Radiance, Power, and Purification: The Superiority of Jesus Christ

0:00 Let's pray together. We stand in awe of you, Lord Jesus. the air of all things, the radiance of the Father's glory, the exact imprint of his nature,

0:22 creator of the universe, upholding everything by the word of your power, making purification for sins, superior to all the angels. and right now sitting at the right head of the universe the majesty of God watching us with a smile oh God Jesus be pleased with this moment so guide it so be on this people and on me that what is spoken and what is heard what is resolved. would be pleasing to you.

1:11 We want you to delight in the welfare of your people as you promised. So work that in us, I pray now, in your great name, Jesus. Amen. there are two things that the Bible will not let us separate.

1:35 One is the majesty of Jesus and the greatness of all that he's ever done. And the other is the nitty gritty, daily, practical, risk-taking acts of obedience that flow from that. Thank you. it won't work to diminish this in order to make much of that it won't work to diminish this in order to make much of that there are ones among you who are are very practically oriented god bless you just tell me what to do pastor just just tell me the ethical framework that this Christianity provides for my daily life. And there are others among you who are lovers of ideas, big God theology.

2:35 Tell me about the big things, Pastor. Just the great, glorious things about Jesus. And I'm saying, the Bible will not let us choose. some of the great things about immersing yourself in the bible every day week after week month after month year after year decade after decade is that you start to know as second nature the way God views the world this is part of your nature because you've absorbed it for so long and God won't let us do that. He won't let, well, I'm the practical type. You can do theology. No, no, I'm the theological type. You can live it out. Won't let that happen. So don't choose between those two. The book of Hebrews, the reason I'm saying this is because the book of Hebrews is so relentless in its exaltation of the superiority of Jesus, and it's working out of the practical implications of that superiority. We know Jesus is better. That's the theme of the book.

3:57 That nails it. That's right. We'll see that. In fact, just to underline that, I did a little word search. You can do this. So I looked up the Greek word for better, just so all the words translated better wouldn't count. And I just said, show me all the New Testament uses of the word kraton better. Interesting. One in 1 Corinthians, one in 1 Peter, one in 2 Peter, nowhere else except 12 in Hebrews. That's significant. That nails it. Jesus is better. Better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the priests, better than the Old Testament ministry, better than the first covenant, sacrifice better, blood better, bulls and goats will never cut it for the forgiveness of sins. You got to have a better sacrifice, better tent, better altar, better hope. That's where we're going. Jesus is better. It is the overarching theme. Every book in the New Testament aims to show the magnificence of Jesus.

5:11 But Hebrews goes at that by making everything look better, and especially better than the Old Testament. That's the focus. This is to Hebrews, this is to Jewish people, and this author is bent on saying he's better than the Old Testament in every way. And the reason that works as a way of magnifying Jesus is that the Old Testament is glorious. Off the charts, glorious. Like you don't magnify a mountain by comparing it with a molehill, right? Doesn't work. the Old Testament is not a molehill. It is glorious. I was thinking that if you want to magnify Mount Everest, you wouldn't compare it with Buck Hill.

6:11 You would say, let me show you a photograph, 14 photographs of all the mountains in the world over 25,000 feet tall. There's 14 of them plus one. And you look at those 14 mountains, you say, those are amazing. And then you say, Everest is better.

6:33 Actually, it's only 283 meters better than K2, but it's better. The Old Testament is amazing. Let me read you Paul's way of saying this. This is 2 Corinthians 3, 7. Now the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory. If it came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which is being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, by comparison, because of the glory that surpasses it. That's Jesus in the book of Hebrews. Everest. The Old Testament's not a mole hill, it's magnificent. And Jesus is better. Now, remember what we're doing here. I'm illustrating, you can't separate two things, majesty of Jesus and practical outworking. So I've just said a word about majesty. However, you do what I did to get ready is read through the book of practical, practical, ending of the most practical and painful.

