All right, thank you, music ministers.
Have your Bibles.
Or you can look upon the screen, turn
to the book of Hebrews.
The first thing that you need to know about our new journey into this
verse by verse study, which is going to take quite
some time, is what I've already mentioned to you.
It's overall point, and
its overall theme, the
absolute, supremacy, and
preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is, preeminent
over, superior
to everything, and
every body.
There's no body, there's nothing that you can
come up with, that anywhere gets close
to his supremacy,
and his preeminence.
And my prayer, as I've already said, for both myself and you.
Once we finish all of this book,
We will all have a much deeper understanding of
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But before we get started, we're going to need to do an introductory message
here today.
We're going to lay a foundation with some background information
that you're going to find helpful as we go.
You're going to understand it better as we go why.
I put together what I did for today.
No question.
This is not an easy book to study at all.
This book is full
of a lot of deep truth and
serious theological content.
And so, as I said, it's going to require very diligent
preparation on my part to
put together these messages for you, and
serious focus in
listening on your part, and also,
more than in any buck I've ever preached,
your own personal study at home of Hebrews.
Let's just dig into it.
Like all of us just dig into it.
Your personal study time at home, get into Hebrews.
If you don't have a study Bible, let me know.
I got an extra one, they sent me for three from Grace Community Church.
Speaking of that, John MacArthur's Old Testament, professor
was a brilliant man named Dr. Charles Feinberg, and this is what he said.
You cannot understand the book of Hebrews unless you
understand the book of Leviticus.
Because the book of Hebrews is based upon the principles
of the Levitical priesthood.
Now, if that wets your whistle in the direction we're going, it should.
But not to worry.
If your Leviticus IQ is
not up to snuff right now, that's okay, because I'm
promising you, if you come every Sunday, by
the time we get to the end of this book, you're going to know a whole lot more about it.
And it would be helpful.
If you also, next to Hebrews in your personal
Bible study time, if you would do a study of Leviticus as well.
with a study Bible in your hand, to get
to know some of the ceremonies and the types and
the symbols for which Hebrews
gives us the actual reaction, the
actual fulfillment.
Now, Hebrews, as I'm sure all of you know was written by
an unknown author.
And there's been a lot of speculation and debate
about who wrote Hebrews.
There are many candidates.
Paul, Apollos, Peter,
Luke, name a few.
Dr. James White has an interesting theory
that other people also have, that
it was dictated by Paul to
Luke, who then wrote it
down in his own style.
But really, if you dig down into this whole thing,
and there's endless reams of reading about this, vocabulary
style, literary patterns really, truly
don't support any particular claim.
In other words, you could find things.
Like, if you said it was Luke, and you could find things to
pick that apart, and I think it's best to say, we don't know.
I think that's just best.
I mean, where scripture doesn't speak.
It's like Calvin said, directly to something, and
it leaves you, you don't know?
Well, just leave it right there.
You don't know.
And be okay with that.
And it's really kind of fitting that we don't know.
Because the purpose of the book is to exalt Christ.
So I think it's kind of fitting that we don't know.
So what we'll do is, as we go through this
study, we will refer to the reality
that it was definitely written
by the Holy Spirit, who we do know.
In fact, if you look at Hebrews 3 7,
How does it start out?
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit
says, you see that?
And then he goes on to quote Psalm 95, 7.
Today, if you hear his voice.
So that tells us right there.
It's the Holy Spirit.
And ultimately, the Holy Spirit wrote the whole Bible, right?
using men to do so.
Also, there's no references to Gentiles in this book.
There is no references to problems in
this time period between Jews and Gentiles
in this church that Hebrews is written to, and
you want to know why that is?
Because this little congregation that received
this letter was a persecuted and
suffering group of Jewish believers,
and unbelievers as well, but all Jewish.
And guess what?
We don't even know where the exact
location of this little group of Hebrews
existed geographically.
We do know, for a fact, it was outside of Israel,
and that will come clear as we go along, possibly
Greek, maybe Italy?
There's a little reference toward the end.
We don't know.
Again, so we not meant to know.
We also know, this is interesting, that this community was
evangelized and even taught by actual apostles.
long after Jesus went back to heaven,
and some New Testament prophets.
