In this sermon, Pastor Matt prepares us to launch into the book of Hebrews, a book all about the glory of Christ and his superiority to all things.

Opening Remarks and Illustration

Thanks be to God for His Word.

For some reason, there’s a slap bracelet on the pulpit. If it’s yours, you can come get it after the service. I’m going to put it away so I don’t fiddle with it during the service—that is just way too tempting.

At the University of Minnesota—so I didn’t get to go to the main campus, but my wife did—there is an art building. It’s so weird to look at because you look at it and it’s kind of silverish, and all the walls go off in different angles. You just think, “That’s the ugliest building ever.” But even in that building, which goes in every direction, one thing is for sure: if you were to dig down, you would find that its foundation was solid—just like every other building beside it. No matter how weird the building looks on the outside, you need a foundation that is solid to make something stand.

Foundations can be kind of boring things. You can literally walk right over them and never think about them twice. But if you ever have issues with your foundation, you know that solving foundational issues is very important—because if the foundation is crumbling, the whole building is in danger.

The Foundation of the Christian Faith

Today we are going to look at the most foundational thing in the Christian faith. It is the thing that makes us Christians: it is Christ Himself—it is Jesus Christ. We answer the question, “What Child Is This?”

As we open the book of Hebrews, we are looking at a people who, as we read on, are Christians. They’ve come to Christ, but perhaps they have known Him for quite some time—now, after 10, 15, or 20 years, they’re starting to wander a little bit. They’re starting to wonder if there’s something more outside, something beyond just “believe in Jesus Christ, follow Him, have hope of heaven.” In a word, they’re beginning to wonder if there’s something maybe a little deeper, maybe something a little older, maybe something a little newer that transcends just this simple thing.

But I need to tell you today: we’re going to see that Jesus Christ is the author, He is the foundation of our faith, and He is the building of our faith. He is the end of our faith. Jesus—Jesus Christ—is everything.

In the words of Hebrews—and Hebrews loves this phrase—it loves to say Jesus is better. He’s better than everything. In our lives, we can get caught up in starting New Year’s resolutions, chasing the new thing, the better thing. Maybe it’s endemic to our Western mindset—there’s always something newer, bigger, and better. But there is nothing better, because Jesus is better.

Jesus is better than all the bad things in life, for sure. Jesus is better than all the problems in life. Jesus is better than our credit card bills coming around right now—oh boy, how did it get so expensive to have Christmas? We bought all those gifts, then we had to buy them again because they didn’t arrive in the mail because of the postal strike. A lot of kids out there are now like, “Man, we get extra Christmas—it’s like we just keep getting presents in the mail. It’s great!”

Jesus is better than the bad, hard things of life. But Jesus is better than the best things in life too. Jesus is better than the joy of the most blessed sunrise with the sun dogs in the winter, or maybe a sunrise on some beach somewhere far away. Jesus is better than your spouse. Jesus is better than the deepest love of this world. Jesus is better than it all.

“I found a friend in Jesus; He’s everything to me. He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.” Jesus is better.

The Theme of Hebrews and Its Author

This is the theme of the book of Hebrews. We’re just thrown right into the text—there’s no introduction, no “Hello, hi, my name is so-and-so, and I’m writing the book of Hebrews.” Even though that might be kind of convenient for us, as then we would know who wrote it.

There’s been a lot of debate about who wrote the book of Hebrews. I’ll give you the answer that the book of Hebrews itself does: it doesn’t say. Most Christians through history have thought that it was the Apostle Paul. Even in the early church, this was not without controversy. Origen in the 3rd century said, “God only really knows who wrote the book of Hebrews.”

In Hebrews chapter 2, the author says that he was not an eyewitness to Jesus—which Paul always called himself: “I have seen the Lord.” He said that very definitively. So it would be very odd for Paul to have written this. Stylistically, the book of Hebrews just reads different than almost anything else in the New Testament—except maybe parts of Acts where Luke is really writing with a free hand. The Greek is very stylized; it’s hard to read for me because my Greek isn’t awesome. It has a style that Paul does not write with.

Whoever wrote it, they wrote it with a lot of style. It was very early; it speaks to Jesus Christ, and it is a fantastic gift to the church. So I’m not going to debate who wrote it—I’m just going to get into expositing it, because it is incredible.

