Christ, My All

I found, yesterday, a great reminder as I read through a manuscript of one of John Piper's sermons (from desiringgod.org) of who Christ is. This was a great encouragement and challenge to me.

There are at least seven things said about Christ in Hebrews 1:1-4.
(1) He is real—don't ever forget that. Cultivate a relationship with this person. Put Jesus at the center of your life. Relate to Jesus. Some of us became Christians through a form of evangelism that was exactly right. It said, "Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?" That's the right question. Sometimes we take it very lightly, but here's a person and he's alive and he's here and he's in heaven. He can do that. And he's glorious. Let's see how glorious he is because it's the gloriousness of the glory of the person that makes the laying down of his life so spectacularly valuable and assuring.
(2) He created—through him all things were made.
(3) He is the radiance of the Father's glory --so if you want to know the glory, the moral beauty of the glory of the father, read the gospel and behold the person of Jesus because he's the radiance (the streaming out, the effulgence) of the glory of God.
(4) He is the exact character or representation of the father's divine nature. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.
(5) He upholds the universe --all things—by the word of his power. So today this person is infinitely powerful. He is speaking all the solar system, and all the Milky Way, and all the other galaxies into being , as well as all the molecules and all the wood and brick of this building. He's holding our flesh and hair and skin and lungs and tissue and fingernails in being right now. If he were to stop thinking you into being you would cease to be. That's how dependent you are on this person.
(6) He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty and the seating is an enthronement. He is the king of the universe. He's at the right hand of God the Father and he reigns over all government. He reigns over the devil. He reigns over weather. He reigns over heart attacks and cancer and Parkinson's disease. He reigns tonight.
(7) Therefore he is greater than the angels. Sort of sounds like an anticlimax. But the rest of the chapter is devoted to this— to the utter superiority of this person over all other heavenly persons save the Father.
So that's number one—we are dealing tonight with a person. He's alive. He's real and all seven of those facts are true about him. That's the person who made purification.