He is Revealed

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0:00My name is Joel, and I'm happy to be serving you all and serving Christ as pastor here in New Creation. We just finished Luke, and we're getting into a new sermon series today. I hope you're excited. I am. We're starting a series on the book of Hebrews. This series will probably take us most of the way through the rest of this year, actually. So, Hebrews, where is it? You can find it in the New Testament. It is just after Philemon and just before James.

0:33You can find it there in your New Testament. Let me tell you a little bit about Hebrews. It's anonymous. The author of the book does not say who he is. He does identify himself in the masculine, but he never says his name. And he also doesn't say specifically who he's writing to. He doesn't specify it the way that other letters, like most of Paul's letters do.

1:05But he knows who he's writing to. Just because we don't know doesn't mean he doesn't know. You can tell he knows because he speaks about their specific situation in ways that it would be weird if they weren't actually going through it. He's speaking to a people that he knows well. He knows exactly what they're going through. He's familiar with their situation and with their needs. And even though we don't know who wrote it or who he was writing to specifically, the content of the book gives us a lot of clues that we can pick up on.

1:38It's full of references to Old Testament people and figures and practices. And he references them not just like an encyclopedia, not like he's just teaching a class or he's just giving them trivia. When he talks about Moses and Joshua and priests and sacrifices and all of the citations of scripture, he assumes that his readers know about these things intimately because they form the basis of his argument. So he assumes that his that his audience knows about these things, knows the Old Testament really, really well.

2:17The author explains how these Old Testament things are fulfilled in Jesus or point they point towards Jesus. And so that is a very important clue to us. The weight of all this, it leads to the clear consensus that this book is written to Jewish Christians, primarily Jews who had professed their faith in Christ as the Messiah. And that's clearly what the early church believed because they're the one that early churches who attached the label to it, to the Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews.

2:55That was not, it's not found in the original manuscripts. It's something that the original church, that the early church attached to this letter, the letter to the Hebrews. Now, imagine for a second what it might have been like to be a Jewish Christian in the first century.

3:14You, first of all, were estranged to some extent from your fellow Jews who had not concluded how you had concluded about Jesus. Jews that had heard the message of the gospel and had rejected Jesus. You're now estranged from them. You're on a different page entirely from them. You might have been accused of being a traitor to your heritage, to your ancestry, an abandoner of the faith of your ancestors. The traditions that you had been carrying on of leaving all that behind.

3:55People might have, your fellow Jews might have estranged you, ostracized you, cast you out. Family ties were probably severed because of this. Your worship is now different. All of the things that you used to do to worship, all the sacrifices, all the rituals, you didn't do them anymore. So everything about your worship had changed. Your diet, your diet was different. You could eat all kinds of foods that you weren't allowed to eat before. And you're suddenly in close fellowship with Gentile Christians, people of a whole different upbringing, right?

4:40People who did not grow up Jewish like you did. You're now in close fellowship with them, in closer fellowship than your fellow Jews who had gone a different way when it comes to Jesus. You're now together with them, people that before you didn't associate with, people that you called unclean. You're now being told, Christ has put you together. You're one with these people. This is profoundly disorienting. All of this could lead to what you might call a cultural homesickness.

5:18Anybody here ever been homesick? I remember being sent on a work assignment to Germany in my former career as an engineer. And I was over in Germany only for about four weeks. And Nikki came to visit me in the last week of that. And we were traveling around and we were doing fun things together. I was with her. But about three and a half weeks in, I just had this moment of like, oh my gosh, this is just, I feel, I want to go home. And this is a lot of fun, but I just, I miss where we live.

5:54I miss our people. I miss our church. These people that read this original letter, these Jewish Christians, they hadn't gone anywhere. And yet they probably were feeling this cultural homesickness of like, everything is different now. And now on top of that, this book tells us that they are facing hostility and persecution. Some had lost their property, some had lost their freedom, and soon they might lose their lives.