The author writes to Christians who need to know that Jesus is better. We still need to hear this, because be warned—even for sincere Christians in your Christian life—people will come along trying to sell you on something that will distract you from or take you from the truth and the center, which is Jesus Christ Himself and the life that He offers.

In fact, there’s probably whole publishing industries that try to do this. We’re warned in 2 Peter 2: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them”—that is, denying Jesus Christ—”bringing upon themselves swift destruction.”

Ultimately, false teaching will reveal itself by this question: Who is Jesus Christ? Somebody knocks on your door; you ask them, “Who is Jesus Christ really? Is He what the Bible says—and what we’re going to get into here—or is He something a little bit less?”

We see this in cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons, who deny Jesus’ full divinity, as well as liberal Christians who make Jesus into some sort of good teacher but do not reverence Him as God. But even evangelicals—people more like us—are constantly forgetting the center in search of the latest technique, the latest fad, the latest psychology, the latest popular thing to take center place where only Jesus belongs.

How many people, when they speak, might give ascent that “Jesus is Lord,” but they don’t tremble at the power of that name?

The Chiastic Structure of Hebrews 1:1–4

So today we’re only going to go through three or four verses. These four verses—I only have one slide today, okay? This is it; this is the whole slide. These four verses (I don’t even have all of them here because I just wanted to show you one thing) are a framework. These verses are a chiasm. Anyone remember what a chiasm is? It’s a poetic technique in which the first and last lines match each other and then proceed to the center, where the biggest thing is.

In Hebrews—again, very fancy style—he writes with chiasms all over the place. So this is one of those. This chiasm ends in verse 4, talking about Jesus Christ became as much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs (as the KJV has it: “so much better than the angels”).

Now, in the book of Hebrews—if you’re familiar with it at all—if you’ve read it, the “angels” thing probably confuses you. I mean, I read it and I was like, “Wow, there must have been some cult that was worshiping angels.” That’s what I assumed, and that’s what you might assume reading this. But that is not actually what’s going on.

Because it starts with angels in the book of Hebrews—we’re going to get there eventually—it talks about Jesus better than the angels, Jesus better than the Aaronic priesthood, Jesus a better sacrifice—Jesus is better. This has to do with people who are tempted to go back to the Old Testament sacrifices.

The reason he begins with saying Jesus is better than the angels is that angels mediated the old covenant. Okay? Now, if you read through the Old Testament, you don’t get this a lot, but in the New Testament they make it very clear. Paul in Galatians 3:19: “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place”—that is, the law was put in place—”through angels by an intermediary.”

Paul—or Peter in Acts, actually Stephen—says, “You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” So the angels are talking about how the law was delivered through angels.

But instead of this—secondary, the law delivered through angels—we have what? Hebrews 1: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets”—this is speaking of the whole Old Testament, the prophets (which is the law, the writings, the prophets—all of the Old Testament). God spoke bit by bit. “But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.”

Most translations probably say “in a Son.” So the picture is that the Old Testament—yes, it’s good; yes, it’s God; yes, it’s a great thing—like bit by bit, it’s all of these pieces which God is revealing Himself. But now—but now—God has revealed Himself in a Son.

There are a couple of things here that are key to see. The first is: it’s good, but better. The second is the finality to this: “Long ago God spoke”—now “God has spoken in a Son.”

The reason God has spoken in this Son is why—for a very long time the Bible was written: started like Genesis, books of Moses, and then you got more and more books over a period of hundreds and hundreds of years. Then all of a sudden the New Testament comes—boom—all of these things are written about Jesus, end of Revelation. And now, should we expect any more books of the Bible just to get added there? You know, someone come along with another Testament of Jesus Christ and be like, “Stick it on the end”? Would we ever expect that? No, we would not expect another Testament of Jesus Christ—because God has spoken in a Son. He has spoken. Jesus Christ is God’s final revelation to His people—the final word before judgment will come.

So you cannot go back to the old. You cannot go past Jesus Christ to anything else—because God has spoken through His Son, and He doesn’t just speak through Him but has definitively spoken. So don’t be drawn off to something new. Don’t look for something else. Don’t look for another thing—but look again and again to Jesus Christ.