8:26 Chapter 2, don't neglect such a great salvation. Chapter 3, 6, hold fast your confession. 3, 12, take care lest you be taken in by the deceitfulness of sin. 4, 7, don't harden your heart. 4, 16, strive to enter God's rest. 6, 12, don't be sluggish. imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 1214, pursue peace, pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 1228, offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Our God is a consuming fire. 134, let marriage be held in honor and the marriage bed undefiled. keep your life free from the love of money. For this great Christ has said, I'll never leave you.

9:23 I'll never forsake you. Why would you love money? 1313. since Jesus suffered outside the gate, let's go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. That's where it's going. It's to move us outside the camp. That's where it's going. You can't just revel in the greatness of Jesus in this wonderful room, which we ought to pay off this year, by the way. Let's do this. Let's get it done for Kenny's sake and the new pastor and Jesus. He did not ask me to say that. It's not in my manuscript. All those practical things that I just listed, he says in chapter 13, God is working those in us through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. If you live like that, he gets a lot of glory, which is what the book is about, right? So you want to really get in sync with the book.

10:41 you don't just revel in the theology, you get on the streets and you bear reproach. Thank you. So you can't separate. theology, ideas, theory, from nitty-gritty, daily, practical, risk-taking, lay your life down, Christian living. Now, there are eight depictions of the magnificence of Jesus. I suppose the reason I started like that is because I'm focusing on his magnificence, not any practical invocations. That's my job. In this text, it's just great. You know what's coming. Read the whole book.

11:36 In fact, wouldn't you think this book is called A Word of Encouragement and Exhortation. It's a sermon. It would have been read all at once in the sermon. Probably would have taken a couple hours. Not quite. So we're not doing that. We're just doing a piece at a time. You read the whole thing. So I'm starting in the middle of verse 2 where Kenny left off. Verse 2 begins, in these last days, God has spoken to us by a son, his son. So who's that? Chapter 4, verse 16, put the name on it. Here's what it says. We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Okay, that's Jesus. We're all together on this now. Verse two, son of God, last word, final word from God, Jesus.

12:33 Now verse two continues. There are eight, let's name them. One, whom he appointed heir of all things. Two, through whom he created the world. Three, he is the radiance of the glory of God. Four, he is the exact imprint of his nature. Five, he opposes the universe by the word of his power. six after making purification for sins seven he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high eight he has become superior to angels there's no one like this I'm going to leave that last one for Kenny. He is doing verse 4 through the end of the chapter on the superiority over angels next week. But I have to say one word about superiority over angels because you might stumble over the word become.

13:38 having become as much superior to angels as though maybe he weren't. Whoa, not a good. thought. So what does it mean he became superior to angels if in fact he's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature from all eternity? And the answer is he adds superiority to superiority by his life and death and resurrection. When Jesus died as the God-man, which didn't exist before the incarnation. The God-man didn't exist. Now the second person of the Trinity is a God-man. Breathtaking. He always will be the God-man. And when he died, he triumphed over sin and death and hell.

14:36 And when he rose, he conquered the evil one. and he is superior now as a savior, as a Lord in a new way. So don't think he was inferior to angels before and now he has only arrived at superiority after he made purification for sins. It's not like that. So now we're left with seven, leaving the eighth for Kenny. Heir of all things, creator of the world, radiance of God's glory, imprint of God's nature, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power, the one whose death made purification for sin, and the one who today, alive, triumphant, sits at the right hand of God. This is breathtaking, people. This is breathtaking. You know, I sit here and I think, God, what What can I say?

15:41 Sometimes the magnificence, the felt magnificence of what we believe doesn't hit us until we run into somebody who totally rejects everything. They don't believe any of that. None of those seven. That's a lot of people in this city. All the Muslims in this city, about 70,000 of them, reject every one of those seven. All the Jewish people who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, about 60,000 in the Twin Cities, reject every one of those seven points. All the Hindu people in the Twin Cities, about 40,000, one of the largest Hindu temples in America is in Maple Grove. All of them, reject every one of those seven.

