back to index2019-02-10 Jesus is Greater than the Prophets
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All right, if you can turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1, again I'm going to reread 00:00:13.680 |
Again reading out of the NASB, "God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets 00:00:18.320 |
in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in his Son, whom 00:00:23.840 |
he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. 00:00:28.320 |
And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds 00:00:35.400 |
When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty 00:00:41.380 |
Christ the loving Father, we thank you so much for this morning. 00:00:47.500 |
We pray, Father God, that what you've intended in the book of Hebrews, Lord, that you would 00:00:54.000 |
allow it to bear fruit in our hearts as we listen, as we study, as we dig. 00:00:59.160 |
Help us, Lord God, that the more we know, the more we will apply in our lives. 00:01:04.000 |
So bless this morning, we know, Father God, that no matter how well I exposit this text, 00:01:12.220 |
I pray, Father God, that without your Holy Spirit's conviction, it's just man's words. 00:01:18.800 |
And so we pray, Father, that you would illuminate us, cause us to see your heart and your mind, 00:01:28.160 |
Most of you probably will not remember this commercial, but those of you who do, see if 00:01:37.320 |
Yeah, you have to be a certain age to remember this commercial. 00:01:46.680 |
There was a commercial from a brokerage, E.F. 00:01:49.240 |
Hutton Brokerage, and basically the commercial says, "When E.F. 00:01:56.080 |
So if you're of certain age, I mean, that commercial was very popular, right? 00:02:03.000 |
It was so popular that it started being used in different circles, like, "When someone 00:02:10.360 |
And the reason why the commercial was popular, basically it was about this brokerage, and 00:02:14.920 |
when E.F. Hutton speaks, the information that he's giving out is so valuable that everyone 00:02:20.880 |
stops what they're doing, and they lean over to hear, so they maybe get some stock tips 00:02:30.120 |
Who you listen to is probably dictating what you value and where you're headed. 00:02:37.480 |
And that's why in Psalm chapter 1, it begins by saying, "Blessed is the man who does not 00:02:47.640 |
Because if you are listening, if you're leaning your ear toward the counsel of the wicked, 00:02:53.240 |
Those are the things that you value, and those are the things that you will eventually end 00:02:58.620 |
So the question this morning is, who do you listen to? 00:03:02.160 |
Now, I know this morning that you're listening to me in the sermon, but there's a difference 00:03:07.400 |
between hearing the sermon and listening to the sermon. 00:03:12.640 |
Someone who is listening is somebody who is attentive to and be eager to hear the advice, 00:03:19.240 |
Where you're leaning over, you're not just casually hearing the words that are coming 00:03:22.520 |
out of someone's mouth, but you're leaning, saying, "Oh, what is this? 00:03:28.760 |
I thought about people in my life that I listen to. 00:03:33.280 |
Obviously, the elders and the leaders and the pastors in the church, we spend a lot 00:03:37.320 |
of time and we throw ideas and we kind of share our thoughts and theology. 00:03:44.320 |
And so whatever happens in that meeting, they tend to have my ear. 00:03:49.600 |
I would say the person that I probably listen to more than anybody else is probably my wife. 00:03:55.000 |
And the reason why, obviously, she's my wife, but she never nags. 00:04:03.220 |
So she rarely says anything negative, at least not to me. 00:04:07.540 |
And so every once in a while, she might say something. 00:04:10.120 |
She said, "Did you...you know, you and you said that?" 00:04:14.240 |
And you could tell she's kind of reluctant to say because she doesn't want me to respond 00:04:18.800 |
She has my ear because it's very rare that she says something. 00:04:22.380 |
So if she says something, I know she has a lot of thought, and it was very important 00:04:28.440 |
So she has a tendency, whatever she says, I tend to listen to her more than anybody 00:04:36.240 |
The author of the book of Hebrews is beginning this letter by basically saying, "Listen." 00:04:43.240 |
