Hebrews 1:1

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has 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.

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You, as we just sang, that You have no rival and You have no equal. You are King of kings and Lord of lords. We pray, God, that Your rule and reign would be supreme in our lives. Lord, that You would have the chief seat in each of our hearts, a place of supremacy as King of kings. God, speak to us today. Give us continued wisdom and insight, understanding into the things of the Scriptures by Your Spirit, that we would not only know these things intellectually, but we would be able to make them a part of our lives and that it would transform us. So transform us by the renewing of our minds for Your glory. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen.

You can be seated.

I was blessed to attend a conference this last week in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I don't know who the crazy person was that decided they should have a conference at the end of January in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but it really drove home the reason that I live in Southern California. Even if it is a little cloudy and even if we are going to get rain, I'll tell you this: this beats 10-degree weather every single day.

It was a real blessing that my pastor, Pastor Pat Kinney, was able to come and share here this last weekend. For probably more than a few of you, that was the first introduction to Pastor Pat. Pastor Pat pastored the church here for 27 years, and I was able to serve with and under him for quite a few years before he handed the church off to me back in 2008. It was truly a blessing to have him come back and share with us and to listen to the message online this last week.

The last year that Pastor Pat pastored here, right before he handed off the church, he...

I kind of team-taught together through the Gospel of Luke. When I became the pastor, we just continued with the book, and we were almost finished. After that, I figured we would go right into the Book of Acts, which is the next book written by Luke. We began studying the Book of Acts in November of 2008, and it took us a little while. If you have been here with us for a while, you know that we went through Acts from the end of 2008 until about the middle of 2014.

The reason it took so long is that the Book of Acts is the history book of the early church. It provides us with the timeline of the early church. During that timeline, several other letters or books in the New Testament were written. So, while we were going through the Book of Acts, we also studied the books of James, First and Second Thessalonians, Galatians, First and Second Corinthians, and Romans. After finishing the Book of Acts, we continued on that chronology through the New Testament. We went through the books of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, First and Second Peter, and Jude last year.

Now, as we come to the next book in our chronology, we will be studying this year through the Book of Hebrews. If you have ever studied or read through the Book of Hebrews, you know that it is one of the longer books of the New Testament. It is a theologically deep book, containing many powerful and important concepts and ideas.

Before we jump into the text of Hebrews, I thought it would be helpful for this week and next to provide a little background on the content we will find in the Book of Hebrews, as it has a lot to do with the Old Testament. This brings up a question: What exactly is the Old Testament? I don't want to assume that everyone here this morning knows what the Old Testament is.

The Bible is a book of books, consisting of 66 different books written by 40 different authors over 1,500 years on three different continents and in three different languages. It is divided into two sections: the Old Testament, which is the first two-thirds of the Bible and contains the first 39 books, and the New Testament, which is the last third of the Bible and contains 27 books. Since we, like many other churches, spend the bulk of our time in the New Testament, it can be easy to forget that it is only a third of the Bible. Over the last eight or nine years, we have been going through New Testament books and have hardly looked at the Old Testament, other than referring back to it. Eventually, we will finish the New Testament, though Jesus will probably come before that happens.

Back before we do, when we finish it, we'll go back and hopefully get into some of the Old Testament books. To understand the book of Hebrews, you need to have at least some understanding of the whole passage of Scripture, those 39 books that we call the Old Testament. This book, which is called Hebrews, was written primarily to people who were Hebrew. This means they were Jewish in heritage. They were Christians, but they had come out of the Jewish faith and tradition.

When you start to read through this book, you realize that a lot of what is spoken of in these 13 chapters in the book of Hebrews references back to those 39 books of the Old Testament. There are at least 99 references in these 13 chapters to the Old Testament, and 21 of the 39 Old Testament books are referenced in the book of Hebrews. About every third verse in the book of Hebrews is a reference back to the Old Testament. If you've never read through the Old Testament or looked at it, there are things that will be brought up in this book that will go over your head and won't make a lot of sense.

I really do encourage you, as I do at the beginning of every year, to read through the Bible. Begin with Genesis and read all the way to Revelation. There are many Bible publishers right now making reader editions of the Bible that are super helpful. These editions remove all the verse and chapter references, allowing you to read through it like a book. I have found, both for myself and for others I have talked to, that it makes it a little bit easier to read from Genesis to Revelation. However, it can be a difficult thing for people to do.

