Provider

Hebrews 1:1-3
 

Good morning! He is risen! He is risen indeed! Here we are this morning, a body of redeemed believers who have put their faith in Christ as Provider, because it is Christ who has saved us through His willing death on the cross, and we know that His sacrifice on our behalf was accepted by God because God raised Him from the dead. Praise God!
 
Each Easter season I always feel somehow rushed, as if I am hurried along from the cross to the resurrection, but the reality is that the disciples endured three awful days in which the Person they had loved and followed for three years was suddenly and shockingly gone from them. We know how the story turns out, but they did not. On Friday and Saturday and the first part of Sunday, they did not know what the rest of Sunday would look like.  
 
I’m not sure why I am so drawn to thinking about this period of time, but it was what led me a few years ago to write the video drama Rogue Twelve which tells a fictional story of that period of time that is based on the facts that we know in Scripture. The title of the drama reveals that the drama was a literary adaptation of the Star Wars movie Rogue One. If you haven’t seen it and would like to do so, let me know and I should be able to get you a link to it.
 
I don’t know how popular the phrase is, but I have read Max Lucado call the day before the resurrection Silent Saturday. I think it is good for us to reflect on this day, what it was like for the disciples, because it can mirror episodes in our own lives when we experience trials and challenges and begin to wonder, at least a little, if God is listening, and if He is listening, then wondering why He doesn’t act. And in a way, we are in the midst of a 2000-year-long silent Saturday, the age of the church, but also the age of persecution, the age of the Holy Spirit, but also the age of separation from Christ as glorified king, the age of people being born again through faith in Christ, but also the age in which people die and do not yet experience eternity with Christ in the new Kingdom, in the new Earth.
 
I believe experiencing and reflecting on the Silent Saturday prepares us even more for and makes us appreciate even more, Resurrection Sunday. And so, with this in mind, before we look at today’s passage, I invite you to watch the following video, a spoken word poem on the subject by David Wilson, son of Berk Wilson. Berk, if you don’t know him, is the pastor of our sister church in Rayleigh, NC.
 
https://youtu.be/tzE2z-nJtuY
 
“There has never been a sadder day than that wholly silent Saturday, when Jesus cold cadaver lay riddled with holes on a slab in a grave, shrouded and lifeless, battered and weighed down by sweet smelling spices that did nothing to hide this one bitter truth that should still every heart: that the Light of the world lay dead in the dark. With no sound in His chest cavity, His blood listened to gravity and settled in His body making all His skin look pallid. He’d been left there to rot while His ministry atrophied. To be forsaken, forgotten, or remembered with apathy. For His words and His works to be put on a shelf. For what good is a savior who can’t save Himself?
 
“Now imagine being His disciples who’d been dreaming of when the rightful Jewish king would end the bloody cycle of violence by gentile tyrants, a messiah whose arrival would herald the righteous reprisal against all evil, one who would right all the wrongs done to God’s people and free them from their bondage and exile. And this Jesus seemed to bear that title. But with the final breath of Jesus’ death, it was like all the budding hope in their chests had regressed to the mere hope for survival. Their prayers to God had been stifled by the roaring mob and religious rivals who’d just crucified all their hopes and plans and dreams. When their shouts of “Hosanna” were drowned out by screams. And despite all the interceding and tears they cried, their pleading for deliverance was denied with seeming indifference from God on high who simply let it all happen. How could a just God just not take action? For if Yahweh’s been King since before the beginning, then why does it sometimes seem Satan is winning?
 
“So that Sabbath was no day of rest in the heart in the disciples’ chests. With darkened thoughts, they second guessed the sovereign God their lips professed. And, as every disciple becomes like their teacher, His followers mimicked their Lord’s lifeless features: Their blood ran cold at each sound outside, fearing any moment soldiers would come dragging them off to die. And their hearts were pierced with anguish and its beating stopped in dread. For their savior had been vanquished and deliverance was dead. And with a blank and empty stare, all their muscles went tense. For God was silent to their prayers, and they wondered where He went. No words on their lips, no light in their eyes, as they all questioned if this had all been a lie. The one they had hoped would be mighty to save seemed like a sick joke: a corpse in a grave. So as that sun sank in the west, that sinking feeling in their chests filled them with a void whose emptiness couldn’t be avoided. The darkness pressed in all around and bound them in a sorrow that found no hope in tomorrow, only an impending doom, an unending night as dark as the tomb in which Jesus lay. Their way forward was blocked like the rock at the door to Jesus’ sepulcher.  God’s plans were mocked and all they could see was the devil’s work. God’s Word in the flesh lay silent in death. The Lord of the Sabbath had been laid to rest. They’d left everything for Him. He left them bereft. The Resurrection and the Life was killed. The Vine was cut. The Way was shut. The Living Water all dried up. Their many questions but now everything was still. Jesus was still. The stone was till. The night was still. Their prayers were stilled. And God was still.
 
