Daniel Boss — Hebrews 1

0:00 Good morning. Good morning.

0:03 Before I start today, I do have a little bit of a confession. Ever since my last semester of school that I attended ended and I had a little bit more free time on my hand and was filled with less homework and wedding plans. I have been considering and praying about the possibility of talking to elders and about the possibility of coming up here and trying to give the message. Whether it was a full forty minute one or splitting it with another younger brother like Jacob. Taking that into mind, I can't help but wonder whether Mr.

0:39 Gonzalez beating me to the punch was the Holy Spirit trying to kick me in the pants or if it was just the elders. I can't really tell. Anyway, I am going to be covering Hebrews chapter one, and I'm going to read the section and then we will ask Lord's blessing on today. And I'm going to be covering the first four verses. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.

1:15 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 than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. Now let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you for this day that we have to enjoy your creation and to work at fulfilling the purpose that you have for us as we heard in the first message today.

2:04 I pray that you will bless this time together and that if there was anything that Jacob or I spoke or misspoke that was not of you, I just pray that you would help it to leave everyone's minds quickly and that it would be forgotten. I just pray for courage for both Jacob and I as we try to give your word. Pray all these things in your son's precious name. Amen. So today, I hope you'll forgive me if I hide behind the podium so you guys can't see my shaking knees, But I'll try to not to knock the podium over.

2:44 So today the title, I wasn't going go with the title, but I decided to. And the title that I decided to give to my message was The Truth of It. So what I'd like to do is to just go through in a verse by verse basis and try to bring out what I believe is the Holy Spirit's leading in the point of each verse, as well as how it fits into the point of the passage altogether. So in verse one, I like to think of this verse as God's past communications. It says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.

3:29 So basically what we have here is God communicating with his people in lots of different ways. It's basically the breakdown we have here. This includes all of the writings of the Old Testament and all of the happenings in the Old Testament. So he used prophets, judges, rulers, priests, kings, rules, commandments, laws, poetry. All of these were different conduits and ways that God spoke to his people.

4:03 Now he had a specific message through each and every form. So, while they were very diverse and another translation is sundry times and diverse manners. So, they're very, very different in the ways. But they had this underlying message of the message of redemption. How God planned to redeem his fallen people to himself.

4:31 And the important thing is that he's spoken lots of different ways to lots of different people, but no one person ever got the full message and the full truth. He gave bits and pieces here and there and all together they added up and they all interacted with each other. But no one person got the no one prophet got the entire thing. Now, we then can move into verse two and it says, 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. Now, this verse I like to think of as God's current communication.

5:16 When it says these last days, I looked it up in about five different translations. It actually translates out these last days in all five of the different translations that I looked at. And my consultations of commentaries and biblical scholars is that these last days refers to the time period between Christ's first and second comings. So the entire time from when God was here or when Christ was here on earth and his earthly ministry till now and from now until Christ returns for the second time. So technically we are still in these last days.

6:20 Sacrifices to be made if those laws were not kept. And he's now choosing to spread this message of the salvation of one's soul through one soul form of communication and that's his son, Jesus Christ. And so, what we have now is we have a perfected form of communication. Because as I said earlier, no one prophet, priest, king, not even David who wrote however many Psalms he actually wrote, not even David had the full grasp of the whole message that God had for man. And God chose to leave these imperfect forms of communication aside.

7:10 And he now has Christ who is the final revelation from God as well as a full revelation from God. He no longer has to reveal a bit here, a piece there. You know, that truth from a prophet and this incredible, profound proverb. He now has Christ and that's what we have. That's God's form of communication to us now in these last days.

7:42 God, He used his only son, only son he has and in order to pursue man. And that's just one of a great many of his demonstrations of the love that he has for us. And I think it's also important to note that he sent his son due to the fact that nobody else other than Christ could perform the necessary sacrifice of dying on the cross and subsequent miracle of rising from the dead in order to destroy the power of death forever. No one else would have been able to no other sacrifice that God could have made would have would have sufficed except for Jesus. And then about halfway through here or halfway through verse two, the push of the passage itself kind of changes.

