Who Is This Jesus?

Passage: Hebrews 1:1-4

Intro: When we don’t understand something, or we fear something, we tend to trivialize it

Il) standing on the tee of a shot over water, onto a small green surrounded by sand traps, you’d be amazed at how we talk to ourselves.

1. we cut things down to a manageable, comfortable size where we can face it.

2. certainly our tendency with an event as overwhelming as the idea that God became a man

3. we don’t have to look far to see how the world has trivialized this great event until it is nothing but symbols bereft of meaning, good feelings in the place of good news.

4. we looked at this powerful verse last week.

PP I John 3:8b

5. Christmas is a nuclear explosion in the cosmic war between God and Satan

6. as we saw last week, one of Satan’s most powerful weapons in this war is his use of lies, misinformation, distortions. His nature to lie.

7. God’s answer? To do what He has done from the beginning, which is to speak, to reveal, to tell us the truth.

8. Listen!! You can’t afford to miss what God is saying at Christmas.

I. Jesus is My Final Revelation

1. v1 of this powerful statement

2. immediately sets up a contrast, though common thread

3. “God spoke”, contrast begins with time.

4. “in the past”=long ago, to “our forefathers”

5. verb tense states completion

6. “many times and various ways”=both # of times and various means.

7. dreams, visions, direct revelation, visible presence in cloud and fire.

Il) we might say to someone, “I called, I wrote snail mail and email, I sent you pictures, telegrams, gifts and even sent messengers”

8. OT prophets, Law, tabernacle, Temple, all ways that God spoke to reveal Himself to people.

9. each communication reveals a little bit more, another piece in the puzzle

il) progressive, like a grandfather clock chiming the hours. You have to wait until done to get the whole picture, but each chime eliminates certain times until revelation complete.

10. and v2 spells out that completion

11. “but in these last days”=perhaps the end of the line. Is it? Lets see

12. “he spoke”=past tense, completed action.

13. and when we see how He spoke, we will realize it must be the final statement

II. Jesus is My Son

1. “by His Son” have NASB, notice “His” in italics, which means not in original text. Added to define

2. in greek, en viw=in Son

3. same as John 1:1

PP John 1:1= not “a god”, but God in very essence.

4. so here, he has spoken to us in one who bears the very essence of God, one who is the Son of God.

5. before God sent emails, pictures, cards, telegrams to speak to us.

6. but now, at the end, God comes Himself, in His Son

7. tremendous identifiers in vv2-3

8. appointed “heir”, word from term for “lot”, the way the division of the inheritance was chosen.

9. God has one heir, one Son.

PP Psalm 2:7-8

10. unlike theology of cults, who teach multiple sons, Jesus called “one and only”

PP John 3:16 monogenous

11. this “Sonship” carries a tremendous amount of weight.

12. “thru whom he made the universe” Jesus was the instrument of creation

13. end of v3, the sustainer of all things, word=”carrying all things forward on their appointed course.”

14. v3, “is”, verb tense=absolute and timeless existence. “I am”

15. also, two words only used here in NT

16. “radiance”=the rays of light that come from a source.

PP) Ayres Mount in Austrailia. We know it’s not a plane or a UFO behind there.

Il) if you’ve driven all night, you start to see this radiance about 4 a.m.

17. other word, “exact representation”=impression or stamp. Metallurgy term

il) we might be more familiar with a copier. Same idea. Duplicate of something we can’t necessarily see

18. in OT we might be able to say, “we want to see God”

19. Jesus has come, we have seen the very character, nature, person of God

-“being”=essence of who He is

il) “veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Diety. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel.”

Il) if God had DNA, then Jesus would share it!! Their relationship would stand up in court…even in LA!

III. Jesus Has No Equal

1. God has spoken to us with incredible clarity in His Son

2. but God’s purpose wasn’t fulfilled just by Jesus appearing on earth as a baby.

3. His greatest revelation of God took place when He “provided purification for sins.”

4. now once again, the verb tense here is incredibly powerful.

5. it means “He provided purification for sin once for all within himself”