Better — Part 1

There is no such thing as standing still in the Christian life. You are either paddling upstream against the current, or you are drifting downstream without realizing it. The book of Hebrews was written for people who had started well, believed sincerely, and then quietly started to sink. In Part 1 of Better, Pastor Jess DiSabatino opens a new series through Hebrews with one central claim: Jesus is not just one option among many. He is categorically better. Better than every prophet, every priest, every hero, every religion, and every version of yourself you have been trying to build. This is a series about anchoring.

Series: Better

Scripture: Hebrews 1:1-4 and 2:1-3

Pastor: Jess DiSabatino

Date: July 5, 2026

Key Takeaways

1. Spiritual neutrality is an illusion. One of the most important premises of Hebrews is that there is no neutral ground in the Christian life. Spiritual decline almost never happens through a big, dramatic rebellion. It happens through drift. A quiet, imperceptible movement caused by simply stopping the effort while the cultural current keeps pulling downstream. Drift never requires a decision. It only requires that you stop paying attention. Pastor Jess opened with a personal story about visiting a sensory deprivation float tank to manage stress. Expecting complete restoration in the quiet, weightless environment, she instead spent the whole session violently seasick in the dark while her husband Dave floated peacefully. The lesson landed: the world tells us peace comes from passive floating. The Bible tells us the opposite. Passive floating in life leads to drift. Real spiritual peace requires being actively anchored.

2. Jesus is God's final and complete revelation. Throughout the Old Testament, God spoke through prophets, dreams, angels, and signs. All of it was real, all of it was inspired, but all of it was partial. Hebrews 1:2 says that in these last days God has spoken to us "in Son." Not through the Son. In Son. The prophets were messengers delivering God's word. Jesus is the Word Himself. This means His revelation is complete. You do not need a newer word, a fresher revelation, or a hidden truth someone else has and you do not. Hebrews describes Him with five overlapping claims: heir of all things, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, radiance of God's glory, exact imprint of God's nature, the One who purified sins and sat down. Everything you need to know about the character of God is fully and permanently visible in Jesus.

3. Jesus sat down because the work is finished. In the ancient temple in Jerusalem, there were altars, lampstands, tables, and basins. But there were no chairs. The priests never sat down because their work was never done. Sins were continually being committed out in the camp, so sacrifices had to be offered morning and evening, day after day, generation after generation. When Jesus finished His work on the cross and sat down at the right hand of the Father, that posture was a declaration. It is finished. Not "start working harder." Not "keep trying to earn it." Sat down. Done. N.T. Wright put it this way: Christianity either means that the hurricane has become human and fire has become flesh, or it means nothing at all. It is the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality in the world, or it is a sham. There is no in-between.

4. Old Testament heroes are signposts, not the destination. The great figures of the Old Testament (Moses, Abraham, David, Nehemiah) were not flawless heroes to imitate. They were flawed humans whose stories were designed to point past themselves toward a truer and better Savior. Nehemiah, for example, at the end of his book gets so infuriated with Israel's leaders that he physically pulls out their beards. That did not make it into the Sunday school flannelgraph. The point is not that Nehemiah had it all together. He did not. The point is that every hero in the Old Testament shows you the gap between who we are and who we need. Tim Keller said it best: Jesus is the truer and better Adam, the truer and better Isaac, the truer and better Joseph, the truer and better Moses, the truer and better David. Their lives are signposts. His life is the destination.

5. Acceptance comes first, then obedience flows. Every world religion, and even most of our default assumptions about God, run on the same formula: obey, and God will accept you. Christianity flips it completely. Acceptance is given first, freely, through grace. Obedience is the response to already being accepted, not the price of getting there. When you get this backwards and treat acceptance as something to earn, your inner life gets dominated by fear of failing, pride when you succeed, or hostility toward anyone whose life threatens your self-righteous system. Fear-based motivation produces shallow, temporary compliance. It is like shoving clutter in a closet before someone inspects the room. Real, lasting spiritual fruit only grows out of assurance in what Christ has already done. Martin Luther said that when you finally grasp that Christ absorbed the full weight of judgment on your behalf, you stop trying to bribe God with your behavior and start actually wanting to live like Him. Jesus did not say "go and do." He sat down and said "it is done." Anchor yourself there. Because everything else in Hebrews is going to keep asking one question: is Jesus enough? Settle that answer now, before the storm comes.