Hebrews 1 - A Better Revelation
Welcome to the Well Community Church! It is so good to hang out with you here today. To those joining us in our auditorium at one of our campuses, gatherings, or venues, I am just so thankful to share this time with you. My name is Brad, and I get the privilege of walking through our message today.
Before we jump in, I want to make a shameless plug for what happened last week. I sat right where you are sitting and listened to Mike’s teaching. I found myself in literal awe at his ability to take the entirety of the Old Testament—which is no easy task—summarize it with the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the sacrifices, and walk through it with a golden thread that pointed directly to the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you missed it, I highly recommend going back and listening. Not only was it an incredible standalone message, but it perfectly set up the purpose of the letter to the Hebrews: as we walk through this book, there should be an ever-increasing, ever-enlarging view of the person and work of Jesus Christ.
An Ever-Increasing View of Jesus
C. S. Lewis captured that sentiment of an ever-enlarging view of Jesus in his classic Chronicles of Narnia, specifically in Prince Caspian. In the story, the character Lucy is caught up in her own spiritual journey, and in the moonlight, she sees Aslan—the Christ figure—with his huge, shiny white fur. She rushes to him and buries her face in the rich silkiness of his mane. The great beast rolls over on his side, and Lucy gently falls between his large front paws. He bends over, touches her nose with his mouth, and surrounds her with his warm breath. She gazes up at his wise face, and he says, “Welcome, child.”
“Aslan,” Lucy says, “you’re bigger.”
“That’s because you’re older, little one,” he answers.
“Not because you are?” she asks.
“No, I am not,” he says. “But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
The journey Lucy was on is the very same journey we are entering. Our Jesus has not changed.
Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)
Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today and forever.
He has not changed at all throughout the centuries. But what you are going to find, just like Lucy did, is that the more we grow, mature, learn, and explore, the larger He will become to us. We will have an ever-increasing view of Jesus.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1, and let’s read verses 1 through 4. We will walk through the passage in detail, and then we will read it again at the end to see how it comes alive for us.
Hebrews 1:1-4 (NASB)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
As we noted a couple of weeks ago by way of introduction, this book breaks all the general introductory patterns of a New Testament letter. Paul’s writings, for example, typically begin with a formal greeting, naming the author and the recipient. Hebrews has none of that. There is no opening greeting, no mention of the author’s name, and no formal identification of the audience. Instead, it starts with a bang: God spoke.
Thankfully for us, our God made the first move. God is not distant, silent, or unknowable. We do not have to learn about our God by eating hallucinogenic mushrooms on a hillside while meditating. We do not have to find a sweat lodge in the desert to have a vision of the Lord. Our God spoke! He has revealed Himself. He has made Himself known. He is not silent, hidden, or far off.
Because God has revealed Himself, He does not leave Himself open to our personal interpretations of what we think He should be like. He spoke, and therefore we can truly know Him. We can know His power, His holiness, His righteousness, and His plan of redemption. Most importantly, we can experience His love. Had He remained silent—had He not chosen by His grace to reveal Himself—we would be dead in our sins, without hope, lost, enslaved, and sentenced to death.
So how has God revealed Himself? He has done so in multiple ways with increasing intimacy.
Revealed in Creation and Scripture
First, God revealed Himself in creation. This is what theologians call natural revelation.
Psalms 19:1 (NASB)
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
There is something about this world—its intricacy and breathtaking detail—that begs, screams, and demands a Creator. You drive through the tunnel into Yosemite Valley, come out the other side, and find yourself in awe of El Capitan, Half Dome, and the roaring falls. Years ago, I took my kids to the Grand Canyon when they were little. At first, they rolled their eyes: “It’s just a canyon.” But when we walked them to the edge and they saw the sheer vastness of it, even at their young age, they were left speechless.
Romans 1:19-20 (NASB)
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
God has revealed Himself in creation, and it is sufficient to condemn, though not sufficient to save. It points beyond blind evolution or accidental existence. The intricate design of our bodies and our cosmos points to an intelligent Designer who is in command and control.
Consider our planet: Earth spins on a precise axis. If that tilt were slightly off, life could not survive. It rotates at roughly 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, creating just enough gravity to anchor us without crushing us. We are hurtling through space precisely 93 million miles from the sun. If we were any closer, we would burn; any farther, and we would freeze to death. Creation demands a Creator. God has made Himself known through what He has made.
