Heirs

Hebrews 1:1-2
 

Welcome to our new series on the book of Hebrews! If you have seen the outline of this series you know that we are going to take about 3½ months to go through the book, and that, once we get past the first two weeks, we will cover roughly a chapter a week. But these verse two weeks, we are only covering a few verses. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it is good to gain some background before doing a deep dive into Hebrews. Hebrews builds strongly on the Old Testament, particularly on the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah, and second, we happen to be at the place on our calendar where we especially commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. And so these first two messages will go slowly into Hebrews so that we can talk about these other things as well.
 
Now, I want to start today by showing you the first two verses of Hebrews up front – so here they are:
 
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. – Hebrews 1:1-2
 
Wow – that is a power-packed, weighty sentence, right at the beginning. Whoever wrote the book of Hebrews apparently didn’t have use for traditional introductions. If you look at the letters of Paul, Peter, and James, you see pattern. It starts with who the letter is from, usually describing something about this person, as how they are related to Christ – and this is interesting, because in traditional letters of that time, one would include in the “from” some connection with their families, especially if they were well-regarded, and also include their titles. The New Testament letter writers instead chose to only focus on Christ, and this shows how they viewed their “traditional” connections or honors as meaningless compared to their being servants of Christ, called by Him, made members of His family, etc. The second part of an introduction would normally be who the letter was to, whether an individual or a group or even the broad category of all believers in Christ. Traditional letters from that time would also have a “to” section. And most of the New Testament letters then had a greeting statement, again, similar to other letters of that time, except that this greeting would be in the name of Christ.
 
But here, in Hebrews, all of that is missing. As a result, we don’t even know who the author of the book of Hebrews was, although it is pretty clear from context that it was either Paul, or, more likely – in my opinion – someone working closely with Paul, someone who was Jewish and who knew the Old Testament scriptures extremely well, and also someone who knew the people that he was writing to. I don’t think there is really much point trying to guess who this might have been, but it is also clear from the context the letter that the letter was written sometime between the resurrection of Christ and the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Based on a statement in Hebrews that the intended audience should have been a lot more mature in the Lord by now, I think it is likely that the date was much closer to AD 70 than it was to the date of the resurrection.
 
Again, we don’t have a traditional greeting, so we don’t know for sure who the letter was written to, but again, there is a lot we can figure out from the context of the letter. Given the deep emphasis on Old Testament concepts, it was clearly written to a group of Jewish people that included Jewish believers, and again, given what the letter says, we know it was not a group of people who personally had been with Jesus. Most likely it was not Jews within Israel at all, but in some other community. We know from the letter that these Jews were experiencing some degree of persecution for their faith.
 
Now, this is really a point for later in the book, but I think it is worth saying here. It is a mistake of interpretation to assume that everyone in the group was a true believer in Christ, that is, was someone who had personally been what the Bible calls “born again,” someone who had personally prayed a prayer of repentance and commitment to follow God, through Jesus, by faith, making Him the Lord of their life. There were, among the believers, others who were at various preliminary steps into this journey of faith. There were no doubt some who had some degree of intellectual belief, but not yet a conversion of the heart, a conversion of the will. And there were others, also Jews, who did not really believe at all, but were still a part of this community.
 
If we step back and think about this for a moment, we should not be surprised by this. What I have described, apart from the Jewish aspect of it, describes most churches, most local bodies or communities of Christians throughout the world, not only today, but for the past two thousand years. We have had many people attend this church over the years who were not Christians when they first came here, but who definitely were Christians when they moved away. And it was not here, but at an earlier church that our own Christine Custer has a similar story. She actually went to a Bible study on how to share the gospel, volunteered to be one of the people “practiced on,” so to speak, and through the process, became a believer!
 
