Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 1 * PART 3 * BOOK 46
Hebrews 1:1-10
Now as most of you know we’re just hopefully a teaching ministry. It’s amazing how simple the Word of God really is. It’s not all that difficult, if you just simply follow the Scripture as it unfolds, and don’t let tradition sway you. Now we’re going to begin again in Hebrews chapter 1, and we’re still in verse 2.
Hebrews 1:2a
“Hath in these last days (that is the period of Christ’s first advent. Those were the last days according to all the Old Testament prophecies) spoken unto us by his Son, (remember there is no “his” in the original as we spoke of in the previous lesson. So it should read, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by) Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,…”
Now just stop for a moment. I think we’re all guilty of just reading so fast, that we don’t read. What does it mean to be appointed heir? Well, they get everything. You know we like to read of the heir of some wealthy corporation, or the Vanderbilt family, or the Rockefeller’s and we’ll read of their great wealth, and it always says, “They’re the heir of so and so fortune.” So we’re well acquainted to what it is to be an heir, but you see the Triune God again, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, have in unison made the Son the Heir of everything. Now let’s go back to the Book of Philippians chapter 2, and this again says it all in a different light than even Hebrews.
I’m going to keep stressing that Hebrews is written with the idea of showing the Jewish people that Jesus of Nazareth was not just a martyr. He was not just a prophet, but rather He was God the Son! He was the Creator of everything. So here in Philippians chapter 2, Paul, I think covers the whole realm of Christ’s coming and what He accomplished. Verse 5:
Philippians 2:5
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God,…” Remember what the Scripture says in John 1:1?
John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So this same Jesus, the Word in John 1:2, the Christ:
Philippians 2:6-7
“Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery (or it wasn’t anything that He was doing that wasn’t appropriate) to be equal with God: 7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, (or a bond slave is a better term) and was made in the likeness of men:” He was made in the likeness of men as he was born of the virgin Mary, but always remember He was still God. We’re going to be showing that as we go further in Hebrews. He never stopped for a moment being part of that Godhead. Now verse 8:
Philippians 2:8
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, (Rome didn’t humble Him, the Jewish leaders didn’t humble Him, but rather He humbled Himself,) and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Now, we all have our pet ideas of how we can picture some of these things, but the one that is freshest on my mind, is when they were in the Garden of Gethsemane, and when Peter finally saw what they were trying to do to his Lord, what does Peter do? Well he draws his sword that he was carrying, and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest who name was Malchus. Well was that in agreement in the mind of Christ? No the Lord wasn’t fighting to protect Himself, and to show Peter how completely wrong he was, the Lord put Malchus’ ear back on miraculously. And it was only to show Peter, “Listen, we’re not fighting against this with weapons. I’m not trying to avoid the cross.” So He became obedient, and as He said Himself He could have called down 12 legions of angels, and they would have come to His rescue, but He chose not to.
Philippians 2:8b-9a
“…and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (but don’t stop there.) 9. Wherefore (because of His total obedience to the plan of the Triune God,) God also hath highly exalted him,…” Now I’ll let you enlarge on the word exalt. What does it mean? I mean it’s to give Him all the praise that is His due. God Himself has exalted Him.
Philippians 2:9b
“…and given him a name which is above every name:” There’s not a name that has ever been on the planet that came even close to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Now verse 10, and this is going to be the final fruition of everything.
Philippians 2:10a
“That at the name of Jesus every knee…” The Hitlers, the Mussolini’s, the Stalin’s, the Napoleon’s, you name it, every one of them is going to stand before Him, fall on their knees, and recognize Who He is.
Philippians 2:10-11
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. 11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Now where it comes to heir-ship we can’t leave out our own role. We as believers are also called heirs, and we’ll find that in Romans chapter 8. My, this should be enough to inflate everyone of us to where it’s almost hard for us to stay earth bound, because this is our prospect. This is what’s coming! This is why Paul says, “suffering is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.”
Romans 8:16-17a
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (you don’t have to wonder if you are one of God’s children if you have believed Paul’s Gospel in your heart for Salvation) 17. And if children, then heirs; (just like in an earthly family. The child is the heir of all of the father’s wealth. So we’re) heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;…”
Now I know that’s unbelievable, but that’s the prospect. Christ is the heir of everything that’s ever been created or ever will be, and we in turn are joint-heirs with Him. My, isn’t that enough to just shun the things of this world for a little while? And the world thinks we’re missing it. Well, I’ve got news for them, we’re not missing anything, but rather they are. They’re missing everything, because the world is nothing but a pigpen by comparison to the glory that will be revealed to us.
Romans 8:17b
“…if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Now let’s come back to Hebrews again to chapter 1. I was just talking with someone the other day that said the Bible doesn’t tell us a lot of information on our eternal state. We really don’t know how we’re going to function or what we’re going to be doing. Oh, we can speculate, but we just really don’t know; but what do we know? It is going to be so fabulous that language could never express it. It is going to be so glorious, and so pleasurable and it will be for all eternity. Not just for 70 or 80 years, but for eternity. So God:
Hebrews 1:2
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, (we covered the last part of the verse in our first program) whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;” Our Lord Jesus Christ created everything! Now let’s move on into verse 3. And what a loaded verse:
Hebrews 1:3a
“Who (speaking of Son) being the brightness of his glory,…”
Whose glory? The Godhead. The whole Triune God! Now we got just a little glimpse of that back in Matthew chapter 17 so let’s look at it. This is just a little window that God gives us from time to time. But this little glimpse should be enough to make our hearts leap, because we’re going to be partakers of this in the full one day. And we think we’re getting close to that day. My lands when I read and when I hear what’s going on today, it just can’t be much longer. The technology that is exploding so far even as the military is concerned. Why it would be enough to make the masses panic I would think, if they knew what our military already has. Not just on wishful thinking, but what they already have.
