Participants: James Rafferty, Ty Gibson
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00002A
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00:21 Hi friends, welcome back to our continuing study in
00:24 The Books Of Book. 00:25 We're in the book of Hebrews, and I am your co-host 00:27 James Rafferty, and I'm here with Ty Gibson. 00:30 Well, we are looking at the book of Hebrews James. 00:32 This is an exciting study. 00:34 Because as we learn in our opening study, which was 00:37 kind of an overview, of the book of Hebrews. 00:40 Hebrews is a masterpiece of Holy Spirit inspired literature. 00:45 We want to invite our friends who are viewing, 00:48 those listening in on the radio, if you are 00:49 not driving that is. 00:50 Pull up a chair, grab your Bible and open to Hebrews, 00:53 Chapter 1, as we launch right into our study. 00:56 We left off with the theme of something better, 00:58 and we are going to pick up with this theme 01:00 in Hebrews Chapter 1. 01:02 The whole book of Hebrews has a number of themes. 01:04 One of the themes is this theme of better things. 01:07 Right here in Hebrews chapter 1, we introduce ourselves, 01:11 or God introduce ourselves to Him, I should say. 01:14 We are introduced to God. 01:15 Paul gets right to the point in Hebrews 1, verse 1, 01:18 "God, who at sundry times, in divers manners spake in 01:22 time past unto the fathers, by the Prophets has in these 01:26 last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he has 01:29 appointed heir of all things and by whom also he made the worlds" 01:32 God wants to speak with us. 01:34 God has never stopped wanting to communicate with us. 01:37 I love this. 01:38 The book of Hebrews, opens with Paul bringing to our 01:42 attention that the Lord Jesus Christ is 01:44 God's supreme revelation. 01:46 There is a contrast that drawn here, between 01:50 the Prophets who have spoke in different ways at 01:52 different times in history. 01:54 That contrast is drawn between those prophetic 01:57 revelations and Jesus Christ, who is now the express 02:02 image of God's person come to earth. 02:04 The manifest glory of God in all its beauty, is brought 02:09 right up close and personal in Jesus Christ. 02:12 You know when you look at relationship Ty, it is very 02:15 important for us to understand what God is doing here. 02:19 What point He is making here. 02:21 You know when you look at relationships, you are talking 02:23 about connecting with people, for example, 02:25 you could connect with people today by e-mail, 02:27 or by telephone, you can connect with people by letter. 02:30 There are different ways we can communicate, 02:31 but up close and personal makes all the difference. 02:35 God has continued to communicate with us, and I like 02:38 this because all the way from the fall, all the way 02:41 from Genesis, we find that God was a relational God. 02:44 He came to talk with us in the cool of the day. 02:47 Sin destroyed, that relationship, not from God's 02:51 perspective, but from our perspective. 02:53 As God comes in the cool of the day to talk to 02:56 Adam and Eve, after they have sinned, 02:57 what are they doing? 02:58 They're hiding, and we have been hiding 03:00 from God ever since. 03:01 The book of Hebrews is telling us that even though 03:05 we have been hiding from God, God has never ceased to 03:08 seek to communicate with us. 03:09 Well friends, we want to consider that 03:12 in Hebrews Chapter 1. 03:13 Jesus comes to earth as God in the flesh. 03:17 It's God that were dealing with, James. 03:19 It's not none other than the Creator of the universe 03:22 whom we are encountering, in this apparently 03:26 just a human being, 03:27 this man Jesus from Nazareth. 03:29 Here comes this person in every way, 03:32 like us, from all appearances. 03:35 Yet we are literally dealing with God in the flesh. 03:39 I like that in 2 Peter 1, verse 16, Peter uses this 03:43 language that really helps us to expand what's 03:47 is being said here. 03:48 He says we, speaking of the apostles and the others at 03:50 at that time. 03:51 He said we were eye witnesses of His Majesty. 03:55 Isn't that incredible? 03:56 I mean, you can feel the passion and the urgency 04:01 that comes through. 04:02 This kind of revelation, I mean think about it. 04:04 We as human beings have walked and talked with a person 04:09 for 31/2 years, and others literally grew up with Him 04:13 and had encounters with Him. 04:15 I mean, He was one of the kids on the block. 04:16 All of a sudden, it dawns on you, hey, that person, 04:21 we were dealing with was none other than God. 04:25 and we were eye witnesses of His Majesty. 04:28 This is important, because what God is trying to say to us 04:31 basically is, I have always wanted to be close to you. 04:35 I always wanted you to see Me. 04:36 I always wanted to be revealed to you and come close to you, 04:40 but you have changed in the way that you have responded to Me. 04:44 So, I have had to speak to you through the Prophets. 04:46 In some way, I have even had to mask myself, becoming a man, 04:50 becoming a human. 