The Glory of Christ Captured in Words (Hebrews Sermon 2)

Today I get to declare the greatness and the glory of the one that called me out of darkness into His wonderful light. I get to speak it, you get to listen to it and you get to rejoice in it too. Isn’t that marvelous? We’re going to celebrate Jesus today. That’s what the text is all about. I believe as I said at the 9Marks Conference two days ago. I had a responsibility of speaking on the topic of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. And I just said it’s my duty and responsibility in every text to get to Jesus. Every text. But may I say to you it’s sometimes easier than others. And concerning this text, if you can’t get to Jesus from this text you ought not to be preaching. This is all about Jesus and the greatness and the glories of Christ. It’s my desire that God will just make Jesus shine radiantly in your hearts.

I have a number of hobbies. One of my hobbies is I like collecting engagement stories. I like to find out from married couples how they got engaged. Some of them are pretty ordinary and that’s fine, it works. A couple got engaged and they get married, and that’s fine. Some of them are astonishing, amazing. What some of these guys have done to come up with the way to propose to their soon to be fiancée. I had a friend that I met at seminary who was… This is definitely the riskiest proposal I’ve ever heard. He put the diamond ring in a very expensive conch shell and just put it on a beach in Northern California and had a friend watch it from behind a bush while he went and got his soon-to-be fiancée and as the sun was setting, they were just walking along the beach and there was this incredible conch shell. And she picked it up and the ring fell right into her hand, not into the sand at their feet where with a flashlight they’re rummaging for three hours trying to find it, but right into her hand. Tears coming down, she puts it on her finger and they’re engaged. Isn’t that exciting? That’s fantastic. I mean he swung for the fences and he hit a home run.

All right. That was the boldest I ever heard. The most cowardly I ever heard was a man who put his proposal… He taped it on a cassette tape and he had his soon-to-be fiancée play the tape in the tape player in the car there while he got something out of the trunk. And the engagement ring, the diamond ring was in the glove compartment and she listened to the proposal and he came around a minute or two later and all was well. She was wearing the ring. She was smiling. Everything was good.  Wow. I said to him, “You weren’t even there. When you got engaged you weren’t even there.”

When I was engaged I know it all worked out well. I’m glad. Oh, how our wives have to put up with us. But isn’t it interesting though, it’s always a diamond ring. I wondered where that tradition came from, and I didn’t really track that down, but why is it always a diamond? And maybe it’s because of it’s the hardest substance that we know. It’s unchanging. It’s just still looks the same decade after decade. And also just with the skill of a jeweler it can just capture light and cause it to just radiate brilliantly. It’s just beautiful to look at. And so it’s a beautiful unchanging thing. Maybe that’s why it’s always a diamond. And I didn’t realize this, but it wasn’t until the late 15th century that jewelers knew how to grind facets on diamonds in perfectly symmetrical patterns in a way that would ideally capture the available light and just cause the gem to shine radiantly and brilliantly.

And it was a Belgian man in particular in 1475 that discovered that diamond dust is able to cut diamond. It’s the only thing that can. And so he captured, he made these grinding wheels with diamond dust and olive oil and then started grinding facets, and he worked with it until he came to the realization that perfectly symmetrical pattern that we’re well familiar with now, was the best for making the gem come alive with fire, with light, with brilliance. And he was the only one in the world that could do it and a particular nobleman, the Duke of Burgundy paid him 3,000 ducats of gold to make three perfect diamonds, and there are only three in the world like it. Now we’re used to it, but it’s still the kind of thing you’re looking for when you go for a diamond. You’re looking for the cut and the facets and how skillfully they’re done. And I think as I look at the text of it that’s what I thought of. I thought of a brilliant diamond and these various facets that capture the light of God and cause the light of God to come to our hearts radiantly, beautifully.

And the diamond is Jesus, and the facets are different aspects of Jesus in His ministry, in his personality there. Some of which are revealed in this text today. Not all of them, but some come alive and are just radiant. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to look at facets of Jesus today and we’re going to see how he brings the glory of God just radiantly in our hearts. My goal is simple. I want you to love Jesus more than you’ve ever done before as a result of the sermon. I want your heart to be captured by Jesus. I want you to know that Jesus is enough. I want you to stop being idolaters. Because if you say in any practical way or any actual way, “Jesus is not enough” you’re an idolater. But if Jesus is really enough for you, then you can be joyful and content in any and every situation that Jesus brings into your life and it’s He that’s doing it. We’re going to talk about that today. The sun is the radiance of God’s glory. And we’re going to discuss how he is that.

Now in the context this is the beginning of the Book of Hebrews, we did a whole overview of Hebrews last week, but this is the beginning, these are the first words. There’s no introduction here, there’s no Paul and apostle of Christ Jesus or any of these kind of things. The author, whoever he is, just gets right to Jesus. You see that? I mean just immediately we get right to Jesus. Why? Well because I believe these Jewish professors of faith in Christ were under tremendous pressure from their unbelieving Jewish family and friends and neighbors to turn their backs on Jesus and come back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To forsake Jesus particularly. And renounce Him as the Messiah, and come back to the God that they had always known. And so the author is getting right to business, and even with these three verses, how can you forsake this one? How can you forsake the one who is God’s final word to the human race in these last days. The one who is the son of God, who radiates with the light of God, and shines God for it, and through whom God made the universe and sustains it, and who alone provided purification for sins and who is, at the present, sitting at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

How can you turn your back on Jesus and go back to anything at all? God will not have it. It can’t be like that ever again. It is Jesus now. And it will be Jesus for all eternity. That’s what He’s doing, you see the context? So right away we are given Jesus. And though we are not Jewish professors of faith in Christ who are under pressure from our Jewish neighbors and friends to relinquish Christ, I tell you, you are under tremendous pressure every day to turn your back on Jesus. Every single day, so we need to hear this too, don’t we? And that’s what this text is all about.

So let’s look at these various facets. This flamingly brilliant radiance of God’s glory shining through Jesus, a stone with this morning’s text, eight facets, Jesus’s glory, as the final profit from God, the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, the Heir of all things, the Display of God’s glory, the Sustainer of the universe, the Final Priest and the King on His throne. That should be enough for us, don’t you think? Tell me, do you think I’m going to get through all this today? I must. I must. We have new things to do next week, so let’s go forward.

