Bulletins - Richvale Community Church

Good morning!
Last week we launched our summer series entitled Anchored ..
And we are in the book of Hebrews ..13 weeks..
This morning we are looking at..
"When Life Presses In."
One thing we know for certain is that pressure is unavoidable..
it’s inevitable
It is a part of life..
In fact studies have have shown that more then half of doctor visits ..have to do with stress related issues..
Research tells us …
that 30 % of adults experience enough stress …to make a difference in our performance— whether at work.. or at Home...
We all have pressure..but..
Pressure affects each of us differently…..
For some people, pressure is immobilizing; for others, it is motivating.
Pressure can either destroy things—or it can develop them.
the same pressure that crushes coal can create a diamond.
The same wind that threatens a ship can also propel it forward..
The recipients of Hebrews …knew what it was like to live under pressure..
They were Christians facing tremendous challengers..
Following Christ carried a cost.
Many had experienced
rejection,
hardship, and persecution because of their faith.
As the pressure mounted, some were tempted to drift back into the familiarity and safety of Judaism.
Hebrews is essentially a sermon of encouragement to weary believers…
To remind them that Christ is better than anything they will find in their old life..under Judaism..
In fact Christ Is the perfect fulfillment Of the Law and the prophets…
In the OT you had three major roles
You had —Prophet, Priest, and King—
and we are going to see in our text That..
Jesus fulfilled each one of these roles.perfectly.
He is the perfect..prophet..
He is the perfect priest..
He is the perfect King..
Some us today might find ourselves between a Rock and a hard place…
in the midst of challenge..
…under pressure ..
And the book of Hebrews is going to speak I to that issue…
regardless if it’s your health…you finaces….your
Station in life an this moment..
.. He is still in control..
And Hebrews chapter 1 reminds us of three truths first…
1. Jesus Has the Final Word
It's been fun watching our grandson Jason learning new words.
Right now he has a few favorites.
"Shoes."
"Outside."
"Yes!" (usually with a little lisp).
And his all-time favorite:
"Oh no!"
The funny thing is that "Oh no!" can mean almost anything depending on the expression on his face.
Sometime it means yes. Sometimes no..
As he learns language, he's discovering something we all know:
Words have power.
Words communicate ideas.
Words build relationships.
Words express love.
Words give direction.
Words bring encouragement.
As human beings, we are wired for communication…
Gods has revealed himself in nature… we call this general revelation…the psalmist said..the heavens declare the glory of God..
And creation is beautiful..
A sunset can be breathtaking.
Mountains inspire awe.
The ocean leave us speechless.
Creation can move our emotions.
But no matter how spectacular..a landscape it can never replace a relationship…
Creation is Just a sign pointing to a personal God..
No sunset can tell you, "I love you."
No mountain can tell you, "I'm with you."
No ocean can tell you, "Don't be afraid."
Relationships require a speech.. words.....
And that's exactly where the book of Hebrews begins.
lets read our text..
Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 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.
In these opening verses, we discover a remarkable truth..that God is not behind the scenes of History…
He isn’t the operating system humming in the background..of our existence…
No…
God has spoken....
We are told .. that.. God spoke in the past.
And that God still speakes in these last days through His Son.
This tells us something important about who God is. And that is that..
God desires relationship..with us..
He is not an impersonal power somewhere in the universe.
He is not distant, unknowable, or disconnected from His creation.
He is not merely a force to be sensed.
Rather He is a God who speaks.
A God who communicates. desires to be known.
We learn that…
A. God Spoke at Many Times
Hebrews 1:1 says:
"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets."
The phrase "at many times" literally carries the idea of revelation being given in portions or installments.
In other words God's revelation did not come all at once.
It came progressive.
Throughout the centuries, God unfolded His plan little by little.
To Abraham, He revealed himself as a promise.
To Moses, He revealed himself through the Law.
Through David, He spoke of a coming King.
Through Isaiah, He foretold a suffering Servant.
Through Jeremiah, He promised a new covenant. (not written on tablets of stone but hearts of flesh)
As each prophet faithfully delivered another piece of God's unfolding story. …we can see fuller picture of Christ..
God not only spoke at various times..
b. But in many ways.
He spoke through dreams and visions.
Through miracles and signs.
Through poetry and prophecy.
Through symbols and sacrifices.
Through ceremonies and covenants.
Even through the history of Israel itself.
What is remarkable is that although God used many messengers and many methods over hundreds of years,
Every prophecy,
every promise,
every sacrifice, every ceremony was pointing toward —the arrival of His Son.
In these last day… God has spoken his final word.. though his Son…
Jesus Has the Final Word
How Does God Speak Today?
A. God Speaks Through Scripture
The primary way God communicates to us is through His Word.
God is not giving new revelation.
There are no updates.
No sequels.
No additions to what He has already revealed in Christ.
Hebrews tells us:
"In these last days He has spoken to us by His Son."
Jesus is God's final Word.
Jesus is God's final message.
As the great Prophet, He fulfills all previous revelation.
This means that in Scripture we have God's final..and invalid le ..inspired Word concerning who He is and how we are to live.
God speaks primarily through his word…
B. God Speaks Through Circumstances
God also guides us through the circumstances of life.
Sometimes He opens doors.
Sometimes He closes them.
Sometimes He redirects us through disappointments and delays.
And often the very pressures we are trying to escape become the tools God uses to shape us.
