“God Spoke”
[Hebrews
1:1-2]
December 25, 2011 Second Reformed Church
We begin looking at the book of
Hebrews today. The book of Hebrews was
written in the mid to late 60’s A.D., and, although most people throughout
history have attributed the book to Paul, it is anonymous – we are not sure who
actually wrote it. What is clear is the
theme of this book: “Jesus is greater.”
In the 60’s, false teachers were
arguing that angels were greater than Jesus, Moses and the Law were greater
than Jesus, and the priesthood and the sacrificial system were greater than
Jesus. The author of Hebrews addresses
each one and shows that Jesus is greater than all of them, and He must be if He
is to be the Savior of all those who believe in Him. The book ends with encouragement and
practical application for Christians facing these false teachers and persecution.
The author of Hebrews begins by
telling his readers that God, in His Mercy, has spoken:
“Long ago, at many times and in many
ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son,”
God has spoken to His people in
times past, and now in these last days.
God spoke to His people from the
beginning. God has always made Himself
and His purpose clear to His people.
From the beginning, God chose to enter into a relationship with His
people.
Do we understand that God did not
have to enter into a relationship with humans?
God could have just created us and left us to suffer whatever ends
befall us. But God chose, for His Own
Reasons and for His Glory, to enter into a relationship with humanity, and
especially His people.
The author of Hebrews notes that these
are the last days, and God still speaks to humanity in these last days. The last days began, we understand, with
Jesus, and they extend until the end of this age – until Jesus returns – which
will occur at the time God has ordained, which could be any time.
In the days of old, God spoke to his
people through the prophets – people that He chose to speak through and have
speak His Word. Peter reminds us: “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy
of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along
by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21, ESV).
And God spoke to the prophets and
through the prophets at different times and in various ways as they delivered
God’s Word to His people. At times, God
spoke directly through the prophet. At
other times, God spoke through animals, such as Balaam’s donkey. God spoke through the whirl-wind, as He spoke
to Job. God spoke through dreams, and
through writings. God spoke out of the
heavens, as He did at the Baptism of Jesus.
And God spoke through inspiring the writers to put down what we call the
Old Testament – the Law and the Prophets.
This is the Word of God.
Now, God has spoken to us, finally,
by His Son, Jesus. God, Himself, in the
Person of the Son – the Incarnate God – has come with the Word of God which is the
Good News. John wrote, “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God” (John 1:1-2, ESV).
Jesus is God’s Word, and Jesus is God.
And Jesus is the Good News of God, as the angels said, “‘Fear not, for
behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in
swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:10b-14,
ESV).
Notice, then, if the Law and the
Prophets are the Word of God, and the Gospel of Good News is the Word of God,
then, since God is the Unchangeable God, God’s Word is the same. There is no contradiction between the Word of
God in the Old Testament and the Word of God in the New Testament. The message of the Old Testament is the same
as the Message of the New Testament. The
whole Bible is a coherent whole of the One Word of God.
What then is the message of the
whole Bible? Humans sinned against God
and are, thus, deserving of eternal punishment and can do nothing to change
that fact. But God, in mercy, and for
His Own Reasons, came to earth in the Person of Jesus, to live, die for the
sins of all those who would believe, physically rise, and ascend back to His
Throne. That is God’s Word from
beginning to end.
In the beginning, God spoke at many
different times, in many different ways, through many different prophets, and
they all delivered exactly the same message.
But now, Jesus has come, and He is the Final Word of God, the same Word
of God that was spoken through all of the prophets, now spoken most clearly
through His Life as we have it received in the New Testament.
Jesus has come once and finally to
proclaim the Word of God. The Word of
God as we have it now in our Bibles is a “closed canon” – nothing more can be
added to it, because we have everything that God intended to tell us and reveal
to us. Now we are to read it and know it
and know Him and follow Him in obedience and faith and love.
We are not left on our own to
interpret the Word of God: God – the
Father and the Son – have sent God the Holy Spirit to live in each person who
believes in Jesus for salvation. John
records: “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone
loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my
words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
“’These things I have spoken to you
while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance
all that I have said to you’” (John 14:23-26, ESV).
All those who believe in Jesus
savingly – all those who believe the Good News – that Jesus is God come to
earth, Who lived under His Law, died for the sins of all those who would
believe, physically rose from the dead, and ascended back to His Throne – every
one of these receives in the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, and He helps us
to remember what we have read and heard of God’s Word, and He helps us to
understand what we have read and heard of God’s Word.
“whom he appointed the heir of all
things, you
have put all things under his feet,”
Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God,
inherits everything. What does that
mean?