6:32And all of this suffering has come to them because of their commitment to Jesus. All of this change in their life, all the hardship, it all comes back to one thing. They're committed to Jesus. They had responded to the gospel. They had practiced generosity in his name. They had formed house churches. But now they were growing weary. Being identified as Christians, it seemed to bring them nothing but trouble. There's a lot of evidence in this book that points to it being written to Jewish Christians in Rome.

7:11They were in distress. They were under pressure. And they were having second thoughts. They were looking back on their former faith, and they were wondering, maybe we should just go back to that. Life was a lot easier when we were doing that. After all, the Jewish faith was recognized by Rome as a legitimate faith. It had some legal protections to it. Christianity did not. Did not have those legal protections. Christians were the ones blamed for things.

7:41Christians, the unrest in society, the problems that occurred, the fire that would break out in Rome in 64 AD. This book was written to people that were having a crisis of faith. They were wondering, where is God anyway? What is he doing? Is Jesus really worth it? And many times, I think we feel the same way.

8:15It's okay to admit that. In fact, admitting it helps you enter into the audience of this book and receive this letter in a deeper sense. Our lives are marked by suffering and trials, right? They are. Some things that we think might just go away if we just back this whole following Jesus thing.

8:46Going public with your faith, especially saying that you believe all of what God says in his word, it means you're going to be stereotyped. You're going to be spoken badly about, made fun of, labeled, libeled, scorned. You probably haven't shed any blood on his account, but neither had the original recipients of Hebrews. But what they faced made them a lot like Lot's wife, looking back, longingly, to where they had come from. And we are tempted to.

9:28Are we better off with Jesus, really? Is my life, if my life is still going to be this hard, then why don't I just live it for myself? Maybe things will be easier if I don't stand for anything, or at least I just don't stand with him. Perhaps some of you feel this way. You're in good company. Or maybe others of you are looking at Jesus, but you're holding back. You're waiting. You're wondering, is he really worth it? Do I really want to give my life to him?

10:08There's some things that sound appealing, but I just don't know if I want that life. Now, in response to all of these concerns, these thoughts, these questions, this crisis, comes the book of Hebrews. This book is really a sermon. So we're getting very meta here. We're going to have 30 some odd sermons about a single sermon. The author calls this book a word of exhortation. A term that's elsewhere used only about preaching. So I'm actually going to call him the preacher rather than the author.

10:54Because this book, it looks and it sounds like a sermon. It teaches scripture extensively, but it also pauses and it gives applications. Usually those applications are in the form of warnings, of strong admonitions, just like a good preacher should do sometimes. The sermon manuscripts of the book of Hebrews, it's the most elaborate and elegant Greek in the entire New Testament. It's wonderful. It contains multiple themes that are skillfully interwoven, dotted with key words that guide us through it.

11:34Words like better, more, promise, priest, covenant, and especially the key word, faith. The two thirds, the first two thirds is about who our faith is founded on. And how he fulfills the Old Testament practices and promises that the people that read this book had been practicing, the promises they had been looking forward to, the author is reminding them, you have the fulfillment. That's the foundation of your faith. And then the last third of it tells them to practice that faith.

12:15So in other words, it starts with, don't go back. He is better for the first two thirds of the book. And then the last third is to persist in Jesus. That's why the title I'm giving to this sermon series is Toward and Enduring Faith. And I want you to marvel at this slide.

12:42That is some great graphic design right there, isn't it? Now, it looked a lot better on my computer and then I sent it to Stephen and something, when I exported it as a PDF, no, no, no, it's not Stephen, no. When I exported it as a PDF, my fonts got all messed up. So, boy, that is, you know, I skipped the class on graphic design when I was in seminary. So that's my excuse. So, you can still read it. Toward and Enduring Faith. That's the title of this sermon series.

13:14Together, we're going to learn why we should stand on Jesus and how to do it. Okay? Now, listen, a good summary verse of the entire book is Hebrews 10, 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. That really is, that sums up the entire book. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. So, turn with me to Hebrews 1, and let's get started. This is God's word to us.