16:46 All the Buddhist people in the Twin Cities, about 10,000. One of the biggest Buddhist temples in America is in Hampton, Minnesota, just 30 minutes south of the Twin Cities. Thousands and thousands, I would dare say, of nominal Christians in this city don't really believe these seven things. They don't. what I mean by really believe not really believe is well they believe them like they believe in oxygen you ask him you believe Jesus made purification for sins you believe that he was the instrument of God in creating the world that's he of course I'm a Christian but if they stop believing in oxygen it would make zero difference in their life zero. Nothing would change.

17:44 oxygen would be there, but it wouldn't make any difference to them whether they believed it or not. And so it is with so much so-called belief and faith. It's just words. So when I think that, when I feel that, when I live among it, my neighborhood, I have to ask, and I'm asking you now, do I really? This is absolutely spectacular. This is just spectacular crazy to believe those seven things about a person. I mean, wouldn't it just change everything if you believed that? And so I have to get really serious.

18:39 Like, am I just playing games? Are you just playing games? May the Lord give us fresh sense of the wonder and reality of this Jesus, with these seven realities about him. Maybe you noticed that the The order in which the seven come is not the order in which they exist or came into being or got worked out. If I were rearranging these, this is what I do a lot when I read the Bible, I try to press through to the reality structure, not just the text structure.

19:39 I'm going to come back to this, but pushing through to the reality, what would you do? How would you order these seven things? Here's my attempt. I would start and say, he's the radiance of the glory of God from all eternity. He's the exact imprint of his nature from all eternity. That's first, that's eternal. Then he became the agent of creation. That'd be number three. And then he upholds that universe that he just made by the word of his power. And then he enters that world and makes purification for sin. And then in triumph he sits down and now he reigns over the world and all of its angels and he finally becomes the heir of all things. I think that's the order that it happens, and that's not the order he gives us.

20:42 When I'm studying the Bible, I want reality. I don't want just words. I don't want just texts and propositions. I want words, but I want reality. Our offers offer its manual customer service services system project costs rather than that's what we have to ask you can't just fiddle around with the Bible and say I think he ought to have written it this way he's got his reasons I'm always assuming the inspired writer knows what he's doing so I'm stepping back and saying okay I think I do see some reality and I'm thrilled about it the way I just outlined it I think that's true it's just not the way you presented it I want to know why you, inspired writer, presented it the way you did. So that's what we're going to do. Walk through it his way, not my way.

21:51 How do we know what he's up to here? So he puts first what I put last. Why? Why do you start at the end? Air of all things. He spoke by a son whom he appointed heir of all things. I put it last, he puts it first. Why? Here's my suggestion. I think the phrase, he appointed heir, means the heirship. He enters into his role as the inheritor of everything at the end, but the appointment didn't happen at the end.

22:48 So the sentence, he appointed him heir of all things, that happened way back. I mean, I know we're out of our element here when we talk about time in God. I get that. Sequence in God is probably non-existent, but that's the way he encourages us to think in the Bible because we're humans. We can't do any better. We can't fathom what it is to be God. so when I say before and after you get it I'm doing the best that a human can do with human language I think what he's saying is God plans the universe backward, like most of you do when you're planning a vacation.

23:34 You say, where are we going? Then you say, how should we get there? And where should we stay? And what would make it good? And God knows exactly where he's going. Jesus will be everything someday. Jesus inherits everything someday. The point of the universe that God has conceived is Jesus heir of all things. And so that's what he decrees at the beginning. Everything in between is infinite wisdom working that out. That's what I think is going on with putting the heirship of Jesus first. The ultimate goal of everything that exists is the centrality of the Son inheriting the universe. The majesty of Jesus, the centrality of Jesus, the exaltation of Jesus surrounded by his possessions, which is everything. It says in Isaiah 46, God declares the end from the beginning. You declare it in the beginning, you bring it to pass at the end.

24:54 What does it mean? Air of all things. Doesn't he own all things by virtue of creating them? How do you inherit all things if you made them? If you own them, if you uphold them by the word of your power, their very existence depends on your word, and you're going to inherit them? Like, what? Well, he owns everything, that is for sure. He upholds everything. He made everything. However, here's what I think inheriting means. However, right now, the Bible says Satan is the god of this world.

