Speaker 1: Hello everyone, this is Pastor Damian.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City Orlando.
Speaker 2: At New City we believe.
Speaker 1: All of us need all of Jesus for all of life.
Speaker 1: For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Good morning, please pray the prayer of illumination with me.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, open our hearts to hear your word and, through your word, create in our hearts a home for your presence that we might live for the glory of the Father and the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Speaker 1: Through Jesus Christ, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: Today's scripture comes from Hebrews 1,.
Speaker 1: 1 through 2 through 4, if I said that right Long ago.
Speaker 1: At many times and in many ways, god spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
Speaker 1: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Speaker 1: After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Speaker 1: I need to read from my phone.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry it's so small.
Speaker 1: Wow, I'm impressed that I got it that far.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's see where I am.
Speaker 1: Do you have it?
Speaker 1: Oh, I can turn around too.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 1: Oh, I can turn around too.
Speaker 1: No, this is getting awkward.
Speaker 1: Oh, and a Bible.
Speaker 1: I think I'm just going to turn.
Speaker 1: This is really funny.
Speaker 1: Hi, damien, thanks, let's go from.
Speaker 1: Where was I Having?
Speaker 1: Thank you, okay, having become no, no, no, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than heirs.
Speaker 1: For to which of the angels did God ever say you are my son.
Speaker 1: Today, I have begotten you, or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be a son.
Speaker 1: And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says let all God's angels worship him.
Speaker 1: Of the angels, he says he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.
Speaker 1: But of the son, he says your throne, o God, is forever and ever.
Speaker 1: The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
Speaker 1: You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Speaker 1: Therefore, god, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
Speaker 1: And you, lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are at the work of your hands.
Speaker 1: They will perish, but you remain.
Speaker 1: They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe.
Speaker 1: You will roll them up Like a garment.
Speaker 1: They will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end.
Speaker 1: And to which of the angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Speaker 1: Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Speaker 1: Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
Speaker 1: For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Speaker 1: It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Speaker 1: This is God's word you may be seated.
Speaker 2: Thank you, rocky, great job.
Speaker 2: Well, we begin a sermon series this morning through the book of Hebrews.
Speaker 2: So from today this will take us through the end of May, and you can look behind me and see that.
Speaker 2: This image shows that we have a pattern of preaching through New Testament books in the spring, old Testament books in the fall, and that's why we start a series through the book of Hebrews today.
Speaker 2: We finished Leviticus in last fall, we're going to start Numbers this upcoming fall, and Hebrews creates a good bridge between Leviticus and Numbers, which is why we're preaching through it this spring.
Speaker 2: Now, if you're familiar with the ministry calendar, that was in the shape of a diamond.
Speaker 2: This is the exact same thing.
Speaker 2: It's just somebody in our congregation said, hey, I might have a better way to represent that visually, and they were right.
Speaker 2: And so this is the same ministry calendar, just with a little bit of a different flair to it.
Speaker 2: So why Hebrews?
Speaker 2: Well, I want this sermon to be a little bit of an introduction to the series and to take up our text in Hebrews 1, which introduces the book as a whole.
Speaker 2: So anytime you read a book of scripture, it's always important to ask a few questions like who wrote this book?
Speaker 2: We don't know, that's the answer, because it doesn't tell us, which is a little unique for the New Testament.
Speaker 2: But what we do know is that it had an author that really matters, the Holy Ghost, and so that's why it's in the canon of scripture.
Speaker 2: Now, who's the audience?
Speaker 2: Who's it written to?
Speaker 2: We do know something about that.
Speaker 2: We know that this book was written most likely to some urban Christians, because the word city and cities shows up a lot, and so commentators it's a little conjecture, but think that these were probably urban Christians, much like we are.
Speaker 2: The other thing that we know is that they knew their Bible because the author of Hebrews can't help but quote scripture continually throughout this whole book and so they were probably of Jewish origin and they knew the Hebrew Bible, what we would call Genesis through Malachi.
Speaker 2: The other thing we know is that they probably lived in a little bit of a pluralistic environment when they were experiencing pressure because of their faith in Jesus, something similar to what we experienced as well, and so, because of that pressure, there was a temptation to quote drift away.