I. The Glory of Christ as the Final Prophet

The first facet I see is the glory of Christ as the Final Prophet. “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His son.” First of all, God speaks. The God that we worship, He speaks. Francis Schaeffer 1972 wrote a book entitled “He is There and He is Not Silent.” It’s foundational, it’s fundamental to the Christian faith that God exists and He’s not silent. The fact is that God is a communicating God, He speaks and we listen. Says, in Isaiah 1:2, “Hear all Heavens. Listen o earth for the Lord has spoken.” From the beginning God spoke and created, the universe came into being by the spoken word of God. By the word of His power, all worlds came to be. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Seven times in Genesis 1, God speaks and some new aspect of creation springs into being. But most significantly I think to us, God has chosen to communicate to us, human beings. In words. He’s talking to us. And He did that from the start. In Genesis 2, He clearly communicated His will to Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.” God spoke that. In Genesis 3, God speaks words of judgement on the serpent and on Eve and on Adam for what they had done. God speaks judgement, and in Genesis chapter 4, God speaks a warning to Cain who is angry with God and with his brother because God didn’t accept his offering and He speaks a warning to him. He warns him not to sin. Then He speaks judgement over him when he does sin.

In Genesis chapter 6, God speaks to Noah and tells him that a flood is coming and that he is to build an arch to save his family, and Noah obeys God, and so on through. God is a God who speaks, He communicates, He speaks words and His words have power.

Well, how did God speak then? Well it says, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers…” He spoke to our forefathers. So I think the author to the Hebrews was Jewish and was connecting himself to that ancestry that the Jews hold so dear. That ancestry that descendant from Abraham, the forefathers, the Jews, their Jewish lineage and ancestry. God spoke to the forefathers in the past in the era of the old covenant. And He did so through the prophets, God’s spokesmen. They are intermediaries between God. They went and got the Word of God and brought it down, and we heard from the prophets, and the prophets told us what God was saying.

It says “at many times and in various ways.” Sometimes it would be an audible voice, like when the entire nation of Israel was assembled at the base of Mt. Sinai and God spoke out of a terrifying cloud and storm and spoke the Ten Commandments, and they heard. They heard the voice of God and they were so terrified that they asked Moses to go and hear and speak from then on, and that was how the office of prophet really got established in the nation of Israel. “We don’t want to hear this great voice anymore unless we hear and die.”

But Elijah on Mount Horeb was up in that cave fleeing from Jezebel, you remember, and God spoke to him in a still, small voice. Quiet little voice. So just the range of the voice of God, simplest most common way is just, “The word of the Lord came to so and so and they spoke to Jeremiah or to a different… One of the prophets.” Or he would speak in dreams and visions like in Daniel 7:1, “In the first year of Belshazzar King of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.” Or in Ezekiel 1:1, “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month of the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God…” That’s Ezekiel. And sometimes God spoke in symbols. He used symbols with prophets. Like He had Jeremiah look and he saw an almond branch. “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “I see an almond branch.” It’s a symbol that God is watching, because it sounds like the word for watching. And so God’s watching over the Jews to see what they’re doing.

Or then He shows him a pot boiling, boiling pot with boiling water. And it’s tipping away from the north and it’s pouring out. And God was using a symbol to say that judgement, the Babylonians, were going to come from the north like boiling water pouring over the land. He showed Amos a basket of ripe fruit and said that he time for judgment is ripe on the house of Israel. He commands Hosea to marry a prostitute as a symbol of the fact that Israel had been unfaithful to God. He had Ezekiel draw a picture of the city of Jerusalem and then build little siege ramps and siege works against that little tablet of clay that he had built. So it was symbolizing the siege that was coming on Jerusalem. And then He had him get an iron skillet and put it between him and his face, saying that God has turned his face away from the people, and he will not rescue them. And many times and in various ways.

Sometimes by providence, by God just doing things, he would communicate. Like, for example, when the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines, you remember that? And it was brought into the Temple of Dagon to show that Dagon had triumphed over Yahweh. No he hadn’t. God had a message that day for the people. Because the next day they found Dagon on his face before the Ark. You remember that story? Isn’t that great? Like, “Oh, somebody didn’t secure the idol very well. Let’s nail it down and get it back up.” No, no. You got it right. Let’s try it part two. This time it fell down and it’s decapitated and it’s hands have been cut off. “Okay, we get it.” It wasn’t long before the Philistines were sending the Ark back. This is a great and terrifying God, and the people of Israel heard that story, didn’t they. And they feared God greatly. God communicated through providence. Or when Uzzah grabbed hold of the Ark, and he was struck dead, didn’t God communicate in that way? “You can’t grab hold of me. You have to follow my laws or you’re going to die.”

Poetry, parables, paradox, mysteries, history, proverbs, commands, promises. At many times and in various ways.

But in these last days, He has spoken to us literally in his Son. That’s literally what it says. “He has spoken to us in His Son.” These last days, friends, we are in the last days. It refers to the unfolding of redemptive history, and there is nothing left now except the end of the world. That’s the next thing that’s coming. We’re in the last days now. And in these last days, God has spoken to us in His Son. God’s final word, then, to the human race is Jesus. I’m not saying the apostles didn’t come after and say some things and reveal some things. I’m not saying that. But Jesus is still God’s final word. You understand what I’m saying? He is God’s final word to the human race. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus becoming flesh is God’s word to the human race.

Michael Card, who’s one of my favorite Christian recording artists, singers, we’ve had the privilege of having him twice here and one of my favorite songs of his is The Final Word. It’s a Christmas song about the incarnation. This is what Michael Card wrote,

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard. When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love, He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine. And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

Isn’t that powerful? Jesus is in fact God’s final word to you and me. There’s nothing more to say. And literally, as I said, the author’s saying he has spoken in His Son. I’m not saying that Jesus’s words, like in the red letter addition of the Bible aren’t important. They are. No one ever spoke like Jesus. But that’s not all of what God was saying in Jesus. Just his being here, his Emmanuel, his being with us, he’s speaking. God is speaking to us. “The Word became flesh… and we beheld his glory.”

So just watching Jesus was seeing a message from God. Jesus’s manner, his facial expressions, his actions, his gestures. All of it was a display of the glory of God. And he spoke most clearly through the cross and the empty tomb, amen? That’s the clearest message he ever spoke in Jesus.

