"How God Speaks" - Hebrews 1:1-4

Like I said, I'm excited to begin our series in Hebrews.

When we were thinking about and praying through kind of what to do next,

I really wanted to go to an Old Testament book.

But no matter what I did, I kept coming back to Hebrews and I thought,

well, if you can't do an Old Testament book, Hebrews is the New Testament book

to do because we're going to spend a ton of time in the Old Testament. it.

When I was in college, I got this job randomly off of Craigslist.

It wasn't as sketchy back then.

Craigslist was like Facebook Marketplace is now. I don't know what Craigslist

is now. It's like the black market kind of.

But me and my roommate were about to get a job at Best Buy on Geek Squad.

I don't know what you're thinking. That checks out. It did. It did.

We looked the part. We had bought the blue shirts, the whole nines.

And he sent in a random thing on Craigslist about working for the Mavericks

and the Rangers, which I, of course, when he told me thought, well, that's a scam.

We're not going to be able to do that. Turns out we absolutely did.

And so basically the advertisements that were kind of behind home plate for

the Rangers or the scores table for the Mavericks, that's what we did.

And we sat in the press box way at the top and controlled those and why they

entrusted that to 19, 20 year olds, I don't know, but it was a great job for us to have.

But our boss was a guy named Johnny.

He lived in Chicago. And then he had a boss named Paul who we never met. We just knew he existed.

He's like the Wizard of Oz voice behind the curtain.

And every now and again, we would have an issue with the Mavericks or the Rangers

where they wouldn't let us work on a machine or we couldn't get in or something.

And we would call Johnny and say, Johnny, they're not going to let us in.

And of course, the whole time we're thinking like, we don't blame them.

Like we're in basketball shorts and a hoodie.

We don't necessarily look like somebody that should be on the court or on the field.

And so Johnny would have to call and get us on there. And every now and again,

when that didn't work, Johnny would call Joe, sorry, Paul, Joe, Paul.

I don't even remember this guy's name, but he would call him.

And all of a sudden it would happen like that.

And it's one of those moments in my life that I realized, Well,

if you have the right voice, when the right person talks, things get done.

Us saying that to this security guard or somebody at the Rangers or Mavericks

did nothing. They looked at us and thought, absolutely not.

And then sometimes we would call

our boss in Chicago and he would call and nothing would really happen.

We don't really know who you are. But if the top guy called,

it happened immediately.

There was no discussion. There was no back and forth. If that guy says it,

then it must be true. We need to listen to that guy.

And this morning, we're going to

talk about how God speaks and how God ultimately speaks through His Son.

And that's the picture I want in your head, is that when God speaks,

that's the end of the matter.

There's no going up the chain. There's no questioning what He said.

There's no, well, let me double check.

Let me figure it out for myself. Let me study a little bit longer.

Let me just kind of see how I feel about it.

None of those things matter. When God speaks, that is the end of the issue.

And almost every single problem you see in the world today can be boiled down to this.

People have failed to listen to what God has said.

They have failed to listen to what God has said. We see this.

The world starts with God speaking and creating everything.

In Genesis 1, we see the phrase, and God said, eight times.

And God said, you create. And God said, you create.

Finally, we see, and God said he creates mankind, and he creates them what? Very good.

And we go two chapters down the way, and we see that everything begins to fall apart because of what?

Because people listening to the serpent, and what does the serpent say? Did God really say?

Did God really say that? Did God really say those words?

Do you really want to trust him? Do you really want to trust his word, what he said? Yes.

So as soon as God creates, you see that the enemy's greatest thing that he brings

before Adam and Eve is to question what he said.

I don't think that's changed much. I really don't.

I think one of the biggest issues we still face every single day,

even every single one of us in this room who would be Christians is,

will we trust what God has said? Will we trust him?

Will we make excuses for it or will we kind of, well, you know,

I know it says that, but it probably means this.

I know it says that, but I don't really feel okay with that.

I know it says that, but that's going to offend my neighbors and my friends

if I believe that. So I don't really know if I want to go that far.

When we do that, we're acting just like our first parents did in the garden.

We're succumbing to the enemies.

Did God really say? Did God really say that?

