The Radiance of God [Hebrews 1:1-4] (Bradley Joubert)

Well, thank you, music team. We appreciate you leading us in

worship this morning. I would like to invite Bradley

Shabir to come up early. We're just going to pray for you

as you bring the message this morning.

Community. Father, we thank you for this

morning. We thank you for the time of

worship that we've had. We thank you for the blessing

that it has been or what joy it brings to our heart to give you

the praise and worship that you deserve.

And Father, we come now and we thank you for Bradley's

willingness to be able to bring the message that you've laid on

his heart this morning. We pray that you'll give them

clarity of thought and mind. And Lord, we just bring that

into your hand. Father, we pray that our hearts

will be open. Our hearts will be desiring to

want to hear the word and not just hear it, but apply it and

put it into our lives. So to you we give all praise, to

you we Google things today in Jesus name, Amen.

Brady, thank you so much for being willing to come and share

the word this morning. My pleasure, it really is so

great. Together, together and worship

the Lord together. Many of you probably know me.

I have come here before. I've preached for you before,

but it was a long time ago. So I'll give you a brief little

background to myself. My name is Bradley, as Gavin

mentioned, I'm from Cambridge, just down the road.

I have studied in the States and I went there to do theology.

So that is a bit of my background.

But I really, as I said last time, I don't want to dwell too

long on who I am. You see, the reason I'm here is

to preach the Word of God and to bring us to the Scriptures.

You see, I'm convinced that there can scarcely be a more

important question than this Who is Jesus Christ?

This is true for all people, but it's especially true for us as

Christians, us as Christians who say that we follow Jesus Christ.

You see, it's always our hope that we should continue to grow

in our knowledge of Jesus Christ and as a result, to growing our

love for him as well. You see, Jesus is not merely the

entry point into Christianity, He's also the sum and substance.

The entirety of it is found in Jesus Christ.

There will never come a day where He is not our greatest

need. You see the most grizzled

veteran of the Christian faith, that veteran who has stood

through many battles and trials and temptations, he is no less

in need of Jesus Christ than the newborn babe who has only just

entered into the faith. And that is why this morning we

are going to look at a text that talks about Jesus Christ, that

explains who Jesus Christ is. This is the text that focuses on

the person and work of Christ, and I've settled on Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1–4

chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. Before I get to the text,

however, I would like to go to the Lord and prayer once more.

I believe it is vitally important that we cover

everything in prayer. So, Lord, we come before you now

as Your people. We come seeking to know You, to

know more of you, to love you, and to worship you.

Lord, there is no greater desire in our hearts, no greater goal

and ambition than to see Your name lifted high in glorified.

Lord, we pray that You would bless us this morning as we look

to Your Word, that You would fill us with Your Spirit, that

we might see and understand, that we might discern correctly

the things in Your Word that are for us.

Lord, let us be encouraged as we look to Jesus Christ, let us be

strengthened and let us find hope in Him.

Lord, we know that we have no grace in need, no grace in need

then to come before Jesus Christ.

So bless us this morning as we do that, as we look for you and

seek you in your word. This we pray in your holy name.

Amen. Hebrews one versus 1 to 4.

This is the word of the Lord. 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, and He upholds the

universe by the word of His power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right

hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior

to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than

theirs. Now this really is a beautiful

passage, isn't it, Steven? It's just a cursory glance.

We can see that it's full to the brim with various themes and

various insights into the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Now, before we dive into some of these themes, I'd like to make

some introductory marks just about the structure of this

passage, the structure and the contents.

And to do this, I'm going to introduce to you what I believe

may be some new words, some words you haven't heard before.

And the first word is the word kaasam.

Could I get a quick show of hands who's heard of that word

in the context of Bible studies? Kaasm K.

There are a few of you have heard of that.

I see. A chiasm is a poetic device

that's often used in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, to

give structure and order to the thoughts of the writer.