Remember last week I told you that the author is basically going down the list saying, "Jesus 00:04:50.880 |
And he's going down the list of important beings and people in the life of Israel and 00:04:58.440 |
And that's basically the theme of the whole book of Hebrews. 00:05:01.720 |
But even before he gets to the angels, he begins by saying, "Jesus is better than the 00:05:08.120 |
And the reason why he begins the letter by saying that is to get them to listen. 00:05:13.920 |
Because you're listening to partial information, scattered information, progressive information 00:05:20.520 |
from the book, from prophets of the Old Testament. 00:05:23.920 |
But the clear communication is coming through Jesus. 00:05:28.240 |
So basically what he begins by saying is, "Listen to Jesus." 00:05:36.040 |
There's five things that I want to highlight in this text, why he's trying to motivate 00:05:41.600 |
So in the end, the end conclusion of everything he says in these three verses is, you need 00:06:00.360 |
And maybe some of them in their life is saying, "Why are you making your life so hard? 00:06:05.600 |
All you have to do is just embrace some of Christianity and embrace some of your old 00:06:09.960 |
life and you can enjoy God and enjoy the world at the same time. 00:06:14.880 |
Why are you making it so hard saying it's Jesus or nothing?" 00:06:19.760 |
So again, the author of the book of Hebrews is basically saying, "Those voices you need 00:06:24.780 |
to drown out because the one who has authority over your life is speaking." 00:06:29.320 |
So he begins the letter by saying, "Listen to Jesus." 00:06:32.360 |
So every one of these points is the reason why they need to listen to Jesus. 00:06:37.280 |
Number one, Jesus is greater than the prophets because he is the son and not just the messenger. 00:06:43.960 |
He said, "Long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions, many ways in these 00:06:58.040 |
But now Jesus, God is speaking directly through his son. 00:07:03.180 |
It says in comparison to what Jesus is saying versus what the prophets were saying. 00:07:08.360 |
He says, "They spoke in many portions and in many ways." 00:07:13.560 |
When it says in many portions, basically what he means by that is when God communicated 00:07:18.840 |
through the prophets, he gave it progressively in bits and pieces. 00:07:24.660 |
So we have pictures of the gospel in the Old Testament. 00:07:30.020 |
We have pictures and types of Jesus' resurrection and death and suffering and atonement. 00:07:39.880 |
You don't have the clear and complete presence of the gospel in one prophet. 00:07:46.520 |
It's progressive in the span of hundreds and maybe even thousands of years of God revealing 00:07:56.920 |
But now in Jesus, he's putting it all together. 00:07:59.260 |
So why would you listen solely to the prophets? 00:08:02.880 |
Again not to say that any of that was wrong, but it came progressively in bits and pieces. 00:08:10.180 |
Not only did it come in bits and pieces, it says it came in many ways. 00:08:19.640 |
Some prophets were told to be naked on one side for a while and then go naked the other 00:08:23.720 |
side for a while just to show them that God was angry with them. 00:08:28.560 |
Some of the Old Testament is written in poetry. 00:08:40.560 |
And the reason why he was doing that was everything that he was doing was dropping hints. 00:08:47.960 |
And all of it collectively pointed to Christ. 00:08:52.540 |
So let me give you an example how to best understand the Old Testament and the New Testament. 00:08:58.320 |
Like what we know of the kingdom and God from the Old Testament and New Testament. 00:09:03.800 |
Now some of you, all of us, at some point, like I mean if you're married or if you're 00:09:11.880 |
dating, like let's say as a guy if you have interest in somebody you start dropping hints. 00:09:20.240 |
Or some of you girls do that with the guys, you drop hints. 00:09:24.840 |
I remember when I had interest in Esther, there were little things that I did that I 00:09:35.400 |
It would be raining outside and I would make sure that she's not wet. 00:09:38.560 |
And this is before I've ever had any kind of conversation with her. 00:09:41.560 |
And there would be a crowd of people standing at the door and I happened to be the only 00:09:46.200 |
one with an umbrella and I would come and I would get her and get her to the car. 00:09:50.200 |
