A More Excellent Name

Hebrews 1:1-4 - 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; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Read that again taking in every word slowly. No glossing!!

All throughout the Bible God has spoken of something better to come. Something important. Someone who would come to bring this dead world. It was concealed within and throughout the Old Testament but nonetheless written that we might know the signs in days to come and today that all that was prophesied was true.

Of course, this is Jesus. Intricate details of sacrifices, temples and their furniture and utensils pointed to Him. People were appointed by God to do marvelous, albeit at the time, outlandish things that made no sense (like Noah building an ark for a flood from heavy rains which had never existed). Moses. the miracles and the exodus. People, who were types of a future deliverer, One to come.

When this Jesus came into ministry He came to abolish the need for endless sacrifices and became that one Deliverer, that one Promise of a better life, eternal life.

He was not only concealed in the Old Testament, He was seen through the gloriousness of creation because the One to come was there creating by His undeniably brilliant, awesome spoken word!! Creating things only He could.

People, there is no One greater than He. Jesus. Nothing is hidden from Him, not even our thoughts. Only He has the power over life and death. He holds your life and where you will go when you die. There are only two places. There’s no in between where family can buy your way out. Look in the Bible. See if it’s written there. Only heaven and hell are spoken of in various ways. There's only good and evil, black and white. There is no being kinda good. Either you are for Him or against Him. Neutrality does not exist for Him.

God, in His excellent name, created all things and He will remove all things bad. He will allow some in this world to dig themselves graves through wrong living, called sin, yet is always offering them chances at knowing and receiving His Son for the forgiveness of their sins. We cannot assume we know Him. We must know Him.

Many in this world live by church rules, all man made, like the Old Testament priests. Jesus came to do away with those rules to establish instead a relationship with Him. However, those laws are still important because they are there to show us what sin is...so we may know Him. We can never achieve to perfection any of those laws, but Jesus was the perfect sacrificial Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world. That's what it’s all about. It’s why He was killed, because religious men were threatened by this Man who came with a new message of hope, not through rituals but through grace and relationship.

No one else should be honored more greatly than the One whose name IS more excellent. He calls everyone but not everyone hears or listens. He says the sheep hear His voice. Do you? Will you? Will you listen? Your life depends on it!

Philippians 2:9-11 - Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.