And when I say that phrase, if you remember a couple weeks ago, we talked about this.
In the early Church Apostolic Age, there were New
Testament prophets that had been given the gift of prophecy,
but as the Apostolic era ended out, just
like we believe in cessationism,
all of that died out with the canon of scripture coming back,
and the age and the apostles dying out.
So, evidently, this
church had started fairly soon after
the ascension of Jesus.
And by the time that this particular letter was written and
delivered, this small church of believers
had actually existed for quite some time.
We know from chapters 10 and 12 that this
group was facing even more
intensified persecution
at the time the letter got to them than they had
previously experienced.
Now, let's talk about where the persecution came from.
Well, during this time period, the Romans, starting
with Claudius, if you remember in
your history books, he expelled the Jews from Rome in
49 A.D. and
then later Nero, A.D. 64,
and then, of course, from Jews, who
didn't believe Jesus was Messiah, they really got
a lot of persecution, in those early,
in the 1st century, they got a lot from their own Jewish physical
brethren.
And unlike many of the Jews in Israel
that we've been studying in the book of John,
no one in this little group of
Hebrews, ever had the opportunity
in their lives to meet Jesus, or even
see Jesus, with their eyeballs.
They were too far away when he had his ministry
going in Israel.
So anything that they knew about Jesus came
secondhand, first from the apostles in the New Testament
prophets, kind of like for us, right?
We do know this also, that
there were not any missionaries that went out
anywhere from the main church in Jerusalem until
at least seven years after
this church was founded.
And so, we also know that
you're going to see this.
This is important, the use of present tense language.
In many sections of this book,
lets us know that the Levitical priesthood
of the Jews and the sacrificial system was
still in operation when this letter was written.
Now, without a long explanation, of which
I could give you one, but just for time's sake.
It seems the best time
frame when this was written was between 65
and 69 A.D.
Now, let me tell you why this is important, this present tense language
about the sacrificial system.
That tells us for sure that this book was
written before 70 A.D. when the temple
was destroyed by the Romans.
Because you know what happened.
A good bit of time had passed from the start of
the church until the letter had been delivered.
And that's why it says in Hebrews 5:12.
Look at it.
For though, by this time, you ought to be teachers.
But you need, again, for someone to teach you the elementary principles
of the oracles of God, and
you have come to need milk, and not solid food.
So he's getting onto them, kind of.
You've been around a while, but I'm still having to give you milk,
not seven food, because the sacrifices are
still going on in Jerusalem, how do we know that?
Because 70 AD hadn't happened yet, because what happened in saving DAD?
The Romans came in and destroyed the temple.
And there hasn't been a temple or a Jewish sacrifice since that time to this very day.
Do you think that's a coincidence?
There's no possible way that that's a coincidence, right?
Now, let me get to the really, really,
really important thing to understand here.
And you got to keep this in your mind.
There are three basic
groups of people in view throughout this whole epistle.
And if we do not keep these groups in mind,
this book will become very confusing for us.
It'll become confusing for you when you're in home studying it.
But if you get this right now, you're going to be
on your way to having a firm grasp of what's happening.
If this book was only written to believers,
boy, we would run into some verses that would give us big problems
in interpreting a number of passages,
as you're going to see that simply cannot apply to believers.
So it's clear, first, that both
unbelievers and believers are a target,
in fact, as we're fixing to see, not only in these
three groups, do you have to understand there's three groups, you
also have to understand who
is being addressed, and
when they're being addressed.
Both of those things are going to get mixed up in
understanding this book, especially in chapter 6, and in chapter 10.
Now, what's a good idea to do is to
give you a summary of the three groups.
So you can get them in your mind, and you can keep them in your mind as we study.
First, in this Jewish congregation, there
were true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They had come out of Judaism,
in which they had been born and raised their whole life,
until those apostles and New Testament
prophets came on the scene, evangelized them.
God saved them, regenerated them.
They had true saving faith.
They are ethnically Jewish, but they are Jewish believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they paid a heavy price.
Persecution for their newfound faith.
And we're going to see that in chapters 10 and 12.
First, I mean, just being
ostracized from their Jewish brethren in their community, from their families.
Think of the family members who didn't believe Jesus was Messiah.
