Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who Was Jesus? | New Testament | Hebrews 1

Episode Date: March 1, 2023

How would you describe Jesus? Was he a good teacher? Is he like a friend? Is he just someone who lived 2000 years ago? In today's episode, Jensen uses Hebrews 1 to describe exactly who Jesus was. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Hebrews 1

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Who was Jesus? You can type that question into Google. I did, and you'll find a multitude of answers. Jesus was a teacher. He was a prophet.

He was a healer. He was a Jew. He was a man who lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago. Some say he wasn't even really a person. There's a T-shirt line boasting that Jesus is my homeboy. There's a song you can say, seeing letting people know that Jesus is a friend of yours. People have a lot to say about who Jesus is, inside and outside of the church. And sometimes inside of the church, we still struggle to really

understand who Jesus was. I have friends who would consider themselves Christians, who would say they love him and follow him, but who don't believe he was actually God. I've known people who saw Jesus as someone who died a long time ago so that they could go to heaven. They said a prayer when they were young and they thought that that was about it. Some still fall in the homeboy category, seeing Jesus as a friend. They can lean on in hard times, a buddy, but not much more than that. We know what Google says, but what does the Bible say when we ask of it, who was Jesus? Well, today we're jumping into a new book, the book of Hebrews. Now Hebrews is all the often seen as one long sermon with a few central themes,

one of those themes being revealing to his audience, who Jesus really was. As we go throughout this book, we will see the author of Hebrews, walk his audience through the scriptures, and show them just how Jesus fits into the narrative of the Bible, revealing to them who he is and what that means for God's people. But before we get to all of the good stuff in the coming weeks,

we're going to plant ourselves in the first chapter of Hebrews today, where the author opens up with a short introduction, teeing up his main themes for the rest of the book, and diving directly into answering our question for today. Who was Jesus? First one. Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. These first two verses are meant to mirror one another in their message. In verse one, we learned that long ago, in the Old Testament times, God spoke to his people via prophets, and he did so at many different times and in many different ways. The author highlights that in Old Testament times, there had to be many different revelations, and that God had to speak to his people many different times.

There are many different prophets, many different priests making sacrifices many different times for people's sins. God reestablished his covenant at different times with his people because his people and his prophets continued to rebel against him, and they failed to uphold their end of the covenants they made with him long ago. And yet, in verse two, we learned that in these last days, God has spoken to his people through his son, Jesus, who is the heir of all creation, his son, His son, who we are told he created the world through. Can you see the difference in this statement to the one in the first verse? Long ago, God spoke many times through many different prophets,

but now God has spoken once and for all through one being, Jesus. Because Jesus isn't a fallible human being. Jesus is God's son. He is the heir to the very creation that was made through him. Jesus has existed since before the world began. He has complete authority and power, and he has full deity as God's son. And the words that he spoke on earth, Jesus' message, was the final, absolute word from God. We now can rest in those promises looking forward to his return and the promise of his coming kingdom. Now there's a lot in those first two verses, but let's keep going because we have two more.

Versus three and four. He, that's Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So again, we ask, who is Jesus? Well, he's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. All that to tell us that Jesus is God. He is the very nature of the one God Yahweh we see throughout the Old Testament. And right now the universe is being upheld by his power. Jesus wasn't just a good friend. He wasn't just a moral teacher. He wasn't just a man who lived in Palestine 2,000 years ago. Jesus was and is Yahweh.

Hebrews continues telling us that Jesus, who is fully divine, made purification for our, meaning all of humanity's sins. If we remember from verses 1 and 2, Jesus' message and work was the final word from God. And so where the Old Testament people of God had to offer multiple sacrifices to atone for their sins, where they needed multiple priests to perform purification rights and ceremonies in the temple for all of God's people again and again, now through Jesus Christ, the heir of creation, Yahweh, now once and for all, purification has been made for all sins. And after doing this, Jesus ascended to the right hand of God, the Father, because he is

even greater than the angels. Now, the comparison to angels here might seem odd, and it might seem similarly odd to you that for the rest of chapter 1, Hebrews lays out specific evidence from Scripture that Jesus is greater than angels. When I googled who Jesus was, I didn't find anyone saying that Jesus was an angel. So why make the distinction here? Well, we have to think about our original audience here. In first century Judaism, people would have believed lots of things about angels. Rather than imagining a baby with wings on a cloud, they would have known that these angelic beings to be messengers of God,

beings who appeared in human form on earth, who ministered even before the throne of God. They would have known these were ancient and powerful beings who served God faithfully. And so here, the author of Hebrews wants to make it clear that Jesus, in his resurrection and ascension to the throne of God, is superior to even these beings. He is not to be confused as a mere human prophet, nor is an equal to the angels, but is distinctly divine, all-powerful, Lord of creation, Yahweh. This first chapter is just a foretaste

of all that is to come in Hebrews, and I'm so excited that we get to dive deeply into the imagery and symbolism of who Jesus is, and what that means for all of belief, There's so much more to come that will help us answer even more fully our understanding of who Jesus was and is. But for today, I want to challenge each of us to ask, how does this answer to who Jesus is, found in Hebrews, challenge the way you see him in your life? You may well have known all that we talked through today. But if you look at your life, the way you make decisions, the way you pray, the way you spend your time, your thought life, how you view your purpose each and every day, does it reflect the truth of who Jesus is? Because the thing is, knowing that

Jesus is God, knowing that Jesus once and for all became a sacrifice to purify humanity of our sins. Knowing that he has all authority and power, knowing that his words in scripture are the final and full revelation of God should and must change something about our lives. Jesus isn't just your buddy or a good teacher or someone to take pointers from or lean on in hard times. He wasn't just a man who lived and died and means nothing for you today in the 21st century. He is God. His life and word changes everything for all of humanity, and it is my hope and prayer that we would approach Jesus, the truth of his gospel, and his call for all Christians to partner with him in building his kingdom with all the praise and honor and glory that his name deserves.

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