25:54 Second Corinthians 4.4. Whoa. My inheritance is ruled over under me by Satan. Not a good thing. Secondly, millions of people are in rebellion against Jesus in this inheritance. Millions. This is not a good inheritance. I don't want millions of unbelievers in my kingdom. Third, the creation itself is broken through and through. Futility, bondage, brokenness, Romans 8, 19 to 23. But, and this is the inheritance, the day is coming when Satan and all who will not believe in Jesus be cast into outer darkness. They will not be part of the new heavens and the new earth.

26:50 And the whole earth, it says in Romans 8, 21, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And now in the fullest, complete sense, he inherits everything perfect. And it will be as it ought to be as his inheritance. That's coming. And it's coming in the way he planned for it to come, through the purification of sins.

27:30 Now, at the end of verse 2, the writer goes back from the end, where he's the heir of all things, to the beginning. and says that God through him created the ages, literally ages. This is world, time and space are created by God through Jesus. created through Jesus. God is the creator, it says, whom, through whom, through Jesus, he created the world. This statement that Christ was the agent of God in creation gives unfathomable depth to the statement in chapter 13, verse 8, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

28:37 Why does it give unfathomable depth to that statement? Because if you created everything, you weren't created. there and if you weren't created you've always been and if you've always been you cannot not be you are absolute reality. Before Big Bang, whatever that was, if it was, you are absolute reality.

29:25 And if you are absolute reality, you're about as stable as it can be the same yesterday, today, and forever. 7.30 this morning, I looked out my window and it was big four black cars surrounding another car and the immigration agents were doing their thing and

29:53 What I felt was a vibration inside which turned into prayer, please don't let anybody get shot. But I say this just because right at that moment, I felt so vulnerable. I felt so fragile. I felt so like vibrating inside. There isn't anything stable in the world but one thing. Jesus. absolute reality is stable and it's him.

30:31 The same. Eternity past, present on the throne, eternity future, Jesus is stable. What a great way to live. I know Jesus. I have Jesus. I'm in Jesus. No matter how unstable the world is, you can see why these practical implications get such power from the theology of this book. Now, after saying he's the end of all things, and he's the beginning of all things as the Creator, the agent of God in creation, he makes clear with these next two phrases that he's not an angel. Again, he's going to go there. The reason to say he's not an angel because those two phrases, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature is intended to say he's God.

31:49 The Trinity, we Christians believe, is a great mystery. It's not foolishness. It's It's not nonsense. It's not double talk or triple talk. It's reality. The Bible, in many and various ways, tries to help us see it. And this is one of them. when he says he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,

32:26 he means he's not God the Father. and he's not just one with God the Father in purpose, he's one with God the Father in radiance of glory and imprint of nature. That's his best shot at language.

32:49 What do you say to try to say there is one God existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which we'll meet over in chapter 2, what do you say to say the son is not the father the father is not the son the son is not the spirit the spirit is not the son but here one god not three gods they are not gods what do you say you say things like this he's the radiance of the glory of god he's the imprint of his nature verse 8 says drop your eyes down to verse 8 you need to see this i'm sure Kenny will do something with it. of the Son, he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever.

33:43 The Jehovah's Witnesses have this all wrong. Have mercy upon them. Talk to them. Try to help them. They have this so wrong in saying that Jesus is the exalted angel. Michael so heretically wrong and Hebrews is written I mean I don't know I said to Ken this morning I don't know why the whole first chapter is devoted to superiority over angels something's going on in those churches in that day And this writer feels like that's where I'm starting. After I nail down these eight glorious things, I'm going after angels. Don't believe that Jesus is an angel. He's not an angel. He's God. And that's the point of those two phrases. The radiance of his glory from all eternity God the Father has beheld the Son reflecting back to him his perfections, all of them, his glory, his nature has been reflected back. So when he comes into the world, he says, this is my beloved son. I love him. I've loved him from all eternity. This is why the Trinity is a companionship of love for all eternity. We're not the kind of monotheists who have no love in the Trinity because we believe in three in one and one in three, and they love each other.

