Scripture referenced 7 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Hebrews 1:1-4 the main text of the sermon, read aloud in full and parsed in detail
1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
4 having become so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they have.
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Keep this verse
Psalm 1
mentioned as preached the previous week as buildup to the Hebrews series
1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in Yahweh’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
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Psalm 2
mentioned as preached the previous week as buildup to the Hebrews series
1 Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.
5 Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:
6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
7 I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.
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Psalm 34
mentioned as preached two weeks prior as buildup to the Hebrews series
1 I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad.
3 Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.
6 This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 Yahweh’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
12 Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
14 Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.
15 Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
16 Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
20 He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.
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John 1:1-18
referenced as parallel to Hebrews on Jesus as the creative agent of God, studied together previously
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
9 The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
11 He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.
12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”
16 From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
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Colossians
cited as another place where Jesus upholding or sustaining all things appears
Keep this verse1 John 4:10-11
read as the benediction about God's love and the atoning sacrifice of his Son
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray opened the series on Hebrews by working through the book's opening four verses, a single masterfully constructed Greek sentence. His aim was to show that the central argument of the whole letter is this: Jesus is supreme above everything, and that claim is meant both to anchor and to challenge people who are tempted to walk away from following Him.
What was said
Before reading a word of the text, Pastor Ray addressed some basics about the book itself. Nobody knows for certain who wrote Hebrews, because unlike most New Testament letters it opens without naming an author or a recipient. It begins instead with a direct statement about God, and that rhetorical form, an exordium, is the technical term for an opening argument in a formal treatise. That distinction matters for how the whole book should be read.
The audience, whoever they were, was clearly Jewish in background. The author assumes they know the Old Testament thoroughly, from creation and Abraham through Moses, the priesthood, and the sacrificial system, without needing any of it explained. They were also under increasing persecution for identifying exclusively with Christ, and some were beginning to pull back from that commitment. The letter is written directly into that pressure.
Pastor Ray then worked through the sentence itself by identifying its verbs first, noting their tenses carefully. God having spoken through the prophets in many ways and at many times is set against God having spoken definitively in these last days through His Son. The shift in tense is deliberate: the earlier speaking is past, the speaking through the Son carries a present authority into the moment of reading.
Within that sentence the Son is described in three layered ways that Pastor Ray identified as the structural center of the whole passage. Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, meaning He is to God what rays of light are to the sun, the visible expression of what would otherwise be unknowable. He is also the exact representation of God's nature, the word pointing to the impression left by a signet ring pressed into wax. And He is actively upholding all things by the word of His power, a present-tense verb that means this is not a historical description but an ongoing reality.
The sentence then moves to two finished actions: He made purification of sins, and He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Pastor Ray paused on the sitting down. A finished sacrifice means a finished work. The session of Christ, His ascension and reign, is as much a part of the gospel as the cross and resurrection, and Hebrews insists on all of it together.
The final phrase of the passage, that He has inherited a name more excellent than the angels, is not a throwaway line. It opens the argument that runs through the rest of chapters one and two, where the author will show Jesus superior to angels, then to Moses, then to the Aaronic priesthood, then to the old covenant sacrifices. Pastor Ray laid out that structure for the whole letter so the congregation could see where each section is headed and why the warning passages scattered throughout belong to the same argument: the higher the ground you are standing on, the more serious it is to step off it.
Pastor Ray was honest that Hebrews is the hardest book he has attempted to preach, precisely because its argument is cumulative. Pulling out a paragraph in isolation risks distorting the whole. His stated goal for the series is to keep enough context in view each week that the letter does what its author intended: lift Jesus higher than anything else, and give people a reason to keep walking with Him rather than turning back.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Ray mentioned that persecution was increasing among the original audience of Hebrews, and that some were beginning to fall away from following Christ because of it. Have you ever experienced a season where following Jesus cost you something real? What kept you going, or what pulled you away?
- The author of Hebrews opens without identifying himself, and Pastor Ray said we simply do not know who wrote it, though we know God wrote it. How do you personally respond when there is a question about Scripture that does not have a clear answer? Does that uncertainty shake your confidence in the Bible or not, and why?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,469 words
0:01
The weather. Oh my goodness. I had three people mention it. It's not because you just talk about the weather. It's like, this is amazing.
0:07
So incredible. Just stand up, and we're gonna start off singing, when we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. I'm on Bite Scott. Humphrey come forward if you would and I don't have my mic on and I do have shorts on because we're going do a baptism during the announcements.
0:23
If the,
0:24
hello, is this one working too? It is. This one has a red light on it though, Blake. That probably means it's on its way out. So, if it goes out, I'll come and see you.
0:33
Would you stand and sing like you mean
0:34
it? Like you mean it. I like that.
