Hebrews

So Hebrews won 1 to 4.

In the past, god spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed air of all things. And through whom also he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of god's glory and the exact representation of his being. Sustaining all things by his powerful word.

After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. And so he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. Oh, good morning. My name's Pete Woodcock. I'm 1 of the passes of the church here.

And as Tom says, we're starting a new series, in Hebrews. It's very, very interesting when you start a new book because, you sort of look at it and you think, okay, you know, I I I'm get I'm getting the theology of this, but does it speak to us today? Is it is it really that relevant? And then suddenly as you study it, you see my goodness. It couldn't be more relevant.

And, I think as we go through this book of Hebrews, we're gonna see that It's so relevant for what is going on in our world. It has to be god's word. This was written 2000 years ago. You know, what other book are we reading 2000 years ago that precisely touches where we're at? I'm very excited by by this book.

I hope you are. So welcome. If you're new here again, welcome. Let me pray. Father help us.

As we look at this book, there are some complicated things. We've gotta do some head work. And we pray that your spirit would help us concentrate. We've gotta do some hard work. We pray your spirit would touch our hearts and move us to be people that are stronger lovers of the lord Jesus Christ than when we started this book.

Help us we pray in Jesus' name. So Hebrews, chapter 1, 1 to 4, it it just suddenly starts. There's no introductions, no build up, no dear friends. No, I'm writing about this. No.

We don't even know who the writer is. He doesn't even tell us who he is. He's straight in there. It's like a firework that he's just lit and it and ex explodes into beautiful colors. And there's no time to introduce anything else, but this.

Hebrew is chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. It said, is 1 of the most elegant and poetic passages in New Testament. Now I asked our up and coming Greek scholar this Kim, and she said, yes, it is. It's beautiful. Isn't that right?

Where is she? It's beautiful Greek. It's absolutely wonderful. It's praised for its literary and, rhetorical sophistication. It has alliteration in it.

It has rhythm in it. It has poetic meter in it. It's full of parallisms and, and contrast. It is a breathtaking rainbow of colors and bright light. It is an intense flavors over the over the taste buds.

Get what I'm trying to do. It's a beautiful bouquet of, aromas to excite your nostrils. Yeah. But it's not just beautiful. And explosive, it's about everything.

It's about everything important. It's about god and you and god speaking. It's about the universe and its purpose. It's it's about life and your life, and it's about meaning, and it's about future, and it's about moral purity, and it's about grace and mercy. So why did the writer who we don't know who it is?

Why did the writer start like that? He put so much effort into these 4 what we have as 4 verses. So much beauty. Why? Because the initial writers that he's writing to are in massive danger, serious danger of being taken up with the old instead of what they have now is the new.

In returning to the shadow instead of staying with the substance of what that shadow is, going back to promises and not staying with the fulfillment of those promises. They're going back to religion because it looks good on the out on the outside. They're leaving relationship with god. They're going back to laws. They're going back to the old temple that they can see in Jerusalem at the time, because it was still standing there.

They're going back to the hope of a land. Because they're hoping the Romans will will not occupy anymore. These are first century Jews that have become Christians, and there are other Christians wrapped up with them as well. And they're tempted to return to some aspects of Judaism, at least, to a religion, to an outward religion with all its ceremonies that would least make them feel and make people see that they have something special in this world. So the writer lights the firework.

He hasn't got time to introduce himself. He lights the firework, and these opening verses are Jesus. Yeah. It's just it's just Jesus because he wants them to fix their eyes on Jesus. He says that a number of times in the book, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfection, a perfecter of our faith.

And so in these 4 verses are sort of packed up in explosive seeds or explosive fireworks, the whole of the letter. Let's have a quick look at it then because this is the introduction to the letter. The first thing, look look up. Look at the beauty of a speaking god. Just think about how wonderful that is.

A god who speaks, look at verses 1 and 2 in the past, god spoke to our ancestors, through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. He's a speaking god, and that defines god. It's a wonderful thing that we have a god that speaks. You see, some people think of god and they believe in god as some kind of force.

He's just the force, the force be with you. That sort of stuff. Others, think of god as a sort of concept or an idea or a philosophy to be discussed. Others take god to be so transcendent, in other words, he's so big, of course he is, but he's so transcendent. He's he's distant and far away.

