God’s Final Word

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“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”

Hebrews 1:1-2

Main Readings: Colossians 1:15-23 & Hebrews 1:1 – Hebrews 2:1

Related Readings: John 1:1-18 & John 5:31-47

I’m just gunna focus on the first 3 verses today.  And Y’might think, ‘That’s tiny!’  But look again!  Look at the 2 - final words - of verse 2.  ‘The universe.’  That’s big!  If we exhaust that, you’ll definitely miss Countryfile!  But as vast as the universe is, it isn’t the biggest  - or the bestest - thing in these verses.  Cos these verses remind us of God.  He’s bigger.  And he’s better.  He lives a life that stretches from everlasting thataway.  To everlasting thataway.  His existence has always been unbroken.  And yet… he’s chosen to speak.  The unbroken speaks to the broken – to people like us.

It's an awesome thought.  Perhaps a terrifying one.  God – who’s holy and whole – what can he have to say about my life?  Which seems anything but holy and wholesome.  What will God’s final word be on a life like that?

Cos, the NIV, gives that title to this section – ‘God’s final word: his Son.’  Are we believers in Jesus?  Then he’s the answer for lives like ours.  Not just when we first come to faith - Jesus is always the answer.

And that’s why this letter was written.  Cos, the people who first received it needed it.  They were Christians – believers in Jesus – but they were starting to doubt.  They were tempted to ‘drift away’.  That’s why chapter 2, verse 1 says ‘Don’t’! – ‘… do not drift away.’  Why was this happening?  Well, new life in Christ had reshaped them.  They now stood out from the crowd.  But the crowd had turned.  On them.  Telling them they were wrong.  And they were starting to think, ‘Maybe we are.  Maybe Christ’s just part of the answer.  Maybe Christ isn’t the answer.’  Their faith was drifting.

The challenge - of living the Christian life - challenged their faith.  This letter was relevant to where they were at.  Cos it spoke to them as God now speaks to us – by his Son.  Christ Jesus is always relevant to where we’re at.  When we were dead in trespasses and sins?  What was it that came to our hearing?  That reached us where we were?  The message of God’s love in his Son who saves.  Jesus was the answer.  And this letter reminded them.  Despite the challenges of your new life of faith – keep the faith!  There’s no alternative.  Regardless of what others say.

It’s so easy to be swayed.  I’m reminded of an advert from years back – ‘in the past’ - (1985).  An advert for Ariston washing machines.  They’d a jingle which emphasised their reliability. ‘Ariston… and on… and on!’  But they’d a problem.  Cos, despite being popular in wider Europe.  Us here – we hadn’t heard of them.  Could we trust them?  So they used their popularity elsewhere to try to break into the British spin-scene.  Their jingle continued… ‘A million French - they say ‘tres bon!’  Half a million Germans can’t be wrong.’

In 1985 I was young and foolish.  Now, I’m older and none the wiser!  But then… I was totally convinced!  1.5 million people!  They couldn’t be wrong.  So easily swayed!  But Hebrews reminds us of what’s important.  ‘He (God) has spoken…’  That’s what’s important.  Not what everyone else says.  Not what anyone else says.  But what he says.

And that idea – that what God says is what’s important – comes into one of the big questions about this letter to the Hebrews.  Who wrote Hebrews?  Cos this letter’s unsigned.  Not unique – but relatively unusual in Bible terms.  Who wrote it?  We don’t know?  We can think it was probably this person – or possibly that person.  But we can’t know for sure.  It almost feels like God’s making a point here.  The human hand - that first moved the pen to put down these words - is not what you need to know.  What you need to know is that God now speaks ‘to usby his Son.’

So, who’s it written to?  Hebrews – the title’s a giveaway!  And it becomes really apparent as y’go through this letter.  What’s a Hebrew?  It’s someone whose background is Jewish.  Someone born an Israelite - and brought up in the Jewish religion too.  It’s those people that first received this letter.  People from a particular community of people.  They’d been raised as Jews.  Because of that, their lives took a particular shape.  And then they came to know Jesus.  And their lives changed forever.

But now.  They’re under pressure - to go back.  They weren’t the only ones within their community that’d heard the message about Jesus.  They’d heard it.  And received it.  And believed it.  But many – the majority – had heard it, and didn’t want to hear it again.  The majority were comfortable as they were – thank you very much!  Comfortable with their old system of religion.