Some of you took the challenge and have been doing it since January 1st, trying to read through the Old Testament and on through the New Testament. I commend you for that and want to champion you in this endeavor. I realize that around this time, when you get into February and move into March, you find yourselves in books like Exodus and Leviticus. That is where the speed bump kind of comes along. If you finally make it, around May, to First Chronicles, and if you can get through First Chronicles, you'll be fine; you'll be on the downhill run of the Bible.

I just want to encourage you to continue reading through the Scriptures. When you zero in on the Old Testament, you realize that there is a lot of content and depth that is very important to our faith as Christians. The building blocks of our faith as believers in Jesus Christ are found in those first 39 books.

Books. But why do we have an Old Testament and a New Testament? The word "testament" could also be translated as "covenant." There is an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. When Jesus came, he actually spoke about this New Covenant the night that he would be betrayed, the night before he would die on the cross. As he was having the Passover feast, the Jewish Passover meal with his disciples, he took bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "This is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Immediately after that, he took a cup of wine and said, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, verse 28, "For this is my blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins." He speaks there of a New Covenant. This brings up the question: What exactly is a covenant? What is that all about?

A covenant, biblically, is the way in which God is able to have a relationship with you and with me. During the time of the Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi, that was the time of the First Covenant, the Old Covenant, in which God was able to interact with the people, the children of Israel, through this covenant that had to do primarily, as the book of Leviticus discusses, with animal sacrifice.

The problem is that you and I cannot interact with or connect with God because of our sinful failures. Humanity has transgressed the commandment of God, creating a divide, a separation between God and man. This separation caused by sin needs to be dealt with. Under the Old Covenant and the Old Testament, the way to address that divide and come to God was through the shedding of blood, specifically through animal sacrifice.

It sounds kind of gruesome and crazy. Yet, for many hundreds of years, centuries, and even thousands of years, the children of Israel would come before God with these sacrifices to worship Him and to have some sort of relationship with Him. However, there was still always the problem of sin. The Old Covenant of sacrificial systems could not overcome the power of sin. Therefore, we needed one to come who could overcome the power of sin.

And that's what Jesus did when He came. He came to establish a New Covenant. He says, "This is the blood, my blood, of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission or the removal of sins." It's not just the covering of sin under the Old Covenant; it is the complete removal of sin in the New Covenant. So, Jesus came to establish that New Covenant.

Now, this concept, this idea of there being a New Covenant, was not new with Jesus. He was not the first one to ever speak about it. It was actually spoken about 500 years before Jesus came by one of the Jewish prophets, a man by the name of Jeremiah. God, speaking through Jeremiah, wrote these words. You can note them down if you'd like to. They are recorded in Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31. God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah about 500 years before Jesus came, and He says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord. There is a day we are looking forward to, as Jeremiah was, and all the people in his day.

"The days are coming when I," God says, "will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them up from the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them," says the Lord. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

The first covenant, the Old Covenant that God established with the children of Israel, was established under Moses. You remember Moses, who was sent down to Egypt to say to Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Ultimately, he brings the children of Israel out of Egypt, and they go up to a place called Mount Sinai. He goes up on the mountain, and God speaks with Moses. He comes down and brings the law to the people of Israel, and they establish a covenant, the first covenant.

This is what Jeremiah is speaking of, or God is speaking of through Jeremiah. He says, "I'm going to start a new covenant, not like the one that started with Moses at Mount Sinai after you came out of Egypt that I established with your fathers, but a new covenant I'm going to establish with you. I will put my law in your mind and write it on your heart, and you will be my people."

Then, you fast forward to the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and there Jesus...

Jesus sits with His disciples and takes a cup of wine, saying, "This is symbolic of My blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I am establishing that new covenant that Jeremiah spoke about."

Point number one on your outline, your sermon guide, is in your bulletin: Jesus came to fulfill the old covenant and to establish a new covenant. He didn't simply come to abolish the old covenant as if something was wrong or out of order in it. God was the one who established the old covenant. Unfortunately, as Jeremiah says, the people of Israel broke God's covenant; they did not follow through on the rules of the covenant.