0:40
Sing the wondrous love of Jesus. Sing his mercy and his grace in the mansions bright and blessed. You prepare for us a place Let us then be true and faithful, trusting, serving every day. Just one glimpse of him in glory will the toys of life repay when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus we'll sing and shout the victory onward to the prize before us soon his beauty will behold soon the pearly gates will open we shall tread the streets of gold when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus we'll sing and shout the victory
2:23
Amen. How about make me a blessing? There's another verse or
2:27
two to that last one. Should we go back one more?
2:31
We could but I think whatever comes up on that wall. Oh. They're gonna sing. So, it'll be a duet if we do. How about this?
2:38
Make me a blessing.
3:40
Someone today. Tell the sweet story of Christ and his love. Tell of his part to forgive. Others will trust him if only you prove through every moment you live me a blessing
5:46
Amen. Thank you. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements this morning and the baptism. First of all, Monday nights at first beat is happening tomorrow night.
5:58
Monday night is happening. Carl normally is the pastor in that service. Carl, our associate pastor who does the worship service, music in the first service. Now, I wanna tell you a prayer request been in the bulletin. You may have seen it on the prayer chain.
6:13
Aiden, Carl's son, AJ, had surgery on Friday, to repair a sunken chest and he is doing well. He went through the surgery well. All is well. So, I just wanted you to know that. Praise God for that.
6:26
Also, though that's a three to five day recovery time for that procedure and the whole family is down in Salt Lake City until he is ready to leave and come back home. So, Carl's out tomorrow night but Mike D, our youth director, is gonna be doing the preaching and Glenn and Liz Owens. Liz Owens is our children's ministry director. Their family is taking over the meal. So, meal covered by Glenn and Liz, Owings, music is covered by Florine, and Mike is covering the preaching.
6:58
That sounds like a pretty good lineup of meal music and a message. Tomorrow night, 06:00 right here. Immigrant Hope is still collecting shoes. 25,000 shoes turns out is a lot of shoes. My goodness.
7:10
We have seen lots of shoes walk through here. Sorry. And as we, have been seeing it, they're not quite to their goal yet. So keep on bringing them. I've gotten lots of text.
7:20
And, hey, are y'all still collecting shoes? Yes. We're still collecting shoes for Immigrant Hopes fundraiser. Volunteers, we've had the slide up there that volunteers were needed for the last five weeks. Going to Gillette and as of last Sunday, it was Gary and Diane and I were going to Gillette.
7:35
No. No and that's not quite true but it's almost true. So, we have just had a lot of people sign on to go which is really good. So, I'm going to ask Gary if he would come forward and do a little blurb. This is Gary's leading the trip up there, so he he should be the one that says so.
7:55
Morning. I'm just curious. How many how many know of the ICON family? What if you for those that may not know, who they are, they served at this church, I'm guessing, for about eight years. About five years ago, they moved to Denver.
8:22
But while they were here, they are the most loving family that I can think of. One of the things that that I think of, when they got called to, a little church in Gillette was just how well they're gonna love those people. And and they asked, first b, if we would help them, help, get the building to a point where it's, welcoming, for people. So little church building that, had gotten run down over the years and just died off. And they felt led to restart that little church, and it needs a little help.
9:16
And like Ray said, we have 20 people going. But now I I believe the the problem is the resources to keep those 20 people productive at that church, for paint. There's carpentry work. He wants to build a stage. There's quite a few, wish list that they have.
9:45
And a wish list that I have is that if any of you would like to donate to the mission, I would love I would love to have as much resources as we can to help them. One of the things that I would, you know, really dread is is to have all these people and and run short of resource. So. The Lord calls you to. Give to this.
10:18
That'd be great. And I know the icons would. Love it.
10:28
Thank you very much, Gary. So that's, that announcement. We've got Turning Point this week, Thursday, night. This week, the eleventh is gonna be the Turning Point's annual fundraising gala. Melissa Oden is gonna be speaking.
10:40
It's down at the Gill Ranch, down south of South Park Loop there. That ought to be a really good time to help out Turning Point. There is a church camp out that's happened. That looks like Mike and Ian on the lake up at Jackson Lake. The church camp out at Coulter Bay is coming August twenty third and twenty fourth.
10:57
If you'd like to go and be a part, spend the night, out or bring your RV or camper or whatever, you're welcome. We have quite a few spots reserved, but more info is to come, but it's near the end of August. August twenty third and twenty fourth, full church wide camp out. If you miss a message, they can be found. You can either call us or you can get on the Internet and find them.
11:17
And the connect hour. Connect hour helps to keep the two services still be in one church. It also helps just to connect with people either after the first service or before this one. If you wanna come a little early, have a cup of coffee and hang out. That's certainly a good time.
11:31
So, connect hour happens. If there are prayer request or announcements or anything that I've forgotten to say up here, it should be in your bulletin. So, be checking that. We still print the paper bulletins and we do go through that effort because it's nice to have that, right? Propositional truth.
