03072021 God Has Spoken
Notes
Transcript
God Has Spoken
God Has Spoken
Whatever Works
Whatever Works
We live in a time in which people are pulled and tugged in every conceivable direction. We are constantly faced with questions about what to think, how to live, and what works and what doesn’t work - science - statistics - government officials?
Whatever works (Pragmatism) is the order of the day and that philosophy has filtered into churches as bible studies are presented and sermons are preached:
How to have a quiet time,
how to have peace in your home,
how to to share Christ.
how do we get more people in the church - especially in a post covid-19 environment?
People gravitate to the “practical” sections of the Scriptures – like the book of James or those sections of Paul in which he deals with “real life” issues involving real life situations.
Our world glorifies “doers” above “thinkers”
Pragmatism is a very real problem, but right alongside this is something called postmodernism.
Where modernism (19th and early 20th centuries) is committed to the absence of anything supernatural and is guided by scientific investigation to arrive at truth and obtain instruction for life, Postmodernism, suggests that “truth” and “reality” are merely perceptions of reality dictated by one’s particular worldview - you, yourself, determine what is reality..
Everyone’s “truth” (scientific or personal) becomes equally valid. Acceptance that all views of reality are equally valid becomes the most important social norm.
In this sort of world it’s insensitive and morally wrong to tell someone that they are wrong.
What this leads to is moral confusion as the culture around us and so many within the church bow to doing whatever works - relativism of the day and fall deeper and deeper into a state of bewilderment and despair – everyone doing what is right in their own eyes!
In a world where everyone is trying to have the final word, the last word, God has spoken
1 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.
Prayer of Illumination...
Nothing New
Nothing New
Ecclesiastes 1:9 = “There is nothing new under the sun.”
The same issues confronted the people of the first century church even as they confront us today.
Having moved away from Judaism to Christianity, many of these first listeners were tempted to fall back on some of the customs they had moved away from insisting that it was Christ + something that brought them salvation – some even going as far as denying their faith altogether.
There’s even some speculation that some of these Christians were being led away from the faith by a group of Essenes, a non-conformist Jewish group who had a community at Qumran.
These Essenes were looking for the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s new covenant prophecy but in the form of a renewal, restoration, and purification of the Aaronic priesthood with its system of ceremonies.
They placed special emphasis on ceremonial washings. They anticipated the appearance of a great prophet, the second Moses of Deut. 18:18 - and they sought a king like David - and a prophet like Isaiah.
They expected three separate persons fulfilling the office of prophet, priest and king.
They placed great emphasis upon angels.
Melchizedek was supposed to be an end-time deliverer.
The argument of this sermon is that there is One God, One Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, one message of the Gospel, the good news of Salvation through a savior who has come to save his people from their sin...
The Beginning of every building is a solid foundation....
The Foundation of Right Living...
The Foundation of Right Living...
So the writer of Hebrews carefully lays the foundation for this message as he is inspired by God to deliver this sermon with this carefully crafted introduction to his sermon reminding his listeners:
the foundation of right doing is right doctrine - right theology lays the lasting foundation for right practice..
Orthodoxy > orthopraxy.
This design for right living permeates the writings of the Apostle Paul - every practical section of his epistles are based first on teaching - doctrine - theology.
It is the starting point of the writer of Hebrews as he begins his sermon – not with an extended illustration, but with a definitive doctrinal statement.
In the mid-part of the last century Dorothy Sayers (
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey.
Student of Classical education and languages) wrote:
“Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as bad press. We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine—dull dogma as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama….” The Whimsical Christian: Eighteen Essays by Dorothy L. Sayers (New York: Macmillan, 1978), 11)\
And where do we find that drama?
The Word of God contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is our only rule for faith and practice. (WCF SC Qu. #2 & 3) teaching us what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
Right living is not based on pragmatism.
It is not based on the postmodernist’s view of relativistic thinking.
It is not based on Christ + something . . .
It is based on the doctrine of the word of God as it is spoken to us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
This word is our only rule for faith and practice and through it God has Spoken
How Has God Spoken?
How Has God Spoken?
In this eloquent compactly concise introduction the preacher of this sermon has divinely crafted one extended sentence in these introductory four verses.
Here in these four verses – one long sentence (72 words in the Greek – 106 in English) we find no fewer than 10 theological topics taking us from heaven to earth and from eternity past to eternity future.
We find alliteration (in the greek), repetition of thoughts, and a catalogues of themes that are going to come as he preaches his sermon.
