Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM- Jesus: The One and Only - Hebrews 1:1-3 - Pastor Ryan

Well, good morning, church family. It's good to see you guys. I'm really glad you're here. I ask you to stand with us. We'll get started.

And Father, we come before you this morning. We just thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here, Lord, to be in your presence, to be in your house this morning. And Lord, we just ask that you would help us to focus on you this morning. Let you be the main focus of our lives. Lord, I know that there's a lot going on. Help us to set those things aside.

And to just lavish praise upon you because you're worthy of all praise. And may your word go out with power this morning and move mightily in our lives by the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Praise the Lord. You guys can go and have a seat if you like.

I know, because I know.

Come to the realization, Lord, of how much we truly need you, Lord. And Lord, that in you are righteousness. May we come to the realization of that this morning, Lord. May we come to the realization of how God is the Lord. How good you are. Kind. How gracious and how faithful you are, Father.

And faithful and so, so we'll sing of the goodness of God. Can we sing that again? Of the goodness of God.

Of your goodness, O God. We'll sing of your goodness, O God.

Of your goodness, O God. We'll sing of your goodness, O God.

You guys go ahead and stand with me for the last one.

Gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer. There is no more for my joy, my righteousness, my freedom. I accept fast love, my deep and boundless deep. It is only Jesus, His holy age, and future sure, a new crown. Father, we just give you praise this morning. Lord, Lord, for who you are, for how much you love us, for what you've done for us, for what you're doing in our lives, Lord.

Lord, we just give you praise and glory and honor. Lord, if we see victory, it's not because of us. It's because of you. It's because of you, Lord God, that we are here today. And so now, Lord, we just give you glory. And Lord, as Pastor Ryan comes, I just pray that you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit, Lord. Move mightily this morning. And we love you, Lord, and we praise you.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin the process of finding your seats. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are the things that go on throughout the week. And I want to spend just a minute talking about these because there's quite a few studies that go on throughout the week. And I always say, hey, take a look at that. But I don't know if anybody actually does.

So, tonight, the college FCA group starts back up over at Cali campus. Monday nights, Teresa leads the ladies' study. And then there's a men's study that takes place. Both of those are here at the church. And Tuesday night, there's a men's home fellowship there, 6.30 p.m. And there's a home fellowship at Pastor Allen's house. Or, excuse me, Pastor Allen's parents' house.

But he leads it. Wednesday night, there is the youth group that takes place at the church. It takes place for the kids for junior high and high school right here at the church. There's also a church service that takes place in here. We're going through the Old Testament together. We just finished the book of 1 Chronicles. Getting ready to start 2 Chronicles.

And then we have kids' church that takes place as well down over in the kids' wing. And then Thursday, all kinds of things go on. Women's study that Teresa leads down in the cornerstone room at 1 o'clock. There's a home fellowship at Jill Palmer's house. There's a home fellowship at the church. There's a home fellowship at Jeff Bryant's house on the second and fourth Thursday of the month.

There is a prophecy update that takes place on the third Thursday of the month. That takes place here. Then Mason Warren leads a home fellowship. So there's a lot of places to get plugged into. And next week, let's see. Yeah, we're good to go. So next week, in between services and after second service. In between services and after second service, all of the home group leaders

are going to be in that big foyer area so that you can meet them. So if you're like, hey, I think I want to get plugged into that Bible study, but I don't really know who the leader is, you can go back there and meet them and get plugged in because hopefully for this new year, we're going to get everybody plugged in somewhere so that we see you keep growing in your walk with Jesus. So over in the middle section of your bulletin, fellas, we have a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday right here at the church at 8 o'clock. And then there is a youth group parent meeting on January the 20th at 7 p.m. here at the church.

And then, Sandra, this is not in your bulletin, but Sandra wanted me to remind all of you Sunday school teachers that there is a Sunday school teacher meeting next Saturday morning at 9.30. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 11.

Psalm 11. Looking at the New American Standard for this part. So if you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 11, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 11. For the choir director, a psalm of David. In the Lord I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For behold, the wicked bend the bow. They make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do? The Lord, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked. And the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Upon the wicked, he will rain snares. Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. And read verse seven with me.

For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. And the upright will behold his face. And so, Father, we do find our refuge in you. And so, Father, I just ask that as we get ready to spend some time in your word this morning, as we get ready to open your word, that your Holy Spirit would begin to minister. Father, that you would open the eyes of our heart

to see exactly what you would have us to see this morning. That you would make yourself clear to us. And Father, that you would move through this place by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter one. Amen. Hebrews, chapter one. We start a new book today, the book of Hebrews.

I want to start off by way of introduction here. So, one of my favorite sports movies of all time is the movie Hoosiers. Have you ever seen the movie Hoosiers? You should absolutely watch that movie if you've not watched it yet. It's a great movie. It takes place a long time ago about a small town in Indiana that hires this guy to be a basketball coach for their basketball team.