Speaker 2: That's language I get from Hebrews 2, verse 1.
Speaker 2: If you look there, it says this language of drift away.
Speaker 2: And the contrast throughout the book of Hebrews, rather than drifting away, is the call to draw near, which shows up seven times throughout the book of Hebrews, which is a perfect number in scripture.
Speaker 2: Does anybody else in here feel the tendency to drift away from Jesus?
Speaker 2: And the book of Hebrews has something to say to you, right?
Speaker 2: It's actually helpful to me the realism of this.
Speaker 2: Somebody has said drifting does not take any effort at all.
Speaker 2: Just stop cultivating the knowledge of Christ, and the current of secularism does the rest.
Speaker 2: That's where we live.
Speaker 2: So the opposite of drifting away is to draw near.
Speaker 2: And I want to summarize the book of Hebrews in three words.
Speaker 2: The whole book, three words.
Speaker 2: I'm a simple man, I like simple summaries here.
Speaker 2: It is Jesus over everything.
Speaker 2: That's the book of Hebrews in three words, and it's a little bit of a double entendre in this sense.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything, in that he is Lord over everything.
Speaker 2: He's placed over everything, but Jesus over everything in that he is our highest love.
Speaker 2: We prefer him over everything.
Speaker 2: He's placed over everything, but Jesus over everything in that he is our highest love.
Speaker 2: We prefer him over everything.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything.
Speaker 2: That's what Hebrews is about Now, the way that Hebrews, the strategy of this book to get your heart to recognize and to appreciate Jesus over everything.
Speaker 2: It's a little unique.
Speaker 2: So in math which, by the way, if I make an illustration, come from math, it's a little risky because I'm a words guy, but here it is In math there's something called sets.
Speaker 2: In set theory there's a centered set and a bounded set.
Speaker 2: Now, a bounded set is kind of like a box you know what's in and what's out.
Speaker 2: That's how you decide what things are.
Speaker 2: A centered set is more like if you drew a point on the center of a piece of paper and you determined things based on their proximity to the center, either near to or away from the center, if I lost you.
Speaker 2: Let me try to make that plain.
Speaker 2: Australian shepherds the people, not the dogs.
Speaker 2: Australian shepherds often find in the outback that in order to keep their cattle where they want them, if they build a fence, oftentimes what happens is the cattle will push against the fence, knock it over and escape.
Speaker 2: That's a bounded set they find.
Speaker 2: Actually, the better strategy is to dig a well in the center of their property and the cattle draw near to drink deeply and they stay where they want them to be.
Speaker 2: That's the strategy of the book of Hebrews.
Speaker 2: It's a centered set Because some of you in this room this morning you belong to Jesus, but you've been drifting away.
Speaker 2: Others of you in this room, you don't belong to Jesus but you find yourself strangely drawing near to him.
Speaker 2: Welcome, we're so glad to have you, all of you, wherever you find yourself.
Speaker 2: And the strategy of Hebrews and this sermon series is to dig a well and to show you that Jesus is better, that he is over everything, so you can come with your parched tongue and slake your thirst in the middle of the outback sun.
Speaker 2: That's what we're going to be doing together.
Speaker 2: So, if you have a Bible or device, get Hebrews 1 in front of you.
Speaker 2: We're going to look at verses 1 through 4, really, that's where we're digging in and we're going to see how Jesus is over everything from Hebrews 1.
Speaker 2: And this is in Greek just one single sentence verses 1 through 4.
Speaker 2: And it's significant because this single sentence sets up themes that will be traced throughout the entire book of Hebrews.
Speaker 2: It's almost like a thesis statement for this whole book.
Speaker 2: So look with me at Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 1.
Speaker 2: This is what it says.
Speaker 2: Long ago, at many times and in many ways.
Speaker 2: God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.
Speaker 2: That could be translated in his son.
Speaker 2: Now there's something just essential we can't miss here God spoke.
Speaker 2: God has something to say.
Speaker 2: I got into an argument in a sports bar with an Eastern Orthodox monk, as one does, over whether or not God preferred to speak or to be silent.