And how those family members now treated what they
considered to be blasphemy, kicked out of the synagogue.
I've told you before, we've talked about it.
The synagogue in every Jewish community was
the social gathering place.
It's where everything went down, kicked
out, kicked out of your family, kicked
out of your synagogue, kicked out of the social strata of the community.
So there was suffering of
all levels and all different kinds, kind of like what
Saul was doing before he became Paul.
And then, also, you got to think about the Romans and
what they were doing in this time period, as I mentioned earlier.
But not yet martyrdom for these folks,
as we're going to see in chapter 12.
Now, as I said, by this time, they
should have been mature enough to deal with all that, but
they were not, and you're going to see the letter address that.
Also, and you can understand this.
they were in real danger of mixing
in legalism
and the ceremonies of Judaism with their Christian faith.
It was so very tempting for them, and
this was a serious problem for them.
Just like in all Jewish congregations, it
was very hard for them to accept all
the clear cut distinctions between the gospel and
the new covenant and the old with the ceremonies and the rituals.
I mean, it just couldn't tear apart from it.
They were still hung up, let me give you an example, on the
temple ritual and worship.
What was still happening when they got this letter?
And that, folks, is why.
We are going to see the writer play so much emphasis
that there is a new priesthood, that
there is a new temple, that there is a new permanent
sacrifice, and all of these
are far better than the old ones.
That's going to be drilled into your brain as we go through these verses.
And we have to understand that
all of this was so very
hard for them, having been born and raised
in Judaism.
It would kind of be like, what you are taught here.
You come every Sunday, and you hear this Sunday in and
Sunday out, and somebody comes in, and it's totally
news, like, What?
And you added that, that even though the old covenant and
the new covenant are dramatically different, guess what?
The same Old Testament, that
they had grown up reading and studying and
memorizing, was still inseparably
linked to the new covenant.
So could you see how that would make it?
Hey, well wait a minute.
This is still the scripture.
This is still the word of God right here.
And many of the passages are quoted here
in this epistle from the Old Testament,
many to demonstrate the
differences between the Old and the New Covenant.
So lots of Old Testament is going to be quoted to
teach, and it's really primarily, teaches the
church for all time, of course, but specifically these people
who had been ingrained in Judaism.
So, I would say, we really can't be too hard on them, right?
I mean, put yourself in their shoes.
I mean, we'd all be struggling with this if we had been 1st
century Hebrews with now this is the Messiah.
And add to that, the pressure, the persecution
from their fellow Jews, a
lot of complexity, trying to hold
on, wait, that, we can't let this go, we can't let this go.
That's what God said.
Right?
This is what God said in this word.
It's really, it's really very difficult.
I'm overemphasizing this to
prepare you for what you're going to hear.
So you understand how hard it was for them to make a clean break
away from the Old Covenant and family
members who were still not believers.
Now, again, I want to re emphasize this.
Put all that together.
And what that equals is, they were in danger.
of, in their little community, developing all
to their self, a ceremonial,
ritualistic, legalistic form
of Christianity that had way too much old
covenant elements in it.
That's what they were endangering.
And that's why we see this strong content in the teaching
of the Holy Spirit, to make very clear, you're going to
see it over and over how much better the new covenant
is, how much better Jesus is, how much better
what Jesus did is than anything you had before.
They desperately needed to hear that.
They needed to have their faith strengthened
in the new covenant, and they desperately
needed to be shown.
You don't need the new temple at all.
You don't ever need to go back to that temple.
There's nothing for you at that temple, and
then in the providence of God.
It was very soon completely destroyed, not
one stone left upon another, and as I said,
2026.
There has not been a Jewish sacrifice in that Temple sits,
because the Muslims run it now, on the Temple Mount.
They needed to understand.
You don't need the daily, old covenant
priesthood, the daily sacrifices, the
monthly sacrifices, the yearly sacrifices.
You don't need them at all, ever again,
because as Hebrews makes clear, they have a new
and better covenant as Christians.
You're Christians now.
They had a new and better priesthood in Christ, the
fulfillment, a better sanctuary, a
new, and absolutely, once for
all, permanent, perfect sacrifice
in what the Messiah did in his substitutionary death on the cross.
That's what they needed to get into their bloodstream.