Now if god is a force, then how are you gonna get to know him? You only get to know him through some kind of experience, like you plug in the electricity, and it is absolute. If god is an idea, then you'll get to know him by philosophy by thinking, by reasoning, by intellectual reflection. If god is a distant transcendent 1, then you will need to get to know him, you know, by his sort of presence when you go up a mountain, you go, whoa. Or if you're not up a mountain, you're in the city, you'll build a big cathedral or a temple.

And when you go in, it's savor inspiring. You get a sense of the presence of god there. That's that's that's what you would do. But if god is a person, which he is, you get to know a person by talking, by speaking, by words. That's how you get to know a person.

And so we're told that god speaks. Suddenly, he's defined as a personal 1. Someone you can know. See, if I just sit next to you, and try and have an experience, I could do that. I can go to a concert, couldn't I?

I could go and see Coldplay, and I sit next to you, and I have an experience. But I don't know you. My my little thing, you know, is zapping and flashing as they do at the Coldplay concerts. And and I've had an experience. I don't know you, and I don't even know the bloke who's up the front.

If god is is is just a, a transcendent 1, then I I get to know him through that that sort of sense of awe and inspiration. But if I wanna get to know someone like you, then then I have to speak, then you have to speak. You're not just a force, are you? I don't I I mean, you could sit next to the guy, and, you know, he's he's a force. He's got some muscles there, you know, but I don't get to know him.

I just see his muscles, you know, and think flipping there. Look at that. Looks like me. He's he's getting there. But, he's it's not it's not like that, is it?

If I wanna get to know him, if I wanna get to know you and you get to know me, we talk It's the same as the god of the Bible. We're being shown here. He's there and he is not silent. He's there and he speaks, and he speaks we're told by him to draw us near to him, not to push us away, but to draw us near to him. It's the same with you.

It's the same with the god of the Bible. That's how you get to know. So the question is then, how does he speak? Is it like a voice in the sky? No.

No. No. It's way better than that. So look at chapter 1 verse 1 again. In the past, god spoke to our ancestor.

Aspen sisters through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son. So the claim is that the god of ancient Israel is not like the gods of the world, He's alive. He's speaking. In the past, he spoke to our ancestors. In the last days, he has spoken to us.

In the past, he spoke through the prophets, But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. It's the same speaker. It's the same god. It's the same author, but there are differences. In fact, there are 4 differences or rather 4 contrasts.

How does he speak? Well, contrast number 1, the past and the last, past days and last days. Now it's absolutely important for us to get this because we're gonna go wrong if we don't get this, and this is where many go wrong today, and that's why this is such a relevant book. There is a BC before Christ, and an AD and a domini after Christ, if you like, the year of our lord. The last days aren't something to come, we're in the last days.

There's an age of our ancestors, the past, and there's the age of us the last days. The last days are basically, from the first coming of Christ, until the second coming of Christ when he wraps up the world. So don't try and live in the past when you are living in the last. Don't get your past and last 1 up. Yeah?

Second contrast, ancestors and us. Do you see it? He spoke to our ancestors in the past, and he speaks to us in the last days. In the past, he spoke to them, Now he has spoken to us. When he spoke to them, our ancestors in the past, he told them things like what to eat, where to go, what to wear.

What to build, a tabernacle, a temple, what land to live in, what land to protect, what land to fight for, and demonstrate over. That's the past. Now there are lessons from the past for us now, but they were particularly things for them in the past. So you need to do a bit of bible movement here. Turn to he and this is why we need to take a physical bible, by the way.

Hebrews chapter 9, I've deliberately not put them up there because I want us to get back to getting a bible in our hands. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 1. Hebrews chapter 9. Let's just stay in Hebrews 9 for a little while. And if you pass 1 Corinthians 10, stick your finger in that as well.

Yeah? And if you're really clever and you pass Hebrews 2, stick your finger in that as well. K? So here's some bible verses. Hebrew is not in verse 1.

Now this is what he says. Now the first covenant, the first agreement or testimony or covenant, had regulations for worship and also about an earthly sanctuary. So he's particularly dealing with the tabernacle here in the temple. And he says there's a first covenant, and there were loads of regulations about how to worship there. Go down to verse 11.