However, Jesus came to fulfill it because He lived a perfect life. He lived what the law required and what the covenant required. Because He lived that way, He fulfilled it and now brings in a new and better way—a better covenant, a new covenant. The first 39 books of the Bible deal with the old covenant, while the last 27 books deal with the new covenant. Jesus came to establish this new relationship whereby humanity, you and I, can come before a holy God. Though we are sinful and have failed, Jesus, in the new covenant, deals completely with the problem of sin and makes it possible for us to come before God.

Those 39 books speak of the old covenant and all that God did in times past. However, in the book of Hebrews, the author will go back to that and discuss it extensively. The interesting thing is that the Christians in the day this book was written were being tempted or drawn away from the simplicity of Jesus. They were being led to believe that they needed more than just Jesus, that He was not enough. The author of the book of Hebrews was saying, "No, that is enough."

As we study through this book, we will see this theme unfold. At the top of the paper on your sermon guide, it says, "Jesus is better," which is the main theme or point of much of the book of Hebrews.

Jesus is better than the old covenant. He is better than angels, better than prophets, better than priests, better than kings, and better than presidents. Praise God! He is better than all of these things. He is better than any sort of religious sacrifice you could perform or ritual you could observe. Whether it is a pilgrimage or any other practice, Jesus is better than all of these things. This will be one of the prime focuses of this book as we go through it.

The author of the book of Hebrews was addressing a group of Christians who were coming out of a Hebrew tradition of faith. They were being tempted to return to the cultural practices they had been so involved in, such as the sacrificial system and the temple. All of that was still tugging at their hearts. The author of Hebrews says, "No, Jesus has come, and He is better than all those things."

I believe that this is an important message for us living in the 21st century as well. Even though we live 2,000 years after this message was penned, we still need to be reminded that Jesus is better. There are many things vying for our attention and devotion, pulling at us in different ways. Even I, as a pastor, need to be reminded on a consistent and regular basis that Jesus is better than all the ideas and philosophies of man. He is the only one we ultimately need for our life and our faith.

The author of the book of Hebrews opens with these words, which we read just a few minutes ago: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets." It is important to acknowledge that the very first word of this book is "God." Hebrews begins with God, serving as a simple reminder that everything begins with Him.

But who is God? What is He all about? What is He like when we speak about this God that is mentioned so much in the 66 books of Scripture? Not only does the book of Hebrews begin with God, but the Bible in general begins with God. The very first book of the Bible starts in the same way: "In the beginning, God." Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning, God created the heavens."

The Old Testament, that old covenant passage, consists of the first 39 books. It begins with this declaration: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This establishes that God is. That is the worldview and the mindset of the person who believes the words of the books of the Bible. God is, and that is the first important principle for all of us. If we believe the words of the Bible, we need to understand that this is the basis of everything. God is.

In the beginning, God. Not only does this affirm that God is, but it also indicates that God existed before everything that exists. Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Everything that we see, even the things that are created but remain unseen because they are too small or too far away, were created by God. This means that He preexisted everything. There was a beginning of the world and life as we know it, but He came before that.

Of course, the question always arises: where did He come from? The scriptural view, or the biblical worldview, is that He was, He is, and He always will be. But who created God? No one. He always was. I understand that some may find this concept a little far out. It is indeed a bit beyond our comprehension. If I could fully comprehend God, then He wouldn't be God; I would be. And that is a scary thought for both you and me.

This is often where our fallen nature wants to lead us: to the belief that I am God. Do we not see this in our culture? This idea is not new; it has been around for a long time. We can trace it back to Genesis chapter three, which goes all the way back to the very beginning. But in the beginning, God created. There was a beginning, and God preexisted that beginning and created everything.

Point number two on your outline: God is, was, and created all things. I understand that some of you might be thinking, "Come on, couldn't you get a little bit deeper than that? This is like Bible Christianity 101." Yes, this is the first basic proposition of Scripture, and it is an essential truth for our understanding.

You and I need to comprehend this if we're going to understand anything else that comes after it in this book. If you don't get that God is, God was, and He created everything that is, it will be really hard to understand Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, and everything that comes after that. It would be very difficult to grasp these concepts if you don't at least hold on to this truth and say, "Okay, this is the first proposition, the default of this whole thing: God is, God was, and He created everything."

