Welcome to the first edition of the Weekend Sermon in 2014. I am glad that you are reading this post today, and I hope that the first part of this new year finds you all well.
Last year was one of the toughest years in my life. I am certainly hoping for a much better year ahead. However the Lord leads, I know that I am in His hands.
Please continue to pray that the Lord will meet my needs. I am still trying to find a good job. I am very grateful for my writing work, but it's not getting me where I need to be. Please pray that in the next few days that I will find work that I am capable of doing. Also, please pray that the Lord will send me a buyer for my house. This is very important at this time.
In last week's message, I brought to your attention the situation in the island nation of the Maldives. I would like all of us to continue to pray for our fellow believers in Christ in this land. Also pray that the Gospel will reach many people in this country with very few Christians.
Last week, we finished the year with a look at the life of Stephen. Stephen was a great man of God who gave his life in service to Jesus. From Stephen, we need to learn to be there to help meet the physical needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We must be people who boldly and courageously stand for the faith and speak up for the name of Jesus.
Today, we begin a new series of messages. We will begin today looking into how the majesty of Jesus is represented in the book of Hebrews. I am not going to go through Hebrews chapter by chapter and verse by verse as I have done with some other books that we have studied. Instead, I am going to focus on the way in which Hebrews identifies Jesus as being superior to all that has gone before Him. As we shall see in the coming weeks, Jesus is the final and ultimate word of God. Jesus is superior to angels. He is superior to Moses. Jesus is the Great High Priest. Jesus provided the ultimate sacrifice for sins. Jesus is the mediator of a new and better covenant. Jesus is our ultimate example and Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep.
Before we get into these things, let's take a look at the book of Hebrews itself. Hebrews is one of the least studied books in the New Testament. I am not really sure why this is. One minister that I heard recently said that he had never preached a message from the book of Hebrews and he doubted that he ever would. This makes no sense to me. Hebrews is a tremendous book filled with great theological insight. It is a difficult book to understand, but one's understanding of the book is greatly increased when one understands the sacrificial system as portrayed in the Old Testament.
There has been much speculation over the years as to who wrote the book of Hebrews. Many scholars believe that the Apostle Paul is the author. I don't think that this is the case for three reasons. First of all, in his other letters, Paul identifies himself as the author. No author is identified in Hebrews. Hebrews 2:3 seems to state that someone other than an Apostle wrote the book. Hebrews 2:3 states, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him." The author seems to be saying that he was not one who actually heard Jesus. The Apostle Paul did communicate with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Finally, Paul was known as the apostle to the gentiles. Hebrews is definitely written for a Jewish audience.
So, who wrote Hebrews. No one knows. Barnabas, Apollos and Aquila and Priscilla have all been listed as potential authors. Whoever wrote it, the book is filled with good things about Jesus, and that is what really matters.
Hebrews begins is verse 1 by stating, "God, who at various time and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." This is what I want to focus on today. Jesus is the superior and final revelation of the Father.
Throughout the course of human history, God has attempted to bring His message of love and salvation to people everywhere. One way that God speaks is through general revelation. This refers to the fact that people can look at the created order around them and realize that a powerful creator fashioned everything that is in existence.
God has also spoken to His people through the written word. God gave His people the Ten Commandments and the other laws in the Torah so that they might know how to please Him and follow Him in all that they would do.
God also proclaimed His message through the prophets. There were many great prophets in the course of the history of the people of Israel. These men and women boldly proclaimed the word given to them by the Lord in spite of the fact that they were often ridiculed, ignored and persecuted.
No matter how God tried to get His message out to the world, people just ignored Him. Even God's chosen people decided to abandon Him and worship foreign gods. But God did not give up on the human race. He made a final and supreme revelation of Himself to this world in the person of His dearly beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is God's final and supreme Word to us. The Bible says that Jesus is the Word who was made flesh and dwelled among us. He is the ultimate divine revelation.
When we see Jesus, we see the Father. Jesus fully reveals what the Father is like. Jesus through His life and ministry provides the full revelation of what God expects of us. This is why in the Sermon on the Mount, many of the old laws were changed. Jesus is the Word bringing the ultimate word of God.
Jesus is the ultimate and supreme revelation of the love that God the Father has for us. God loved us so much that He was willing to send His beloved Son to be the spotless lamb of God who would bear in His body the sins of the whole world on the cross of Calvary. In what greater way could the Father reveal His love for humanity?
Many people view the Bible as the Word of God. This is true to an extent. However, the true Word of God is Jesus. We should always look to Jesus first when we have a problem or when we need to know what to do. He is the full revelation. Always examine what Jesus said about something before looking at any other section of the Bible. Also, all of the Bible should be interpreted in the light of the life and ministry of Jesus. He is the entire interpretive framework of Scripture.
I would urge you to spend the vast majority of your time, especially if you are a new believer, studying the words of Jesus in the Gospels. Then study what the Bible says in reference to Jesus as we are doing by looking at Jesus in the book of Hebrews. Then, study other portions of the Bible.
There will not be any further revelation from the Father. Jesus is His final word. Jesus has accomplished the work of redemption.
It is now up to us to decide if we will listen to God's Word as revealed in Jesus. Will we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. Will we come to Him in repentance and faith. If you have not done so, I hope you will turn to Jesus today.
Next week, we will look more closely at the divinity of Jesus and how Jesus reveals the Father. On Wednesday, I will try to post a book review. May God bless you. Amen.
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