The Hope We Have in Jesus: A Look at Hebrews 1–5

Where Is Your Hope?

One of the greatest problems facing people today — including those of us who follow Jesus — is hopelessness. And the root of that hopelessness is almost always the same: our view of God is too small.

We put our faith in our jobs. We put our faith in what we can do with our bodies, our talents, our relationships. And when those things shift or crumble, we find ourselves asking, God, I don't see how you're going to bring me out of this.

I know what that feels like. I grew up athletic, confident in my own abilities. I believed I could get myself out of any situation. Then came fifteen surgeries and five spinal fusions. And there I was, having to relearn something I thought I already knew — that the only sure foundation for hope is Jesus Christ.

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A Bigger View of God

The book of Hebrews opens with a breathtaking declaration. God, who once spoke to the fathers through the prophets in many ways and at many times, has now spoken to us in his Son. Jesus is the final word. He is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his nature, and he upholds all things by the word of his power.

Think about that. The chair you're sitting on, the ground you walk on — it exists and holds together because Jesus sustains it. He spoke creation into being. He simply said "Exist" — and there were the trees, the beasts of the field, the great sea monsters of the deep, the most intricate flowers and insects. All of it came from him, for him, and is held together by him.

And yet, when circumstances press in on us — cancer diagnoses, job losses, grief, financial ruin — we look at our situation instead of looking at him. If we had a bigger view of God, the things that shake us would look very different.

Here is what the author of Hebrews wants us to see: the one who created everything is the same one who intercedes for you.

What God Has Spoken in Jesus

God's Word has never failed. Every promise written in Scripture has been tested across time and proven true. Abraham, Moses, the prophets — God spoke to them, and what he said always came to pass. That same God has now spoken definitively, finally, and fully in Jesus Christ.

This means when you are walking through the darkest season of your life and you cannot see what God is doing, you can say: "God, you said this in your Word. I am going to trust what you said and move forward, because you are the God who keeps his promises."

That is not naive optimism. That is faith anchored in a God whose track record spans all of human history.

The Caterpillar and the Butterfly

There is something the Creator does that we often miss when we are in the middle of pain: in transformation, there comes beauty.

Consider the caterpillar. It does not stay a caterpillar. It goes through the process of metamorphosis and becomes a butterfly — something beautiful, something that accomplishes its God-given purpose of pollination in the world.

We are all, as God's people, being transformed into the image of Jesus. The hard seasons are not evidence that God has abandoned you. They are often the very thing through which he is making you into something new.

Why Jesus Had to Be All Three

The author of Hebrews makes a careful and crucial argument: for Jesus to be the eternal source of salvation, he had to be three things simultaneously — God, man, and high priest.

He had to be God. Our sins are infinite in their weight. Only a savior of infinite worth can cover an infinite debt. No matter how many people — from Adam to the end of the earth — bring all their sin to Jesus, his account is more than enough to clear the record. No matter how unrighteous you have been, no matter what you have done, Jesus is able to cleanse you from all of it.

He had to be man. Adam sinned, and so man needed a representative. God's eternal plan was that the Son would step into humanity's flesh — subject to dependence, suffering, hunger, anguish, rejection, exhaustion, and temptation — and walk a perfect and holy life in our place. God cared so deeply about a lost humanity that he entered our story.

He had to be our high priest. In the Old Testament, the high priest was a mediator between God and man. He cleansed, he interceded, he stood in the gap. That is exactly what Jesus does for us — not as a shadow or a symbol, but as the real and final thing. Because he lived perfectly and rose again, he is now exalted at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for those who trust in him.

He Only Tasted Death

Here is the staggering truth about the resurrection: Jesus tasted death. He experienced it — and then it was gone. Our Lord is no longer in the grave. He is raised and exalted, and he lives always to intercede for his people.

That is the hope we have. Not a hope that things will work out the way we want. Not a hope based on circumstances or feelings. But a living, risen Savior who bore our penalty, conquered the grave, and now sits at the right hand of the Father speaking on our behalf.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood this. Standing before a tyrant's threat, they said: "Our God is able to deliver us. But even if he does not — we will not bow." That is what it looks like to trust someone bigger than your situation.

Bring It to Him

I do not know what each of you is carrying right now. I do not know what emotions haunt you, what circumstances feel impossible, what you have tried and failed to fix on your own.

But I know this: you can bring it to Christ.

Lay it at his feet and say, "This is too big for me." He stepped out of eternity and took on flesh — subject to suffering, hunger, rejection, and death — because he cares about you. He tasted death so that you wouldn't have to. And now he lives, always interceding, always present, always able to carry what you cannot.

Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That is the call. That is the hope. And that hope — anchored in who Jesus is and what he has done — will hold you through anything this world throws your way.

This post is adapted from a sermon on Hebrews 1–5 preached at Storehouse Church.

Storehouse Church | Treasuring Christ and People