We now turn to God's word, specifically. The
New Testament Book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter
one. We began our sermon series in this book
last Sunday and we just looked at the first verse
and a half or so. Today we're going to recover
that verse and a half, but also take it through
the end of verse. three and I would ask you to
give careful and close attention then for this
is God's word Hebrews one one through three 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
After making purification for sins he sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high This
is God's word. Let's pray. Father, we bless you
and we thank you for this word that sets the
foundation for all that is to come in Hebrews.
As we desire to understand this book, help us
to understand this marvelous introduction. Would
you guide us through it by your spirit? We pray
in Christ's name, amen. How many of you have
bucket list items that you long to see in this
life? Maybe you long to see the Grand Canyon
in all of its grandness. Maybe you long to see
the Northern Lights to watch those lights dance
across the sky. Maybe you long to see some special
kind of animal in its own habitat, like a safari
in Africa or something. Maybe you long to see
maybe your favorite band play in some famous
venue. Maybe you long to see your favorite baseball
team play in Wrigley Stadium. Been there, done
that. What is it that you just long to see that
would really be something special for you. One
of you even mentioned the pyramids of Egypt to
me last week. And so what is it? Well, friends,
as great as those things may be, there is one
thing that we should all long to see. And it's
not a thing. It's our God. We should all long
to see God Matthew 5 8 says blessed are the pure
in heart For they shall see God But at the same
time as we hear that we also may be thinking
of scripture like Exodus 33 where God says to
Moses no one can see me and live or Paul writing
to Timothy who said he who is the blessed and
only Sovereign the King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords who alone has immortality who dwells
in unapproachable light whom no one has ever
seen or can see to him be honor and eternal dominion.
And so what gives? Can we see God or not? Well,
aside from the discussion on how God does not
have a body like men, let's really think about
this. And let's think about this from the top
of a mountain. You'll remember that in Matthew
17 and in Mark chapter nine and Luke chapter
nine, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John
up on a mountain. And as Jesus began to pray,
his face began to change, shining like the sun,
and his clothes became dazzling white, and suddenly
there was Moses, and there was Elijah, and then
this voice came from heaven, this is my beloved
son. with whom I am well pleased, listen to him."
Those three disciples saw, even if just for a
few moments, the glory of Christ. Or from our
text here, we might say the radiance of the glory
of God. John Calvin said, the radiance in the
substance of God is so mighty that it hurts our
eyes until it shines on us in Christ. You see
the only way to understand, to experience, to
see the glory of God is to know Christ Jesus,
to look on him in faith and know that one day
your faith will be turned to sight. Jesus said
it best for us. If you have seen me, you have
seen the father. And so here's what I want us
to see today. This passage shows us the relationship
of the father to the son and that the son is
our prophet, our priest and our king. Let's start
with prophet. What comes to mind when I say the
word prophet? And no, I'm not talking about money.
I'm talking about prophets as people who speak
what God would have them to speak and so who
comes to mind when I say the word prophet is
It Isaiah Is it Daniel? Is it Obadiah is it Zephaniah?
Is it Alexander Payton the prophet? You can read
about him in the historical building. Side note,
one time some teaching and ruling elders from
the presbytery were here and they wanted to go
into the historical building so I took them and
they were quite amazed to see that Fairview has
its very own prophet. That's a story for another
day though. You can come back on September 26th
and maybe hear a little more about it. But what
this text shows us is that Christ is our better
prophet. What a prophet does is to reveal God
through a message delivered. What a prophet does
is to act as God's mouthpiece. But friends, whoever
you're thinking about, be it Jeremiah or Ezekiel
or Elijah, Elisha, whoever it is, Christ does
it better. Christ reveals God. Shorter catechism
says Christ executes the office of a prophet
in revealing to us by His word and spirit the
will of God for our salvation. Jesus is able
to do this because of what verse three says.
Look there, the beginning of verse three. He
is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the
exact imprint of his nature. You see, Jesus is
not merely a likeness of God. Jesus is not a
caricature of God. Colossians 1 .15 says he is
the image of the invisible God. He is one with
the Father. He is of the same substance or the
same essence, or we might say Jesus is of the
same stuff as God. We've kind of already seen
this in the Nicene Creed that we read as our
affirmation of faith part of it reads again begotten
of his father before all worlds God of God light
of light very God of very God Begotten not made
being of one substance with the father by whom
all things were made Yes, Jesus is one with the
Father. And the Father instructed those disciples
on the Mount of Transfiguration. He said, this
is my son. Listen to him. And that's exactly
what the people were to do with the prophets.
To ignore a God -appointed prophet was to ignore
God Himself. Be it Ezekiel or be it Joel. And
if these prophets were to be listened to, how
much more should we listen to the one who is
the exact imprint of God's nature? God spoke
through those prophets as their words were his
words, but the final word is Christ. And therefore
we do not expect ongoing prophecy. For the scriptures
are sufficient to do what they were intended
to do, which is to point us to Christ, to speak
of Christ. Or as Christ speaks through them,
we must recognize, friends, that what we have
in Jesus Christ as the one who is called the
word, that he is sufficient for us. I wonder
if I can illustrate this for you. Do you remember?