Second, God has revealed Himself through His Word. This is special revelation. Scripture tells us that all Scripture is God-breathed—theopneustos—and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, equipping us for every good work.
2 Peter 1:21 (NASB)
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Your Bible is not the product of a lonely author sitting in a room jotting down subjective opinions about God. The Holy Spirit moved through the unique personalities and styles of human authors to pen the very Word of God. That is why Matthew’s Gospel feels different from Mark’s. Matthew connects the Old Testament dots to show Jesus as the Jewish King, while Mark—recording Peter’s eyewitness testimony—writes with urgency, using the word “immediately” over forty times. Their human personalities shine through, yet every word is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
This collection of literature is unlike anything ever assembled in human history. You have 66 distinct books written by 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years. It was written across three continents in three languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—spanning history, poetry, prophecy, and epistles. Yet miraculously, it carries one unified theme: the glory of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Let’s be honest: you can’t get forty of us in a room to agree on where to go for lunch! Yet forty authors across fifteen centuries, many of whom never knew each other, tell one seamless story.
Luke 1:70 (NASB)
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old–
Jeremiah 1:9 (NASB)
Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, ’Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
Ezekiel 1:3 (NASB)
the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him.)
God spoke through the prophets. Yet the entire Old Testament serves as a shadow, an anticipation, and a type of what would find ultimate fulfillment in the New Testament. Remember the road to Emmaus that Mike talked about last week? Following His resurrection, Jesus walked alongside two disciples and led an unbelievable Bible study beginning in Genesis.
Luke 24:27 (NASB)
Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Can you imagine being in that small group? Jesus opening to Genesis 3 and saying, “That’s Me.” Genesis 49: “That’s Me.” The Passover Lamb: “Me.” The Great High Priest: “Me.” The Prophet like Moses in Deuteronomy 18: “Me.” The Davidic King in 2 Samuel 7: “Me.” Every story in the Old Testament whispers His name.
John 5:39 (NASB)
’You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
The Incarnation: A Better Revelation
Everything in the Old Testament pointed to Christ because He is a better revelation. Look back at verses 1 and 2.
Hebrews 1:1-2 (NASB)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Jesus is a better revelation than natural revelation, and He is the climax of special revelation. Notice the contrasts in the text: God spoke formerly in the prophets, but now in His Son; formerly to the fathers, but now to us; formerly long ago, but now in these last days.
This brings us to the third means of revelation: the Incarnation. In the Incarnation, God launched the greatest rescue mission in cosmic history to redeem mankind from sin.
John 1:1-4 (NASB)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
John begins by declaring that the Logos—the full embodiment and expression of God—was with God and was God. Then, in verse 14, John drops this monumental truth:
John 1:14 (NASB)
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
That word “dwelt” literally means He tabernacled among us. Just as God was present in the tent structure in the wilderness, the Word took on human flesh and made His dwelling with us. We see full deity clothed in humanity.
Philippians 2:6-8 (NASB)
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, [and] being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus did not come into existence at the manger; He is eternal, preexistent with the Father. Yet He willingly set aside His divine privileges, took the form of a servant, and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross.
Colossians 2:9-10 (NASB)
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
Paul wrote this to the Colossians to combat early Gnostic heresies, which taught that Jesus was merely a lesser emanation of God—a secondary deity. Paul emphatically refutes that: all the pleroma, the absolute totality and fullness of deity, dwells in Jesus in bodily form. He is not a lesser light; He is the full expression of God.
Heir and Creator of All Things
Hebrews tells us that the Father appointed the Son the heir of all things.
Philippians 2:9-11 (NASB)
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Because of Christ’s perfect obedience, the Father highly exalted Him. If you fast-forward to Revelation 21, you see the breathtaking culmination of Christ reigning as heir over the cosmos.
Revelation 21:1-4 (NASB)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer [any] sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be [any] death; there will no longer be [any] mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’
If you ever think the story ended at the cross, look again. Jesus not only conquered the grave, but He ascended, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. Our King is the heir of all things.