Notice that Hebrews chapter one, verse one continues, saying, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke." This is a hard one for people. It might be something that someone could at least give a passing thought to—that there is a creator. This has been a big debate in our society for a long time about how things came to be, a question that has caused a lot of argument and debate, especially since the 19th century with the ideas, philosophies, and teachings of Charles Darwin and those who came after him. The debate continues to go on and on.

However, many in our culture, in fact, over 80% of Americans, acknowledge that there is probably or is a God. For a lot of people, He seems very far away, uninterested, and disengaged with what goes on here. But the author of the book of Hebrews says, "No, not so." God, who at various times and in various ways, speaks.

Now, this is not news to the New Covenant, the New Testament, or the book of Hebrews alone. This was clear in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." 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. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw the light that it was good, and He divided the light from the darkness. Thus begins what we call the six days of creation in Genesis chapter one, where God speaks and speaks and speaks.

In various ways, God spoke. When God speaks, we call that revelation. Revelation is simply when God communicates within the environment we live in. We call it that because God is independent of this creation. He does not need this creation; He exists apart from the box, if you will, of the heavens and the earth. Everything in our universe is contained within that box of creation that God spoke into existence, and He is independent of it. He exists without it, while we need it.

When we are in amazement and awe of how vast it is, we have some incredible instrumentation that can look far out into the cosmos and see much further every single day. Scientists can see further and further than they did before, and it boggles the mind at how immense it is. Over the last two decades or so, we have been able to see pictures from space. How many of you have seen a Hubble Space Telescope picture? All of you should raise your hands, even if you may not realize you have seen them. We see these awesome images of things on the edge of galaxies and beyond, and scientists tell us that the universe is continuing to expand. However, all of that is still within the box.

To us, it is a really big box, but not to God, because He is outside of it. He is independent of it. If He wants to speak into the box that is creation, He must do so through revelation. He has to communicate in a special way, a way that, when He does, we might say, "Well, that sounds far out. That sounds magical. That sounds miraculous." We live in a very naturalistic-minded world today that does not believe in magical or miraculous things. So when they hear the word "revelation," they often dismiss it as insane.

In 1974, a group of engineers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, created something absolutely amazing. It was a little box about two feet by two feet and ten inches tall, gray and blue with red lights on the front and little switches. It was absolutely phenomenal; it was the first microcomputer, called the Altair 8800. However, the problem with this box was that it was completely useless. The engineers spent a lot of time and money putting this thing together.

And there it was, with the lights and switches, but it couldn't do anything because this microcomputer had no language with which someone could speak to it to tell it what to do. That little picture of that little box was featured in Popular Electronics in the early part of 1975. In January of 1975, there were two young guys in Boston who looked at that magazine and were amazed by it. They wrote a letter to the people out in New Mexico, asking, "Hey, are you interested in buying a BASIC language for your microcomputer?" Those two young men were Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Of course, the people in New Mexico said yes.

So, Paul Allen and Bill Gates went out to New Mexico and started a little company to write language software for the microcomputer, which they called Microsoft. They created the first BASIC language to tell the box, which had been created by engineers, what they wanted it to do. To accomplish this, they had to speak to the box in a language that it could understand. They did not require the box to figure out their language; they had to learn how to communicate in the language of the computer to tell it what to do.

You know what? That seems pretty magical. It seems pretty miraculous. Why? Hey, Siri. Now she talks to me. That's kind of freaky. Actually, that's straight magical. Or is it? Maybe it's just amazing engineering. Perhaps there is an amazing engineer behind this and all of this technology.

It's a pretty amazing thing. If I told you that I heard a really big bang the other day and that I came in here to find this table just appeared—wasn't there before, and now it's here—you'd say that's stupid. Because even something as simple as this table prompts you to think, "No, there's an engineer behind that table. Someone made that." Even if it's simple, someone created it. Some mind came up with it, possessing the intelligence and resources to make it happen. If you tell me that it just happened, I'm going to think you're foolish. And yet, your eyeball is just a tiny bit more complex than that table.

And yet, there are a lot of people who say that just happened. Let me tell you, that is a big leap of faith. Now, there may be people in our area who are saying, "No, there's science that backs it, and there's understanding. We've done a lot of scientific experimentation and all these sorts of things. We can prove it." It's a step of faith. It takes faith to not believe that God is. I would say it takes more faith to believe that God is not than to believe that He is. Why? Because of all of this.

