Jesus Is Greater Than | Lawrence Campus | September 13, 2026

Good morning.

My name is Jack Guerra.

I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Spring Lake.

And today I get the honor of getting us started in the book of Hebrews.

Now, I don't know if anyone in the room is a lawyer, courtroom lawyer, or if you've ever been involved in courtroom law.

Maybe instead you've got a favorite law TV show.

You're a law and order junkie or throwback to Perry Mason.

But in every court case, there's these opening arguments that are given.

And what happens is the lawyer gets up in front of the jury and starts by pleading his case from sentence number one.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client has been charged with, or whatever may be, or is charging, accusing of, and what they do is they lay their case out in front right up front.

You're gonna see and you're gonna hear proof.

You're gonna get documentation, you're gonna watch videos and hear experts speak.

And by the end, you're gonna understand why my client is innocent.

And before the court case even begins, they wanna be in your head, they want clarity as to what they want to prove.

Now, as we get started in Hebrews today, it's going to begin much the same way.

Our court system is set up very much like the Greek system was back in the day.

So what I want to do today is we're gonna, as we look at Hebrews, I'm gonna start with a lot more pre-Hebrew stuff.

So it's it's a little bit of a trudge to get through.

We're gonna talk a little bit some history and some culture pieces as we start the book.

But I want us to look at some of the key facts the who, what, when, where, why, how, of how this book was written, because I think these are critical to understand.

This is a book that we are going to be studying until spring.

It will be a new year, and leaves will be back on the trees before, well, almost, it's not June.

But it's the but we'll be further along into spring by the time we finish this series.

Once again, let's open the court case with the who, where, what, when, and why of Hebrews.

First of all, who wrote it?

Who wrote Hebrews?

Who's putting all this together?

The clear, the answer is we don't know.

It is one of the books in the Bible, one of the only ones where the authorship is not completely clear.

For those of you who are Bible study folks, you like digging into this kind of stuff.

Some people think it was Paul, something it was Barnabas or Apollo, Silas, Aquila, or even Priscilla may have written.

We know that she was a teacher as well.

And even some say as late as Clement of Rome.

There's resemblances to Paul's writings, but there's also words, verbiage, and style that Paul never used in any of his other writings, which is about two-thirds of the New Testament.

There are appeals to eyewitnesses and storylines from Jesus' life.

The author never refers to his own apostolic leadership, which Paul did on a regular basis.

So that would be totally different for Paul to say that.

So Origen, who was one of the early church fathers in the third century, he made the statement I think we all need to live by.

He said, Only God knows who wrote Hebrews.

So that's where we start with.

Who wrote it?

To be honest, we don't know.

We know it was one of the early church founders.

Now, who was it written to?

And this is a key fact.

It was written to what they called Hellenistic Jews.

Now, Jewish people, we understand what by nationality, what a Jewish person is.

So then, what is a Hellenistic Jew?

Jews throughout the Old Testament were God's people in God's promised land.

But then Rome came in with this big empire, came in, they came, they saw, they conquered wherever they went.

And where they went, they brought their style, their Greek style.

And all of a sudden, all of these lands around Rome, throughout the known world at that time, are starting to take on the hairstyles of Rome, the clothing styles of Rome, the language, the Greek language, which was throughout the Roman Empire.

The music styles of Rome.

So Hellenistic Jews were Jewish people who still held to the Old Testament, the laws, the covenants, but they kind of like the style of Rome.

We're all about the Jewish style, but we're gonna mix in some of their music.

We're gonna watch some of their sports.

We're gonna wear their clothing styles, we're gonna keep their work schedule.

Hellenistic Jews said, well, hold on to the old, but we're gonna bring in a lot of the new as well.

It's why Hebrews, as we read this book, it's a very Greek style of writing.

As I mentioned earlier, but it's on very, very Jewish topics.

So the writer of Hebrews is saying, hey, I understand you're making this shift in your thinking and the way you process to be a Greek, but let's not forget what it means to be a Jew.

And that's the approach they take.

There are over 80 quotes and references from the Old Testament just in Hebrews.

Over 80.