So that's the question I want to tackle this morning. Number one,

do you want to hear God speak?

That's a good question. Do you want to hear God speak? You may not care.

I would caution you against that, but you may not care if God speaks to you.

That's a good first question. Number two is, will you listen?

Will you listen when God speaks?

Of course, there's always the danger that Jesus brings up in Matthew 13,

hearing they do not hear. This is the danger of living in East Texas,

is that you would hear about Jesus and hear about God's word all the time.

Billboards, signage, prayer meetings, churches, but you wouldn't hear.

You wouldn't heed. You wouldn't listen.

So let's get into Hebrews 1. Quick intro.

The book of Hebrews is a banner over it with the title of this series, Jesus is Better.

That's the entryway into Hebrews. We live in a time, again, where Jesus can

get lost in the jumbled mess of church and worship music and Christian radio,

and it's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and that's great.

But Hebrews is a great reminder that Jesus is better than everything.

He's not a piece of the puzzle. He is the cornerstone of the puzzle.

Without him, nothing else exists.

Who's the author of Hebrews? The short answer is we don't know.

You can read 3,000 page books about it and try and delineate that for yourself,

which those of us who got to go to seminary and stuff got to do.

And you realize at the end of it, you think you figured it out.

You think you've nailed it down.

And then you meet someone that you think is a lot smarter than you,

and they disagree, and you go, well, maybe I don't know. But we don't exactly

know who the author is, although it's fun to talk about it.

More importantly, who's the audience of the book of Hebrews?

That'll help you understand what the author's trying to do.

It's written to Jewish Christians, Hebrews, who are really struggling with wanting to go back to being Jews.

It's like they want Jesus, and they like Jesus, and they're excited about who Jesus is.

But, you know, they kind of like being Jewish too.

They like the fact that, well, you know, if I'm a Jew, you know what I'm not? I'm not persecuted.

Right? At that point in time in history, you could be a Jew and not be persecuted.

You know what else I'm not, if I'm not a Christian or if I'm kind of pseudo

Christian and also Jewish, I'm not mocked.

Right? One of the first depictions, in fact, the first depiction that we see

of Jesus in history is he's hanging on a cross with the head of a donkey.

And it says the name of this Greek guy's name, and it says, so-and-so worships his God.

That's what it was like to be a Christian in the first century is to say,

why would you worship a God who is crucified?

Why not Zeus?

Why not these gods that are powerful and strong and that win every battle and

that fight and never get defeated. Why not those gods?

And so we don't know the exact reason that these Jewish Christians are maybe wanting to go back.

But I think for us, there is always a draw to say, I think Jesus is great,

but he's just not better than everything else.

I think Jesus is great, but I don't want him to cost me friendships.

I don't want him to cost me people thinking I'm weird.

I don't want him to cost me things

that will make me feel better or things that'll make my life easier.

I just kind of want Jesus to be Jesus and let me be me. And we all just kind

of hold hands and go where we want to go.

This is why Hebrews is so important, is that over and over again,

we'll remind you, no, Jesus is better than those things.

Whatever that thing is, whoever that person is, Jesus is better than those things.

And in a day where the worst thing you can be about something is sure about

something, this will certainly rub up against a lot of our sensibilities.

Because Christianity says again over and over that the Jesus presented in this

book is better than everything and everyone else.

For the Jewish listeners that would hear this book, what the writer is saying

is Jesus is better than Judaism.

He's better than the sacrifices. He's better than the temple.

He's better than your whole way of life. He's better than that.

And whether you want to look at Muslims or Islams or Buddhists or Baha'is or

whatever, it doesn't matter because he's better.

And nobody has a problem with Christianity until you say that.

Nobody will have a problem with you being a Christian until you say,

I don't know, I think this is truly the only way to know who God is.

What about this person down the street who's really nice and they're really

kind and their kids are great, but they say you don't need to do that.

I say they're wrong because God says they're wrong.

So how's the author going to do that?

Again, the book of Hebrews is going to constantly go back to the Old Testament,

right? He's talking to Jewish believers, and so he's going to use the Jewish

scriptures that they know really well.

And I would caution you that the book of Hebrews is not an appetizer.