When Jesus was dying on the cross, God was speaking to the human race of His own holiness, of His own hatred of sin, of His own justice, and upholding the law. Of His mercy and His compassion to us, as lost sinners. Of the fact that we lost sinners can do nothing to save ourselves. It had to come to that, it’s the only way. And the fact that in the resurrection, it was effective, forgiveness is ours. Triumph and victory over sin and death are ours. We can have it, and we will not really die. Even if we sleep, we will live forever. The resurrection is ours, the victory is ours. God is speaking in us, to you, and me, the Gospel.

And at the beginning, here, I think the author is giving us the superiority of Christ to the prophets. Christ is greater than all the prophets, greater than all of them. His message is greater. It’s a better message, a better covenant. The rest of the chapter, the author is going to establish the superiority of Jesus to the angels, angels and prophets together, the mediators of the old covenant. So he’s getting very quickly to his real point, the new covenant’s better than the old covenant. And Jesus is the better messenger. He’s better than the prophets, that’s what he’s saying here. The prophets spoke in the past. Jesus speaks now, that’s what he’s saying. The prophets spoke to the fathers. Jesus is speaking to us, now. The prophets spoke at many times, and in various ways, but Jesus speaks to us once for all time at the cross. That’s what the author is saying, that’s the first brilliant facet.

II. The Glory of Christ as Son of God

The second brilliant facet is the glory of Jesus as the Son of God. “In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.” The title “Son of God” is greater than the title given to any prophet. No prophet ever could have that title, “Son of God” or “God the Son,” never. A prophet was merely a servant, a messenger of God. He was commanded by God to speak, and he could speak only what God commanded him to say. He was a sinner, like all of those who listened to him. But Jesus is the Son of God. We’re going to get to this next week in verses 4-5, but this is the very thing the author does immediately after this. “So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” What name is that? “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you.” The superior name is the name ‘Son.’ He is the Son of God, and so we see the glory of Jesus in this title, Son.

John 3:16, He is the only begotten son. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He’s the only begotten Son, and the love relationship between the Father and the Son is overwhelming and powerful. It is intimately, infinitely intimate and deep. It’s beyond our ability to comprehend. At Jesus’s baptism, as Jesus was being baptized, a voice came from heaven, says in Mark’s Gospel that the heavens were ripped open. And it’s like, God had something to say. And what did He have to say? “This is my son whom I love, with Him I am well pleased.” That’s what God wanted to say at Jesus’s baptism. From eternity past, God has been loving His son. The father has been loving His Son. Before the foundation of the world, He loved him. And on into eternity future, he will love His Son. And we find our salvation in the center of that love, because we’re in Jesus, we are loved. That’s the love. If you’re not in Jesus, you’re not loved. But if you’re in Jesus, you’re loved like the Father loves His own Son. “As the father has loved me, so have I loved you,” Jesus said. And so Jonathan Edwards said this, “The infinite happiness of the Father consists in his enjoyment of His Son.”

That’s what makes the father really happy is enjoyment that He gets of his only begotten Son. And he delights in saving us so that we become an image made after Him, that we are redeemed into the image of His son, so that he loves us as He loved Jesus, the first born among many brothers. The intimacy and perfection of their relationship, as I’ve said, is incalculable. John 1:18, “no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him,” or explained, and made Him known. What an interesting phrase that is, “in the bosom of the Father.” I don’t know what to make of it, but something like, Jesus is in God’s heart. You remember at the last part of the Gospel, at the last supper, you remember when the apostle or the disciple whom Jesus loved, (we know it’s John cause he never mentions himself). But he’s there at the last supper, and he puts his head on Jesus’s chest. Do you remember that, just lays his head on Jesus’s chest, his head right there? I get the sense of that between Jesus and the Father. He’s in the bosom of the Father. He loves his Father, and the Father loves Him, an intimate, powerful relationship. Perfect intimacy, John 5:20, “For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He’s doing,” everything.

III. The Glory of Christ as Creator of the Universe

Well, this includes labor on the universe. And so the third facet is Jesus as Creator of the universe. Verse 2, “Through whom He made the universe.” The Father made the universe through the Son. Now the Greek word translated universe here, in the NIV, is sometimes translated ages, like eons…

So it’s more than just length, width and height. It’s also eras and eons, ages. He made everything through the Son. Through whom all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. Colossians 1:16: “For by Him all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.”

So what are these prepositions? They’re difficult. Through whom He made the universe. By whom He made the universe. For whom He made the universe. All of those things are true. They all teach us different things. I don’t know how to conceive of this, but I guess the best way I can think of it is that the Father willed to create the universe and Jesus was the way He did it. It’s through Jesus that it got done. That’s the best I can make of it.

Jesus is the Word of God and through Jesus the universe exists. God spoke and Jesus was the Word He spoke. And so in some mysterious and powerful way, the Father and the Son labored together making the universe. Making light, making the sky, making the dry land. Making the trees and the vegetation and the seed-bearing plants. Making the sun and the moon and the stars. Making the fish and the birds. Making the animals and then making man in their image.

You get the feeling of the intra-Trinitarian conversation. “Let us make man in our image after our likeness.” And so together they make the universe, Father and the Son. And the Father and the Son delight in their intimate working relationship. “The son, [John 5] can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves his Son and shows Him all he does. So they’re working together

Recently a number of weeks ago, I went over to that Raleigh IMAX there with my kids, and we went and saw this thing on the Hubble Space Telescope, the repair of the space telescope from a year ago and just an awesome, a huge screen and just huge sound and it was just awesome. And it was just through the Hubble really… We were taking a tour of outer space and we’re going along this corridor to the constellation Orion, and in Orion’s belt, there’s this certain place that these Hubble scientists are telling us is the birthplace of new stars. Well I don’t know what all that is. All I’m saying is that they’re there. The stars had to come from somewhere. Maybe they’re still being made. But the Bible tells me that the Father’s making them through the Son. Everything that gets made gets made from the Father through the Son, and that’s awesome. So I was having a time of worship there in the IMAX. I don’t know if anyone else was other than my family, but we were having a good time worshipping the Father’s creation of these stars.

Now in Isaiah 40-49… Isaiah the Prophet is fiercely monotheistic, because he’s fighting against the idolatry of Israel. Fiercely monotheistic. There is one God, and there is only one God and everything else is an idol. There are no other gods. There is no one like God. No one can even be compared to God. And one of the things that Isaiah points out is that God alone made the universe. There was no one with Him, no one helping Him, no one at all.

And so he says in Isaiah 44:24 “I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, ” no one was with me. What does that have to do with this passage? Well if Jesus isn’t God, then how do you put all that together? I don’t understand how Jehovah’s Witnesses and friends and neighbors, how they say Jesus is a created being. There’s an infinite gap between the Creator and the created. Jesus is God the Creator, that’s what it’s saying. And the only way we can put it together is with the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son and Spirit together making the universe.