“Still. On. His. Throne!
 
“While the empty questions marked the day and fear spread like a cancer, from the silent depths of the darkest grave, God clearly gave His answer: And when Jesus’ heart beat, He beat back the dark and it retreated. The strength of Satan had been taken and the demons were defeated. For the sound of every pound announced that hell itself was beaten. And when He took His first breath, He took sin’s wages and repaid it. Now sin is removed like east from west. Repenters gain salvation. The Just and Justifier proclaimed emancipation. And abundant grace is received by faith for the debt of death has been taken. And when His eyes opened, He sent an open invitation for all to come and know Him and come alive. For Christ provides the Living Hope to hope in. The blood of the embodied Word of God has firmly spoken. And the curtain torn in two now proves the way to God is open. And as that stone rolled back from the mouth of the grave, the Rock of Ages rolled away the last obstacle that separated Holy God from sinful man. And as the Son arose, He stepped in to the morning, so that mourners now don clothes made of joy in the Lord. He is loving, all knowing, almighty in glory. So be still. And understand: That God grants us the prayers we would have prayed had we seen through His omniscient gaze. So we can look to Him with childlike faith and trust His hidden plan. For if every good gift descends from above, then even God’s answer of “No” is in love. ‘Cause while the disciples had begged for Jesus’ deliverance, God denied their request so that He could deliver us. There has never been a gladder day than that Sunday after Saturday when all the tears of gladness changed to tears of joy and lavish praise. When the empty hush was shattered, day broke forth with Jesus at the grave, a victor breaking captives’ chains, alive and robed in majesty. Now the resurrection has displayed God’s working through the blacker days. For Sunday’s dawning has proclaimed, God moves on Silent Saturdays.”   
 
I find that presentation so powerful, both the performance of it and, more importantly, the content in it. Today, on Resurrection Sunday, we will continue our series in the book of Hebrews by going one single verse further. But most of all, we rejoice because our Savior is risen from the dead. Paul reminds His Corinthian readers of this in I Cor. 15 by quoting a saying that had been formulated, memorized, and passed on by those who almost certainly personally knew the eyewitnesses of the risen Lord:
 
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas [Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles – I Corinthians 15:1-7
 
And Paul follows this by reminding His readers that Christ had also appeared to him. And we know that this event literally turned Paul’s entire life around from being a persecutor of Christians to becoming one of the persecuted, whose ongoing relationship with Christ changed his pride into humility, his hate into love, and his selfish motivations into a willingness to die if it meant that one more person would repent and, through faith, commit their life to Christ. And God used Paul to reach many people for Christ in his life, and countless more through his willingness to be a conduit for God to write to his generation and so many generations after him the letters of the New Testament that come from him.
 
Now we mentioned last week that we don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews, as it does not have the traditional opening section that we see in most other letters. But whether the writer was Paul, one of his proteges, or someone else, the ultimate letter writer of Hebrews is the Holy Spirit. And so let us look at verse three of chapter one of this incredible letter:
 
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 1:3
 
As with the passage last week, we have here lots of deep concepts in a few short words. Let’s start with “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory.” Wow – what a difficult place to start!
 
What is the glory of God? What is glory? I spent a fair amount of time looking for a “perfect” definition and did not find one. But one component of a number of definitions that probably most resonated with me is the idea that glory is like extreme excellence, perfection to the point that it elicits expressions of awe and amazement, and in the case of God, worship.
 
If you think about a quality of God, for example, God’s majesty, you could start by trying to think of the most majestic thing you could imagine on Earth, maybe a king in the most amazing robe you have ever seen, with the most perfect crown; a king who carried himself with incredible presence, appearing, well, regal, and speaking as one with great wisdom, but also great compassion, someone with whom you could immediately tell that if his subjects followed his instructions, they would be the happiest people on Earth. Now try to imagine someone whose majesty was so far beyond this that it made this previous picture look like a drawing made by a two-year old in comparison. Try to imagine Someone so majestic that, somehow, even the stars and planets would somehow come alive and come to Him to bow down to Him, a King so perfect that no person who truly saw Him would ever imagine not pledging their lives to Him and having no will, no desire, other than serving Him in any way He asked, no greater pleasure than being given by Him something to do for Him. That begins to give you a picture of glory in this one area, the area of majesty.
 
God’s glory has this “infinite beyond-ness” aspect to it, not just in one area, but in every aspect of who God is. His goodness, His justice, His holiness, His love, His wisdom, His power, His mercy, His patience, and countless more. One way the Bible communicates God’s glory is to say that to look on Him in His glory would cause you to immediately die. One analogy we might use would be to imagine us only a few feet away from sun in our solar system – we would cease to exist, we would be absorbed or scattered into nothingness in a fraction of a second amidst that unimaginable combination of heat and light.  
 
