Jesus Sat Down Series

HoHum:

Betty Botter bought some butter, "But," she said, "this butter’s bitter. If I bake this bitter butter, It will make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter - That would make my batter better." So she bought a bit of butter, Better than her bitter butter, And she baked it in her batter, And the batter was not bitter. So ’twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

WBTU:

We are not talking about better butter today but something better.

Many of us want something better: a better job, a better home, a better grade, better behavior from our children, better relationships with our spouses, children, family and friends, a better sound system, computer, car, etc.

There are times when we would do well to be content with what we have. Hebrews 13:5- Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have

Like my preacher friend Ben James used to say when I mentioned that we should be content, “I don’t think we should be content with some things.” There are times when it is good to seek something better especially for the church and our spiritual lives.

Philippians 3:13-14: But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The Book of Hebrews is a book that is showing us something better. The word “better” is used 13 times in this book. We find here lessons that show us that Jesus Christ is better.

Thesis: According to the first three verses: We have a better message and we have a better messenger.

For instances:

We have a better message.

Since the first word of Scripture was written down there has been a good message for mankind. God spoke (vs. 1)

God did not speak his message all at once in the OT. It was written over a period of fifteen hundred years by more than forty writers. From time to time He spoke and in various ways.

As good as the OT is there is a problem. The Old Testament was fragmentary and incomplete. The Old Testament is progressive revelation. Genesis gives some truth, then Exodus, and it continues to build. It is progressive not in that it goes from error to truth, but it goes from incompleteness to a higher state of completeness.

Just because the Old Testament was progressive does not mean that it is wrong in any way. There is simply development. The distinction is not in the nature of the truth; it’s in the amount and time of it. Children are first taught letters; then they worry about the words and the sentences. God gave His revelation in the same way.

God spoke in past times to the “fathers,” the Jewish ancestors. Today He has spoken to us through His Son (Vs. 2). We now have a completed message with the NT.

The entire New Testament is centered around Christ. The gospels give His story, the epistles comment on it, and the book of Revelation tells about Christ’s future. No one prophet was ever able to grasp the whole truth. Only Jesus is the whole truth. The Old Testament was pieces and fragments, but Jesus is the full and final revelation.

We now have the completed written Word. Revelation 22:18-19: I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

We have a better messenger.

Vs. 1- In the OT, God spoke through good men, the prophets. Men like Moses, Ezra, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel received messages from God and wrote them down.

2 Peter 1:20-21: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

In the NT, good and godly men also wrote down the Word of God under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful

What is the difference between the two? Vs. 2

God sent the Word from heaven to speak to us. This is whom the NT writers speak of. The Word is the better messenger that the OT did not have.

Other faiths have prophets that they believe are the latest and best Word from God.