They needed to understand that these types and shadows and
pictures and symbols of the old covenant,
revealed in the Old Testament, were now totally
given way to all the reality in the new covenant.
That's what they needed to understand.
So this first group is made up
of genuine Jewish believers, who
needed to understand all that, and who needed to have confidence,
they needed confidence in this new covenant, and
exactly how it differed from the O.
Now, let me go to the second group.
These are Jewish.
non Christians who had intellectual faith only.
Remember, the demons believe, right, and they tremble.
Now, we've all encountered people who have
heard the truth of Jesus Christ, and they
are intellectually convinced that he is who he claimed to be.
They may have made a profession of faith.
I'm a Christian.
I believe in Jesus, but... by their behavior.
They make it very clear that they have not ever
really, truly surrendered to the Lord
Jesus Christ in Bible,
repentance and saving faith.
They profess faith in Christ,
but they do not genuinely possess
faith in Christ and his gospel.
And it's probably true that every church group,
since Pentecost has had people in it like this.
And so, these folks, as
we go through Hebrews, at different parts,
and I'm going to tell you when they are, I'm going to tell you, okay, it's this group now.
They are directly addressed and exhorted by the Holy Spirit.
Hey, you need to go all the way to saving faith.
is what you need to do.
And not only that, they are warned, big time,
of the consequences of not doing that.
Let me show you a quick example.
Hebrew 6, 4 to 6.
Here is this group.
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and
have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have
been made partakers of the Holy Spirit.
Wait a minute, what does that mean, brother Philip?
Well, you're going to find out when we get to those verses.
Because I don't have time to go through all that right now.
And have tasted the good word of God and the powers
of the age to come and then have fallen a way.
It is impossible to renew
them again to repentance, since they again crucify
to themselves the Son of God and put him to
an open shame.
You see the thick waters we're fixing to get into here?
Thickness is what this is going to be.
We'll explain that when we get to it.
But that's a passage that's been used by people,
who believe that a true Christian can
lose their salvation, to support their position.
But, as I said, with a right understanding
of who, out of the three groups,
is being addressed in that passage we can
avoid falling into that kind of area.
So you see what I'm saying?
Every Sunday, when you come in here in Hebrews, you got to have your thinking cap on.
We got to make distinctions.
We've got to be discerning.
And this is a warning right here.
Not only to those who have just the intellectual
faith in Christ only, to not stop
where they are, but you need to go all
the way to saving faith.
And that's not the only warning.
Let me give you one more.
Hebrews 10:26 and 27.
For if we go on, sinning
willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the
truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, but a terrifying expectation of
judgment and the fury of a fire,
which will consume the adversaries.
And then, further, look at 29.
Verse 29.
How much severer punishment do you think he will
deserve, who has trampled underfoot the
Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the
blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified,
and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Wow.
There and more.
are controversial passages
right there, that Christians have debated and argued about all
through the centuries.
And we will deal with every one of them in detail when we get to them.
Third group, last group.
Third group of Hebrews here are the
Jews in this community who had not believed in Jesus at all.
They had rejected him as Messiah.
The writer also wants them to
clearly understand exactly who
Jesus claimed himself to be.
This is really the main thrust of chapter 9.
I'll give you an example in chapter 9,
11, verse 11 out of Hebrews, warning
to point these people to Christ, but when Christ appeared.
As a high priest of the good things to come,
he entered through the greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that
is to say, not of this creation.
And then he goes on from there to explain in depth all of that.
So in this section, it's the
unbelievers, who are directly spoken to.
So this is not to Christians or those who are only intellectually
convinced this group needed to be evangelized.
Yo, you're rejecting Jesus?
You're rejecting your Messiah?
Well, let me tell you who he is.
That's the thrust here.
So, these are the three groups, if you can remember that,
that are in view here in the book of Hebrews.
And again, the key to interpreting any part
of this book is to understand
and grasp which group is being addressed
and when they're being addressed.
And really, back up, meta
picture, primary message is really
to believers, overall.
And what you have here is these periodic warnings here
and there to these two unbelieving groups that
are sprinkled in and out the book.
And really, really.
It's just a masterful way that could only be
divine, that the Holy Spirit is able to speak
to all three groups with this text all
woven together into one book.