And they've got a lot of raw talent on the team. But he shows up and he tells them something very interesting. He says, I don't even want you to, I don't even want you to, I don't even want you to, I don't even want you to, I don't even want you to, I don't even want you to shoot a basketball for the next three weeks because we are going to work on the fundamentals. We are going to get back to the basics of the game because you know how to shoot a ball but you don't know how to play the game.

So, we're getting back to the basics. Well, that's kind of what the book of Hebrews is. Hebrews is getting back to the basics of the faith, the basics of who Jesus is and what he wants for us. I've entitled our overarching study in the book of Hebrews, but we see Jesus. And today, we're going to look at the first three verses under the title of Jesus, the one and only.

But again, before we get into that, there's some things that I feel like we need to address. Hebrews is an interesting book of the Bible because it's one of the more mysterious books of the Bible. Typically, what I would do when we start an epistle like this is I would look at the writer and I would look at the recipient and I would look at the greeting. Only the problem is, we don't know who the writer of the book of Hebrews is.

Well, I'm sure somebody does, but we don't. Every modern scholar that you talk to tells you the same thing. There is no stamp in the book of Hebrews that says who the writer is. There's some different ideas. Some have thought that maybe Barnabas was the writer of the book of Hebrews. Some thought maybe Luke was the writer of the book of Hebrews. Clement of Alexandria actually said

that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. Luke translated it into Greek. But when it comes right down to it, we don't really know who wrote the book of Hebrews. But as all of them have said, who wrote the book is not nearly as important as what the book has to say to us because it's incredibly important what it has to say. As far as the recipients go, this is one of those,

epistles that are termed as the general epistles. There was not one specific church that it was written to. However, there was a specific group of people that it's addressing. The traditional title for this book is To the Hebrews. And so we know that it's written to Jewish Christians. And it's important to know that because these Jewish Christians found themselves in a difficult place.

The date of writing is somewhere between 64 and 68 AD. So you're a little over 30 years past the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus into heaven. You're a little over 30 years past the beginning of the church. And what you've seen is you've seen more and more Jewish people reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. And more and more Jewish people begin to question whether

or not the gospel of Jesus Christ is really the true gospel. Because many of them were giving into legalism. They were wanting to go back to the legal system. There were several issues that were being faced by these Jewish believers at this point in time. And they're addressed within the book of Hebrews. Some of them were drifting away from the faith. Some of them were struggling

with unbelief. Some of them were struggling with immaturity. And some of them were struggling simply with falling away. And so the writer to the Hebrews wrote this book to remind them of one thing, and that's Jesus. As a matter of fact, I wrote this down from one of the commentaries that I read. It says this, At the heart of the danger was the leaving behind

of the simplicity and the freedom of the gospel and returning to a law of works, leaving the substance for the shadow. The Old Testament is the shadow of Jesus. The New Testament tells us of the substance of Jesus. But these believers were in danger of leaving behind the substance to go back to the shadow. And the only cure was to put their eyes back on Jesus.

And so this is what I wrote. I said, Today we face the same danger. We are oftentimes distracted by the difficulties of the world and tempted to leave the simplicity and the freedom of the gospel for something lesser that will ultimately lead to bondage, to leave behind the substance for the shadow of the lesser things. The cure has not changed. We need to put our eyes back on Jesus

to see him for what he truly is. And so that's what the writer to the Hebrews is going to do. As far as the breakdown of the book, the first 10 chapters are very theological in nature. As a matter of fact, they are focused on knowing Jesus. Some have even entitled it, Jesus is better, because he's going to show that Jesus is better than all of the things that they're putting their trust in.

When I was trying to figure out what I was going to give a title to the book, I almost put down the title for the book, Jesus versus everything. I even had a punching fist on the artwork that I was originally going to do. It was going to be awesome. Didn't feel right, so I opted out of doing that. But that's essentially what he does in those first 10 chapters

to show that Jesus is better. Chapters 10 through 13 are the practical section of the book about walking with Jesus and how walking by faith is better. But what we want to do this morning is we kind of want to introduce the subject of our book. And that's exactly what the writer, the writer to the Hebrews does is he takes these first three verses not to introduce who he is, not even to introduce who his recipients are, but to introduce the theme of the book that he is about to write to them.

He is going to introduce them to the one and only Jesus. So let's look at these first three verses. It says this, God, verse one of chapter one of the book of Hebrews, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature.

And he upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. It starts very interesting the way he says, he starts this letter to these Hebrew believers. He starts off simply by saying, God, because ultimately that's the subject he's going to address. He's going to address the second person

of the triune Godhead, which is Jesus. But overall he says, I want to tell you about God. And it made me think about the very beginning of the Bible because in Genesis chapter one, verse one, which by the way, I have termed as the most important verse in the entire Bible, because if you're not right about Genesis chapter one, verse one, you won't be right about anything else in the Bible. But if you can believe, Genesis chapter one, verse one, you can believe anything else that the Bible has to say.

