Hebrews 1 — Pat Kenney

And would you open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1. Where is Hebrews? It's after Philemon. If you can find Philemon, you're there. Page 1 ,052 in the Holman large print ultra-thin reference Bible. Now, over the next eight or nine weeks, we're going to be studying through the book of Hebrews, taking some topical messages out of the book on the Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights going through the verse-by-verse.

Hebrews 1:1–3: God Has Spoken Through His Son

This Wednesday night, Pastor Richard will be teaching verse-by-verse through chapter 1. This morning, I'd like to look at the first three verses. So let's read them. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time 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, 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 right hand of the Majesty on high.

Jesus, what a great description we have of Your deity, of Your lordship, of Your superiority, Lord, of Your majesty, of Your love for us, Lord. We thank You this morning for Your word. We pray that You would open our ears, Lord, give us ears to hear what You want to say to us today.

Lord, we're a hopeless people if we can't hear You, but Lord, You have made Your word known to us. You have spoken to us. Now, Lord, help us to hear You. In Jesus' name, we commit this time of study. Amen.

Amen. You can sit down, make yourself comfortable. It's good to be here this morning. Amen. Good to be up, good to be awake. Before I get into the study, I want to just give you a brief update on how my wife is doing.

She's doing good. Her energy's up. She had her mastectomy a week ago Thursday, and she's recuperating well from it. But we did get the pathology report back, and it's about as serious as we thought it would be.

The treatment that she's got coming up is still going to be the same. She's going to start four more rounds of chemo in a couple weeks, and that followed by radiation. Looks like the chemo worked on the tumor, but it was still pretty good size when they had to take it out.

So we've still got an aggressive treatment ahead. But her spirits are good, and my spirits are good most of the time, and the Lord's holding us. So thank you for your continued prayer. As a result of partly of what Joyce is going through, I've made a decision, and the board and the pastors have agreed with it, that I'm going to be taking more of a—actually, I'm going to be releasing more of the day-to-day operation ministry to my staff.

So if you call and you're looking for me, you may not find me around much. I will be here the majority of the time on the weekends, except around the time when Joyce is having her chemo, and I'm sure you understand that.

God’s Presence in Suffering

It's a blessed time. We're learning a lot as we're growing through this. I know many of you have suffered. Many of you have had trauma in your life. Some of it's been emotional. Some of it's been physical.

Some of it's been spiritual, and certainly as we go through those times, God makes himself known more and more and more to us, and he is doing that. And it's neat that our passage starts out this morning with God has spoken, and that's been kind of going over and over in my mind these past couple weeks.

God has spoken. Now, I've got to confess to you, there's been a few times where I've said, oh, yeah? So what are you saying, you know? But he's been so faithful that when I stop and I really listen, and what do we listen to?

Am I listening for the audible voice, Pat, this is God, I'm talking to you now, pay attention? I honestly, in all of my Christian life, I've never heard the audible voice, but I've certainly felt him speak to my heart, and I have experienced the Holy Spirit stirring up the word that's already been planted, and the promises of God coming back.

Have you experienced? I hope you have, because God speaks to us through his word, and that's what we want to take a look at a little bit this morning. The fact that God has spoken, and who he has spoken to us through, it's through Jesus.

Apart from Jesus, you can't hear God, but if you know Jesus, you can hear him. Many of us have read the scriptures, some of us were even raised in the church and we had the scriptures, but it was like one ear out the other, bouncing off.

We didn't know him, and until you know him, you don't hear him. You can't know him until you surrender your life to Jesus. Why Jesus? Because Jesus alone paid the price for your sin. Jesus alone made the way that you and I can know the one true God.

There isn't any other way. Now you can play religion, you can get off into meditation and Eastern philosophies and all of these other things, fine, but you will not know the one true God until you know the son of God, the express image of his person.

All that you want to know of God, you will find in Jesus. You won't find him in Buddha. You won't find him in Mohammed. You'll only find him in Jesus. Now I know it's a fact that many of us who know Jesus sometimes get our ears plugged with things of the world, with the cares of the world.