But when Christ came, as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by human hands, That is to say it is not part of this creation. There's a bigger tabernacle that the first tabernacle was a mere picture of a shadow of. Now Christ has come, So you've got the first, lots of regulations, but now Christ has come, there's something bigger that we're talking about. And then verse 15, look, For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. So we've got a first covenant, but now Christ has come and abolished the first covenant, and now there's a new covenant with a new mediator.

So all of the stuff in the past are shadows and the reality is Jesus. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul is writing here, and he's talking about the history of Israel. And he says in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 10, these things happened to them. Yep.

They're the ancestors, as examples and were written down as warnings for us. There's a them in us. On whom the culmination of the ages has come. So he spoke to our ancestors about all kinds of things. That's the first testament the first covenant, the first agreement, but he has now spoken to us.

How? By his son, but how has he done that? Hebrews chapter 2 verse 3. Now shall we how shall we escape if we know of such a great salvation? There's the warning.

This salvation, which was first announced by the lord, that's Jesus, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. That's the apostles. So now god speaks to us through the lord, confirmed by the apostles, the followers of Jesus, the first followers, And where do we find their word? It's written down in the scriptures. So the scriptures, the words of the apostles, and the words of the lord, in this Bible, address us.

And they speak to us in a way that the passwords don't speak to us. Our message is to listen to him. That message is a permanent message. These are the last day messages. And as he goes on in chapter 4, and I hope you're still with me, is that this message is always a today message.

It's a living active. It can it can cut to the bone. It's a real live message of the word of god. So contrast number 2 is ancestors and us. Why would you go back to ancestor living?

Contress number 3, the piecemeal, way god spoke, in the past as opposed to the final way. Look at verses 1 and 2 again. In the past, god spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways. Many times various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. Now the many times means bit by bit.

It's never complete. It's like jigsaw puzzles. A bit of jigsaw puzzle here, a bit of jigsaw puzzle there, adding to the final picture, of course, but it's bit by bit never completed. The various ways means that he spoke through angels and messengers like Moses and prophets, like ezekiel that we were looking at some time ago, but also through the building of a tabernacle and the building of a temple and all of that, what that means, and the washing of hands, and the eating of food, and no prawns here. Thank you.

All of that was a way of speaking to them. In various ways. But now but now there's a 1 big final flash, 1 big final statement of god. And we can't fully understand all the other Jigsaw bits until this final word is put in place. You finally put it in, and then suddenly you see it all.

Or like those weird 3 d pictures, you know, you gaze at it and gaze it. I've I've never seen 1. My my eyes don't seem to work like that. I I've gased at these things, you know, those things I mean, they're all funny colors, and you gaze at them and suddenly a shark comes out or something. So I'm told I've never seen 1.

But, you know, I don't wear glasses, so don't laugh at me. But I've gained, at least, and suddenly come but suddenly, Christ the final word, woof the shark. Wow. The firework. And you see that he's the point of all of it, but he's also showing us that it's not just last, you know, last, or past and last.

It it it is actually different eras. There are different covenants here. There's an old covenant and a new covenant. There's an old agreement and a new agreement. Now I do know this, and I have no time to go into this, and we probably will as we go through.

I do understand that the new is in the old. I understand that. But nevertheless here, he's trying to show the distinction. The contrast. In the past, we had tabernacles and buildings, and we had priests, and we had sacrifices and hired priests.

Now we've got the fulfillment of them. We don't need them anymore. Believe a prawn. You don't need this stuff anymore. That was picture.

This is real. So why go back? Fourth contrast. The prophets and the sun A few weeks ago, in our evening service, we were looking at Jesus, parable of the of the of the tenants, where there's a vineyard owner and, the vineyard, and there are tenants that hire out the vineyard and, the owner sends servants, 1 servant after the other to to collect the fruit. And the tenants don't wanna pay any rent, and so they kill and, mock and, don't listen to the servants, that that come from the owner of the vineyard.

And then in the end, he sends his son. And they kill him. Well, that's what's going on here. There's servants and servants of god, you know, but then suddenly the owner comes in the form of the son. He owns the property.

And so god's spoken in the past through the prophets, now he speaks by his son. Now let me just try and rub this in, because as I say, I think this is really important and I really think this is where a lot of people are going wrong today, and it's quite serious error in the end. We have 1 Bible, but we have 2 testaments. 2 covenants. We have 1 god that spoke, but that god spoke in 2 distinctive ways.