11:45
That's that's why it's so nice to have the Bible too. We have it written down. We don't have to remember it all because we can go back and refer to it. So, that's good for the bulletin and I think there's one more. Now, we're not greeting one another yet.
11:57
Let's do the, let's let's baptize Jillian Humphrey. Okay, Jillian, would you come forward? I'm a move this out of the way. Now by being baptized, that sounds rather passive, but she actively pursued and looked for me to do this. Is there anything that you'd like to say beforehand?
12:18
So she's she is she is saying it by being baptized, but she sought after, and actually, I'm gonna get on it in the pool here.
12:31
We're gonna start singing. Yeah. What a glorious day. Whoo. Take a deep breath.
12:40
Everybody ready to sing? We'll wait for you. And no heartache shall come. No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye.
12:54
All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that will be. Oh, you sound great. Here we go. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see when I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace when he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land What a day, glorious day that will be.
13:34
There'll be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear. No more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there, and forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus, I shall see.
14:09
When I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace when he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land What a day, glorious day that will be. Amen. Well, I think the tub's still open if anybody want. That was just awesome for me. He is lord.
14:40
Let's just praise and worship God. This is a great song for worship. It lets us retune our heart and connect and and just individually one on one. Let's let's worship with through this song. It's a great song.
14:51
He is lord
14:55
he is lord
14:58
he is risen from the dead and he is lord every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord he is lord he is lord he is risen from the dead and he is lord every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord let's go up a key
15:56
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.
16:10
Thank you.
16:11
Thank you. Quick changes.
16:12
Appreciate it. Yeah. Y'all can have a seat. I am going to actually I'll I'll ask Norm to come forward right now. This is an odd one and the offering is not for Norm, alright?
16:25
But I forgot him during the announcements because I was thinking about that baptism. So, Norm is here. Thank you for being here by
16:31
the way.
16:32
With a part, you tell em about who y'all are and why you're here.
16:41
I think, yes. We were at this first service and, I came back for the second service to hear you play bass and there was no bass there. He's an awesome bass player, isn't he? Incredible. And then we had a baptismal.
16:56
What a wonderful ritual and event and if we knew that was open last night we would have jumped in that. Why would we have wanted to jump in that? Because you might have seen the orange t shirts we call ourselves the orange crush. We're a youth development program from Bloomington, Indiana. That's where Indiana University is.
17:17
Taking kids from 13 to 22 from Mexico to Canada, and this is one of our stop offs with four more days to go. We ride a 100 miles a day and the purpose of the mission is to grow physically, mentally, spiritually. Physically, there's not an ounce of fat on these kids. They are fit. 100 miles a day, in fact yesterday we rode from Logan, Utah to here.
17:45
Pretty far, isn't it? 186 miles. We usually do a 100 miles a day but that was big. Not because we wanted to do it, it's because we had to do it. There's all kinds of reason for that.
17:55
But when we called here in early May or April whenever it was, we go eeny, meeny, miney, moe and we picked your church for some divine guidance and we get somebody on the phone and somebody immediately says yes. I could tell that this is a vibrant church. I went to the first service and I think if I lived here I would be a member here. So you got a lot of really good energy here and you got some good leaders that extended your building in your hearts to us because our program would not be possible without sponsorship of churches along the way and we're interdenominational, it's an ecumenical group. It's hard to find that many cyclists who would want to do this and half the group were not cyclists two months ago.
18:44
They bought their bike and they on a leap of faith because of their friends wanting to go on it or their parents heard about the program or even sometimes from churches who have kids who saw us and said that's what I would like to do. Think back when you were 13 years old. Would you did you have the inventorsome spirit to be able to ride a bicycle 100 miles a day from Mexico to to Canada? Wow. That's that could be kind of fearful But through the grace of God and through lots of help along the way, we are doing it.
19:19
So many thanks to all of you, particularly your leaders. It's been great to be here. We're staying two nights, not just one night. So appreciate that so much and, if you have any questions, if there's any orange t shirts hanging around, you can ask them questions about it. Thank you very much.
19:42
So there are 40 something of them doing this. There are 40 something folks, leaders and everybody, and the 186 miles from Logan to Jackson, y'all know the Latoya race that happens. They did that as a group of 40 came here, and then when they got here and the ones who had ridden 186 miles said, you know what, we're so close to 200. And so they rode 14 more miles to do 200 in a day. That's two centuries.
20:07
Some of y'all have done a century. That's two centuries in one day. They started at 05:30 yesterday morning, biked until they got back to the church. Those people got back at 11:00 last night. That's crazy.
20:19
But people are not often asked to do something hard these days, right? And they have. They've removed themselves and stepped back away from all their devices and things and they have just put their minds to it and it's a really, really amazing program. So, I am now going to invite the frontline team forward, forward and yeah, thank you and this is not for Norm again but as God would lead, lord, we love you and we're so thankful that you are omnipresent. You are omniscient.
