Transcript

An old Puritan preacher used to say that there were only two questions he needed to answer in order to face whatever happened to him in his life. Question number 1: Has God spoken? And question number 2: What did He have to say?[1]

No matter what you are facing today, those are probably two of the most profound, encouraging questions you can answer. In this wandering, confusing, challenging world, the Christian can answer both of those questions: Yes, God has spoken; and yes, His Word tells us what He said.

As we set sail into the book of Hebrews, these two questions needed an answer like never before. Persecution was rising against Christians—especially against Jewish converts to Christ.

The title of this book informs us that it was written in general to Hebrews, or Jewish, Christians. More than likely, based on the comment in Hebrews 13:24, which says, “Those who come from Italy send you greetings,” this letter was originally sent to Jewish believers suffering in the heart of the Roman Empire: the capital city of Rome.

By this time, around AD 65, Nero had literally lost his mind. He had blamed the Christians in Rome for starting the great fire that destroyed much of the city. Some have pointed a finger at Nero himself starting this fire to make room for his new palace. Since Christians had spoken openly of God’s judgment of fire that would soon come, they were easy targets for Nero’s accusations; many of them were hunted down and killed.  

So, these were desperate times. Believers needed reassurance that God had spoken, that God was aware, that God was in control, and that God’s Son, their Lord and Savior, was indeed the way, the truth, and the life.

They needed answers, and they needed them now.

Perhaps that is why the book of Hebrews starts, as one author put it, like a rocket ship sent to the moon. There are no opening greetings, no expression of good wishes, no introduction of the author’s name.[2]

It just dives right in to answering that primary question:

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. (verses 1-2)

Right away we are introduced to the theme of this book. Simply put, it is this: Jesus is superior. Here we are told Jesus is better than all the prophets of the Old Testament.

By the way, the word better is going to show up over and over again in this book. We are going to be shown how Jesus is better: He is better than the prophets and the angels (here in chapter 1); He has brought us a better hope (chapter 7); He is the mediator of a better covenant, with better promises (chapter 8), and so on.[3]

To this day we do not know who the author of this book of Hebrews was. Some argue for Barnabas, or Silas, or Dr. Luke, or Apollos. But we do not know.

What we do know is the author’s overall theme: Jesus is superior to everything and sovereign over all things—including that madman on the throne in Rome and the chaos in your world today.

And how do we know that Jesus is superior and sovereign? Because God the Father said so! Again, we read in these opening verses, “God [the Father] spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”

In the past, God spoke through many prophets and used a variety of methods to get His message across. To some, like Daniel, he spoke in dreams and visions. To others, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he simply said, “Tell them this: ‘Thus saith the Lord.’” With others, like Ezekiel, He had them act out His message. Yes, He certainly had a lot to say.

But now, the writer says, God has spoken directly to us through His very own Son. And who is this Son?

First, He is the one who owns everything. Nero might want to build a little palace on the hill, but Jesus owns the hill—he actually owns Planet Earth. The writer says in verse 2 that He is the [God-appointed] “heir of all things.” And that is because, the writer goes on to say, He, Jesus, “created the world.”

That is a staggering announcement of Jesus’ eternal preexistence as God the Son. He created the world. So, go back to Genesis 1:3, where God said, “Let there be light.” Who said that? God the Son did. He would one day take on flesh and miraculously enter the human race, but He existed from eternity past as equally divine, as God the Son, along with God the Father and God the Spirit.

The writer goes on to describe Jesus in verse 3: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” He is telling us that Jesus is the exact representation of the very essence of God. What that means is this: Jesus was not a perfect man who got exalted to deity; Jesus was—and is—deity who became the perfect man.

If Jesus was just a man, He could never be described as He is in verse 3—as the one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” He is the universe’s Creator; and even now He is holding the universe together.

Our world is desperate to know where we came from. Can we find the origin of the universe? Where did it all come from? Just answer two questions, beloved: Has God spoken? And What did He say? In these opening verses, you have both answers: God has spoken through His Son, and He has said His Son is the Creator of the universe.

Now when the book of Hebrews was written, there were false teachers trying to bring Jesus down to the level of angels. But the writer of Hebrews clearly states that Jesus has “become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (verse 4).

Jesus is not just another angelic messenger. And through the remainder of chapter 1, the writer launches into a series of quotations from the Old Testament that drive home the truth of Christ’s overwhelming superiority to angels.

In verse 5 he quotes from Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14 to show that Jesus is God’s unique Son.

Verse 6 is a quotation from Deuteronomy 32:43, where all the angels are summoned to worship the Son of God.

Verses 7-9 quote two psalms (Psalms 104:4; 45:6-7), which say the angels serve God—but Jesus is actually called God in verse 8: “But of the Son [Jesus] he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.’” Beloved, that ought to shut down any argument that Jesus is just a man.

Then in verses 10-12, the author quotes Psalm 102:25-27, asserting that Jesus laid the earth’s foundations and created the heavens.

Finally, in verse 13, Psalm 110:1 is quoted. This is an invitation to Jesus to sit at the Father’s right hand. Beloved, no angel has ever been given the invitation to sit at the right hand of God, the place that represents the power and sovereignty of the Godhead. That seat is reserved only for Jesus, the Son of God.

The writer concludes by stating that the angels are servants of God (verse 14). They are on assignment to minster to the saints—and that is you and me today.

Yes, God certainly has spoken, and so far, here is what we have learned He has said: Jesus is superior and sovereign over everything. And that is about all you really need to know as you face whatever challenges you are encountering today.