But if you look at Genesis chapter one, verse one, this is what it says. It says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And both in the introduction to Hebrews and in the introduction to the book of Genesis, we see the subject of the divine nature of God. And it's interesting because when we think about Genesis chapter one, verse one, and we think about the triune Godhead and who he is, there's three things that I want to tell you about who God is.

That I think are very important for us to know. That Jesus will reveal to us about this person of God. Number one, Genesis chapter one, verse one, reveals to us that God is eternal. That God is eternal. That he is the God who has no ending. That he will go on forever and ever and ever. And that's an easy one, if you could term it that, an easy one for us to wrap our minds around.

But you see, God is not just eternal into the future. God is eternity past. Because God, as God always has been. That's the one that's a little bit hard to wrap your mind around. You see, each of us has a finite beginning. And that's all that we can look at ourselves as. And that's all that we can look at the world as, is there is this distinct beginning. Everyone's life in this room had a distinct beginning.

And so that's how we view God oftentimes. And we fail to see that God is the eternal God who always has been. And if you find yourself going, Ryan, I don't understand that. I want to remind you, that's what makes him God. The fact that he is beyond our understanding, the fact that he is infinite beyond anything that we can imagine or wrap our minds around is what makes him God.

The problem with most of us with God is that we want to make a God that we can understand. That's not a real God. That's called an idol. And it's usually created and fashioned after our own image and after our own ideas. Meanwhile, God sits aloft in eternity past and in eternity future because time is nothing to him and says, the eternal God who's beyond your understanding

I've made understandable through Jesus. Number one, God is eternal. But number two, God is all knowing. I always like to ask kids this question. I'm like, okay, who's the smartest person you've ever been around in your entire life? And they start naming people. You know, no one's ever named me in that situation. And that really hurts. Who's the smartest person you've ever been around

in your entire life? They start naming different people. And now, who do you think the smartest person in all of history is? They start naming different people. And then I like to land it with this. Do you realize God created them? That whoever you think the smartest individual is, whoever you think has the most knowledge of anyone of all time, God created them.

Indicating that whatever wisdom or knowledge that individual has was first given to them by God because we can only have that which we have been given. And we have not begun to plumb the depths of the wisdom and the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is. Of who this eternal God is. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us that the foolishness of God is beyond our understanding.

He's the all-knowing God. But number three, not only is he the eternal God, not only is he the all-knowing God, but number three, he's the all-powerful God. He's the all-powerful God. Again, I like to ask kids, who do you think the strongest person that you've ever been around ever is? Again, no one's ever named me. Kind of bummed by that. That's okay. It is what it is.

They start naming different people. Inevitably, somebody says, well, it's me. Or they point out somebody else. I say, now, who do you think the strongest guy of all time is? They'll start naming people. And I say, now, what do you think the strongest force? Is? And everybody agrees on this, nature. Nature's the strongest force that you can imagine, right? Nature has the ability

to shut the state of Kansas down. Right? Growing up in Kansas, having witnessed thunderstorms and all of the things that take place, it's always imagined, it's always amazing to me how everyone has all of their plans until a weather report comes out. And it has the ability to shut down all of the plans. A friend of mine that I work with with FCA was at a wrestling tournament

in Dodge City over the weekend. And he sent our group chat a picture of what he was about to leave in Dodge City. In Ark City, Kansas, we were dealing with rain. And I think somewhere not far from here was dealing with a tornado warning or watch or something along those lines. Meanwhile, in Western Kansas, they're getting like 30 inches of snow or something dumb like that.

He takes a picture of the roads he's about to drive. And he said, I've done some dumb things in my life, but this may take the cake, right? Because that's the power of nature. And what we failed to remember is that those powerful individuals and the power of nature was created by God, indicating that we have not begun to understand how powerful God is who can speak the world into existence, who can shake the cedars with the very voice of his mouth.

He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal God. And that all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal God, notice what it says. He spoke. He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways. If you go on in Genesis, you'll come to verse three. Genesis 1.1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Verse two says, the earth was without form and void

and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And then you get to verse three and it says, and God said, let there be light. That is the first time that we read of God speaking. But it is certainly not the last time and it is certainly everything that he is constantly doing in the world. He is always speaking.

It started there, but then God began to speak to Adam and Eve and then God spoke to Noah and then God spoke to Abraham and then God spoke to the prophets and he spoke to David and some of the kings and Samuel and all these different guys and he spoke to all of them. Matter of fact, when God first gave the 10 commandments, if we were to go all the way back to the book of Exodus and the children of Israel escape Egypt and they cross the Red Sea and they get to Mount Sinai, you'll find that the first thing that happened when they arrived at Mount Sinai is that there were thunder and clouds and lightning and fire on the mountain of Sinai and all of the children of Israel sat at the base of the mountain and it says, God spoke from the cloud

and he declared the law to them. Do you realize that's the first way that he declared the law to them? And then the people were like, Moses, here's the thing. That's the scariest thing we've ever seen in our entire lives. You go talk to God. We'll wait here. Good luck. He said, no, you don't understand. God has so many amazing things for you. They're like, that may be.