To make a chiasm, the writer, he'd simply make one statement,

followed by another, followed by another, and we'll call it a BC

and he drive it as main point. And once he hits that main

point, he'll then exit and reverse order.

So CBA, she makes a couple of statements coming in the one way

and then reverse order out the other way.

That's what's called a chiasm. Now the reason I bring this up

is that Hebrews chapter 1 verses one to four gives us a beautiful

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

example of a chiasm in the scriptures.

I have this diagram for us here. Then you can see how the author

orders his thoughts here. See, the point a he begins with

is very similar to the point he exits out.

Jesus is superior to the prophets, and right at the end

there you'll see Jesus superior to the angels.

As we go in further, Jesus is air of all things, which

parallels that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.

Jesus is the creator of the world, and that parallels this

idea that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his

power. And they're right in the middle.

We have this idea that Jesus is the radiance of the glory of

God, the exact imprint of his nature.

Now, the reason this is important is because it helps to

see where the beating heart of this passage lies.

You see, modern writers often take two different approaches.

We'll either start with our main point, and then we'll try to

explain that all. We'll do the explanation up

front and we'll end with that main point, but that's not

what's going on here. This is a Kaiser.

And so we find that main point, the key theme right in the

middle of our passage. Jesus is the radiance of the

glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

That is the heart of our passage.

Now, the second new word that I'd like to introduce you to,

and this one's even less common. How many of you, again a show of

hands, have heard of this word? Hapax legomenon.

It's a very fancy word, but with a simple meaning.

You see, a hapax legomenon means it's something that occurs only

once, something that occurs only once.

And when we look at this passage, we find a word here

that only occurs one time in the entire Bible.

It's that word radiant. See in this passage where it

says Jesus is the radiance of God.

That is the only time that word is used in the Bible.

It is a happy Axel Gamanon. Now this is more of a curiosity

really. It's not really proper to draw

exegetical conclusions from the fact that the word only occurs

once, but I will make the connection that Jesus Christ is

the only Son of God. He is the only true radiance of

God. So I think it's a happy

coincidence at least that this word that's only used once is

used to describe that glory of Jesus Christ.

I think it's at least fitting to appreciate this particular hapax

legomenon. Now these are the preliminary

comments, and they being thus concluded, I'd like to explore

three ways in which this passage shows us how Jesus is the

radiance of God's glory. Firstly, Jesus is the final and

greatest word from God. You'll see this idea plainly in

our text. You see, God has long been in

the business of revealing Himself to his creatures.

This is who He is. He is a God of revelation.

He's the God of order rather than chaos.

He is a God of wisdom and understanding rather than

confusion, and as a result, God created us to know Him.

He created us to understand and to order our lives based on

knowledge, and knowledge of Him specifically.

It is a true statement that God's glory is our highest good.

We were created to live and move and have our being in God, in

Him, and therefore in His great love.

God has always been about revealing this glory to us.

In the beginning, when He created Adam, He didn't create

him and leave him alone in that garden.

God would come and he would talk with him.

He would reveal himself to him and he gave him commandments to

Adam. Might know how to please God.

God revealed Himself to Adam in the Garden after the fall of

mankind into sin. God continued to reveal Himself

even as He directed history towards greater and greater

revelation, greater revelation of Himself.

Consider what He said to Abraham and Genesis 12/3.

He said, I will bless those who bless you, and him who

dishonours you I will curse. And then you, all the families

of the earth shall be blessed again.

And Genesis 1817 to 18 the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham

what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become

a great and mighty nation, nation, and all the nations of

the earth shall be blessed in him.

See, when we look at these texts and what God's saying to Abraham

is promising a blessing that will come on all the nations,

all the peoples through Abraham, and that blessing involves

greater revelation of God, greater revelation of who He is.

God's glory is our highest good, and so when God promises to

bring blessing to the nations, that must necessarily involve

revelation of Himself, revelation of His glory.

This is what God promised to Abraham.