The Exaltation and Divinity of the Son (Chiasm Breakdown)

Now this Son is so exalted, and the author of Hebrews wants us to see this without any question—to know who this Son is and that the Son is God. So we have this chiasm, and we’re going to see these on this line:

• His Son—much superior to angels—the term “more excellent name”
• The name of the Son here—here this is equal
• Then here: whom He appointed heir of all things
• And at the bottom: He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty—which is the opposite—after making purification for sins
• He appointed the Son, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty

He is the heir of everything. “Inheritance” here—we think of inheritance of everything; to the person this was written to, inheritance was thought of primarily as the land of Israel—that was their inheritance. But the Son inherits everything. And the people know this because they’ve read Psalm 2, which is a Messianic Psalm that says, “Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance.” So this Son has inherited all things because He is the fulfillment—He fulfills Psalm 2.

That’s the promise. Going up one more step into the chiasm, we get here—and here: “through whom also He”—that is, God—”created the world.” And on the bottom end: He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

Now, some would say that Jesus Christ is like, you know, not maybe just a step down from God or something. But we come here and the author of Hebrews tells us very clearly that everything that was made was made through Jesus Christ—which means that Jesus Himself was not made. Like, if everything was made through Him, He is not—like, He is not first made. He is pre-existent; He existed before anything else.

And that wasn’t just some people dreaming up in AD 325—these things—but this is right here in the Scripture: all things were made through Him. And it’s not the only place—you can also go to Colossians 1:16; you can also go to John 1. So if you’re at the post office and you run into some people and they want to talk to you about Jesus, you can tell them all these things. (Ah, I can’t—they won’t talk to me. It’s really sad.)

He also upholds the universe by the word of His power. Now these people in Hebrews—like they were like 20 years ago—there were probably people that the writer is writing to who saw Jesus, who knew He was just a regular Jewish-looking guy who was a great teacher, who had a following, who suffered and died on the cross—like, they knew this. But this—this Jesus—He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

The “word” here is important because it shows that Jesus isn’t just like some emanation from the Father—He isn’t just like the word peeking out—but He has power in Himself. He is a personality unique from the Father, with word upholding the universe. In fact, you could translate this: He’s carrying along all things all the time. It’s actually like referring to the ages—they translate “universe” or “world” different ways in translations. It’s like He bears everything.

So that person who was just walking around looking perfectly human was like us in every way—literally carries all the ages on His shoulders. How great is Christ? He is the one who created all things; He’s the one that bears all things.

And if that is not enough—like what He does is the works of God—but even more, He is God in Himself.

Now the Nicene Creed tells us: “We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from God before all the ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made”—remember, all things were made through Him—”of the same essence as the Father; through Him all things were made.”

So we get to the center of the chiasm—which it wants to highlight by making a chiastic form here: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.

We’re just getting down the Christmas season, so we can still think about Christmas. It’s like the child in the manger—just as frail and fragile—is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact authenticating stamp of God’s nature.

When God revealed Himself to Moses, Moses was like, “Show me Your glory.” God had His glory pass by, and God covered Moses with His hand in the cleft of the rock and only let him see a glimpse of His glory going away from the backside. Jesus—the child who was in a manger—is that glory: the radiance of the glory of God.

As John would say, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” He is—the ESV has—the exact imprint of His nature; the King James: the express image of His person; the NIV: the exact representation of His being; the NET: the representation of His essence.

All of these are trying to grasp at the saying: God the Father is spirit and invisible; God the Son is God in every way and yet visible—revealed for all to see—being the final revelation to understand what God wants before judgment comes. Jesus is God. Christ is better than any revelation that goes before. Christ is God in the flesh.

Now, as the author of Hebrews will go on later to show, this Jesus Christ was in every way human. His radiant glory does not diminish His ability to sympathize with us and know us. Yet this Christ in the manger—this Christ the man—is the exact representation of the being of God.

Now, as well as all this—and you know, just note it in the bottom part of the chiasm—after making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. Not only is He God fully—which is exalted—He saves sinners. So that any person who trusts in Him has access not to just some guy, not to just some mediator office—but has access to God through Him, because He has made complete purification of sins. The glory of God who died for our sins.