So, was that old system wrong?  That’s an important question.  Cos, these Hebrews – now moved to hope in Christ – are being pressured to go back.  To ‘drift away’ from the Christ-shape that their new lives have taken on.  And go back to what they had before - ‘in the past.’  And this letter’s designed to stop them in their dodgy tracks.  Therefore, a natural conclusion would be that what they had before was wrong.  If going back to what they had ‘in the past’ is the wrong move.  Then the past… well… it’s gotta be wrong – surely?  But that isn’t what they’re being told. They’re being told something else.  Something that perhaps we’ve been told as children.  You ever been told this? – ‘There’s a time and a place for that!’ 

I remember when I was a child.  I’d arranged to meet a couple of mates at the central bus stop in our little town.  To travel to the big town.  And I got there at 10am.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  This was pre-mobiles.  I couldn’t speak to them unless I was with them.  And I wasn’t where they were at.  But I was in the right place.  I knew it.  So, I waited.  Until I realised.  Maybe they hadn’t said 10am.  Maybe they’d said 9.  So, I moved.  I hopped on to the next bus to t’big town.  And guess what?  There they were.  The place where I’d tried to meet them wasn’t the wrong place.  But I was there at the wrong time.  They’d moved on from there.

So here in Hebrews.  Israel’s past - God was in that place.  But now was a different time.  Don’t try to meet God in that old place.  Don’t ‘drift away’ back there.  He’s not there no more. 

So – ‘in the past’ (v.1) – how did God speak?   ‘Through the prophets.’  And it wasn’t one isolated incident.  And it didn’t always take the same form – ‘at many times and in various ways.’  Look at those Old Testament records.  They cover a large period.  The many times during which God spoke. 

And they’re constructed differently – ‘various ways.’  We have wonderful stories - about God’s interaction with the lives of people. We have poetry and song.  People - like David - singing about the God who interacts with them.  Often crying for more interaction!  And we have Law – that system of rules governing Jewish life and conduct – how they were to interact with each other and with their God.  We have promises about the future – the way that God was going to interact with people in future days.

But in all those things we have something else.  And this is what this letter sets out to show.  We read the whole of chapter 1 earlier.  That second section from verse 5 has a lot of Old Testament quotes.  What is it that the writer to the Hebrews wants us to see – there in those old writings?  God’s Son!  Hebrews is telling us - that those passages were telling us - about God’s Son!

And it’s not just chapter 1, with its seven or eight quotes.  It’s this whole letter.  As we read Hebrews, we find over 80 Old Testament references.  They point us to God’s Son.  We shouldn’t be surprised.  Cos God’s Son - when he came - said the same.

John 5 records a conversation that Jesus had.  During that conversation Jesus said this about the Old Testament writings – ‘These… testify about me.’  You know who Jesus had that conversation with?  Some religious people.  They claimed to dearly love the scriptures – what God spoke.  But when they spoke – it was clear – they hadn’t grasped what God was saying when he spoke.  God’d spoken about the coming of his Son.  And now – Jesus – God’s Son and Saviour – had come.  And was speaking to them himself.  And they didn’t want to hear.  Because – for all their show – they’d never really listened to what God said.

It’s quite extraordinary – on the face of it Hebrews appears to open with God speaking in two very different ways.  But fundamentally they’re the same message.  When God spoke, he always spoke of his Son.  The same message.  But let’s notice the big, big difference between the old way and the new.  ‘In the past God spoke… through the prophets.’  Now ‘he has spoken… by his Son.’  Those prophets spoke about God’s message.  But Jesus Christ is God’s message!  Christ ‘by’ who he is - and ‘by’ what he has done - is what God has always wanted to tell us.  Christ is God’s one good news message to broken people.  To people prone to drifting.  People like us.

And Christ - and who he is - is described in these verses.  God’s ‘Son… whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.’  He’s the Christ of creation.  Why’s this so important?  Cos, maybe what he did there, can help us with our doubts about what he can do for us now!

In 2 Corinthians 5 17 we’re told an extraordinary thing about believers in Jesus – ‘If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come…’  But sometimes we perhaps wonder about the reality of that.  Has my life really been reshaped? Can it be reshaped into something worthwhile for God?  It was so bad to begin with.  Nothing worthwhile.  But who can speak something out of nothing?  God’s Son, ‘through whom… he made the universe.’

Recently, I watched a TV programme about one part of one of Saturn’s rings.  And what human’s have learned about what goes on there.  It was awesome.  And it was beyond my capacity to fully grasp.  But that was just a tiny part of Saturn.  Which is – itself – just a tiny part of the great whole of the universe.  Yet that tiniest part of a tiny part, broke through the boundaries of my broken mind.

Yet if God ‘through (his Son) made the (whole) universe’ – all of it, out of nothing – what can’t he remake new in my life?  The Lord of creation.  That’s who’s Lord of every new creation. 