Now this verse says that the Son is the radiance of God’s glory. This too is hard to understand. I think of this in the following way: If you think about the sun in our solar system again, it has an overwhelming output across the electromagnetic spectrum, including frequencies that we can see as well as many others that we cannot see, frequencies that our above or below our limited range of vision. The radiance of the sun, form our perspective, is the portion of those frequencies that we can see. In the same way, because Jesus put on flesh, became a man, and lived among us, we can see Him in a much more concrete way than we can “see” God the Father. So the Son, Jesus, being the radiance of God’s glory means that, in Jesus, we can see the narrow aspect of God’s vast spectrum of glory that is visible to us.
 
This makes me think of the opening of I John:
 
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. – John 1:1-3  
 
In Jesus, John saw the radiance of God. I am also reminded with Thomas’ experience with Jesus:
 
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” – John 20:24-28
 
One of the things I love about this encounter is how Thomas made his rather foolish declaration, and one whole week later, when Jesus appears, He speaks straight to Thomas as if continuing the conversation from a week ago. I am sure Thomas thought, “Oh, You heard me say that.” Probably this was followed moments later by the thought, “Oh, You hear everything I say.” And although the first thought of such a realization is that, we regret things we have said, and perhaps even fear what God must think of us when we realize this, Jesus does not condemn Thomas. He greets him (and the other disciples) with a greeting of peace. And then, although His words to Thomas may be embarrassing to him, they are without accusation – and although the text does not reveal the one that Jesus uses, Thomas’ response shows us all we need to know – Thomas completely puts himself under Jesus’ command, calling Him Lord, and also, by calling Him “my God,” expresses both an understanding of who Jesus is, as Hebrews puts it, the radiance of God’s glory, and Thomas also worships Him. 
 
Returning to our verse:
 
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 1:3
 
So let us explore the next part of this verse: Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being. The Greek word translated as “exact representation” is very interesting. Before I tell you this word, let me tell you the root word for this word: it is charax, which means something sharpened to a point, like a stake. So what is the Greek word  for “exact representation”? It is charakter, from which we get the English word “character.” Charakter has to do with an item engraved or carved to be a copy or likeness of something else. Now, this does not at all mean that Jesus was created, or carved by God. But what it does mean that when you look at Jesus, you see God Himself.
 
Now what is so interesting about this is how the word “character” has evolved. In its modern use, it only describes people. We can talk about a character in a play, for example. And we have words derived from this word, such as “characteristic” which describes some aspect of something. But most interesting to me is that we use the word “character” to describe something profound about who we are – our character determine how we behave, both in public and in private when nobody is looking. As for the use of the word in this passage, it incorporates all these ideas. Jesus is, indeed, a perfect representation of God, and importantly, this includes God’s character. To know Jesus is to know the Father.
 
I am reminded of one of Jesus’ final conversations with the disciples before the crucifixion:
 
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” – John 14:6-9
 
And yes, there are mysteries here – we know that God is a Trinity, three Persons in one, and we know that there are differences in these Persons. But what we see here is that when it comes to charakter, in both the Greek and English senses, there is perfect likeness. It would be wrong, for example, to view God the Father as more judgmental and Jesus as more loving. They have different roles, different responsibilities, but between them there is perfect likeness.
 
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 1:3
 
The author of Hebrews goes on to describe Jesus as “sustaining all things by His powerful word.” The word for “word” here is rhema, which is different than the word used in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word” – there the word is logos. Rhema, as used here, could also be translated as “command”, as in Jesus “commands all things to be preserved, and thus they are.”
 
John Bullard pointed out to me last week after the message that there are strong connections here to the opening verses of Genesis. God, described as Elohim, a name for God in plural form, says “Let there be light” and so on, and then these things happened. Most interesting to me is how God keeps on saying, in effect, “Let this happen” and “Let that happen” until it comes to man, and then He says, “Let us make mankind in our image; in our likeness.” Note the plural and singular juxtaposition here: Three times in this verse the pronouns are plural; yet image and likeness are singular, further illustrating that Jesus is the exact representation, the charakter of God. And His powerful word is what causes the universe to be and to remain as it is.
 
Let’s go on to first part of the next sentence: Jesus provided purification for sins, that is, He is our provider of purification. The Greek word translated purification means washing, cleansing. It is also used to describe healing a leper. As you know, the way Jesus did this is through the combination of living a life without sin, and then receiving the punishment for the sins of the world through the cross. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, a perfect lamb without spot or blemish in the prime of life, from which those who applied its blood did not receive the punishment of the final plague on Egypt, the plague of death, is a picture of the true Lamb of God. It is profound to me that the three plagues preceding this final plague only applied to Egypt, but this plague of the death (of the firstborn son of each household) applied to everyone, Jew and Egyptian. It wasn’t enough to know about the lamb sacrifice to be protected from the angel of death; one had to personally apply the blood of the lamb to their home. Those who did so were in effect purified from sin; the angel of death did not “see” the firstborn son in that home, but instead “saw” the blood of the lamb. So it is for those of us who have personally put our faith in Christ; we too are deemed righteous because God sees the blood of the Lamb of God.
 