It's clearly inspired by God.
There's just no question about it.
In Hebrews, there is confidence, and
assurance, for the Christian, you're going to get that Christian.
There is warning to the intellectually
convinced that they have to come all the way to saving faith,
or the knowledge that they have will damn them forever.
And there's a very convincing presentation to the
totally unbelieving Jews in this community.
So everybody's covered.
But also, overall, as I said earlier, the
biggest picture is the supremacy and
the preeminence of Jesus, over
everything that exists.
He's better than anything that was before.
He's better than any Old Testament person, or angel,
or ritual, or ceremony, or sacrifice.
He is better than anybody or everything
that is.
That is the primary message that we...
I'm going to keep hammering it into your forehead every
Sunday when you are here.
As I said, we're going to get a summary of the whole
epistle, in the first three verses.
And then it's going to go on.
to detail how Christ is superior to everything.
Now, I'm going to tell you.
That was as condensed an introduction as I could give you.
I'm telling you, I left a lot on my table.
At the house, I could have gave you a lot more stuff,
but I just wanted to condense the
introduction to give you some foundational thoughts
that are important, understanding how this
book is going to go, and we're just going to let it all play
out as we go.
How about that?
Okay?
Now, but I don't want to leave, 'cause
I can't leave without dipping our toe
in a verse, all right?
So first verse.
And there's no build up here.
There's no greeting here,
like we get in the other epistles.
This book just starts
off with a nuclear explosion
in the first three verses, right out of the gate.
This is what we're going to do.
We're not going to get to all three verses today, okay?
But we're going to take these first three verses together,
and we're going to put them in an outline.
Number one, the preparation for Christ,
number two, the presentation of
Christ, and number three, the preeminence
of Christ.
That's going to be our three point outline in
these first three verses.
So look with me at verse number one.
God.
After he spoke, long ago,
to the fathers, in the prophets,
in many portions, and in many ways.
Now, this tells us how God
wrote the Old Testament.
The purpose of the Old Testament was to prepare
for the coming of Christ in
his incarnation, whether in prophecy,
or type, or principle, or commandment,
or whatever it was.
It was all big picture, the presentation,
and the preparation of Christ.
Now, as you know, this, little theology for a second.
God has revealed himself to all mankind
in what the theologians call general revelation, right?
And we know that from Romans one.
And Romans 1, we both get, God has revealed
himself to all mankind in creation, and
God has revealed himself to all mankind in conscience,
from the visible creation that we can see with
our eyes, and then innately, all
men know instinctively that God exists,
the most hardened atheist.
When he lays his head down at night in the still
of the night, he knows, because God
has implanted it in there.
God's law is written on every heart, and that's
how we innately know right from wrong.
That's how every person knows, innately, that if
I pulled out an M16 and just started spraying, everybody
who watched the news story from this morning spraying of the
M16, at Providence Baptist Church, would know.
That's wrong.
That's how you know that.
General revelation.
Creation and conscience is enough to
hold all people accountable, as Romans one says.
But it's not enough to save anybody.
OK?
If we're going to know anything about
God beyond general
revelation, God has to speak.
Now, look at verse one again.
God after he what?
spoke.
Okay?
Aside from the fact that we can know God exists
through creation and conscience, I want you to ask you this question.
What would we know about God, besides that if he didn't speak?
Nothing.
Nil, nada, zilch.
Will you just be running around here, acting according
to our own natures, and that's all we would ever do?
And here's a classic illustration of this from John MacArthur.
I want you to imagine this right now.
Imagine us living in a natural box.
And in this natural box.
is the whole universe of the time space existence
that we currently live in.
All of the planets and
galaxies and stars,
and we can move around in this box physically, although
we can't get much further than our own planet, but
I mean, if we could, fly around the universe, it's massive, right?
We can't get our minds around how big the universe is.
But we're still inside this natural box.
But then, outside of the natural box that
we all exist in, in this universe,
outside is the supernatural.
outside the box.
OK?
Now, deep down inside,
we know the supernaturals out there.
as part of general revelation, right?
We know alternity has been placed in our hearts.
We know, but on our own,
We can't, on our own, know anything about
what's outside the box in the supernatural.