20:52
You are omnipotent. All powerful, all knowing, and always present. Lord, I thank you that you are with them as they rode. I thank you that you'll be with us as we go this week up to Gillette. I pray for your solid foundations for not just the building of that church lord but for the the that it would be on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ that everyone of us as living stones would align our self with him in accordance to your plan by your spirit.
21:23
Lord, I pray that you would build us up into that spiritual home for people who are lost and wandering that they would find their peace and settle their hearts in you. Lord, may you do your will and your way through us and a part of that is in this offering lord. Giving back a portion of what you've entrusted to us to do your will, not just here in Jackson but in our state. That's part of what we're doing in Gillette this week but also our country, this team right here is a good example of what's going forward there and then to the uttermost parts, lord. In Jesus name, we ask that you would bless so that your good gospel would advance from this place to the very ends of the earth.
22:06
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Judy. Oh, good morning. So, this week, we have been waiting for.
25:00
I've been anticipating for some time. We're starting with Hebrews. Hebrews one one to four. We're just covering four verses today but this is the first in the series that's going to be about Hebrews. I've been building past couple of weeks.
25:15
I've done Psalm one and two last week and Psalm 34, the week before that and we've done a couple of in betweens building to this and let me get ahead, hopefully. So, I've been processing through the New Testament since I've been here and we've done a few Old Testament sermons here and there. During the midst of this series, we'll do some turning to go after some of the references that the author of Hebrews makes but I want to stop and do a couple introductory matters. I'll probably cover this at a later date a little more in-depth, but I want to get you a start before the exordium. First of all, the exordium is what you'll read this called.
25:58
If you read any commentaries about Hebrews, and that's not commonly the case for the other letters in the New Testament because they're letters. They don't always have an exordium that's kind of a precise linguistic term, right? A rhetorical term and exordium simply put is an introduction to a treatise or a discourse. And so Hebrews, kind of like Romans. Romans does have the greeting introduction, but it's also a treatise.
26:25
Hebrews is really a treatise or a discourse. The name Hebrews is to the Hebrews was appended to this at some point. We don't know exactly who wrote Hebrews. Now, that may come as a surprise to some of y'all because you know, oh, I know the rules for what what scripture and how they allowed that in. Well, it is in the Bible.
26:50
Nobody doubts whether or not it should be in the Bible. It's in there. God wrote it but through whom? It does not say in the text and that's because Hebrews starts with an introduction to the treaties or discourse. It doesn't start with this is who the author is.
27:06
This is who the recipient is and this is why I'm writing. It starts off just like this, straight out of the box. God, after he spoke long ago, it starts just like that and that's great but it doesn't say. So, it's led to a lot of people having a lot of opinions. In fact, if you ask people who the author of Hebrews is and I'm going to try to say each time I say it, I'm going try to say the author of Hebrews but I've been talking from Peter and from Paul so often that occasionally you might slip up.
27:36
So, Peter says here or Paul says there or he says this or whatever. I'm I'm going to kind of hold back and try to say every time the author of Hebrews because we don't know who it was. We do know that God wrote it. There's a dual authorship to scripture. God inspired people and those people wrote it down and who did this?
27:55
We'll know when we get there, okay? If that bothers you, I'm sorry, that's just the way it is, but that's the exordium is what we're going to cover today. I'm going step back to this so I can cover a couple things. I've already talked about the author. I lost my pen.
28:10
Here it is.
28:12
There we go. Audience, we don't really know who he was writing to except, oh yeah, to the Hebrews but the the way that we know that he was writing to the Hebrews is because he assumes some things. He assumes that they know the story of the Old Testament. Hebrews knew the story of the Old Testament. They understood who God is and who Abraham was and who the moment of the all the way actually back to creation, Abraham, Moses, the nation of Israel, the Sinai where God gave the law, Torah, the covenant of God with them.
28:52
We know about the priest and the sacrifices and they knew these things well such that he references them without having to explain em but he also goes one step beyond all of that and we'll get to this today without any doubt. And talk about how Jesus supersedes all these things. He is above all these things. Talks about the wilderness wandering as if they knew exactly what he's talking about. So, to the Hebrews, it says, that is to the Hebrews.
29:21
That's what it says. Now, if you have King James Bible, it might say, the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Hebrews. Okay. That's what it says. But that's an argument waiting to happen.
29:32
Okay, I'm just warning you right there. It used to be a test of Christian orthodoxy in the first part of the nineteen hundreds that if you didn't believe Paul wrote it, then you might not be a Christian. Reading it over and over and over and over again like I have. I don't see, I can't hold on to Paul being it. In fact, it says he's, you know, Paul heard directly from Christ and this says, he heard from people who were with Christ the whole time or the author of Hebrews says that they're a second generation Christian haven't heard it.
