November 7, 2025 • 25 mins
The first lines of Hebrews don’t stroll—they soar. We open chapter one and climb fast: God has spoken in many portions and many ways, and now finally in the Son. That single claim reframes all of Scripture and resets our assumptions about authority, revelation, and hope. Together we explore how the author of Hebrews weaves Old Testament quotations, poetic Greek, and high Christology into a focused portrait: Jesus is heir of all things, maker of the ages, the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact imprint of His nature.
As we read Hebrews 1:1–4, we connect the dots across the canon. John chapter 5 clarifies that calling God His Father was a claim to equality with God. Colossians chapter 1 echoes that all things were created by Him, through Him, and for Him—and that in Him all things hold together. That means the stability of the universe isn’t an abstract force; it’s personal providence. We also unpack what “last days” means biblically, why Christ is God’s final Word, and how the Spirit still guides believers without adding new revelation to Scripture.
Then we linger over those luminous phrases: the Son as radiance, the Shekinah glory revealed in Jesus, purification for sins accomplished, and the royal seat at the right hand of Majesty. Angels are honored in Hebrews, yet Jesus stands infinitely higher—Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. The takeaway is both doctrinal and pastoral: relocate your trust. If Christ inherits everything, no rival can claim your heart. If He upholds all things by His powerful word, anxiety meets its match in His steady care. Come think deeply, worship clearly, and leave with your attention fixed where God has finally spoken—on the Son.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:17):
I hope you have your wings with you today.
We're starting at chapter one,verse one of the book of
Hebrews.
This book starts off on amountaintop and it very rarely
comes down into the valleys.
It occasionally touches down tothe ground with some warnings,
but the majority of the bookstays way up in the clouds,
(00:38):
giving us wonderful high praisesfor Jesus.
The beauty of this book is alittle intimidating.
The concepts are so lofty, butthe doctrine is also very heavy.
We're always told the higher yougo, the thinner the air gets.
But way up here where we'regoing to be, the air is very
(00:58):
rich and very nourishing.
We are reasoning through theBible.
And as we said, if you have yourBible, open it to the book of
Hebrews.
This first chapter of Hebrewsincludes a lot of doctrine about
the person of Jesus.
As a matter of fact, most of thebook is really about Jesus, on
how he is better, a moreexcellent way.
(01:20):
The deity of Christ is presentedhere in this first chapter in a
handful of ways.
The opening verse doesn't startlike one of the epistles.
The book opens up like atreatise or a theological book.
Personally, I feel a littleintimidated trying to teach this
book simply because the conceptsare so lofty and the doctrine is
(01:45):
so wonderful and deep that it'sgoing to be very difficult to
communicate both the theologyand the poetic literary beauty
of this book.
The writer in this first chapterquotes the Old Testament seven
times.
And there's many, many quotes ofthe Old Testament through this
book.
The author of Hebrews knew agreat deal about the Greek
(02:07):
language and the details of theOld Testament Jewish law and
customs.
So let's go ahead and dive in.
Steve, can you read the firstfour verses of Hebrews chapter
one?
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the
prophets in many portions and inmany ways, in these last days
has spoken to us in his son,whom he appointed heir of all
things, through whom also hemade the world.
And he is the radiance of hisglory and the exact
(02:40):
representation of his nature,and upholds all things by the
word of his power.
When he had made purification ofsins, he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high,having become as much better
than the angels, as he hasinherited a more excellent name
than they.
SPEAKER_01 (03:01):
The beginning of this book in our English
translation starts off with Godand what he has done.
But in the Greek, we reallydon't get the beauty of the
language that happens.
The Greek starts off with thiswonderful poetic alliteration:
holumeros, holotropos palai.
It's an alliteration.
These verses are just sowonderful.
(03:24):
Steve, what do you think of whenyou read these first verses of
this book?
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
What I see, Glenn, is that there's some consistency
with the beginning of this book,with the beginning of John.
There's also a parallel to thebook of Colossians.
As we go through here, as youmentioned in the introduction,
there's a lot of quotes from theOld Testament.
So what one of the things I seeis not just the language that
(03:52):
you pointed out, but it's theconsistency between the New
Testament and the Old Testament.
It's the way to study God's wordin that these books that we have
are not just haphazardly puttogether.
You and I believe that the HolySpirit inspired all of these
authors, but we have a total of66 books between the Old and New
(04:15):
Testament, written overthousands of years, put together
by myriads of authors.
And to me, it's just miraculous,really, that we have this
consistency between thesevarious books.
It shows to me that there is onebeing behind the message that
comes out of all of these books.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
The first verse here in our translation says, God,
after he spoke long ago to thefathers and the prophets in many
portions and many ways.
