Hebrews 1:1-4

February 6, 2012

Today we started a new sermon series. We are going to begin a crawl through the book of Hebrews and see what this ancient sermon says for us nearly 2000 years later. Feel free to read the notes, listen to the audio, and subscribe on iTunes. Enjoy!

Verses 1-4

“In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways. In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty. And so, the Son became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs.” – Common English Bible

Originally I was going to preach on the entirety of Hebrews 1 but there is too much going on right here. So already your sermon schedule is out the window. I think we made it longer than we did last time.
It is not a letter it is a sermon.

This is a manuscript of a sermon that someone could stand up and give. I could stand up and read this and it would be a great sermon. However it would also be a long sermon. So each week from now through June we are going to break down a section of this sermon and see what it says for us.
As a result the audience intended is not a single person, like Timothy or Philemon, it is also not instruction on how to do church like Romans or Corinthians. Instead the audience is everyone who could ever hear it. It was meant to encourage people to follow Christ and live a Godly example of how that is done.

Which is what we try to do here. Sermons are not to teach or beat down or get you to give more or anything like that. Sermons are to encourage you to follow christ closer than you are now. Whether that is not at all or to take a step out in faith. The goal of Hebrews and the goal of my sermons are to bring you closer to Jesus.
If you leave here and you talk about how bad my sermon was or how good it was that means you were listening. If you sit there and you say “I completely disagree with him.” That is good! It means you are listening. And if you are listening it means it is changing you.
The worst thing to do for a sermon is to say nothing. because it means it hasn’t changed you.

In the days of the early church when you could be killed for being a Christian they would gather in homes in small groups of people and talk about what it looks like to follow Jesus. there wasn’t an idea of theology, ideology, doctrine, or anything else it was “How do we follow Jesus.” and “how can we live out this path of Jesus in our everyday lives?” which is what we do in our cell groups. that on a weekly basis we get together and talk about how we can live out our faith everyday.
Unknown author. Traditionally Paul but most scholars, and this pastor, say we have no idea who wrote it. Because we don’t know who wrote it we also aren’t sure when it was written, but we guess before 70AD.

Some suggested authors are:

Barnabas
Luke
Clement of Rome
Apollos
Priscilla – She is a woman!! There is very strong evidence it was her.

We know that Hebrews was written in Rome and to a house church that met in Rome. According to Romans 16 Priscilla was the leader of that house church.
If she did write this book it makes her the only female author of the Bible. If she gave this sermon it makes her one of the best preachers I have ever heard.
An early Theologian named Origen wrote “Only God knows who wrote Hebrews” and that is the best we get this side of heaven.

What we end up with is a beautiful, life giving sermon that was written by someone who loved Jesus more than anything else.

Verse 1

In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways.

The book of Hebrews starts with these words which in the original greek would be considered an amazing set of words. They were written by someone who was professionally trained in public speaking.

the phrase “in many times and many ways” is the way a professional speech giver in ancient greece would start a speech about the importance of the past and the future.
The word for prophets is Prophetais which does not denote men or women. In other words God didn’t play favorite with who got message

This person was a talented and trained great speaker but did not abandon it when they became a Christian.
The author used the talents they had to bring glory and honor to Jesus.

EVERYONE! was born with talents, things you are just good at and can’t really explain why. EVERYONE has skills they have learned along the way and now, in Christ you are called to use those skills to make disciples of Jesus.
What are your talents? How can you use them to bring glory and honor to Jesus?

I am talented in video games and all things Geek. In High school we would invite friends over for a video game party and then use that video game as a jumping off point to talk about Jesus.
My youth pastor was a skilled hunter. He would take youth hunting with him and teach them about God’s creation and how to take care of it.
My karate instructor believed that his teaching karate was his ministry to people. He prayed before we started and he prayed with us when we were hurt and all of our work was in relationship to what Jesus had done for us.
Some of you are so talented in music, computers, eating, singing, art, driving, fixing things. How can you use those talents to bring glory and honor to Jesus?

Following Jesus does not mean abandoning the things you love to do and that you are good at. It means using them to bring honor and glory to Jesus.

Verse 2

But in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.

In these last days is a reference from Numbers 24:14

It is Balaam talking about what will happen in the future
More literal explanation is “as the end of this current age approaches.”

Our author is telling us that now, that the previous age has ended and we are in a new age. That new age is marked with a fundamental shift in the way God speaks to people. It used to be through other people and now the way God speaks to us is through Jesus.
so the last days is not some weird end times thing it started withthe birth of Jesus and has to do with how god speaks to us.
This Jesus that speaks to us is the same Jesus who is an heir

Heir means that they have complete authority over all things.

This Jesus that speaks to us is the same person who created the entirety of the universe. Things seen and unseen.
No longer do we have to trust other people’s words we can now go directly to the source of divine revelation. Jesus.