13:57Let's pay attention to God speaking. Let's seek him. And let's believe with faith that he intends this word to produce fruit in our hearts today. Long ago, at 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, through whom also he created the world. 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.

14:48After 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. Pray with me.

15:08Lord, thank you for giving us your word. Lord, thank you for working through it. Lord, do good work in us. Attend to our needs, Lord, including the hardships we face, the questions we have, our doubts, our tendency to look back over our shoulder from where we came. Lord, point us to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, and help us strengthen our legs so that we run after him in faith. We pray this, Jesus, in your name.

15:46Are you guys excited about Hebrews? I'm excited about Hebrews. He is revealed. God spoke a full and final word about salvation by giving us his son. That's what we learn in this passage. He is revealed. This amazing sermon, it starts with a bang. Verses 1-4. Everything I read to you is a single sentence in the Greek. One sentence. Evidently, they didn't have run-on sentences in Greek. This single sentence is absolutely packed with jaw-dropping, heart-pounding, mind-blowing truth.

16:26So many of the themes of Hebrews are found in this one sentence. In fact, you could look at the whole rest of the book as just an unpacking of this one sentence. We're going to come back to these things, and that's actually a relief. It takes some of the pressure off. Because every phrase of this passage basically could be a sermon just in and of itself. So it takes a little bit of the pressure off of me. We're going to go through this a little quickly.

16:52Because we're going to come back to a lot of these. But let's start here. God speaks. Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke. Let's just pause here and say hallelujah, that God speaks. That is incredibly important that God speaks. Otherwise, how could finite creatures, flesh and bone, like you and me, know our Creator, the transcendent, eternal God? How could we comprehend His character? How could we know His ways? Could our study of creation, even if we had a thousand years, a million years, ever teach us by itself how to relate to Him?

17:44How to know Him? How to be in right relationship with Him? No, it couldn't. All of this is contingent on God revealing Himself, on speaking. And He does. God is not hiding. People are hiding. God is the God who has made Himself known. We are the people who recede into darkness.

18:19In the garden, it was God that went looking for the first couple after they had sinned. Him that spoke. He is the one that called out and said, Where are you? Where are you?

18:36He has been speaking ever since, revealing Himself, and calling us out of hiding. Turn to the front of the bulletin. Look at this meditation quote. The Bible knows nothing about a hidden God, but only of men and women who hide. And of God who comes to seek them out and to engage them in a meaningful conversation as He makes Himself known to them. This sermon, referring to the book of Hebrews, concerns the God who speaks. It is an urgent call for the people of God to listen to the word He has spoken.

19:20That God speaks. God spoke long ago and we can read it in the pages of Scripture, but then God speaks again. Now think about this. In books and in film and in music, very rarely is the last of the series the best of the series. Right? How many times is the final book of the series the best book of the series? How many movie franchises end with the best movie? How many bands can say that their last album was their best one? It very rarely happens.

19:59By the time a creator gets to the end, he or she has run out of ideas and energy and inspiration. People watch and listen or read that last thing and they say, I like the earlier stuff better.

20:17But God is different. God is different. He has saved His best word for last. Verse 2, But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. This act of speaking is better. I'm going to give you four ways that this is better. We're going to speed through this, because I know that was a long introduction. Here's the first thing. Through Jesus, God spoke directly. There are two words here that are easy to gloss over, but they're important. To us. He has spoken to us.

21:00When God spoke long ago, He did it by the prophets. They were go-betweens, intermediaries for God. They carried messages from God, but now God speaks directly to us. Through His Son, who is the radiance of God's glory. Jesus is the dawning light of the glory of God.

21:28The difference between Him and the prophets is like the difference between watching a sunrise on TV and watching a sunrise in person. When you do it in person and you see it firsthand, you see it and you feel it. You can close your eyes and you can feel the warmth on your skin and you know the rays have crested that hill and have struck your skin and have warmed you. That's the difference that comes to us when God speaks to us through His Son. That's how directly God speaks to us now.