So the book starts off with Godreaching down and speaking to
us.
Just that concept alone istremendous.
We have a God who has reacheddown into creation and spoken,
(04:59):
not just once, but many timesand in many ways.
These first verses tell us thatGod exists, God spoke, and how
this is the final revelation ofChrist.
But think of it, we don't haveto go somewhere to a temple and
bring some sort of sacrifice andpray for a very long time or
(05:23):
yell very loudly to get ourGod's attention.
He spoke to us.
There's many gods in many otherreligions that they don't speak.
In fact, they're quite silent.
But we have a God who hasreached down into creation and
has spoken many times in manyways.
I think of when he spoke toAbraham in visions, he spoke to
(05:48):
Balaam through a donkey, and hespoke to Moses in a burning
bush, and he spoke to Moses onthe top of Mount Sinai.
He spoke to Elijah out of awhirlwind, but it was a still
small voice.
So one of the questions, Steve,does God still give us guidance
and direction today?
It's not the same as a biblicalprophet, but we have the Holy
(06:11):
Spirit that can speak to ustoday, can he not?
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
That is one of the great things that has been left
behind for us as Jesus ascended.
Jesus said, I must go so that hemight come, speaking of the Holy
Spirit.
So we have this assurance andguidance of the Holy Spirit that
is with us as believers.
And God spoke to mankind in allof those ways that you
(06:35):
mentioned, Glenn, but he alsospoke to mankind in human form.
If you remember when Joshua wasgoing into the promised land and
he was looking over Jericho andhe saw this man that was
standing there in armor and witha sword, he went up to him and
said, Who are you?
Are you with them or are youwith us?
(06:57):
And the man turned around andsaid, You don't understand.
I'm here to lead you in.
I'm the captain of the host.
There were other times wheneverwe see God in a human form speak
to various people in the OldTestament.
So not only does he come in thevarious ways that you talked
about, but he also showed up inthe Old Testament in human form.
(07:20):
And of course, it's in the NewTestament, we see God in the
human form of Jesus, theMessiah.
So it is a great thing that Godhas gone to these extents to
talk to his creation,communicate with them, even to
the point that he came totabernacle among us, as John put
(07:42):
it, to dwell among his creation.
And as we'll see in the laterchapters of Hebrews, that he
laid down his life and he becamethe satisfactory sacrifice so
that humankind might be able tohave eternal life.
It's such a great, great thing.
And this is just the first verseof the chapter of Hebrews.
(08:05):
It's going to be a great study.
SPEAKER_01 (08:07):
Really, not even the first verse, the first phrase
starts off with this very lofty,solid theological foundation.
God reached down into creationand spoke.
He gave his word to us.
The Bible is not a collection ofhuman-inspired stories, nor is
our God silent, nor is hedistant.
(08:29):
God spoke to our fathers and theprophets.
The old King James puts this avery interesting way.
It says, God, who at sundrytimes and diverse manners spoke
to the prophets and the fathers.
So in the past, God has spokenand given different messages to
different people at differenttimes.
(08:50):
He gave a different message toAbraham, a different message to
Elijah, different message toMoses, a different message to
the different prophets.
But he has spoken in these lastdays through Jesus Christ.
God reveals himself to mankindand has done so many times, many
(09:11):
ways, and to many people.
Think of it.
God reached down into creationto lowly sinful men and spoke to
prophets who wrote down hiswords.
We can read the very words ofGod.
Other false gods are silent.
(09:32):
They don't speak, they can'tgive revelation.
Then in verse two, God spokemany ways in the past, but now
has spoken through Jesus.
Verse 2 calls the church age thelast days, it says God spoke in
many ways in the past, but we'rein the last days.
Then if that's the case, thenJesus is the final revelation.
(09:57):
After Jesus, God sent noadditional prophets because
Christ is the pinnacle of God'smessage.
Therefore, anyone who comesalong today claiming to have new
revelation in the same sense ofa prophet of God, then we can be
sure that person is a falseprophet simply because we are in
(10:18):
the last days.
Sometimes, Steve, I've hadpeople ask me, Do you think
we're in the last days?
And the real answer is yes, weare in the last days, and we've
been in the last days sinceChrist came the first time, and
we're going to stay in the lastdays until he comes back again,
because we are in the churchage, which is the last days.
(10:39):
There's been many people in eachgeneration who have all thought
Christ was about to come.
And so far, they've all beenwrong.
But the Bible does tell us weare in the last days, are we
not?
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
We're in the last days because the Messiah has
come.
And that was the teaching fromthe Old Testament prophets that
when the Messiah comes, that itwould be the last days, he was
going to come to usher in themessianic kingdom.
So a little bit of groundwork.