Application: Don’t Look Past Jesus

Applying this passage is a little bit of a struggle for me because it’s a little bit about describing how bright the sun is—because this is the center of everything. I’ve already said the author of Hebrews is writing to a people who have maybe just gotten a little bit dull on how great Christ is.

I just want you to look at this and see: the brightness of God’s glory is infinite and awesome. Don’t look past it—ever.

If you are an unbeliever—like if you have not come to Jesus Christ—I invite you to look at who Jesus really is. Often when we talk about coming to faith, we talk about Jesus’ humanity—how He can sympathize. That’s all true. But today we’re looking at Jesus’ glory, and there’s something just awesome about it.

You get a letter from somebody really important and you’re like, “Oh man, that’s really—I’m going to behave in a certain way. I’m going to respond to this. I’m not going to ignore a letter from the president or the prime minister. I’m not going to ignore a letter from someone that I really respect.”

Now we see God in the flesh—the exact representation of it. You might have thought of Jesus as just some guy, some teacher. No—like this is God. He is that important. He is that valuable. And today He calls you and says, “Come to Me. Believe in Me. Cast away your sins, and you can join with Me. Just as I’m an heir of all things, you can be an heir with Me of all things. I offer you everything.”

If you see the value of Jesus—like, come to Him today. That is lesson number one: if you don’t know Him, see how awesome He is and respond to His invitation today. Remember: He is the final word of God before judgment comes.

Secondly, to those who may have known Jesus for quite some time—and this is really like the author of Hebrews is writing to people who know Jesus and have maybe forgotten exactly how awesome He is—it’s just human nature. We can get tired of everything.

Like, we can get tired of the sunrise. Have you ever watched the sunrise? It’s dark, it’s terrible, we’re all freezing to death—and boom, a giant glowing orb comes up out of the sky, shining brightness and light everywhere. It’s incredible. Who could get tired of that?

There’s magic beans that if you grind them up and put them into water—run water through them and drink it—it’s delicious and it wakes you. That’s incredible. How can people not shout from the streets?

It’s like Christmas time—we watch Elf. Buddy the Elf is like, “Whoa, this is so amazing!” But Jesus Christ is that amazing—the glory of God.

Don’t make Jesus smaller. Yes, He’s totally human—but don’t diminish His size by that at all. Look to Him again. See His brightness and His glory again. Don’t miss it.

There are two ways that we fall off here. We can fall kind of into sin and we’re just sort of forgetting how big God is—we’re forgetting how glorious Jesus Christ is—and we’ve maybe grabbed hold of our sin. Today I just implore you: look at how great Jesus is and turn away from the sins that you have committed. Look to Him again—because He is that glorious.

On the other side—for us believers that maybe are just sort of like, “Ah, you know, I’ve heard the gospel and know Jesus is good”—but we’re always just kind of looking for that next thing. It’s like, “Oh, this next book is going to make it figure out. This next idea, this next preacher, this next YouTuber—TikToker, whatever the kids do nowadays. What do the kids do nowadays? TikTok? Something like that. Yeah, I don’t even know anymore. Facebook? Yeah, this new Facebook thing that the kids are on.”

But there’s always going to be teachers out there saying, “Hey, hey, here’s this—look at me.” And this is the test: Is this drawing towards the glory of God in Jesus Christ? Is Jesus bigger in their teaching, in this book, in this life—or is He just a side note?

Abandon the side notes. You don’t need something else. You need to look deeper into what you have—because Jesus Christ is all. But there is no end to His infinite. He upholds everything. Look again to Jesus Christ. Pray to Him. Live for Him. Read Him. Look even more to Jesus Christ. You don’t need something different—you need to grasp the magnitude of what you have.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank You for Your faithfulness. We thank You that Your glory is great. You uphold all things—even today. If You were to stop bearing the universe, we would all be gone in a moment. And so we praise the name of Jesus Christ.

We pray that we would all believe in Him, that we would look again to Him, and that we would look deeper to Him in every way—so that we would see how good You are, how faithful You are. You are so much better than even the best—the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. How sweet my Lord is to me. And I pray He would be that to all of us.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.