Speaker 2: Now I got fired up in this conversation, so much so that I had to repent of my demeanor, but I did not repent of my doctrine.
Speaker 2: God loves to speak.
Speaker 2: He is a verbal God, he is a loquacious God, he has something to say and he's been speaking for a long time.
Speaker 2: That's what the scripture here wants you to see is that God spoke From Genesis to Revelation.
Speaker 2: God is very verbal.
Speaker 2: Now, why does he start here?
Speaker 2: Well, because this book is really more of a library of books.
Speaker 2: It's 66 texts.
Speaker 2: These texts were written in three different languages by over 40 authors on three different continents In 2,000 years span, all telling one central story that Jesus is over everything.
Speaker 2: Now, this book was written in all of life and for all of life.
Speaker 2: Some of its authors are fishermen and kings, politicians and priests, shepherds and farmers, murderers and doctors.
Speaker 2: Yet in all of scriptures Christians hold this book and with confidence we say God spoke With that.
Speaker 2: The Bible must be essential, vital for disciple making, because there's no way to draw near to Jesus unless you draw near to the Jesus portrayed on the pages of this book.
Speaker 2: But look with me at the text again, verse one.
Speaker 2: It says God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
Speaker 2: But now what's the contrast being made here?
Speaker 2: But in these last days he has spoken to us by the prophets.
Speaker 2: But now what's the contrast being made here?
Speaker 2: But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.
Speaker 2: What is this contrast?
Speaker 2: Is it the Old Testament is bad and the New Testament is good?
Speaker 2: Is that what the author is trying to get at?
Speaker 2: Well, we know that can't be it, because then this author of Hebrews spends the entire book quoting the Old Testament to prove every point that this author is trying to make.
Speaker 2: So that would be crazy.
Speaker 2: If what he's trying to do is undermine the authority of the Old Testament and then quote it authoritatively throughout the whole book.
Speaker 2: So that can't be what's going on here.
Speaker 2: No, the contrast between Old Testament and New Testament is the contrast between acorn and oak tree, between moonlight and sunlight.
Speaker 2: It's like growing up in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: I would walk down into my basement and at the bottom of the steps I'd flip the switch on and it would bring light and I'd see all the furniture there.
Speaker 2: The furniture was there all along, but not until the light came could you see it?
Speaker 2: That's the Old Testament.
Speaker 2: It's all there.
Speaker 2: But when Jesus, the light of the world, comes, he illumines everything and you see the Old Testament with new eyes.
Speaker 2: That's how the author of Hebrews is going to teach you to read your Bible.
Speaker 2: Now, as we look at the text here, there's this point that's being made, which is that Jesus is supreme over every prior revelation.
Speaker 2: Now I want to look at that, because it's almost as if the author of Hebrews gets caught up and lost in wonder, love and praise.
Speaker 2: In verse two You'll see this and I'm going to point out.
Speaker 2: We're going to walk very slowly through these next verses here because I'm going to point out what I'm calling the seven superiorities of the son.
Speaker 2: So I have seven sub points to point number one.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 2: The first thing I want to do is point out I get that from verse four.
Speaker 2: Here's the word Having become as much superior.
Speaker 2: There's this language superior to angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Speaker 2: Now, if you're going to read Hebrews one and two, you got to ask this question why angels Like?
Speaker 2: What's the big deal with angels?
Speaker 2: Well, two things.
Speaker 2: In the story of scriptures, whenever angels show up, they strike awe and fear, even terror, in human beings.
Speaker 2: They are exalted beings, and so if Jesus is over everything, including angels, jesus must be categorically different than a creature.
Speaker 2: The second reason is because the angels according to Acts 2 and Galatians 3, the angels actually had a role in bringing the old covenant into place, and so Jesus is over everything, including his new covenant is over the old covenant, and this stuff's going to get unpacked over the next few weeks here.
Speaker 2: But with that, I want to ask this question how is Jesus better, superior over everything, how?
Speaker 2: What makes him more excellent?
Speaker 2: Well, look with me at the text and we're going to see that Jesus is over everything because he's the heir, the creator, the radiance, the imprint, the sustainer, the savior and the Lord.