And it's because these Hebrews, even though these Jewish people, even though they've they've kind of gotten soaked in and settled in in the Roman culture, still understood how important the Old Testament was.

You're gonna hear more about this not only in the message, but every Monday on our YouTube page, we're gonna do something, we've been doing it for years called the follow-up.

And we're gonna deep dive in some of the Old Testament references and how important they are in Hebrews, because if you miss it, you miss the background of what the author is trying to say.

So this letter is primarily intended for a Jewish audience that's no longer purely Jewish, and they become Christians, which was a dangerous thing.

The believers possessed a deep understanding of the Old Testament scriptures and Levitical law and rituals.

We don't know their exact location.

There's a reference in Hebrews 13 to those from Italy, so we think they still may be somewhere around Rome.

And you say, well, okay, he's writing this group.

What's triggering it?

Like, what's the cause of this author writing to these people who are following Jesus at the moment?

They understand their Jewish background and that they needed a Messiah, Jesus.

Sure, they're soaking in some of the Roman culture, but like, what's the problem?

Here's why it was written.

These readers of this odd, the audience of this letter, were enduring intense persecution, public ridicule, property seizure, and social ostrazization, there's a big word, due to their Christian faith.

You're gonna see this when we get closer to Hebrews 10.

So here's the deal.

Rome had a statement, Pax Romana, the peace of Rome.

And as long as your religion gave a nod to Rome, you're good.

So the Jewish people, especially the Hellenistic Jews, said, you know what?

We can keep our old practices, we can keep our old covenants, we can keep our temple worship, but we give a nod to Rome.

Caesar, you go do your thing, we'll leave you alone.

The problem is Christians had a statement.

There's only one king, and his name is Jesus.

There's only one ruler and high authority over the universe, and his name is Jesus.

So Rome saw Christians as a threat.

Outsiders, the Jewish, the Hebrew culture saw Christianity as a threat.

Because now they're claiming a Messiah that overthrows their system, their covenants, their practices, their temple worship.

They're saying there's someone greater.

Greater than Caesar.

Greater than temple worship.

So this group in the middle is now becoming hated.

Losing their jobs, losing their property, losing their friendships.

And if you if you were kicked out of the temple, you weren't allowed to go to Walmart and buy anything.

So now they're having trouble gathering food, getting supplies.

It's real easy at this point, and Nero, by the way, is about to burn down Rome and blame the Christians, and a bloodbath is about to follow, purely for wearing the title Christian.

So it'd be real easy at this point to go, huh?

I can hold on to this Jesus piece, or I can go back to what I knew, keep being a Hellenistic Jew, keep one foot in a Rome and one foot in the temple, and be accepted.

So the writer of Hebrews is now all of a sudden giving warning and encouragement, and you'll hear this all through the book, about what it means to follow Jesus and understanding why he's so important.

The overall objective was to convince the audience that going back to Judaism was a step back into the shadows.

Going back to the prophecies and the covenants and the rituals, they were supposed to point to Jesus.

But it's safer to stay in the dark before we had the light, the reality of the light of Christ.

So that's the who.

Who's it written to and who wrote it?

And the why.

When was it written?

And this actually is important.

It was written about AD 60s.

In the AD 60s, and you say, why is that important?

Because in AD 70, the temple is taken to the ground by the Romans.

You actually can go to Rome.

My oldest son just sent me a picture.

He was just in Rome.

Jerk, I want to go.

But on a pillar, there still is a picture of when the Roman army went in, ransacked a temple, and brought all the goods back to Rome.

It's drawn out.

Like it is a historical fact.

That happened in AD 70.

What some more liberal scholars want to say is, well, Hebrews happened after that.

Therefore, it really doesn't have much tie to the New Testament.

It's all fake news.

But the writer of Hebrews, and you're going to see this in Hebrews 10, refers to the temple as something going on here and now.

There's no way if the temple was torn down that he would refer to it as the here and now.

And you have to understand the temple was the center of the Hebrew universe, the Jewish universe.

When that thing came down, their culture collapsed.

This weekend, we recognize what happened on September 11th.

I want you to think how much our world, those of us who have never been to New York City, think of how much your world was impacted by those two towers coming down.

