Jesus' Qualifications for Superiority
Part 1
Hebrews 1:1-14
Harry Stoliker
May 21, 2006 EBC
Last week we talked about how the book of Hebrews addresses the question of how
American Christians can live as 'radical disciples' in our own culture.
I wish there was an even better term than 'radical disciples' because
that one sounds a bit made up. I don't know if 'committed' is a better
word, or 'genuine' or 'dedicated' or 'fanatical'
or 'passionate' or simply 'biblical disciples'.
What we are trying to do is to look at the book of Hebrews and find the right motivation
or driving force for living passionately for Jesus Christ. Another way we said it
was that there are two roads that people walk on: The Wasted-Life Road
and the Calvary Road. Which road are you on and why are you walking
on that particular road? A boiled down summary of Hebrews supplies the answer for
why and how to live on the Calvary Road. It is the Superiority or Supremacy of Jesus
Christ that calls for such a life. Hebrews spells out the Superiority of Christ
in numerous ways.
Let me give you a brief outline of the book:
- 1:1-3 Christ superior to the prophets;
- 1:4-2:18 (end of the chapter) Christ superior to the angels;
- 3:1-4:13 Christ superior to Moses;
- 4:14-10:18 Christ superior to Aaron;
- 10:19-12:29 (end of chapter) Christ superior as the new and living way;
- 13:1-25 (whole chapter) a closing exhortation.
Let's then, begin our journey through the book of Hebrews and see what God will
do in us by the end of chapter 13! My prayer is that we will be more motivated to
walk the Calvary Road just as our Savior Jesus Christ did on our behalf. Remember
throughout our study Gal. 6:14 "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
Chapter 1:1-3 Christ is Superior to the Prophets
V.1 "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times
and in various ways but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…"
What is the author doing here? He is making a powerful CONTRAST. The contrast is
between Jesus and the prophets, which we see in the two phrases: "through the prophets"
and "by His Son." We used to have one, but now we have the other. The one
has been superseded by the other. The Son is the unique and ultimate revelation
from God and of God! We must lay stress on those two critically important words:
unique and ultimate. There were many prophets but a unique Son. We
will see in other places this "one and the many" contrast. Many priests give
way to the One Great High Priest. The prophets were not final or decisive. The Son
was final, decisive and therefore ultimate when it came to delivering God's will.
This is why Jesus is qualified to be superior or better.
The greatness of the prophets was that they were spokesman for God. They weren't
great in themselves in their gifts, or in their own wisdom. Their power and authority
came as they spoke the words that God gave them to speak to the people of Israel.
They were God's mouthpiece, agents, ambassadors, servants. Through them came "revelation"
which is information that man cannot find out on his own. Revelation has to come
from God; man cannot discover it through his own faculties. Acts 3:24 "Indeed, all
the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And
you are heirs of the prophets…"
The prophets were highly respected. They were seen as men who had the Spirit of
God on them (Num. 11:29); God revealed his will through them; they confronted kings
when the kings were in sin; they predicted the future; they were known as the 'servants
of God'; kings consulted them to know God's plans for war; most of all, they called
the people back to God through repentance (Jer25:4-5) "And the LORD has sent to you
all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened
nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, 'Repent now everyone of his evil way and
his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers
forever and ever" Zech. 7:12 "Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing
to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through
the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts."
The NT tells us that God used the prophets to write Scripture: 2 Peter 1:20-21 "Above
all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's
own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men
spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
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So, it is real hard to underestimate the importance of prophets to all that God
has done in redemptive history. There was however a limitation to their
ministry. This is what the author of Hebrews is getting at in the contrast. The
point he is making is that the message of the prophets came in fragments, in dreams,
in mysteries, in types, in shadows, in visions, in symbols, in physical illustrations,
in enigmatic or mysterious predictions. It was provisional, unfulfilled and not
the final word. This is what the author means when he says it came in "various
ways."