You and I, Glenn, as Gentiles,and because we are going through
(11:14):
the New Testament here, we usethe term Jesus Christ because
that is what is put through inthe English translation of the
Greek.
Christ is a transliteration ofthe Greek word Christos.
Christos in Greek means anointedone.
In the Old Testament, that wordMessiah, the Hebrew word behind
(11:37):
it, means the anointed one.
So whenever we use the wordmessiah and the word Christ,
they're both the same word.
They're saying the same thing.
They're saying the anointed one.
We say Jesus Christ.
In Hebrew, they would say YeshuaHamashiach, Jesus the Messiah.
(11:58):
So I wanted to lay thatgroundwork.
Anytime that we're using theword Christ, we're talking about
the Messiah, the anointed one.
As the author puts here in verseone, that he spoke through many
prophets, many portions, manyways.
God always gave progressiverevelation.
He never gave one prophet thefull revelation.
(12:22):
And that's why it's important, Ithink, Glenn, for us to study
the Old Testament and the OldTestament prophets.
Because as you study them, youget a complete picture of what
God was trying to communicate.
With some of the prophets likeHaggai, he only spoke for a
month.
With other prophets likeEzekiel, it was 14 years.
(12:44):
Then you have other prophetslike Daniel and Jeremiah, and
God spoke through them prettymuch their lifetime.
So verse one, he spoke throughmany prophets in many portions
in many ways.
Then in verse two, as youpointed out, but now in these
last days, he has spoken throughhis son.
And the actual Greek theredoesn't have a definite article.
(13:08):
Some translations will say spokein a son, spoke through the son.
Here in our translation, it saysin his son, but the actual Greek
just says in Son.
So as to the poetic languagethat you began with, we also
have this thought here that theauthor is getting to is that in
(13:29):
the past, God spoke throughseveral different ways and
different prophets to mankind.
But now, in these last days, nowthat Jesus has come, the
Messiah, he spoke in Son.
It's the Son, S-O-N, that He isspeaking to mankind.
(13:50):
So we have the New Testament,the Gospels that speak of what
Jesus did.
That is the way that God hasfinally spoken to man.
And as you pointed out earlier,there are no more prophetic
revelations or anything elselike that.
God has spoken the last of it inSon.
(14:10):
And the last revelation we haveis the revelation of Jesus
Christ itself in the book ofRevelation.
So it's just really, again, thisvery rich language here in
Hebrews, in this very firstphrase, there's so much packed
into it of not only the poetryand the ideas that it's getting
(14:32):
across, but also the theology.
It's just tremendous.
SPEAKER_01 (14:35):
The language in Hebrews is both deep theological
teaching and this wonderfulpoetic language.
And it's lifting up Jesus as thebest thing that is in the
universe.
He is better, he is higher, heis God.
And one of the places where hestarts off immediately telling
(14:58):
us he's God is in verse two,these last days spoken to us in
his son.
Now, this idea of the son of Godgets lost in the modern ear
simply because we think of Jesusas the son of God as being
different than God.
And that's not really what theterm means, especially in the
(15:19):
ancient days.
Most modern people don't graspthe significance of when he says
he's the son of God.
To give you the significance,the apostle John gives us a very
clear explanation of what itmeant to be called the Son of
God.
In John chapter 5, the Jewishleaders were attempting to kill
(15:41):
Jesus.
The inspired apostle in John 5gives us the reason why.
John's commentary was this.
He says, Quote, For this reason,therefore, the Jews were seeking
all the more to kill him,because he not only was breaking
the Sabbath, but also wascalling God his own father,
making himself equal with God.
(16:04):
That's in John 5.18.
So when he says, I am the Sonand God is my father, according
to the inspired apostle, that ismaking himself equal with God.
So when it says here in Hebrews1:2 that he spoke through the
son, well, being the son is God.
(16:28):
The son is the same as thefather in the sense of both
being God.
It goes back to a Lord, a largelandowner.
The son is in the family of theowner.
So he is an equal authority.
That's a human example, butthat's the sense here.
When he says the son of God,it's a claim to the deity of
(16:50):
Christ.
And John 5.18 makes this quiteclear.
So then in verse two, it alsosays he is the heir of all
things.
So question, Steve, when it saysJesus is the heir of all things,
how much of the created worlddoes that entail?
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
It's another example of where all means all, I think.
It says all things.
So it's it's all of theuniverse, all of creation here
on earth.
It's everything.
All means all.
SPEAKER_01 (17:17):
And when it says the heir of all things, everything
that is a thing is his.
Jesus inherits all things.
That means he inherits all ofcreation.
He is Lord over heaven andearth.
This phrase, heir of all things,is yet another claim for Jesus
to be supreme over the entireuniverse.
