044 - He Has Spoken to Us by His Son

You pick up your Bible is more here than meets the is there something here for me. I mean it's just words printed on paper right it may look like just print on the page but it's more than eight. Join us for the next half hour, as we explore God's word together as we learn how to explore it on our own. As we ask God to meet us there in its pages welcome to more than sure about that working we go to find out help is really well book of Hebrews talks all about the bigness of his joints today on morning yellow to the book of Hebrews together, which I know it's kind of intimidating to a lot of people is a big book it is confusing and has a lot of testamentary stuff in. I think is way over my head and as dense as Romans that it is is fascinating and, truth be told, part of our rationale for this is to give us a reason to jump back into the Old Testament to show you how these things stitched together some so will be doing a lot of that is we go along as well which is which is kinda cool but that introduces what Hebrews is this is probably the worst named book entirely test because it's not about the Hebrews well to its to the Hebrews hits to the restart. It's not even really written like an epistle, but it doesn't have that apostolic beginning that dear addressed to so-and-so says alone is his name, who wrote there's a lot of theories about that, but it's feels like a letter to Falcons at several several points. The writer says now you this and you rat so he has a particular audience in mind, especially the last portion naked, roughly chopped up three big sections and the last of the three sections he addresses direct us what we do about this information so but with the whole content of the book about is about is about who Jesus is Jesus and from kind of a Jewish Hebrew mindset. How do we know how do we determine who is what he was when he came in there was a lot of debate about that.

So if I was going to title this book I would title this Jesus because this is really about the deity of who Jesus is who he is and what he accomplished and what our response is okay but is firmly places him right at the center of Jewish history and Jewish religious practice Jewish religious tradition so you know all the cards around the table about who is this Jesus in the first four verses exactly so. So where to look at kind of an approach to knowing we talked about the fact that Jesus called the Messiah. This, he anointed the promised one, and in there the figures going to say I might make my case for why he is and and it's bigger than you ever thought so. So just like in the book of John we launched in the book of John.

Remember the very opening breath of John has those just amazingly huge statement about who Jesus is in the beginning was the word and the word is with God the Word was God.

The writer of Hebrews is the same thing. He's going to give us his conclusion about the entire book almost in the first four version and then the rest of the book is going to spend unpacking like one of those statements and locations of that so look at those first four verses this morning. It's like a gigantic wing more than we can ever accomplish in yeah years of talking about it and that's the point is giving us for the outline conclusions and it is because a lot of questions in your mind to get that from just stay tuned because a run to pick it apart later, as the book unfolds well you really try and unpack this a definitive way.

That's just ridiculous to do that in 25 minutes. What we can do is give you some pointers as to how you can begin to unpack it for yourself. And so I you know I always want to lean into study tools. How do we come to the word of God and begin to begin to crack that not for ourselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and according to some some pretty straightforward rules of interpretation, the Scripture interprets itself. Words have meanings that can be looked up in dictionaries and words can be tracked down to their original language. What was the author's intent were not just cannot read this and then kind of went out on what we think it might mean theology is on done untwisted completely just these first four verses, so let's just jump in the four verses, and he'll make his bold statement about who this Jesus is just in case you are in doubt and you know I made I'm a little numberless myself from he actually attributes about eight or nine things. Jesus is just incredibly declarative. They just lays them down yet so hold onto your seats so we just read the whole firm for verses and go back.

We do that, let me just say when I'm tackling the book, any book, particularly a big one like Hebrews. I do my best to read the whole book in a sitting first and I know Hebrews is very dense, like Romans, but you might be surprised at how much you can gain just from doing that. Overview first so just sit down and take in our don't be intimidated down and just start reading and really just ignore the verse numbers ignore anything that your addition might include other than the actual text just read it and see if you can track the authors thought process from verse one to verse and that I found has been very helpful over the years and I usually do that several times over the course of a study of a particular book, each time a new topic is introduced. I go back and read the whole book again. So there that's on the page will what you have to train yourself to reduce big overviews is to not stop when you don't grasp what's going on you trip over little things and you can stop look at them but it's really valuable sitting on the hold onto that bunk back to right right so that's valuable what you first four verses this is what the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is. He says in verse one long ago and it 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 and through whom he also created the world is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he 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.