Amen? We do, it's like we got this spiritual, this wax in our ears. Excuse me, it's gross, but I think sometimes the Lord just needs to ream that out. He needs to open it up. And that's my prayer this morning, that God would open up our ears to hear him because he has so much that he wants to show us, amen?

So many things he wants to teach us. So much he wants to feed us with and fill us with that we might be prepared for what life dishes out with what we have to face in life. Now some of you have been just kind of cruising through life and you haven't had any real major problems.

I don't mean to pop your bubble, but that won't last. I'm not being negative, I'm just being practical. Life isn't Disneyland, you know? Well sometimes it is, like the big Thunder Mountain ride that killed that guy a few months ago, you know?

Sometimes you just think you're having a grand old time and then all of a sudden, boom, tragedy hits. How are you prepared for that? What's going to hold you through it? God's spoken to us. He's given us his word.

Hebrews and Perseverance in Faith

Hebrews is a great book. Some people have kind of shied away from Hebrews because it's got some pretty stern warnings in it. And some have even misinterpreted the warnings in the book of Hebrews to make you scared that you might lose your salvation if you mess up.

That's not the message of the book of Hebrews. On the contrary, the book of Hebrews exhorts discouraged Christians to continue on with Jesus, to press on with Jesus. In the light of who he is, the light of his complete superiority of who he is and what he has done for us.

And I need to be reminded of that truth. And perhaps you do too today as well. We are so blessed today to feed upon the promises of his word. Promises as we face difficult circumstances. Promises that we find are a reservoir for us, to guard us and to protect us, to comfort us as we go through this life.

And it's those promises that really fuel our mission as Christians, our purpose as believers. Why get involved in the talking Bible? Why care about the Elongat people? Why reach out if God hasn't spoken to us?

If God hasn't given us promises that are sure and true and reliable, but he has. And because he has, we want others to know. We're compelled to tell others about what he has done. We are such a blessed people.

And God has given us his word to show us that this life is not all about us. That's a revelation sometimes, isn't it? How many of you know after you get saved sometimes it takes a couple decades to work that through?

That it's not about us. But it's to touch others. It's to be a light. We have no light if we don't have God's word. It's the living word of Jesus in us that's the light of the world. How desperate our world is for Jesus.

I haven't seen an improvement in the news lately or in the state of our culture or society. Have you? I haven't. It's getting darker and darker. Well, what do we do? Crawl in a hole? Oh, it's just too dark.

No, because God has made these sure and certain promises to us. And we believe them. And they've changed our lives. We're lights and we let the world know. God is blessed each one of us here today. He has spoken to us.

Help us to hear, Lord, today what your spirit is saying. God, verse 1, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. God, that's how the book begins. Most of the epistles, we have the introduction.

Who wrote it? Peter, Paul. Some people think Paul may have been the author of the book of Hebrews. There's a lot of things in there that might indicate that he was. There's other critics who'll tell you, no, there's plenty of things that indicate he wasn't.

But it's a moot point. Who's the real author of Hebrews? He tells us right here, God. First word, God. That's the standard introduction in these Old Testament writings. The writer first introduces, and Hebrews very appropriately begins, God.

Okay, this is from God. Let's listen. Now, there's no attempt to prove God's existence. It is simply a self-evident given here. Hebrews begins with an idea basic to the Bible. God exists and he speaks to humanity.

This is the great message of Hebrews. God has spoken. So take heed how you respond to his word. Because after all, the way we respond to the word of God is the way we respond to the son of God. For he is the living word.

That's why we're here today. That's why we've gathered here this morning, to respond to his word. Not just to put in time, but to say, Lord, speak to my heart, speak to me today. Some of you really need to be spoken to today.

You need to hear the word of the Lord. Maybe you need confirmation in a direction that you're going. Maybe you need an exhortation to stop the direction you're going. Maybe you need a word of comfort.

But I know we all need to hear. Now, we're told here in this verse that God spoke in Old Testament times by the prophets. And he did speak in the Old Testament. But it wasn't a complete revelation. What the Old Testament gave and brought was never meant to satisfy, but only to awaken the expectation of something better that was to come.