30:00
So, outside of Paul, most people now agree that it was not Paul but it was it Apollos? Oh, he's very eloquent and this is an incredibly eloquent book. Maybe. Was it Barnabas? Possibly.
30:12
It's very caring. Was it so and so? Was it so and so? There are 13 suspects, okay? I'm gonna try not to tell you who it is that I think it is until I finish the whole study because what it says is more important than who wrote it or why he was writing it.
30:26
The audience we do know this about. They were under persecution and it was increasing and the increasing persecution was leading some of them to fall away from following after Christ. Are you with me there? You get what I'm saying? So, there was persecution and they were risking imprisonment where they had not had that as Jewish background folks.
30:49
They had not had that kind of persecution but it was getting to be more intense now that they were claiming Christ because of the exclusivity of Christ. It was causing them to be the pressure to heat up. So, there that goes. With that being said, persecution is always good for the church because you don't fake being a Christian when it's hard and so there's a purity, a purifying that happens. There are a couple of goals here, and I think I'm just gonna go ahead and start.
31:25
One of them is obvious from the beginning. In this exordium we'll see a couple things happen. I'm gonna read it all the way through and then we'll come back and we actually will parse it out. It's only four verses. Excuse my grammar nerd status.
31:38
They're important, so we're going to go through them. I also see Hebrews as more difficult to preach the way that I preach than any other book that I've attempted yet because context is king and context matters. And if you break it down paragraph for paragraph, like I usually do, I try to preach one or two paragraphs every Sunday. And if I broke this down in one or two paragraphs, it would be sufficiently removed from what it's saying as to be used, misused, heretical, or distracting from the real goal. So, I'm going to try to present it in a way that you get context enough for this to be an upbuilding and uplifting experience that satisfies the goals of the author to elevate Jesus and to challenge you to continue walking with him.
32:28
That's the idea behind Hebrews. So, here we go. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world, and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better or so much better than angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they and in that last little blurb right there, it leads into the first, the rest of the first chapter which will be about angels and then second chapter goes from there. I'll do all of that and show you the layout of the book at the end of this sermon but I want to go through these four verses as methodically as I can.
33:36
So, this is one very well constructed sentence in the Greek. If you look at the English and you're an English teacher, you might say, that's three grammatically difficult run on sentences. Maybe. But it's one sentence in Greek, and there it is. So it's masterful.
34:00
You could study this from now on and still get something every day, every day when you look at it. Last week, if you remember, I separated out and I separated out into different colors, and I used this, Abba. Y'all know the band Abba, a b b a. It's a scheme in Hebrew thought and in Hebrew poetry, it's often an A and then B and then B is mentioned again and then A is mentioned again. Something that parallels and usually, the most important point is right in the middle.
34:33
We're not going to go sing Waterloo or Dancing Queen, I promise. We're looking for this today to be an ABCD is really important right here and it's framed again by CBA. Alright? So, for us reading through this, you might not see it. It might just seem that's a little bit cumbersome.
34:52
That sentence as stated is a little cumbersome. Even if even if I did a wooden translation directly from the Greek, he'd think, why would he mention this before he mentions that? Because we typically think, okay, set your foundation and build upwards from there and you know the way that a speech is going to go. Introduction is like this, body is like that, appeal is going to be later on. In Hebrew thought, as well as Greek thought actually, a chiastic construction or something that starts like this points toward the middle.
35:22
Are you with me? Okay. A, B, C, D, C, B, A, and here we'll go to it. So if you are starting any study or any translation, it's always best to start with the verbs. I find that that's the easiest way to do things.
35:36
If you start the verbs and understand the tense of the verbs, you'll understand better what you're studying. And so that's what I did this week. So here they are. That is the same verb but it's a different tense each time. Going on.
35:56
Ephesians. Ephesian. Hone. Pharron. Those are present tense.
36:05
That's very important. It's in the green section right there too and that's present tense. That makes a big, big difference. There are these others that parallel what's above em and then that and then that. Those are the verbs.
36:20
So, there they are in Greek. For all of you who care. Here they are in English. For those of you who are wondering why. I'd even put it up there in Greek.
36:29
So, God, having spoken, God is the prime mover in the beginning of this paragraph. God, having spoken. Oh, that's a participle and it's about what he did, what, when, way back then. God, in many portions, times, and in many ways, can you think of many ways that God spoke? Spoke to Moses at the burning bush.
36:55
He led his people Israel with a column of fire or a pillar of smoke, right? He we mentioned Balam a few weeks ago. He spoke through Balam's donkey. Spoke through angelic messengers. He spoke, oh, the handwriting on the wall, you have been weighed and found wanting.
37:17
You know, God spoke in many portions at many times and in many ways and then, he goes on specifically. It says, through the prophets, through the prophets, he did absolutely speak and we can know that. We can still study those prophets word written down. At many times, in many ways, God having spoken, that's a past participle there, has spoken. That's governed by the time that he says, in these last days, God has spoken through his son and that's the first mention of Jesus that we get.