Hebrews 1, Colossians 1, John 1 all teach that Jesus created all things. Only way you can put that together is say Jesus is God.

IV. The Glory of Christ as Heir of All Things

The fourth glorious facet is the glory of Christ as the Heir of all things. I reversed the order a little bit, but you’ll understand why. First the creation and then Christ appointed Heir of all things. What does this mean that He is heir? Well heir is the one, in that patriarchal system you had the father the patriarch of the family, and then one of his sons would be chosen to be the firstborn in that position.

Generally it was literally the first born, but it didn’t have to be, and it would be one who would be designated as the heir. And the father would give everything to the first born. The heir would be beloved of his father, would grow up. The father would cherish the heir and train him in all the things he should do, the ways he should go, and there would be two key issues coming from being heir and that would be authority and ownership. You would be the authority in the family when the father was gone, and you would own everything that the father owned. It would all go to you. And if there were other brothers involved, they would get their father’s wealth mediated through the first born. See what I’m saying?

I think this is precisely why Joseph’s brothers hated him for that coat he was wearing, remember? Because Jacob gave him a coat, and I think it was symbolic of his status as firstborn in the family. I really think Jacob was still wresting with what Laban did wedding night when he thought he was marrying Rachel and he got Leah. And it’s like he was waiting for Rachel to give him a son, and finally Rachel did and it was Joseph. And Joseph was in his mind firstborn, and his brothers hated him. Another story, another time. But he was the heir of Jacob. Jesus is the Heir of the Father, and He’s heir of all things, and He has absolute authority over all things, and He will inherit all things. It’s all His.

Only one difference, the Father is not going to die. Father is around forever, and so is the Son, and the Son is the Heir. And so Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and earth, has been given to me.” God placed all things under His feet, He is the Heir. What that also means is that He has ownership of the universe, everything belongs to His. By the way, which makes Satan’s temptation so laughable, “See this little world, that’s all mine I can give it to anyone I want.” Satan, what a misconception, you’re going to hell. Jesus owns everything, and he can give it to whoever He wants. And so if you’re in Christ guess what you are, you are heir of the world. Read it in Romans 4, it is through faith that Abraham received the promise that he would be heir of the world. Isn’t that awesome? And so we’re going to get good stuff through Jesus.

But it all comes through Jesus and no other place. Only unlike Joseph’s brothers, we’re not jealous of Jesus, we’re praising God for Him as Heir of all things and we’re going to get a glorious inheritance if we suffer with Jesus. Because it says in Romans 8:17, “Now, if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.”

V. The Glory of Christ as Perfect Display of God

The fifth glorious facet, is the glory of Christ as the perfect display of God. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His being. He is the radiance, the bright shining-ness of God’s glory. The only analogy I can come to with this, is the analogy of the sun and the solar system. And the sun shines in the sky 93 million miles away, this raging inferno of fusion released energy, and light and radiation, all kinds of stuff, the sun 93 million miles away. And it’s awesome, and its power, seemingly limitless in its resources, it’s like God to us in some sense. I’m not worshipping, I’m just saying it’s an analogy. And we can’t do anything to affect the sun, we can’t change the sun, we can’t get close to the sun. It is just overwhelming and powerful. But the sun mediates itself to us by light, and heat and radiation. You go out there on a sunny day, the whole world is glowing, don’t you love the fall when the leaves are just radiating and it’s just so beautiful and then the light coming from the sun.

And life comes from that light, photosynthesis is always coming from the sun across 93 million miles. Light, radiation, heat coming in, that’s how we relate to the sun. Jesus is that intermediary between the Father and us. He brings the Father right to us. And there is one text, and I’ve quoted it before, but it’s the best to me that explains this. In John 14:8-9 Philip said, “Lord show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” And Jesus said, “don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Jesus is not the Father, but Jesus came to show us the Father. And for Philip to say, “Show us the Father,” is like, “Haven’t you been watching me? That’s what I’m here for, it’s to show you the Father.” “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

And He is the exact representation of His being. The Greek word is character, which relates to a signet ring, engraved in golden ring, let’s say. And the governor or a king, or a nobleman would have a signet ring, and when he wanted to write out some commands for some that were at a remote distance, he wanted them to know his will. He would write a letter and then he would seal it with sealing wax, and put his signet ring in that sealing wax. And the mark in the wax was the exact representation of what was in his ring. It represented him, it represented his authority. That’s the word that the author uses. There’s an exact representation of the Father and the Son. The same attributes, the same purposes, the same plans, the same everything. Jesus is as righteous is His Father, He’s as holy as His Father, He’s as powerful as His Father, He’s as loving as His Father. He’s as wrath-filled as His Father.

They’re the same being in their character and essence, just different persons in the Trinity. And some day, we’re going to live in a world that will be only radiated with the glory of God mediated through Jesus. We’re going to be in the new heavens, and in the new earth. There will be no need for sun, or moon or stars for the glory of God will give that city light, and the lamb will be its lamp. Beautiful.

VI. The Glory of Christ as Sustainer of the Universe

The sixth facet is the glory of Christ as the Sustainer of the universe. Verse 3, “Sustaining all things by His powerful word.” The universe, as I said before, was created by God to be a needy universe. The universe needs God every moment. That Him, I need the every hour, it is an understatement. The universe needs God every instant to keep existing. God created it that way, He did not create an independent universe.

Deists, in the 18th century, posited a universe that God created by some physical principles, scientific principles that just kind of run in a mindless machine sort of way. And God just lets the universe run on like that. That’s not the God of the Bible, dear friends. Not only does God regularly interfere and do miracles, and do all kinds of stuff and mess things up from the human point of view and step in to time and do things. Not only does God do that, but the Bible actually reveals He is constantly holding the very atoms of the universe together. And if he didn’t, it would stop existing. And Jesus is the way by which the Father holds everything together. In Him, Colossians 1, “In Him, all things hold together.” Every atom holds together by Jesus. This obviously has profound ethical implications.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was in some mysterious way holding the cross physically together and the nails that were holding them up there. He was willing to die, you understand that? I don’t either, but anyway, you know generally He willed to die and He held the universe together in order to die. What that means is He will exert effort to keep the universe together in ways that bring Himself and others great pain to achieve His purposes. You may never hear a clearer message on the sovereignty of God over all things than this right here, right now at this moment.