But He speaks by revelation. The engineer who created everything has to speak in a way that we can understand. Just like those engineers in Albuquerque in 1975, they had to speak in the language of the computer to tell the computer their will, what they wanted it to do. If we are to know what God wants us to do, He has to speak. The author of Hebrews says, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke, spoke in times past."

Number three on your outline: The creator God speaks to His creation by revelation. How does He do this? The author of Hebrews says He does it at various times and in various ways. It's kind of ambiguous. How does He speak to us? I would suggest to you that there are three forms of revelation by which God speaks to us. We've talked about this before across connection, but I think it's really important. There are three basic ways in which God brings divine revelation to us who are living in the box that He made.

The first we call general revelation. What is general revelation? Well, the Psalmist King David, in Psalm 19, three thousand years ago, said it like this: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. Day unto day they speak, and night unto night they reveal knowledge. There is no human speech nor language where their voice is not heard." What is David saying? He says, "Listen, wherever you live, whatever you speak, you all have access to general revelation." What is general revelation? The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork.

Not just David, but 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote this in Romans chapter one: "The wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." That's bad news. One day, God is going to pour out His wrath on unrighteousness and injustice.

You might say, "Wait a minute. That seems kind of heavy and harsh. Why would He do that?" The answer is found in verse 19: "What may be known of God was manifest to humanity, for God has shown it to them." Paul explains that God will pour out His wrath upon those who are unjust and unrighteous in this world because He has revealed Himself to us, and we haven't taken notice.

You may wonder, "Where did He reveal Himself to us?" Verse 20 provides the answer: "For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."

What is general revelation? It's simply this: God shouts to us through creation. Everything we see declares that God exists, even down to the simplest life forms. These forms are far more complex than we want to admit. Science, 150 years ago, thought they were simple, but now they realize it's not so simple. It's phenomenal and amazing.

When you look at the depths of it, especially at the level of DNA, and examine the coding that goes into these things, you see how intricate it is. Today, DNA is a normal part of our vernacular because it is used in every possible way, from genetically modified foods to genetically modified medications. At the DNA level, it is all an incredibly scripted coded language.

In fact, Francis Collins, who was the head of the Human Genome Project, wrote a book called "The Language of God." He is a scientist who helped decode the human genetic genome, and he believes in God. Why? Because the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. Day unto day, they utter speech. Collins looked at it and said, "That's phenomenal. That's language."

From general revelation, we learn a few important things: First, we learn that God is. Second, we learn that God is smart. And third, we learn that God is powerful.

He's got resources. God is intelligent and powerful. The two primary modes of this general revelation are creation and our conscience. Every human being has been hardwired with a firmware and operating system called a conscience, hardwired by the moral lawgiver. We have a moral law written upon our hearts so that we are without excuse.

Point number four on your outline: creation and conscience give us a general revelation of God. But not only is there general revelation; secondly, there is special revelation. What is special revelation? I think it's best revealed in a passage of Scripture in the second book of the Bible. You can turn there if you'd like—Exodus chapter three.

In Exodus chapter three, there's a guy named Moses, and he's a shepherd at that point in time. He has a herd of sheep and is walking around the desert, a place that looks a lot like East County, San Diego. As he's walking around, he sees something kind of strange: a bush that is on fire. Now, that's not strange; he's seen bushes that are on fire before. But there's something unusual about this bush: it doesn't get consumed. It just keeps burning.

He thinks, "That's trippy. I'm going to go take a look at that." As he gets close to this bush that is on fire and not being consumed, something even more miraculous happens. We read in Exodus 3:4, "So when the Lord saw that he, Moses, turned aside and looked, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, 'Moses, Moses.'" He said, "Yes," or "Here I am," as my version states.

Then God said, "Do not draw near to this place. Take the sandals off your feet, for the place that you are standing is holy." Moreover, He said, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

The Lord said, "I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land to a good and large land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

Of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and all the "ites," it's an old joke, I know. Behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come up to me, and I have also seen the oppression by which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.

What is that? That's called special revelation. What happens in special revelation? Well, God, in special revelation, reveals who He is—His nature. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of your fathers. He also reveals His will, what He wants to do. I want to deliver my people, so I am going to send you. This is like the engineers writing the language to speak in the language of the computer to tell it what I want you to do.

Through special revelation, God speaks in a language that can be understood. We receive that word through what we call prophets.

