of this creation. He gave us place here on earth.
[13:54] He created each and every one of us. And he went to Calvary to give us salvation, to purge us from our sins. What does the Bible say about our sins?
[14:09] Our righteousness? Okay. He says, our righteousness is as filthy rags. What do our sins look like?
[14:21] Think about that for a minute. What do our sins look like when we come to him? Jesus went to the cross to purify us from our sins.
[14:32] But God never leaves Jesus on the cross. You know, there are churches that have a cross like we do, but they have Jesus still on it.
[14:45] They have churches that always make sure to emphasize Jesus as the baby in the manger. but Jesus is not the baby in the manger, nor is he the one on the cross.
[14:59] He is the one who's risen from the cross and now sits at the right hand of the Father. We need to keep in mind Jesus, who he is, and the power that he has.
[15:13] You know, because when we look at Jesus as a baby or on the cross still, we get the wrong idea about who Jesus is. We think he's just like us and he was, everything is the same as us.
[15:26] He did come to be like us, but then he showed us who he really was. He was the express image of God. God reminds us that Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father.
[15:40] So, let's look at a couple things else. The examples of his sonship. Examples of his sonship. And first of all, you notice I have up there his excellent name.
[15:53] Look at me in verse 4 and 5. It says, Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
[16:10] And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
[16:23] He has a more excellent name. And notice he says there, Being much better than the angels, he hath inheritance obtained a more excellent name.
[16:35] Our world has a fascination with angels. angels. Don't care much for Jesus, but they have a fascination for angels. I wonder why that is. What was Satan before he, oh yeah, he was an angel.
[16:49] Let's get your focus on the angels. That would be me. Let's have the focus on me and what I do. We need to be so very careful to remember it is Jesus.
[17:00] None of these other things. There's some famous angels. Think about Michael. Who's Michael? He's an angel.
[17:13] What about Michael? He's the commander in chief of the armies. He's the one who leads the armies of heaven. But his name, Michael, anybody, nobody here named Michael today.
[17:27] The name Michael actually means who is like God. So it's not Michael who is like God. No, it's Michael who is like God.
[17:41] Nobody else is like God. So Michael is a famous angel. He's one you read about in scripture and stuff. But Michael is an angel who serves God and Jesus Christ.
[17:53] How about Gabriel? The name Gabriel shows up. What was his job? Actually, let me tell you what his name means. Man of God. Man of God.
[18:03] That's what Gabriel means. What was his job? To take the message. Took the message to Mary, Elizabeth, the shepherds. He took the message.
[18:17] But he took the message but he is not the message. Jesus Christ is the message. And then, of course, we know Satan. Satan has 40 different names in the Bible.
[18:29] all of them show an aspect of his evil nature. You take the name and you look at it and find out what the root meaning of it is. It talks about his evil nature.
[18:40] So, you've got Satan who was a tremendous angel. I mean, his, the Bible refers to him as the son of the morning, the anointed cherub, all these different things.
[18:52] he was the, probably the most beautiful angel. He was the angel who was in charge of music. He was in charge of worship.
[19:03] All these different things. But he started to get it back on himself. I like the way J.B. Phillips put it. He said, he forgot that the rising sun eclipses the brightest star.
[19:17] He might have thought he was a star and bright and all this, but he said, the rising sun takes care of all of that. You're out there in the morning and early in the morning and you see Venus, Mars, and some of those up there and then the sun comes up.
[19:33] Don't see them anymore. They're gone. Jesus has a more excellent name than any of the angelic beings there. He's, Michael was mighty, but Jesus is almighty.
[19:49] Gabriel was a messenger, but Jesus himself is the word of God. And then there's Lucifer, who thought he was a star, but Jesus is the sun. So, he says here, talks about the fact that he has made him better than the angels.
[20:07] The fact that he has given him, thou art my son, I have begotten thee, and again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. He's going to have a more excellent name.
[20:19] So, what is a more excellent name than what these guys have? Son. Think about how you feel, you know, cast in here this morning with Micaiah, and it's nice to have a brother, but the better name is son, you know, to have the ability to be the son.
[20:50] They are his servants. Angels are the servants of God. When you again read that passage in Isaiah chapter 6, what's happening? The angels are all serving God, doing things at his bidding, at his command.
[21:05] They are servants. They cannot be compared to him. And next week, we'll look at his earthly name, but we'll stop there for today.
[21:18] Okay? Good, let's have a word of prayer. Father, I pray that you just IT ... to