Sure where you start that that amount for what you started the beginning wanted to time so okay so that when I'm reading a passage like this to the group of women that I teach will will put this massive text on the table and I'll just ask him what did you hear a jumped up what leapt out yeah because that gives them a chance to immediately identify the things that the spirit a set attention that you and then we go back in a more controlled manner. Yet Falco had so here is leapt out at you and well actually couple of things is a picture with repeated words couple of times he refers to an inheritance in error comes on right and he spoke to us by his son, right yet he used to speak in other ways he has spoken in the past in other ways in a variety of ways days in these days he spoke to us the final word in his son got his said everything he has to say in his son. The two things a kind of leapt off the page. For me this time.

Yeah, you know, for they only bumped me but I'm always intrigued an adversary about. He's the radiance of the glory exact imprint of his nature, which will talk about a second, but that is an amazing thing when you think about the fact that God himself is invisible. So how can you write Stan who is right. So here's Jesus doing just that, well, okay, well, let's go back you mentioned about. It seems like God has changed how he speaks to us in the past he's done it and he says many times in many ways I mean is very varied ways. Well what some of those ways right. He got his visions and dreams reasons and through direct communication through respiration of the Holy Spirit and all God hasn't stopped doing those things know he has like they are all preempted. They are all put in their place by revealing himself and his son speaking to us in his son. One says the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and he spoke God to us in our language. So God is interested in speaking to a sky communicates and he has done so in a remarkably new way through his son Jesus. So that's his first off thing is that you got in the business of letting us know who years and he's done it in the preeminent way, through his son now talking about a son not a servant, not an angel or any necessary as that's one of the other things that leapt off the page. To me this time.

At the end.

Verse four says, having become as superior to the angels as the name is inherited is more excellent than theirs. In a time when people are really attracted to angels.

Actually, people have always been intrigued by Angel's right mother called to talk about well yeah and and we'd rather focus on the angels that on the sign. And that's the writer here saying you know he is so much higher and more important than the angels will be become apparent next week. Then write the rest of this is clearly the issue of angels is a big one on your mind like you asked the question who is this Jesus and some people might say what you know he did some incredible things he could be an angel. Well know he's going to say he's much more than that. So so you much much larger. So he's the first off, he's a he's a spokesman for who God is verses one and two, which is really interesting. And then he goes on and makes an incredible claim through said he spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things course in error is the one who gets the property gets the assets when someone else dies but it says that everything in the estate and that a state were talking about is all creation.

Everything in the estate of creation is going to him. Well, because the second half of that sentence is, through whom he created and he created you can make a case of the fact that he owns it to start with because I created it right so he started it, and it's all going back to him. That's a huge claim that puts Jesus way out of the angel Kel and John says the beginning of his gospel. You know all things came into being through him nothing came into being that came to being through him, except through him so you know this is a theme that occurs again and again in the New Testament writers, particularly in Paul's letters. This is not uncommon so so here we really ratcheted up.

Not only is God speaking to us about who he is but Jesus himself is is to whom everything is going so is preeminent in that sense, I see. That's helpful when we remember that Jesus kept saying now. My father has done and said this and everything that I say and do is from my father.

I'm never anything the fire me to do ever say anything. The financing of me to say he was demonstrating constantly by everything he did and said that he was the human visible representation right representative. The one authorized son exactly and we talked about the fact that Jesus is simultaneously God and man. And then the man half of that is what makes the nature and character of God visible to us who were creatures as well so that that's a huge part of who Jesus is not just the air but also the one through whom we can understand the character nature got to go to next verse three you know he says he's the radiance of the glory of God. The exact imprint of his nature as it to two parallel connected state the same exactly yeah so when you do the Bible study. Look at what someone looks at what what's different because the difference you find another little sparkling Jim about why he said two different ways but the same thing twice.