(17:38):
There's nothing above him.
He is the highest.
And this author of Hebrews isholding angels as we're going to
get to the latter parts of thechapter.
Angels is the highest of thecreated beings.
Jesus is heir of even theangels, heir of all things, all
of the world and all of theheavens.
(18:00):
He alone is worthy.
There is only one supreme overall things, and that is God.
So when he is heir of allthings, he is God.
Says also through whom he alsomade the world.
And Steve, you made the allusionearlier to Colossians.
There's several of theseconcepts, especially in chapter
one of Hebrews, that followalong with what is taught in the
(18:23):
book of Colossians.
Colossians 1.17 says all ofcreation was made by him,
through him, and for him.
Hebrews 1.2 agrees withColossians in that Jesus is the
means through which the worldswere made.
The Greek term here istranslated world, actually means
(18:43):
ages.
Jesus was created all the ages,past, present, and future.
Jesus is the author of eternity.
Steve, how great is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00 (18:55):
He is the greatest of all.
And we get this sense throughColossians and the first part of
John, and now here with Hebrews,that Jesus is everything to us.
Everything was created by him,for him.
He holds everything together.
Colossians also makes thatclear.
In the Old Testament, as Imentioned before, God coming
(19:18):
down in the form of a human.
You and I, through our studies,would look at that and we would
call those Christophanies.
Those would be times wheneverthe second person of the Trinity
shows up in the form of a man.
You start to formulate throughscripture that the second person
in the Trinity is overeverything regarding us as
(19:41):
humankind.
He is the one that putseverything together.
So really that shows Jesus'deity, that he is God, but we
have this second person who verymuch so gets involved in
creation himself.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
In the middle of verse three, not only does Jesus
make the world, but he alsosustains it.
It says there, Jesus upholds allthings by the word of his power.
Steve, how much power does ittake to uphold every particle in
the universe with your word?
SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
And also with physics, you begin to understand
that even the very tiniestthings in the universe, atoms,
are complicated andsophisticated, that there is
something there that holds themtogether.
The physicist can't describewhat it is, but there is
something there that holds ittogether.
(20:50):
Well, we know scripture tells usthat it is Jesus Himself that is
holding everything together.
So it's God Himself is thecreator and also the sustainer,
and also the one that holdseverything together in Jesus
Christ.
That is what Scripture tells us.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
The middle of verse three says Jesus holds all
things by the word of his power.
We made the allusion toColossians a while ago.
Colossians says in 117 that inhim all things hold together.
So one of the additionalsupports for the inspiration of
the Bible is that the booksalign with their teaching, even
(21:33):
though written by differentpeople in different times.
Hebrews continues this loftydescription of the deity of
Christ.
In verse three, it says he isthe radiance of his glory.
This is really up here in a veryhigh concept.
Here, the word radiance meansthe pinnacle or the fulfillment.
(21:54):
Saying that Jesus is theradiance of God's glory.
I was trying to find anillustration I could use to try
to communicate the significanceof this.
Think of the radiance of hisglory would be the equivalent of
saying that if you had thestrongest person in the world,
Jesus is the strength of thestrongest person.
(22:15):
Jesus is what makes God strong.
The highest wisdom of the wisestGod, Jesus would be what makes
God wise.
The goodness that makes up God'smorality, Jesus would be what
makes God good.
Saying that Jesus is theradiance of God's glory is to
say that Jesus is what makes Godglorious.
(22:38):
He is what makes the glory shinethrough.
No created being could say this.
Think of what it would soundlike if we were to say something
like, without Michael thearchangel, God would not be as
glorious as God would normallybe.
But it's Michael that makes Godfully glorious.
(22:58):
That would be blasphemy.
And you could take that with anyof God's attributes: God's
wisdom, his strength, his power,his glory in this case.
So to say that Jesus is thehighest pinnacle, the eminence
of God's glory is to say that heis God.
No created being could be saidto be the one that fulfills an
(23:22):
attribute of God, because onlyGod has infinite attributes.
So this is yet another claim forthe deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_00 (23:30):
I think this is also referencing the transfiguration.
The disciples that were there onthe mountaintop saw the actual
glory of Jesus whenever he letthe cloak of his human form
down.
They saw the radiance.
The Sekina glory is what therabbis have come up with to
(23:51):
describe the glory of God.
When we went through Ezekiel,the very first chapter had all
of this wonderful description.
And you and I really came downto the fact that it's just God
in his glory showing up.
Moses was up on the mountain.
When he came back down, his facewas glowing as a reflection of
the glory of God as he talkedand conversed with God up on
(24:16):
Mount Sinai.
So I think those aremanifestations of what the
author here is saying in versethree and the radiance of his
glory.