And we've gotta be very careful with this. There's the past and the last, and we're in the last. If we divide the Bible and have 2 Bibles, we're in big trouble. If we say, okay, we we we don't need the the first part of the b that's if we have 2 Bibles, then you get rid of you're in big trouble. But you're in big trouble if you don't realize that there are 2 testaments, 2 covenants.

You'll be in big trouble. We have 1 Bible in 2 covenants, and we must understand that. And the old covenant must be now understood By the son of god, the jigsaw peace being put in place and you suddenly see what it all means. So to go back to the past and live in the past when you're in the last is to deny Christ. So that's the first great explosion from this 1 firework, this beautiful sentence.

There's a god, and he speaks. We don't have to guess. We're not in a universe on our own. He's spoken to the human race. And he's spoken in a way so that he wants us to listen because he's given us ears to hear.

And if we don't listen and don't draw near to hear, then we're out of kilter with the whole of the universe. That's my first point then. Look at the beauty of a speaking god. Now look at the beauty of Jesus. The message god speaks.

Verse to the In these last days, that's us. It's talking to us. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. His son is both the message and the messenger. He's the speaker in the subject.

And then it's like the writer just explodes into 7 colors. You know how fireworks do that, don't they? They explode up. There's a great light. God is a speaking god.

Wow. Now suddenly, in the air, somehow, there's bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Bang. Bang. Have I done it? Enough bang. 7.

Explosions of Jesus. Let me let me explode some, or all of them, but very quickly. Look, look at verse 2. Look at Christ as the air of everything, bur verse 2. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son whom he's appointed heir of all things.

He's the heir of everything. You mentioned Elon Musk or who's the broker who's just overtaken him this week, who's the the richest man in the world. What is it? Larry Ellison. Yeah.

So whoever he is, I'm gonna tell who he is. Who is he? You know him, do you? No. No.

No. But Larry Ellison, he's now the richest man in the in the world. He's got billions and billions. Imagine only has 1 son. I don't think that's true.

But imagine he only has 1 son. On his death, he gives the billions to his 1 son. Now god doesn't die in that way, of course, but that's the sense of it. That the whole universe, everything god's made, is given over to his son. Everything.

Every penny. Everything. He is the crown of all history. He is the culmination of all history. He is the future.

The future belongs to Jesus. He owns it. He possesses it. He possesses everything. And there's a day coming and fixed when we'll just see that.

Everything about you. He owns. You're just borrowing it. It's how you're treating it is the question. Jesus is the air of everything.

Everything belongs to him. Well, I was reading I don't know whether you're you may be reading the same paper as me, but I was reading the the paper about that bloke. Larry Ellis, is it? Larry Ellis. Yeah.

But did you read the the thing about the peacock spider? Brilliant. There's these peacock spiders. They're lovely. They're tiny little things, and, they have a thing that comes up at the back, and it's all colors.

And it's like bright lights. And then their legs go up. These are blokes, of course. When they see a female, it's and they're they're going like this. And then they're going like this.

Right? And there's these males with this color up. And apparently, there's loads and loads and loads of different types of peacock spiders, and they showed them. There's some with, you know, big tall things and There's like an explosion. They fan out, and suddenly there's this, you know, this isn't a spider, and it sees the female is absolutely besotted, like Adam, when he's all evil, naked.

Whoa. And and their arms go up. They have 3 times the amount of DNA that a human has. Is there any this big? Yeah?

They have 30 times more than butterflies. They have this dark DNA that people are saying, we You suddenly hear scientists like that. They say they sort of know everything, but the dark DNA is what they don't know, and there's more dark DNA than there is in the DNA that they do know. A little spider has 3 times the amount of DNA than you. Yeah?

Cause you, Dean, you can't go like. You can go like this, but it looks stupid. Jesus inherits all that glory, all the glory of the tiny little spider. He inherits it all. Christ is the creator, secondary.

Look at verse 2. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he's appointed heir of all things, and through whom he's made the universe. What a statement? He has made the universe Yeah? What a statement?

And what a joy because this isn't an accident that we're living in. And you're not an accident. You're made by none other than this 1. He made the universe. He made that tiny little peacock spider and put all that DNA in it so it could just show us something of the glory of Christ that he will inherit.

