Jesus Greater than the Prophets - Hebrews Series Part 2 - Jason Willis

Today for Sunday School, we're going to be digging into the first three verses of Hebrews. We started a 12-week study last week. A little recap of what we learned last week: we began a study of the book of Hebrews, and last week we did an overview, and we discussed the cultural and the historical context surrounding this letter. This was a time when persecution was hitting the Hebrews from both sides, from the Jewish leaders and also from the Romans. In addition to this, we discussed the issues that were arising from a cultural clash that was caused by a large number of Gentiles that were converting into the church.

And many of the Christians were turning back to Judaism, or there was a group called the Judaizers, and they started to teach a half-breed type of Christianity, which taught that Gentiles needed to be circumcised and become Jews as prerequisites for them to become Christians. And this was the reason that this letter was written by Paul. And, well, we say Paul; I say Paul. Technically, we don't know 100%. We talked about that last week. We also talked about that we think that it was written sometime between 60 and 70 AD. We looked at three clues that helped us kind of determine that. And it's a letter of exhortation, exhorting and encouraging the Hebrew Christians not to turn back to Judaism, not to turn from Christ, to endure to the end in the face of persecution and cultural conflict that was arising.

And so today we're going to be looking at the first three verses. First, I'll read it, and then we'll dig into it together. "So God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, and through 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, he sat down at the majesty on high, at the right hand of the majesty on high."

So let's begin here with these two phrases: "who at various times and in the past." So when we see these phrases, these basically encapsulate 100% of all communication that God gave to man in the Old Testament. And then it trickles a little bit into the New Testament. Some New Testament examples: we have an angel telling Mary that she's pregnant, and she's going to have a child, and his name is going to be Jesus.

And then we have an angel speaking to Joseph in a dream: "Joseph, listen, don't freak out. Your wife, she's pregnant, but do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." And then we have an angel appear to the shepherd and to the wise men. And then we have an angel again appearing to Joseph in a dream after Jesus' birth, telling him to flee to Egypt and to wait for further instructions. And so all of this is God speaking to man at various times in the past.

The next part of the verse says, "in various times and in various ways." So we just talked about God speaking to man through angels, but this is not the only way that God has spoken to man in the past. This verse tells us that God spoke to man in various ways.

So real quick, what are some of the various ways that God has spoken to man? We talked about angels just now. I've got five or six of them written down. Who can think of other ways that God has spoke to man in times past?

Get in and sleep. Get in and sleep. Very good. The arms donkey. The donkey. That's one of my favorites. That made the list. The, if you continue on the verse, it says by the prophets. Very good. By the prophets.

By handwriting on the wall. Handwriting on the wall. Mount Sinai with all the smoke and fire and. Very good. Trumpets.

We also have thunder. Possibly Paul heard the voice of God on the road to Damascus, and others thought they heard thunder. Burning bush. I'm sure there's some others. So in various ways spoke to the fathers, and this is meaning our ancestors, our forefathers, by the prophets. And here Paul is talking about the Old Testament prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Jonah, and there's some others.

Let's continue. Verse 2, "Has in these last days." So now we see something shifting. Now we have a second time period entering into the scene. First, we had times past, and then now a new time has arrived, and it's being referred to as in these last days.

The verse continues, "Has spoke to us in these last days by his Son." So what is being said here is that God's mode of communication with humanity has changed. The shift has taken place. In times past and in various ways, he spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but now in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.

Now, I know this is a little redundant, but I want to make sure that you keep up with me here. So this is where we got so far. So all of communication from God at various times and in various ways spoken to the fathers by the prophets. Now, all of this communication has been in times past. But once God speaks through his Son, we now enter into the last days.

Now, about this term the last days, it is often used to refer to as the end times or the apocalypse or Armageddon. And as I was studying this, I was thinking to myself, how is Paul using it here? Is he using this term just meaning like in these most recent times, or is he using a term in the sense of Armageddon? And as I was digging into it, I didn't necessarily come to a final conclusion on that, but I did have a couple of thoughts that I wanted to share with you. On the left-hand side of the screen, what you see is the Greek words that are being used here for last days.