22:05By His Son. The Son is the exact imprint of His nature. The preacher is describing how the Son is fully God. Nature is literally essence. His essence and God's essence are the same essence.

22:26This is something beyond molecular level here. The godness of God is the godness of Jesus. He is fully God. In Jesus, what is invisible has literally been made visible. And here's the point. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus and what He's done. Jesus was holy, compassionate, wise, kind, steadfast, loving, faithful. He gave Himself to save sinners. And that's who God is. We know that's true of God definitively because we see it in the Son.

23:10And by Jesus, this God drew near to us. He put our flesh on. Here's another way to put it. It is wonderful to get a letter from the love of your life. You might read that letter over and over. But it's far greater to hear your beloved speak to you. To hear the cadence of their voice. To open your eyes and look at them. To see their lips move. We are longing to know God's nearness to us in our suffering. And we have it in Jesus.

24:00God's direct presence with us through the Son. We shouldn't look for anything closer. We have it in Jesus. Second thing is this. Through Jesus, God spoke completely. The preacher says, Long ago, God spoke at many times and in many ways. In the Old Testament, God spoke through law and love songs. He spoke through history and hymns. He spoke through proverbs, poetry, and parables. He appeared in the thunder and the lightning. And He spoke in a still, small voice.

24:45He gave the prophets visions and dreams and speeches. And sometimes He told them to act those things out. Ezekiel laid on the ground for many, many weeks as a form of prophecy. Hosea was told to marry an unfaithful woman. His marriage was a form of prophecy. Of God speaking.

25:12God appeared to Moses as a burning bush and to Jacob as an angel. It was all God speaking, but it was all fragmentary. More and more was coming over time. More and more was being added to the picture. It was progressive in nature. There was always the expectation of further revelation. It's not like that prior speech is somehow faulty or wrong. It was just incomplete. It awaited fulfillment. It's like the third act of a play. If you watched the first two acts and then you got up and you left, you would be awaiting something that never finished.

25:58If you watched the first two movies in a trilogy, but you didn't watch the third, you would be waiting for that. It's awaiting fulfillment and now God has spoken by His Son. And notice the verb tense here. God has spoken. The tense of the Greek verb describes a single completed event in the past. God spoke. God spoke. That means special revelation is now fulfilled. There is no more for Him to say. There's more for Him to do. But His revelation to us is complete in Jesus.

26:39Jesus Himself is the completion. God was building towards something, but now it is all fulfilled. Do you see now, if you haven't been convinced before, why the Old Testament must be read in light of the New Testament? It's the completion. And that's why this word from God comes to us in these last days. Now, did you notice that? Were you startled at all to read that? It might be a little surprising to read that we're living in the last days.

27:16Did you know that? We are. This is not the only scripture that says that. We are living in the last days. Through Joel, God said that in the last days He would pour out His Spirit. And then in Acts 2, we see Him do that at Pentecost. And what was it that brought us into the last days, that brought the last days into human history now? It was the work of Christ. The work of Christ did that. This passage says that He made purification for sins. Now, when I say God spoke completely, I haven't even scratched the surface.

27:59He did the work necessary to bring us to God, to reconcile us to the Father. For sinners like you and me, for rebels who rejected their Creator and Lord, there had to be an atoning sacrifice. The blood of bulls and goats and sheep would never have been enough.

28:20There had to be someone perfect, someone human, and someone eternal. It had to be the Son of God. He had to make purification for sins so that anyone who comes in humble faith could be forgiven and brought into fellowship with God. And that's what He did. That's why God speaks completely. He spoke by His Son completely and finally. And how do we know that it's final? Because it says that after making purification for sins, He sat down.