"But in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son!" Now we have a superior
spokesman, a better and ultimate Prophet par excellence to tell us
the will of God! He is in a different category than the prophets for
he is a "Son!" The Son's word is not provisional, it is the ultimate fulfillment;
it is not in fragments or dreams or shadows but in comprehensive clarity and finality.
"This final word fulfils and transcends all previous words spoken by God through
the prophets, so that there is no place for venerating the ancient prophets in a
manner that would challenge the supremacy of him who himself is uniquely the Word,
equal to the Father, the agent of creation, the sustainer of the universe, the heir
of all things, and the exalted Redeemer of the world." (Hughes)
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Here's the point: What the prophets had to say was good, true, needed, inspired
by God. But now, we have a Superior or Better Word from God: Jesus Christ. They
led up to Christ and pointed to Christ. Now we judge everything in life from what
Christ taught as the final interpreter of God's will. He gives the completed picture,
the clearest and final authoritative word.
"In these last days" - we are in these last days, they began when Jesus came
to earth. The former age was marked by "incompleteness and anticipation"
(Hughes); but this present age is marked by completeness and fulfillment! The old
order of the Mosaic covenant and levitical priesthood has given way to the new order
of messianic reality (Hughes). This is not to say that Moses or the prophets spoke
on their own without God, it surely was God speaking through them. But now the message
has reached its climax in clarity. The promises, the prophecies, the types, figures
and shadows have all become visible in Jesus Christ. Here's how Martin Luther put
it: "If the word of the prophets is accepted, how much more ought we to seize the
gospel of Christ, since it is not a prophet speaking to us but the Lord of the prophets,
not a servant but a son, not an angel but God. And further, it is not our forefathers
he is addressing, but us. Quite clearly the (author) argues in this way so that
every excuse of unbelief is excluded." (Quoted in Hughes)
"whom he appointed heir of all things …" The author is saying that Jesus
is superior because God gave him the universe and every nation on planet earth as
an inheritance. They all belong to Jesus Christ. This was foretold in Ps. 2:7-8
"I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my son; today I
have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession…" No prophet or angel or demon or
Christian owns the universe, Jesus does! Every prophet, angel, demon, human being,
animal, mountain and ocean belongs to Christ. God the Father gave it all to him.
"…and through whom he made the universe." The author is saying here that
Jesus Christ is greater than the universe because He made it. The greater made the
lesser. Jesus must have pre-existed the universe in order to make it.
His deity is affirmed here for we know that the Bible says God (Yahweh) created
the heavens and the earth. Ps. 102:25 "In the beginning you laid the foundations
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands." Yet we find in
Col. 1:15-16 Paul saying about Jesus, "He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven
and on earth, visible and invisible…"
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V.3 There are 5 Key Phrases that we MUST look at:
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"The Son is the radiance of God's glory…" NKJV: "brightness"
JB: "he is the radiant light of God's glory." This is another wonderful
way of saying that Jesus is co-equal with God in glory! The author alludes back
to Exodus 24:15, 17 "When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and
the glory of the LORD settled on Mt. Sinai… To the Israelites the glory of the LORD
looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain." The radiance of Yahweh's
presence settled for 6 days on the mountain before God called Moses up there. God's
glory cloud was called The Shekinah, and comes again in Exodus 40:34-35 "Then the
cloud covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it
and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." We see the Shekinah again
in Mk. 9 at the Transfiguration of Jesus. After Jesus clothes became dazzling white,
whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them, v.7 says "Then a cloud appeared
and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud; "This is my son, whom I love.
Listen to him!"
The NT tells us that Jesus is this "glory of God!" Jn. 1:14 "The Word
became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of
the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." The
real clincher comes again from Paul's pen in 2 Cor. 4:6 "For God, who said, "Let
light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Paul is making
a fantastic statement! He's saying that in our day, our era, we get to see the Shekinah
glory of God by looking at the face of Christ in the gospel. We can look directly
at it for as long as we want, as intensely as we want, as lovingly as we want! In
Christ's face we see the glory of God! That is why he is superior!
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"…the exact representation of his being…" ESV "…the exact imprint of his nature…"
"…the very stamp…" This is the only place in the NT where this term is used.