And then on the right-hand side of the screen are two verses that are commonly used or accepted by many as describing things as we move closer to the end times in the sense of Armageddon. Now, the same Greek words that are being used in these two passages are the same Greek words that are being used here in Hebrews 1:2. What does this mean?

Not 100% sure. I didn't really dig all the way. Didn't come to a solid conclusion on that. But these are the two thoughts I wanted to share. Number one, we see in 1 Peter 2:3-8, which says, "But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day."

So think with me about this for a moment. God who is outside of time, a thousand years to him is like a day to us. So this means that to the God who is outside of time, there has been a grand total of about two days since Jesus was born. Now that we are in 2022, this means that we are 22 years into the third 1,000-year period. So I did some calculations. If a thousand years is a day to God, and we are now 22 years into the third 1,000-year period, this means that we are now into the third day for about 31 minutes. So to God, Christ was born two days and 31 minutes ago, according to the scripture.

Now, using the same math, the average human today will live about two hours in God time. Think about that. It helps us get a perspective. When God says, "Your life is but a vapor. It's a mist. It's here today and tomorrow. It's gone." He means that in a real literal sense.

And this is the first thought that I have about the apocalypse. Statistically speaking, the odds that you will be living when Christ returns are very uncertain. Christ may very well return in our lifetime, but people thought that in the 20th century, 19th and 18th, go all the way back. People were always thinking, "That's coming. It's here, guys."

Now, it's hopeful. It is good for us to have a hopeful expectation that he may return in our lifetimes, but this is not something that we should be building our Christianity around. We should not build our Christianity around this particular hope. So that's my first thought.

The second thought that I have on this, I need to appeal to your imagination. Let's say that you're cooking lunch. You turn on the stove. It's a gas stove. Suddenly, you hear this most ominous and deafening sound that you've ever heard in your life. If they say a tornado is the sound of a train horn, this is the sound of 10,000 tornadoes. And your house begins to shift a little bit beneath you. You're not sure what's going on, but you know something is not right.

And so you step outside and you look at all your neighbors. Everyone has come outside and you notice something. You notice that you're the only one that's not looking up into the sky. And when you look up into the sky, the sky is cracked open and you see thousands upon thousands of angelic beings pouring into our atmosphere. And there leading the way is the King of Kings with a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, ready to judge the inhabitants of the earth.

People begin to wail and scream as the chaos ensues. Suddenly, every priority in your life is completely flipped upside down. What was for dinner no longer matters. There's not going to be supper tonight. Whether you go back inside and turn off the stove to keep the house from burning down, it doesn't matter whether the house burns down or not. It's all the same at this point.

The disagreement you had with your coworker or your brother, it doesn't matter anymore. Judgment is upon the world and you're powerless. It's too late to convert your neighbor or your father or your brother or friend. And most terrifying of all, if you're living in sin, it's too late to repent.

It's over for you. Time is up. So I want you to imagine when you're in this imagination here, think about how foreign the experience would be, how intense it would be, and how terrifying. Those three things, foreign, intense, and terrifying.

What I contend to you is this, that the day that you die, when your consciousness leaves your body and you find yourself existing with no body, and you find yourself descending into Hades, into the intermediate place, as the scriptures teach that you will, this will be just as intense and just as foreign and just as terrifying as if we all stood up and walked outside and saw the sky cracked open.

There is no way for you to know that you will be alive when Christ returns, but you can just about bet your mortgage that you're going to die.

Your days are already numbered, and many of us in this room have 10, 20, 30 years left, and that's only about 30 minutes left in God time. So what is my point in all this? My point is that you have your own personal Armageddon waiting for you. As far as your life is concerned, these are the last days, even in the sense of Armageddon. So I call for us to live as if we are indeed dying because we are dying. And you need to be asking yourself, what thought processes, what attitudes, what sin is in my life that I need to be cleansed of in these last few minutes that I have before life passes us by?