And so we see this pattern continue throughout the entire

Old Testament as history marched on, as Hebrew says, long ago, at

many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the

prophets. You see, God is a God who

reveals himself, the God who speaks.

Sometimes he would speak face to face, as he did with Moses.

At other times he would speak in dreams and visions, as you did

with Daniel. And yet other times he'd send

angels to speak on his behalf, and he'd communicate that way.

But whatever the case, he was revealing more of himself, more

of what he's like. The thought does not finish on

that note that goes on, but in these last days he has spoken to

us by his son. In these last days he has spoken

by his son. Perhaps you can hear the

finality there when he talks about the last days.

See, we are not at present waiting for some further and

greater revelation of God. Jesus Christ is the centrepiece

of God's revelation. He is the centrepiece, the

crowning glory and the final word.

All of history points to him. It's driving towards Jesus

Christ. All of God's past revelation

finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ.

Jesus explained this to his disciples in Matthew 1316 to 17.

He says this to them, But blessed are your eyes for they

see, and your ears for they hear.

For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what

you hear but did not hear it. Now let me ask, what was it that

Jesus disciples saw and heard? They saw Jesus Christ, They saw

him. That is what all the prophets

longed to see in here, but that is what they saw Jesus Christ in

the flesh, in person before them.

He is the centrepiece of God's revelation.

Now, the import of all of this is that we should fix our gaze

on Jesus Christ too. We should look to Him.

Let me ask, do you want to know more of God?

Then look to Jesus Christ? Don't seek out strange new

revelations, either by the Spirit or by modern prophets,

falsely so-called. Look to the perfect revelation

of God in Jesus Christ. Holy Scripture records for us

His life here on earth, what he did, what he said, what he was

like. It points to Jesus Christ.

So look for Him in the Scriptures.

She revelation through various other means, different prophets,

dreams and visions. It's something that properly

belongs in the past. This is how God spoke to the

fathers in the past, in these last days, in these final days.

He speaks in Jesus Christ, in his Son.

He is spoken finally and authoritatively there.

So look to Jesus Christ. In a modern world, there are

many voices. Voices vying for our attention,

voices telling us how to live our lives.

There are voices that are telling us what's important and

what's not. Voices that say these

entertainments are what you should spend your time on, these

loves, these affections you should chase after money or

career, chase after power, pleasure, whatever it might be.

There are many voices in the world, but this takes powerfully

challenges, tells us that Jesus Christ is God's final word, the

ultimate revelation. And so rather than listening to

all of these voices, there can often be loud that draw our

attention. Let's listen to Jesus Christ.

Listen to what he says. Secondly, Jesus Christ is God's

anointed heir, and it's the second key point I'd like to

look at here. Jesus Christ is the radiance of

God's glory because he is God's anointed heir.

She, God, is of course, the Creator and ruler of all things.

The castle on 1000 hills belong to God.

The earth and the fullness thereof are His.

He is the Creator of all things and He owns all things.

We also know that He is sovereign over everything in

such a way that not one thing can come to pass without His

willing and knowing. This is who He is.

This is who our God is. And so it shouldn't come as any

surprise then that Jesus Christ, being the outshining of God's

glory, possesses these things as well.

You see Jesus Christ as God's anointed heir.

He is the King of Kings, and this is his right twice over, as

you'll see in our text shortly. See, He rules by a double right.

On the one hand, as our text says, God created the world

through him and he upholds the universe by his power.

You'll see that in the middle of our text.

CS Creator, everything belongs to him.

Now some people imagine that God created the universe and they

kind of justice set it off by itself in the corner and lead it

to tick along by itself. And he's not that interested

with it now. But there can't be further from

the case. You see, Jesus Christ actively

upholds his creation by the will word of his power.

He is intimately involved with it.

He's engaged in the running of creation.

He upholds it. In other words, if you were not

actively and intimately involved in maintaining His creation, it

would cease to exist. It would spiral out of control

into utter chaos and destruction.