And I would come back and then I would take other people but she was the first one that 00:09:54.680 |
Now obviously that was, I was hoping that she would notice that. 00:10:05.680 |
I was in charge of a ministry and she was in charge of the sisters ministry and I remember, 00:10:09.520 |
I forget if it was their birthday or whatever it was and I got her a little bunny eraser. 00:10:24.960 |
She didn't get any of it, she didn't pick up any of it. 00:10:28.040 |
But I was dropping hints and then finally when I heard that she was moving to the east 00:10:33.240 |
coast to go to pharmacy school, I thought I need to make this clear. 00:10:38.480 |
And so when it was time for me to make it clear, basically I took all the things that 00:10:42.400 |
I've done and said okay, now that was kind of a set up for me so that when I came and 00:10:47.680 |
told her that she would have some idea, that she was expecting me to come and clarify. 00:10:56.320 |
When the time came for me to talk to her, I was dropping hints for a year and a half, 00:11:04.700 |
So by the time I was trying to clarify, she was shocked. 00:11:10.600 |
And I remember thinking like, how did you not know? 00:11:15.200 |
The reason why I share that is because in the Old Testament, God was dropping hints. 00:11:21.400 |
In every way, if you were paying attention to what God was doing in the Old Testament, 00:11:25.680 |
in bits and pieces, in many forms, you look at that and say, now we look back and it is 00:11:30.880 |
clearly God was speaking about the coming of Christ and His suffering and our salvation. 00:11:38.320 |
But in the Old Testament, it was coming in different forms, in many pieces, progressively 00:11:45.520 |
But when Christ came, He basically DTR'd with us. 00:11:57.560 |
Remember Israel wandering in the desert and then they are entering into the promised land? 00:12:02.600 |
That's all talking about salvation going into eternity. 00:12:05.960 |
And He begins to explain through clear words, everything that God was doing in the Old Testament 00:12:18.160 |
For anticipation, as a set up, as a foundation for Jesus to come and say, now let me make 00:12:26.120 |
So He begins the letter by saying the prophets were telling you in bits and pieces, in many 00:12:31.720 |
different forms, but now Jesus comes as the Son. 00:12:37.240 |
And so in other words, what's the point that He's trying to make? 00:12:43.680 |
It wouldn't make sense that you would go from this clear teaching of Christ and going back 00:12:54.200 |
So when it says, the author says that He comes as the Son, there's two things that he mentions. 00:12:59.480 |
One, because He is the Son, He's able to speak clearly. 00:13:03.440 |
In Matthew 13, 16, 17 it says, "But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your 00:13:10.260 |
For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see, 00:13:14.960 |
and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 00:13:18.520 |
Even as the prophets were dropping hints and God was giving them progressive revelation, 00:13:27.000 |
You're saying that the Messiah is going to come and suffer and He's going to save us? 00:13:32.200 |
And they long to hear it, but they never heard it. 00:13:43.400 |
But because He was the Son, He was able to make it clear. 00:13:46.400 |
1 Corinthians 2, 11-12, "For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the spirit 00:13:53.340 |
Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 00:13:56.120 |
Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so 00:13:59.680 |
that we may know the things freely given to us by God." 00:14:05.280 |
Think about how often people want to hear from God. 00:14:17.480 |
And yet never spend any minute studying the clear words of Christ. 00:14:26.400 |
They want to know His thoughts and His purpose in my life. 00:14:29.360 |
They want to understand if God loves them or not. 00:14:33.360 |
And yet the clear teaching of God's word from His own mouth is written in the scripture 00:14:39.560 |
and yet they never pay attention to what it has to say. 00:14:42.120 |
No wonder, no wonder your view of God is so ambiguous. 00:14:51.320 |
It's almost kind of like you're in a room and you have friends and you never talk to 00:14:59.680 |
You know I have no idea what they're thinking. 00:15:18.960 |
So much of our ambiguity and our fuzziness about what we know of God is simply because 00:15:29.820 |