So the radiance of the glory of God radiance adjusted literally in Greek is the outshining outshine you know if you if you were to put a candle inside of a tin can. You wouldn't see me like, but if there's a way that you can actually poke a hole in the tin can in the light inside there will outshine from that place. So in a way Jesus is Jesus the visible what we can see the visible light that we can see of who God is outshine to God I had someone explain this to me actually think I read it book about this relationship between that the source of the light in the outshining of the light is like the light that emanates from a light bulb. If you can't separate the two right when the light bulb is turned on the light shines out of it in the light draws all of its characteristics of who and what it is from the shining of the bulb, but the outshining is a separate Yen and the outshining is a purposeful thing so you can see the light. So Jesus is a very purposeful means in which God makes known to us as creatures of God is invisible. You can see I Scripture says over and over again no human being has ever seen God exactly and you can't but through Christ that he and the sun. Yeah, we can see that he is that that radiance and by the way, the radiance also implies the fact that you're seeing you seeing a truth you see the light of something that's kind distant from you. Not really distant but short of separated but not really separated and I'm saying this like you know a lightbulb radiates out and so so if you wonder you know where is got. I don't know where God is.

But that doesn't matter because whoever got his own wherever he is.

He's shined into our present see a ray of light shining into the darkness that you wonder where where is that sourcing from so that's kind of what what writers getting at here in any citizen exact imprint of his nature isn't that interesting.

Yes, I tend to think of that as being like a printing press to chunk a right that's not exactly no relationship you know it shares the word in Greek the word only used here is the word character and in character, has always meant an exact imprint of something else but but this just isn't an imprint it's more deep than that, I mean what he's trying to say is that when you when you talk about characters even imprinting characters characters you talking about two things that are exactly the same. You know, for instance, I can't.

I can't take a printing press and print a letter and have the B different than the you know the actual print itself. It will be exactly the same. So there. There were not really talking about the different means in terms of seeing the same or talk about. The fact is that the original and the secondary at work are exactly the same. There's no variations between them at all and that's that's what characters really meant to represent the exactness of the of the two. So when you see Jesus. Is he kind of like God in this character which is know he is exactly he is exactly like God. In fact, he is God, which is why Jesus could say that Last Supper to fill up who asked him you know shows the father said don't you get it if you see me you seen the father signify everything about the sun speaks of images, the father doing stuff out of his arrival. So the invisible father is made visible in Jesus and that visible representation of who God is, is exact. That's what the word characters trying to represent exactness or painting a picture worth kind of close like this is know this is an exact representation. There's nothing lost in this translation, so there's nothing lost in seeing you soon Jesus is there's nothing awesome to understand who God is, that nature is perfectly is perfectly represented Jesus so we can we can ask a lot of questions. At that point a day do that right now. What I would would encourage our listeners to do at this point is*as your reading start tracking down those parallel passages that are in your cross-reference columns.

Most Bibles have a cross reference column either along the side or at the bottom is probably one of the very clearest ones to this passage… The one that came to mind for me is in Colossians 1, so Paul says in Colossians 1 starting verse 13 he delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins, and he is here comes the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together hurls a very parallel statement of Hebrews is written here so sorry. We understand who God is, because he's the radiance of the glory of God is the exact he's the exact version in the flesh of who God is and then pulled the universe by the word of Howard of his castle after he's we see him as creator and the beginning of the section suddenly Natalie started it, but he still holding stains on my gosh you mean it's not stable by the is spoken.

That content what it really means to say he has power is what holds the entire universe together.

Yeah that's that's an absolutely remarkable statement when you think about pagan false God worship. No one went this far, so big is your God question] is your God contained by creation or is your God, the one who contains holds together all of creation and by the way this statement is very scientifically supportable because all you know the way the universe operates scientists look at how it operates, but they can't tell you why it stayed in fact inside one of the one the best interest ones in the nucleus of the there's things that should repel each other effectively repel each other cool effects data collectively repel each other, but for some reason that nobody understands they stay together and they call it the strong force is the highfalutin rest. The strong force that inside the nucleus and very small.