Speaker 2: Seven, perfect number.
Speaker 2: Here we go.
Speaker 2: The heir, verse two.
Speaker 2: It says this by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things.
Speaker 2: It's very simple here A son inherits the father's house, not a servant, and the author of Hebrews tells us in verse 14 that angels are simply servants, but Jesus is the son.
Speaker 2: Verse two the firstborn verse 6.
Speaker 2: The heir of all things verse 2, that belong to the father's house, all that is the father's belongs to the son.
Speaker 2: But what is this inheritance that the son receives from the father?
Speaker 2: We have a clue here, because in Hebrews 1, 5, the author quotes Psalm 2, which says you are my son.
Speaker 2: Today I have begotten you.
Speaker 2: If you read Psalm 2 in its context, which is how the New Testament's hyperlink with the Old Testament, as you're supposed to read the Old Testament reference in its entirety, then you get what's going on.
Speaker 2: If you read Psalm 2 and ask the question what is this inheritance that the Father gives to the Son?
Speaker 2: It's you.
Speaker 2: You're the inheritance.
Speaker 2: Why does that matter?
Speaker 2: Because what do you give to someone who has everything?
Speaker 2: You give them a people for their own possession, who prefer Jesus over everything.
Speaker 2: That's the only thing that the father could give to the son that he doesn't already have.
Speaker 2: Jesus has the cattle on a thousand hills, but what he wants is a billion surrendered hearts.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything, that preference welling up from the inside coming out.
Speaker 2: That's what Jesus wants.
Speaker 2: How did he get that?
Speaker 2: By being fastened to a cross to make you fascinated by him.
Speaker 2: Being fastened to a cross to make you fascinated by him so that you could say from the heart I want Jesus over everything.
Speaker 2: So Jesus is over everything as the heir, but not only as the heir, but as the creator.
Speaker 2: Look again with me at verse 2.
Speaker 2: It says this through whom?
Speaker 2: That is Jesus also.
Speaker 2: He that is the father created the world.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything, because he is the creator.
Speaker 2: Something again is happening here with the way that Hebrews quotes the Old Testament In chapter 1, verse 10,.
Speaker 2: If you look here, it quotes Psalm 102, our call to worship this morning.
Speaker 2: And Psalm 102 says this you, lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.
Speaker 2: Pause for a moment.
Speaker 2: Notice what's happening here.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the one who, in the beginning, created heaven and earth.
Speaker 2: That's what Hebrews.
Speaker 2: That's the claim Hebrews is making right now.
Speaker 2: Jesus is Yahweh, the God revealed in the Hebrew Bible.
Speaker 2: That's the point of this text, which means that any religion that denies the full deity of Jesus Christ, whether it be Muslims or Mormons, jehovah's Witnesses or Unitarians does not know the true and living God revealed in Jesus Christ, full stop.
Speaker 2: Because Jesus is over everything, not only as the creator, but also as the radiance.
Speaker 2: Look with me at verse three.
Speaker 2: Verse three says he is the radiance of the glory of God.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything because he is the shining reflection of God's own glory.
Speaker 2: Now, the sun in the sky I'm talking about the sun gives us light and life to the world.
Speaker 2: Without the sun, we'd be living in darkness.
Speaker 2: In the same way, the sun S-O-N.
Speaker 2: Gives us light and life.
Speaker 2: Without it, without him, we would be in darkness about who God is, because he's the radiance of God.
Speaker 2: He's the bright, shining forth of God.
Speaker 2: He's the effulgence of God.
Speaker 2: We see who God is in the Son.
Speaker 2: Now it's important to note Jesus is not simply a mirror that reflects God's glory.
Speaker 2: You are that, that's what you are.
Speaker 2: You are a mirror that reflects God's glory.
Speaker 2: Jesus is far more than that.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the divine glory, so much so that angels ought to worship him.
Speaker 2: Look at the text.
Speaker 2: It says in Hebrews, 1, verse 6, let all God's to worship him.
Speaker 2: Look at the text it says in Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 6.
Speaker 2: Let all God's angels worship him.