8:40 He kind of the author kind of steps a little bit away from how God's communicating to us and pointing out the fact that Christ is the ultimate form of communication between man and God. He's the ultimate and he is superior to every other form. Now, the purpose of Hebrews as a book was to convince the readers that Christ that Christ and Christianity and believing that form of faith is superior to Judaism. There's lots of different examples of why Christ is superior. And we're going to cover a few of those now.

9:24 He starts right off in his campaign of Christ being superior by saying that he is that God the Father appointed him heir of all things. Now, what could possibly be a higher position than heir of God? Other than God himself, obviously, but he's presented as heir of God. So already he is above every possible human attained achievement, whether that's the fact that you're king, president, prophets were held in high regard. All of these different achievements that humans could attain is nothing compared to being the heir of God.

10:06 Now, this authority that God granted to the son is granted by God, the father, As we can see in a familiar passage of Philippians chapter two verses nine through 11, it says, for this reason also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we can see right here that God the Father is bestowing this authority on Christ, his son. The author of Hebrews then goes on to present Christ as being both present and an integral or necessary in the creation. He says right there at the end of verse two, through whom also he made the world. The world is kind of an all encompassing term referring to all things that were created.

11:07 Now we can we can look at a couple of different passages in John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The word that is depicted here is, by my understanding, it is the spirit, the pre incarnate spirit form of Jesus Christ. He existed with God the Father in a spirit form before taking on a flesh and bone in the form of a man. And it says right here that he was with God and he was God.

11:41 So, and then we can we can also trace his necessity in the creation by looking at Colossians chapter one and verses 15 to 17. It says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, both in heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. I'm going read verse 17 a little bit later. But that is 15, 16.

12:18 And right there, this is just a small listing of a few of the things that are created. The author of Paul here is really making sure that people understand both the things that you can see and the things you can't see. Like everything that was created was created through him and for him. And it's important to remember that only God can create something out of nothing. Only God has that power.

13:22 It's got that word full in the middle. I know it's not technically spelled right, but you know, it's got full in the middle and it really speaks to the idea that everything is coming from within. There's nothing. There's no light that is being radiated that's coming from without at all. Okay.

13:40 And the reason why radiance, the word radiance is important is because it speaks to Christ being the sun, not the moon. Right? Now bear with me on the analogy here. There are many different peoples and many different religions that will admit to Christ being a moon. They say he was, you know, he was a great man.

14:02 Like, yeah, yeah, you know, Islam admits that he did exist. He was a real person and will even say he was a great prophet. You know, he was a great man of God. He really reflected the light of God. But the problem is that speaks to Christ being a moon.

14:18 The moon has no light. Right? The light that we see from the moon in the nighttime is simply light coming around the earth from the sun bouncing off the moon and going back down to earth. So, the moon has no light of its own. It simply reflects the light of the sun.

14:35 Christ does not reflect the light of God. He radiates the light of God. He is full of the light of God and it radiates directly. It is an out shining from within himself to creation. So, is not, he does not reflect.

14:53 He simply radiates the light. Now, the author of Hebrews believes that this is so important that he then emphasizes it in the next phrase and says that he is the exact, exact representation of his nature. So, not only is he not only does he radiate the light of God, he is the exact representation of his nature. Not a copy, not an imitation, you know, not even a good copy. Like it's the exact representation, exact same nature.

15:27 And then the continuing on, it says, he upholds all things by the word of his power. This word of his power that is speaking of is the same word that we spoke of in John chapter one. It is the same word used in Genesis chapter one in the creation. You know, it says that God spoke the world into existence. This word, the power of this word is what was necessary then and it continues to be necessary now.