It means an 'engraved character' or the impression made by a die or
a seal. "His being/nature" – denotes the very essence of God. What
the author is saying is that Jesus is the exact correspondence to God in every way
with regard to his very essence! Thus he is the perfect representative of God, far
superior to anyone or anything else!
This is why Jesus can say in John 14:9 "He who has seen me has seen the Father!"
This is why Paul can say in 2 Cor. 4:4 "The god of this age has blinded the minds
of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God." And again in Col. 1:15 "He is the image of
God…" Col. 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."
These are the verses that destroy the arguments of the Da Vinci Code that says the
early church hid the fact that Jesus was only a man!
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"…sustaining all things by his powerful word…" This phrase tells us that
it is Jesus that keeps the universe from flying into utter chaos. He upholds it,
sustains it, directs it and moves it toward its ultimate destination. The Greek
word for "sustaining" means "movement or progress toward an end."
The sun comes up each morning because Jesus tells it to. The seasons rotate by His
direct command. The clouds, moon, oceans and animals all do exactly as He tells
them to do, when he tells them to do it. People live and die according to his sovereign
will. What kind of powerful word does it take to sustain a universe???? That is
why he is superior. Col. 1:17 "…in him all things hold together!"
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"…after providing purification for sins"
Here we see that his substitutionary work on the Cross made an actual purification
for our sins. This was a work that no human or angel could do. He was the perfect
Lamb of God that took away the sins of His people. The Father's Holy Wrath would
not have been appeased with any other sacrifice; it had to be the Perfect Son of
God dying in our place! This is the GOSPEL- that God poured out on Jesus Christ
the punishment we deserved because of our sin against His Holy Law and Holy Character.
"…he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven…" points to the
completion and non-repetition of the work of Jesus on the Cross. "It is finished"
he cried. He ascended into heaven to be at the right hand of God the Father, the
place of highest honor and authority. This is clearly another proof of His deity,
for God said he would never share His glory with another, yet we see Jesus sharing
in heaven the glory of God. Paul says in Phil. 2 that every knee will bow to Him
as King. That proves He is equal to God the Father for God wouldn't allow
that to happen unless His Son was His equal in essence.
The rest of Chapter One talks about Angels. Why? Because at the time of this letter
there was a teaching that in the final days certain angelic beings would be superior
to the Messiah.
1:5-14 Jesus is Much Superior to the Angels for the following reasons:
- No angel was ever the Son of God V. 5
- All the angels were to worship Him as they worshiped God V.6
- Angels are just servants of God V.7
- Jesus is designated as God whose throne will last forever V.8
- God has set Jesus above all heavenly and earthly beings V.9
- The universe is the work of Jesus hands V.10
- The eternality of Jesus makes him superior V.11-12
- No angel is sitting at God's powerful right hand V.13
- God is not working on behalf of any angel to conquer its enemies V.13
- Angels are ministering spirits not the Sovereign God V.14
What's the Application of all this:
Here is what I want you to hear:
A Superior Prophet has spoken for God and revealed God to us. His name
is Jesus Christ!
He has called us to radical discipleship on the Calvary Road
– the road of self-denial and death.
We dare not ignore what He is saying. To do that is to waste our lives
on meaningless and trivial things. We want to live exactly the way the Superior
Prophet told us to live.
We face the challenge of working this out in a culture that thinks the Calvary Road
is ridiculous and unnecessary. They would rather us walk with them down the Luxury
Road with them.
They would rather us tone it down and not say that Jesus demands total commitment
and Lordship of his people.
My question for you to take home is this: Will you take Hebrews Chapter 1 with you
to work or to school this week and let it affect the way you see your life, the
way you relate to people, the way you value all you have, the way you spend your
money and talents, the way you think about your worth and your future?
Perhaps another way of saying it is: How will you let the truth about the superiority
of Jesus Christ transform you into a more radical disciple in this culture at this
time in history? I can't think of a better way to say it. Please pray
about this question!
Let's pray.
H.