The Superiority of Jesus' Message Explored | Hebrews Chapter 1 Study

Join Reagan as he delves into the book of Hebrews, emphasizing the superiority of Jesus' message over that of the prophets, angels, and Moses. Using the analogy of aviation advancements, Reagan illustrates that while previous revelations were incredible, the message of Jesus is far superior. This exploration teaches that Christians today, much like the Jewish Christians of old, should hold fast to their faith despite external pressures. Learn why Jesus' message offers a better revelation and greater promises, and be reminded of the importance of daily engagement with God's word.

00:00 Introduction and Overview of Hebrews
00:25 The Golden Age of Aviation
01:10 The DC-2 and DC-3: Revolutionizing Air Travel
05:08 Comparing the Old and New Covenants
06:34 The Superiority of Jesus' Message
11:55 Jesus: The Ultimate Messenger
21:09 Application: Embracing the Better Message
27:26 Conclusion: The Call to Action

Transcript

If you have your Bible with you, please take it out and turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one. And we're gonna spend almost the entire lesson in the book of Hebrews. We're gonna turn to the book of John for, for one reading. But we'll be almost entirely in the book of Hebrews.

And so if you'd take out your Bible, be able to follow along in your own Bible from the book of Hebrews you'll be ready for our lesson this afternoon.

The 1930s are known or called the Golden Age of Aviation. And in the years between the first and second World Wars aviation took a giant cosmic leap forward. And this was true in lots of areas. But especially in transportation via aircraft. And so there's a number of reasons for that. Metal body aircraft replaced what was before that time, cloth and wood.

Primarily. There were engines that were more effective at that time. They went from biplanes, which were the standard to the monoplane, which only has one set of wings on each side or one set of wings wings coming out instead of the biplane. And it was especially helpful for commercial travel.

All of these advancements and at the front line of that innovation were two planes that that came from the same manufacturer. There was the DC two aircraft in 1934, and then the expanded larger version, the DC three aircraft in 1935 and the DC three is historically perhaps the most successful aircraft in history.

Now, I told Wade before the lesson, if I mess up on any of this, just raise your hand. I'll let you correct me. Two thumbs up. I'm in good shape, right? So this was an incredible, amazing aircraft. The DC two was larger than previous aircraft in that it, in that it could fit 14 passengers. You can see just barely there on the, the wing and on the body that this is Delta Airlines, and this is a DC two, and then a DC three.

Even more important than its size was its speed. The DC two was the fastest commercial airline airplane, and it was by far for the first time in history, someone could fly from coast to coast, from LA to New York in one single night. And this was mind blowing for people at the time. The DC three introduced new innovations that made flying seem more luxurious and, and comfortable adding plush seats and a sleeping berth for overnight flights.

And these aircraft were so impactful, so amazing that airlines snapped up the DC two and then the DC three a few years later. And by the end of the 1930s, Douglas Plains. Transported 90% of the nation's airline passengers with the DC two and DC three. The DC three also revolutionized the aircraft industry as a whole because it was commercially successful turning a profit just by carrying passengers.

Before this time, if airlines wanted to turn a profit, they had to do so, with government subsidies. But this airplane. Allowed them to turn a profit just with the proceeds that came from passengers. It was also versatile. And several DC threes were converted for military use during World War ii, an amazing aircraft, and no real complaints about this aircraft and all of the things that it could do at the time.

But if today. You had a cross country flight and you had to fly from LA all the way to New York. Let's say you're flying on Delta since that's what I have on the screen behind me. Would you rather fly on a DC two or even a DC three or a modern jet liner like a Delta, Airbus, a three 50 wide body that I see which is one of Delta's main planes jets, I should say.

So I, I'm asking if you would rather fly on the DC two, raise your hand. Maybe there's some plain aficionados. I knew Wade was gonna do that. Maybe Jerry would. I mean, that would be a cool experience. If you were flying between New York and LA every single week, would you still make that your pick?

Probably not. Who would rather fly on the modern aircraft? Why? It's safer. It's faster, it is more comfortable, even though the DC two and DC three were very comfortable aircraft, it's just better in so many ways. And it's not that these weren't great aircraft. There are still a lot of these aircraft that are still in operation today.