So first and foremost He says the prophets came in many different portions in many ways 00:15:34.040 |
but Jesus comes as His son so He speaks clearly. 00:15:36.840 |
Secondly, He speaks with authority because He speaks as His son. 00:15:43.640 |
All this time He said you've been listening to a messenger. 00:15:46.800 |
Now the person who is the source of the message has come. 00:15:51.080 |
Matthew 7, 28-29 when Jesus had finished these words the crowds were amazed at His teaching 00:15:57.240 |
for He was teaching them as one having authority not as their scribes. 00:16:12.240 |
He's not simply saying I'm conveying to you what I heard. 00:16:18.560 |
That's why He's able to say in Matthew 5, 27-28 you have heard it said that it was said 00:16:30.840 |
You said He said you have heard it said that you shall not commit adultery but I say to 00:16:35.360 |
you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery 00:16:42.080 |
Now if anybody else said this that would be blasphemy. 00:16:46.200 |
Not because what He said was wrong but because He said you have heard it said you've read 00:16:50.520 |
the Bible and the Bible said this but I say to you there's only one person in this universe 00:17:00.480 |
Nobody, no pastor, no scribe, not even an angel of God can come and say the Bible says 00:17:15.600 |
The only person that can say that is the one who said this. 00:17:22.680 |
In other words He's clarifying what His Father said. 00:17:26.960 |
He says it again in Matthew 5 33-34 again you have heard it said that in the ancients 00:17:32.120 |
were told you should not make false vows but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord but I 00:17:36.360 |
say to you make no oath at all either by heaven for it is the throne of God. 00:17:48.800 |
He says not to not only that you should make false vows but even when you do make vows 00:17:57.240 |
I mean that's the experience that God had with the nation of Israel. 00:18:05.600 |
So He comes with authority and over and over again Matthew 5 38-39 you have heard it said 00:18:09.960 |
and I for an eye, tooth for a tooth but I say to you do not resist an evil person. 00:18:16.160 |
No wonder the scribes had such a hard time with this because only God Himself would have 00:18:23.520 |
authority to say these words and that's exactly who Jesus was. 00:18:31.360 |
So the end conclusion of the first point is you've been hearing through the ambassadors 00:18:40.480 |
You've been hearing through, you've been hearing through secretaries, through the generals 00:18:46.320 |
and these were all very important people but now the president has come. 00:18:52.960 |
If there was any ambiguity, any question about God's intent now Jesus is making it clear. 00:19:00.720 |
Secondly Jesus is greater than the prophets because Jesus' words were final. 00:19:07.660 |
Everything that was happening through the prophets were progressively leading up to 00:19:10.800 |
this point but when Jesus comes there's nothing beyond Him. 00:19:17.360 |
So last days is not talking about a few days in the past but the last period of redemptive 00:19:26.160 |
Everything that God intended and was preparing for was leading up to the last days, the coming 00:19:31.280 |
of Christ, His death and resurrection and now the period of the church we're all living 00:19:37.520 |
That's why the scripture says in 2 Peter 1 3, His divine power has granted to us everything 00:19:50.080 |
Everything that God intended for our salvation, forgiveness of sins, for our resurrection 00:19:59.220 |
So Jesus is greater than the prophets because His words are final. 00:20:04.240 |
Thirdly Jesus is greater than the prophets because He is not simply a mediator but the 00:20:12.000 |
Hebrews 1 2, Whom He appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the world. 00:20:18.320 |
He is God Himself, the heir of all things, the creator. 00:20:22.780 |
It says He is the radiance of His glory and exact representation of His nature. 00:20:29.840 |
You know what's a great illustration of the Trinity and oftentimes when you hear people 00:20:34.140 |
like illustrate the Trinity, there's no exact illustration because when you try to say this 00:20:41.040 |
is what it's like, you end up becoming either a modalist or tritheist. 00:20:46.560 |
Now if you don't know those terms, don't worry about it. 00:20:51.360 |
