Fresh Brewed Faith | Week 1

Week 1 – Jesus, Son of God

Hebrews 1-2

I. God Has Spoken (1:1-3)

The main purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to man. Andrew Murray said of Hebrews, “The one object of the Epistle is to lead us to God, to reveal God, to bring us into contact with Himself. Man was created for God. Sin separated from God. Man feels his need, and seeks for God. This Epistle comes with the gospel message of redemption, to teach us where and how to find God. Let all who thirst for God, for the living God, draw nigh and listen” (The Holiest of All, p. 31).

A. Through the Prophets – Old Testament

B. Through His Son – New Testament

“When God speaks in His Son, He gives Him to us, not only for us and with us, but in us” (Andrew Murray, The Holiest of All, p. 33).

II. Jesus is Greater Than Angels (1:4-14)

“Are they not all ministering sprits, sent to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (v. 14)

There are 7 quotations from the Old Testament about Christ’s superiority over angels. In each case, the author attributes the words to God.

III. Warning! (2:1-4)

“Divine revelation is progressive, moving not from false to true, but from lesser to a greater revelation. This revelation is both complementary, in that the new covenant fulfills the old, and supplementary, in that there are dimensions in the new covenant not found in the old. The capstone of revelation is Jesus Christ and his work and word of salvation” (George Guthrie, The NIV Application Commentary on Hebrews, p. 86).

IV. The Son of Man (2:5-9)

“The biblical evidence for the angelic government of the world is early: it goes back to the Son of Moses in Deut. 32. The Septuagint reading of Deuteronomy 32:8 runs thus:

‘When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the children of men,
He set the bounds of the peoples
According to the number of the angels of God,’

(The following verse goes on to say that Yahweh has nevertheless reserved Israel as His own heritage.) This reading implies that the administration of the various nations has been parceled out among a corresponding number of angelic power. At a later time this implication becomes explicit: in Daniel, for example, we meet the angelic ‘prince of Persia’ and the ‘prince of Greece’ (Daniel 10:20), while Michael is the ‘great prince’ who champions the people of Israel (Daniel 10:21; 12:1)” (F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 32-33).

V. Our Great High Priest (2:10-18)

“Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Hebrews 2:17-18