Hebrews 1:1-2a
21 April 2024
We began this series in the book of Hebrews, I think two or three weeks ago, giving an overview introduction dealing with the author, the purpose, some of the key themes in the book of Hebrews and the intention of that introduction to the book was for us to take a bird's eye view over the entire book to establish something of a context for what it is we're now about to delve into. Now just before we read today's passage, what we seek to do as a local church in the preaching of God's Word is expository preaching. Expository or exposition meaning to give a detailed and precise explanation of verses of the Bible and their application to our lives. And preaching being the heralding; the proclamation of these truths. This is what we seek to do as we come to books of the Bible and this is very important and very relevant to stress as we begin now what will be a significant lengthy journey studying the book of Hebrews, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. This is undoubtedly a rich treasure chest of weighty biblical doctrine, the means by which the people of God can be fed by its truth. And here we come to, if you like, the first spiritual meal in this series as we address Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1.
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, (Hebrews 1:1-2a).
And if we just go on to the beginning of verse two, we'll then see, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. Now, if we just stop there, what we have in this first verse and a bit is the first argument that the author to the Hebrews establishes. And it is surrounding the theme of God speaking. And we have a contrast being given between the time that God spoke in what we know as the Old Testament and the time that God now speaks as we see and behold in the New Testament. So there are these two periods that are contrasted. And what we're going to be establishing in today's time that we have is the time that God spoke before Christ came. Now it's important to begin by establishing what is being argued in verse 1 and into verse 2 because everything that we're going to be dealing with today, which is a sermon in and of itself, is also a means of establishing the argument that then will be made when we revisit next week in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 2. Because we have the contrast between when God spoke, long ago, many times, in many ways, to the fathers, by the prophets, in contrast with God speaking in the last days to us by his Son. That is the argument that we have established at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews.
But today what we're trying to work through initially is the fact that God spoke and therefore God speaks. God spoke and therefore God speaks. And a few important introductory points about this very issue, especially given the context that the author to the Hebrews is writing mainly to a Jewish Christian audience. What we have before us when we come to see being established in these opening verses of the supremacy, the glory, the wonder of Jesus Christ is that what has come before Christ is not something separate, different, and detached. As if to say, well, look, you've been doing all this Old Testament Judaism stuff, but now here we come to Jesus Christ and effectively you can treat it like a new religion. What we're going to see as we work our way through this entire book is arguments that are established from what we see in the Old Testament. And this very first one is important because before next week we deal with the contrast and the difference between the way God spoke and the way God speaks. First of all, we need to see where there is that common ground. It is the same God who speaks. And by the fact that He spoke in the time of the Old Testament, it directly links to everything we now see in the New Testament. All of these are very important truths that we have to get into view so that we have the grounds for understanding the rich doctrine of Jesus Christ. So we come then to this verse, verse 1, and the subject of God speaks. Now this subject is one that is hotly discussed and debated. Often it is in the context of well does God speak today and in what way does he speak? Well a lot of what we're going to consider this afternoon will be addressing these very issues. Because if we're thinking it is a weighty thing, it is a serious thing to say God is speaking, well you would be absolutely correct. Because if God, the Maker of heaven and earth, Psalm 146-6 says something, we must listen and where there is any command or exhortation, we must obey. And what we have seen throughout history, including in the time of the Old Testament, is that many people in many places and in many ways have gone forth boldly to say, thus saith the Lord, God is saying this, God has spoken, when in fact He has done nothing of the sort. So this is a very important subject that we begin with, that God does in fact speak, but we need to be clear as to how He speaks, and by doing so we begin by addressing the way that He spoke in the time of the Old Testament.
So, as we come to verse 1, there are a few crucial things to address. And the first one is the mention of God. So we see here it says long ago, that's referring to the time before Christ's coming, all the times we see in the Old Testament. At many times and in many ways, we'll deal with that soon, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Now this mention of God here, can be most clearly attributed to God as the Father in this context. The reason we know this is because in verse two it says, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. So, therefore, the mention of God in verse one is primarily fixing our view on God as the Father. Now this whole argument that is being built is already extremely confrontational amongst any Jewish believer in Yahweh. What was one of the great tensions? Well it was the proclamation that Jesus Christ is God. And so when we have this revelation of God spoke, this proclamation of the existence of God, God as Father, we are declaring that this is the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three persons in one true perfect God. This is the God that we see in the Old Testament. This is the God in the New Testament. This is the God that we worship today. And for many unbelieving Jews who believe in God but reject Jesus as God, they would say well this is a belief in three gods. In Deuteronomy 6-4 it says, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And this is exactly what we proclaim and believe as Christians. But what we are seeing even beginning to be unpacked here in the book of Hebrews is that what was concealed of the triune God in the Old Testament is now revealed in the coming of the Son. And the revelation of Jesus Christ and the triune God in no way diminishes or changes the monotheistic religion that we follow. And namely that we believe there is one God whom we worship. The God of the Bible, the God that we saw in our study through the book of Exodus is Yahweh. The God who has no beginning and no end. The God who is infinite and eternal. The God who is before, above and beyond all things. This God is the God that we worship. He is one God in three persons, co-equal and co-eternal. This is the God that we are speaking of as we come to Hebrews 1 verse 1 and note what it says about this God. It says God spoke. God spoke. Now is this significant? Maybe it's something we've become quite familiar with. But what we have to understand, the Creator, the Maker of all things, the One who holds the earth in the palm of His hand, this God speaks. In Psalm 135 verse 16 it says, they have mouths but do not speak, they have eyes but do not see. What are they? These are the idols, the false gods. They do not speak, but we contrast that with the one true living God and what is one of the key distinctions? Our God speaks.