Because that's how well-built they were. That's how transformative they were for for flight and for the aircraft industry especially. But this. Just so much better even than that. And so it's not that something was wrong with this, it was great. It was phenomenal, but what we have now is so much better than what we had then.

That's what the book of Hebrews is about. It's not that the law of Moses, which some Jewish Christians were being tempted to return to was bad. No, it was glorious. It was unlike anything before it. It was transformational, not just in a spiritual sense, but in terms of law code. It was unique. It was incredible.

And the Hebrew writer doesn't say, oh, the law of Moses was sorry and we're so glad we got rid of it. No, he says it was an in incredible, it was glorious. But Jesus and what he offers is just that much better. And so I want us to think for a few minutes this evening about the better message of Jesus. And I'll admit that I spent a couple of weeks trying to come up with the right analogy to try and get this concept across to us.

And even though I like what I came up with with the airplanes, it still falls far short of the reality. The difference between the law of Moses and what we have in true salvation through Jesus Christ. That's the difficult things about illustrations and analogies. They don't prove anything. They just illustrate.

And all analogies when we're dealing with Christ and the things of Christ are going to fall short. And so I thought about sports, I thought about music. I thought about telecommunications, all these different things. The aircraft is what I came up with, and there's a reason for that. We'll get to back at the end of the lesson.

So I want us to think for a few moments this evening about the better message of Jesus, because that is what the Book of Hebrews is about. If you were in our Let Us Passages Bible class that we had now a couple of years ago. We said that the message of the book of Hebrews was this, Jesus is better.

That's what's being get. That's what the Hebrew writer wants to get across, and then the exhortation, it's not just academic, okay, Jesus is better. No, there is an application, an exhortation. Here's what you should do. Because of that, Jesus is better, so don't shrink back persecution. Not government persecution.

Oftentimes social and family persecution was causing some Jewish Christians who had accepted Jesus Christ to draw back, to shrink back, to fall away from Jesus and back into Judaism. And again, it was not primarily government pressure. It was religious pressure, social pressure. It was friends and family who were like, come back to this old way of life.

We miss you. We want you to still be one of us. And even though for us, we're not facing pressure to return to Judaism, that same kind of pressure is what many Christians face today. There is always the danger of drawing back into a former life, friends and family who don't like or appreciate the change that takes place in us when we become a Christian.

I ask you, if you're a Christian this afternoon, is Christ more important and more powerful to you, to us than anything or anyone else? Do you truly see Christ as better? And it doesn't matter what the illustration or analogy is. It doesn't matter what the comparison is. Jesus is better period. Do you believe that to be true?

Can I hear your head rattle on that? Well, that's exactly the message that the Hebrew writer is trying to get across, and I, I'm think it has implications and applications for Christians today as well. It's not just that this is what Jesus requires, he does require us to have the perspective that he is better, but it makes sense that we should place him in this position of, of being more important than anything else in our life because he is better.

He has proven himself to be better in so many ways. And so the Hebrew writer makes all of these comparisons to try and show that Jesus is in fact better. He makes comparison to a lot of people, and this is kinda like a a who's who of the very best people in the Old Testament. He compares them to the Old Testament prophets, the angels.

Moses, the giver of the law, Joshua, who led them into the promised land, Aaron and then Levi, who were, who were these foundational priests, Abraham and Abel, who lived and walked by faith. And then all of those people that we see in Hebrews chapter 11 and the Hebrew writers' point is Jesus is better and not a little better.

He is far better than all of these. But what's really cool to me is the way the Hebrew writer makes the argument. He doesn't point to Abraham or Moses and say, you know, remember Abraham? He had some problems with lying, and he doesn't point to Moses and say, remember how hesitant he was to come and do what God wanted him to do.

Instead, what the Hebrew writer does is he places them in the very best light possible. He says, look at how amazing these people were. And then he says, Jesus is far, far better. Them at their very best. And so the theme verse of Hebrews is Hebrews chapter eight and verse six, but now he, that is, Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Jesus is better in all of these ways, and it's not just that Jesus is better, Christ is better than these people. Christ offers better things to us as well. He offers a better revelation, a better message. He offers a better covenant, better promises, a better exodus or salvation from not just slavery, but slavery to sin.