That's what would have happened with Judaism in Jerusalem.

So there's no way the writer of Hebrews would flippantly talk about temple worship and temple practice if the temple didn't exist anymore.

If you read something today where someone said, I went and visited the Twin Towers today, you would know they were talking about a time frame before now.

The writer of Hebrews gives specific details so we know this is before the fall of the temple.

We know this is very close to the time of Christ and the apostles.

So then why the message?

What's this author trying to get across?

It's the absolute supremacy and the finality of Jesus Christ over everything.

That is the theme.

That is why this series is called Greater Than.

The message of Hebrews is built around the supremacy of Christ over prophets, over angels, over Moses, over Joshua, over any priest or pastor you may get to know.

Jesus is supreme over every covenant, over every sacrifice.

It's all about Him.

Now, ancient sermons back in the day often began with an introduction meant to grab the hearer's attention, to introduce the sermon's main topic.

In Hebrews, the first four verses, which is what we're going to look at today, Hebrews 1, verses 1 through 4.

Hebrews 1:1–4

In Greek, this is all one sentence meant to grab your attention.

In English, we have ADD.

We can't pay attention that long.

Or at least I do.

Um squirrel.

So what we what he does is it's broken down, but we're going to focus today on the first four verses.

Let's start with the sermon or the presentation of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 4.

Hebrews 1:1–4

It says, In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the universe.

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.

Sustaining all things by his powerful word, after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.

Now the right hand is the seat of relationship and authority.

I need you to remember that.

So lock that in.

It's the seat of relationship and authority or power.

So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

So there's four greater thans I want to look at.

I'm sorry, three greater thans I want to look at in these first four verses.

First of all, Jesus is greater than every messenger.

Jesus is greater than every messenger.

The Jewish people at this time who are battling, what should I do?

Keep going back to the Old Testament prophets.

You're going to hear that through this series.

The writer of Hebrews is saying, uh-uh.

We've got a messenger who's greater than that.

Hebrews 1 and 2, first part.

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, and many times and in various ways, but in these last days, these last days means all the time after Christ.

We're in those last days.

He has spoken to us by his son.

Now I don't want to water down or lessen the prophets.

What they did in their time was crucial to God's word going out to his people.

They would speak up and challenge on critical issues from the heart of God, and they had to speak in a way that people would understand.

One of the most interesting things is to see how the time and the issues would be called out by the prophets.

Amos called out for social justice because the poor were just being taken advantage of and sold as property.

Isaiah called out to God's people because they had watered down his holiness.

And Isaiah called it out.

Hosea, out of his own bitter home experience, had realized the wonder of the forgiveness of God.

Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, cried over the broken heart God had for his people.

Every prophet served a purpose.

Every prophet spoke from a part or a fragment of the heart of God out of their own experience.

None had grasped the whole truth, but with Jesus, this is different.

Jesus was not a fragment of the truth of God, he was the whole truth.

In him, God displayed not some part of himself, but all of himself.

The prophets would use different methods to try and communicate speech and declarations.

Other times they would act out dramatically.

God would have to get their attention to get this message.

Sometimes it was in dreams or visions or a mighty act or stories or commands or exhortations.

Sometimes it was an angel appearing, or even what the Bible calls a theophany, the appearance, the glimpse of God Himself.

God says to Moses, Hey, Moses, I'm gonna hide you in this rock and I'm gonna pass by and I'm just gonna let you see my back parts.

Because if you see all of me, it'll kill you.

That's all.

But God would give little glimpses.

And again, it's different with Jesus.

Jesus isn't a glimpse of God, he is all of God.

And how does he do this?

By just being himself, just being who he is.

It's not so much what he said and what he did that shows us what God is like, it's all of who he is.

If you've seen God, you've seen Jesus.

If you've seen Jesus, you've seen God.

When you read the Old Testament, Jesus is there.

When you read the New Testament, God is there.

It's not like angry God and happy Jesus.

It's the same being.

Here's the simplest and clearest way to say it.

The prophets were the friends of God.

But Hebrew says Jesus is the Son of God.