And so, it is good to make a mental note that the author of the book of Hebrews at different times in the book speaks to different subgroups of people within the community to whom the book is addressed – those truly born again, those who are what we might call “close”, and those who still have quite a ways to go, so to speak, in terms of the gulf between what they believe (i.e., in self-reliance) and what a Christian believes (in Christ as their personal Savior) and also the gulf between how they live (i.e., by works) and how a Christian lives (by faith).    
 
Now, the book of Hebrews is a book of contrasts between the Old Testament life under the law and the New Testament life of faith in Christ, and we see this contrast brough out in the very first sentence of the book. In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. In the Old Testament we see a pattern – the pattern begins before Moses, but it is really brought out at the time of Moses – a pattern in which God speaks to a representative, someone eventually given the formal title of prophet, and this representative passes on God’s words to the people. At many times, through many people, over many generations, God passed along instructions, praises, and warnings to people through these prophets. These prophets also told of future events – not that I don’t use the word “predicted” because these people did not, in and of themselves, predict anything. They simply passed along what God said would happen. These tellings of future events sometimes came true during the prophet’s lifetimes, and sometimes were fulfilled later. Some are yet to be fulfilled. But many of these accounts found their ultimate fulfillment through Christ, His life, His purpose, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, and His future eternal reign. But note that, as Hebrews uses this word, “prophet” does not only mean one who tells the future – it also describes the many people, including Moses, who told his people how God wanted them to live right then and there.
 
This is important, because the audience to whom this letter was written was wrestling with the question of how they were to live as Jewish followers of Jesus Christ. And so the letter writer begins to answer this in the very first sentence – yes, God spoke to the prophets in the past – He revealed His will and future events to them – but now, we have the words of someone greater to go by – the words of Jesus.
 
The letter writer then provides three ways that Jesus is greater than just a prophet: He is God’s Son, He is God’s appointed Heir of all things, and He is the one through whom God created everything.
 
Let’s look a bit more deeply at each of these three topics. First, Jesus is God’s son. What did that phrase mean to the Jews at that time? It meant the Messiah. This is doubly enforced by the earlier phrase “in these last days”. “Last days” is a reference to the time in which the Messiah would come. Even the Samaritans knew this. Look freshly at the end of the account of the woman at the well, from John 4. Recall the scene: Jesus has sent His disciples into a Samaritan town to buy food. He is outside the town, at a well, and asks a Samaritan woman for water. She is surprised He is asking, because normally, Jews don’t want to associate with Samaritans at all. He tells her that if she knew who she was talking to, she would ask for and He would give her living water. As their conversation continues, He reveals that He knows things about her past and present, and she says that she realizes now that He is a prophet. Their conversation continues, and they talk about what it means to be a true worshipper. Then she says this:
 
“I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am He.” – John 4:25-26
 
Notice again what she says: When Messiah comes, He will explain everything. Compare that with this opening of Hebrews: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.
 
It’s interesting to me that even today, Jews repeat this idea. Growing up, many times I heard it: “When Messiah comes, all will be made clear.” Well, Messiah has come. And indeed, through the Scriptures, what we need to know has been made clear for us. There are of course many things we don’t yet know, but we will have eternity with Him to learn those things.
 
I think it is important to notice the singular tense of “Son.” As the old song goes, Abraham had many sons. But God has one Son. Now Scripture speaks of the sense in which, by faith, all who follow Him become “sons” with Him, but when Scripture is speaking of Jesus as God’s Son, it is speaking not of just another man, but of Jesus’ divine nature as one of the three Persons of God. This is of course hard for us to fully understand, because there is nothing truly like it. All analogies fall short, all break down. But Scripture is abundantly clear there is only one God, but yet, God has? Is? – even the simple verbs fail us here – three Persons.
 
A son is of the same nature as the father. The son of a lion is not a squirrel. The son of a lion is a lion. And in this sense, the Son of God, although He came to earth as a human baby and lived as a human man, is not only a man. He is fully man, but He is also fully God, the same nature as His Father.  
 