16:06 There are many, many scientists don't understand what holds the atom together. The opposite electrical charges of protons and neutrons that are so like just firmly packed together. The opposite charges should literally rip every atom of the entire universe apart. They just shouldn't exist. And many people don't understand like why they stay together.

16:28 What holds them together. And the word of his power, the word, the power of Christ and the power of his that he wields is the glue that holds the universe together. We can see this in Colossians one and verse 17. I'll read that now. It says he is before all things and all things are in him all things hold together.

16:53 So this, the word, this power of his word is absolutely necessary on a daily basis. Because without his power and without the power of his word, the universe would collapse and rip itself apart. And then in verse three, it moves into what I like to call his after activities. It says, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Now, all of these words might vary slightly in translations, but the one thing that is consistent across all the translations is that they're used in the past tense.

17:55 It's done. He doesn't need to keep doing it over and over and over and over again as the Old Testament sacrificial system was set up. He did it. Completed. Done.

18:06 Kaput. He sat down. Now, McDonald points to this sitting down as being important and he calls it the posture of rest. Now, this isn't the rest of tiredness because we know that God and Christ as God has eternal strength. So it's not the posture of I'm done.

18:30 Finally, I just want to go to sleep. My family, when we were growing up, when we were working on especially if it was an outdoor project, we liked to make sure that we didn't eat until the very end. Because if we stopped halfway through, we would sit there, we'd eat and then we'd all sit around and we'd be really lazy and tired. I don't want to go back outside. It's cold.

18:56 That's not what Christ is doing. Christ is sitting at the end of the project. He completed the work and he is basking in the satisfaction of having completed his work. It's the, like, I'm so happy that I'm finally done. I can, you know, I can relax and I can just enjoy the fact that I finished building the sheep fence.

19:18 You know, I'm done. I, it's, I it's done. I don't have to. I don't have to feel tired. It's done.

19:26 And then this idea of the right hand of the Majesty on High is really significant because there's really no other place that God could have exalted him that was a higher place. It says this is the place of honor, power, authority that God exalted Christ to that it's spoken of in Philippians two:nine and 10. When he says God highly exalted him, this is the place where God highly exalted him to his right hand. This is the place of honor and authority. He rules as son of God, heir of God, and as victorious savior.

20:14 And then I don't want to spend too much time on verse four, but it says, having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. Now this more excellent name than they that he inherited, it's actually kind of twofold. And one is more of an inherited and one of them is more of an inherent, meaning he has always had it. And the difference is his dual nature of being son of God and son of man. As son of God, he's always existed as the son of God.

20:49 As we saw in John chapter one, you know, he's always existed as son of God and no one can be no one could argue that that is a higher place than any other in the universe. But then he also he earns a more excellent name than the angels by being the son of man who was crucified, who lived a human life and was still able to rise from the dead and be exalted after his saving work. Now, the reason why the author includes this is because it's another reason why Christ is superior to angels. Angels to the forefathers and the elders of Israel who believed in Judaism. Elders or angels, sorry, were held in high regard.

21:47 They were messengers. They helped in performing signs. Had a very long lasting tradition of being present in the Old Testament times. And so the author of Hebrews is saying, well, those beings that you hold as just shy of being God, you know, as being like superior beings, Christ is still superior to them. Christ is exalted with a name above their name.

22:15 You shouldn't even bother with angels because you have Christ and Christ is superior. Now, of you are probably sitting there wondering, well, you know, that's nice, Daniel, thanks for the history lesson. But what does that have to do with the truth of it? Well, the truth of it is that these are this passage right here is filled with some of the undeniable truths of our faith. Now, without the person of Christ and without his power and without the undeniable godship of Christ, our faith is dead.

22:54 We're believing in an unpowerful dead God if we don't believe that Christ really is God and really did rise from the dead. The truth of it is that Christ, being fully God, was able to provide us with the opportunity to receive God's gift of salvation in a way that no other form of redemption can possibly touch. Christ's path to God the Father was completed in a one sacrifice, one size fits all opportunity that will be open until the final judgment day. Now, Jacob is going to come up and he is going to touch on the responsibility of the church in having the knowledge of this truth.