29:00You ever finish something really hard and you're just looking forward to sitting down? Listen, there were no seats in the temple. There was no chair in the holy place. Why is that? There were no seats and chairs because the priests kept on sacrificing over and over and over, day after day, week after week, year after year. They never sat down because their work was never finished. But what did Jesus say? It is finished. It's finished. And so, He sits down.

29:44His sacrifice is final. The full atonement for sin has been made. And so, He sits down. We don't need to wait for anything further. God spoke completely in His Son.

30:08Here's the third one. Through Jesus, God spoke powerfully. God appointed the Son the heir of all things. Because of His work, Jesus has been given an inheritance. The earth with all its kingdoms, all its treasures, all its creatures. He received the sky and the cosmos. Everything in the physical universe is to Him and for Him. And Jesus is the one through whom God created the world, the passage tells us. He was the Word with God and the Word that was God from the beginning, who made heaven and earth.

30:47And if that wasn't enough, He also upholds the universe, this passage tells us. Everything depends on Him for its preservation. He keeps planets moving around the sun. He keeps every electron moving around every nucleus. He directs the migration of the birds and the replication of our DNA.

31:13And He doesn't do this by brute force. He's not like the mythical Titan Atlas with the world on His shoulders struggling to keep it up. Have you seen pictures of Him? Maybe at Rockefeller Center or something like that? He's on one knee. He can barely hold it up. He's doing it by brute force. But Jesus keeps all this going by the Word of His power.

31:43You know, a powerful man can do something by brute force. But an even more powerful person can speak and it's done. Jesus is the second. By the Word of His power, He holds it all up. That is real strength. For some reason, it makes me think about advertisements for trucks and how they're all the same. Slow motion of trucks rolling through something rugged and then a voice comes on with all these adjectives. Dependable. Reliable.

32:25Powerful. The advertising companies know people are looking for that in a truck. We want something like that. We don't want something that's going to break down when it hits a speed bump. We want something like in that commercial. Dependable. Reliable.

32:47All of those words, they're actually true about Jesus. He is dependable. He is reliable. He is powerful. Why? Because He is the owner, the originator, and the sustainer of everything in the world. Everything. Don't you think He's the right person to entrust yourself to completely and not hold anything back?

33:20In an uncertain world, we don't need to search for anyone stronger. Now, I'll end with this. Through Jesus, God spoke supremely. When the Son sat down, He did it at the right hand of the Majesty on high. When He came to sat down, the Father didn't say, oh, I don't have any place for you. Go clean out that side closet over there. You can maybe sit down over there.

33:52He sat down at the right hand. The position of rule, of authority, of power. The highest position. He is the exalted Lord. He is sitting at the position of power and it's from there that He upholds the universe and He intercedes for us.

34:11But He doesn't just have this role because He's the Son. This is not nepotism. Yeah, my Son shows up and I'm just going to give him the best seat in the house. He earned it. He earned it. He has this role because of His sacrifice, His faithfulness, His obedience. That's why He's become as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent. We don't pray and you shouldn't pray in the name of Gabriel or Michael or any other angel.

34:44We pray in one name, the powerful name of Jesus, the servant, the victor, the Christ, the exalted Lord. He gained this name through His suffering, His death, His resurrection, and His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. His is the best name. And now I'm already starting to bridge into the next part of Hebrews and how much better Jesus is. How much superior He is. But I'll leave that for next week. And I'll end with this. In a world where everything from phones to cars are constantly getting outdated, replaced by the next model that has more features, it is good news indeed to hear that we can build our life on something that will never become obsolete.

35:46He is the ultimate strength. He is the sure foundation of our hope. He is the only one worthy of our devotion. Don't look for anyone better. That's a futile search. Rest in the one through whom God spoke supremely. All right. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. So let's go. Let's go. For now. Let's go. So let's go. Let's go. What's go on? Google Gedanken song. You should be able For now. I'll give that connection.

36:18So let's go. Listen. You should. For now. The first is good one 月. You should gather the West economy Eastern day, And that can be Awesome. Humans Chili Somebody Gates