The prophets grasped pieces of the mind of God.

Jesus was that mind, had that mind.

He was God.

Once again, none of this is to belittle the prophets.

They served their purpose.

They honored God in doing so.

They set the roadmap that pointed us to Jesus.

Here's how I like to think about this: the prophets were a love letter from someone who loves you deeply.

Jesus is that person who loves you deeply showing up.

It's a great thing to get a love letter.

And anybody ever do long distance dating?

Okay, me.

Oh, some of us did.

Back in the day, we did these things called letters.

And you would get a letter and it would have heart things drawn on it, a little perfume to make you think of the other person.

You could draw all over the envelope and you collected these letters, like you saved them.

I want you to imagine for a second the person you love who's been long distance shows up.

You're so glad to see them.

And you take all of their letters that they poured themselves into, all of the pictures, and as they walk toward you, you take them and you just set them all on fire.

Do you think that go over well?

Those letters still have value.

When we see the Old Testament, the prophets, we see the love letters.

With Jesus, we see him, the person who loves us, showing up.

Jesus is more complete than any messenger we've ever seen.

Secondly, Jesus is greater than anything, everything ever created.

Greater than everything ever created.

We see that in the second half of part two and to three, whom he appointed heir of all things.

A lot of times we think heir as wait till someone dies and then we get their stuff.

This is saying he's been given everything.

He's already inherited.

He has, he's in charge of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

The sun is the radiance.

Cool word here we're gonna look at of the glory of God and the exact representation.

Another cool word we're gonna look at of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Let's look at these two words.

The first one is this idea of him being the radiance of God, the Greek word.

This is the only time it's used in all of the New Testament.

It's the light that shines from something shiny.

It's like looking at the sun and seeing its bright and feeling its warmth and its heat.

It's the sun that you're feeling.

That's Jesus from the sun, and yet it's the sun.

It's all in one.

He is the radiance of the glory of God.

He is that heat, he is that brightness, the glory of God shown to us.

And then the second word that we see is this idea of exact representation.

The Greek word used here is the word character.

We use that word today.

It's he's the exact character, he's the exact person, the exact representation of God.

And the word picture used in this goes back to how they used to seal envelopes back then.

Maybe you've seen this in a movie.

They would put a drop of wax on the envelope, and then a king's signet ring or a stamp would be used into the wax, and it would leave the mark of the king.

This exact representation, what he's saying is this word is used in two places.

The exact representation is the mark in the wax, and it's the stamp.

It's both.

They're exactly the same.

What the author of Hebrews is saying is Jesus is not just the ink stamp on the page, he's also the stamp.

He's the exact representation of God.

God is both the stamp and the wax.

Jesus is both the image of the stamp and the wax.

So having beads or statue to pray to?

Jesus is greater.

Those are created.

Praying to the universe, throwing something out there and seeing if there's a response.

Stop.

Jesus is greater.

Pray to the boss of the universe, the creator of it.

If you're idolizing anything that's been created, including something that kicks off, I think, at 3 30 today.

Remember, Jesus is greater.

He should take second place to nothing.

Finally.

Last half of chapter 3 and verse 4.

Verse 3 and verse 4.

It says, After he provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.

So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

All right, this idea, right hand.

What does it mean again?

Remember?

Oh, help me out.

What?

Relationship and power.

Jesus sat at the right hand.

He is the power of God, and he is in perfect relationship with God.

He is one with God.

He sits there as the one in power who has provided our salvation.

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

He has the power to wash us clean.

Now there's a bigger picture, and go with me for a minute.

I'm not shy about this.

I'm very much in my history, my background.

I'm Italian, proud Italian, my dad, my uncles, my cousins, all New York City Italians.

So when you get, this isn't a, I'm joking, but it's true.

This was a regular Thanksgiving conversation.

When you get around anyone from my family, if you were to tell them, oh man, I lost my job.

Hey, I know a guy.

I know a guy.

I can get you one of those.

Ah, my car broke down.

Hey, oh, I know a guy.

I can help you out with that.

I'm a little shy on money this month.

Hey, I know a guy.

They can take care of that.

I got this person who's been bugging me.

