Communication Changes

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How Communication Has Changed Over the Years

First we grunted at each other. Some still do!

Then we began to speak to each other.

Then we used a ram’s horn to amplify our voices.

Then we developed symbols that represented our speech.

Then we found ways of sharing our writing - stone, clay, papyrus, parchment and paper.

And for the verbose amongst us, they were turned into tablets and scrolls.

Then came the printing press, and that changed everything! It ignited revolutions across the world and a major renaissance.

After that, nothing much happened in the realm of communication, for hundreds of years.

Until the telegraph arrived in 1837, followed by the first commercially successful typewriter in 1868.

Then Alexander Graham Bell changed everything again.

Quickly following the telephone came the phonograph, the radio, silent movies, talkies, television and the cassette tape recorder.

Then came the electric typewriter and cordless phones.

Then came the personal computer and the software to operate it and everything changed again.

Then just a few years later came the internet and the World Wide Web and everything changed again.

Then came the iPhone and it all changed again.

Now billions of people throughout the world do their work with one hand whilst in the other hand they hold their smartphone. Everything’s changed.

Once upon a time, to communicate with someone you had to be within shouting distance. Now you can tap a few keys and communicate with someone the other side of the world.

That, my friends, is a brief history of the communication changes we’ve seen.

But we’ve missed one out:

God

The God Who Communicates

Psalm 19:1–4 NLT

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.

God speaks. He communicates with us. He is the One who reveals himself to us.

The cosmos is filled with God’s eloquence.

The vastness and precision of our universe declares the necessity of our Creator God.

But through the years, the writer of Hebrews tells us that God’s communication has changed:

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12, p.1201

Hebrews 1:1–4 NLT

1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. 4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.

Hebrews 2:5–12 NLT

5 And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. 6 For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? 7 Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 8 You gave them authority over all things.” Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. 9 What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. 10 God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. 11 So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. 12 For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.”

God’s Communication in the Past

Hebrews 1:1 NLT

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.

First of all, God called everything into existence.

God spoke, and there it was, just as he said so.

The first words spoken by God in human history were: Let there be light.

God continues to speak to us through creation.

Go for a walk in the country, or along a beach, or holiday in the mountains, even look into the cellular and molecular structure of living things and you get the message.

God is speaking to us. He wants to grab our attention. He has something to say.

The writer says that after creation, God continues to be creative.

He chooses to speak through human representatives.

He reminds his readers that God spoke through the readers’ fathers - their ancestors - and the prophets, his special spokespersons.

These ancestors and prophets revealed all they had learned about God.

God used them as his mouthpiece to deliver his message.

That’s why we can still trust their words today.

The way he spoke through them was creative too.

Isaiah saw visions, Jacob had a dream, and Abraham and Moses heard from God personally. God taught Jeremiah through object lessons and taught his people through Hosea the prophet’s marriage.

And the significance of all this is that it dramatically demonstrated God’s loving desire to communicate with his people.

It was never dull, never boring, never inscrutable and never irrelevant.

It was always for such a time as this.

And it was always progressive. As human history unfolded, God revealed more and more of his ways as he communicated with us.

But God’s eloquence was never complete.

As mighty and awesome as it was, it was fragmentary and lacking something.

It was intermittent, and created an expectation in his people that more was to come: God would reveal himself more fully.

The prophets spoke of the coming Messiah.

He would come and reveal God more fully and initiate the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus Christ: God’s Communication in the Present

Hebrews 1:2 NLT

And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.

And now, says the writer of Hebrews, in these last days, Jesus Christ has come with astonishing eloquence, and everything’s changed!

He is the ultimate speech of God, the Word made flesh.

Jesus is God’s final and complete word.

He contains everything.

He is the ultimate medium of communication.

God the Father wrote himself into the life of his Son.

Like God the Father, Christ has always sought to reveal himself.

What is the result of Jesus’ communication with us? We meet God the Father.

You

Don’t Drift Away

Hebrews 2:1 NLT

So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it.

So what does this divine communication change mean for us?

The writer of Hebrews had a challenge for his readers.

They were a small group of Jewish Christians living in Rome, of all places.

Rome detested all things Christian and they endured suffering, ridicule, imprisonment and confiscation of their property. Now with Emperor Nero on the throne they were concerned their allegiance to Jesus Christ might be put to the ultimate test.

And in the face of all this, God seemed silent.

Deathly silent.

They asked themselves those questions we all have when we face really difficult circumstances: Where is God in this? Doesn’t he know what’s going on? Has he lost sight of us? Doesn’t he care? Why is he allowing this to take place?

And the temptation for them, of course, was to turn away from the faith. If God is no longer communicating in the midst of our suffering, then what’s the point?

So the writer challenges them to remember Christ’s teaching and the Christian message: what we have heard.

He encouraged them not to drift away from Christ.

He encourages us to pay much closer attention to what we have heard.

How do we drift away?

We can become careless our complacent in our devotion to Christ.

We can fall back into the sinful habits we thought we’d beaten and left behind.

We can compromise our morals, disobey Christ’s teaching.

We may become inactive Christians, neglecting forms of Christian service.

Drifting away is easy.

Paying close attention is more difficult.

We must pay careful attention to our faith and be prepared against temptations.

Communicating with Christ means listening carefully, but also obeying and taking action on what God calls us to do.

God’s Word has come to us in a living, breathing human being, his Son.

He can reinvigorate our vision of God.

He can remind us of God who is so great that we cannot turn away from him.

Instead, we will willingly surrender everything to have him.

We will love and obey Christ with the eager and longing desire he deserves.

That is the great communication change God is longing to see from us.

Next Steps

SB 430 - Life is a journey; long is the road

Life is a journey; long is the road, And when the noontide is high Souls that are weary faint ?neath their load, Long for the waters, and cry: The well is deep and I require A draught of the water of life, But none can quench my soul?s desire For a draught of the water of life; Till one draws near who the cry will heed, Helper of men in their time of need, And I, believing, find indeed That Christ is the water of life. 2 Life is a seeking, life is a quest, Eager and longing desire; Unto the true things, unto the best, Godward our spirits aspire. 3 Life is a finding; vain wanderings cease When from the Saviour we claim All we have longed for, solace and peace, And we have life in his name. Albert Orsborn (1886-1967) © The General of The Salvation Army. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 30158 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 430