The Old Testament was looking forward and preparing the way. No prophet ever received the complete revelation, Warren Wiersbe said. God spoke through visions, dreams, symbols, and events, as well as through human lips.

These revelations pointed to Jesus Christ. And he, he is the final revelation from God. Christ is God's last word to the world. All of the Old Testament revelation led up to Christ, God's final and full revelation.

And we get to know him. Is that amazing? We get to know him and to walk with him. There's no more pieces to fall into place. We have the revelation of God. We have the plan of God laid out for us, the purposes of God.

Why Jesus came? To seek and to save that which was lost. That didn't happen in the Old Testament. But it pointed to the one who would. By whose stripes we would be healed and be saved. We can know the Almighty God through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I just can't get over that. I can't stop marveling at what God has spoken to us. We sang some beautiful songs this morning. Songs that really spoke to my heart. Actually really spoke to my heart last night and again this morning.

But think about some of the things that we were singing. I mean what we opened up with, I'm here to meet with you. What a crazy thing it is that human beings can meet with God. That we can meet with him.

That we can have fellowship with him. That we can have communion with the God of all creation. Learning to trust him. To rely upon his power. To realize his mercy and his compassion for us. And I love that song, it might be today.

Though I don't see you, still Lord I love you. You've given me hope. Do you know that today? No matter how dark your days may have been or may be. God gives you hope. You've given me hope. You've given me life through all my trials.

Still Lord you're with me and I have your word. You're coming back for me. And it might be today that I look into your eyes. It might be today I see your face. It might be today you place your wounded hands on my tear-stained face.

It might be today. And I shared last night of the first time I heard that. I was thinking, yeah Lord come quickly. Today we could be out of here. Then I realized as we sang it again. This could speak for right now as well.

It might be today. It might be today that you first look into his eyes. Or maybe it's been a long time since you've looked into his eyes. Maybe it's been a long time since you've heard him speak to you.

And he wants to put his wounded hands across your tear-stained face. Not to smack you but to wipe your tears. And to remind you of his love and of his faithfulness for you. All who are thirsty. All who are weak.

Come to the fountain. Dip your heart in the springs of life. Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away in the waves of his mercy. In those waves deep cries out to deep. Come Lord Jesus. Powerful prayers that we might hear the Lord.

We might have him speak to us. Because God spoke. We can sing songs like this. Doesn't make any sense to sing a song like this. God hasn't spoken. These songs would never have been written if God hadn't spoken.

Some of us are pretty tough, aren't we? Yeah, we are. We think we are. We like to be in control. And then when God brings things into our lives that we can't control, what happens? What do you do? What do people do?

Sometimes we get mad at God. That doesn't work, does it? But you know what? I have found, I've discovered, experienced again just these last few weeks that when you get mad at God, he doesn't get mad at you.

Because if I was God and the one I died for gave me lip, he'd hear about it. But that's not how God is. That is not how God is. Because God has spoken, we find that when we're in those deep places. And a lot of times, because we are so tied to controlling circumstances, we force ourselves down into deep places.

Some people call it depression. Sometimes it's despair. Sometimes it's frustration. But we just get down, down, down. And then God lifts us up, up, up. But the interesting thing I found is I often don't realize that God is lifting me up until I'm already up.

I don't realize that his hand has been with me all the way, even down in the deep places. Even when I was just in despair, God's hand was still there. And my wife and I were just amazed and thankful at God's faithfulness this week.

Because we realized that if it wasn't for him, we'd stay there. And some of you, you know what that is. Because until you had that hope in Christ, until you had his word that spoke to you, how do you get out of places like that?

Well, sometimes you go to a dock and they'll give you drugs. Take this. This will soften it. This will ease it. This will ease your pain. Sometimes you don't go to a dock. Sometimes you go to the liquor store.

Sometimes you resort to drugs. Sometimes you resort to acting out and bizarre behavior. But inevitably, I find that it's because people are full of pain. And sometimes it's their own doing. Sometimes it's just the circumstances.

But unless God has spoken, there's no real way out of it. Praise the Lord, folks. God's spoken to us. He's spoken to you and he's spoken to me in his son, Jesus Christ. And he didn't speak to us a partial hope.