But I do encourage you to know it at some point. 00:20:54.480 |
Basically modalism is one God presented in three different ways. 00:21:00.840 |
Just like I'm a father, I'm a pastor, I'm a son, I'm a husband, and so one person but 00:21:07.040 |
have different functions in different arenas of life. 00:21:15.920 |
But the Bible doesn't present Jesus as just one God just kind of showing three different 00:21:24.820 |
And then if you're not careful, you go to the other end, tritheism. 00:21:28.920 |
Tritheism basically is you have Father who is distinct by Himself and you have the Son 00:21:32.520 |
who is distinct by Himself and then you have the Trinity or the Holy Spirit by Himself. 00:21:37.720 |
But it's kind of like in my family, you have all Kims but you have the Father, right? 00:21:44.000 |
You have the Mother and then you have one of my children, right? 00:21:49.680 |
So in the same way, you have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all three 00:21:54.560 |
are distinct and they're all Gods but there are three distinct and that's called tritheism. 00:22:04.960 |
The Bible says that there's only one God in essence but three distinct. 00:22:18.840 |
It's not one plus one plus one equals three, right? 00:22:22.680 |
So if that's gone over your head, you know, take some time, right? 00:22:27.840 |
Because this is the first thing I really struggled with as a young Christian because I could 00:22:31.720 |
not understand Trinity and I thought maybe it was because I'm biblically illiterate and 00:22:35.960 |
if I learned more that I would somehow get it. 00:22:38.720 |
And so I would go and ask my professors, my Bible study leaders and I was so intent on 00:22:43.160 |
finding this out because this is a God that I've given my life to follow and I can't explain 00:22:49.980 |
And so I was stuck on this for years to the point where my Bible study leader basically 00:22:56.240 |
told me to knock it off because every Bible study eventually led to I don't get this. 00:23:04.160 |
I've asked you, obviously you know the Bible way more than I do and I've asked all of my 00:23:07.720 |
professors and they have PhDs in this and even then I was like maybe I'm just dumb. 00:23:17.140 |
And then I began to study the scriptures from verse to verse to verse and I started realizing, 00:23:24.780 |
Even though I can't explain it, it teaches the Trinity. 00:23:28.060 |
And so the conclusion that I came to was if you believe the Bible is authoritative and 00:23:33.980 |
is from God, whether I understand it or not, it's true. 00:23:41.380 |
But if I don't believe it, just because I don't understand it doesn't mean that it's 00:23:51.860 |
Jesus, and I thought this was one of the best illustrations because it says Jesus is the 00:23:57.940 |
radiance of God's glory, exact representation of his nature. 00:24:05.940 |
Jesus is not just a figure of God or an image of God. 00:24:24.700 |
When he says he's the exact representation of his nature, he's not talking about an image 00:24:30.720 |
of George Washington or somebody on a coin where his image was imprinted on him, but 00:24:41.140 |
It says his very nature is exactly represented in Christ. 00:24:47.180 |
So in other words, just the very words that he uses here is referring to the Trinity. 00:25:10.900 |
So basically we are seeing the sun, but we are seeing the radiance coming from the sun. 00:25:18.940 |
So if you've seen the rays from the sun, you've seen the sun. 00:25:24.700 |
They say that it takes about eight minutes for that light to travel to here. 00:25:33.600 |
So when we gaze at the sun, what we are looking at is the sun eight minutes ago. 00:25:46.960 |
Because it took eight minutes for that to come into our sight. 00:25:55.100 |
So when we see the sun, we are looking at the sun, but it's distinctly different because 00:26:00.100 |
it's eight minutes after the rays were given. 00:26:06.740 |
Now if you're confused a little bit, you kind of get it, and you're still a bit confused, 00:26:17.220 |
Because when we look at the radiance of God's glory, we are looking at the Father, but it's 00:26:31.140 |
It may not be a perfect illustration, but I thought that captures more than any other 00:26:38.540 |
Jesus himself is the exact radiance, or radiance of his glory. 00:26:46.000 |
And that's what Jesus says in John chapter 14, 8-10. 00:26:48.740 |
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 00:26:51.940 |
Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, 00:27:02.620 |
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and the words that 00:27:05.700 |
I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does his works. 00:27:24.380 |
Now if you're in the market of trying to find out where you want to invest your money, and 00:27:29.340 |
you have let's say a chunk of money, and you want to make sure that you pick the right 00:27:41.100 |
I hear stories about people paying hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars just 00:27:47.580 |
He's one of the most famous investors of our lifetime. 00:27:52.900 |
Become a billionaire just from picking the right stocks over 30, 40 years. 00:27:59.260 |
People are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars just to hear his advice. 00:28:03.060 |
What stocks do you want me to choose, and what do you see coming? 00:28:06.380 |
Because if you can do even half of what he did in his life, you would be a billionaire. 00:28:14.220 |
So if you're a basketball player, if Michael Jordan speaks, you listen. 00:28:21.600 |
If you're trying to set up a social media, when Mark Zuckerberg speaks, you listen. 00:28:28.220 |
Whatever it is that's valuable to you, you listen intentively because their advice is 00:28:37.180 |
It's going to help you get to where you want to go. 00:28:39.540 |
So you get online, and if you're in business, you pay money. 00:28:43.340 |
Have to have consultants who are experts in these fields to get you to where you want 00:28:51.500 |
But when it comes to your life, who else do you listen to? 00:28:58.520 |
You don't listen to Warren Buffet about your marriage. 00:29:02.300 |
You don't go to Michael Jordan about raising children. 00:29:06.680 |
You don't go to a business expert to ask about computer failures. 00:29:15.000 |
So when it comes to your life, who else would you listen to than the author of life himself, 00:29:24.560 |
So again, the point of the third point is listen. 00:29:28.640 |
Fourthly, Jesus is greater than the prophets because he's the sustainer of all things. 00:29:34.840 |
In other words, we ought to listen to him because he's the one who sustains. 00:29:39.400 |
He upholds all things by the word of his power. 00:29:49.720 |
I go to sleep, I wake up, I eat, go to the bathroom, take a shower, and so everything 00:29:53.980 |
that we do, we do in repetition for a long period of time. 00:29:56.760 |
So anything that we do in repetition, we have a tendency to take for granted. 00:30:08.380 |
And when people have been in our life for a long period of time, we just assume they're 00:30:15.060 |
And all of a sudden, you realize how important they were. 00:30:18.500 |
And you begin to realize what a huge role they played in your life. 00:30:22.340 |
But anything that is done in repetition, we tend to take for granted. 00:30:27.560 |
The scripture says we are here because of him. 00:30:35.100 |
You breathing, you coming week after week after week, you've been a Christian whether 00:30:39.740 |
for a few months or for many years, it's because of his grace. 00:30:46.060 |
But when he says that he upholds all things, he's not simply talking about maintaining 00:30:50.860 |
so make sure everything just keeps going and doesn't burn and crash. 00:30:54.980 |
He sustains, like a pilot sustains an airplane going into his direction. 00:31:10.360 |
And that's what the Bible means when he says he sustains us. 00:31:14.700 |
Everything that God is intending for this, for the world and where it's headed in the 00:31:19.540 |
book of Revelation, Jesus is sustaining all of that. 00:31:24.580 |
That's why when the scripture talks about we can't lose our salvation is because if 00:31:28.860 |
you've been saved by the sovereign hands of Christ, he is sustaining us and he is making 00:31:37.860 |
So the very reason why you and I year after year, despite some of our many failures, that 00:31:44.220 |
we're able to be at church and listen to his word and we're not far gone is because Christ 00:31:49.100 |
is making sure that we're getting to our destination. 00:31:53.380 |
There's a reason why we're on the airplane and the pilot comes on and he says, "Put on 00:31:58.220 |
your seatbelt because we see turbulence coming." 00:32:03.980 |
We don't sit in our chairs like, "Wow, I don't feel it." 00:32:09.780 |