The list of these themes reads like part of the table of contents in a systematic theology textbook.
In true homiletic form this writer weaves together a series of topics in his introduction that forms the core of his sermon – as he draws our attention to where he is going so we can be reminded as we run the race set before us to continually turn our eyes away from world and turn them to the one who is the living word.
God has spoken and He has something to say to the church, his body of Christ.
This message focuses on the person and the work of His exalted Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
What we have to keep in mind is this:
Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Because he is the author and perfecter of our faith – the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end – we have every reason to hope and persevere through faith and trust in Him and Him alone!
(v.1) God spoke during the period of the Old Testament to his people in many times and various ways - through types and shadows.
Briefly explain types and shadows
The sacrificial rituals of that day were never intended to save anyone. They pointed to the reality that is Christ, so through faith and trust in the one those rituals pointed to - those who participated in those rituals might be saved in the one those things foreshadowed.
It’s no different today.
Although, as we go through this sermon called Hebrews, we are going to hear about the superiority of the person and the work of Christ, we must remember, the time we live in is not better than the Old, it is an extension of it. The OT lays the foundation of the NT. The New is in the Old revealed, the Old is in the New revealed.
There is a dynamic relationship between the two periods of time.
There are similarities and differences. There is continuity and discontinuity. God is still the one speaking (continuity), but he now has communicated to us climactically through his Son (discontinuity).
This revelation of the new age builds on, rather than does away with, the revelation of the Old.
This one long sentence – these short 4 verses are naturally divided into two sections: 1) vv. 1-2a and 2) vv. 2b – 4.
The first section contrasts four areas:
the time of the revelation (in the past > in these days),
the recipients (to our forefathers > to us),
the agents (through the prophets > by his son),
and the ways in which the revelation was given (in various ways > in one way – implied).
God has spoken through the person, the words, and the works of Jesus Christ, who is the living word.
He is described in seven (coincidental?) affirmations in the second section of these verses that continues to focus us away from the things of this world to the one who is the ‘author and perfecter of our faith.’
All of this starts with these words - he is the one whom God appoint heir of all things...
...Through the ONE He Has Appointed Heir of All Things
...Through the ONE He Has Appointed Heir of All Things
Probably alludes to Psalm 2:8: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.”
In Hebrews 1:5, a verse in the immediate context of 1:1–4, the author quotes Psalm 2:7, again affirming the unique relation of this Son with God the Father.
1:2, the inheritance of “all things” expands the idea to include the whole of the created order (2:5). In our author’s thought, this royal inheritance of Christ has only been inaugurated but will be consummated at the end of the age (1:13; 2:8–9).
This initial proposition confirms the past, affirms the present and anticipates the future rule of Christ as reigning King.
He is the one through whom also he created the universe
...Through the ONE Who Made the World
...Through the ONE Who Made the World
With other writers of the New Testament, Hebrews proclaims the Son as the Father’s agent in the creation of the universe
10 And, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands;
3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Note Paul’s expression of this conviction in 1 Corinthians 8:6:
6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
Paul makes a distinction between the role of the Father and that of the Son; yet, both are included in the work of creation.
He affirms the Father as the source of the created order and the Son as the Father’s agent in the creative process.
The Son, to whom all of creation will be subjected in the end (cf. 1 Cor. 15:28; Heb. 1:13; 2:5, 8), is he through whom it originated in the beginning.
He is the one whose work is now completed having been raised to the right hand of God our father...
...Through the ONE Whose Work is Finished
...Through the ONE Whose Work is Finished
He is described as the radiance of the glory of God...
a. Who is “the radiance of the glory of God”
a. Who is “the radiance of the glory of God”
In biblical literature the “glory” often refers to the luminous manifestation of God’s person. The word translated “radiance” (ἀπαύγασμα), used only here in the New Testament, carries the sense of “splendor” or “intense brightness.”
We can’t separate the experience of looking at the brightness of the son from seeing the son itself because they are too closely associated.
By analogy, to see the Son is to view God’s glory or manifest presence. So as the “radiance of his glory” the Son is the manifestation of the person and presence of God
(e.g., Luke 9:32; John 1:14; 2:11; 17:5; Rom. 8:17; 1 Cor. 2:8; Phil. 3:21; 2 Thess. 2:14).