That means, after you hear any pastor anywhere ever say something you should check it against what Jesus says.

You can only do that by reading the Bible
If you ever hear me preach something that isn’t in the Bible or is a contradiction to the word of God then you tell me and I will be the first to stand up here and apologize.

Verse 3

He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.

Reflection here in Greek is: Charrakter

We get the English word Character
It is what you look like. Is the mark you leave after you are gone
For Jesus’ his character is that of God.
The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.

This is the idea of wax imprints made from a seal
What you see is an exact image of the seal.
After Jesus leaves people say “Wow, God was in this place.”
What do people say after you leave?
So then, Jesus is the exact image of God shinning among us.

When you see Jesus you see exactly what God is like.
Which means then that God is not about crushing people into submission but that God is about loving and forgiving everyone and inviting them into a new life.

Jesus maintains everything with his powerful word

Everything in the universe continues to exist because of the powerful message of Jesus.

So what is the message of Jesus? A message that initiated with Jesus?

The one message that Jesus proclaims over and over again is that the Kingdom of God is near.

This message was never spoken of before Jesus.
The kingdom of God is here now and was ushered in by Jesus.
This kingdom is where God dwells and is fundamentally different than the previous kingdom. The kingdom of God is about love for God and love for others and love for this broken world.

It is a love that not only raises the dead but raises the living to more than the mundane aspects of life into a place of equality with everyone.

All things then are held together by love, because as we know love wins.

After Jesus cleansed People of their sins

After Jesus died for our sins
After we were cured for our sins
After we were forgiven a debt we could not pay.
After the work of the cross was finished.

Jesus sits down on the right of the highest majesty.

Only after the work was done did Jesus get to sit down.
Because Jesus did what God wanted did Jesus gets to sit in the place of authority and power.

Do you need to sit down? Are you tired? Perhaps it is because you aren’t doing what God wants. When you do what God wants you get your rest.
Jesus says “Come to me and I will give you rest.”
It is only when we follow Jesus that we can get a real rest.
Too often humans are known for what they can create, produce, and make. We have become human doings. In following Jesus we find rest where we can become human beings again. We set a day apart for rest and relaxation and we treat that time as different from every other day so that we can rest.
when you only have value for what you can do you are a machine not a human. in following Jesus we become human again.

Verse 4

Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Jesus became the greatest in heaven.

Not because he was sitting but because he did the will of God.

Angels were important, they delivered the messages of God.

Couple thoughts on Angels.

No human becomes an Angel. That is actually a downgrade of status. God created humans as special with free will and a mind to think for ourselves. Angels only have one purpose. To deliver the messages of God, we have a bigger purpose. To bring glory to God and make God known.
Anytime an Angel shows up in the Bible it is terrifying and the angel has to calm people down.

As important as angels are. Jesus is more important.

Jesus is the only one who can save sinners. Angels can’t do that. Angels don’t usher people into heaven or before God. Only Jesus can do that.
As a result Jesus is above everyone and everything else.

So what do we do with all of this information?

In 4 verses We covered four basic ideas.

1. Everyone has a skills and talents God has given us and wants us to use them to make the world better

2. We no longer have to hope that God is speaking through people. We can go directly to Jesus for all of our information

3. Jesus is God and in following Jesus we get rest

4. Jesus is above every angel and every human

If we reverse them we get

4. Jesus is superior to everyone and everything

3. Following Jesus is how we get rest

2. We can go directly to Jesus

1. Jesus gave us our abilities, and skills, and we need to use them to make God known.

Sounds like a plan for evangelism.

Jesus shows us.

We do what Jesus does

We ask Jesus what we should do

Then we do it.

For Christians it is not about wasting what God has given us, it is about using what we have to bring glory to God. Which is exactly what Jesus did on his last night before death.

Jesus sat with his closest friends and ate a meal. After the meal was over Jesus took some bread, prayed for it, look at his disciples and said this is my body broken for you. As often as you do this remember me.

Do this? Gather and eat? Use leftovers? Use what we made? Jesus said “Do This and remember” So that is what we do.

After the bread was passed Jesus took a cup of wine and said this is my blood poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins as part of a new covenant, as often as you do this do it in remembrance of me.

For the forgiveness of sins, debts, lying, cheating, stealing, cutting people off, swearing, all of that was forgiven through this blood that was poured out.

New Covenant, this blood represents a fundamental shift in laws, and the function of the universe.

Do this? Get together and drink wine? from the same cup? use leftover wine? sit together? Talk? Forgive others?

As often as we do “This” we are to remember Jesus.

So we do. We are going to come forward down the middle and take this bread and dip it in this cup and we are going to remember all that Jesus has done for us that angels, jobs, and governments could not do for us. Our salvation!

Sermon Audio