And you just unbuckle your seatbelt and you're just walking around, right? 00:32:14.480 |
If you've been on an airplane long enough, you know when the pilot says, "We see turbulence 00:32:23.260 |
Now, the degree of turbulence may be different, right? 00:32:26.980 |
I don't know about you, but I've been on airplanes where I was thrown out of my seat and almost 00:32:31.540 |
Not the top of the airplane, but you know where the baggage thing was? 00:32:35.940 |
We were flying from Beijing to Urumqi and they said, "Hey, turbulence is coming." 00:32:41.700 |
So we're just like, "Oh, it's going to be a little bit shaky." 00:32:44.420 |
Well we thought the plane cracked because we were on the very back of the plane and 00:32:48.620 |
they hit the turbulence and maybe people in the middle didn't feel it as much, but we 00:32:54.100 |
And when that thing snapped, anybody who didn't have their seatbelt on, we were almost flown 00:33:00.220 |
So now whenever I'm on an airplane, when the pilot says, "We have a little turbulence coming. 00:33:06.660 |
Please we advise you to keep your seatbelts on and don't go to the restroom right now. 00:33:11.500 |
And flight attendants, please have your seats and buckle up." 00:33:15.180 |
I put that seatbelt on and I tighten it just in case, right? 00:33:21.100 |
So the scripture says that he upholds all things. 00:33:24.620 |
He's upholding not just kind of on autopilot and let it be and let it get to our destination. 00:33:28.940 |
He says God is the one who's piloting us to our destination. 00:33:37.580 |
His words have consequences when he's warning us. 00:33:42.220 |
And so the warning that we hear in the book of Hebrews is you're going to drift if you're 00:33:49.020 |
You're going to drift into danger if you don't pay attention. 00:33:52.860 |
If you neglect such a great salvation, how shall you escape this judgment? 00:33:56.780 |
If you just allow yourself to continue to go down this path. 00:34:03.220 |
In other words, listen, pay very careful attention. 00:34:08.100 |
Fifth and finally, Jesus is greater than the prophets because he is the fulfillment of 00:34:14.620 |
Not only is he the one who sustains, he's the destination itself. 00:34:20.180 |
The whole purpose of all of this is to bring us and to be reconciled to himself. 00:34:26.780 |
Hebrews 1.3, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of 00:34:33.260 |
Jesus himself fulfilled what God desired, the salvation of mankind. 00:34:39.340 |
First Peter 1.10-11, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that 00:34:43.740 |
would come to you, made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or 00:34:49.260 |
time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of 00:34:56.860 |
He said Christ was going to come and they were eagerly waiting. 00:35:01.740 |
He's going to suffer, but his suffering is going to lead to glory. 00:35:07.660 |
For Christ to come and redeem us from our sins and to bring us to glory. 00:35:15.180 |
Everything that we experience here is temporary. 00:35:21.020 |
You know, when you get older, our concern is losing what we have. 00:35:28.180 |
At this point in my life, you know, and again, not that that was ever a pursuit of my life, 00:35:33.420 |
but even if it was, even if my wildest dreams came true, I became an NBA superstar, I created 00:35:42.780 |
the next big technology, and I became the richest man on earth. 00:35:47.220 |
Even if your wildest dreams came true, it's temporary. 00:35:52.740 |
You hold onto it for a short period and then at some point you have to let it go. 00:35:58.060 |
So when you get older, I think the temptation that older people have is losing what they 00:36:05.100 |
But when you're young, the temptation is that you're not going to have what you potentially 00:36:12.500 |
So if you commit your life too early, if you sacrifice and you do these things and you 00:36:16.220 |
don't come cornered, if you don't do these things, I may not be able to become a millionaire. 00:36:22.120 |
So the temptation is not what you have, but what you may lose if you make certain decisions. 00:36:31.000 |
But in the end, even if your wildest dreams came true, every human being who has lived 00:36:38.880 |
on this earth, no matter how successful they are, all they are now are names on paper. 00:36:50.120 |
They're no more richer than the poorest person that died at some point in history. 00:36:55.480 |