You hear what he has to say. You tell us. And that's when God began to speak through prophets because the voice of God was too much for the people and so he chose prophets and he began to use these men of God as a mouthpiece for what he had to say to the people and as he used these men of God as a mouthpiece to speak what he had to say to the people, it says in many portions and in many ways, some of your translations may say in diverse times, in various ways. That idea of diverse times is many portions.

The idea is this. The revelation that God gave to man throughout the Old Testament was always fragmented and partial. We did this a couple of years ago at Christmas. Remember, not this last one. You guys memorized those messages, right? Not this last one, but the one before. We went through and we looked at the fragmented message of the coming of Jesus Christ,

how it started in Genesis 3. It carried on through the family, of Noah. It carried on through the descendants of Shem. It carried on through the line of Abraham and it carried on through the line of Judah and then it came through David and then we were told he would be an Israelite, that he would be both God and man, that he would be born of a virgin, that he would be born in Bethlehem and that there would be a forerunner named John the Baptist that would go ahead of him.

Those were all fragmented portions of prophecy that were given over a span of four, thousand years. You see, in times past, God spoke to us, but he spoke to us through the prophets and he spoke to us in various portions, all making up one big story. He spoke to us in various ways. Sometime, as you read through the Old Testament, take note of the different ways that God spoke through the prophets.

Sometimes he just gave them a message to speak. Isaiah had to prophesy naked. Ezekiel had to lay on his side and I think it was Ezekiel, Ezekiel that had to cook food over dung. One of them had to tie their hands up to show that they were going to be bound. There was all these different ways that God would speak through the prophets. Why? Because sometimes if God gave us everything all at once,

we wouldn't be able to handle it. You know how I know that? Because if we go all the way to the book of Revelation, the last prophetic book that's given to us, you will find that John is constantly laying down because he's freaked out by everything that he sees. Daniel, when he received a revelation from God, was sick for three, three weeks. Because when God speaks,

sometimes it's more than we can take. But before I get to Jesus speaking to us, can I say one word, maybe to speak into your life? Can you look back on your life and go, yep, God was speaking some fragments to me up until I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. That's one of the great things about coming to Jesus is you come back and you're like, oh man, I see it.

I see all those different times where there was many portions and in many ways, that God was speaking to me because I wasn't ready to come to Jesus yet. And you can look back and see those things. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I promise that's been happening to you. That's why you're here.

It's because God has been speaking to you in various portions and in various ways to bring you to where you need to be, to where you will eventually be able to, as he tells us in just a minute, see the full revelation of Jesus. And so he says, God, who in times past spoke to us or spoke to us long ago, in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us through his son. Now he has spoken to us through his son. He says, in these last days, in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son.

I'm gonna read you a couple little quotes from commentaries. I think both of these came from David Guzik, but I didn't write down the author. Just know that they're not from me. It says this, Jesus did not speak the message from the father because he is the message from the father. He spoke to us in Jesus, not because Jesus brought the message that the father wanted to be shared,

but because Jesus is the message that the father wanted to share. The second quote is this. He speaks not only from God, but he speaks as God. You see, Jesus is the revelation of God. He is the revelation of who God is. And he is the final revelation of who God is. As a matter of fact, all of scripture can be summed up with what Jesus had to say to us. It was declared in the gospels.

It was explained in the epistles. And he is revealed in the book of Revelation. How do we know that there's not new revelations coming out about God? Well, because he says, in the last of these days, because that's what that phrase really means when it says in these last days, in the gospel, in Greek, it's in the last of these days, he has spoken to us through his son.

You see, this is how we know that there's not new scripture coming out. This is how we know there's not new revelation coming out. If you will look at the very beginning of the book of Revelation, which by the way, was the last written word from Jesus that's given to us by John in AD 95. If you look at that very first verse of the book of Revelation, it says the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The word revelation means unveiling, the unveiling of Jesus. If you were to jump all the way back down to the end of the book of Revelation in chapter 22, about the, like maybe verse 18-ish, I might've just made up a verse. It might not be that, but it's right there towards the end. It's like three verses away from the very end of the book. It says this, if anyone adds to the words of this book,

or if anyone takes away from the words of this book, then these curses will be added to him. Why is that important? Because that is the final revelation of Jesus. Therefore, if anyone wants to add a new revelation that they have seen from Jesus, he's gonna have to do it. He's gonna have to do it. He's gonna have to deal with all of the curses of the book of Revelation.

This is why no one's coming out with new revelations of Jesus, just better understanding of what he's already told us. That's important, because there will be people out there who say, no, no, no, no. I am God's mouthpiece on earth. This is a new revelation from Jesus. No, you're not. And no, it's not. And so he says, in the last of these days, he has spoken to us through his son.