It means that everything is in
subjection to Jesus. Everything,
including Jesus’ enemies, serve Jesus and exist for His Glory. “You have given him dominion over the works
of your hands;” (Psalm 8:6, ESV). “For
all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him
that we utter our Amen to God for his glory“ (II Corinthian 1:10, ESV).
“Everything” includes us –
humanity. We exist for the Pleasure and
the Glory of God. Our purpose is found
in glorifying God – in showing others the greatness of God – in showing people
Who God is. “Therefore God has highly
exalted [Jesus] and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11, ESV).
It means that everything good comes from
Him, as well as from His Father. “Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17,
ESV).
It also means that through Him, we can
be saved as co-heirs, because Jesus is completely God and completely
human. “And
if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to
promise” (Galatians 3:29, ESV).
What is the point of Christmas? The point of Christmas is that God came down
as a real human being and lived under His Own Law – sinlessly – so He could
give all those who believe in Him as Savior, His Righteousness. As Paul wrote, “Thus it is written, ‘The
first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving
spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the
spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is
from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and
as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have
borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of
heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49, ESV).
In other words, God created humans
and breathed life into them. God became
a human being that first Christmas and breathes spiritual life into all those
who believe in Him. The first man, God
made from the earth; Jesus is God come down to the earth as a real human
being. In Adam, humans receive sin and
death; in Jesus, all those who believe receive everlasting life, because He
fulfilled all of the Law – He never sinned.
He was born a human, lived under the Law, and kept it perfectly, as no
human ever had before or since. And
Jesus gives that perfect record of Law-keeping to all those believe at the same
time He takes our sin from us and the punishment for it.
Jesus came to earth, and by God coming
to earth as a human, He became able to save us from our sins and to restore
what was lost in us – and throughout Creation – by the sin of our first
parents. As Paul wrote, “For the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its
bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of
God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the
pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who
have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for
adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.
Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we
hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:19-25,
ESV).
Humans sinned, not the
Creation. Still, the Creation was and is
punished for human sin. When Jesus
returns, all things will be made right, and both humans and the Creation will
be restored – in our physical bodies – and we will live in the New Jerusalem on
the New Earth – the Restored Earth.
“through
whom also he created the world.”
Jesus, God the Son, created
everything that is. There is only One
God, so if God created everything that is, the Father created everything that
is, and the Son created everything that is, and the Holy Spirit created
everything that is. Paul wrote, “[Jesus]
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him
all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through
him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him
all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of
his cross” (Colossians 1:15-20, ESV).
If Jesus created everything that is,
then Jesus is God, the Eternal One, the Creator of the heavens and the Earth.
The book of Hebrews opens by
explaining that God spoke in times past in many ways through the prophets, and
finally, God spoke through Jesus, His Son – speaking the same Word, the same
Good News, and the same Truth about humanity and God, through all of His
recorded Word.
Let us understand that the Bible is
all of God’s Word; it is what God wants us to know and believe.
Let us read our Bibles and see that
the Old and New Testaments teach exactly the same thing because they are both
the same Word of God from the same God.
Let us believe and submit to the
Word of God – both to what God has said in the Bible itself and as and through
Jesus, Himself.
We also see that Jesus, God the Son,
came to earth to live a perfect life under God’s Law so He would be able to
take our place, receive God’s Wrath – the punishment – for our sin, and also
give us His Righteousness – crediting us with His perfect keeping of the Law. In this, we are made right with God and able
to inherit the Kingdom.
Although this world is fallen and
there are people who rebel against God – and even those of us who believe still
sin against God – one day, Jesus will return and all things will be restored
and all of the Creation – including humanity – will submit to God, showing that
all authority is His, all good comes from Him, and all glory and thanks are due
Him.
And we see that Jesus is the
Creator, Heir, and Owner of all things.
So, let us believe in Him now,
understanding that Jesus had to be born a human if He was to save us.
Let us turn to Him in prayer,
believing that He is able and trustworthy:
“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14, ESV). If we ask anything according to Jesus’ Will,
He will do it.
And let us have hope, believing that
this Jesus is our God and Brother, through whom we shall inherit the Earth and
eternal life.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You
chose to come to earth in the Person of Jesus on that first Christmas two
thousand years ago. We thank You that
You came to glorify Yourself through saving us.
We thank You for Your Word and for the history of Jesus through Whose
Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension we are saved. As we leave this place, help us to remember
Who You are – the Almighty God, Creator, and Savior. Cause us to turn to You and all of Your Word
for Wisdom, Truth, and Salvation. For
You have spoken, and it is so. In Jesus’
Name, Amen.
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