It's the Shekinah glory of God.
And the Shekinah glory is alwaystalking about in person, that
God in person is shown throughthe Shekinah glory.
And I think the author is makingthe very much the connection
(24:39):
between the Shekinah glory ofGod and Jesus Himself.
They're once again puttingtogether that Jesus is deity.
Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
We're going a little slow.
We didn't get very far, but boy,is this rich.
It's wonderful information here.
You're going to need your wingsagain next time because we're
still going to be soaring in theheights of the book of Hebrews.
We trust that you'll be backwith us again next time to
reason through the book ofHebrews.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
I hope you have your wings with you today.
We're starting at chapter one,verse one of the book of
Hebrews.
This book starts off on amountaintop and it very rarely
comes down into the valleys.
It occasionally touches down tothe ground with some warnings,
but the majority of the bookstays way up in the clouds,
(00:38):
giving us wonderful high praisesfor Jesus.
The beauty of this book is alittle intimidating.
The concepts are so lofty, butthe doctrine is also very heavy.
We're always told the higher yougo, the thinner the air gets.
But way up here where we'regoing to be, the air is very
(00:58):
rich and very nourishing.
We are reasoning through theBible.
And as we said, if you have yourBible, open it to the book of
Hebrews.
This first chapter of Hebrewsincludes a lot of doctrine about
the person of Jesus.
As a matter of fact, most of thebook is really about Jesus, on
how he is better, a moreexcellent way.
(01:20):
The deity of Christ is presentedhere in this first chapter in a
handful of ways.
The opening verse doesn't startlike one of the epistles.
The book opens up like atreatise or a theological book.
Personally, I feel a littleintimidated trying to teach this
book simply because the conceptsare so lofty and the doctrine is
(01:45):
so wonderful and deep that it'sgoing to be very difficult to
communicate both the theologyand the poetic literary beauty
of this book.
The writer in this first chapterquotes the Old Testament seven
times.
And there's many, many quotes ofthe Old Testament through this
book.
The author of Hebrews knew agreat deal about the Greek
(02:07):
language and the details of theOld Testament Jewish law and
customs.
So let's go ahead and dive in.
Steve, can you read the firstfour verses of Hebrews chapter
one?
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the
prophets in many portions and inmany ways, in these last days
has spoken to us in his son,whom he appointed heir of all
things, through whom also hemade the world.
And he is the radiance of hisglory and the exact
(02:40):
representation of his nature,and upholds all things by the
word of his power.
When he had made purification ofsins, he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high,having become as much better
than the angels, as he hasinherited a more excellent name
than they.
SPEAKER_01 (03:01):
The beginning of this book in our English
translation starts off with Godand what he has done.
But in the Greek, we reallydon't get the beauty of the
language that happens.
The Greek starts off with thiswonderful poetic alliteration:
holumeros, holotropos palai.
It's an alliteration.
These verses are just sowonderful.
(03:24):
Steve, what do you think of whenyou read these first verses of
this book?
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
What I see, Glenn, is that there's some consistency
with the beginning of this book,with the beginning of John.
There's also a parallel to thebook of Colossians.
As we go through here, as youmentioned in the introduction,
there's a lot of quotes from theOld Testament.
So what one of the things I seeis not just the language that
(03:52):
you pointed out, but it's theconsistency between the New
Testament and the Old Testament.
It's the way to study God's wordin that these books that we have
are not just haphazardly puttogether.
You and I believe that the HolySpirit inspired all of these
authors, but we have a total of66 books between the Old and New
(04:15):
Testament, written overthousands of years, put together
by myriads of authors.
And to me, it's just miraculous,really, that we have this
consistency between thesevarious books.
It shows to me that there is onebeing behind the message that
comes out of all of these books.
SPEAKER_01 (04:36):
The first verse here in our translation says, God,
after he spoke long ago to thefathers and the prophets in many
portions and many ways.
So the book starts off with Godreaching down and speaking to
us.
Just that concept alone istremendous.
We have a God who has reacheddown into creation and spoken,
(04:59):
not just once, but many timesand in many ways.
These first verses tell us thatGod exists, God spoke, and how
this is the final revelation ofChrist.
But think of it, we don't haveto go somewhere to a temple and
bring some sort of sacrifice andpray for a very long time or
(05:23):
yell very loudly to get ourGod's attention.
He spoke to us.
There's many gods in many otherreligions that they don't speak.
In fact, they're quite silent.
But we have a God who hasreached down into creation and
has spoken many times in manyways.
I think of when he spoke toAbraham in visions, he spoke to
(05:48):
Balaam through a donkey, and hespoke to Moses in a burning
bush, and he spoke to Moses onthe top of Mount Sinai.