37:54
We don't get his name mentioned until the ninth verse of the second chapter but through the son, God has spoken. That's an authoritative word by almighty God but we're seeing that unfold in this first part of this sentence. God having spoken has spoken through the son whom he appointed heir of all things and he through whom he made the world. So, God created and Jesus was the agent of creation. We see that also in the first part of the book of John.
38:28
We studied that a long time here together. We've studied through the life of Jesus in the book of John and then the life of the early church in the book of Acts and we've gone back and we've been going chronologically forward. We're up to about sixty four, sixty five AD in our study of when this was written. It's hard to tell because you don't know who wrote it and it's hard to tell who wrote it to. It's hard to tell that exactly occasion, so you don't know the time frame.
38:54
But since he's speaking to the Hebrews, we see this It's probably before the destruction of the temple in seventy AD. So, most people put it around sixty four to seventy right in there. We know that. This is before John wrote in the beginning was the word and the word was the creative agent of God. So, here we have in Hebrews.
39:22
He appointed a mayor of all things and he through whom he also made the world. Through the son, he made all that is made. Who? And then we have a change of subject right in the middle of a sentence. God starts off and then it says, through the son, who and now Jesus is the subject of the rest of this part of the sentence?
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Who being. Oh, so beautiful. This is the present tense. Progressive action verb. Who being the radiance of God's glory.
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Jesus, the s o n, sun, is like the beams that radiate from our SUN sun, okay? You can get a tan just for standing in the sun, right? You get, there's an effect. Might be a might be a burn depending on your comp comp complexion. But who being the radiance of God?
40:16
Everything that we can see of God that we recognize. If there were no beams radiating from the sun, how would we even know that it was there? So, he is, it's a part. It comes with that ball of heat that is that strong. Radiance comes with it and is a part of it and so, Jesus is being the radiance of God's glory and upholding.
40:38
He is upholding all things. Now, it already says that he made all things. It already says, he's appointed to be heir of all things and now it says, he is upholding or sustaining all things by the word of his power. Having made purification. So, this is, oh boy, the atonement is mentioned just right here in this first sentence.
41:05
Having made purification, he, that's he who is the son. This is Jesus still talking about Jesus. Having made purification, he sat down. Why? Because it's a finished work.
41:18
Having made purification, he did all that is necessary. There are heresies that would say, do all you can. Do everything you can and Jesus will make up that little tiny bit that you can't quite get This is saying, he did it. Past tense. Having made purification, he sat down, having become more than the angels greater than, so much better than angels.
41:42
He has inherited a name that's above every name. Okay, so those are the verbs. That's where you start. And this is the proper sentence. This is the proper tenses for all of these.
41:53
So having spoken, he has spoken authoritatively. That one is because of the time frame mentioned in these last days. He has been appointed heir of all things. He's made everything that is being. It's still active.
42:10
Now, this was about a guy who had been crucified thirty, twenty seven to thirty two years before. That hole is going to get me one day. God, having spoken, has spoken, appointed, made, being, oh, he still is and he is still active post resurrection. Oh my goodness. He's alluding to a whole lot of stuff in this one sentence that's going to be throughout.
42:40
Upholding all things by the word of his power. We actually see that in Colossians that he is upholding all things or sustaining all things. Having made purification, that's about atonement. Do you know that the word atonement was not even a word in English until Tyndall started translating the Bible into English? And he said, we don't have a word for this concept.
43:00
We don't have a word that says how sinful man and holy God can be made at one. So, he made up a word and it's at one meant, the atonement. Having made purification, he provided what was necessary for us. So then, sat down. This is about his session.
43:20
So, we talk a lot about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus but Hebrews goes beyond that to say, yes, it's about the life and the death and the resurrection but it's also about his ascension that his job has been done and he through his spirit is still working through his obedient servants but he has ascended and sat down as king at the right hand of the majestic glory and he's inherited. A name that's above every name. Alright. So, that's that and here we are with these color coded lines. If we start right there, God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways.
44:03
In these last days has spoken to us and his son, we start right there and we go to having become as much better than the angels. He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Then, we see that these two outer brackets or parenthesis are about the son. He's compared with the prophets to begin with because that's the way that God had spoken in the past that everybody recognized and knew and then, they must have been having some difficulty with angels. I've got a couple of stories.
44:35
So, have you all ever met anybody? It's like, I just love my angel, my angel, my angel, my angel. Everything's about their angel. I just like to think about how God protects me with my guardian angel and I don't mind you saying that. He sent his angels.
44:51
He says that and he even mentions in just a few lines. He's going to mention that. That's fine but if you start putting all of your hope and you're thinking, I thought about those that orange crush of 40 people. If there's one of them saying, well, I'm just trying not to outrun my guardian angel. In between Tucson and Helena, Montana.