And then in verses two and three, he's gonna give us a new revelation. He's gonna give us a new revelation. He's gonna give us a new revelation. He's gonna give us a new revelation. He's gonna give us a new revelation. He's gonna give us seven descriptions of Jesus. Let me read through them again. Verse two, it says, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son,

whom he appointed as heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature. And he upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand and he said, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand and he said, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand and he said, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Seven things. Now, I didn't have him put those up there, so you're gonna have to pay attention and write them down for yourself or just underline them in your Bible because I didn't get creative. I just lifted them straight out of scripture and put them on my outline. Number one, he is the heir of all things. He is the heir of all things. Literally what that means

is that he is the lawful owner. The universe belongs to him by divine appointment and he will soon rule over it. All of this is his. But scripture, while interpreting scripture, gives us something interesting because you know what the book of Ephesians tells us Jesus' greatest inheritance is? The riches of his inheritance are? They're you and they're me. Matter of fact, Paul prays for the people of Ephesus

in the book of Ephesians and he prays that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened to know the hope of his calling that you would understand the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints. That means that you are his inheritance. I am his inheritance. There's this great parable in the gospels that Jesus tells us. It's called the parable of the hidden treasure.

A man goes and he finds a treasure in a field and for his great joy, he buries the treasure and he goes and he buys the field so that he can have the treasure. The world is the field. You are the treasure. You are the treasure. Jesus didn't need another world, but he wanted you. And so in order to have you, he purchased the world so that he could have the treasure.

Jesus is the heir of all things. Not only does that tell us a little bit about who we are in Christ, but it reminds us that he is that firstborn, the one that has the preeminence. Number two, it says, through him, the world was made. Through him, the world was made. In the margin of your Bible, you might write John 1, 1 through 4. I'm gonna read it to you. I'm gonna reference this a couple of times this morning.

We'll probably turn there in just a minute. John 1, 1 through 4. Oh, what the hay, let's just turn there now.

Back to your left. It's the last of the gospel accounts. If you hit Luke, you went too far. If you hit Malachi, you really went too far.

It says this, starting in verse one of chapter one of John. In the beginning was the word. That means the logos, the expression. 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 came into being through him. And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men.

See, that's the declaration of Jesus as the creator of the heavens and the earth. Again, in the margin of your Bible, you might write Colossians 1, 16, back over in the book of Hebrews because Colossians 1, chapter 16 says this, that by him, all things were created and for him, all things were created. All things were created. So what we learn from that is who was the one actually speaking the world into existence?

Who was actually the agent of creation? It was none other than Jesus himself, that expression of God, the very word of God speaking the world into existence. Again, the power and the majesty that go along with that. That means that Jesus is the eternal God. That means that Jesus is the all-knowing God. That means that Jesus is the all-powerful God because he is the one who spoke the world

into existence. Back over to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter one. Not only is he the heir of all things, not only is he the one through whom the world was made, but number three, it tells us that he is the radiance of his glory. The radiance of his glory. The word radiance means a shining forth or a reflected brightness. A radiance that shines from a source. Let me put it to you like this.

The father is the son. Jesus is the sunbeams. He is the radiance of the father. Because he is the expression of the father. The fourth thing that it tells us is this, that he is the exact representation of his nature. He is the exact representation of his nature. That word representation means a reproduction. A reproduction. And the idea behind that is this.

It is a stamp that is made into clay. When I was a little kid, I don't know if they make silly putty anymore, but we used to play with silly putty or maybe like a Play-Doh sort of thing. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. And what we always like to do is we like to spread it out on our desk and take a coin, right? And you push the coin down in there so that when you lift the coin off, the exact representation of the coin is in that silly putty, right? It's kind of a fun thing to do. Hey, listen. We were little. We didn't have iPhones, okay? We had to come up with our own fun.

But that's the idea of what he says when he says exact representation. It's a reproduction. Let me tell you what I mean. Go again back over to John chapter one. I know. You can do it. I believe in you. Exercise those Bibles. Break the gilded pages of those brand new Bibles.

Sidebar. Anybody get a new Bible for Christmas, you don't have to raise your hand. Let me just get, yeah, okay, all right. Man, but one of the greatest parts about getting a new Bible is crunching the pages for the first time. It's one of my favorite. I just, I'll buy a new Bible just for that. I have to be really careful when I go Bible shopping. Like if I look at one, I'm like, okay,

I gotta be careful to open it. Because I'm not gonna steal that joy from somebody. The joy of going and crunching those pages for the first time. Meanwhile, back at John chapter one in verse 18, something that really is important. I want you to notice what it says. No one, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father,

he has explained him. The only begotten who's in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. In other words, if you wanna know what the Father looks like, look at how Jesus acted. If you wanna know how God would respond in certain situations, look at the way that Jesus responded. If you wanna know how God loves, look at how Jesus loves. If you wanna know how God sacrifices for us,

look at how Jesus sacrifices for us. If you want to know the Father, you need to know the Son. Because he has explained or declared the Son to us. There's one other place I want you to go in John. I want you to go over to John. John chapter 14, verse 8. And we're gonna start in verse 7, actually, for context's sake. John chapter 14, verse 7. This is the end of Jesus' life.