Jesus held Hitler’s body together while he was making all those horrendous decisions. It is Jesus that holds air molecules together while typhoons and hurricanes destroy property and end human life. It is Jesus that holds bullets together in war zones and during drive by shootings that results in innocent little babies dying. He holds them together, and He will sustain the existence of human souls for all eternity. We preached on hell a few weeks ago, there is no annihilation. He wills to hold their souls together keep them conscious and alive.

You can’t escape from Jesus anywhere you turn in the universe nor should you desire to because everything He does is good and right and wise. But He holds everything, He sustains the universe by His powerful Word. At every moment you continue to exist because Jesus wills it. That pew you’re sitting on, been sitting on for so long now, such a long time, Jesus is holding it together. He wills to keep you up off the floor and He probably wills to keep you to the end of the sermon, but you’ll have to decide that. But He wills all of the things that happen to you in your life. I know there’s wickedness and evil in the world, and He does not will the violation of His laws and commandments and will bring people like Hitler to judgement for what they do. I’m just saying He sustains the universe, that’s what I’m saying.

For in Him we live and move and have our being. And you know that He could will Satan out of existence anytime He wants, no effort from Him. He would stop willing Satan to exist. They’re not equals, He can shot him down anytime He wants. He chooses not to. And why? For His own glory, for His own purposes. To win a greater more valiant triumph over him at the end. We’ve described that in talking about the second coming of Christ.

VII. The Glory of Christ as the Final Priest

Seventh facet is the glory of Christ as the Final Priest. “After He had provided purification for sins…” Why does this matter to you? Well you heard in my prayer, they’re two categories of people listening to me today. Either those who are completely pure in God’s sight from all of your sins through faith in Jesus. After He had provided purification. One of the messages of Hebrews is once for all time purified. Isn’t that beautiful? You are pure in God’s sight if you’re a Christian. Away then with the guilty conscience, away with it. And away with the sins that defile our conscience too. Amen. Away with it all. After He provided purification from sins, He wills that you be completely pure, not just in standing before God, but just never to sin again. And He is working out a salvation whereby you will be completely pure. And He provides it once for all.

Sin is a great polluter, it defiles us, pollution. You guys remember in 1969 when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio burned? You remember that? Because it had all this filth being poured into it and it was on fire. That was a significant moment in the history of environmental concern in the US. How shameful is it that a river that 100, 200 years before you could get down on your hands and knees and drink from was now literally burning because of industrial pollution. That’s disgusting, just disgusting. Disgusting that people just usually throw trash out of their windows on the streets and the highways and they were disgusting. I remember in the ’60s and early ’70s you see trash everywhere.

But I tell you there’s no pollution as great as that of a soul that sins before God without the forgiveness of Jesus. It’s defiled, it’s polluted and only Jesus can purify your sins. And so there’s is a second category I’m speaking to today. You who have never come to faith in Christ you stand now presently polluted, impure in God’s sight because of your sins. I’m no better than you in and of myself and neither is any Christian, but know this you can be instantly made pure if you just come to Jesus. If you just come to Jesus you can be immediately cleansed of all your sins and forgiveness will be yours.

VIII. The Glory of Christ as the King on His Throne

Final facet is the glory of Christ as King on the throne. After he had provided purification for sins, He sat down with the right hand of the majesty in heaven and from that position, He wields that authority I talked about earlier. From the right hand of God, He intercedes for us, pleading for us, Romans 8. From the right hand of God. From the right hand of God He is enjoying pleasures forevermore, in the presence of God. At the right hand of God from that place He will come back to judge living and the dead. And since then we have been raised with Christ; we should set out hearts on things above, not on earthly things; where Christ is seated where? At the right hand of God. It says that again and again. Maybe 10 times in the New Testament talks about Jesus seated at the right hand of God. From that place, He will watch all of his enemies made a foot stool for his feet, the right hand of God. And the final authority is He will rule over heaven and earth from the throne of God at God’s right hand forevermore.

IX. Application

What applications will come to Christ only in Jesus can you receive full purification for your sins, I’ve already said that. Don’t leave this place in an unconverted polluted state. You don’t need to. Just look to Jesus, He will cleanse you of all your sins.

And I speak now to Christians. Maybe you came in here with a guilty conscience. Maybe you have reasons for feeling guilty. You’ve sinned. You’ve violated God’s laws. You’ve lusted. You’ve coveted. You’ve been angry. You’ve not been faithful to love your spouse and submit to your spouse, or to obey your parents. You’ve violated God’s law in some way. But full forgiveness is poured out on you as you stand in grace. Romans 5:1 says, “Since we have been justified through faith. We have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and access by faith into this grace in which we are now standing.” We’re standing in a shower of grace, and you are forgiven.

And as Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” And as you look at these, my final application is, can you just worship Jesus? Can Jesus be enough for you in the midst of your trial? And enough for you in the midst of your financial struggle, in the midst of your job problem, in the midst of your relational trouble and your family, in the midst of your health problem, in the midst of your loneliness, you’ve lost a loved one? Can Jesus be enough for you? Worship Jesus. Go through these attributes. Go through these facets, and let each one glow in your mind and say, “Thank you, Jesus. I praise you that you are God’s final word. I want to hear what you have to say to me. I thank you that you’re the Creator of the universe. Everything I see is coming from you. Thank you, Jesus.” Just be a worshiper of Jesus today. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

One of the most exciting moments in any woman’s life is the moment her husband proposed to her and produced a diamond ring as proof of his sincerity. For years, I’ve talked to couples about how that moment happened, and when they received their diamond engagement ring.

One friend of mine hid the engagement ring in a spectacular conch shell on a beach on the northern California coastline and had a friend watch it from a hidden distance while he went and got his soon to be fiancée and took her for a leisurely stroll at sunset along that beach. She saw the conch shell, walked over to it just as the sun was setting, turned it over and the ring fell out into her hand! What a dramatic moment! Definitely risky, though.

The second most memorable effort was the most cowardly I ever heard… this friend took his girl for a drive and had taped his proposal. He put the cassette tape in the player and played it while he pretended to get something out of the trunk of the car. The diamond ring had been hidden in the glove compartment. The recorded proposal instructed her to put the ring on her finger if she accepted! He came back a minute later, she was wearing the ring with a big smile and all was well!