45:07
Whoo.
45:09
Go to Jesus, okay?
45:10
Go to Jesus and that's what this author is saying. Comparatively speaking, the prophets, he's the fulfillment of everything they said and what do the angels do? They worship him. They worship Jesus. So, don't look to your angels.
45:22
I got one more story about it. So I loaned a car to a friend of mine who's about Florine's height, and she has to have that seat all the way up against the steering wheel. I can barely at the time, I really could barely fit behind the steering wheel and into that seat, but I wedged myself in there, and I had gotten this particular car from a lady who was kind of angel crazy, honestly. And she had a little guardian angel on the visor of the vehicle, and it had these beautiful wings, beautiful angel, you know, So serene and it had a little prayer. My guardian angel and I I thought, well, that's sweet.
45:54
I'm going to remember her by having this. I'm not all that into angels, you know, but I'm going to just remember her by having that thing in here. So, it stayed on the visor of that car I bought from her and she was a friend. And when I got up in there and I realized that, oh, this is incredibly uncomfortable and I can't drive like this, I reached down and as I reached down to slide the seat back, that angel poked me right there with its two wings. My guardian angel poked me and drew blood.
46:22
Like, it looked like I was snake bit on my forehead for several days. I took my leatherman tool and I bent those wings back and if you see Tanya riding around the green jeep, she still has that thing to remember that lady by. But it's a much safer guardian angel now. So, the prophets or the angels, Jesus is better than both. Next, we have whom he appointed heir of all things.
46:47
So, Jesus is the the one who has been declared to be the inheritor of all things. All that he made and all that will worship him is his. It is. His. So, he's been appointed heir of all things and he sat down at the right hand of the Megalosune, the majestic glory, right?
47:08
He's the king and so this both of these building towards the middle, the sons declared to be the heir of all and the king over all. His name is above every name. With the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and tongue confess that he is lord. So, the son is declared heir of all and the king overall and in the text of Hebrews, we'll see this brought out time and again but that's not the most important thing they're saying in this introduction through whom also he made the world. God made the world through the son.
47:45
The father has the intent. The son carries it out by the spirit. That's the model that we see. The trinity in the New Testament. Through whom also he made the world and when he had made purification of sins.
48:01
Those are both about what? The son. He made the world and he made purification. He was the agent of creation and he is the and yet, that's it. He was the and is the only agent of regeneration.
48:18
He's the only agent available for redemption. That's great. The parallel there is pretty strong. And then we get to the center point here, and we see this sentence. What a sentence a part of a sentence just a clause in the Greek.
48:35
And he is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature and he upholds all things by his power. Man, three power packed things. There's a lot there. I've already mentioned the sun. We know the sun by what we see and it's rays, right?
48:54
When we're shadowed by the earth or by an eclipse and we can't see what's going on. We miss out on seeing the S U N sun because we can't see what has been illuminated by its rays and so the radiance of God's glory, that's what Jesus is. He is the radiance of God's glory. Kai, I love this. Equally important to that is he is also the exact representation of God's nature.
49:24
So, at this time, we've got wax seals and signet rings, and so this kind of points to that. The word for exact representation is the imprint. So if you were to take a signet ring that had a design on it and you have a warm piece of wax and you take that ring and you put it into the wax. That's going to leave exact an exact representation right there of this thing and so it's saying that Jesus is that of God. Seal.
49:55
He is the seal. He's the imprint. He's the exact representation of God. When Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. That's what he meant.
50:05
So, he is the radiance of God's glory. He's the exact representation of his essence or nature. Usias. Yeah. And he upholds actively.
50:17
He upholds all things by the word of his power. Amen. We see this further fleshed out with John in the gospel of John first chapter first 18 verses. We see it. We see it in Colossians.
50:31
We see it throughout that it's not static. God is active. Jesus is active and he is being the radiance of God glory. He is being the exact representation of his nature. Look to Jesus, you see what God is like and he is upholding and sustaining everything by the word of his power.
50:57
There's nothing that is happening that is not happening. Under his purview. Alright. So, the central truth of the book of Hebrews is to elevate Christ above all else. Would you agree with that?
51:16
I hope you do by the end of the study. If you if you're not right now, it is the central truth of the book of Hebrews. If you think about Hebrews and you think, oh, that's about the warning passages in four and six and ten. Then, I know where you stand but I think you're wrong. Jesus is better than everything else.
51:35
Supreme. It's to elevate Christ but it's also to challenge. So, I'll say, this is the way it shakes out as best I can tell. I know I have a few other Greek and Latin scholars in the in the room here. The exordium is the formal presentation of the argument that's going to be made and we just covered that.