He's in the upper room with his disciples. He's already had the Last Supper. He's already sent Judas out to go do what he needs to go do. And he's talking to his friends about the fact that he's going to be leaving. And I want you to notice what it says in verse 7. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him.

And Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. And Jesus said, Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Jesus said, If you want to know what the Father looks like, then look at me. Because this is exactly what he would do.

This is one of the strongest statements of the deity of Christ in all of the New Testament. This is one of his strongest claims to being God in the New Testament. Because he says, I am the exact representation of the Father. That's who this Jesus is. This Jesus that once we set our eyes back on him, will deal with the danger of the issues that we face in our lives.

Go back over to Hebrews chapter 1. Not only is he the heir of all things, through him all things have been created. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He is the exact representation of his nature. Number five, He upholds all things by the word of his power. He upholds all things by the word of his power. That word uphold means to carry the load or to carry the burden.

He carries the burden of all things. He keeps all things up by the word of his power. I want to spend just a couple of minutes talking about this because I think it's so important for us to understand that God is not just the creator of the universe, but he is the sustainer of the universe. He did not just twirl the world into motion and then take his hands off and go, well, good luck.

No, he's the God that continues to hold it all together. I'm not much of a science guy. I'm probably not smart enough to be a science guy, but I do find some of it very interesting. One of the commentators that I read, pointed out the fact that one of the things that has plagued scientists for generations is they can't always figure out what holds it all together.

What holds the molecules and the protons and the neutrons and the atoms, what holds all that stuff together because it almost doesn't make sense. And it's because they've stopped looking for the real answer and they only want to find an answer that fits most of their scientific ideas. And what they miss in all of it is there is a lot of information and there's one thing that holds it together and that's the word of his power because he is the sustaining, maintaining force of the universe. You ever wondered how the world spins at exactly the right rate that we hold on and don't get flung off of this crazy planet that we're spinning on right now?

It's because God holds it with the word of his power. Do you know that if we were any closer to the sun, we would burn up and in July, we feel like that's gonna happen anyway. If we were any farther away from the sun, we would burn up. We would freeze. And I bet the folks out in Western Kansas feel like they're a little farther than they should be right now,

but they're not. They're exactly where they need to be. God keeps it all spinning exactly the way that it's supposed to. Have you ever wondered what causes your lungs to continue to expand and contract to make sure that the right amount of oxygen goes in and out of your lungs at exactly the right rate? Because if we have too much oxygen, it's actually bad for us.

And if there's too much CO2, it's bad for us. And yet God knows the exact right rate of those things for us to take in to keep our brains, functioning the way that they are supposed to. Have you ever wondered what causes your heart to pump at the right rate to make sure that blood continues to flow through your body? It's none other than God himself because he is the one who holds all of these things by the word of his power.

And from somebody who has been at the bedside of multiple people who have gone home to be with the Lord, I can tell you that there is so much more about the loss of a life than just simply the cessation of breath and heartbeat. It is something very spiritual that's involved there because God by his spirit is holding that person's heart and holding his life in his hands and sustaining it by the word of his power, which is how we know that you don't arrive too early and you don't leave too early. Everything about your life is right on time because you are sustained by the word of his power, just like this entire earth, which is how we know that no matter what's going on in the world today, we can rest in a sovereign God

because if he holds the world in place by the word of his power, listen to me, then he holds your world in place. By the word of his power. He is sustaining your world today. And I don't know what it is in your world that feels like it's out of control, but I promise you, God is absolutely in control and you can rest in that. And it's going to be another one of those things

where you'll look back and you've only got a portion of the information now, but when you make it through this, you'll look back and go, God really was in control that whole time. God really was maintaining everything by the word of his power. I just had a hard time resting. I just didn't like his tone. Right? I just didn't like that it was taking a long time.

And you can rest in that. That he maintains all things by the word of his power. Number six, he made purification for sin. He made purification for our sins. That word purification means to be purged or to be cleansed or to be washed. And I can tell you right now, and I can say this confidently, of all of the powerful things that I just told you about God, this one wins.

Of all of the powerful things that I can tell you about Jesus, the gospel always wins. Because God's ability to take a stained, broken, dead sinner, make them alive, make them whole, and make them clean is truly one of the most powerful forces I have ever seen on planet earth. And I've watched it. You know, I, I, at the end of every year, I think, okay, what have I learned this year?

Hopefully I learned something. And so I went through and I wrote my top five lessons that I learned in 2025 in no particular order, even though I put them in order. I think that they were all equal in my understanding of the amazing things that God did in my life and what I watched him do in 2025. And one of the most powerful things that I saw God do in 2025 is change people's lives to the power of the gospel.