I’ve often wondered why people settled on a diamond ring as the symbol of the engagement… perhaps it is the enduring nature of the diamond and its beauty. I recently looked into the history of diamond cutting and discovered some fascinating things. The cutting of facets into a diamond stone in perfect symmetry allows the stone to catch light rays and radiate them brilliantly to the eye. Because of the hardness of the diamond, a perfectly symmetrical cut was impossible… nothing was hard enough to cut diamond. So jewelers would simply cleave the diamond along its natural break lines and they broke where they would. But the gemstone was not so radiant. That is until 1475 when Louis van Berquem, a Flemish stone-polisher from Antwerp, Belgium, introduced the concept of absolute symmetry in the placement of facets on the stone, facilitated by his revolutionary invention of a diamond-cutting and polishing wheel called a scaif. The scaif used a rotating polishing wheel, or “lap” that was impregnated with olive oil and diamond dust, which would slowly grind away each facet’s surface.

The Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold (1433-1477) was so impressed with van Berquem’s revolutionary “Perfect Cut,” that he became a patron, paying van Berquem that handsome sum of 3,000 ducats for three perfect-cut diamonds. With this act, the profession of the “brillianteer” was born… a skillful craftsman whose ability to grind perfect facets in the hardest of all substances, the diamond, made that stone come alive with perfect fire and radiance.

In our magnificent text today, I think of Jesus Christ as a brilliant gemstone with multiple perfect facets which catch the perfect light of God and make it shine radiantly in our hearts.

Hebrews 1:1-3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Context: overall goal of the Author of Hebrews: to persuade the Jewish professors of faith in Christ how senseless it would be to forsake Christ and to return to the Old Covenant. He thus immediately launches into a display of the infinite superiority of Christ… superiority to the prophets and the angels… those messengers God had previously chosen to impart the Old Covenant

Today we’re going to see Jesus as the flamingly brilliant radiance of God’s glory… a stone with eight facets: Jesus’ glory as 1) the Final Prophet, 2) the Son of God, 3) the Creator of the universe; 4) Heir of all things; 5) Display of God; 6) Sustainer of the Universe, 7) Final priest,

8) King on his throne

I.   The Glory of Christ as the Final Prophet

Hebrews 1:1-2 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son

A.  God Spoke… and He Still Speaks

1.  In 1972, Christian thinker and apologist Francis Shaeffer wrote a work entitled He Is There, and He Is Not Silent

2.  The fact is that God is a communicating God… HE SPEAKS

Isaiah 1:2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken

3.  From the beginning, God has spoken… He chose to create the universe by WORDS

Genesis 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Seven times in Genesis 1, God speaks and some new aspect of creation springs into existence

4.  But most significantly for us, God has chosen to communicate to us by words

a.  Genesis 2: He communicates His will to Adam in the Garden, concerning the trees… Adam’s freedom and Adam’s restriction

b.  Genesis 3: He judges Adam and Eve and the serpent for their sins

c.  Genesis 4: He warns Cain about impending sin, and then after Cain murders Abel, He speaks to Cain and judges him for his sin

d.  Genesis 6: He warns Noah about the impending flood and commands him to build an ark to save his family

Our God is a God who SPEAKS… He speaks words, and His words have power

B.  How God Spoke Then

1.  To our forefathers

a.  The author to the Hebrews is connecting with these Jewish professors of faith in Christ… they cherish their Jewish lineage and ancestry

b.  God spoke to the forefathers in the past… in the era of the Old Covenant

c.  Through the prophets: God’s spokesmen, intermediaries between God and man

2.  At many times and in various ways

a.  Audible voice

i)  Mt. Sinai: loud and terrifying

ii)  Mt. Horeb: (to Elijah) still, small voice

b.  Simplest, most common statement: “The word of the Lord came to                         ”

c.  Dreams and visions

Daniel 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying on his bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.

Ezekiel 1:1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. …

d.  Symbols

i)  He shows Jeremiah an almond branch as a symbol of God watching to see that His word is fulfilled; then He shows Jeremiah a boiling pot, tilting away from the north as a symbol of the Babylonians about to invade from the north

ii)  He shows Amos a basket of ripe fruit as a symbol that the time is ripe for judgment on His people Israel

iii)  He commands Hosea to marry a prostitute as a symbol of Israel’s spiritual adultery against Him through idols

iv)  He has Ezekiel draw a picture of Jerusalem on a clay tablet and lay siege to it, building actual siege works like battering rams against it; then Ezekiel is to put an iron pan between his face and the mock city to show that God has forsaken the city

v)  He has Isaiah prophecy stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt that they will be led away as captives by Assyria

e.  Providential occurrences

i)  He has the idol of Dagon fall prostrate before the Ark of the Covenant to show the Philistines (and Israel) that He is mightier than Dagon; the Philistines set up the idol again; then the next night God decapitated the idol and cut off its hands

ii)  He strikes Uzzah dead for grabbing the Ark

f.  Internal movement of the Holy Spirit

Isaiah 8:11 The LORD spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people.

Ezekiel 11:5 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon me, and he told me to say

g.  Poetry, parables, paradoxes, mysteries, history, proverbs, commands, promises

“at many times and in various ways…”

C.  God’s Final Word to the Human Race

“… but in these last days He has spoken in His Son…”

1.  The key phrase: “BUT IN THESE LAST DAYS”

a.  The last days refers to the final act of the drama that is Redemptive History

b.  The “last days” began when God spoke this final word to the human race

2.  God’s final word: JESUS

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Michael Card, “The Final Word”

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.

The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard. When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love, He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son. His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.

Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine. And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

3.  The author to Hebrews says “He has spoken IN His Son

a.  It wasn’t just the words Jesus spoke, although that was part of it

b.  It was WHO Jesus was, the significance of His taking on a human body and living a human

c.  John says “the word became flesh and we BEHELD HIS GLORY…”

d.  Just watching Jesus was seeing a message from God… Jesus’ manner, facial expressions, actions, gestures… all of it was a display of God’s glory

4.  The MAIN message: the cross

a.  Just by looking at the Son of God on the cross was a message from God directly without Jesus needing to speak a word

b.  His death on the cross was God’s final word to the human race concerning

i)  God’s holiness and justice

ii)  God’s love and compassion

iii)  God’s power to remove sin and death

iv)  Humanity’s great sinfulness

v)  The Law’s inability to save us

5.  In these last days God has spoken to us a far clearer message than the prophets ever did… God spoke JESUS to the world