But Jesus Christ does not allow this.

As such, He is both the Creator and the Upholder of all things.

He has a divine right to rule because He is the Creator.

Because He holds it all together by the word of His power, He has

a divine right to rule. Now, on the other hand, the text

also tells us that Jesus Christ was appointed heir of all

things. He was appointed to rule.

In other words, there is a sense in which he earned the right to

rule and was given that position by his father appointed to it.

Now when we look at the parallel section and the chairs and that

I mentioned before, we begin to see that this appointment was

made after he died and rose again.

It was after making purification for sins that he sat down at the

right hand of the majesty on high.

That is when he was appointed by God to his right hand to reign

and to rule. You see, Jesus life on earth can

be characterised by this word, humiliation.

You see, he gave up his divine rights.

He gave up his authority and power to some extent when he

took on human flesh, The Scriptures say he submitted

himself to God. He was obedient and took on the

form of a servant. He was obedient to the point of

death, and he emptied himself of these things.

She threw his life. He earned a righteousness by

walking perfectly in the law of God, upholding the law of God,

honouring God, glorifying God, and as a result, when God raised

him up, raised him from death, he appointed him to his right

hand, raised him up to rule. And so there is actually a

double right here. Jesus Christ has a right to rule

because God the Father has raised him up and elevated him

and appointed Him to that position, and also because He is

Creator and upholder of all things.

You see, This is why He can say to us disciples in the Great

Commission, He says this, all authority in heaven and on earth

has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples

of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all

that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always

to the end of the age. You see, it's based on His

authority that He tells His disciples to go.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And He tells them that they're at that point after he's been

raised to life, after he's been seated at the right hand of God.

All authorities now mine, therefore go in and gather the

nations, gather the people, because they are mine.

Jesus Christ is the radiance of God's glory, and that He is the

heir of all things. He is the ruler of all things,

and He rules over all things by a double right.

Now when we think about this, it should be impressed upon us that

the importers to trust and obey. As the famous Him says, trust

and obey. See, the reason this should help

us to trust God, to trust Jesus Christ is because we know that

all things are in the palm of His hand.

Whatever trials or challenges come to our lives, whatever

difficulties, these things are sovereignly appointed by God, by

Jesus Christ for our good, that we might come to know Him more,

rely on Him more, trust in Him more.

There are points and for our good.

And so we know that we can trust in Him because He is the

ability, He has the authority to make a real difference.

And of course, knowing that he is king, we should also be eager

to obey his good commandments. Some modern Christians, at least

in some sectors, like to distance themselves from that

word obedience. I think we're under grace.

And because we're under grace, we don't need to worry with the

commandments. We don't need to worry with

honouring God by what we do and say.

But you see, the Scriptures are very clear, a heart that has

been affected by the gospel, that has been changed by the

gospel that is believed in Jesus Christ, that has seen the great

lengths that he has gone to to save us.

That is a heart that is eager to please Jesus Christ, eager to

please God, that is eager to walk in His will and His ways.

Jesus is King of kings. He is the Lord of Lords, so let

us trust Him and let us obey. Now the final thing, the final

point that I would like to make is very simply this.

You see, Jesus is the radiance of God's glory because he is, He

is the exact imprint of his nature.

So this is precisely what the text says, and it's in fact the

single point that I've been labouring to kind of drive it

and show you this morning. He's the radiance of God's glory

and the exact imprint of His nature.

Let me add here that God is by nature God.

That should seem like a very obvious point, but the key thing

is to be an exact imprint, an exact imprint of the nature of

God. Jesus Christ must necessarily be

God as well. This seems to be an unavoidable

conclusion now. At this point, we could easily

become caught up in all the complexities of proper

Trinitarian theology, but I'd like to keep us moving.