Let’s look at the opening verses of Hebrews again:
 
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. – Hebrews 1:1-2
 
Let’s look more deeply at the second statement: He is God’s appointed heir – of all things. Again, this speaks to the uniqueness of Christ – God did not divide His inheritance, because there were no further “children” to give the inheritance to. The Son of God is unique – nothing like a merely human prophet at all.
 
Now, normally, when do heirs receive their inheritance? The answer is that they receive their inheritance upon the death of the one giving the inheritance. This is so normalized in our minds that it seems profoundly wrong if anything else is suggested. Indeed, many aspects of the account of the prodigal son are shocking, but one of them occurs at the very beginning of the account:
 
“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. – Luke 15:11-12
 
This feels all wrong, because it is all wrong. You shouldn’t ask for you inheritance; you should patiently wait to receive it. But equally shocking is the fact that, in this story, the father goes ahead and gives his inheritance.
 
But – try to imagine a world in which Adam never sinned, in which people lived forever. Would there even be inheritances? Suppose there was. Then when would they be given? This is not clear, but one thing is certain: the giver would still be alive when it happened.
 
God, the eternal God, God the Father, appointed Jesus heir of all things. As with the Trinity, there is much that is hard to fully understand here. I do not think this passage means that Jesus took all things away from the Father, leaving the Father with nothing. Again, Jesus and the Father are One. But I do think Scripture is clear that there are differences between the Persons of the Trinity, and Jesus, the Son, obeys the Father in all things. I think again of John 4, when the disciples come back to Jesus after Jesus’ discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well, and the disciples are confused when Jesus says something about already having food that they know nothing about. Jesus then says this:
 
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” – John 4:34
 
The nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son is that the Father expresses His will to the Son, and the Son carries out the Father’s will. The Father then is the one who has all things, who controls them, because He is the one who leads. And one of the Father’s actions is to appoint the Son “heir of all things.”
 
Now, as we are in the week before we celebrate Easter, I think it is good to reflect on both the will of the Father and the obedience of Jesus in the week leading up to the resurrection. For multiple reasons, I believe that Jesus found in this week the greatest challenge He would ever face in continuing to obey the Father’s will.
 
We see evidence of this in the Garden of Gethsemane. From Mark 14:
 
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.” Going a little farther, He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. “Abba, Father,” He said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.” – Mark 14:32-36
 
Luke 22 adds the following:
 
And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. – Luke 22:44
 
The anguish was not because Jesus could not escape from what was about to happen to Him. I believe the anguish was because He could escape, and this was a great temptation to Him. We see a hint of this in John 18:
 
When He had finished praying, Jesus left with His disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and He and His disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed Him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with His disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. – John 18:1-3
 
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am He,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. – John 18:4-6
 
So what happened here? Why did they draw back and fall to the ground? We don’t know the exact reason. Perhaps the Holy Spirit illuminated in them briefly a glimpse of who it was they were approaching – perhaps the way He said “I am He” echoed the voice of God in the burning bush that appeared to Moses, the God who told Moses His name was “I am that I am”. I also think of the angelic army surrounding and protecting Elisha in 2 Kings 6 that God briefly allows Elisha’s servant to see. In short, we don’t know what they saw, or felt, but it is clear that they had a glimpse of something that quite literally stopped them in their tracks. Jesus, at any time, could have done absolutely anything to change the situation, to prevent the arrest. He could have smitten them down with bolts from heaven. He could have instantly transported Himself to another place, even to heaven.
 
But none of these actions would have been the will of the Father. The Father willed that Jesus be arrested, appear before Annas, appear before the Sanhedrin, be condemned by them to death, appear before Pontius Pilate, appear before Herod Antipas, appear before Pilate again and be condemned to die, at various times to be mocked, spit upon, and savagely beaten, and then be marched to Golgotha, to be crucified and experience unimaginable agony with every labored breath, and to die, the Son of God, to die, there on that cross, and there, to experience both the separation from God, and the wrath of God, the punishment of God, for all the sins of mankind from Adam to the last sin of man before the end of days when man at last – those who have given themselves to Christ – will be completed, perfected, and sin no more.
 