D.  The Superiority of Christ to the Prophets

1.  Again and again the theme of the superiority of Jesus is established in the Book of Hebrews

a.  The rest of the chapter, the author will establish the superiority of Jesus to angels

b.  In Hebrews 3, the author will establish the superiority of Jesus to Moses… and then the superiority of the rest Jesus gives to the rest Joshua gave Israel in the Promised Land

c.  In Hebrews 7, Jesus’ priesthood will be proven greater than Aaron and his ministry greater than that of the Levites

d.  Jesus is also proven to be greater than Abraham

2.  In Hebrews 1:1-3, Jesus is found to be a greater communication from God than that which He gave through the prophets

a.  The prophets spoke “in the past”… Jesus speaks NOW, in these last days

b.  The prophets spoke to the fathers… Jesus speaks to US

c.  The prophets spoke “at many times and in various ways”… Jesus speaks once for all time at the cross

II.   The Glory of Christ as Son of God

Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son

A.  The Title “Son of God” is Greater Than Any Prophet

1.  A prophet was merely a servant, a messenger of God

2.  He was commanded by God to speak only what God commanded him to say

3.  He was a sinner like those who listened to him

4.  But Jesus is the Son of God

B.  This is the Name and the Title of Jesus: SON

Hebrews 1:4-5 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”?

1.  Jesus is utterly unique in relation to the Father

2.  He is the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

3.  The love relationship between the Father and the Son is overwhelming and powerful, infinitely deep and perfect

At Jesus’ baptism:

Matthew 3:17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

4.  From eternity past through to eternity future, the Father has gazed at the Son and delighted in Him as the perfect reflection of His glory

Jonathan Edwards: “The infinite happiness of the Father consists in His enjoyment of His Son.”

5.  The intimacy and perfection of their relationship is incalculable:

John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.

“In the bosom of the Father…”

At the end of John’s Gospel, the Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at the table with Jesus at the last supper, and put his head on Jesus’ chest

Jesus has had His head laying on the chest of His Father for eternity… that’s how close the Father and the Son are

Perfect intimacy:

John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.

6.  This includes LABOR ON THE UNIVERSE

III.   The Glory of Christ as Creator of the Universe

Hebrews 1:2 through whom he made the universe.

A.  The Father Made the Universe THROUGH THE SON

1.  The Greek word translated “universe” in NIV is sometimes translated “ages”

2.  It is more than just the earth… it is all aspects of the universe, visible and invisible

John 1:3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

3.  “Through whom”???

a.  We have seen in Genesis 1 that God created the universe by SPEAKING… “Let there be light” and there was light

b.  We have also seen that the Apostle John calls Jesus the “Word”… “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God”

c.  God the Father willed to create, then God SPOKE the creation into reality THROUGH JESUS, the word of God

4.  The Father and the Son labored together

a.  Making light

b.  Making the sky

c.  Making the dry land

d.  Making the trees, vegetation, and seed-bearing plants

e.  Making the sun, the moon, and the stars

f.  Making the fish and the birds

g.  Making the animals

h.  Making man in their image… male and female

5.  The Father and the Son delight in their intimate working relationship

John 5:19-20 the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.

The Father and the Son made the Stars:

Recent trip to IMAX in Raleigh… saw a spectacular IMAX 3D movie about the repair to the Hubble Space Telescope done last year… the views of the cosmos were breathtaking… they took us through a corridor in space to a specific part of the constellation Orion, in Orion’s belt… the Great Nebula in which new stars are being formed according to the Hubble Scientists

It made me worship the Lord to consider that the Father and the Son together made this immense Nebula in Orion’s belt!!

B.  Isaiah’s Monotheism and the Creation of the Universe

Isaiah 44:24 I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself

God, and God alone created all things

God and God alone stretched out the heavens

God and God alone spread out the earth BY MYSELF YET… Hebrews 1, Colossians 1, and John 1 all teach that God made the universe THROUGH JESUS

The only possible conclusion is that Jesus is God… that when the Father and the Son worked together in the Trinity to create the universe, it was the ONE GOD doing it BY HIMSELF in three persons!!!

IV.   The Glory of Christ as Heir of All Things

Hebrews 1:2 whom he appointed heir of all things

A.  God Also Appointed Christ HEIR OF ALL THINGS

1.  I reversed the order from Hebrews just to arrange it in chronological order

2.  God the Father created ALL THINGS through Christ

3.  SO it makes perfect sense for God the Father to appoint Christ HEIR OF ALL THINGS

B.  The Role of Christ as Heir

1.  The Heir was frequently the “firstborn”… He would take over leadership of the family in the father’s place when the father was gone

2.  The Heir would be beloved of the father; and growing up, the father would cherish the heir and train him in all the ways he was to go

3.  Joseph’s coat of many colors: symbol of Jacob having chosen Joseph to be his heir

a.  The robe was an outward glory of the favor the father had bestowed on him

b.  Joseph would inherit his father’s possessions… the rest of Jacob’s sons would be well provided for with gifts; but the rest of the wealth would be Joseph’s to distribute as he saw fit

c.  This is precisely why his brothers were so jealous of him

4.  Two key issues: authority and ownership

C.  Authority in the Universe

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Ephesians 1:22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything

D.  Ownership of the Universe

1.  Jesus is Heir of all things

2.  Everything in heaven and earth and under the earth is Christ’s by right of an heir

3.  So also we are heirs with Christ of all things… this will be our inheritance

Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs– heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

V.   The Glory of Christ as Perfect Display of God

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being

A.  Radiance of God’s Glory

1.  The sun is the center of the solar system

a.  93 million miles away

b.  We cannot reach it… we cannot touch it… we cannot affect it in any way

c.  It is immense, bright, hot, powerful, can destroy us

2.  The Sun COMMUNICATES itself to the earth by light, heat, radiation across the 93 million miles

3.  When you look up in the sky and see this bright yellow ball of fire, you say “I see the sun”… but you are only interacting with the light beams the sun sent across the 93 million miles of space… that light enables you to interact with the sun

4.  So also when you close your eyes but lift your face toward the sky, you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face

a.  The radiation from the sun is warming the surface of the earth

b.  The radiation from the sun is also warming your face pleasantly

c.  The radiation has travelled across the 93 million miles of outer space to communicate the sun to you

5.  JESUS is the radiance of God’s glory… He brings the Father directly to you across the infinite gap between you and God

