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! In These Last Days, God Has Spoken By a Son
Hebrews 1:1-4
As I pondered and prayed over what to say on this Palm Sunday and Easter, I thought it would be good to concentrate our attention on some clear, powerful revelation of Jesus, the Son of God.
His coming as Messiah is the focus of Palm Sunday.
His dying to deal with sin is the focus of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
And his resurrection and reign are the focus of Easter Sunday.
I love the way all of this comes together in Hebrews 1:1-4.
So we will listen to this text for all three messages—today, Thursday evening, and next Sunday morning.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
!!!! Do You Want to Hear God Speak?
Let's begin with a question?
Do you want to hear God speak?
Have you ever said in a moment of desperation, "O God, if you would only speak!
If I could only hear your voice.
If you would only talk to me and not be so silent!"
I have said those words.
And I have found the Lord patient with me and tender in his rebukes.
One of the rebukes I have heard is found in Hebrews 1:1-2.
What these two verses teach very loudly and plainly is that God is not silent.
God is not withdrawn and uncommunicative.
They teach us that God has spoken in two phases: before the coming of the Son of God into the world and through the Son of God's coming into the world.
Read them again: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son." Consider these two phases of God's communication for a moment.
Before the coming of the Son it says God spoke "in the prophets in many portions (or many times or many places) and in many ways."
Notice three crucial things.:
!!!!! 1) God spoke
He was not silent.
God communicates.
He means to connect with us.
He is not an idea to be thought about.
He is a person to be listened to and understood and enjoyed and obeyed.
He is a speaking Person.
There is no more important fact than this: There is a God who speaks that we might know him and love him and live in joyful obedience to him.
God spoke.
!!!!! 2) God spoke "in the prophets" or by the prophets
This means that God's typical way of communicating with his people as a whole was by inspiring human spokesmen as go-betweens.
It was not God's way to write his word in the sky, or to shout it from mountains for all to hear, or to whisper it one by one in the heart of every Israelite.
His usual way was to call a prophet and then inspire the prophet to speak and to write to the people what God wanted said.
But don't miss what this text says: When God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, God spoke to the Fathers!
When the fathers heard and understood the prophets they heard God speaking.
God uses chosen, inspired human instruments to speak to the fathers.
But it is God speaking to the fathers when the prophets speak and write.
!!!!! 3) God spoke to the fathers by the prophets "in many portions and in many ways"
This is where I get the assurance that God is not withdrawn and uncommunicative.
This verse stresses the lavish variety of God's communication.
In "many portions (or times or places) and many ways!"
This is a great comfort and encouragement.
Do you know why?
Because we all know that some of those portions and ways are hard to understand.
If God had only spoken in one portion or one way and we couldn't get it, we would be very frustrated and at a great disadvantage.
But God has not done it that way.
He has spoken in many places and times and portions and in many ways.
So if you have difficulty in grasping his word in Leviticus, you may hear him clearly in Proverbs.
If you don't see the point clearly in Zechariah, you may still be deeply moved by the message of Jonah.
If you don't catch on yet to the strange visions in Ezekiel, you may be sustained by the sufferings of Job.
The point is this: God means to provide a lot of possibilities in the Old Testament where you can hear him.
He has spoken and he is not silent.
He is not withdrawn and uncommunicative.
There are many places and many ways that he has spoken by the prophets.
So I have been rebuked in my complaining about the silence of God.
I am like a person complaining in "The Land of 10,000 Lakes" that there are no lakes in Minnesota because I don't see one from 1801-11th Avenue.
!!!! God's Communication Now is Better and Greater than Before
But there's more.
Hebrews says that God spoke in two phases: one before the coming of the Son of God into the world, and one through the Son's coming into the world.
Verse 2a: "In these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son."
Now the point here is that if God seemed ready and eager to communicate himself in the Old Testament how much more is he ready to communicate in the sending of his Son!
What the writer wants us to see is that this latest communication from God is greater and better than all those portions and ways in days of old.
So when I complain to God, "Lord, I want to hear you.
Would you speak to me?
I need to hear your voice . .
." is my complaint well placed?
What would God's response be in view of these words?
Let's look at three ways that the speaking of God in the Son in these last days is better than God's speaking of old.
!!!!! 1) God has now spoken not just by prophets, but by his Son
Verses 1 and 2 say,
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.
Notice it does not say, "Formerly God spoke by prophets and in these last days he has spoken by apostles."
That's true.
And you can see their crucial role in Hebrews 2:3-4.
But the point here is that in these last days God has done something very different: to communicate, he sent his Son.
This is different.
The Son of God is not just a prophet.
Some thought he was just a prophet (John 9:17), but he was not a mere prophet.
Here Islam makes a great mistake about Jesus.
Jesus is not only a prophet like Moses or Isaiah.
And he is far above Mohammed in glory.
He is the Son of God.
And that means he is God.
The son of John Piper is human like John Piper.
And the Son of God is divine like God.
We will see this in detail next week when we focus on verse 3: "He is the radiance of [God's] glory and the exact representation of [God's] nature."
The point of those words is to warn us against the mistake that Islam has made.
Jesus is the unique image of God's divine glory and bears the very stamp of his divine nature.
He is not a mere prophet.
The whole point here is to show that he is superior to the prophets.
He is the eternally begotten Son, without beginning and without ending (Hebrews 7:3).
In other words, God has not just spoken by inspiring prophets and apostles.
He has spoken by coming to us in the person of his Son.
Who Jesus was, what he said and what he accomplished by dying and rising from the dead is God's Word to us.
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