Speaker 2: Now there's a little excursus here At the end of the wild ride.
Speaker 2: That is the book of Revelation, chapter 22, verse 8.
Speaker 2: The apostle John, who wrote the book of Revelation, says this when I heard and saw these things, all the things that happen wrote the book of Revelation says this when I heard and saw these things, all the things that happen in the book of Revelation, it says, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel.
Speaker 2: That showed them to me.
Speaker 2: Bad idea, look what happens.
Speaker 2: But the angel said to me you must not do that.
Speaker 2: I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book.
Speaker 2: Then he says worship God.
Speaker 2: And yet God, according to our text, says to the angels worship Jesus.
Speaker 2: This is significant because right now, in this very moment, if, if the veil could be pulled back and you could see into the throne room of God in this very moment, what you would see would be these creatures around the throne of God that were so glorious and so awesome that you would be tempted to worship them.
Speaker 2: But if you waited long enough to look at what they were looking at and you followed their gaze and you saw the one seated on the throne.
Speaker 2: The Revelation, chapter 4, verse 8, says that they never cease to say to one another, holy, holy.
Speaker 2: Cease to say to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord, god Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.
Speaker 2: Never cease to say.
Speaker 2: For thousands of years, they've not gotten bored of seeing Jesus and saying holy, holy, holy.
Speaker 2: Why are we so bored?
Speaker 2: I think it's because we don't see his glory.
Speaker 2: If we saw him, we would say what they say.
Speaker 2: We wouldn't be able to help ourselves.
Speaker 2: So what do they see?
Speaker 2: What is this glory of God?
Speaker 2: One theologian puts it like this the glory is the admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.
Speaker 2: That's what you were going to say, too right.
Speaker 2: I prefer to just say it like this the glory of God is what I would just call paradoxical polarities, not much better.
Speaker 2: This is what I mean, though.
Speaker 2: Jesus has these virtues that seem incompatible, but when they come together into this one person, they're combined in such a way that they're strikingly beautiful.
Speaker 2: Here's what I mean.
Speaker 2: Jesus combines the highest majesty with the greatest humility in one person.
Speaker 2: Jesus himself is able to join the strongest commitment to justice with astonishing mercy and grace.
Speaker 2: Jesus reveals himself with a transcendent self-sufficiency, yet he has a total dependency on his heavenly father.
Speaker 2: Jesus is surprising to us when we see his tenderness without weakness, his boldness without harshness, his humility without uncertainty.
Speaker 2: Jesus has unbending convictions with a complete approachability.
Speaker 2: Somehow this man has this insistence on truth, yet it's always bathed in love.
Speaker 2: This man has a power without insensitivity, an integrity without rigidity, passion without prejudice, because this Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God.
Speaker 2: That's what Hebrews wants you to see Now.
Speaker 2: Jesus is over everything, not only because he's the radiance, but also because he's the imprint.
Speaker 2: Look with me at verse 3.
Speaker 2: Verse 3 says that he is the exact imprint of his nature.
Speaker 2: If the radiance is this outshining, the imprint is his internal character, which is actually the Greek word for imprint.
Speaker 2: It's the word character from which we get the word character.
Speaker 2: Now, when we talk about characters, we talk about characters in a play, we talk about the characters of a language that are written down, we talk about a person's character.
Speaker 2: What do all three of those have in common?
Speaker 2: Well, they all come from a concrete process of taking soft metal and imprinting a mold onto that soft metal.
Speaker 2: You've done this before If you've ever gone to a tourist attraction and they had those machines where you put in a quarter and a penny and you kind of turn the crank right and it pops out and it says like welcome to Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 2: And you got the thing right, you imprinted it.
Speaker 2: That's the word character.
Speaker 2: Jesus is perfectly imprinted with the character of God.
Speaker 2: He is the exact, the soft metal of the sun's.
Speaker 2: Human nature has the being of God perfectly imprinted upon it.
Speaker 2: That's what the author is trying to get you to see here.
Speaker 2: But what does that mean in practice?
Speaker 2: Well, hebrews 1, 9 quotes Psalm 45, and it says this you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Speaker 2: In other words, the right things always made Jesus mad, sad and glad because his loves were properly ordered.