I was watching because the sims, any sims here, are they out Sunday schooling? Because they went to see cold play, was it last week? I'm not particularly a cold play fan, I'm mad on their music, but I was watching their concert at Wembley. Wow. It's impressive.

You know, they've got thousands of people there, and everyone has a little bracelet, and they do it so that they can do a whole light show through every single person. They can make hearts in various areas of the universe. The creativity of it is magnificent. It's absolutely amazing. So I would go to see that concert just for this.

There's explosions of of fireworks. There's light shows. There's There's, you know, people hugging each other, which we won't go into because it's so moving. It's just amazing, amazing stuff that goes on. It's a tiny little picture of what goes on in the whole universe.

And it's staggering that people go on about coldplay and not about god. He's the creator. Thirdly, he's the revealer. Look at verse 3. The son is the radiance of god's glory.

The exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. If you were gonna say Jesus is god, how else could you say it? How can you miss this? He's the very radiance of god. The father is invisible, but the father reveals himself by constantly begetting the son He's born into us constantly, like giving us, begetting him, showing him that he is he is the image.

Of the father, the exact rep representation. He's the he's the very, light of the sun. You have the sun and you have its warmth and its strength and its light. Well, you you can hardly separate these things. You know there are differences, but there's he's the beaming of God.

That's Jesus. Fourthly, look, he's the sustainer of everything. He's sustaining all things. By his powerful word. He's holding everything together.

Right now, he's holding you together. It's incredible, isn't it? He's intimately, you see? He's not a god that's distant. He's not wound the universe up, and he's out there.

You don't have to go up a steeple and shout out, Allah. Allah. You don't have to. Don't have to get his attention that way. Allah.

God. God. God. God. He's intimate, sustaining everything.

He's there here now, holding your heart together. That's the god we're seeing here. And then he's the the redeemer fifthly. Look at verse 3 again. The son is the regents of god's glory, the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

After he had provided purification for sins. Purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. He purged our sins. I'm gonna come back to that in a minute.

But then sixthly, he's the ruler. See, he's the majesty in heaven. He's got the whole world in his hands. And seventhly, he is supreme. Look at verse 4.

So he became as much superior to the angels, as the name he has inherited is superior to those. He's superior to the angels. It's a big theme in in the book of Hebrews as we are see. Jesus is better than. Jesus is more superior than.

The angels, Moses, Aaron, high priests, sabbath, temple, tabernacles, sacrifices. On and on and on, it goes. He's better. He's more supreme. He's more beautiful.

If you boil all this stuff down, You see that he is prophet priest and king. He is the prophet of god. He's the word of god itself. He is the high priest, and he's the sacrifice. And as he is the king.

The ruler. So turn from price weird. Here's my third point. Look at the beauty of being purified by Jesus. Look at the beauty of being purified by Jesus.

See verse 3 again? After he had provided purification for sin, sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. Now this shows us that Jesus has dealt with a massive problem. A problem that all religions try to deal with, but can't. A problem that secular belief systems tried to ignore or deny but can't.

I'm talking about sin and the guilt of sin that goes with it. You can't really now this isn't my full subject, but you can't really understand anything without understanding sin. You can't really do that. You can't understand history. You won't understand your self.

You won't understand the world. You won't understand the human heart. If the human heart is good, then tell me why it's clear and obvious that we have a propensity to do wrong. It's very hard to keep a good thing good, isn't it? In this world, even you.

It's hard to keep a good thing good. You have to work at it. We have a propensity, a sort of, a a way of going to the wrong somehow. It's so easy, isn't it? It's so easy.

So easy. Have you ever done I mean, I I'm hoping we might do this at Cornerstone, but have you ever done a tried to be only thankful, never grumble. Yeah? Try it. It's you should start out, figure about it, but soon you're in conversation, and there's loads to grumble about.

Yeah? We have a propensity to the wrong, to the bad news. Don't we? But we need to understand sin. And according to sin, according to the Bible, sin is cosmic rebellion against god.

It's a cosmic rebellion against god. And we've individually rebend rebelled. Since are not are only sort of, showing us the symptoms of a deeper problem. When I ring up the doctor, I never ring up the doctor about the a disease. I don't ring up and say, well, you know, I've I've got this.

I ring up because I've got symptoms, and the doctor looks at the symptoms and says, well, this is your issue. Yeah? I think. Or you need to take this pill. I'm gonna try this out.