So those were the two thoughts that I had about this idea of the last days. Let's go back to our verse. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. Now, if you remember back to last week, we discussed how the author of Hebrews was going to be making comparison. He was going to be making comparisons of Jesus to all sorts of different aspects of the Jewish religion. And so what we have here is Paul comparing Jesus to the prophets, making the argument that Jesus is superior to the prophets. So how exactly is he making this argument? If you're not paying close attention, it can slip by you. He says that in these last days, God has spoken to us by his Son.

It was once said that God's final revelation was given to man through Jesus Christ. In other words, all that we need to know about God can be known through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring to man the final, the ultimate message of God, the ultimate understanding of God, so that all that man is to know about God can be discovered in and through Jesus Christ, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son. So we're talking about directly being spoken to from the Son of God, not first delivered to angels, and then the angels deliver it to the prophets, and then the prophets deliver it to the fathers, not through burning bushes, not through donkeys, from the mouth of the Son of God we have been spoken to in these last days.

So this makes Jesus greater than the prophets. Next part of the verse. Whom he has appointed to be heir of all things, and through whom also he made the worlds. So here we have two different thoughts, and I put them in two different colors because they are two different thoughts, and it is better for our Western minds to look at them in reverse order.

Through whom also he made the worlds. John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God." He was in the beginning with God. All things that were made, all things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. And so what this does is this means that the Christ is the alpha, the beginning.

Now, let's look at this second phrase. Whom he had appointed heir of all things. When you inherit something, you become the possessor of it. It now belongs to you. And so for Christ to someday be the one who inherits all things, this makes him the owner of all things, and this one in the end makes him the omega.

So here we have Paul describing the Son as being the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega. And this is a recurring theme that we see in scripture. We see this again coming right from the mouth of Jesus in Revelation 22, when he says, "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

Now, this idea of Jesus being the alpha and the omega, it reminds me of one of my favorite passages where Jesus is conversing with the Jewish leaders. And this is one of those conversations where he really gets under their skin. I mean, he's poking at them hard, it seems, or at least they don't take it too nicely. He pushes the envelope all the way to the point where they pick up stones and want to stone him. And we see this in John 8, and we're going to look at it, and you may be wondering what version is he reading from. You won't be able to find this version. What I've done here is I've paraphrased it to illustrate the way that my mind sees it when I read it now that I've read it 500 times.

So you can go back later and read it and see how close I was. It's pretty close. Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me. Do you want to know why you would love me? Because I proceed forth from him. I came from God. Listen to me. I have not come by myself, but God has sent me. And there is a reason that you don't understand what I say.

The reason is because you're not of God. You do not understand because you are children of Satan. When he speaks lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of all lies. But I tell the truth. And the reason that you don't believe me is because you're just like your father, the devil.

Don't believe me? You be the judge. Tell me. Which of you can convict me of a sin? None of you. And the reason is because I'm telling the truth. And he who is of God hears God's word, but you do not hear because you are not of God."

Wow. Jesus comes out of the gate swinging. This gets the Jews all riled up. These are some Jewish fighting words. And then the Jews answered him and said, "Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" And Jesus answered, "I don't have a demon, but I honor the Father, and you dishonor me.

And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges." All right, so this is where it gets really heated up. "Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my words, he shall never see death."

And then the Jews said to him, "Now we know you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets. And you say that if anyone keeps your words, they will not taste death. Who do you think you are? You sound like a madman.

Are you saying that you're greater than our father Abraham, who's dead by the way, and greater than the prophets who are also dead? Who do you make yourself out to be?" And Jesus says, "Oh, you want to bring up Abraham? I'll tell you a little bit about Abraham.

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad." And now the Jews are thinking, "Wait a minute. Abraham was dead way, way before this guy was born." Then the Jews said to him, "You're not even 50 years old, and you say you've seen Abraham?" And Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." The Jews say, "Look, you're not even 50 years old, and you say that you've seen Abraham?" And Jesus leans in and says, "Bro, I'm the alpha."

Mic dropped. They're like, "Stone him!" He was dodging. I don't know if they hit him or not. They probably hit him a little bit. So that's verses one and two. Verse three. Who being the brightness of his glory? How do we separate brightness from light? Can it be separated?

The brightness is a part of it. It flows from it. It radiates from it. Some translations are into this verse saying that he is the radiance of the glory of God. You can think of this like the light or the heat radiating from the sun. The light, it's radiating from the sun, but it's not the sun itself. It is an expression of the sun.