Whether you died of natural causes, whether you died young with disease and horrible life, 00:37:05.880 |
Jesus Christ came to deliver us from that fate. 00:37:14.280 |
And he says Jesus Christ came to fulfill that. 00:37:18.880 |
All human history, God's intent and his love and his grace and his mercy is fulfilled in 00:37:40.480 |
If it isn't first and foremost the words of Christ, you're probably already drifting. 00:37:51.160 |
If you're casually listening to the words of Christ and intentively listening to the 00:37:55.640 |
advice of the world, you probably have already been drifting. 00:38:02.960 |
When we're young, I noticed in being a father, the easiest time, physically it's hard, but 00:38:13.680 |
when the children are young, it's easy because they listen to you. 00:38:18.060 |
Even the most rambunctious of kids, they listen to you. 00:38:21.240 |
I remember when my kids were young, they would fight with each other and then they would 00:38:24.960 |
say, "Oh, it's not this, no, it's that, that." 00:38:26.400 |
Then I walk into the room, "Daddy, is this true?" 00:38:43.200 |
You said this, but my friends said, "Your friend's just like you. 00:38:51.320 |
Why is truth coming from your friends all of a sudden?" 00:38:54.600 |
And so they go through that stage where they're testing the world. 00:38:59.600 |
So you're no longer the source of truth when they get to that age. 00:39:05.400 |
And so when they're teenagers, their advice oftentimes is coming from their peers. 00:39:10.200 |
It's more important what their peers think than what the parents think. 00:39:15.360 |
And then you get older and you learn from that. 00:39:22.880 |
Then you see how some of their friends made some foolish choices in the direction that 00:39:26.160 |
they went, and then you realize, "Maybe they're not the people I should be paying attention 00:39:30.720 |
And then you get to the next stage where you listen to your own passions. 00:39:39.400 |
And you get determined, and you begin to listen to yourself. 00:39:45.040 |
And if you're successful, it gets harder because you think you know. 00:39:53.440 |
And it's a very dangerous stage because you begin to just follow whatever passions, whatever 00:40:07.800 |
You can like one thing one day and hate it the next day. 00:40:17.640 |
What you think is good and bad changes as you mature. 00:40:21.020 |
To have your whole trajectory based upon your passions is not simply a mistake. 00:40:30.380 |
But if we want to live, there's only one person that will give us what we need to live. 00:40:43.440 |
So the point of all of this is to prepare us for what he's about to say. 00:40:48.600 |
He's about to go into this eight, nine chapters of Christology. 00:40:59.240 |
You know what's interesting about the book of Hebrews? 00:41:04.880 |
In every one of the letters in the New Testament, it says to the church of Colossae, to Philemon, 00:41:10.240 |
to whoever, and it'll say, "Apostle Paul or James." 00:41:18.680 |
But there's two letters in the New Testament where it jumps right into the point. 00:41:25.080 |
He says, "I, Paul, an apostle, write this to you." 00:41:27.360 |
And then he jumps in, "I'm surprised that you're so easily turning to a different gospel." 00:41:32.120 |
And then he jumps in because he's so concerned about these Judaizers who are corrupting the 00:41:37.480 |
And anybody who preaches a different gospel other than what I preach to you, let it be 00:41:42.780 |
And that's at the very beginning of the letter because there's a sense of urgency because 00:41:50.240 |
And we know that that was a very intense letter because he was very concerned. 00:41:54.480 |
And the other letter that doesn't have an introduction is this letter because the author 00:42:01.880 |
Not of the false gospel, of people just drifting. 00:42:07.680 |
And we don't normally think of drifting as dangerous unless you've experienced drifting. 00:42:15.320 |
But you know where drifting leads to because that drifting never leads to God. 00:42:23.760 |
And that's why the author of this letter begins by saying, "Pay attention to the Son. 00:42:30.960 |
Listen to what I have to say because the consequence is life and death." 00:42:38.720 |
So I pray that as we take time to dig into the book of Hebrews that we would open our 00:42:44.880 |
ears and pay attention as the author intends. Let's pray.