He spoke to us a finished hope. He spoke to us a certain hope. There is an end. Hallelujah. There is an end. But it's not just an end of existence. It's more there is a completion. And that completion will be yours and it will be mine.

Because of Jesus. Because of what he has done for us. Because of his sacrifice and his completed work on that cross and his resurrection from the grave. And his seating at the right hand of the Father today for us.

We have that absolute certain confidence that what he began in us, he is faithful to complete. And that's our hope. I confess, I get blurred vision. And you do too. When things get heavy, we often get the blurred vision.

But because of his word, because of what you're doing this morning, because of what you do throughout the week in being in the word of God and planting the word of God in your heart, there is that reservoir of all that God has that is being stored up for you.

And he will be faithful. Not just to give you a word and to bring you up when you're down, but to empower you for service. Each and every day. It's the same word. We can serve because God has spoken to us.

And the book of Hebrews was written for us that when we are discouraged, he can lift us up. Pain and sorrow washed away. He doesn't keep us from pain and sorrow, amen? I'm sorry, he doesn't. Pain and sorrow are normal.

It's part of life. It's a result of sin. Yes, we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that is groaning. The Romans tells us groaning for the Lord to come back and to restore it as it was when he created it.

But we know that this is a fact, that though we do go through pain and sorrow and suffering, he can wash that away. He can cleanse. He can refresh and restore. God's word answers the pain and the suffering.

And one day we'll see him face to face. And that completeness will go on throughout all eternity. How do we know we're going to heaven? God has spoken. God has spoken. I can't tell you I know I'm going to heaven just because I kind of feel like I'm going to heaven because I'm a pretty good person.

I ought to get to heaven. I'm a pastor, after all. I'll tell you, there's been many a clergy that no doubt over the centuries have tried to use that line when they entered into glory. And that's not what gets you in.

There's nothing on my ordination certificate that says I get to heaven because I'm ordained. No, I get to heaven because God has spoken. And I believe what he said and believe what he did. And really, this is the power of God.

This is the work of God. Jesus said it himself, that you might believe on the one whom he has sent. And not only did he send him, but he spoke to us. Aren't you glad that the Messiah was not just a deaf mute?

Aren't you? It wasn't just the fact that he came, but he came and he spoke. And as he spoke, he raised his voice. And he revealed who the true God was. And all of the things that the Old Testament pointed to found their completion and their fulfillment in who Jesus was, who Jesus is, and what he's doing.

Anyone who boasts of having a new revelation from God is deceived. God isn't giving new revelations today. He is illuminating his once-and-for-all revelation in Jesus Christ, though. He is unplugging clogged ears.

Jesus Christ: The Better Revelation and Sacrifice

He is speaking, and I pray we're listening to him. Now, the second and third verses in our text show us Jesus. Jesus is the subject of the book of Hebrews. Jesus is the most excellent way. He's the better.

We find the term better a dozen times throughout this epistle. He's the better sacrifice. There were sacrifices in the Old Testament, but they could not do what Jesus came to do. They could cover, but they couldn't take away.

Jesus came to take away the sins of the world. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. God spoke, one writer said, in a spectrum in the Old Testament. You know, kind of like a rainbow spectrum.

But Jesus is a prism which collects all those bands of light and focuses them into one pure being. And he has spoken to our age through his Son, who saved us from a sin. And who is his Son? Jesus. And who is Jesus?

God incarnate in human flesh. And we have his description here in the second part of verse two and verse three. There's a sevenfold description of who he is. In a sense, it's a summary of the whole book of Hebrews.

The whole book of Hebrews is going to amplify these next couple of verses. But let's briefly take a look at them. Seven things. Seven facts of this Jesus who you and I know. Number one, he has appointed heir of all things, Christ the heir.

Number two, through whom also he made the world, Christ the creator. Number three, who being the brightness of his glory, Christ the revealer or the radiator, who is the express image of his person, the express image of who God is, Jesus Christ.

And upholding number five, all things by the word of his power, Christ the sustainer. Number six, when he had by himself purged our sins, Christ our purifier. And number seven, when he had sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, Christ our ruler as he reigns the right hand of majesty.