It's like a 52-ounce porterhouse steak.

That's just the best way I can describe it to you. And the reason I say that

is, man, clear the table, get your knife and fork out, and just get ready to go to work.

Just get ready to go to work. It's going to take work. If you want to study

Hebrews well, really, if you want to study any book of the Bible well,

but particularly if you want to study Hebrews well, it's going to take a lot of flipping.

It's going to take a lot of stopping at Hebrews and going back to the Old Testament

to say, you know, I thought I understood what that was, but this is making me

realize I may not have a really good understanding of what those things were.

So again, I would encourage you as we walk through Hebrews to study it yourself,

ask questions, but get ready to dig into it. Get ready to dig into it.

All right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's start Hebrews.

Hebrews 1. Let me just read Hebrews 1, 1 through 4.

It begins, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the

heir of all things through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

He upholds the universe by the word of his power. And after making purifications

for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Verse four, we're really digging into next week, but it says,

having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

So the first thing we need to know is that God speaks. God speaks.

There's people that you'll come in contact with that say, well,

I think God's real, but I don't think he's speaking.

He's out there in the distance and he's disengaged from the world.

And really no one can be sure what he's like.

There's another camp that would say, well, God speaks through everything.

He's mother earth and mother wind and fire and really every religion and every

spiritualist and every crystal ball, right?

There's not one channel that God speaks through primarily.

God's just speaking all the time, everywhere, always, through everything.

And the Bible says no to both of these things. It says that God has spoken in

many ways, but it's very specific about those ways.

It says God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in the last days he has spoken to us by his son.

I think at times our default position is to say, well, you know,

God just isn't speaking to me.

It's just not. I feel like he's so far away. I've felt that way plenty of times.

What I usually find in my own life, it's not that God's not speaking.

It's just that He's not speaking the way I want Him to.

I'm not looking for God to speak to me. I'm looking for God to tell me what I want to hear.

I'm looking for God to speak to me the way that I want to hear it,

through the means by which I want to hear it.

Oftentimes, I find myself being like me in the living room saying,

you know, God, I just don't know why you won't show me any pine trees.

God, why isn't there any pine trees? I just want to see pine trees.

To which everyone in this room would say, open the door.

You live in East Texas. They're everywhere. They're easy to find. They're easy to see.

And again, so many times that can be us saying, God, I just want to hear from

you. I want to hear you speak.

And we sit in our living rooms and we never open the door.

We never do what he asked us to do. We never try to hear from him.

And we just want to wait for him to come and do it our way. Can't you just speak to me my way?

Can't you? Can't I just sit in my living room and you tell me everything I need

to know? Why don't I need to read your word? I don't like studying.

Why don't I need to pray? I don't want to pray. I just want you to give it to me.

And so God speaks. And again, the author is going to break this up into two categories.

He says, long ago, so the author reiterates what we've already said, God has not been silent.

Long ago, he spoke to our fathers, specifically those Hebrews,

those Jews that came before his current audience.

That's why he says our fathers, the prophets, right? Not just anyone could speak for God.

You had to be appointed as a prophet, inspired by God to speak for him.

And these chosen individuals were God's mouthpieces for speaking to his people.

I think a pertinent question is what about modern day prophets? What?

I would argue that there's not any. Now we can get into the gift of prophecy

in the New Testament, and I'm open to that conversation.

What I mean is there's no new scripture being written.

And when a prophet in the Old Testament

spoke, it was God's voice that was speaking. It was authoritative.

One of the quickest ways to find out whether someone's a true prophet is just

ask them, well, if you want to be a true prophet, are you willing to put yourself

under the scrutiny that the Bible puts prophets under,

which means if you're ever wrong at all in any way, if you ever say anything that's from God,

that turns out being even 99% true and 1% false, then we have the right to take

you out back and stone you. Are you good with that?

I haven't seen many modern day prophets be okay with that.

There's always an open-endedness. Well, you know, sometimes we mess up.

I had Mexican food the night before. I wasn't feeling good, whatever it is.

And so I just want you to hear, man, one of the quickest ways for you to find

out a religion is a false religion is to find out if they have new revelation

from God, a new book, a new word, a new way.