Is see people go from being dead to being alive. From being lost to being found. From being stained to being clean. Because that's what the gospel does. And that's what Jesus is able to do. In our world today, we have lost our understanding of forgiveness. We don't really understand the gospel right now. I remember a couple of years ago, listen, I'm not intending to get political,

but I'm just going to use a political example. Do this, do with this what you will. So a couple of years ago, maybe three or four years ago, during the last administration, they talked about forgiving student loan debt. Right? And of course, everybody on the right was like, you can't do that. Everybody on the left was like, yes we can. Anyway, so there's this whole big debate.

The dumbest thing that I saw come out of it, and listen, if you posted something like this, it was the dumbest thing you posted. Okay, you just need to know that. I just call it like it is. Okay? If people started posting things like, don't you understand that that's the gospel? That they owed a debt that they couldn't pay and it was forgiven. And I wanted to be like,

that's not the gospel. That's licentiousness, right? Like the gospel would have been a bunch of people owe a student debt and so Joe Biden takes from his money and he pays off that student debt and now that student debt is forgiven because the debt has been paid. That's the gospel. Because Jesus is not some cosmic grandfather with Werther's Originals in his pockets

going, come on, son, let's just pretend that didn't happen, okay? We're just gonna forgive you and just move on. No, God is a righteous judge and he has to judge sin. And if God doesn't judge sin, it makes him less than God because he doesn't have the right to be God if he is not also the righteous judge. But because he is a righteous judge, he looked at humanity and said,

they owe a debt that they're going to have to pay and it's going to cost them their life because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. It's going to cost them their life. And because I love them so much, I'm gonna take off the robes of my glory and I'm gonna put on the suit of a man and I'm gonna live among them so that I can die for them and I can pay their debt. That's the gospel.

Because do you know what forgiveness means? The word forgiveness in the Greek means to lift off of. And what God did is he lifted the debt of your sin off of you and he placed it upon Jesus. That's what we're told in the book of Colossians that he bore in his own hands his own body, our sin on the cross. And when you come to Jesus and say, I accept the gift that you've given to me,

then he cleanses you completely. Listen, I've made plenty of stains on shirts, especially with bloody noses, but I can tell you, blood never makes anything white unless it's your sin. And then it makes it white as snow. What he does in this amazing, amazingly powerful process of the gospel of Jesus Christ is he purges and he cleanses and he washes. And there's two different types of people

in this room right now. Yeah, probably three. Two main types of people in this room right now. Some of you who've never had your sins washed before and you're still wearing them on you because you've never come to Jesus. You've never cried out for salvation. You've never come and said, I'm a dirty sinner. And I know that nobody likes to admit that, but it's just true.

And until you can admit that, you can't ever be made clean. You've not come to Jesus to say, I'm a dirty sinner. I'm filthy and I'm dead in my sins and I need something to make me clean. Jesus, I need you. Some of you in this room this morning, you've never done that. And today's the day that you need to do that because the longer that you reject that, the harder it's going to be for you to get saved.

Because the more that you reject the offer of salvation, the more that you reject the power of the gospel in your life, the less opportunity you have to receive it. But then there's a whole other group of people in this room this morning. You came to Jesus, but you're still living like you're stained. You came to Jesus, but you still live like you're not brand new.

You're still living in the guilt of things that you've done wrong. You're still living in the habits of the things that you've done wrong. You're still living like you're an old sinner instead of like you're a brand new believer. You're not living like you're cleansed. And you, first of all, need to know that you're washed clean. Listen, if I could get everybody that's a believer in Jesus Christ

to understand one thing, and that's that you don't wear your sin anymore. You know when God taught me this lesson? I was about 22 years old, maybe 23. And I learned it through the book of Leviticus. Listen, you all do in your one year reading plans, Leviticus is coming, okay? It's okay. It's like winter, it's coming. You're going to love it. You're going to get through it.

I love that book. You know why? Because in the book of Leviticus is where I really understood the gospel. There's this chapter in Leviticus, it's Leviticus chapter, I believe 16. It tells a story about one of the sacrifices. The sacrifice that it tells about is called the day of atonement. And the day of atonement was a day of mourning over sin in the nation of Israel.

And here's what would happen. On the day of atonement, they would choose two goats and they would essentially, for lack of better terms, they'd flip a coin. Heads, tails. Heads, this goat dies. Tails, this goat dies, right? Flip the coin, heads. You win. And this is the sacrificial goat. They would take that sacrificial goat and they would cut its throat. They would take some of the blood,

the high priest would. He would go behind the veil into the holiest of all, the most holy place where the Ark of the Covenant was. And they would sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, which by the way, Jesus is referred to as our mercy seat. We'll get into this more in Hebrews. They would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat and God would, cover over the sins.

That's what atonement means. Kofar, it's the Hebrew word, means covering. He would cover over the sins for another year. But then what did we do with the second goat? I'm really glad you asked. I know you were thinking that. They would take the second goat. High priest would do something fascinating. He would take his hands and he placed it on the head of the second goat

and he would begin confessing all of the sins of the people. Can you imagine how long that took? And then on Friday, right? He confesses all the sins of the people and posthumously places all those sins on that goat. And then they would take the goat outside of town and they would release the goat so that the goat would run away from the people picturing the fact that their sins

had been carried away for another year. What did Jesus do? Well, first of all, his blood was shed for us. He went behind the veil of the most holy place and didn't take the blood of a bull or a goat, but he took his own precious blood and he sprinkled it on the eternal mercy seat of God's altar. But where did he carry his cross? What does the cross represent?