6.  The encounter with Philip

John 14:8-9 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

B.  Exact Representation of His Being

1.    The Greek word is “carakter”…

2.  It refers to a signet ring that people in the past used to use to seal official letters

3.  A governor or a king would have a signet ring with a coat of arms or a specially engraved symbol of the man’s authority; he would put sealing wax on a document and use his signet ring to seal the letter as a clear evidence that the letter was from him

4.  The mark in the wax was the EXACT REPRESENTATION of the signet ring… to look at the imprint was to see the exact lines in the signet ring

5.  So Jesus is the exact representation of the Father

a.  Jesus is as righteous as His Father

b.  He is as holy as His Father

c.  He is as loving as His Father

d.  He is as wrathful as His Father

e.  He is as patient as His Father

f.  He is as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent as His Father

g.  There is not the slightest difference or division whatsoever between the will, plans, character, purposes, desires, intentions or attributes of the Father and the Son… PERFECT UNITY… PERFECT REPRESENTATION

C.  The Radiance of God’s Glory will Illuminate the New Heavens and New Earth

Revelation 21:23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

VI.   The Glory of Christ as Sustainer of the Universe

Hebrews 1:3 sustaining all tings by his powerful word

A.  The Universe is a NEEDY Universe

1.  God did not create an INDEPENDENT universe, but one that NEEDS HIM EVERY MOMENT simply to continue existing

2.  Deists posit a universe like a vast, complex clock that God the Creator designed, wound up and lets run… with which He never interferes

3.  Biblically, if Christ withheld His active effort toward His universe for an instant, it would cease to exist

B.  Christ SUSTAINS the universe

1.  Every single moment of the day, every single atom in the universe is constantly held together by Christ

“In Him all things HOLD TOGETHER”

a.  If Christ stopped holding the atoms of your chair together, it would fly apart

2.  This obviously has profound ethical implications for the universe: Christ was actually in some mysterious way holding together the iron of the nails that pierced his hands and feet; he actively keeps the universe together, even when that includes great suffering for himself or for those he loves

a.  He kept Hitler’s body together every moment of his life, even while he was carrying out some of the most disgusting and wicked deeds in history

b.  He keeps air molecules together even when it means the destruction in a tsunami or hurricane of human life or property

c.  He keeps bullets together while they kill innocent children in war zones or in drive-by shootings

d.  And he will sustain the existence of human souls for eternity, whether in heaven or hell

e.  Christ is not going to annihilate anyone… everyone will spend eternity in either heaven or hell

f.  Those who spend eternity in hell will be constantly sustained by the will of Christ

3.  Christ’s ongoing active sustaining of the universe is essential to its continued existence

Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

C.  The Glory of Christ Established in this: Everything in the Universe NEEDS HIM

1.  At every moment, we need Jesus’ effort and energy just to keep existing

Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’

2.  So we ought to glorify Christ greatly simply for keeping us alive and in existence

VII.   The Glory of Christ as the Final Priest

Hebrews 1:3 After he had provided purification for sins

A.  The Great Theme of Hebrews: The Superiority of Christ’s Priestly Ministry

1.  We will have AMPLE opportunity to develop this theme

2.  Christ is the final, the great High Priest who shed His blood on the cross for our sins

3.  His sacrifice is infinitely greater than all the animal sacrifices offered in the Old Covenant

B.  Once for All Time

1.  The once for all nature of that sacrifice is opened up here

2.  “When he HAD PROVIDED purification for sins…”

3.  In a single day, Jesus took care of all the sins of His people all over the world

C.  Purification for Sins

1.  Sin is a great defiler… a terrible polluter

2.  Back in the 1970s, Americans were still not fully aware of the environment and the defilement of our bad habits

a.  In 1969, industrial waste was pouring into the Cuyahoga River connecting Akron and Cleveland and turning it into an oily sludge… on June 22, the river caught fire!

b.  That famous moment in pollution spurred a huge amount of environmental legislation

c.  American polluters simply throwing out litter and debris from their cars on the highways were made criminal offenses

d.  Nuclear radiation defiled the Three Mile Island power plant

3.  The greatest defiler in the universe is sin… it makes us filthy in God’s sight

Zechariah 3:1-4 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

4.  Jesus blood is the great cleanser for sins

VIII.   The Glory of Christ as the King on His Throne

Hebrews 1:3 he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

A.  This Represents Christ the King Ruling in the Universe

1.  Jesus’ work was finished when He died

2.  There was no more need for a sacrifice

3.  Now all that was needed was His sovereign rulership over the universe

4.  Christ is the perfect King of the world

5.  As we’ve already mentioned… authority is all His

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

B.  This Sitting at the Right Hand is Mentioned a Number of Times

1.  Right hand a position of influence, power, and honor

Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

2.  Christ sat at the right hand of God so that God could crush His enemies

Psalm 110:1 The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

3.  From that position, Christ intercedes for us constantly

Romans 8:34 Christ Jesus, who died– more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

4.  So this position of Christ should be our constant encouragement and meditation

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

C.  The Final Glory of Christ… the Right to Sit on God’s Throne

Revelation 5:6-7 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

IX.   Application

A.  Come to Christ

1.  Only in Jesus can you receive full purification for your sins

2.  Sin defiles you, pollutes you, makes you feel dirty

3.  In Jesus alone, by His blood shed on the cross, anyone can have their conscience cleansed from sin

B.  Stay Near Christ

1.  The whole point the author is making here is to urge these Jewish professors of faith in Christ not to turn their backs on Jesus, not to walk away from Him

2.  So we also must not DRIFT AWAY from Christ

C.  Fervent Worship

1.  Look at the light streaming from each of the facets of this diamond

2.  Jesus is the RADIANCE OF GOD’S GLORY!!!

3.  If you want to know God, look at Jesus… fix your thoughts your minds on Him

4.  He is God’s final word to the human race… listen to Him, read His words, allow His words to transform you

5.  He is the Son of God… intimately acquainted with the Father, able to bring you directly into the presence of God… like John, lay your head on Jesus’ breast, because Jesus has laid His head on His Father’s breast

6.  He is the Creator of the Universe… that means that everything in the universe is His by rights… live as a steward in Jesus’ world… it all belongs to Him for He made it

7.  He is the Heir of All Things… He will inherit the future world from the Father and give it to the meek… “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the world”

8.  He is the Display of God’s glory… study Christ to know God

9.  He is the Sustainer of the Universe… know that Jesus is upholding your very existence right at this moment

10.  He is the final Priest who pleads the merit of His blood every day at the Father’s right hand

11.  He is the King on His Throne… submit to Him and obey His commands