INTRODUCTION:

1. We cannot be certain, but most people believe the apostle Paul is the author of the epistle to the Hebrews.
2. The epistle was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70 (cf. Scofield’s introduction).
3. Some of the Jewish Christians were tempted to go back into Judaism and to renounce their Christian faith. So the author of this epistle wrote it to encourage them to be steadfast in the faith of Christ (cf. 2:3; 3:12; 6:6; 10:26).
4. In a few short years, there would be no more temple; there would be no more priests; there would be no more altar; and there would be no more sacrifice.
5. This epistle was written to prepare these Jewish Christians for that coming catastrophe because many of these Jewish Christians believed that the temple worship was permanent (cf. Matthew 24:1, 2).
6. The ordinances observed in the temple – its rites, its rituals, its types, its ceremonies, and so on – were incomplete and transitory revelations pointing to the cross (cf. Heb. 9:12-15).
7. Therefore, the chief purpose of the epistle is to demonstrate that the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel are far better than anything found in the Old Testament.
8. The word “better” is found 13 times in the epistle (cf. 1:4).
9. From the Scofield Bible:
10. “Theme – The doctrinal passages reveal the purpose of the book. It was written with a twofold intent:

    To confirm Jewish Christians by showing that Judaism had come to an end through the fulfillment by Christ of the whole purpose of the law; and the hortatory passages show that the writer had in view the danger ever present to Jewish professed believers of either lapsing back into Judaism, or of pausing short of true faith in Jesus Christ. It is clear from the Acts that even the strongest of the believers in Palestine were held to a strange mingling of Judaism and Christianity (e.g. Acts 21:18-24), and that snare would be especially apt to entangle professed Christians amongst the Jews of the dispersion.”

11. Scofield says, “The key-word is ‘better.’  Hebrews is a series of contrasts between the good things of Judaism and the better things of Christ. Christ is ‘better’ than angels, than Moses, than Joshua, than Aaron; and the New Covenant than the Mosaic Covenant.”

 

I. CHRIST REVEALS THE MESSAGE OF GOD

1. Throughout the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to men through the prophets – Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, and many others (1:1).
2. But now, “in these last days” (since Christ came) God has “spoken unto us by his Son” (1:2).
3. Our Lord referred to this many times (cf. Matthew 21:33-39).
4. The author of Hebrews frequently draws a contrast between the Old Testament and the New. He begins his contrast on a basis of resemblance – the same God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.
5. The same God that inspired the Old Testament Scriptures inspired the New Testament Scriptures (cf. I Peter 1:10-12).
6. In his first epistle, Peter says the angels in heaven did not understand these great revelations that were made to the prophets.  And the prophets themselves did not understand the content of the message that they were delivering, when they testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
7. These Scriptures speak of the inability of the Old Testament prophets to deliver the full and final revelation of God.
8. They saw a part of it, but they did not understand the full height and depth of the part of the revelation that was given unto them.
9. Martin Luther gave an interesting Biblical illustration to illustrate this truth.
10. Luther referred to the two men who were spies and went into the Promised Land and came back to Moses and the children of Israel with a branch on which was a great cluster of grapes. The great cluster of grapes was borne on the shoulders of the two men: one in front and then, on a staff, the branch with the great cluster of grapes, and then the other man in the back (Num. 13:17-25).
11. In illustrating this Biblical truth, Martin Luther said that the man in front knew what he was bearing, but he could not see it.
12. The man walking behind the cluster could see what he was bearing, and he could also see the man who was helping him carry it.
13. Martin Luther explained this as a picture of the two dispensations. The prophets spake of Him who was to come, but they did not behold Him.
14. But we who live in this Christian dispensation behold both the Messiah, as well as the prophets who testified of Him.
15. All along it is God who speaks.  In the Old Testament dispensation, it was God who “spake,” and it is still God who speaks to us (Heb. 1:1, 2).
16. The New Testament teaches us that now God is speaking to us through His Son.
17. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
18. Christ is “God manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16).
19. Christ is the Word that “was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).
20. John 1:18 says, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
21. “He hath declared him.”
22. Christ reveals the message of God.
23. God is disclosing Himself to men through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
24. What was enfolded in the Old Covenant is unfolded in the New.
25. What God hid by shadows and types in the Old Testament is revealed fully and gloriously in the New.
26. In the Old Testament, a prophet was sent by God to deliver a message from God, but he had to have a successor.  For example, Elisha succeeded Elijah.
27. No prophet ever brought an absolute and final and complete revelation from God. The revelation that the prophets brought was for that day and that period and that time (“at sundry times” – see Scofield margin – “in many parts and in many ways”), and then the prophet was followed by another prophet, and so on.
28. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came, there is now one complete and final revelation of God. It is not incomplete.
29. It is forever final and done. God hath spoken in the last days, finally and completely, in His Son.
30. In the Old Testament, the message from God came in many different ways, in many different manners (“in divers manners”).
31. For example, sometimes it came in visions; sometimes it came in dreams; sometimes it came in a Theophany; sometimes it came in pictures and types and symbols.
32. For example, the Lord spoke to Samuel in a voice while the young lad was asleep.
33. And God spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice.
34. God revealed Himself to Isaiah in a great vision in which the prophet saw the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy!”
35. And God revealed Himself to Joseph and Daniel in dreams.
36. Each prophet brought his message according to his capacity to receive it. And no prophet was able to receive the entire message of God, the whole revelation of God, because of his human limitations.
37. But there is no limitation on the Lord Jesus Christ because He is God (Hebrews 1:1-3).