And though the sun is one of the most powerful things that we know of in our creation, I admit that this is still somewhat of a weak comparison because the scripture here is telling us that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God. I don't even know how to make a picture for that.

Who being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person. Other translations say it this way. They say he is the exact imprint or the exact expression of his substance. I like that one. Or the exact representation of his nature. Most illustrations I found for this particular part of the verse refer to an idea of an image left by a stamp, like an impression of a stamp left in wax by an insignia ring. And this is a good illustration, but I would like to think about it just a little bit deeper.

Parents, I want you to think back what it was like when you had your firstborn child, your firstborn. Think back to those moments after the whole exacerbating and painful experience of labor were finally over and the birth pains had finally subsided.

And there you are as a new mother or a new father, and you're holding that infant child in your hands, and you've got his head on your hands right here, and his body's laying down your arms.

In that moment, that feeling is indescribable. And I'm telling you, those feelings that come upon us when we're holding our firstborn, those are a gift from God. The joy, the pride that you experience as your parental instincts are kicking in in their fullness for the first time. And as you hold that expression of yourself, you say to the world, "This is my son." You present that child, "This is my son." Now, that child is not an exact image of you.

In many ways, it is an expression of you, but as people grow up, they'll say, "He's got the eyes of his father," or, "Listen, he laughs like his mother." But it is not an exact or expressed image. It's a mixture. It's part the mother. It's part the father. It's part an image of God.

So once again, the illustration falls short. But what we see here in this passage is Christ not being a mixture of person. He is the exact image, the exact expression, the exact representation of the Father. And this reminds me of the story of when the Father presented his own Son to the world.

It happened on the mount of transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter and James and John up to a high mountain by themselves. It was a private and intimate setting. And there, Jesus was transfigured. The word transfigured in Greek, it is metamorpho. It is the root of the English term metamorphosis.

It means to be transformed. So before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, Jesus was transformed. Transformed into what? We don't know exactly, but we do know this: that his face began to glow like the sun. Even the clothes that he wore became as white as light. And then Moses and Elijah appear. And Peter is so overtaken by the awe of glory in this moment. He says, "Lord, it is good for us to never leave this place. Listen, I'll build a shelter for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. Just let us stay here." And as he is speaking, a bright cloud surrounds them. Their view of the world ceases. All that exists to them in that moment is this cloud with the Lord transformed and the great men of old, Moses and Elijah, and then the Father speaks to them.

As if all of that wasn't enough, the Father chose to speak to them. And what does he say? He says, "This is my Son who I love. Listen to him." In the same way that that parent presents his child to the world, this is my Son. The Father presented Jesus to Peter, James, and John this way.

Now, I know as Christians, we're not supposed to covet, but it's hard not to covet that, to hear the voice of the Father. What an honor. And then Jesus expounds on this reality of him being the expressed image of the Father in the book of John. He says, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. For whatever the Father does, the Son does also." And then again, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Philip, you've been with me all this time. How do you not know this by now? Who has seen me has seen the Father. And then again, "I and the Father are one."

Who being the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power.

So we will end it right there, and we'll pick up with upholding all things by the word of his power next week. So we have about five minutes left if we want to open up for any discussion, any thoughts anyone has, any corrections or anything like that anyone wants to throw into the mix. Be glad to take a nap, speak now.

There is a sense of urgency that goes with that term, the last days. And you see that definitely in the New Testament. I think they totally believe that. I think they expected Jesus to return in their lifetime. And it produced a sense of urgency. It produced a need to present themselves wholly and also to witness, to get the kingdom message out. And I feel like maybe we have lost that a little bit. I agree with you. You said we shouldn't build our Christianity around that. I agree with that. But I think we probably have lost that just because of all the time that has passed. And we tend to think, "Well, it's way out in the future."

And so we've possibly lost that sense of urgency in the kingdom. All right. Thank you.

I do appreciate the thought you shared about it. And something I was thought about many times is when the day comes that we realize that we are leaving this life, it is very much the day of the Lord for us. For us. I consider it as such because I know that's something totally new to me. I can't even imagine that.