Then I was reading an article yesterday about the gross, vulgar, immorality among our 12 and 14 year-old school kids. It just scares you to your socks what’s coming – but on the other hand it encourages us that, as believers, one day soon we will get a full view of this glory. Not just a glimpse of it, but rather we’ve going to be in it. Here is just that little window in Matthew chapter 17.
Matthew 17:1-2
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up unto an high mountain apart, (from all the rest of the activity. Even from the other nine)2. And (Jesus) was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.”
Now look, we can’t look on the sun without being blinded. And I imagine that somehow or other the three were protected from it, or they too would have been blinded as Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus. But here He was transfigured before, and suddenly that lowly Jesus of Nazareth Who had been walking those dusty roads of the Nation of Israel is transfigured. And He does shine like the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
Now again, we can’t comprehend the brightness of that kind of light. Now you all know of the experience of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. I think it was that same light that just literally blinded him, and scarred his eyes when he was confronted with that light from the Person of the Son. Now coming back to Hebrews chapter 1. So the Son, the One Who had walked the earth, had humbled Himself to be crucified and slain, and as He said on the cross, “It is finished!” And nothing else can be added to it. Nobody can put their fingers to the work that Christ accomplished, because it’s all done.
Hebrews 1:3a
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,…” Now I think sometimes people get the wrong idea from Genesis where it says, “God created man in His image.” Now you want to remember at the time of the creation, God had never appeared in human form so far as we know from Scripture. But rather He was Spirit! So He didn’t create Adam in likeness of a physical body that the Godhead had, because they didn’t have one, as they were Spirit. So when it says, “Adam was created in God’s image,” it merely meant “in the person of the personality. In His mind, will, and emotion.” That’s where Adam was in God’s image.
And as I pointed out when I taught back in Genesis, how many of those three entities can anyone of us see? None of them! Nobody can take a mind and lay it on an examining table, and look at it. It can’t be done, because it’s invisible. Nobody can take your will and examine it, as it’s impossible. Why? It’s invisible. Nobody can take the seat of our emotion and lay it out to be examined, because it, too, is invisible. And yet those are the three things that God is made up of, as well as His created beings.
Again when we taught back in Genesis I mentioned more than once, go through the Scriptures and you’ll find that God the Father has mind, will and emotions. God the Spirit also has mind, will and emotions. And we know God the Son has mind, will, and emotions. And that’s what makes them three distinct Personalities. But you can’t examine anyone of those three. So man was literally created an invisible creation, patterned after the invisible Spirit God. But in order for man to function in creation, we know God put the invisible man into a visible body.
And that had to be, because all of creation in basic science, is again made up of three things. “Matter, time, and space!” Take any one of those away and you don’t have a universe. It’s just plain and simple isn’t it. Matter – a star, a moon, a person. We are matter moving through time, in space, and that’s creation! So God took this invisible part of us and placed it in a body. And the same way with Himself. When He came and He placed that Spirit being, the very mind, will, and emotion of the Son in a body, He became then the visible manifestation of the invisible God. This is why we maintain then that the human being is eternal, whether he is lost or saved, he’s going to live some place for eternity, because God’s eternal, and man was created in God’s image, in sphere of the eternal.
Hebrews 1:3a
“(The Son) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power,…”
Now we won’t go back and look up Colossians again, but you remember in the first program when we were in Colossians chapter 1, where it said, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Everything in the universe is held together by the power of the Word of Christ! And if He should ever relinquish that power, the universe would go into fission, and would utterly be burned up, which will probably happen one day, just before we get the new heaven and new earth. But nevertheless, everything is held in control by the Word of Christ’s power. Now reading on in verse 3. And when was that power exercised?
Hebrews 1:3b
“…when he had by himself purged our sins,…” And where did He purge our sins? On the cross, and in resurrection power. See, we can’t just stop at the cross, like so many do. But the cross by itself did not finish the work of redemption. Now that paid the sin debt, of course it did, but the power of it all was never released until He arose from the dead, three days and three nights later. Now I guess I could tie this in together if I went ahead and skipped over to verse 5 here in Hebrews, so let’s look at it. I wasn’t planning on doing it this way, but with this word ‘power’ I think it’s appropriate.
Hebrews 1:5
“For unto which of the angels said he (God) at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” That’s never been spoken to anybody but the Son. Now, come back to Psalm chapter 2, and I think I made reference to this in the first program. We have to realize and understand that all the power of the Godhead was released when God raised Christ from the dead. And let’s just begin at verse 7.
Psalm 2:7
“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Let’s go to Acts, chapter 13, and that’s where we have to let Scripture speak. Here Paul is speaking there in Antioch, and he’s in the synagogue, and he is preaching to a synagogue full of Jews, so he’s going to use a lot of the Old Testament.
Acts 13:32-33
“And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the father, (through the prophets) 33. God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Now here is where we get the Scriptural definition of the only begotten Son of God.
Acts 13:34
“And as concerning that (begotten in verse 33) he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.” Now go to Romans chapter 1 for more follow up. And this is all with regard to the term “The only begotten Son of God.” It wasn’t when He was born in Bethlehem. Listen, that was not the result of a sire having a reproduction. The only begotten Son was when He was raised from the dead.
Romans 1:3-4
“Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; (here it comes in verse 4). And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, (and how was that power executed?) by the resurrection from the dead:”
Always remember when Paul speaks of the power of God unto Salvation, what is he referring to? The power of His resurrection! At that time, Christ overcame all the forces of Satan, and He became the epitome of the Creator God, and it was that power that lifted us out of our deadness, and out of our sins, and that’s why we have to use His resurrection as part and parcel of our Gospel!
Romans 10:9
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.