He is the exact representation of God’s nature
b. Who is “the exact representation χαρακτήρ of his nature”
b. Who is “the exact representation χαρακτήρ of his nature”
The word translated “imprint (ESV)” (χαρακτήρ), also used only here in the New Testament, originally referred to an instrument used for engraving, and later the impression made by such an instrument.
For example, it could refer to the impression made on coins. The word speaks of the features of an object or person by which we are able to recognize it for what it is. The imagery may also call to mind the “representation” of a parent one often sees in the face of his or her children. To see the face of the child immediately exhibits the close family relationship.
What the Son represents is the “being” of the Father, that is, his essential nature. The phrase “representation of his being,” closely parallels other New Testament passages that speak of Jesus as the “form,” “likeness,” or “image” of God (e.g., John 1:2; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:15).
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
So the Son provides a true and trustworthy picture of the person of the Father who,
He is the one who upholds all things by the word of his power...
...Through the ONE Who Holds All Things Together
...Through the ONE Who Holds All Things Together
upholding by the ‘word of his power’
Stanford University is the site of a linear accelerator, a mighty two-mile long atom smasher. It is a great lever with which scientists try to pry the lid off the secrets of matter and discover what is in the miniature world of the atom, the neutron, and the proton. Linear Accelerator scientists have discovered a complexity they never dreamed of, and they have found particles that they cannot even invent enough names for. But one thing they are consistently discovering is that there is some strange force that holds everything together. They do not know what to call it, and they do not know how to identify it. They talk about a kind of cosmic glue that holds things together. Isn't it fascinating that here in the Word of God you have that exact kind of terminology used of Jesus! If you want a name for the force that holds the universe together it is very simple: His name is Jesus. He sustains the universe by his powerful word.
This action speaks of the continual organization and carrying forward the created order to a designed end, an activity ascribed to God in Jewish writings.
This is not the idea of the Son holding up the weight of the world as the mighty Atlas of Greek mythology, but rather here is the dynamic progression of creation through his governmental power.
He carries out this government “by his powerful word.” So, as the world was created by the word of God through the Son (1:2; 11:3), it is sustained by the Son’s powerful word who has…
who has made purification for sins...
…Through the ONE Who Made Purification of Sins
…Through the ONE Who Made Purification of Sins
(see Heb 9:1 – 10:18)
(καθαρισμός)
Behind this reference stands the Old Testament concepts of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16) and the blood of the covenant (Ex. 24). Here is an introduction to the reference of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.
What the son as our Priest “has provided” is a forgiveness that would be permanent and lead into the very presence of God so when he has finished his work on our behalf he…
He is the one who has finished his work
…Through the ONE Who Is Seated in a Position of Power & Authority
…Through the ONE Who Is Seated in a Position of Power & Authority
This allusion to Psalm 110:1,
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
This is the Old Testament passage to which authors of the New Testament refer most often, presents the exaltation of Christ. The concept of “the right hand” represents either superior power or ultimate honor. It also carries the meanings of “greatness” or “favor.” As adapted in the New Testament, Psalm 110:1 supported Jesus’ messiahship, vindication (through resurrection and exaltation), role as judge, lordship, and his intercession on behalf of believers.
Here is reference to Heb 8:1, 10:12, 12:2 all of this given as a reminder of Christ’s preeminence in all things …
…Through the ONE Who Inherited a More Excellent Name
…Through the ONE Who Inherited a More Excellent Name
Here is a reference and a warning about depending upon anything other than Jesus Christ for the hope of our salvation.
How much greater is his position?
“As much superior … as the name he inherited is superior to theirs.”
He is a superior priest (7:7) who offers a superior hope (7:19).
The angels are involved in the Sons’ superior covenant (7:22; 8:6) which is based on superior promises (8:6).
It is Christ who made a superior sacrifice (9:23; 12:24); therefore, believers have a superior possession (10:34), a superior country.
The one described here has so much to offer this world and especially the church today.
The FINAL WORD - The Living Word
The FINAL WORD - The Living Word
As the one who is our prophet he has spoken God’s final word revealing to us, by His word and his Spirit God’s will for our lives and particularly our salvation.
As our Priest he has offered himself as a sacrifice, satisfying divine justice, reconciling us to God and even now makes intercession for us.
As our King he has subdued us to himself. He rules and defends us. He restrains and conquers all His and our enemies.
What more do we need?
The world we live in will try to tell us that this is not enough.
The WORD of God spoken to us through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments tells us that Christ Jesus is all we need.
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
In Him and through Him, God has spoken.