Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20101013.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Hebrews: The Superiority Of Christ To Errant Religions
Part I: The Superiority Of Christ's Revelation To All Other Religious Revelations
(Hebrews 1:1-3)
  1. Introduction
    1. Various ministries, professed messengers of God, prophets, revelations by way of visions or dreams on the religious landscape call for the attention of people to heed them for the "real" divine truth.
    2. The recipients of the Epistle to the Hebrews faced a form of errant Judaism that beckoned them to leave Christianity and return to Judaism (Hebrews 13:9-10), and its message is relevant for our needs as well:
  2. The Superiority Of Christ's Revelation To All Other Religious Revelations, Hebrews 1:1-3.
    1. Before the earthly life of Christ, God communicated His truth through other ways and means, Heb. 1:1-2a:
      1. God had communicated to man His truth in the ages before Christ's life at different times, Heb. 1:1a.
      2. God had communicated His truth with various ways and means before Christ's life, Hebrews 1:1b:
        1. God used dreams to communicate some of His truths in the Old Testament, cf. Genesis 28:10-16.
        2. God communicated His will to Israel through use of the Urim and Thummim that were stored in the Hebrew high priest's breastpiece pouch, cf. Numbers 27:21 with Exodus 28:15-16, 30.
        3. God even spoke face-to-face with Moses unlike He did with any other prophet, Numbers 12:7-8.
        4. God used prophetic visions or dreams to give His truth to the prophets, Numbers 12:6; Heb. 1:1b.
    2. However, in communicating His truth through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:2a), God the Father gave us His unsurpassed revelation because of the qualities of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, Hebrews 1:2b-3:
      1. God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to reveal His truth in His words and works that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy on His coming, Heb. 1:2a with Isa. 9:1-2 and Mtt. 11:2-6 with Isa. 35:5 and 61:1.
      2. This revelation was far superior to all the other methods and means because of the quality of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, God the Son, as described at length in Hebrews 1:2b-3 (and elsewhere):
        1. Jesus is the huios, the adult son (in contrast to paidion, a young child, cf. Arndt & Gingrich, A Greek-English Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 609) Who is coequal and co-eternal with the Father as God Incarnate, Hebrews 1:2b and John 5:18; U. B. S. Greek New Testament, 1966, p. 747.
        2. Jesus is appointed by the Father as Heir of all the universe in superiority to all others, Hebrews 1:2c.
        3. By Jesus, God the Father created (literally) the "ages" (aionas), the word "including time, space and the material world," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Hebrews 1:2d. [Note how John 1:3 adds to this claim that all things that were ever created were created by Christ!]
        4. Furthermore, Jesus radiates God the Father's own glory as God Himself, Heb. 1:3a. (Colossians 2:9)
        5. Also, Christ is the "express image of" the Father's person, "the exact representation of His being" (NIV), Hebrews 1:3b. There is no escaping the fact that the author of Hebrews is claiming Jesus to be fully God with the same essence and attributes as God the Father!
        6. Indeed, Christ currently upholds the existing universe by the word of His power, Hebrews 1:3c. That is, when we read in Genesis 1 that God repeatedly "said", and what was spoken came into being, God the Son was the Speaker, and that Universe is currently continuing to exist by the very sustaining power of His Genesis 1 words spoken 6,000 years ago that called it all to into existence!
        7. This same God the Son as God in the flesh, or God Incarnate, by Himself purged our sins as believers by His work on the cross in our place as our Substitutionary Atonement, Hebrews 1:3d!
        8. Having finished this salvation provision work, Jesus is now ascended into heaven and is seated at the Father's right hand in glory and honor, and He controls and is supreme over the entire universe, Hebrews 1:3e with Ephesians 1:20-23.
    3. By application in this context, then, the revelation of Christ far surpasses any communication of God in dreams, in visions, in the use of the Urim and Thummim, in the prophets or in Moses.
Lesson: Due to the infinite supremacy of Christ over all, the revelation we have from Him as recorded in Scripture infinitely surpasses in authority and value all other even alleged divine revelations.

Application: (1) May we subject ALL OTHER alleged communications of God to the words of Christ as revealed in His Word unto us, Isaiah 8:20; 9:1-2, 6. (2) May we test all other communications by Him!