Speaker 2: Right Discipleship to Jesus is learning from Jesus to love what God loves and hate what God hates.
Speaker 2: That's how you grow in character.
Speaker 2: But Jesus is over everything, not only because he's the imprint, but also as the sustainer.
Speaker 2: Look at verse 3.
Speaker 2: It says and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
Speaker 2: Barbara Boyd, the woman who taught Tim Keller how to read the Bible, thank you, barbara.
Speaker 2: She has this illustration.
Speaker 2: She says if the distance from the earth to the sun is 93 million miles, and if it was the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the distance to the nearest star would be a stack of paper 70 feet high.
Speaker 2: The diameter of our galaxy would be a stack 310 miles high, and our galaxy is just a speck in the observable universe.
Speaker 2: But Hebrews 1.3 says that Jesus Christ holds all of that together with just a single word.
Speaker 2: If that's so, is this the kind of person you invite into your life to be your assistant, to consult with about?
Speaker 2: You know, a guru on certain life hacks?
Speaker 2: No, in fact, jesus will be many things to you, but one thing he will never be is second.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you is Jesus your king or your consultant?
Speaker 2: Is Jesus your sustainer or your secretary?
Speaker 2: This is important if we're going to take Jesus as he is.
Speaker 2: There's no middle ground.
Speaker 2: But Jesus is not only our sustainer, but he's also our savior.
Speaker 2: Verse 3 says this, after making purification for sins.
Speaker 2: Now, we might not track with that, but that almost sounds like a record scratch.
Speaker 2: Everything up to this point has been about Jesus being exalted and majestic and transcendent, and yet something just happened here.
Speaker 2: How did Jesus make purification for sins?
Speaker 2: Well, the God of might and majesty, the one who's worthy of angel worship, is betrayed and beaten, mocked and spat upon, crucified and killed.
Speaker 2: Melito of Sardis, who was around in AD 180, who's probably a disciple of a disciple of a disciple of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the way Melito of Sardis says it.
Speaker 2: He who suspended the earth is suspended.
Speaker 2: He who fixed the heavens is fixed by nails.
Speaker 2: He who fastened all things is fastened to the wood.
Speaker 2: God is murdered.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I would have said it so audaciously.
Speaker 2: God is murdered and yet it's listed as one of his excellencies.
Speaker 2: You see, because we cannot know God except through the cross of Christ.
Speaker 2: The full brilliance of God's glory has to be refracted through the lens of the cross.
Speaker 2: It's the only way you can know God.
Speaker 2: Rightly, the heir left his inheritance so we could share in it.
Speaker 2: The creator was crucified by his own creatures.
Speaker 2: The radiance of God was killed under a dark sky.
Speaker 2: The imprint of God was crushed beyond resemblance.
Speaker 2: The one who holds the universe together by the word of his power was holding together the atoms in the arm of the Roman soldier as he swung the hammer to pierce the nails through his arm.
Speaker 2: This is the God that we worship in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: This is our Savior.
Speaker 2: One commentator said this for all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: So draw near, come home to the Father through the Son.
Speaker 2: But he's not only our Savior, he's also our Lord.
Speaker 2: Verse 3 says this he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Speaker 2: There's something scandalous about the idea that the dust of earth is now seated on the throne of heaven.
Speaker 2: Your humanity is exalted in sovereignty over all galaxies.
Speaker 2: That's what it means that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
Speaker 2: You see, if Jesus is over everything, then it's the death of what's called the secular-sacred divide, this false notion that some things really matter to God.
Speaker 2: And then there's the rest of life.
Speaker 2: Like what you're doing right now, good on you, you're in the sacred space, I think right.
Speaker 2: But then what you do tomorrow, at this time, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: Jesus over everything is the death to that notion, because it means that when Jesus resurrected and gave his disciples the commission, he said all authority in heaven and earth belongs to me.
Speaker 2: What is accepted from that?
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 2: Abraham Kuyper famously put it like this there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine.
Speaker 2: He said that as the inaugural address when he started the Free University of Amsterdam in the 1800s, and that university was started for the same reason.