This is why Paul so kind of sternly points out, if anyone of you,

an angel of heaven comes and delivers a message to you contrary to the gospel

that you hear, may they be accursed.

And yet how many religions have started by someone saying, an angel came and

met with me and he gave me this new thing?

The argument I would make is I'm not debating whether or not an angel came and

met with you. I would just say

that angel was a demon and they gave you something that wasn't from God.

Because when the prophets spoke, the prophets spoke for God, 110% inerrant.

So just a quick side note there, listen, if you hear someone saying,

well, I'm a modern day prophet or I can prophesy for God, just to hold them

to that standard, they can never be wrong. That's what it means to speak for God.

And so what's the issue with prophets? Well, there's no issue with prophets

other than the fact that they're just incomplete.

It's like a five-act play where you sit down and you see four acts of it,

and then everybody just walks off the stage and you're sitting there going,

I have no resolution for how this ends.

Jesus is the final act. He is the final word from God to humanity.

And the prophets, as God's messengers, are wonderful.

And you should read their words

and heed their words, but they are not his one and only begotten son.

This is the first Jesus is better that you see in Hebrews.

Jesus is the better prophet. He is the better word from God.

He is the final word from God.

He's greater than Isaiah and Ezekiel and Hosea and Micah.

He's greater than all of the prophets combined because he's not just a man who God is using.

He is God in the flesh who is speaking.

He speaks as God. He says, in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son.

Now, again, last days, contrary to what we see a lot, does not tell us about

how much time we have left, but about the kind of time we are in.

When the Bible uses the word last days, what he's saying is,

this is the kind of space you're in.

You're in the last days. Christ has come. So these days are the last days.

There's no more to come. There's not another thing that's going to happen until

Christ comes and returns and takes his people back.

This is how he qualifies what time they're in. There were as much in the last

days in the first century as you are in the last days now.

Let me close with three points. Why is Jesus greater?

Why is he greater? That's what the author is going to do over and over and over again.

He's going to put before you something like the prophets, or next week he's

going to put before you the angels.

He's going to do it with Abraham. He's going to do it with the priest.

He's going to say, this is what they are. These are good things.

But let me tell you why Jesus is better than those things.

Why is Jesus a better prophet? Why is he the final word from God?

Number one, he's a better king.

He's a better king. He says he's the heir of all things.

Everything belongs to him, and he is the king of all things.

He says all things were created through him.

Nothing exists without Christ.

The prophets couldn't do that. Abraham couldn't do that.

Since he upholds the universe by the word of his power, he owns all things because

he created all things and he sustains what he creates.

1, 16 through 17 puts this really well.

He says, for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things and in him, all things hold together.

The author of Hebrews is taking attributes that are only given to God in the

Old Testament, only given to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Old Testament.

And he's saying, this is Jesus.

The God of the Old Testament that you know so well, he is Jesus.

Jesus is him. He is God in the flesh. And he is the heir of all things.

Everything was created through him and he sustains all things.

He is better than the prophets. And this is so often where we fall short with Jesus.

We love Jesus as a Savior, but we push back against Him as a sovereign King

over the universe and our own lives.

We love altar calls, but we hate repentance.

We love seeing people come to Christ, but we don't spend the time to do what

He asks us to do and teach them to obey all that He has commanded them.

The problem is, this is a package deal. We cannot have a Jesus that saves us,

but does not rule over us because that's not who Jesus is.

Certainly, He is the Savior of the world, but He is also the King of the world.

And it would be like desiring a relationship with someone, an intimate relationship

with someone, like wanting to get married with someone, but to say,

I only want the parts of you that I like.

I only want the part. Listen, you can keep these things. I don't want those things.

I just want these things. So let's get married and you come to me on my terms,

give me what I want, and then leave the rest at the door.

Now, I think that's a pretty good depiction of what a lot of people think marriage

is, but it's not what marriage is.

In the same way, to be the bride of Christ and to be married to Him by the Spirit

of God is to say to Christ, you are the King,

and everything about you is true, and I will follow you because you are the

heir of all things. I'm not.

All things were created through you, not through me, and you uphold the universe

by the word of your own power.