So our sins, our greed, and our selfishness, and our lack of compassion and love for people, the way we dismiss people into groups and don't wanna talk to them and our evil thoughts, our sins are only symptoms of a deeper root problem, which is sin. Which is rebellion against god, and it comes out largely by not listening to him. We put our fingers in our ears. We run away from him, and we run away from god because we think that god is going to show us up. Here's a verse from John's gospel.

Just listen to this. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. Because we have sin and guilt, because there is this root cause of rebellion in us, When we think about god, we wanna run and hide.

You pick up a a stone in your garden, and there'll be all kinds of little bugs there. And when the light comes on, they run and hide. In my compass heap, I have thousands and thousands of what I we call cheese hogs, little tiny, little tiny things. And there's loads of them there. And when I lift up the compost, these cheese hogs, these little things They just run.

They run. 1 for come away. Let's, like, flight. Light. Get out of the way.

And 1 of the reasons we don't come to God is because we think he's just gonna judge us. I'm guilty. So I must run away. If you know you owe someone a lot of money and you you haven't got the resources to pay them back and you see them, you move away, don't you? You run from them.

Yeah? We're called to love the lord our god. Well, if we loved him, we would run towards him because that's what you do with people who love. But we think that god is just going to judge us and, he's going to condemn us. And so, therefore, we run away from him, but here's the fantastic news.

God has spoken. Listen to him before you run. He's spoken by his son. He's spoken to us in the last age. The son is the very embodiment of god.

This is what god is like. He is the radiance of god's glory. This is the 1 that god has chosen to speak his message to us in the last days. This is the complete message of god This is the 1 who comes to purify us from our sin. This is the doctor that can deal with the disease.

Don't run from him. The trouble with religion is, you see, it covers us up from god. To go back to the shadows and the covering, why would you do that? Because here's 1 who has come, and he's shown he loves us. And he is god the exact representation.

He is the 1 on the cross dying for us and cleansing us by his precious life. This is unbelievably good news, so draw near. Don't run away. The sun verse 3 is the radiance of god's glory, the exact representation of his be being sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.

He sat down. If you go to Hebrew chapter 10, which we won't do for time say, you see the priests never sat down in their duty. They always had to bring another sacrifice. They always had to do another religious thing. Jesus sat down.

He's finished the work. There's no more need for any sacrifices or blood animals to be killed or anything. He's cleansed you. The air of the universe has cleansed you. Yeah.

Here you are as a Christian and right at the end of your life. You didn't know it. You didn't know you're gonna die. You didn't know someone was gonna take a gun perhaps and shoot you while you were speaking, but using no. And here you are.

You've got few seconds and just in those few seconds, you blow it. You say something ugly to someone you love. You do something wrong and then bang you dead. Is there any hope for you? Of course there is.

You're purified by the blood of Christ. Of course there is. Past sins, future sins. You're purified. Don't have to have last rites.

You don't have to panic. You don't have to say, I've fallen into sin. Oh, no bank. I'm dead. I didn't have even time to say sorry.

He's paid for our sins. He's shut down. All the guilt is torn away. Now now now you can come boldly. You don't have to go through religion.

You don't have to go through priests. You don't have to, you know, wash yourself. You don't have to eat certain foods. You don't have to come in some strange religious way. You don't have to stick your bottom in the air.

You don't have to crawl. You don't have to flagellate yourself. You don't have to do any of that stuff. You can come boldly, boldly, boldly to the throne of grace because he's purified us from sin, and he's the air of everything. Which leads me to my fourth point, have I got time?

Oh, gosh. 4 thing quickly. The ugly turning away from beauty. How ugly it is to turn away from beauty? I mean, it's all summed up in verse 4, so we became as much superior to the angels.

As the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. To walk away from beauty is extraordinary. To walk away from Jesus is extraordinary. If if you're a secular person and you walk from Jesus, you have no air You have no future, you have no storyline, you have no creator, no revealer, no, sustainer, no redeemer, no ruler, no 1 who's supreme, you were just down to your own tiny little storytelling, and it's never enough. Jesus is everything that everything is about.

When you know him, you start to understand everything. For these first century Jews, they were turning their back. On the now to the past, and it's immense rebellion, and he has such strong warnings about it. But the temple's so beautiful. Now we're Christians, we have to meet in tiny little schools and ugly little buildings and hide away.