That's who our Jesus is. That's who has spoken to us. And in each of those things, as we look at each one of those things, Jesus grows more and more in our hearts. And we grow more and more in him. The first one we're told is that Christ is the heir, the heir of all things.

Christ the Heir and the Believer’s Hope

And this thought points forward to the end and the crown of all history. We're told in John chapter three, that the father loves the son and has given all things into his hand and he who believes in the son has everlasting life, everlasting life.

And he who does not believe in the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him, everlasting wrath. There's not a one of you in this room that needs to have to face everlasting wrath because God has spoken to you.

God has spoken and he's told you and he's telling you again that he loves you so much and that he died that your sins might be forgiven. That your sins might be washed away. That your heart that is of stone could be made alive and not alive just now, but alive forevermore.

That you could be the man or the woman that God has always intended you to be. There is a new birth available for you. Can you hear what he's saying to you today? He loves you. Oh, he can't love me. He loves you.

I'm such a jerk. It's just for jerks that he came. That's a real paraphrase, but it's the truth. See, he said, the well don't need a physician, the sick need a physician. And how many of us were just so sick with sin, so diseased by sin.

Jesus came to save lost sinners. Paul said, of whom I am the chief. And we would say, nah, I am. But he came to save us. So get that thought out of your mind that God doesn't care about you, or he doesn't want to save you.

That is why Jesus suffered as he did. He suffered for you and for me. Why did he have to do that? Because there wasn't any other way that our sins could be cleansed. God himself took the place of our just punishment.

And the punishment that we deserved was death. Jesus died for us. That we might not taste that second death. Hallelujah. It's been said, if you're born once, you die twice. You die a physical death, and then you are eternally separated from the living God.

That's really what death means in the scripture. It's more than just a cessation of existence, but it's a separation of consciousness. It's a separation of awareness. You know, death for physical death, death is a separation of our consciousness from our body.

There's a disconnect. Spiritually, there is a spiritual death, which is a separation of our soul from the living God. When you're born again, that separation is done away with. And so it's been also said, born twice, die once.

You know, we're only going to die once. This body is only going to go once. Instead of the second death, we stand before the beam seat, the mercy seat of God. And the rewards of walking our lives for him are handed out for all eternity.

I love the Lord. And I pray you do too. I don't know if we'll have time to go over all seven of these things, but Christ is the heir. And Romans 8, 16 says, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Suffering when you embrace the Lord for who he is, no matter what you're facing, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.

So many things happen in which we have a choice. We do, we have a choice. We can drown our sorrows or we can embrace what it is we're going through and seek to honor him. Big difference in how you turn out in the end.

Amen. Big difference. One is destructive. The other is creative. In Proverbs 3, 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. And that's what I have such a hard time not doing.

Is leaning on my own understanding. But God brings things around and allows things to happen that bring me to a place and bring you to a place where we cannot lean on our understanding. But in all of our ways, we have to acknowledge him and he will direct our path.

Are any of you battling that this morning? The in all of your ways part. The in all of your ways acknowledge him. Oh, come on. You are so stubborn. Amen, brother. God sees that hand. In all of our ways, all of them.

And I think all of life is a process of God bringing us to the place of learning to acknowledge him in all of our ways. I'm so thankful that he has given us his word. How can a young man cleanse his way?

By giving heed to his word. Your word, Lord, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And some of us have some gnarly paths that we're facing and having to go down. But God's word will be our light.

God's word will be that lamp. Keep us from walking into those walls. Christ the heir. And when I'm resting in him, all that he has becomes mine. Because he is the heir. And as his child by faith in Christ, I am a joint heir with him.

And I get to enjoy all that my dad has right now. Right now, all of the resources. The Bible says that he has given us all things that pertain to life and to godliness. Then what's our problem? Our problem is we got this.

We got these blockages. We're not listening. He's given it to us. Sometimes we're such control freaks that we have to be doing it ourselves. And sometimes our arms will be useless. Then we have to appropriate by faith and trust the Lord.