It represents our sin. Where did he carry his cross? Outside of the city. Now, I read Leviticus chapter 16 around the same time that the Passion of the Christ movie came out. And I remember watching the movie and then going back and reading that again and going, oh, I get it. I get it. He took it all on himself and he carried it away from me. And it's not my fault.

It's not mine to carry anymore. Those aren't my sins anymore. Those aren't my stains anymore. I'm made brand new. And if I could get everybody in this room and everybody watching online to understand you are made brand new, I wouldn't have to tell you to live brand new. You know why? Because you take really good care of a brand new truck, don't you? You treat it like it's a brand new truck.

You, you're brand new. Treat yourself like it. Because he made purification for our sin and it's completely gone. You've been made clean. Number seven,

after he made purification for sins, number seven, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. That means two things. Number one, it speaks of the majesty, it speaks of the honor, and it speaks of the glory of Jesus. Because anybody that's a Christian, that knew anything about a kingdom knew that the right hand of the king

was the place of power. Jesus sits in the place of power. He sits in the place of majesty and he sits in the place of honor. That's why his disciples were always arguing about who's gonna sit at his right hand because they knew that that was the place of power and that's what that indicates for Jesus is that he is the place of power and authority. But it speaks to something else.

It speaks to the finished work of Jesus. Because once he had made atonement for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. You know where Jesus is not right now? Jesus is not on the cross right now. You see, that sacrifice is not a perpetual sacrifice. That sacrifice, according to Scripture, is a one-time sacrifice. A one-time sacrifice after which he sat down at the right hand of the Father.

You know the only time that we see Jesus standing in the New Testament was on the day that Stephen was martyred. On the day that the very first martyr took place, Stephen said, I see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because Jesus loves his kids. And when it's time to welcome one home, he's happy to stand up and welcome them home. Other than that, he's sitting

because that is the place of rest because it is a finished work. The one and the only Jesus. He's the heir of all things. He's the creator. He's the creator of all things. He's the radiance of the glory of God. He's the exact representation of the nature of God. He's upholding the world by his power. He made purification for our sins. And he is currently sitting

at the right hand of the Father. And as we'll talk about in coming weeks, sitting at the right hand of the Father, he's advocating for us. He's our defense lawyer sitting at the right hand of the Father. So I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up. And as we close out here this morning, I have a question. I have a question for you. And my question for you is this.

Where is your focus today? Where is your focus in life? Where is your focus with the things that are going on? For these people that the book of Hebrews was being written to, their focus had gotten off. They had gotten distracted. They had stopped believing. They were beginning to drift. And he used the truth of who Jesus is to get them back on track. And so in just a minute,

these guys are going to sing this last song. And I want you to do me a favor while they sing this last song. I want you to ask God to search your heart. And I want you to see the areas where you've taken your eyes off of Jesus. I want you to see the areas where you don't view yourself as brand new in Christ. Where you don't see yourself as resting in who you are in Jesus.

For some of you, that may mean that you need to come to Jesus for the very first time. That today's the day that you need to put your faith in. You need to put your faith in him. And I'm here to tell you right now, there's no magic words that you need to say. There's no magic prayer that you need to say. I don't need to lead you in anything. All you need to do is cry out to Jesus.

You just need to tell him you're a filthy sinner and ask him to be your savior. And in that moment, he will make you brand new in him. I can't explain it physically. I can only tell you spiritually that it's the greatest decision you'll ever make in your life. And some of you need to start believing that you're brand new. Some of you need to start believing that all those sins have been purged by Jesus.

And some of you just need to allow yourselves to be in awe once again of the savior, because the pleasures of this world have taken a place that only Jesus deserves in your life. I don't know where you are in your walk with Jesus this morning, but as I pray and as they sing this last song, I just ask that you allow God to do whatever he wants to do in your heart this morning. Amen. Father, we come to you now.

And Lord, I praise you that you are the God of all creation. Lord, I praise you that you are the God who is eternal. The God who is all knowing. The God who is all powerful, but you are the God who made yourself knowable to us through Jesus. And so Father, I just ask for the work of your Holy Spirit in each person's life this morning, that you would move in them.

That they would see you more clearly. and that they would lay aside the garbage of this world and walk on in faith towards you. And so, Father, move in this place by the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand.

I've carried a burden to... May that be our prayer this morning, that we would run to you again and again. We need you, Lord. We need you every hour of every day, Lord God. There's not a moment in our life that we don't have you. Ask your blessing upon us as we leave here today. May your Holy Spirit move mightily in our lives. And I ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

Guys, have a wonderful week. God bless you guys.