04:51 In some way, I have even had to mask Myself so that I don't 04:53 give you full disclosure. 04:55 I want you to know that in spite of that, in spite of 04:58 the way that sin has affected you, it has never 05:00 affected Me that way. 05:01 Malachi 3 says, that God has not changed. 05:04 James 1:17 also tells us that God does not change. 05:09 There is no variables, variableness must no shadow 05:12 of turning in God. 05:13 So the Bible is teaching us that God is love. 05:16 In this context, His love is manifested in an unbroken 05:20 relationship toward us. 05:21 The way He relates to us has not changed. 05:24 I have spoken to you, I continue to speak to you, 05:26 and now I come to speak to you in person. 05:29 Why, what is the point? 05:30 The underlying point Paul is making here, I love you. 05:33 I want a relationship with you. 05:35 I love that. 05:36 I've learned in my own personal experience, James, 05:38 as I know you have, that love, not only God's love 05:42 for us, but we get a feel for it. 05:45 We see shadows of it, we get a taste of it 05:48 in our human relationships. 05:50 I have had the privilege of being married to actually 05:54 one of your fellow workers and friends. 05:57 My wife Sue, we have been together since she was 13, 06:00 and I was 14. 06:01 We learned over the years that love is 06:03 exponential reality. 06:05 In other words, love doesn't have any bottom, it doesn't 06:07 have any edges, it doesn't have any cap. 06:09 In other words, God's love as the zenith, the apex of love, 06:17 is the ultimate reality of God's character. 06:21 So that we can go on growing in our relationship with God. 06:26 Growing in our knowledge of Him, growing in 06:28 our appreciation of Him. 06:29 Even our passion for God for ever and ever without end, 06:33 with out reaching a plateau. 06:35 I mean, if we as human beings are capable of always loving, 06:39 more, loving a little bit more passionately someone that we 06:42 have entered into a relationship with, 06:44 and we are growing together. 06:46 Loving a little bit more intelligently. 06:47 Loving a little bit more, 06:49 with all that we are as a human being. 06:53 And it doesn't seem to ever stop. 06:55 How much more, this encounter through Jesus, with God is 07:00 drawing us into a never-ending, forever deepening 07:04 relationship with Himself. 07:05 Amen, and you know, if that is not the problem, 07:08 in other words, if the problem is not from 07:11 God's perspective, but from our perspective, 07:13 if God is always wanting to have this everlasting 07:15 deepening relationship with us, but we are the ones 07:19 that have pulled away from Him. 07:21 Why have we pulled away from Him? 07:22 And I liked this verse because it explains to us, 07:24 what is happened in our relationship. 07:27 Verses found in Isaiah 59 verse 2. 07:30 It says, context, verse 1, "behold the Lord's hand is 07:33 not shortened that 07:35 he cannot save. neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. " 07:37 In other words, God is there for us. 07:39 He is there to hear us. 07:40 He wants relationship, He wants communication. 07:42 But verse 2, "your iniquities have separated between 07:46 you and your God and your sins have hid His face from 07:50 you that you will not hear. " 07:52 And I like what we were talking about earlier Ty, 07:54 because it tells me that the problem is not with God, 07:57 the problem is with us. 07:58 We are not willing to hear, we are not willing to listen, 08:01 we're not willing to communicate. 08:02 Sin has had its effect upon us. 08:04 And that is why in verse 3, of Hebrews Chapter 1, 08:07 God says I'm going to take care of sin because sin 08:10 has caused a problem between us. 08:12 It says here in verse 3, "who being the brightness of His 08:14 glory", talking about Christ, "the express image of His 08:17 person, and upholding all things by the word of His power 08:20 when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the 08:24 right hand of man. " 08:25 I love this. 08:26 By Himself He purged our sins, why, because sin was 08:29 causing a problem in the relationship. 08:30 We couldn't deal with it, He dealt with it. 08:33 Yeah, so clearly in these first three verses of Hebrews 08:35 Chapter 1, we encounter God as the ultimate communicator. 08:39 He takes the initiative, and He comes to us with not 08:43 just a message in words, but a message in the flesh. 08:47 He comes to this world clothed in our very humanity and 08:51 becomes God's alternate expression. 08:53 I like what it says in one favorite book of mine, 08:57 that Jesus was God's thoughts made audible. 09:00 God's heart put on display, made visible, God with flesh on, 09:06 up close and personal, as we have said here. 09:08 And Jesus, when He came to this world in Hebrews Chapter 1. 09:12 There are a number of ways, James, in which it is pointed 09:14 out that it is God we are dealing with here. 09:16 This is extremely profound to realize in, Chapter 1, 09:20 verse 2, where it says that this person that we are 09:23 encountering that purged our sins by Himself was the 09:27 One who made the worlds. 