C. God Speaks Through Prophetic Encouragement
The New Testament also speaks of prophecy… or preaching or proclaim..
Biblical prophecy is not fortune telling it is forthtelling—bringing God's truth into a particular situation.
Its purpose is not to add new revelation.
Rather, it illuminates, confirms, and applies what God has already revealed in Scripture.
As John Stott said:
"God speaks, but He speaks through what He has spoken."
That is why every prophetic word must be tested by God's Word.
I remember receiving a prophetic word as a teenager that God was calling me into ministry…
That word did not tell me something completely new.
Rather, it confirmed what God was already speaking to me through His Word and His Spirit.
When it comes to spiritual gifts, discernment is essential.
God never contradicts what He has already revealed in Christ.
—T/s what do we do when life presses in…
We Remember that Jesus has the Final word..we remember
2. Jesus Has Finished the Work
Have you noticed that work never gets finished…
The philosopher Bertrand Russell once described modern life as
filled with
“an endless succession of immediate duties,”
In other words . life keeps multiplying demands faster than we can complete them…
There is always a list of to do’s..
Just when you think you’ve reached the end of the list, something else appears..—
There is always something .
Something waiting.
Something demanding our attention.
Something yet to be complete.
In Genesis God established the idea of the balance of work and rest..
God completed creation on six day and — and he rested on the seventh..
calling it Holy…
This wasn’t merely God taking a break;
it established rest itself as a sacred rhythm woven into creation’s fabric…
In fact we are created with this need for rest…
but some how Judaism made rest —work —by all the rules and requirements..
In Matt 12. 1 we have the story of
Jesus and His disciples walking through a grainfield on the Sabbath.
As they walked, the disciples picked some heads of grain to eat.
The religious leaders immediately criticized them, accusing them of breaking the Sabbath rules.
Jesus responded by reminding them that God's commands were never meant to become a burden.
Then He then made a remarkable statement:
Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
In other words, God never intended the Sabbath to become a burden.
It was designed as a gift—a day of rest and refreshment for His people.
He said something that must have shocked the phararees..
“The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
The religious leaders were focused on the day. Whereas Jesus was pointing them to a Person.
The Sabbath was never the destination; it was a signpost.
It pointed beyond itself to the One who would provide true rest.
We too can also make our rest ours work… Here is the thing…
Jesus is not merely the giver of rest.
He is our rest…
He is our Sabbath..
— Hebrews 4 is going tell us that there remains a rest for God people…and that we are to strive to enter His rest…
but chaper 1 we see where rest comes from ..
His work is finished.
This is what the Writer of Hebrews tells us..
Hebrews 1:3–4 ESV
3 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,
The writer begins with who Christ is and then moves to what he has done…
We are given two images to Describe who Christ is…first.
a. He is the radiance of God..
He give the metaphor of Radiance… just
As sunlight is to the sun. Jesus the SON is the radiance of the Father’s glory…
He is more than just a reflection..
For example, the moon is a reflector of the glory of the sun.
When you see the moon, you’re not seeing its own light. You’re seeing a reflection of the sun.
Not so with Jesus, for He not only reflects the glory of the Father, but He radiates the glory of the Father.
The next image is that of an imprint… we told that Jesus is
B. The Express imprint… of the Father..
The “express image” refers to the method used to imprint coins, where a piece of metal would be pounded against a stamp of the head of Caesar to make a coin.., making an “express image.”
Although the stamp and the coin were two separate entities, both bore the same image.
Jesus is the express image of the father….
The Welsh Preacher David Martyn Lloyd Jones said it bests
“this baby born in Bethlehem in that stable is the very image of the invisible God! Love so Amazing, 251
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)
It is not just who he is… but what He has done..
verse 3
The writer then moves from who Christ is - to what Christ has done…
Jesus became the sacrificial lamb of God.. He made attonment for ours sins..
This was one of the question these Hebrew Christians minds…
How did they deal with their failures and offences…. guilt-and shame…regrets…
The … The priesthood and temple still functioning…
you can see this pull to the temple.
The writer tells them
that Jesus is the ultimate priest… because he made the the final sacrifice for their sins.
"He made purification for sins..."
When you think about the sacrificial system it was staggering — how many sacrifices were were being made…
In a typical year, the temple offered approximately 1,100 lambs— every single day!!
The number jumped drastically at passovee.
The JEWISH HISTORIAN Josephus records roughly 256,000 lambs sacrificed during PASSOVER ALONE….
This is not counting bulls and rams and goats.. other smaller animals..
At Passover.. tens of thousands of lambs were sacrificed in rapid succession between the ninth and eleventh hours, with hundreds of priests working simultaneously
The blood poured out in such quantity must have made an indelible impression on the mind…
in that moment the y would see the reality of sin and the need for atonement…
just in the sheer quantity…of sacrices needed.
what a contrast..
This sermon gives..
Christ’s single, final sacrifice is sufficient..
We told that On the cross..
Jesus bore our sins once and for all..
Jesus accomplished our redemption.
Jesus finished the work.
That is why
"He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
The priests of the Old Testament never sat down because their work was never finished.
Jesus sat down because His work was complete…
Jesus is the ultimate Savior who ends the sacrifices of former times, because there’s nothing more that can be added to his saving work