He spoke to Elijah out of awhirlwind, but it was a still
small voice.
So one of the questions, Steve,does God still give us guidance
and direction today?
It's not the same as a biblicalprophet, but we have the Holy
(06:11):
Spirit that can speak to ustoday, can he not?
SPEAKER_00 (06:13):
That is one of the great things that has been left
behind for us as Jesus ascended.
Jesus said, I must go so that hemight come, speaking of the Holy
Spirit.
So we have this assurance andguidance of the Holy Spirit that
is with us as believers.
And God spoke to mankind in allof those ways that you
(06:35):
mentioned, Glenn, but he alsospoke to mankind in human form.
If you remember when Joshua wasgoing into the promised land and
he was looking over Jericho andhe saw this man that was
standing there in armor and witha sword, he went up to him and
said, Who are you?
Are you with them or are youwith us?
(06:57):
And the man turned around andsaid, You don't understand.
I'm here to lead you in.
I'm the captain of the host.
There were other times wheneverwe see God in a human form speak
to various people in the OldTestament.
So not only does he come in thevarious ways that you talked
about, but he also showed up inthe Old Testament in human form.
(07:20):
And of course, it's in the NewTestament, we see God in the
human form of Jesus, theMessiah.
So it is a great thing that Godhas gone to these extents to
talk to his creation,communicate with them, even to
the point that he came totabernacle among us, as John put
(07:42):
it, to dwell among his creation.
And as we'll see in the laterchapters of Hebrews, that he
laid down his life and he becamethe satisfactory sacrifice so
that humankind might be able tohave eternal life.
It's such a great, great thing.
And this is just the first verseof the chapter of Hebrews.
(08:05):
It's going to be a great study.
SPEAKER_01 (08:07):
Really, not even the first verse, the first phrase
starts off with this very lofty,solid theological foundation.
God reached down into creationand spoke.
He gave his word to us.
The Bible is not a collection ofhuman-inspired stories, nor is
our God silent, nor is hedistant.
(08:29):
God spoke to our fathers and theprophets.
The old King James puts this avery interesting way.
It says, God, who at sundrytimes and diverse manners spoke
to the prophets and the fathers.
So in the past, God has spokenand given different messages to
different people at differenttimes.
(08:50):
He gave a different message toAbraham, a different message to
Elijah, different message toMoses, a different message to
the different prophets.
But he has spoken in these lastdays through Jesus Christ.
God reveals himself to mankindand has done so many times, many
(09:11):
ways, and to many people.
Think of it.
God reached down into creationto lowly sinful men and spoke to
prophets who wrote down hiswords.
We can read the very words ofGod.
Other false gods are silent.
(09:32):
They don't speak, they can'tgive revelation.
Then in verse two, God spokemany ways in the past, but now
has spoken through Jesus.
Verse 2 calls the church age thelast days, it says God spoke in
many ways in the past, but we'rein the last days.
Then if that's the case, thenJesus is the final revelation.
(09:57):
After Jesus, God sent noadditional prophets because
Christ is the pinnacle of God'smessage.
Therefore, anyone who comesalong today claiming to have new
revelation in the same sense ofa prophet of God, then we can be
sure that person is a falseprophet simply because we are in
(10:18):
the last days.
Sometimes, Steve, I've hadpeople ask me, Do you think
we're in the last days?
And the real answer is yes, weare in the last days, and we've
been in the last days sinceChrist came the first time, and
we're going to stay in the lastdays until he comes back again,
because we are in the churchage, which is the last days.
(10:39):
There's been many people in eachgeneration who have all thought
Christ was about to come.
And so far, they've all beenwrong.
But the Bible does tell us weare in the last days, are we
not?
SPEAKER_00 (10:52):
We're in the last days because the Messiah has
come.
And that was the teaching fromthe Old Testament prophets that
when the Messiah comes, that itwould be the last days, he was
going to come to usher in themessianic kingdom.
So a little bit of groundwork.
You and I, Glenn, as Gentiles,and because we are going through
(11:14):
the New Testament here, we usethe term Jesus Christ because
that is what is put through inthe English translation of the
Greek.
Christ is a transliteration ofthe Greek word Christos.
Christos in Greek means anointedone.
In the Old Testament, that wordMessiah, the Hebrew word behind
(11:37):
it, means the anointed one.
So whenever we use the wordmessiah and the word Christ,
they're both the same word.
They're saying the same thing.
They're saying the anointed one.
We say Jesus Christ.
In Hebrew, they would say YeshuaHamashiach, Jesus the Messiah.
(11:58):
So I wanted to lay thatgroundwork.
Anytime that we're using theword Christ, we're talking about
the Messiah, the anointed one.
As the author puts here in verseone, that he spoke through many
prophets, many portions, manyways.