Do you remember Jesus on the road to Emmaus after
His crucifixion, after His resurrection? He joins
these two disciples on the road and they are
prevented from recognizing Him. And they begin
to tell Him all the events that have happened
over the last few days. It's actually pretty
funny when you think about it because it's all
about Christ. He knows. And then Luke 24 says
this. That Jesus beginning with Moses and all
the prophets Interpreted to them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself The scriptures
all the way from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 are
speaking of Christ Yes, it's true then friends
Christ is our better prophet But Christ is also
our priest This is a big theme a prevalent theme
in the book of Hebrews with within the Protestant
tradition and the reformed Protestant tradition.
We don't have priests and Actually, I think our
knowledge of the priesthood is pretty limited
Old Testament priesthood Because I've had very
few of you actually only two that I can think
of ever say to me You know what? I really want
to study Leviticus But we should because in order
to understand Christ as our priest we should
understand what the priest did and so I'm gonna
take you to Leviticus just for a minute Leviticus
chapter 1 verses 3 & 5 as we see the primary
responsibility of the priests Leviticus 1, 3
to 5. If his offering is a burnt offering from
the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish.
He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent
of meeting that he may be accepted before the
Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the
burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him
to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill
the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons the
priests shall bring the blood and Throw the blood
against the sides of the altar that is at the
entrance of the tent of meeting and on and on
we could go through Leviticus to see this but
I want you to understand the primary responsibility
of these Old Testament priests Was to make sacrifices
on behalf of the people God. Now, why don't we
have these sacrifices anymore? Why don't we do
these things now? Go back to Hebrews 1 and look
at verse 3. We don't do these things now because
we don't have to. About the middle of verse 3,
after making purification for sin, There is no
need for these ongoing sacrifices because Jesus
has done it. He has made purification or your
text, your translation may say that he has purged
us of our sin. It's all communicating the idea
of how we were terribly unclean in our sin, that
we are polluted, that we were dirty in our hearts,
in our minds, in our bodies. We are in the most
desperate need of cleansing. But Christ is pure.
Christ is spotless. And in this way, he is our
priest. However, he is also the sacrifice. Jesus
is our priest, but he's also the sacrificial
lamb. Larger Catechism 44 says Christ executes
the office of a priest. and is once offering
himself a sacrifice without spot to God to be
a reconciliation for the sins of his people and
in making continual intercession for us. Friends,
this is why we don't have priests. We've got
pastors who are to shepherd people towards the
good shepherd, but we don't have priests. We
don't need them. Because Jesus is our great high
priest and he has made purification once and
for all on the cross This is why if you happen
to read the confession or the catechisms of Westminster
Regarding the Lord's Supper, you'll see that
these documents go out of their way to explain
that when we come for the Lord's Supper We do
not come to repeat the sacrifice of Christ. That's
what the Catholics teach. We don't do that. Why?
Again, because we don't have to. Jesus has done
it once and for all who would trust in him. And
yet if you can remember the people when Jesus
was crucified, what do they say? Oh, he can save
others, but he can't save himself. And so why
didn't Jesus just call upon the angels to swoop
down and take him off of that cross? He did it
for you. He did it to reconcile you to holy God.
And in that way, we must recognize this, then
they, the people, did not take his life from
him. He laid it down. He laid it down voluntarily
for all of you. What that should do in our hearts,
right? How that should manifest itself in our
lives that we ought to be just forever grateful
and thankful. We ought to be here. We ought to
be worshiping because we realize what Jesus went
through for us. that Jesus was the sacrifice.
Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I do this
a lot with Hebrews. You can almost illustrate
the entirety of Hebrews as you just go through
the first few verses. But Hebrews 9 22 says this.
Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified
with blood. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness. of sins. So those Old
Testament sacrifices that involve the blood,
they're pointing ahead to the true sacrifice,
to Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. It's through
His stripes, His wounds that you are healed.
Real atonement was made there. Not temporary
atonement, not like those Old Testament priests
who had to keep sacrificing again. and again,
but forever atonement. And you can see this forever
idea in verse three, because what does he do
after he makes purification for sin? He sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Did
you know that there were no seats in the temple?
Why not? Rick Phillips at Second Pres explains,
His atoning sacrifice was the one to which all
the others had merely pointed. He sat down because
there was no more sacrifice to be made. In other
words, Jesus did something that no other priest
had ever done. Jesus finished his work and then
he sat down. For the work of the sacrifice was
complete. Can you imagine being one of these
Old Testament priests continually offering sacrifices
day in and day out, night in and night out? As
long as there was sin, these Old Testament priests
had job security. Because they were going to
have to keep doing it on and on until Christ
came. This work. must have been incredibly taxing.