So, point number five on your outline: The Old Testament is the account of God's special revelation. Those first 39 books of the Old Testament document God's special revelation, where He speaks to and through a people—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the way down to Moses, and then through David, Isaiah, Elijah, Obadiah, Habakkuk, and others with a whole bunch of long, weird names. God speaks to reveal who He is and to reveal what He wants to do because God has a plan. He has a purpose. We would not know that plan or purpose if we did not hear His voice.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets, is also the one who comes to the third form of revelation. We have general revelation, special revelation, and the third one is personal revelation.

What is that? Again, looking back at Genesis or Hebrews chapter one, it says that God, who in various times and in various ways spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things and through whom He also made the worlds. The author of the Gospel of John writes this: "In the beginning was the Word."

The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Personal revelation is greater than general revelation and more powerful than special revelation because it is that by which God comes in bodily form and reveals Himself to us. What is the mode of this revelation? It is Jesus. Jesus is the Word; Jesus is the Son, and He has come to reveal the glory of who God is and what God is like in personal and magnificent form.

Through this personal revelation, we learn what God is actually like. We get to behold the glory and majesty of God in Jesus Christ. The author of the book of Hebrews says in verse three that Jesus, who is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person, is manifesting and showing the actual glory of God in time and space.

You might think that’s far out, but yes, it’s awesome because it’s the power of God, who is called by the Scriptures, Almighty God.

Point number six on your outline: the New Testament is the account of God's personal revelation. If I happened upon this pen, I would know by simply looking at it that it didn't just happen on its own. Someone engineered it. Someone made it. Someone came up with the idea of how to make it.

There are some amazing things happening here because this isn't just any pen; I know I'm weird, but I like fountain pens. It uses an amazing principle of capillary action to bring the ink down from inside to the tip of the pen. There is some incredible thought and engineering that went into this, even the refill mechanism, which is pretty simple yet phenomenal. Just by looking at this pen, I know it didn't just happen.

Someone engineered this pen, and someone had the resources to make it. I learned this through general observation and general revelation about the creator of this pen. Maybe I can deduce a little bit more about this person. It says "Lammy" on the side of the pen, so maybe that's that person's name, but I don't really know much other than that. I don't know what the person who made it is like.

I might think, "Gosh, this is rather sharp and pointy, and you could really hurt somebody with this." So maybe the person who made this is not a very nice guy; he wants to stab somebody with this pen. Or I could think, "No, I could write a love note to my wife. Valentine's Day is coming up, and maybe he's a very loving and nice person." I can write down my thoughts and so forth to my wife. I'm not a very good poet, but I try. However, I can't know much about the creator unless someone tells me about who made this pen. Even if someone tells me about the creator, I still wonder what the person is like. Do they like ice cream? Are they nice to their wife? Are they a good person?

I can't really tell all that much about the creator through just special revelation until I'm introduced and get to know that person. And that's what Jesus came to do. He came to introduce us to God. When people look around this world and see suffering, hunger, death, and pain, they observe all these things and say, "If there is a God, he's mean; he's angry." You see, you can come to wrong conclusions about God by just looking at what is around us.

General revelation is not enough. Even special revelation has its limitations. Prophets said a lot of strange things. Have you ever read through Ezekiel? He said some pretty bizarre things, and you might wonder, "What in the world was this guy doing?" I think maybe Prop 60 or whatever it was on marijuana must have passed in his day or something because he was nuts. You read that and think, "I'm not really understanding what this guy is trying to tell me." Why? Because special revelation is limited.

But Jesus is better, and we need that personal revelation. I have to tell you, this world needs the personal revelation of Jesus more than at any other time. There are a lot of wrongheaded ideas about God and many misunderstandings about why we're here, but God has something to say about that.

In the person of Jesus Christ, if you want to know about God, the best place to start is with Jesus and get to know Him. As Jesus said, if you have seen Me, you've seen the Father. It's a powerful word. Amen?

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Lord, I am absolutely convinced that this world, the world we live in today, needs to know about You and how good You are. You are better than prophets, priests, kings, angels, and all other things.

But, Lord, first, we who trust and believe the things of the Bible need to be convinced that You are better. So remind us again, as we prepare to study through this book, that You are better—better than any other thing that could distract us, better than any other thing that we could put our trust or hope in.

Help us, Lord, to find our hope and trust only in You. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.