Looking that in the face and realizing that I'm going from here to there. And yeah, it's nothing to look lightly at. Yeah, for sure. And when that happens, when we cross over a lot, we'll just suddenly not matter.

And well, I'm sure that most of us who have been exposed to the teachings of Christ, the first thoughts we're going to have are going to be, "What am I not cleansed of? What sin am I still—what? Oh, it's too late. It's over. What are my consequences of my life right now?" I guess what experience—a little bit of an experience I had as a younger person. I had an uncle that passed away with lung cancer.

And one of his struggles in life was he struggled with struggling with the congregation he was from. And maybe for good reasons and maybe not, I don't know what the issues were. But my dad said when he spent his last times there with him, all he could think about, he thoroughly repented. He thoroughly repented. And he even wanted to go back and reunite himself with that congregation. And my father didn't feel like that was necessary for him to do that necessarily. But he wanted to show in the best way he possibly could that he wanted to be at peace with them. And then one of the last things he wanted to do as he was leaving this life and because his mind was starting to become cloudy and stuff, he wanted to give everybody a hug and a kiss.

He said, "Come here, brother. Let me give you a kiss." And he could say, "Well, the man's mind was slipping," but that was the most important thing to him at that point. And I don't know. I think he was getting that sense of moving on into the next. That's a great testimony.

I appreciate it. All right. I thought it was interesting how you used the—I think it's in the first verse—talked about these last days, how God has revealed himself through his Son. The first point I thought was interesting in the old covenant, it was kind of a hit and miss of all these different various ways. But now we have a consistent—we have a consistent way of God revealing himself to us. And I thought it was also interesting how last days, apocalypse, day of the Lord, we use that synonym interchangeably. But from what I understand, the Greek, the meaning of apocalypse is revealing, revealing of what is actually what it truly is. And so in essence, we are in an apocalypse.

We have gone through an apocalypse. And I think from what I understand, the word apocalypse has become used with Armageddon, kind of idea of the last battle. But it's really a revealing, a showing of what truly is. And that has been done in Jesus, that God has revealed himself through his Son. Thank you for that, Zach.

That's all I had was you mentioned about what an honor that would have been to hear the voice of the Father. And it just kind of struck me, what an honor we have that God speaks to us through his Son. Amen.

There's a lot of people in history that would have loved to see this time. What an honor. And my question for myself is, do I listen to them? Yeah.

I was going to say, so I think the main point Paul wants to get across is the unbelieving Jews thought that they had something superior because they had their temple and their priesthood, Moses, the law, and all of this. And Paul is saying, "That's nothing because we have the Son.

The Son himself has spoken to us." And so all of that other stuff doesn't even compare. There you go.

Along with that thought, it's why it's so crucial or critical that we listen to the Son. I think it's interesting. I think most Christianity would say, would agree to that. The Son is God has revealed himself through the Son.

But what creates that sense of urgency to actually listen and obey? Like you said about the end times and all the potential drama that that creates, that doesn't seem to be sustainable to think about that in light of something that's never happened to us. But one thing that does, I think we can recognize, we recognize that world war against sin and against our flesh, and that we know what that feels like in the sense of urgency. And it's everyday persistence. So every time we wake up, I think if we recognize who the enemy is and recognize that the Son is the one that he's spoken through and we need to listen to him, then every day we can experience that sense of urgency without getting sidetracked or losing perspective and forgetting what we haven't really experienced yet and all that kind of thing.

So it was just this sense of how can we be sustainable in that world of flesh? Yeah. I like the idea that when you really look at how thick, if you take all what Jesus said and how it's not much, it's not many pages.

And that's the guidance that we need for all of our life. So it's great that God gave it to us in that condensed form of obey this and you'll be all right.

All right. Well, kids are coming up. Any other final thoughts?

I was. The story and the parable in the Gospels of how there was that husband that rented out his vineyard and kept sending people to get grapes. And they would stone them and they'd throw them out and they'd kill them.

And it seems like it's part of that's God. And he says, "I'm going to send my son. Maybe he'll listen."