But you don't really have to wonder about how
taxing it is, because if you have not come to
Christ, you're kind of doing the same thing.
By your own efforts, you are saying to God, look
at me, look what I'm doing. This is enough, isn't
it? Friends, if you have not come to Christ,
you are trying to save yourself. You're trying
to make atonement based upon your own works,
and it'll never be enough. Those works are not
sufficient. It's like you are being your own
personal priest. To use the words of Ecclesiastes,
you are striving after wind. You are doing something
that you ought not do. You're doing something
you cannot do. So instead, if you have not placed
your faith in Jesus Christ, consider his words
on this. come to me all who labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and
lowly in heart and you will find rest for your
souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
And so yes, Christ is our better priest. But
finally, thirdly, Christ is also our King. Look
at verse two. He is the appointed heir of all
things. Perhaps the author of Hebrews has Psalm
2 -8 in mind that says, ask of me and I will
make your nations your heritage and the ends
of the earth your possession. We should remember
that Adam and Eve were essentially these heirs.
The Adam and Eve were appointed to rule on the
earth. Genesis 128 says to them, be fruitful
and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every
living thing that moves on the earth. Adam and
Eve should have been thought of as the king and
the queen of the earth, but through their sin,
they lost that authority and they were kicked
out of the garden. But Christ comes and the authority
is now his one commentator says the dominion
Originally promised to Adam was gained by Christ
because Christ is now the king of all and not
only is he the king but this text also says That
he's the one who created all of it, isn't he?
How often do you think of God the Father is the
creator? We should right And how often do we
think of the Holy Spirit being involved in creation?
He was, right? But do we really think that much
about the Son and His creative efforts? Where
does the Son fit in? He's right there. This text
very literally says the Son is the one. through
whom God made the ages. Combine this with John
chapter one, which makes the point that all things
were made through him and without him, not a
thing was made that was made. So you see this
King that we have, this Jesus is also our maker.
God made all things through him. But we're not
done, for look at the middle to about the end
of verse three. After he makes this purification
for sins, he sits down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. What does he sit down to do?
Does Jesus now say, I get to relax here? Does
Jesus sit at the right hand of the father to
watch Netflix? Of course not. What does Jesus
sit down to do? He sits down according to verse
3 to uphold the universe by the word of his power.
Jesus sits down to uphold and he continues to
uphold. Shorter catechism again. Christ executes
the office of a king in subduing us to himself.
in ruling and defending us and in restraining
and conquering all his and our enemies. What
other king could ever rule like that? The answer
is obvious. There is no other king who could
rule like that. 1 Corinthians 15, 25 says, God
has put all things in subjection under his feet.
Do you remember how last Sunday I said that the
book of Hebrews kind of acts like a commentary
on Psalm 110 that begins like this? The Lord
says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
That's a Psalm that's written by David. And so
what's he saying there? The Lord, Yahweh, says
to my Lord, the Christ, sit at my right hand.
all things are going underneath your feet. And
yet people, especially in his incarnation, have
doubted. They doubted, and they still do today,
his rule and his reign. He just, to some, just
doesn't look like a king, does he? He certainly
didn't meet the expectations of the people of
his time, what they thought a king should be.
He came riding in on a donkey and it didn't take
long for their praises to turn into curses and
then Pontius Pilate is there and he asks Jesus
Are you the king of the Jews and he's looking
at Jesus with skepticism saying you're not a
king But Jesus stuns him when he says my kingdom
is not of this world. And then he elaborates
to show Pilate that he's a different kind of
king, the sort of king who would allow himself
to be handed over in order to be crucified. Yes,
it's true. Jesus is a different kind of King
than the world has ever known He is the sort
of King who doesn't take his kingdom by force
but takes it by laying down his life You see
friends the way to the throne for Jesus is through
the cross But thanks be to God He was raised
and so Jesus is on the throne now But lastly
as we conclude here, let's look at how he upholds
How he upholds all things the text says by the
word of his power. It's it is a truly remarkable
thing That our God speaks Just let that sink
in our God speaks He speaks in his son and the
very same way that he spoke the world into existence.
Now Christ upholds the world by speaking. I started
thinking, what would encourage our hearts today
when it comes to Christ speaking? Well, along
with ruling and defending us and protecting us
by the word of his power, There is another way
in which Christ speaks today. He speaks prayer
to the Father. Hebrews 725. Consequently, he
is able to save to the utmost those who draw
near to God through him, since he always lives
to make intercession for them. Does it then encourage
your hearts to know that the one who upholds
the universe, he prays for you. That's another
function of his priesthood. And so knowing that
you belong to the triune God who through his
son, the radiance of his glory, he has defeated
sin and death on the cross, he has made purification
for your sins, knowing that he is powerful enough
to keep it all going by the word of his power.
Would you Christian take comfort that God has
you in his grasp that you are prayed for And
he will not let you go No matter what you go
through