We might get our land back, and we could have a land of our own, and we could call our own. It would be like a a Christian land. We get it back from the Romans. 1 commentator very clearly says that the, the the the the the the uprising of of of the zealots and the patriotic Jews at the time and this nationalism was really at a crescendo when this letter was being written, and the Christians were taken up in this. They were gonna reestablish the Divinic Kingdom.

They'd be able to go back to the temple. They would be a sort of their own people with their own land again. And then a d 70 came and Ron smashed it down. What is the story their coat caught up in nationalism, hope for their own land going back to the old days? Sense of awe when you go in the temple instead of meeting in little hideaway places.

But they've turned away from beauty. They're looking at the firework box and the pictures on it rather than exploding the fireworks. Prophetic. And what does this mean to us today? Well, I've got loads of things here.

You need to come to question time tonight to really open this out. Many are turning back to religion. It's a very interesting thing that's happening. People are fed up with the the fluff of the charismatic movement and the hillsong stuff, the sort of stage show. And they're fed up with that, and they're turning back and saying, we want something older and more historic.

Think of Catholicism. It's full of priests and altars and incense and holy buildings and smells and bells. You don't need any of that. Why would you turn back to that when you can know the risen savior? There's an Orthodox man on on social media at the moment.

And, he's he's he's got quite an ear of a lot of evangelicals. And he's using this phrase stage or alter, and he's showing up the froth and the bubble of people like Stephen Furtick and all of that sort of stuff. And the prosperity gospel, all of the through and all of the entertainment that goes on with that sort of stuff. And he's saying, how how is that awe inspiring and bringing you to god? It just takes you to a man.

Yeah? And he says, no. What we need to just go back to is an altar, and of course he's an orthodox. So there's an altar, and there's, you know, stuff where normal people can't go through and you have a priest. But he's wrong, you know.

I understand that we're fed up with the froth, but to turn to the altar is just as wrong, because there's a third way, the pulpit, or the word of god. Because it's the word of god that inspires us and brings us the word of Jesus into our hearts. It's not stage or altar. It's stage altar or the pulpit or the word of god. And what about Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses?

When they knock on your door? Just read this. Jesus is an angel. Did you know that? What?

Jesus is an angel, so he became as much superior to the angels as the name that he inherited is superior to theirs. Well, how'd you get around that 1 then? Even their version, which is corrupt, doesn't seem to get around it. And the Mormons, he's just the angel. Or what about those of us that wanna keep on to our guilt?

I'm holding on to my guilt. Why would you do that? Why wouldn't you come to Christ and be free? Or what about the massive misunderstanding that's going on about the past and the last, the old and the new testament? It's very interesting, isn't it?

And we'll bring this out in question time if you want to. But, you know, I mean, I have to say honestly, and I could prove it if you wanted me to. But many years ago, a number of us were saying what's going to happen in this country where there's so much woke stuff going on and so much Islam coming on, we're gonna see British people rise up, and they they're angry about this stuff. But is that Christian? Does Christian ever have a nation?

Don't you see that in the new testament? That's old testament. You got it all muddled up. You've got your old and new testament muddled up. You've got 1 bible, but not 2 testaments.

What are you talking about? Christian nation, where do you get that idea from? No. No. We're strangers and aliens in this world.

Could you know that? Our job is to love and to preach to all nations. If there's an opportunity of nations coming to us, then let's breach to them. Seems to me, now we'll have different political ideas. I understand that, and we can disagree in church, but we cannot be nationalists.

We can't say my nation is of heaven, is of Christ. And if you listen to people, even even, you know, he was definitely a brother in Christ, and he's definitely a, you know, a good bloke, and he loved his wife. And you know, it's a tragedy that he should have been char even Charlie Kirk, he didn't understand the difference between the old and new testament. You could hear it very clearly, and he fudges them together. And so we're like living in the past when we should be living in the last.

Christ is what we're about. Christ has told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Christ has told us that we're alien and strangers in this world. Christ has told us that this is never gonna be heaven on earth. This is not the land we long for.

Christ has shown us that the land is heaven. Christ is who we have our eyes on, who we love, and who we're excited about. And if we don't, we'll find we'll be excited and using our energies for other things that Christ never told us to do. There you go. You write your letters now?

Let's finish. Father, help us to see Jesus, our, ma'am.