 

II. CHRIST EXECUTES THE WILL OF GOD

1. Christ executes the will of God because God hath appointed Him “heir of all things” (1:2).
2. Furthermore, Christ is the Creator of this world (1:2).  Because He is the Creator of this world, this world belongs to Him.
3. John 1:3 says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
4. Colossians 1:16 says, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.”
5. A number of years ago, a Christian author went to a planetarium for a picture of the heavens.  He wanted to use it for an illustration in one of his books.
6. After looking through a number of pictures, he finally selected a nice photograph of Orion Nebula.  He asked the director of the planetarium how much he owed, and the director smiled and said, “There’s no charge.  We do not own Orion.”
7. The Christian saw this as an opportunity to tell the man who did own Orion, and all the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and all the planets.
8. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”
9. Psalm 89:11 says, “The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.”
10. The Lord Jesus Christ upholds all things “by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).  As the executor of God’s will, the Lord Jesus Christ just has to speak “the word of his power” (1:3; cf. Luke 4:31-36; 7:1-10).

 

III. CHRIST EXPRESSES THE HEART OF GOD

1. The heart of God was revealed at the cross.
2. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
3. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
4. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (I John 3:16).
5. By Himself He “purged our sins” (Hebrews 1:3).
6. In the Church of the Mother of God of Polish Martyrs in Warsaw, Poland, Mary is depicted hanging on the cross holding the child Jesus.
7. Outside of the main Mary basilica in Rome (Santa Maria Maggiore) there is a large crucifix with Jesus hanging on one side and a crowned Mary hanging on the other.
8. The RCC teaches that Mary is the co-redemptress with Christ, and that she intercedes for men and aids in their salvation.
9. The second Vatican Council stated, “This union of the Mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death.”
10. This is nothing but idolatry and blasphemy.  First Timothy 2:5, 6 says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
11. Christ “gave himself a ransom for all.”  And Christ “by himself purged our sins” (Heb. 1:3).
12. And after He died as our Substitute, He “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (1:3), signifying His work was done.
13. He said in triumphant from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

 

CONCLUSION:

1. I feel I have barely scratched the surface in my attempt to expound these Scriptures.  For example, Christ is “the brightness of his glory” (1:3).  Can mere words explain this?
2. Where Jesus is there is wonderful light!  When Jesus is rejected there is terrible darkness!
3. I have attempted to point out the superiority of Christ’s revelation to that of the prophets (1:1, 2).  The same is also true of all the Old Testament types.
4. I will conclude with a lengthy quote from WA Criswell: “There is no type, there is no symbol, there is no ceremony in all of this ancient Jewish worship that is, in itself, a full and complete revelation of Jesus Christ. But each type and each symbol presents just a facet, a part, a portion of the great and final truth in the Lord Jesus. And that is where you have the types multiplied, so many of them, for no one of them was able to bear the entire truth of the revelation of God. Therefore, you had a tabernacle, and you had an altar, and you had a laver, and you had a veil, and you had a Holy of Holies, and you had a priest, and you had a table of showbread, and you had a candlestick, and you had a golden altar of incense. Each one of them represented, by picture, a facet of the grace and ultimate truth of God. The sacrifice is His cross. The laver is the washing of regeneration. The Holy of Holies is the sanctuary in heaven. The table of shewbread is the bread of life that we eat. The candlestick is the light of the world. All of those types, and it took many of them to present the whole truth of God. For example, you did not even have one sacrifice, you had several sacrifices: A sin offering, a trespass offering, a peace offering, a meal offering, a whole burnt offering.  You had a priest—the Aaronic priesthood—but that could not bear even the full revelation of our priesthood of our Savior. He also was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Moses is a type of Christ, but you also had to have Joshua to picture our entrance into our ultimate and sabbatic rest. And David is a picture of Christ, but he is not all of the picture of the kingly glory of Christ; you also must have Solomon to complete it.  So it is in all of the old dispensation. It is in pieces, it is in fragments, it is in portions, it is in part. It came ‘at sundry times and in divers manners’ through many men, but it was never in itself fully, finally, and forever complete.”
5. We will see this emphasized over and over as we continue in our study of the epistle to the Hebrews.