I don't do anything to do that.

So He is a better King. Let me just challenge you, how would your life look

different if you thought about Jesus not just as your Savior from sin,

but also as the sovereign King of your life?

How would focusing on Jesus as the ruler and master of the universe change your life?

Imagine you would be more prayerful because you would realize how small you

are and how much you need that king.

Maybe you'd be a little less anxious because you would entrust your cares to Christ.

Listen, Jesus is not going to lose. The world is his inheritance and he will prevail in the end.

However dark things seem, however dark things look in your life,

Jesus is not going to lose.

Let me quote again Psalm 2, blessed are those who take refuge in him because he is the king.

Number two, why is he better? Well, he's just a better prophet.

The best way to know someone is to talk to them personally. And when we look

at Christ, we see that happening.

Unlike the prophets who were wonderful, that spoke messages from God to the people.

Jesus spoke as God in the flesh to people.

Hebrews does this again by drawing their mind to the Old Testament.

It says he's the radiance of the glory of God.

This Greek word could be translated the brightness of God or the shining light of God.

All these Jewish believers would have known exactly what this author was saying

the Old Testament visions of God describe him as bright and glorious in Exodus

24, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, and on and on.

How about when Moses comes down from Mount Sinai, his own face is shining so

bright that people can't even look at him because he's been speaking with God in Exodus 34.

How about the tabernacle when the glory of God would fill and the people would

know he was there because of what?

Because of the brightness that they could see, Exodus 40.

There's three example from the Old Testament. Now, here's three examples of how Jesus is the same.

In Jesus' earthly life, this becomes evident in places like the transfiguration

in Matthew 17, where he's up there with two stalwarts of the faith.

He's up there with two prophets, and yet they don't shine, he shines. He is the shining one.

How about when Paul sees Jesus on the road to Damascus, the light was so strong

that he was blinded in Acts 9.

The book of Revelation that John writes, one of Jesus' own disciples,

when he meets Jesus in his vision in Revelation 1, Jesus' glory is so stunning

that John falls over like a dead man.

Jesus is the light of the world. He is not a light to the world. He is not one of many.

He is one and stands alone as the light of the world shining in the darkness,

and he illuminates God in a way the prophets of old never could,

and the fake prophets of the present could only dream too.

It says he's the exact imprint of his nature.

Jesus doubles down on this in John 14 verse 9, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

John 14:9

Not whoever has seen me can know the Father a little better or gets a good idea

of who the Father is. It says whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

Do you want to hear God speak to you? You listen to his son.

You read his words. You meditate on them.

Last thing, how is Jesus better? How is he a better voice? He's a better savior.

The Old Testament is full of saviors, full of saviors. God raises up Noah and

he saves his family from the flood.

God raises up Joseph and saves his people from the famine.

God raises up Moses and saves his people from Egypt. God raises up Joshua and

takes his people into the promised land. God raises up David and gives them

the king they're supposed to have.

Over and over and over again, God raises up saviors to deliver his people.

But in Jesus, we see the final and perfect savior of God's people.

He doesn't just deliver them from physical slavery or physical famine or physical floods.

He delivers them from their own sins so that they would be with God forever

in the true promised land of God's people.

This is what he says in verse 3 in Hebrews, after making purification for sins,

he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Jesus has achieved what all of Israel, all of these Jewish believers have been

longing for throughout the generations, real, full, final forgiveness of sins.

Is the sovereign king. Jesus is a greater prophet, and yet this is his plan

to redeem his people, to lay down his life, and to sacrifice himself for the sins of his people.

Remember, Jesus says, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down willingly.

When someone asks you how Jesus died, you could say, well, he died as crucifixion

at the hands of the Romans.

When someone asks you why Jesus died, you could say, because he wanted to.

Because he wanted to. Not because the guards took him, not because Judas betrayed him.

None of that stuff. That's all so secondary. He died because he wanted to.

And then don't miss this. It says, and then he sat down. The psalmist said that

he's sitting at the right hand of the father.

But this is important, again, to an Old Testament an audience,

because in the Old Testament, priests didn't sit down. Priests didn't get to rest.