When Life presses us we needs need to remember —
—We don’t have to live in perpetual discouragement or spiritual exhaustion.
We don’t have to carry the weight of unfinished work in our relationship with God.
HE IS OUR SABBATH REST..
Because ..
We are held by Him.
We are secure in Him.
And because Jesus sat down—because His work is finished—we can rest in Him.
T/s what do we do when life presses in…
We Remember that Jesus has the Final word..
2. Jesus Has Finished the Work
3. Jesus Holds the Highest Place —
Another pressure we face in life..
is not what is happening around us, but what is happening within us.
The battle is often fought in our minds..
We tend fixated on on certain things..
What we dwell on matters
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius observed:
"The most important things in life are the thoughts you choose to frame."
There is a great deal of truth in that statement.
When pressure comes, our minds tend to dwell on the.
Fear.
Uncertainty.
Disappointment.
The opinions of others.
And here is the thing..
Whatever occupies the throne of our thoughts begins to influence how we see everything else.
This was part of the challenge facing these Hebrew Christians...
In first-century Judaism, angels held a far more prominent place than we might imagine today.
Many rabbis taught that angels were assigned to both nations and go individuals.
One rabbi even said that every blade of grass had its angel.
As a result, angels occupied a very important place in Jewish thinking.
To the point where they began to wonder whether Jesus was simply an exalted angelic being rather than the eternal Son of God.
That is why this sermon of Hebrews addresses this issue so directly.
Let’s read..
Hebrews 1:4–14 ESV
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
Hebrews 1:4–14 ESV
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
So There exists.. this over emphasis on angels in the first century culture..…
The writer compares
Jesus to angels. because he wants us to see that Christ stands above every created thing.
Angels serve -Jesus reigns.
Angels worship.-Jesus receives worship.
Angels are messengers -Jesus is the King.
there is a clear difference..
— God never spoke to the angels.the way He did to the son…
He never called angels his begotten…
or encouraged the angels themsleves to worship him…
God Never did he conferred on the angels Royal status..
but he says to Jesus that … he has given him ultimate power and authority. …
Jesus is invited to sit at the right hand of the father.. As one who “upholds the universe by the word of his power,”
His kingship extends over all creation
Why does this matter —
Why does his kingship matter?
The original readers were watching their circumstances become increasingly difficult.
Their world felt unstable.
Perhaps ours does too.
But Hebrews reminds us:
The throne of Christ is not affected by the turmoil of earth.
Governments rise and fall.
Economies change.
Health fades.
Circumstances shift.
Everything around us may be shaking, but the throne of Christ is not….impacted..
We can take comfort that regardless of what is happening in our world…
Jesus is still on the throne…his kingdom is forever..
Conclusion:
How do we press in… The book of Hebrews gives this portrait of Christ… that starts out as draft… becomes clearer in Chrst…
Have you ever walked an art gallery and seen the early sketches an artist makes before the final work is complete?
Rough lines.
Partial outlines.
Hints of what is coming—but not the full picture.
Hebrews tells us that’s what the Old Testament was like.
In the past, God gave His people sketches—partial revelations of who He is and what He would do.
But now, in Christ, we have the full portrait.
Not a fragment.
Not a sketch.
But the complete revelation of God.
Prophet.
Priest.
And King.
Everything finds its fulfillment in Him.
So when life presses in, we are not pressed away from God—we are pressed into Him.
As James Hudson Taylor said:
“It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies—whether it comes between you and God or whether it presses you nearer His heart.”
So when you are weary, remember this:
Christ has spoken.
Christ has secured you.
And Christ still reigns.
Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:8–10 that we may be pressed on every side, but we are not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; struck down, but not destroyed…
Because the life of Jesus is at work within us.
this morning know Jesus had the final word..
Jesus has the final Word.
And in Him, we find rest for our souls.
- - Hebrews 1:1–3ESV
- - Hebrews 1:3–4ESV
- - Hebrews 1:4–14ESV
- - Hebrews 1:4–14ESV
- - Hebrews 1:8ESV

1. Jesus Has the Final Word

A. God Spoke at Many Times

b. But in many ways.

How Does God Speak Today?

A. God Speaks Through Scripture

B. God Speaks Through Circumstances

C. God Speaks Through Prophetic Encouragement

2. Jesus Has Finished the Work

3. Jesus Holds the Highest Place —

Conclusion:

Hebrews 1:1–3ESV

Hebrews 1:3–4ESV

Hebrews 1:4–14ESV

Hebrews 1:4–14ESV

Hebrews 1:8ESV