I am reminded of many verses, but one of particular poignancy to me is this from John 10:
 
“I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.” – John 10:14-18
 
I am also struck by Jesus’ words “It is finished.” Remember earlier how He said His food was to do the will of His Father and to finish the work? Jesus had finished His race – He had made it to the end of His mission as the Lamb of God, never disobeying in the slightest the will of the Father. He had completed what He had come to Earth to do – to be the vehicle through which God would redeem mankind. And although He wrestled with His future in the Garden, He triumphed, because of His love for the Father, and because of His love for us.
 
Let’s return again to our opening verses of Hebrews:
 
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. – Hebrews 1:1-2
 
God has indeed spoken to us by His Son, not just through the words He said, although there was so much wisdom and depth and life in what He said that we can study it for our entirely lives and never run out of new things to learn. But just like how God spoke through the earlier prophets “at many times and in various ways,” God too spoke through Jesus, not only through His words, but through His actions, and one of the most important messages God sent us through Jesus was the message of the cross.
 
The brutality of the cross teaches us both the seriousness of our rebellion and sin and the incredible depth of love that God has for us in what He was willing to do to bring us back, restored to Him. But it equally teaches us about the greatness of Jesus, who endured the unimaginable by choice. He is the faithful one. He is the perfect one. And even in the middle of a scene so horrible that most onlookers passing by looked away – even the great orator Cicero taught that crucifixion should never be even talked about – in the middle of this horrendous scene, we see that Jesus is the glorious one.
 
As John the Baptist exclaimed,
 
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1:29
 
Notice the image in the background of this slide, the image we will use for the entire series. This is an anchor, but notice its resemblance to the cross. The cross is indeed an anchor for our souls – because Jesus finished the task set before Him. He is indeed the glorious one, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
 
And now let me read from Revelations 5, but join with me in speaking out loud what the various groups say about Jesus. Start speaking when they speak: 
 
And they [the 24 elders] sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” – Revelation 5:9-10
 
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” – Revelation 5:11-12
 
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” – Revelation 5:13
 
This is God’s Son, whom God appointed heir of all things. Let’s come once again to our opening verses in Hebrews.
 
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe. – Hebrews 1:1-2
 
There is one more phrase to discuss: “through whom also He made the universe.” The very opening of John’s gospel brings this up:
 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. – John 1:1-4
 
I’m not sure why I forget this. I tend to think of God the Father as the Creator and Jesus as the Son made Flesh. But, at a minimum, Jesus was the co-creator, although I don’t think this term does the situation justice. I think Jesus carried out God’s will in Creation just like He carried out God’s will on the cross. Again, we get in trouble when we dig too deep trying to understand the Trinity, but I think of it as God is the designer, and Jesus is the builder. Or maybe God is the big picture guy, and Jesus is the engineer. In any case, when Hebrews says it was through the Son that God made the universe, that includes life – it includes us.
 
Colossians 1 goes a bit further:
 
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. – Colossians 1:15-16
 
All things have been created for Him. Wow. So Jesus, Messiah, Son of God is heir of everything, and everything was made for Him in the first place. I feel like this gives us a little peek, a little glimpse into the depths of love that lie within the Trinitarian God. We are told that God is love. Like many things we have discussed today, this is hard to understand. But again, I think we get a glimpse of what it means here.
 
I encourage you, this special week, to focus in your quiet times on the events leading to the cross, and in them, on the greatness of Jesus, the Son of God, heir of all things, and implementer of the creation of the Universe. Allow Him to speak to you, as the prophets did of old, in many ways – through His word, through prayer, and through your actions of response to Him.
 
There is so much more I could have said today – because of Christ we are co-heirs with Him! We could spend another message just beginning to unpack that idea – but I wanted today to just focus on Jesus, rather than on what benefits have been passed down to us. Even if Christ gave us nothing, He would be worthy of eternal praise. Praise Him this week.