Jesus: The Ultimate Reflection of God's Glory

remember moses went and spent time with god and he comes down from the mountain and his face is shining and they they say no cover your face because this is this is too glorious but moses is not radiating he is not outshining the glory of god he is simply reflecting the glory of god because it says that that glory would fade away so when he had been in god's presence that glory was bright and over time that glory would fade and then he would go back into the presence of god and that that and that light would that shining would be there in all its strength moses is simply reflecting the glory jesus is the glory the the light shines from him [00:18:13]

jesus not only in a spiritual sense radiates the glory of god but in a literal sense he radiates the glory of god and he gives light to the world not just in a spiritual sense or in an intellectual sense but he gives light to the world in a physical sense remember if we go back to creation the first thing that god does is is he creates light and darkness but only two days later does he create the sun so where did the light come from in the first couple of days he is the light and so he he physically radiates and shines the light and the glory of god [00:19:35]

the greek word character refers to a seal remember that those days they would rich and important people would have a seal often in the form on their ring and it would be an engraving of his mark or of his today we would call it a logo or a crest and so that would be engraved on on his seal and then when he sealed a contract or a um or or a letter they would put wax on the letter and they would impress the seal down and that would leave an imprint in the seal and the imprint is exactly the same as what is on the ring that is the character that is that word that is being used in other words if you look at the seal and and we understand that in a seal or in a in a yeah in a seal like that the the one is reversed [00:23:01]

god in a sense imprinted himself and you can look at jesus and you see god and didn't jesus say that over and over especially in the gospel of john if you've seen me you've seen the father if you've heard me you've heard the father i do nothing that i don't see the father do and so he is that imprint the express image the word the the translators obviously it's difficult to translate some of these these concepts and that's true in any language um so so he's not just the image of his person but he is the express image and again our english changes today when we use the word express we think of something happening fast [00:24:39]

he is upholding all things by the word of his power we came across this idea not so long ago elsewhere so he says he creates or he created now he says he upholds all things by the word of his power let's just deal with that word of his power you can just as well translate it he's powerful word it's just a language thing by his powerful word now how did he create by his word he spoke and things came into existence now he says he is upholding now he's not upholding in the sense of atlas if you remember there was this greek mythological figure who carried the world on his on his back uh he's not upholding the world in that sense but he is upholding all things not just the world but the universe he is keeping it going he is sustaining it and he's doing so by the word of his power [00:27:11]

everything that we look at we know is made up out of atoms and so while things feel and we you say this has substance it is made up of atoms whether it's gold or wood or whatever it's made up of atoms and you can look at these things under these big powerful microscopes and inside the atom there are different components a nucleus and electrons and neutrons and these things are spinning around and they in different combinations make up different things i hope there's no physicist present here but that's that's the those are the building blocks of everything when you think about it what is gold or what is anything it's just energy because these things are splinting around and they're in tension at the same time we of course have a macro picture of that in the universe the same way as the earth and the planets spin around the sun and rotate and they stay in their orbit uh we have exactly the same the same kind of thing [00:28:45]

he had by himself purged our sins when you're by himself you see he didn't take an animal and help and got the animal to purge our sins like the priests would do and remember we'll we're going to cover all of these things the priests could not those sacrifices could never take away sins all they could do was cover sins for a while until the cross but jesus doesn't get an animal by himself he becomes the sacrifice he is the sacrifice because remember that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins there is no other way and even though he has this powerful word he cannot speak away our sin the sin has to be paid for and so he had by himself perched cleansed washed our sins [00:35:36]

he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high so i'm going to give you those seven before i deal with the last one so he is the inheritor he is the creator he is the radiator he is the representer he is the sustainer he is the purifier and he is the ruler he has sat down there are two things i just want to bring out of this this this part of the verse and there there are many other things but two important things we're going to see this concept later on in the book the priests in the old testament could never sit down there was no chair except the mercy seat which is where god positioned himself for the one of a better word but there was nowhere for the priests to take a break to take her to rest to sit down and in fact hebrews will deal with us in detail where he says that they stand daily ministering why because the work is never done but he has sat down why has he sat down because the work is done he made one sacrifice and hebrews deals with this having made that one perfect sacrifice he sits down it's done no need to continue to make sacrifices no con no need to continue to burn the the the flesh of animals on the altar no need to shed that blood over and over and over it's done there's no need to be standing anymore he sits down signifying that the work is finished the work is complete remember those words on the cross title is die it is finished it's done it's paid for [00:37:43]

he has not just sat down but he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high the majesty on high is just a polite way to speak of god he sat down at the right hand of god of the father the right hand right through scripture from the old testament right through to the book of revelation is always the position of power remember the disciples were arguing who's going to sit on the left who's going to sit on the right but he has sat down at the right hand he's not just sat down in a lazy boy but he sat down in the throne of god henceforth waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool he is the ruler he is the king of kings he is the sovereign the work is done and he has been exalted remember that paul writes about this because he humbled himself became obedient to the death of the cross god has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that the name of jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is lord [00:39:10]

therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard because god has not spoken through prophets but god has spoken through the inheritor through the creator through the radiator through the represented through the sustainer through the purifier through the ruler this is the one through whom god has spoken therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard [00:41:18]

lord i pray that you'd open our eyes that we might see him great within us lord a desire to know more of him lord because we can never know enough there is just so much of him lord i pray that you'd help us to want to know him more to want to know him better to want to know him deeper and lord that as the point of this chapter in hebrews is that we might listen to such a great one lord this is not a president of a great country who is speaking this is not a general of a great army this is the great creator who is speaking to us and lord i pray that you'd help us to bow before him in worship and in obedience to hear his voice to obey his voice [00:42:44]