He offers us a better promised land, a fuller rest. He offers a better priest and priesthood. He is a better mediator. He is operating going to a better mountain of salvation with a better tabernacle and a better sacrifice, and a better way to come unto God. Jesus is better in all of these different ways, and we would be well suited to have a however many part series and talk about each of one of these individually.

That's not my plan. I do want us to take in light of our congregational focus, especially for this quarter, I, I want us to take a moment and talk for just a little bit about this idea that Christ offers a better revelation. Christ offers a better message, the better message of Jesus. And so we just have two points that we're gonna be making this afternoon.

That Jesus offers a better message. And as we are feeding on God's word this quarter, it's good to be reminded. The source of the message upon which we are feeding is Jesus Christ. The completed version with full revelation and full salvation of God's word is found in Jesus. He is the better messenger with the better message.

And if we don't see this. Then why would we accept anything in that message or anything from that messenger if we don't see Jesus' message as better and we don't see him as a better messenger, where is the motivation for us to read and study and to hear that message? But if we do see him as better, as superior to anything and any, anyone else in terms of message or messenger?

It should be motivating to us then to dive into this message that he shares with us. The Hebrew writer isn't just saying Jesus is the spokesman of God. He is emphasizing the superiority of Jesus's message. So let's look at these two points this afternoon. Number one, Jesus's message is better than the message of Moses, and that's the point that he's getting across right here at the very beginning of the book.

That makes sense, isn't it? He's like, I'm, I've got a message for you. Well, let me start by establishing that where I'm getting this message is from Jesus Christ, and he's a better messenger than what it is you're trying to go back to in the law of Moses. So let's read most of you know what, let's just read chapter one together.

Okay. So Hebrews chapter one. Let's begin there in verse one. We'll read down through verse 14 Together. And I want you to trace the argument that he's making. I mean, this is the, the opening comments, the opening salvo. I don't know why this keeps advancing on me, Josh, do you know?

Ooh. All right. Hebrews chapter one and verse one, God, who at various times and in various ways, spoken times, passed to the fathers by the prophet. As in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins.

Sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels. As he has by inheritance, obtained a more excellent name than they. So we have the prophets who were God's spokespeople. They, they brought the words of God to the people of God. And we have the angels who it is implied in the Old Testament, and certainly this was the Jewish understanding.

The angels were the ones who often carried that message to the prophets and to other people from God himself. And so here are the messengers, the prophets, and the angels. The Hebrew writer's point is Jesus is so much better than either, and maybe we go right to the angels and appropriately so. And so He makes this point beginning in verse five, for, to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son today.

I have forgotten you. And again, I will be to him, a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he, again, brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels spirits? And his ministers a flame of fire. But to the son, he says, your throne oh God is forever and ever.

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And you Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain and they will all grow old, like a garment, like a cloak. You will fold them up and they will be changed, but you are the same. And your years will not fail. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits set forth to minister for those who will and inherit salvation?

Jesus is described as greater as than the angels in Hebrews chapter one, because how is he described? This isn't a Bible class. I guess you can't answer, but how is Jesus described in those verses we read? He is described as God. As God himself. In fact, the name Yahweh is used of him. If you look there in verse 10, and you Lord in my particular version that's in all caps indicating this is talking about Yahweh, this is the creator God that we are talking about, and that specifically is the aspect of God that is emphasized, not just that Jesus is God, he is the God who is the creator of the universe.

He is the, the very express image of God's person. That he upholds all things by the word of his power. That through him, the, the entire creation was made. And I'm reminded, I told you, we're gonna go to John and his gospel. Go to John one here for just a moment. As we think about the creator, God who provides the message of salvation.

How does John begin his gospel? John, chapter one and verse one, you remember, no doubt in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. And it's clear that he is referring to Jesus here in this passage.

Jesus the word. Is the perfect deliverer for the word because he is the creator of all things. Think about it this way.

The same one who created all things, the voice that once spoke, let there be light, and there was light, now speaks to you.