This things hang together and they shouldn't and they shouldn't. And nobody understands why so you have to sign to straight up what holds the nucleus of cells together you're well I got there, we call it without the strong force, why it's there. I don't know but were fortunate because of that strong force goes away everything just as all so when you look at this it's actually possessing the exact is an exact statement what goes on so the nucleus of every single out of your meter so the creator himself holds it together and then he switches to a remarkable statement after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand majesty what so suddenly we moved from the communication of God to the power of God to to the one who holds everything together.

Suddenly he's interested in dealing with our sin right right a problem in this crazy nation (this in itself, so the creator and assents him keeps he keeps going with this creation by fixing one of the problems in this creation that we created ourselves, which is sin, and he has taken care of the problem. The purification person he'll talk a lot about this and coming chapters on how that happens but think about this because the whole religious Jewish system was well dealt with all about dealing with your sin. That's what the temple was pretty much dominated by his dealing with sin day by day and stuff as I directed you, so don't know. That's okay we will talk about that more later run in some short short but I think that's it. That's remarkable statement right up against the fact that he's the creator and he's holding everything together and he represents the perfect ribs is you who God is. Oh and by the way he he he took her the purification sins and sat down, and then he sat down, which in an ancient sense means he's finished finished finished the work in the job and he sat down and where did he sit at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Someone is sitting at the king's right hand. He is the right-hand man to write him and yes, the one who executes the work right.

The king says do it and Star Trek parlance make it so it's ON the first officer makes it so it makes it happen to Jesus. Jesus, in the past tense has finished this work will what is the what is the finished work of this purification for sins is that as a Jew reading this you'd say what he do the right finished. I'm don't we have to do something about that every day when we sin because sacrifices had to be offered, morning, noon and night and twice on the Sabbath right so if you're Jewish reader the should tweak your really fast and and and sure enough you cover this in great detail later, and then finally, in verse four, having become as much superior to angels as the name he's inherited is more excellent than theirs so you won't talk about names you have to switch gears a little bit. Names are not as arbitrary in their culture is ours. Names always represent a characteristic person holds 10 identity identity or if you want to expand that kind of a visible reputation of the person.

He's the guy that does… So we call him… So that that's were dog letters of his name. His name is superior to angels because while he's he's done things is far superior to angels and the angel ever could do nothing.

It is exactly right yet.

In fact, angels yearn to look in on what it is that Jesus done on our behalf. They are fascinated by, and he's inherited a name again inheritance comes back, he's inherited a name not only inherits the universe back to himself, but he inherits a name that's far superior than theirs excellent than theirs. So he's the he's the name. In fact, usually talk about God. That's right column: name the name yeah culminating yeah and so you know in Philippians 2 Paul says God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is about every name.

This is Philippians 2, nine and 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father huge and all that by verse from Ephesians okay 121 far above is been seated far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above everything that is named, not only in this age but also the one to come. So were talking about in this opening sequence right here. These first four verses the most gigantic claims can make about Jesus possible, and for a Jew reading this it's a well here are my quest for his Messiah, but this makes him the creator really just who is this.

She says that's what this book is going to be about, and I would encourage you just as as study skills now sit with this passage and list out these declarative statements, list them separately. You're going to come up with 789 of them and and then track down the cross-references and the initiation down through those words restate them in your own words. After you've done that and and synthesize what is he saying she's maybe my understanding of Jesus is smaller than it really should be. Why does this mean to me and this is this is always going to expand in our mind that our relationship with Jesus is just one of a simple carpenter who walk you 2000 years ago, but as the creator and to whom everything is going back to is this who is this guy so that's why this book to call Jesus is all about Jesus and right here he's laid down the gauntlet should probably piqued your curiosity. I hope yes that's the letter to God's own people about his own son.

He promised them and he's going to reference the Old Testament prophets sent over. Glad you're with us. We hope you join us next week on this adventure.

This is been checking so I'm just differently and were delighted with his reading Bruce and will get together next week and keep going.

So