We can't experience anything outside the
natural box in the supernatural.
While we're inside this natural box.
So some people come along and say, well, you know what we need to do?
We need to start a religion so that we can discover
the supernatural that we know is out there, and so
they go to the edge of the natural box.
And they start trying to poke holes in it with their religion,
and they want to break into the supernatural,
and you can pick your religion.
Buddhism, Hinduism, pick your cult.
I don't care what it is.
It's all an attempt to get outside
the natural box and into the supernatural
realm.
But guess what?
The natural man cannot.
on his own, escape into the supernatural.
None of us in here can transcend our
natural existence.
We can't even get on the roof.
Right?
Right now unless you go get a ladder.
So we have a problem.
We can't discover anything about God
beyond general revelation, as I said
earlier, any more than a bug
has the ability right now in the grass to understand us
in what makes us tick.
It's about the same.
And we can't even condescend down
to the bugs level to communicate to them anything.
But in fact, in our case, with
God, God could.
In fact, God did,
God literally became
a man and busted through the natural box
that we're in, and when he busted through the natural box,
What Hebrews one is telling us, as he told
us all about himself, and that outside
supernatural world.
Every single religion in the world
is in a backward situation.
Because every religion in the world is man's
attempt to jump out of the box.
There's only one religion in the world that says the opposite.
Biblical Christianity, which says, God came into the box.
that we're in, in the person of Jesus Christ,
to reveal himself to us and
to seek and save that which was lost.
And that is the major difference between
Christianity and every other religion in
the world, just like every other religion in the world,
is a system of works, to get out of the box,
to reach God, only biblical
Christianity is our responding in
faith alone to the God who came into the box, in
the person of Jesus Christ.
alone.
There's no other system like biblical Christianity.
And that's why people when they say, well, look, man, you can
pick any religion you want to.
They all lead to God.
I say no, they do not.
None of them do, ever, ever.
Every other religion is man's attempt to discover
God, Christianity is God
invading man's world, literally, personally,
and revealing himself in great detail,
as we read about every Sunday in his book.
And God first spoke outside
of general revelation through the words of
the Old Testament.
That's where he started.
Men alone didn't write the Bible.
God used men as instruments
to write down what he wanted all of us to know.
This is a great passage right here that we have
before us supporting the divine
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Let's keep going, and I want to show it to you.
Verse one, God.
After he spoke, long ago,
to the fathers, in the prophets,
in many portions, and in many ways,
now, many portions refers to the 39 books
of the Old Testament.
And think about it.
They reflect many different historical times,
locations, cultures, people,
situations, over 1,500 years,
and 40 plus writers, and consider how
it all fits together with itself.
That's amazing.
Consider how it fits all together with the New Testament.
Astounding.
Next, verse one, in many ways.
Well, what does that mean?
Well, in the Old Testament times, visions, symbols,
poetry, law, prophecy?
No matter the literary style?
It was always God's revelation of what
he wanted his people to know, whatever vehicle
he used to make that happen, in the Old Testament, listen to what it's called.
It's called Progressive Revelation.
You can't read all of the truth in Genesis out of the Old Testament, can you?
No.
Genesis gives you some.
Then Exodus gives you some.
Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and it builds, and it
builds, and it builds, and it builds throughout the entirety, and
that's why we call it progressive revelation.
As I said a few weeks ago.
The Bible never goes from error to truth.
That's not what we're talking about and the difference between the Old Covenant and the New.
Even from the Old Testament
to the New Testament, it's always just this.
Remember this, incompleteness to completeness.
That's what Old Testament to New Testament is.
So nothing in the Old Testament is wrong.
There is development and progression
of truth revealed until guess what?
It's totally refined and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
It's kind of like the kids back here.
First, what do they start off with?
Letters.
A, B, then words.
Then they get on to sentences.
That's how they learn.
That's the same way God gave his revelation to us, progressively.
Bits and pieces.
It started out with the types and the shadows, and
the ceremonies, and the prophecy.
You could liken those to the words, and then the full sentences
came in Christ.
And I'm not just talking about what Christ spoke in the gospels.
I'm saying all that the New Testament says about Jesus.
Now go back a little bit in verse one.
says he spoke long ago to the fathers.