God always gave progressiverevelation.
He never gave one prophet thefull revelation.
(12:22):
And that's why it's important, Ithink, Glenn, for us to study
the Old Testament and the OldTestament prophets.
Because as you study them, youget a complete picture of what
God was trying to communicate.
With some of the prophets likeHaggai, he only spoke for a
month.
With other prophets likeEzekiel, it was 14 years.
(12:44):
Then you have other prophetslike Daniel and Jeremiah, and
God spoke through them prettymuch their lifetime.
So verse one, he spoke throughmany prophets in many portions
in many ways.
Then in verse two, as youpointed out, but now in these
last days, he has spoken throughhis son.
And the actual Greek theredoesn't have a definite article.
(13:08):
Some translations will say spokein a son, spoke through the son.
Here in our translation, it saysin his son, but the actual Greek
just says in Son.
So as to the poetic languagethat you began with, we also
have this thought here that theauthor is getting to is that in
(13:29):
the past, God spoke throughseveral different ways and
different prophets to mankind.
But now, in these last days, nowthat Jesus has come, the
Messiah, he spoke in Son.
It's the Son, S-O-N, that He isspeaking to mankind.
(13:50):
So we have the New Testament,the Gospels that speak of what
Jesus did.
That is the way that God hasfinally spoken to man.
And as you pointed out earlier,there are no more prophetic
revelations or anything elselike that.
God has spoken the last of it inSon.
(14:10):
And the last revelation we haveis the revelation of Jesus
Christ itself in the book ofRevelation.
So it's just really, again, thisvery rich language here in
Hebrews, in this very firstphrase, there's so much packed
into it of not only the poetryand the ideas that it's getting
(14:32):
across, but also the theology.
It's just tremendous.
SPEAKER_01 (14:35):
The language in Hebrews is both deep theological
teaching and this wonderfulpoetic language.
And it's lifting up Jesus as thebest thing that is in the
universe.
He is better, he is higher, heis God.
And one of the places where hestarts off immediately telling
(14:58):
us he's God is in verse two,these last days spoken to us in
his son.
Now, this idea of the son of Godgets lost in the modern ear
simply because we think of Jesusas the son of God as being
different than God.
And that's not really what theterm means, especially in the
(15:19):
ancient days.
Most modern people don't graspthe significance of when he says
he's the son of God.
To give you the significance,the apostle John gives us a very
clear explanation of what itmeant to be called the Son of
God.
In John chapter 5, the Jewishleaders were attempting to kill
(15:41):
Jesus.
The inspired apostle in John 5gives us the reason why.
John's commentary was this.
He says, Quote, For this reason,therefore, the Jews were seeking
all the more to kill him,because he not only was breaking
the Sabbath, but also wascalling God his own father,
making himself equal with God.
(16:04):
That's in John 5.18.
So when he says, I am the Sonand God is my father, according
to the inspired apostle, that ismaking himself equal with God.
So when it says here in Hebrews1:2 that he spoke through the
son, well, being the son is God.
(16:28):
The son is the same as thefather in the sense of both
being God.
It goes back to a Lord, a largelandowner.
The son is in the family of theowner.
So he is an equal authority.
That's a human example, butthat's the sense here.
When he says the son of God,it's a claim to the deity of
(16:50):
Christ.
And John 5.18 makes this quiteclear.
So then in verse two, it alsosays he is the heir of all
things.
So question, Steve, when it saysJesus is the heir of all things,
how much of the created worlddoes that entail?
SPEAKER_00 (17:05):
It's another example of where all means all, I think.
It says all things.
So it's it's all of theuniverse, all of creation here
on earth.
It's everything.
All means all.
SPEAKER_01 (17:17):
And when it says the heir of all things, everything
that is a thing is his.
Jesus inherits all things.
That means he inherits all ofcreation.
He is Lord over heaven andearth.
This phrase, heir of all things,is yet another claim for Jesus
to be supreme over the entireuniverse.
(17:38):
There's nothing above him.
He is the highest.
And this author of Hebrews isholding angels as we're going to
get to the latter parts of thechapter.
Angels is the highest of thecreated beings.
Jesus is heir of even theangels, heir of all things, all
of the world and all of theheavens.
(18:00):
He alone is worthy.
There is only one supreme overall things, and that is God.
So when he is heir of allthings, he is God.
Says also through whom he alsomade the world.
And Steve, you made the allusionearlier to Colossians.
There's several of theseconcepts, especially in chapter
one of Hebrews, that followalong with what is taught in the
(18:23):
book of Colossians.
Colossians 1.17 says all ofcreation was made by him,
through him, and for him.
Hebrews 1.2 agrees withColossians in that Jesus is the
means through which the worldswere made.