09:28 So this is the that Creator of the Universe, the One who made 09:33 everything in a sense becomes made. 09:35 He becomes a part of His own creation, and He is the only 09:40 One that is qualified to purge our sins by Himself. 09:45 And there it is emphasis here, He did this by Himself. 09:49 He did it without human participation, and He did it, 09:52 we're told in verse 4, without angelic participation. 09:56 Jesus is better than the angels. 09:58 Angels in verse 4 could not occupy a redemptive position. 10:03 Later on in Chapter 1, verse 14, it's clear that they are 10:07 ministering spirits, but they are not redeemer's. 10:11 There is no way that angels can enter into the 10:13 actual saving of our souls. 10:17 God does that by Himself. 10:20 And I like this, because it leads into another aspect, 10:23 another question that comes up often in the Bible, 10:26 especially in relation to the Old Testament, and that is 10:27 Why did God require all these sacrifices for sin? 10:32 Why did God require the death of all these animals 10:34 or death itself. 10:35 That is a question that is brought up many times. 10:37 And the answer to that question is very simple and based in 10:42 the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. 10:43 And the answer is this, God did not require 10:46 sacrifices for sin. 10:49 God did not require animals to die for sin. 10:50 Sin required that. 10:52 Sin leads to death and all those sacrifices were God's 10:57 way of trying to help us to understand that one truth. 10:59 The wages of sin is death. 11:01 This is what sin does. 11:03 God is trying to communicate that to us 11:06 the reality of what sin does, because He has, in 11:08 the context of sin stepped in and stopped us from 11:12 experiencing that consequence. 11:14 This is a loaded term here, James. 11:17 When it says that He by Himself purged our sins. 11:20 Because when we fast-forward and will get there in greater 11:23 detail, but will we fast forward to Chapter 9, 11:25 verse 26 of Hebrews. 11:27 It says that Jesus appeared once at the end of the ages 11:31 to put away sin. 11:32 Similar to this phrase purge sin, 11:34 by the sacrifice of Himself. 11:36 It's God coming to this world and making the sacrifice, 11:41 not requiring the sacrifice. 11:43 I mean, I guess there's a sense in which He is requiring that 11:45 in and of Himself, but He knows that we can't in any way make 11:50 a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. 11:53 It is as if God is saying to us, it's your sin that has 11:58 caused suffering and death to Me, because I have willingly 12:01 subjected Myself to be your Redeemer and your Savior. 12:05 Because this is not something you can achieve. 12:08 You can't fulfill this. 12:09 Exactly, in fact, Isaiah Chapter 1, verses 11 and 12. 12:12 This is God talking to us. 12:13 We are asking Him why did He want all these 12:16 these sacrifices for sin? 12:17 Why was He wanting all these animals to be killed? 12:20 This is God talking to us, this is God asking us 12:22 the same question? 12:23 Isaiah 1 verse 11. "To what purpose is the multitude of 12:27 your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: 12:29 I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat 12:31 of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, 12:34 or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear 12:37 before me, who hath required this at your hand, 12:39 to tread my courts? don't bring it to Me anymore. " 12:42 This is God speaking back to us. 12:43 This is God talking to us. 12:45 This is God communicating to us. 12:46 I am not interested in all those sacrifices. 12:48 Sin required that and sin leads to death. 12:52 Sins reward is death and death is an enemy of God. 12:56 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells us clearly there, death is the 12:59 last enemy that God will destroy. 13:00 So why is God allowing this system be set up 13:03 in the first place? 13:04 Because He wants to instruct us and teach us 13:05 what sin does. 13:06 Yeah that's right, it is a fascinating thing, 13:08 that when we look at Scripture, the prophets and the 13:13 Apostles are bringing out this powerful insight. 13:15 For example in 2 Corinthians 5:19 we have these words. 13:20 "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. " 13:26 So, what we are witnessing in Jesus Christ, what we are 13:29 witnessing at the cross. 13:31 Specifically, this monumental self-sacrifice. 13:35 We are witnessing the God of the Universe making 13:40 this self-sacrifice. 13:41 God's love is on display with unprecedented glory 13:46 at the cross of Jesus Christ. 13:47 And this is the theme of something better, 13:49 this is the focus of the book of Hebrews. 13:52 It opens right up here in Hebrews Chapter 1. 13:54 It introduces to us a personal God, who has personally taken 13:58 responsibility for our sins and we're to continue with this 14:01 same theme in just one moment. 14:02 So don't go away we'll be right back. |
Revised 2014-12-17