35:24 God is love. God is love means something. Bless and pray for your Muslim friends. So many of them have been taught something like God had sex with Mary so he could get a human son as an heir. That's what Christians believe. I've talked to them. that's not what we believe. And a text like this helps. John 1 helps. Hebrews 1 helps. You don't have to be speechless when you talk to your Muslim friends about who Jesus is.

36:17 They try to make Esau have a very high place in their theology, and it's not high. It's not. It's demeaning. Jesus is God, and we worship him. unashamedly as God. And then interestingly, now he does not say in middle of verse 3 that God through him upholds the universe. Like he said, God through him created the universe. He says, the sun upholds the universe by word. You want to have a strong hero? Good night. Jesus, the God-man, he's a man, holds billions of galaxies in existence. I just heard Stephen Meyer say on a podcast yesterday that there are about 10 to the 40th power atoms in the universe.

37:29 And it's, I'm not, I'm going to get over my head here, but I just thought, awesome. Tell me more about what Jesus upholds by the word of his power. we have a great Savior. I think the reason he doesn't say God upholds the universe through Jesus is that now that he has nailed it, he's the radiance of God. He's the imprint of God. He's God. You don't need to say that anymore. You say, he's God and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. That's what he does. He's God. Of course, he holds the universe in being by the word of his power. And now we come to what is the dominant theme of this letter, namely purification for sins. This letter is not mainly about pre-incarnation theology, which so much of this text is, this book is mainly about he came, he suffered, he died, his blood is precious beyond speaking.

39:04 And when he died, he did what no bull or goat her Old Testament regime could do. He made purification for sins for everyone who believes. That's what he did. I said this Jesus did. And I was thinking, I'm closing now to lead us to the table. I love to think about all seven of these. I wish we had a sermon on each one. I would be happy to do that for Kenyans but that's too slow we shouldn't do that But we could. However, I think taking them individually might not take us where we want to be right now in this sermon.

40:05 Where he's taken us is he's brought us now to his God, very God of very God, radiance and imprint of nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. and that's the one who came. In other words, it seems to me that the beauty of Jesus is not mainly he's powerful. He upholds the universe by the word his power, or mainly he died on a cross. He was slaughtered like a lamb. It's not that or that. If you take it one at a time, you say, amazing, amazing. But if you put the two together, which is what's happening here. That's the most beautiful thing about Jesus, isn't it? The most beautiful thing about Jesus is that all that majesty, all that power that he had from eternity and has every moment of every day, he lays aside, in one sense, and he comes and he puts on human flesh and he suffers all kinds of rejection and scorn and spitting and slapping and beard pulling and sword thrusting and beating with rods and lying about him and mockery and nails to his hands, a spear in his side so that his enemies could be fellow heirs.

41:46 that's a great gospel. That's a great message for the world. You don't need to be ashamed of that. One minute of your life, this is simply staggeringly glorious and beautiful and true, and you should be willing to go outside the camp, right, and bear reproach in order to tell everybody that will listen to you, you've got to hear this. You've just got to hear this. You've got to see this Jesus. It's the coming together of these perfections.

42:23 And then when he's done buying us by his blood, he goes and sits down, and it's finished. And he rules until everything comes under his feet. And he inherits the world and is glorious above all things finally. So let me close by not only saying that he's worthy to be trusted and treasured and obeyed, but let me close with that Hebrews 13 invitation. so that you feel again the way this book practically wants to work out in your life. therefore let us go to him therefore there's just 13 chapters of therefore right therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured for here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come.

43:43 Father we bless you we bless your radiance and your imprint your son we bless you Holy Spirit we are Christians and we believe oh help our unbelief in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe, Jesus, that you came and this table that we're going to stand before now after we sing is to remind us you made purification for sins. You, the creator, the upholder of the universe, stooped so that we could be fellow heirs with you forever.

44:38 We thank you. We pray that we be transformed in this way by these truths in Jesus.