The Greek term here istranslated world, actually means
(18:43):
ages.
Jesus was created all the ages,past, present, and future.
Jesus is the author of eternity.
Steve, how great is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00 (18:55):
He is the greatest of all.
And we get this sense throughColossians and the first part of
John, and now here with Hebrews,that Jesus is everything to us.
Everything was created by him,for him.
He holds everything together.
Colossians also makes thatclear.
In the Old Testament, as Imentioned before, God coming
(19:18):
down in the form of a human.
You and I, through our studies,would look at that and we would
call those Christophanies.
Those would be times wheneverthe second person of the Trinity
shows up in the form of a man.
You start to formulate throughscripture that the second person
in the Trinity is overeverything regarding us as
(19:41):
humankind.
He is the one that putseverything together.
So really that shows Jesus'deity, that he is God, but we
have this second person who verymuch so gets involved in
creation himself.
SPEAKER_01 (19:58):
In the middle of verse three, not only does Jesus
make the world, but he alsosustains it.
It says there, Jesus upholds allthings by the word of his power.
Steve, how much power does ittake to uphold every particle in
the universe with your word?
SPEAKER_00 (20:28):
And also with physics, you begin to understand
that even the very tiniestthings in the universe, atoms,
are complicated andsophisticated, that there is
something there that holds themtogether.
The physicist can't describewhat it is, but there is
something there that holds ittogether.
(20:50):
Well, we know scripture tells usthat it is Jesus Himself that is
holding everything together.
So it's God Himself is thecreator and also the sustainer,
and also the one that holdseverything together in Jesus
Christ.
That is what Scripture tells us.
SPEAKER_01 (21:10):
The middle of verse three says Jesus holds all
things by the word of his power.
We made the allusion toColossians a while ago.
Colossians says in 117 that inhim all things hold together.
So one of the additionalsupports for the inspiration of
the Bible is that the booksalign with their teaching, even
(21:33):
though written by differentpeople in different times.
Hebrews continues this loftydescription of the deity of
Christ.
In verse three, it says he isthe radiance of his glory.
This is really up here in a veryhigh concept.
Here, the word radiance meansthe pinnacle or the fulfillment.
(21:54):
Saying that Jesus is theradiance of God's glory.
I was trying to find anillustration I could use to try
to communicate the significanceof this.
Think of the radiance of hisglory would be the equivalent of
saying that if you had thestrongest person in the world,
Jesus is the strength of thestrongest person.
(22:15):
Jesus is what makes God strong.
The highest wisdom of the wisestGod, Jesus would be what makes
God wise.
The goodness that makes up God'smorality, Jesus would be what
makes God good.
Saying that Jesus is theradiance of God's glory is to
say that Jesus is what makes Godglorious.
(22:38):
He is what makes the glory shinethrough.
No created being could say this.
Think of what it would soundlike if we were to say something
like, without Michael thearchangel, God would not be as
glorious as God would normallybe.
But it's Michael that makes Godfully glorious.
(22:58):
That would be blasphemy.
And you could take that with anyof God's attributes: God's
wisdom, his strength, his power,his glory in this case.
So to say that Jesus is thehighest pinnacle, the eminence
of God's glory is to say that heis God.
No created being could be saidto be the one that fulfills an
(23:22):
attribute of God, because onlyGod has infinite attributes.
So this is yet another claim forthe deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_00 (23:30):
I think this is also referencing the transfiguration.
The disciples that were there onthe mountaintop saw the actual
glory of Jesus whenever he letthe cloak of his human form
down.
They saw the radiance.
The Sekina glory is what therabbis have come up with to
(23:51):
describe the glory of God.
When we went through Ezekiel,the very first chapter had all
of this wonderful description.
And you and I really came downto the fact that it's just God
in his glory showing up.
Moses was up on the mountain.
When he came back down, his facewas glowing as a reflection of
the glory of God as he talkedand conversed with God up on
(24:16):
Mount Sinai.
So I think those aremanifestations of what the
author here is saying in versethree and the radiance of his
glory.
It's the Shekinah glory of God.
And the Shekinah glory is alwaystalking about in person, that
God in person is shown throughthe Shekinah glory.
And I think the author is makingthe very much the connection
(24:39):
between the Shekinah glory ofGod and Jesus Himself.
They're once again puttingtogether that Jesus is deity.
Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01 (24:50):
We're going a little slow.
We didn't get very far, but boy,is this rich.
It's wonderful information here.
You're going to need your wingsagain next time because we're
still going to be soaring in theheights of the book of Hebrews.
We trust that you'll be backwith us again next time to
reason through the book ofHebrews.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Thank you so much for watching and listening.
May God bless you.
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