24:20 I'm going start off by just reading the passage, one Timothy chapter four. Sorry, chapter three. First Timothy chapter three, verse 14. I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

24:56 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory. So we're looking at the display of truth. Here in First Timothy, Paul is setting forth some practical ways of the way the church is supposed to operate, looking at dealing with false teachers and the qualifications of deacons. And here he's going to focus in on the foundation.

25:34 And he's going to exhort us that as we are the church of the living God, God is dwelling in us, and we are the pillar and support of the truth. We're like a billboard of God's truth. And so we're going to look at what that truth of God is and why it's important. The first thing I'd like to highlight is that the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ. We don't stand on any other foundation but Jesus Christ.

26:05 First Corinthians three eleven says, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. And so we must not be quiet or unashamed of the truth, but most proclaim it in love. We must know, stand for, and proclaim this truth, which we'll see in just a minute. A quick warning would be that we need to be careful that we display what is truth as it is revealed in God's word. That we don't display traditions, even good traditions, on the same authority as the truths that God has presented as truth in His word.

26:45 Many good traditions, but focusing on displaying and proclaiming the truth of God's word. And so that was my first point, which I didn't billboard or I didn't highlight, but it's the truth, the pillar, and proclaimer of truth, the church. Secondly, we're going to look at as Paul gets into what this truth is. So he says in verse 16, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. By common confession or he holds us to be very dear, true, something he's not going to shake upon.

27:21 This is it, the mystery of godliness. And what is the mystery of godliness? The mystery of godliness is Jesus Christ. And so this is really how it relates to how what Daniel was saying of God spoken many times through the prophets pointing towards Christ. And finally, Christ is revealed.

27:42 He is the mystery of godliness. We use the word mystery these days. Something we don't, as is, we use mystery to be something that's really mysterious and we're never really going to understand it correctly. Whereas in the Bible, mystery is used to be something that God has planned out from eternity past, and He's waiting for the proper time to reveal it to us. It's not a mystery to God.

28:09 It's a mystery to us until God reveals it to us. And once He has revealed it to us, there's no more mystery. We understand it. It's been revealed. So by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.

28:22 Jesus Christ. And we have been revealed. We've we know about Jesus Christ through the word, through the Bible. I'd like to talk quickly about looking at this word godliness. It's kind of a small side note here.

28:40 But we talk about, people talk about being moral. And we talk about, we like to be Godly. But in the Bible, let me say moral codes are often dumbed down so that we can say we're good people. And we see this throughout our, you know, as we look at other people's worldview, people think of themselves as good people. But godliness is only found in the mystery of godliness, Jesus Christ.

29:12 Galatians two twenty says this, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the power to live godly comes through Jesus Christ. So now we're going get into those six key phrases that show the character, nature, and work of Jesus Christ.

29:45 The first one. He who was revealed in the flesh. This is foundational that we understand that Jesus was not just a man, but that He was God. John one:one says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But then 14 says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

30:11 It's important that we focus on these foundational truths. I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness some time ago, and they were very emphatic that Jesus was crucified not on a cross, but on a stake. And so I want to emphasize the fact that for me, it's important that he was crucified, not the shape of the device that was used to crucify him. We need to have our emphasis correctly. So the first point, He was revealed in the flesh.

30:40 And if you missed this, John eight twenty four says, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. You better get this one right. Secondly, he was vindicated in the spirit. Now what does vindicated mean? I'm sure many of you know what vindicated means, but let me describe it.

31:38 He died in an attempt to ascend into heaven by jumping off a cliff. His body was later retrieved and buried by his followers. In 1948, Mr. Venter claimed that he was Christ, the new Messiah, and claimed to have led a convoy of rocket ships to earth from an extinct planet. He died on 12/10/1958 by being suicide bombed by two disgruntled former employees or followers who accused him of mishandling called funds.