There was no chair in the tabernacle. Their job was never done.

Animal sacrifice didn't take away sins forever, so the priests had to perform

the rituals again and again and again, day after day, year after year.

So why is it important that we know that Jesus sat down? It's important because

when Jesus paid for our sins, he sat down because his job was done. It was finished.

The wrath of God against his people was fully satisfied in the sacrifice of

this great king, great prophet, and ultimately great Savior.

There's no more sacrifices needed, no more penance to complete.

Christ has accomplished what no other Savior could for you on your behalf.

Is the best way to hear from God because he's the better king,

the better prophet, and the better savior.

Hebrews will spend its time driving

home this point to its Jewish hearers over and over and over again.

And one by one, the author will take something that these Jewish believers are

putting on equal ground with Jesus and say, not even close.

My prayer for us as we walk through Hebrews is that he would do the same thing.

So many times, the things in our life that are taking the place where Jesus

should be sitting, the things that we equate with him as good as him,

or the things that we treat as good as him, we don't even realize.

Every one of us, if you're a believer, has had the experience of looking back

at your life five years ago or 10 years ago and thinking, man,

I had no idea that I was sinning in that way.

I had no idea that that was happening to me.

I'm so glad that God delivered me out of that because I was blind to those things.

Blind spots are blind spots for a reason.

But again, my prayer is as we study Hebrews together, that he would do the exact

same thing that the author is doing for his listeners, that he would to remind

us every week, nope, Jesus is better than that.

He is worthy of more praise than that.

He is worthy of more sacrifice than that.

He is worthy of every part of your life because He is truly God.

And He truly died and He truly rose and He truly sits at the right hand of the Father.

He is set down after He made purification for the sins of His people.

I pray that Hebrews will be that for us. For this morning, let's just end where we started.

Do you want to hear from God? Do you want to know who God is?

That's the first question.

Maybe you were at a place at one point in your life where you could have answered that yes.

Maybe you're at a place in your life now where you, if we're honest, would say, not really.

I'm comfortable. I like where I'm at. I don't really want to be challenged or

pressed or move to a different place.

I've gotten to a place in my life that's really comfortable and kind of easy.

Or maybe you're saying, I find myself saying a lot, I would like to hear from

God, but I've got enough going on.

Job and kids and church and life in general is enough.

And so, God, if you could just kind of hit pause for a minute and maybe not

do anything in my life for a while and just make sure my bank account's big

enough and I get enough sleep and things are okay, that would be great.

No matter what camp you fall into, Thank you.

My prayer is that Hebrews would challenge you that it doesn't matter what season of life you're in.

It doesn't matter what's happening to you, that God has spoken through His Son.

And whether you're having the best season of your life or the worst season of

your life, God has spoken through His Son.

If you will take refuge in His Son, you will be blessed.

Not that it will be easy, but you will be blessed if you will take refuge in His Son.

Second, will we not just look to him as a savior, but as the Lord King and better

prophet of the universe and submit ourselves to him?

Not that we would just hear from him, but that we would make him again our refuge.

To make something your refuge means that you're coming under it, right?

That you're depending upon it to do what you can't do.

That's what taking refuge in Jesus is, is saying, I can't, but I trust that you can.

So I'm going to take refuge in you. Let's pray.

Father, again, thank you for your word. Thank you that you have spoken, that you are not silent.

God, that we would not lose sight and be in awe of the fact that you owe us nothing,

but yet you have spoken to us freely first by the prophets but ultimately through your son,

the sovereign king of the universe the greatest prophet to ever live and ultimately

the savior of all those who would believe in you who are called by your name.

That would be a people that will listen to you that will take refuge in your

son God, would you help us?

Would you remind us as we study Hebrews and as we live our lives that you're

better, that your word is better, that your laws are good, that your commands

are gracious and kind to us?

God, if there's anyone who doesn't know you, God, if there's anyone who doesn't

know you as king and savior of their life,

we ask that you would draw them to yourself, that you would bring them to the

place that so many of us have been brought, that they would say, like so many of us,

you are our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble,

and I have nothing without you.

I have no hope. I have no peace. I have no life without you.

God, would you do that? Amen. I pray. Amen.