Furthermore, verse 2 declares that through Him, God made the world. Now, if you’ve read page one of your Bible, you might see an apparent dilemma. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Yet John 1 and Colossians 1 tell us that all things were created through Jesus.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Colossians 1:16-17 (NASB)
For by Him all things were created, [both] in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
So who created the world—God or Jesus? The answer is: yes! Jesus is God. He is the active agent of creation, present from the beginning, sustaining all things by His powerful word.
Look at verse 3: He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature. He is not a mere reflection like the moon, which has no light of its own and only mirrors the sun. Jesus is the radiance itself. He is the light; He is the glory; He is the exact imprint of the divine nature.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (NASB)
in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
It is vital to understand that Jesus is fully God. Some people claim Jesus never claimed divinity, but Scripture shows otherwise.
John 5:18 (NASB)
For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
John 8:58 (NASB)
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’
When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” He used the divine covenant name revealed to Moses at the burning bush: Yahweh, the great “I AM.” The religious leaders understood His claim perfectly—which is why they immediately picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy.
John 10:30 (NASB)
‘I and the Father are one.’
Fully God and Fully Man: The Perfect Sacrifice
Jesus had to be fully God because our sin is an infinite offense against a holy God. There is nothing we could ever offer to bridge that gap or reconcile ourselves to Him. Adam and Eve tried to cover their guilt with fig-leaf garments in Genesis 3, but God rejected their self-made remedy. Instead, God made a sacrifice—an innocent life had to die—and clothed them with animal skins. The wages of sin has always been death.
Colossians 1:19-20 (NASB)
For it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say], whether things on earth or things in heaven.
At the cross, God demonstrated that He is both entirely just and the justifier of the one who places faith in Jesus. The wrath of God against our sin was poured out on Christ, and the perfect righteousness of Christ was credited to our account.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)
He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 John 4:10 (NASB)
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
That is why the gospel is called “good news.” The divine penalty was fully satisfied in Christ.
Yet Jesus was also fully man. If He were not fully human, He could not represent us. But He was born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and raised by an earthly stepfather in Nazareth. He knew what it was to be hungry, thirsty, weary, sorrowful, and grieved. He experienced the full reality of the human condition, yet without sin. He faced every temptation, yet never once succumbed.
Look again at verse 3. When He had made purification for sins, what did He do? He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Under the Old Covenant, priests never sat down in the tabernacle because their work was never finished. Imagine being an Old Testament priest. You’re ministering in the wilderness, and here comes your neighbor, Bill.
“Bill, bro, you were here yesterday!”
Bill says, “I know, my bad. My anger got the best of me again.”
So you offer the sacrifice for Bill. The next morning, here comes Bill again. “Bill, this is four days in a row!” You offer another sacrifice. And Bill is only one neighbor out of millions! Day after day, blood flowed continuously because animal sacrifices could never permanently take away sin. The priest never sat down.
But when Jesus offered Himself, He made purification for sins once for all, and then He sat down. His work was finished. The sacrifice was complete.
Anchored in the Ancient Faith
Throughout church history, believers have wrestled with these deep truths. How can Jesus be both fully God and fully man? In AD 325, over 300 church leaders gathered at the Council of Nicaea to articulate what Scripture taught about Christ, giving us the Nicene Creed. Later, at the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, the church clearly articulated the doctrine of the Hypostatic Union: Jesus is one Person with two distinct, unconfused natures—truly God and truly man.
Let’s read Hebrews 1:1-4 one more time to see how beautifully these truths shine.
Next week, we are going to look at how Jesus is far superior to the angels. But today, we marvel at the truth that He is a better revelation. Like Lucy, may our view of Jesus grow larger and larger with every turn of the page.
As we close, we are going to do something special. We are going to recite the words of the ancient Nicene Creed together. Though we are a non-denominational church, we stand on the shoulders of giants who have faithfully proclaimed this gospel through the centuries.
Let’s confess our faith together:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for the unspeakable gift of Christ. There is none like Him. Fully God and fully man, He came on a rescue mission for us. Thank You for the privilege to exalt Him today. May our view of Jesus grow larger and larger with every moment we spend in Your Word. We recognize that our very breath comes from You, our Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, and Lord. Until the day You call us home, help us to live in faithful obedience to this better revelation—Jesus Christ our Savior. In His precious and matchless name we pray, Amen.