Speaker 2: Every university was designed, which is to show how the diverse disciplines of the arts and the sciences, and math and engineering and communication, all these different disciplines, the diverse disciplines, have their unity under Jesus as Lord over all.
Speaker 2: That's why universities, universities, were started.
Speaker 2: He gives them unity because Jesus is Lord over all domains of human existence.
Speaker 2: I don't think universities work like that as much anymore, but that's how they were started, that's where we get that language.
Speaker 2: And so why does that matter?
Speaker 2: Because Jesus is Lord and he's calling a people to go out into every sphere and sector of society as disciples of him, working out his lordship in their lives and through their lives, wherever you find yourself tomorrow, at this time.
Speaker 2: His lordship in their lives and through their lives, wherever you find yourself tomorrow, at this time.
Speaker 2: That's what we're about at New City.
Speaker 2: That's what we mean when we say we call and we form and we send disciples who make disciples.
Speaker 2: It's this, this isn't the end-all, be-all in here.
Speaker 2: God has made you, he's called you, he's formed you, he's sending you out into all of those places as disciples of this king, this Lord.
Speaker 2: But unless we sincerely believe that Jesus is over everything, every moment, every place, every person, the new city will not have the unshakable foundation for mission in all of life.
Speaker 2: So with that, why does this all matter?
Speaker 2: It all matters because if we're going to avoid drifting away, we need to find Jesus to be beautiful and not just useful.
Speaker 2: You see, nominal Christians Christian in name only find Jesus useful for getting what they really want.
Speaker 2: True Christians find Jesus beautiful in and of himself.
Speaker 2: Do you find him beautiful this morning, like, do you prefer Jesus over everything this morning, wherever you find yourself?
Speaker 2: You might ask the question.
Speaker 2: I've received this.
Speaker 2: How do I respond to this?
Speaker 2: The text gives us this really simple imperative pay attention, look with me at chapter 2, verse 1.
Speaker 2: It says this, therefore, therefore, okay, in light of everything I just got done, saying in Hebrews 1.
Speaker 2: Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it.
Speaker 2: For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression and disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?
Speaker 2: I love the realism of the Bible.
Speaker 2: Drifting is not dramatic, it's subtle.
Speaker 2: It's subtle.
Speaker 2: The opposite of drifting, which results from quote neglect in chapter 2, verse 3, is to pay attention chapter 2, verse 1.
Speaker 2: And this is as much for us here and now as it was for them there and then maybe even more so.
Speaker 2: People have argued that we live now in what's called an attention economy.
Speaker 2: Tristan Harris, the conscience of Silicon Valley, says that he calls this an arms race for people's attention.
Speaker 2: Listen, if you have an app on your phone that's free, it's because you're not the customer, you're the product.
Speaker 2: Your attention is being bought and sold.
Speaker 2: That's why it's free to you to download whatever apps you use.
Speaker 2: You're being bought and sold by mega companies in this attention economy.
Speaker 2: So when the author of Hebrews says, pay attention, this is a big deal.
Speaker 2: If you don't take my word.
Speaker 2: Or Hebrews, take Qui-Gon Jinn's word, who said it's a Star Wars reference.
Speaker 2: Your focus determines your reality.
Speaker 2: Listen, if we don't prefer Jesus over everything, it's because we neglect to look at him.
Speaker 2: If we don't place Jesus over everything, then we must pay closer attention.
Speaker 2: According to Hebrews, ian McGilchrist, who might be the most renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist, says this the type of attention you pay governs what it is you find.
Speaker 2: In other words, will we attend to Jesus such that we find him superior to all else?
Speaker 2: That's the question, and that's what the rest of this sermon series is for.
Speaker 2: Let's pray.
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus, we come to you now, not strong but weak, not focused but distracted, not with full attention but with divided hearts.
Speaker 2: Would you draw us to your supremacy over all things now?
Speaker 2: Would you give us a glimpse?
Speaker 2: We want to see what the angels see.
Speaker 2: We want to feel what the angels feel as they behold your glory in the heavenly throne room.
Speaker 2: We pray in your name and for your sake, amen.