Will you not listen to his message? How many of us, I'd put myself in this category? How many of us would love, would love to hear Moses if I could be transported back? Transported back, hear Moses read the tablets from the stones that he received on the mountain. I don't know if he looked like Charlton Heston, but he probably did.

How many of us would love for God to send a prophet? A prophet comes to America, a prophet a, a true prophet of God, comes and speaks to the sins of our country and what we need to do to rectify them. Wouldn't that be amazing? How about the voice of an angel? And oftentimes it's like, well, the voice of an angel just whispering in your ear the right things that you ought to do.

And yet we think about how angels are described in the Bible. There are some good things that have come out of ai. One of the things that you can do is generate images. And so you, you put in the biblical description of an angel. This is what AI has come up with for some of those things. This is what angels look like, not little babies with wings, and it is no wonder then when men and women saw angels, what were they told?

Do not be afraid. Do not fear. Why? Because it's frightening.

Yet the one who created those beings is the one who speaks to us. And the Hebrews writer point is, listen, you have a better message than what came through Moses and the prophets and through the angels, because it came through Jesus Christ hearing the voice of an angel. No way. You've got something better.

Coming from a being that is mightier and holier and more fear inducing, but who is also humbler and kinder and more loving. So what's my first application tonight? I think my first application would be this. Read your Bible. Read your Bible every day. Come in contact with the word of God every day because these are the words that come from Jesus.

The greater messenger with the greater message. And I'm not talking about ritualism, that somehow we're gonna fend off the bad things that might happen to us if we allot of certain amount of time to, to go through just the ritual of putting some words before our eyes. No, I am talking about the habit, the practice, the custom of hearing the voice of God.

And hearing it clearly because he communicates clearly through his son

and what the Hebrew writer does next. If you turn back to Hebrews chapter one, after talking about the superiority of Jesus and his message in the very beginning of chapter two, what he does next is a warning. This is the first of what we might call the Hebrew Writers Applications where he says, therefore, okay, if this is true, if Jesus is a best, better messenger with a better message, what does that mean for us?

Therefore, verse one of chapter two, you read with me, we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest we drift away for if the word spoken through angels prove steadfast. Every transgression and disobedience received a just reward. How shall we escape if we neglect so great of salvation?

Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him. He spoke it, they heard it, and now it's confirmed. God also bearing witness. Both with signs, wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will we have enough? They had enough and we have enough to believe to overcome the peer pressure and persecution we might experience for being a Christian to hold fast to the end and not drift away or shrink back from what we have heard, what we have heard the message.

From God's most important messenger, Jesus, who is God himself. And what we see is the Hebrew writer comes back to this message again and again, that Jesus is the author, he's the messenger, and we need to hear and respond and grow in faith instead of shrinking back. There are a number of passages in Hebrews to which we could turn notice.

Just a couple with me. Go to chapter three, beginning in verse 14.

Hebrews chapter three in verse 14. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Hear the voice of God. And be humble in accepting what his voice tells you.

Go to chapter five and begin reading there in verse nine. And having been perfected talking about Jesus, he became the author of Eternal Salvation to All who Obey Him. You hear his message, you believe it, and you obey it. Called by God as high priest, according to the order of Mel, Ette of whom we have much to say.

And hard to explain. Since you have become dull of hearing for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again, the first principles of the Oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, who are mature.

That is those who by reason of use. Have have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the element, elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection or completion. Jesus is the author of Eternal Salvation, and as we grow as Christians, we should know more and more and more of that message, understand it more clearly.

Be able to teach it to others as well. Let me give you one more example. I have a number of others written down here, but I wanna give you some really clear examples. So let's do one more. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse one. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning in verse one.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. All of these mentioned in Hebrews 11 and those who also lived by faith besides them, let us lay aside every weight in the sin, which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author, he is the originator.

He was the one who wrote it and finisher, he is the perfecter, the completer of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Hang in there. The Hebrew writer says, Jesus spoke this message. He made these promises. He revealed these things to you, and then he proved their effectiveness by what he did. So don't shrink back. Continue to grow because you have a message above all others by appreciating both the message and the messenger so that you want to know and do the message.