51:56
It's one sentence with those four parts, ABCD, CBA and that's first. Jesus is better than is the main point and then in chapters one and two, he already was transitioning into it by the fourth verse saying, about the angels that Jesus's name is above theirs and then he's going to spend the rest of chapter one talking about angels and how Jesus is better than using Old Testament examples. So, the Old Testament because this is to the Hebrews, it's going to be used throughout the whole book but chapters one and two are about how Jesus is better than angels in the Torah. It will compare Jesus to angels and it'll then it'll compare him to the law. Chapters three and four are about how Jesus is better than.
52:46
He is compared to and then elevated above Moses. These folks love Moses, right? Old Testament, we love Moses. He's great. Yeah, he got angry a couple times.
52:54
No big deal. I feel like he got a raw deal on that. That's the way everybody feels about Moses especially them and he he goes, Jesus is better than Jesus is better than Moses. Moses even said, be looking for one like me and he's going to bring that. He's going bring up the promised land.
53:10
Oh, promised land. It's about housing, right? Good housing in Jackson. We've got a crisis right now. Jesus is better than that.
53:19
Jesus is better than the promised land of old. Chapters three and four, I'll talk about that. Wilderness wandering too. So, chapters five through seven talks about how Jesus is better than the ironic priesthood, the Aaron's line. In fact, there are people that said, but come on back to Judaism.
53:38
Jesus wasn't even a Levite. There's no way that he could be. There's no way that he could be the Messiah but they had a misunderstanding. So, this author of Hebrews goes into talking about the ironic priesthood and then, the priesthood of Melchizedek. Oh, what a mysterious figure he is.
53:58
There's more information about Melchizedek in these chapters. So, chapters five through seven talks about priests and Melchizedek and it puts Jesus comparatively in his proper place above both of the line of Melchizedek. Chapters eight through 10 will talk about the Old Covenant sacrifices and how the New Covenant that Jeremiah had forecast and was coming and Jesus claimed to be it's a better and new covenant. The old covenant sacrifices. Think about that.
54:30
The priest had to make sacrifices for the sins of the people. Well, that's great but what were they going to do with their sins? The priests were making sacrifices daily for their own sins and yearly for all of the people but it never was enough and so Jesus is compared and saying, these things are a shadow of what has already come and in these last days, God has spoken through his son, the authoritative word. This is it. So, the old covenant sacrifices, Jesus is better than that.
54:58
Now, with each one of these sections, we're going to get a warning passage. The warning passages are a bit of challenge. We're going to get Jesus lifted up and then we're going to get a challenge to continue with him and not give up. He's God's word. He's a hope for a new creation.
55:15
He is our eternal priest and he is the perfect sacrifice and in those warnings, if you reject that, that's dangerous ground. Don't do it. It's a challenge. Chapters 11 through 13 are the hall of faith. Oh, what a great one.
55:31
That's probably the most quoted passage from Hebrews is Hebrews 11, I would think. Probably close. Hall of faith and then, this word of challenge and then, what is unusual about this particular treaties is that there are personal greetings at the end. So some people want to treat this like a letter, and some people want to treat it like a treatise. Well, it's a treatise in the beginning that is a letter at the end.
55:54
Okay? If you're arguing one point or the other, you'll go to one end of it or another to make your points. I think that we just take it for the instruction it is and try not to take anything out of context. Since I've been here, I've attempted to preach about a paragraph or two each Sunday, and that takes up the full time. It's twelve now, you know.
56:15
I am struggling with how to present two chapters at once. So we're in for a bumpy ride, but don't let that keep you away. We're in it together. Alright? I'm I'm going through this because it has the potential of being something that gives you great assurance and challenge to walk forward, trusting in Jesus as supreme.
56:37
I asked Judy if y'all would. Y'all can come on forward. You can, Judy. And Scott, you can too. I asked him to change the last song because in the first song, first service, we sang, come now found of every blessing and just think about everything that I've said, Jesus is better than and about all the blessings and about how we are prone to walk away from that when things get hard and rather than that, it's lean in to God.
57:01
I think that this song actually is a fitting one for the end of this exordium. Would you stand with me and Scott, would you come on over?
57:16
Come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise teach me some melodious song sung by flaming tongues above praise his name I'm fixed upon it name of God's redeeming love either to thy love has blessed me thou hast brought me to this place and I know thy hand will lead me safely all by thy good grace Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee prone to wonder lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love use my heart lord take and seal it see let go thy courts above. Did you hear
58:58
how each one of those verses just kind of laid out something that we covered in that exordium? It's a broad subject but it's amazing that God through his ray, the radiance of his glory and through his imprint can seal us for those courts above. So, I have a blessing for you here. The benediction today is this and this is from first John four, this is love, not that we love God but that he loved us and he sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin. Dear friends, since God so loved us, loved us in this way, since it is in this way that God loved us, we also ought to love one another.
59:40
May it be this week, lord, that we would love one another so well that other people would be attracted into your family. God, would you use our words to elevate Jesus and challenge everyone that we know to be drawn into relationship with him. Amen.
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