And so to provide this for us, Jesus died on the cross. But as we celebrate today, Jesus did not stay dead. God raised Him from the dead. And because of this, there is an “after” as the verse says, “After He had provided purification for sins.”
 
And what did Jesus then do? He sat down at the right hand of God. This is a huge theme of Scripture. I was surprised just how many verses use this phrase. One Old Testament example I think is a particularly, well, colorful, illustration is from I Kings 2. A brief background: This passage takes place shortly after King David dies of old age and Solomon becomes king. We could easily spend a whole message on background of this story, and if you want to learn about it read I Kings 1. But for no, let us ignore all this and simply look at the behavior of King Solomon when his mother Bathsheba comes to talk to him.
 
When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him […], the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king’s mother, and she sat down at his right hand. “I have one small request to make of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.” The king replied, “Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you.” – I Kings 2:19-20
 
If you want to learn if Solomon indeed did not refuse her, read on. It’s exciting reading! But for now, just note how Solomon literally set the stage so that his mother could sit at his right hand. This was a position of honor, as well as a position of granted authority. This tradition is ancient, and it is interesting that even today when we want to describe someone working closely with someone who has been given a lot of authority, we say that this person is their “right hand man”. However, an Internet search shows that this phrase seems only to be used today when talking about evil dictators and coaches of men’s sporting teams.
 
Something else I have thought about is the arrangement of a typical ancient throne room. You typically have the throne facing out towards where the people come. Important people work around the king, but they too tend to face towards the king, in a direction similar to that of the “common” people. Guards might be an exception, but they are typically pretty far away from the king, providing a buffer space between the people and the king. But a person who sits at the king’s right hand faces outward towards the people just like the king. So you can see what a high honor this is – not just a private honor, but a very public one. The person who sits at the king’s right hand is more like the king than like the people.
 
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. – Hebrews 1:3
 
Jesus, after His death and resurrection, sat down at the right hand of God. This word picture is likely meant to be symbolic, but I like to imagine God the Father preparing a second throne for the Son, giving Him the place of highest honor, because He was faithful unto death.
 
The New Testament uses this theme repeatedly. Apart from multiple references in the book of Hebrews (which we will save for later in the series), let’s look at an encouraging example from Romans 8:
 
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. – Romans 8:31b-34
 
Again, I picture Solomon telling his mother, “Anything you ask, and it will be granted to you.” And I similarly picture God the Father telling Jesus the same as He prays for us! How encouraging!
 
The disciples knew that sitting down at the position of the right hand of a leader was to be placed at the most honored position of all. Remember that they actually argued about who would get to sit at Jesus’ right hand (and left hand) – they were picturing doing so here on Earth, after the expected military victory, when Jesus would reign in Jerusalem. But Jesus warned them that they did not know what they were asking for, because to sit with Jesus meant you had to go through what Jesus was about to go through.
 
I love the phrase, especially on this Easter Sunday, “Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who was raised to life”. I find that the western church, apart from this specific time of year, tends to stop at “Christ Jesus who died”. But as you read Scripture, you see in the New Testament a stronger emphasis on “more than that, who was raised to life” than perhaps we tend to make. I have read that the eastern orthodox churches tend to place a greater emphasis on “more than that, who was raised to life”. I do not know if this is true. Perhaps one reason that the western church does not do this is its roots in Roman Catholicism in which images of the crucified Christ are everywhere. I do not know for sure. But I do think it would be spiritually healthy for us to consistently also think “more than that, who was raised to life” when we think about Jesus dying for our sins on the cross.  
 
Let us finish today with one more verse that highlights Jesus sitting down at the right hand of God:
 
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. – Ephesians 1:18-21
 
Let this verse sink in for moment. Do you believe that in the life you live today, the power of the resurrection of Christ is available to you? Does this mean that God will answer every prayer the way you want Him to? No. As we heard so well expressed in our opening poem, the likely prayers of the disciples were not answered – Jesus did not avoid arrest, He did not escape arrest, He did not win in the various trials, He did not avoid being scourged, He did not avoid the cross, and He did not survive the cross. At least, as of Saturday of that terrible week, He did not. But God heard all those prayers, and He did not give them what they asked for but instead gave them something infinitely better. By faith, believe that the same is true of us today – God hears all of your prayers, and He will answer them, in love, with more than you can imagine. He is our provider – of forgiveness, of our needs, of life, of more than we could ever begin to hope for.