Christ here sounds like he has God-like power and status.  And verse 3 confirms why.  God’s Son is exactly God.  ‘The exact representation of his being.’  We might think, ‘Yeh, I get what Jesus is like.  I see him dying on a cross for people like me.  But what’s God’s like?’  Exactly that.  And verse 3 has more – ‘The son is the radiance of God’s glory.’  God’s glory radiates in what God’s Son has done.  Jesus is the sunshine of God’s glory.

We’ve had good weather this week.  The sun has shone into our living space.  And made us feel good.  But when Christ shines God’s glory into our hearts it’ll do more.  Not just made to feel good.  But made good.

And verse 3 finishes by telling us that Christ is ‘sustaining all things by his powerful word.’  So, he’s there making it all to start with.  Speaking something out of nothing.  It’s all gunna be his in the end - ‘appointed heir of all things.’  And he’s still speaking to sustain it all.  Sustain – That’s to keep something going.

I believe our church organ has a ‘sustain’ pedal.  Press it and the note will keep playing.  These days it’s done electronically.  But ‘in the past’ it was done mechanically.  In a traditional piano, there are dampers touching the strings.  When a key is pressed, the strings vibrate, and sound is created.  But sound is soon stopped by those dampers.  Unless you press ‘sustain’.  That lifts the dampers off.  The sound resonates for much longer.  It keeps going.

That’s what Christ has the power to do.  The God who’s spoken to us by his Son says so.  Christ is still active.  Still sustaining all things by his powerful word.  What about our world right now?  It seems subject to really powerful forces.  And proper power-talk!  Wars taking place.  Trade wars taking place.  Relationships between countries that’ve stood for years just being ripped up in moments.  And we might cry out, ‘What’s it gunna mean?  For my life? Please tell me!’

I can’t tell you that.  But I can tell you this.  Regardless of whether or not those things bring turmoil to your life.  Regardless of whether something else is currently bringing turmoil to your life.  If you’re in Christ, then the God who speaks tells you this.  About you.  Christ is still committed to sustaining all things by his powerful word.  When you most feel the dampers on your life.  He'll sustain you.  And keep you going.

What gives him the authority?  His cross does.  The cross is there in verse 3 ‘he… provided purification for sins.’  How can impure people like us have a relationship with a pure and holy God?  Only in what God’s Son provided at Calvary’s Cross – purification for sins.   There he paid the price for our sin.  There he purchased our lives back for God.  That gives him the authority.  The Lord of creation is Lord of your life.

And there’s a wonderful contrast here between God’s old way – before the cross – and his new way after.  Remember those Hebrews?  Here being tempted to drift back to the old way.  I trust this helped stop them.

In that old way of worship, God spoke.  He told the Jews how they could meet him.  And worship him.  There was a Tent of Meeting.  Which was later replaced by the Temple.  The places where God promised to meet people.  But only through sacrifice for sin.  The offering of animals.  And priests were appointed to perform those sacrifices.  And it was all done to God’s exacting specification.  But you know what God never specified for those priests?  A chair to sit in.  Cos their work could not stop.  Cos those sacrifices didn’t deal with sin.  They only spoke about what Christ would do for real with sin.

Sin wasn’t stopped by those sacrifices.  If you’ve ever read through the Old Testament, you’ll know.  Israel’s sin was all Ariston.  It went on and on and on.  So those poor priests had to.  God didn’t specify a chair.  Cos their work couldn’t stop.

But contrast that with Christ in verse 3.  ‘After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down…’  He sat down.  Not just anywhere.  But ‘at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.’  No longer doing away with my sin.  My sin – done away for good!

Those early Hebrew believers needed reminding.  They had Christ - the ruler of the universe – the radiance of God’s glory – the exact representation of God.  But they were tempted to give it up for some wrong-time-and-place religious ruin.  They don’t sound right faithful.  But they do sound like us.  A lot like us.  They needed God to keep speaking into their lives – by his Son - to stop that tendency to drift.  And so do we. 

The Jesus who died.  The Jesus who rose again – but that’s maybe for next week!  Let’s finish our last message before Easter Sunday beneath the cross of Jesus.  And hear God speak ‘by his Son.’   Look up at the suffering Son and ask this question – But God, your Son’s all these things listed here.  Why would you punish him so much?  God’s answer?  Cos I hate sin so much?  But God – your Son’s all this and more – why’d ya give him my sin?  God’s answer? Cos that’s how much I love you.

That’s God final word at the cross by his Son.  He hates sin.  But he love sinners.  The cross is his true place of meeting.  For all time.  Here - and only here – can sin be removed, and sinners made pure.  Here – and only here – can the sinner come to him… and be saved.