That's what lies before us. Again, this is a lesson of motivation. We can see the greatness of Jesus's message. Reading our Bible won't become a chore. Will become a great privilege. And that's the message of Hebrews. Don't shrink back into the old law. That's the comparison. But let me make one more comparison, really, by way of application, Jesus's message is better than the message of Moses.

But may, may I suggest this evening, and this is, I mean, I've told you to read your Bible. I'm giving you some killer points you've never thought of before. So how about this one? The message of Jesus is better than the message of the world. Did you know that? Of course you did. Of course you did. But if we think about the comparison, the argument that's being made by the Hebrew writer, maybe this can hit us just a little bit harder.

If Christ is better than the things under the law of Moses, how much more so for us Gentiles, how much more than a worldly life in the pursuit of the passing pleasures of sin? How much greater is his message than that? How much more, how much better is his message than the easy believism that is pedaled by so many so-called preachers today?

No, Jesus. And what he actually offers is better. So like the Jews were told, don't, don't allow this persecution and peer pressure to let you go back into the law of Moses. How much more for us? Don't allow this persecution and peer pressure to send you back into the world. If the law of Moses, this is the analogy, right?

If the law of Moses was the DC two and DC three in comparison to a modern jet liner, I, I think probably the world would be like a hydrogen blimp, right? Great. For a while you think it's very comfortable. Everything is going great until it explodes in your face. Is it a perfect metaphor? No, but maybe it's an impactful one, because this is what the world offers us.

We're always gonna go up in flames. Compared to the message spoken by prophets and angels, the message of this world falls far short, even of the message of Moses. How much more when compared to the message of Christ? So I ask you humbly this evening, what messages are we listening to from the world that are against the message of Christ?

Are we tempted to shrink back because we are listening to those messengers with their false message? I'm afraid that too often. We become enamored by our culture and captured by the opinions and feelings and messages of those who are all around us, who are outside of Christ. We become trapped in the devil's lie that the world, those who don't know Jesus, somehow have the right to tell us who we should be and who we should be trying to impress and who it is we should be looking to please.

That, that this world who does not know Christ and his message can tell us whether or not we are attractive, whether we are smart, whether we are educated, whether we are loving, whether we are tolerant and loved ones. We cannot allow the message to come from messengers who do not know Christ, who are gonna tell us how we should dress and how we need to look and how we should act, and how we can be fulfilled and happy.

We cannot allow the world and its messengers to tell us who we should love and how we should love them.

The world wants to tell us how to live a quote unquote successful life, how to have a good marriage, how to raise our children, and how to set boundaries against those who would suggest something different than the message the world gives. And to all of those things I say. There is a better messenger with a better message, and there is no real comparison between the two.

The world tries to tell us what is best for us and what life is all about, the very things that God can and does and always seeks to do so whose voice to whose voice are you listening? I love to read. I love to read secular books. I love to learn. And there is a lot to be learned in this world, and there are lots of interesting things to be learned outside of the Bible, outside of the message that comes from Jesus Christ.

But everything that I know, everything that I do, everything that I read, everything that I learned should be filtered through the truth of this book. Should be seen in light of and in comparison to the message that comes from Jesus Christ. And I will say this, I, I ask you humbly, kindly read your Bible every day.

May I suggest all the reading and all the learning and all the world cannot replace the simplicity of reading and meditating on and seeking to do the word of God. You can hear the message from the King of Kings. From the creator of the universe, from God, the son of God, Jesus Christ, who brought us the best message that has ever been brought, the most powerful message that has ever been spoken, that salvation is available by grace through faith.

And I encourage you to find renewed commitment to do that every single day to feed on God's word. So that he might fill you up just as he promises to do. And if you're here this afternoon and you're not yet a Christian, boy, do I have a message for you from Jesus Christ who came in love to save you? And what he ask is for you to come in humble submission, to listen, to hear his words, and to do them to put off the old man of sin who.

Who grows corrupt according to lust, to to put on a new man by going down into a watery grave of baptism so that you might rise to walk in newness of life being directed by the messenger, Jesus Christ, and his message found in the word. And if we can help you with that, even right now, come while together, we stand and while we sing.