32:08 In the nineteen sixty's, a man named Charles Mason claimed to be God and the son of man. He started a race war in California and is currently in jail. In 1978, Jim Jones claimed to be God and convinced more than 900 people to commit mass suicide. Henri Christo was a Brazilian man who claimed to be God. He currently has a large following and makes weekly broadcasts.

32:34 About 2,000 ago, Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God, resulting in suffering and ultimately in His death. But His bodily resurrection vindicated Him and validated His claim to be God. He was vindicated. Romans chapter one verses three and four say this. Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

33:15 The resurrection from the dead is a critical component of the mystery of godliness, Jesus Christ. Thirdly, he was seen by angels. And I'd like to emphasize, but he was not an angel. Angels are very involved with the life of Jesus. They observed him.

33:36 Some were directly involved. We see that an angel informed Mary of his coming. They proclaimed His birth. They strengthened Him at Gethsemane. They announced His resurrection.

33:49 They witnessed His ascension and told His disciples to wait for His return. He was tempted by a fallen angel, but he cast out many demons. The angels feared and obeyed Jesus Christ. And so this is something we don't think about as much, but I'd like you to turn to Ephesians three. Turn to Ephesians three, please.

34:18 And this is kind of how it fits in. As a church, we proclaim Christ. And we are a testimony to those who are around us, to the world around us, but we're also a testimony in a very special way to the angelic realm. Ephesians chapter three verses eight through 11. Here Paul is writing and he says this, To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

35:31 And so by displaying the goodness of Jesus Christ, we are showing the manifold wisdom of God to the angelic hosts. We're being a testimony to them. We're a display to them of God's goodness. So fourthly, we see here in this first that he was proclaimed among the nations. Matthew 2eight 19 says this, go there and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

36:09 This is important because the gospel is to be proclaimed among all nations. It's not just for a particular section of the world or for just another area. It's to be proclaimed to all peoples, all groups, and all nations. Peter had to be confronted about this, that he was to go to the Gentiles. Today we're pretty familiar with the idea because we've seen the gospel going out all over the world, sometimes via the internet or radio, where any and all, nearly all, can hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

37:29 Salvation is acquired by faith and it is offered to all. If salvation were through climbing a mountain or going to a certain temple, then it would only be accessible to some. The heavens declare the glory of God and all earth can see the heavens. We are to declare the goodness of Jesus Christ, the message of the gospel to all. And many are believing.

37:55 I believe, we believe, and many every day all over the world are believing the incredible message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Number six. Jesus Christ, the mystery of godliness, was taken up into heaven. Acts one:nine says, after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud received him out of their sight. Jesus has no grave today, or maybe I should say second grave, right?

38:33 He died and was resurrected. Lazarus died. Jesus resurrected him, but Lazarus has a second grave. And so it's critical to understand that as God, the grave could not hold him. He is alive today.

38:52 He is seated at the right hand of God, as Daniel referenced earlier, and he's coming back for all of those who believe on him in the world. So we've seen these six tenants of faith, these foundational principles that show nature and work of Jesus Christ. And they help us to understand the mystery of godliness. As a church, we are to maintain and display these truths, not to make up anything else, but just to hold onto what we have in the Bible. We're not to be ashamed of or compromise the truth.

39:34 And that's a lot of what we do here at Westlake Bible Fellowship. This is what we believe. Tonight we're having a wanna. Not to teach children to be moral. That's not the point.

39:45 We're to just show to them, well, tonight we're to reach boys and girls with the gospel of Christ and to train them to serve Him. That's our mission. Many of us are going tomorrow to work or to school. And as as the church, we are to display the goodness of God. And all of us are a testimony to to those around us and to the angelic realm, the goodness of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

40:48 In Jesus name I pray. Amen.