It's a beautiful thing. It's a wonderful promise. The sufferings of the present time. That verse 18 of Romans 8 says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

It's a done deal. And that brings back up promise. That's a bringing back up promise. It's a lifting up promise. Yeah, there's going to be suffering. The suffering of the present times are hard and difficult.

But when we look at the promise, so thankful we are for all the promises. But you can get caught up in circumstances and the promises have faded and become dull to our conscience. And some of you might be at that place today.

But I want you to know that God in his love and his mercy has brought you here this morning to tell you that his promises are sure for you. And they will lift you up. And he has a completion for you. Now, if you're at all like me, I want the script now.

I want to know today. I want to know what's going to happen three months from now. I do. I want to know that Joyce is going to be okay. You know, I want to know that. Kijiji's went through this. They lost their little baby.

And we were talking last night. And we're talking about how we want to know. You know, she had a rough pregnancy. And she wanted to know, wanted to be assured. And God assured her. God spoke to her. And today she is testimony that God was faithful.

Amen, James, Rebecca. God's faithful. It was a very hard thing. And oftentimes we don't understand what's going to come down. We don't understand how it's going to flow. And we want it to flow a certain way.

And sometimes it doesn't flow the way we want it to flow. And then we get ticked at God. We get mad at him. But God doesn't get mad back at us. If we've held on to his promises, those promises will bring us back up.

They'll bring us back up. And then we'll realize, God, you've got a purpose. You've got a plan. And you're good. And you're going to work it out. If God hasn't spoken, we could never say that. But because he has, he's able to hold us through.

And he will be glorified. He is glorified. And so we see him. And we see him as the heir of all things. And we as joint heirs. We see him as the creator, the agent of all creation. And we see him as the revealer of God, the radiator, the brightness of God.

Christ the Radiator and Sustainer of Creation

The radiator of God's glory. A reflector is something that bounces light off itself. Like the moon is a reflector of the glory of the sun. When you look at the moon, you're not seeing its own light. You're seeing a reflection of the sun.

But not so with Jesus. For he not only reflects the glory of the Father, but he radiates the glory of the Father. That's why there's neither sun nor moon in heaven. Because Jesus is the radiator. And he is all the light we need.

And he is our impetus to shine our lives in the darkness of our day. Thank God for the wisdom of our Savior. That he gives us to make the right choices in life. He's the radiator. He's the express image of his person.

The all that we can know of God, we see in Jesus Christ. He is the sustainer. He upholds all things by the word of his power. He sustains you and I. John Corson said, what holds the atom, the very building block of all matter together?

Nothing other than Jesus Christ and his word. It's gotta be God who holds the atom together. Any of you know your physics? Like charges repel. What's the nucleus of an atom? Particularly a uranium atom or, you know, these heavy metal atoms.

They're crammed, crammed with hundreds of protons and neutrons. And all these protons that are supposed to be repelling are stuck together. What holds them together? Science has been trying to figure that out since they've been studying physics and discovered the atom.

And every, about every decade, they come up with a new theory. 20 or 30 years ago, it was super atomic glue. They call them masons, I think. They couldn't see them, but they figured there had to be something there that was holding it all together.

And then they debunked that theory. What holds the atom together? It's not a what, it's who. Who holds the atom together? It's the Lord. By him, we're told in Colossians, all things consist and are held together.

It's Jesus. And we're told at the end of the ages, when all of this is done, that all of the elements will melt with a fervent heat. What's that tell you? What happens when you mess with the nucleus of an atom?

Particularly a heavy metal atom. When you split the core of an atom, you get a reaction. And the reaction can be quite powerful and destructive. He holds it together. He holds the atom together. Jesus holds the universe together.

And Jesus can hold your marriage together. He can sustain your marriage. He can sustain your parenting. He can sustain your sanity. What's going to keep your world from falling apart? Only one thing, the word of his power.

And he has spoken to us. Hallelujah. And then Christ is our purifier. He alone purged our sins. He himself purged our sins. And because he has purged our sins, we have fellowship with him. And we have fellowship with one another.

If we walk in the light, 1 John says, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Oh, that's good news, folks. And I pray God will give you a fresh vision of that today.