That's our ancestors.
Did you know that?
Old Testament people.
That's our spiritual ancestors, as
sons and daughters of Abraham, right?
Isn't that what the New Testament teaches us?
And physical ancestors, if you're Jewish.
Next in verse one.
In the prophets.
And they were his messengers.
Now, think about this.
The prophet is one who speaks to men
or God.
The Old Testament priest spoke to God,
or men, when we were doing the sacrifices.
The prophet brought God's message to
men, this gives us, right here, the
divine authorship of the Old Testament,
in the prophets.
Look at 2 Peter 1,2.
121.
He says, For no prophecy was ever made by an act
of human will, but men moved by
the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture
is inspired by God,
that phrase meaning God breathed.
So, that was the
preparation for Christ.
Now, lastly, real quick for today, I want you
to see, just for a minute, we'll get more into it next time, the
presentation of Christ.
Look at verse two.
In these last days, he has spoken
to us in his son.
This is the finalizing of
God coming into the box and revealing what he wants us to know about himself.
God, who used to speak in many ways, to many people,
has finally big pictures spoken in one way through
one individual, Jesus.
And I say big picture because there were eight men who wrote the
New Testament, not including the author of Hebrews, and the entire
New Testament, as I said earlier, is centered around one person.
Jesus,
The gospels give the story.
The epistles all comment on the person and work
of Christ, and what living in obedience to
Christ looks like, and what coming to faith in Christ looks
like, and then the book of Revelation tells
us where all of this is going to end up.
So it's all Christ, from beginning to end.
That's why verse 2 says, in these last days has
spoken to us in his son.
You're going to see, it's so interesting to consider none
of the old prophets of the Old Testament, grasp
the whole truth, even when they were getting the revelation.
Only in Jesus do we get the full picture.
The Old Testament, as I said, bits, pieces,
rolled out progressively, right?
But Jesus is the final and full
revelation in these last days.
Now, if you were here a few weeks ago, you
will remember that that phrase can be used the last days
as starting during the first coming of Jesus.
So that means we're still in them right now, the last days.
And that's how the phrase is used here.
And let me tell you something.
These Jews really understood the
last days, to me, the days when Messiah would be here.
The messianic age.
When they heard that phrase, that's what they were thinking about.
And certainly, they were in
the Messianic age, and we're still in the Messianic age.
Now, in these last days, God
has spoken to us in his son, and guess what he did?
He finished.
He finished speaking.
in the New Testament.
That's why it's utter blasphemy to
add anything to the New Testament.
Anything else out there in all of literature
that claims to be revelation from God is
blasphemous.
God has spoken in His Son,
in the New Testament, and that's it.
It's over.
It's ended.
That's why, at the end of Revelation, it says, if you add anything to this,
the plagues are going to be added to you
you.
Take anything away?
The same thing will result.
God's final revelation was
made in one greater, as we will
see, than any of the prophets of the Old Testament king Jesus.
Now, we're going to stop here.
with this introduction in verse one.
And next time, we're going to get into verse 2 and 3. which
is the preeminence of Jesus.
So we're off, folks.
Here we are.
We're cranking the boat.
Get ready for a long,
amazing journey, of a verse
by verse, exposition, of the book of Hebrews.
Again, I can't encourage you enough.
Read it regularly for yourself.
When you get to the end, go back to chapter one, verse one, read it again.
And then just keep repeating that as we go through this book.
Get familiar with what's coming ahead.
And if you got questions, jot the questions down,
and pray for me.
that I can continue to understand it, and prepare for you on
Sundays, what I'm learning during
the week, and we'll all learn the book together.
Sound like a deal?
All right, let's pray.
Father, we thank you, Lord.
For this tremendous book.
The word is clear when the Holy Spirit testifies it'll
only testify of Christ, and boy, does the Holy Spirit testify of Christ here?
In this great book of Hebrews, I thank you.
For the opportunity to preach it.
I'm absolutely overwhelmed and very humbled that you would
have somebody like me to do this, but you got to have preachers somewhere.
And so I pray that you would help me to understand it, to communicate it,
that your people would have ears to hear it, and
that through every message, of course, Christ
would be exalted, and you would be glorified.
In Jesus' name we pray.
en.