Yo, I know a guy.

I'm not kidding.

That was a regular conversation in my family.

And my older kids joke with me because, like, I'm that guy in Green Bay.

My kids are like, Dad, we need something.

I'm like, I got you.

But when you read Hebrews, one thing you're gonna see, no matter what the need is, no matter what the challenge is, Jesus is that guy.

Like he is all-knowing, he is all-powerful.

The way he's connected, you know, he he knows people.

What are you fearing or fretting over?

Because we lean into the one who is all powerful.

He's not there.

The Hebrew author, author of Hebrew says he's not just at the right hand, but it says he's at the right hand, not to judge, but to make intercession for us.

He's praying, he's speaking up for us.

So that when we enter the presence of God, we go not to hear his justice prosecution, just prosecution over us, but he's pleading in love for us.

Those of us who are followers of Jesus.

Remember the Jesus you're looking at, and his words carry weight.

Don't take it for granted.

Don't take him for granted.

He's more than just a buddy to hang out with, or to call in in troubled times.

Know him.

Know him and make him known.

He's at the right hand of the Father in the seat of relationship, power, and authority.

Now, so what?

Here's the big idea.

Here's what I want us to close with.

Jesus is greater than anything else we can trust, chase, or build our lives around.

Jesus is greater than anything else we can trust, chase, or build our lives around.

I want you to think about something for just a minute, closing illustration.

I don't know if you've ever been to like the Milwaukee Art Museum.

I've gone a couple times, I enjoy it.

And you look at the paintings, and some of them are abstract.

I can appreciate colors, I don't get the abstractness, but I can look at something that's a person or a building and I know what it's supposed to look like, okay?

So I look at that and I can be amazed at some of the details and the colors.

I've been around, but I've gone to some art uh reveals, like where the artist is there and their paintings are out on display, and it's a skill I do not have, so I stand in awe at what I'm looking at.

Can you imagine for a second, with the artist standing here and the picture right here?

If I went, dang, picture, how did you paint yourself?

You did a great job on your colors.

I love the style and the and the clouds.

It's amazing, the little dog in the corner, like all of it.

Picture, how did you do that?

And the artist is standing right here going, yo, you know, I'm here.

Could you imagine for a second?

I I enjoy working on houses, yards, things like that.

It's fun.

I'm not saying I'm good at it, but I enjoy it.

Can you imagine an open house where the architect is there and the builder is there, and you walk through and you stand in awe at the high ceilings and the glass and the lights, and you see the yard, and it's pristine and it's immaculate, and the flowers are in perfect place.

And you walk up to the house, you ring the doorbell, and you start talking to the door.

Dang, you're an amazing house.

How did you get like this?

I mean, my mind is blown just looking at you, and the architect is standing right beside him going, that was me.

When we get into this book of Hebrews and we look at creation and we look at angels and we look at covenants and laws and we look at priests or pastors or anyone else who quote stands in the middle, I want us to remember that at all of that, don't get stuck in what's being created.

Don't get stuck looking at the finished masterpiece of what God has made.

Instead, let's turn our eyes to Him, who is called the author and finisher, the builder and finisher.

It is a turnkey job.

He has provided us with our salvation.

Why?

Because Jesus is greater than all of it.

Would you bow your head with me, please?

I'd like to close.

I usually like to call out like what's the challenge you're facing right now.

I think the challenge for all of us.

I don't care what season of life you're in, you may have little kids, you may have grown kids, you may be an empty nester, you may be in the room and you're still in school.

I can promise you there are things that eat at your mind that all of a sudden Jesus can slide into second place with.

And I say that from experience.

What I'd like to do is just close us in prayer today and say, Lord, show us you're greater.

Over these next eight-ish months, nine months, show us you're greater.

And I pray it's a learning moment for all of us to be able to hold on to.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you, Lord, for this opening presentation to followers back then and to followers today, that Jesus, you are greater than anything we can face.

God, we can go to you and ask of you of anything we can ask, think, or imagine.

Lord, may we be surrendered to you, remembering you are the one at the right hand of the Father.

You are the one in all authority.

And all glory and honor is to you.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.