See, these complexities are well worth studying, but we certainly

don't have time for that now. Suffice it to say simply that

Jesus Christ is God Incarnate. He is God made man use the

second person of the Trinity. He is entirely uncreated, and he

is Co equal with God the Father, and glory and splendour and

honour. You see, only such a perfect man

as this could be called the exact imprint of God's nature.

And make no mistake, this is precisely who Jesus Christ is.

He is God Incarnate. Additionally, when this verse

speaks about God's nature, it also has in view His perfect and

holy character. In other words, Jesus possesses

all of the character traits of God, and He possesses them in

their exact proportion and balance to one another as well.

Do you want to know what the love of God looks like?

Then look to Jesus Christ. Read the Gospel, see how he

interacted with those around him, how he loved, and

ultimately how he laid down his life for his people, for those

whom he loved. Do you want to know what the

justice and severity of God look like?

Again, look to Jesus Christ. Look at his righteous anger at

the Pharisees. But when you consider those

things, consider his grace and mercy as well.

Make sure it's a balanced correctly with all of His

attributes there she. One of the key emphasis of this

passage is that if we want to know who God is, we can see in

Jesus Christ. We can look to Jesus Christ and

see the radiance, the radiance of their glory, the imprints of

his nature. We can see who God is by looking

to Jesus Christ. Part of the perfection of God's

character is the way that all his many perfections come

together. We see this expressed in Jesus

Christ too. You know, many people have a

habit of dividing God. We will tear him to pieces and

say here is his love. Everything that God is can be

summarised in this. We have to hold everything into

scriptural proportion, understanding how all those

perfections fit together to form a perfect hole if we want to

understand this, if we want to understand how God's perfections

fit together. Same points as I've been

hammering so far. Look to Jesus Christ.

They are fully expressed there and him.

They're fully expressed in Jesus Christ.

You see, in this world today, we often feel like we walk through

dark places. You know, we feel like we walk

through places where there is confusion and chaos.

We we cannot see clearly. We cannot see clearly the path

before us, what the future holds.

We cannot see clearly what the truth is in particular

situations, but as we come to Jesus Christ, as we behold His

radiance, as that brightness sheds light on our lives, we

can't have peace and clarity. We come to know who God is, to

know who's grace and mercy and kindness to us.

This is our greatest need. As I began that question, who is

Jesus Christ is so vitally important for us as Christians.

It should be our desire to come to know Him more and to know God

and the radiance of His glory. So that is the note that I'd

like us to finish on. Look to Jesus Christ.

Behold the radiance of God's glory there.

You will find that you are abundantly blessed as you do

that. You'll find that He's able to

help you in your trials and tribulations, that He's able to

strengthen you and your weakness, encourage you.

When there is doubt, look to Jesus Christ, for He is the

radiance of God, the radiance of the glory of God.

Let's pray Lord, we are so thankful.

We're thankful for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We're thankful that you are fully expressed your glory in

him. Now here's the outshining, the

radiance of that glory, and that when we look to him, when we

look to Jesus Christ, we can clearly see who you are.

We can see your glory, your grace, your kindness, your love,

Your mercy. You can see your justice and all

your many perfections, Lord. We can see them as we behold

Jesus Christ. Lord, we do pray that You would

fill us with a hunger to know Him more, to love Him better,

and to live in the light of His glory.

We desire this not only for ourselves, but also for all of

your people gathered here today, for all of your people in

Hamilton, in New Zealand, and even to the ends of the earth.

We desire that your people should come to know You better,

love You more, and that they might walk in a way that brings

honour and glory and praise to Your name.

Lord, we also desire to see others coming to Jesus Christ

and finding salvation in His name.

Lord, we pray that you would reveal yourself to them, reveal

Jesus Christ as the radiance of your glory.

It's the only way of salvation that more people might come to

you and be saved through His Holy name.

Lord, let Your glory reign to the ends of the earth.

Build Your Kingdom here and equip us as Your people to know

you and to love you the Super and your holy name.

Amen.