Turn with me briefly to the very beginning of the Bible to Genesis chapter 1. Let’s notice, just scanning our eyes down this chapter. Verse 3, and God said. Verse 6, and God said. Verse 9, and God said. Verse 11, and God said. Verse 14, and God said. Verse 20, and God said. And then verse 24, and God said. What do we have here? We have the account of creation and it came into being because God spoke. God spoke it into creation. This is His power. And then as we come to verse 26, we then see purpose and design of the pinnacle of that creation. First of all, we see in verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image. This is the triune God. Let Us make man in Our image after Our likeness. And then we see that God creates man in His image. Perfect. He makes them male and female. And then we come to verse 28. And this is where we go from God speaking creation into being to now what God does with his created subjects, namely, humanity. Man has been made. In His image, male and female, He has created them. And what do we find in verse 28? Well, let's read. And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Now there's many things that can be drawn out from a verse like this. The significance of man's authority over all of the other creatures. The significance of the instruction itself, which is to be fruitful and multiply. The significance of a man and woman coming together and having children. All of these are such crucial subjects in Genesis 1.28, but what is central and foundational to it all? The fact that God, Yahweh, speaks to His people. Have we stopped to reconcile how significant this is? That God would speak to us; the relational significance of this, revealing the purpose for why we are here, which is for the glory of our God. In Isaiah 43:7 it reveals that He made us for His glory. We were made to glorify this God, and so He speaks to us humanity to reveal how we are to live, which is to live in a perfect relationship with this God. This is the first covenant in the Bible and we'll be dealing a lot with covenants in the book of Hebrews.
God enters into a covenant with created man. It was called the covenant of works, where if man listened to and obeyed God, he would live forever in perfect union with this God. But what did man do? In response to the voice of God, in response to the commands of God, man disobeyed. Man sinned and man fell. We are now in a fallen state, in rebellion against this great God. This God who has spoken to us to reveal what we are to do, how we are to live. And we've rejected this God and so therefore we are in a fallen and sinful state. And so when we come back to Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1, it is in this state, this fallen state that the God who speaks spoke to his people in the time of the Old Testament. And we see here in verse 1, long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. So, first of all, we have this statement, at many times. So we have in Genesis 1, God speaking at the time of creation and God speaking to His creation.
And then throughout the Old Testament, we see there are many different times that God speaks. He speaks quite frequently at certain points and not so frequently at other points. From Genesis to Malachi we see that this is the God who speaks. Another thing to note about the many times that God speaks is that there is a progression in what God reveals in what He says. Let's understand that what is revealed in the Word of God of what God spoke is not random or by chance as if to say, oh well look we're in Exodus now, God's saying something. That's a useful note to the people then, but we also need to see that something is progressively being built for us to understand.
Take, for example, we've considered there is the covenant of works at the very beginning of Genesis where man falls in sin. We then see a covenant made with Noah where God speaks and He promises that He will never flood the earth again and the rainbow is given in the sky. This is God's covenant where He is restoring that relationship with mankind. We also see that God goes from covenants with all of mankind to a specific people where God now speaks to an individual person and then to a specific people. That is to Abraham and the people of Israel, His chosen people. These are the many times that God speaks and in this we have promises also looking ahead to what will happen. God also speaks then in the giving of the Mosaic covenant that we've dealt with in Exodus. Now that is not another covenant of works with the law being given. It is actually revealing to mankind that God's law is perfect and it condemns us in our sin. And this is why God consistently speaks in the Old Testament through many prophets. What do the prophets do on many different times? They speak and they warn. They speak and they rebuke because Israel and the surrounding pagan nations are sinning against the living God. And also with the progression of what is being spoken throughout the Old Testament with the kings such as David and Solomon we have further revelation therefore of what this is also pointing forward to, which will take us to Jesus Christ.
So, brothers and sisters, when we come to the subject of God speaking, and people may say today, well, God spoke at many times in the Old Testament, as if this can justify any old nonsense that's spoken from pulpits and platforms today. Understand the purpose, the design of what God is revealing throughout the Old Testament at these many times. It is progressively revealing what will then be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And we need to understand this, because what we have before us today is the Word of God, and it is something we can now look back on to understand and see with such clarity, because God by His Spirit gives us such wisdom and knowledge through what is revealed on the pages of Scripture. And we see throughout the Old Testament, yes, God spoke at many times and there was rich purpose and design in this.
We also see that God spoke in many ways. Now we've seen examples of this even in the book of Exodus where we see that God speaks by a burning bush in Exodus 3, or by a still small voice as we saw in our Bible study in 1 Kings 19, in a heavenly vision in Isaiah chapter 6, or through a basket of fruit in Amos 8. He speaks through the example and lives of his messengers, when He made Ezekiel eat the scroll, or when He made Hosea marry Gomer in her adulterous state. In the Old Testament, we have prose, poetry, prophecy, where God speaks in types, symbols, warnings, and exhortations. We have God who speaks at many times and in many ways.
Now one question that may be asked on the subject of God speaking in these many ways. How can we be clear and how can we be sure that this is God speaking? And if it is God speaking in the Old Testament, was it not distorted in some way by the fact that he was speaking through earthly instruments? The fact that men like Elijah were speaking, Does that not in some way distort the nature of God's speaking in these many times and many ways? Well, let's just turn to 1 Kings chapter 22. There are many places we could have gone to here, but we're going to go here because this should be familiar to those who were with us in our Bible study when we dealt with this passage. We're studying the life of the prophet Elijah, but we're actually dealing here with a different prophet, the prophet Micaiah. Now in this passage King Ahab is basically wanting to hear what tickles his ears and he's got hundreds of so-called prophets who are effectively saying what the king wants to hear. And we may wonder well, okay, yes, so here we go, we've got examples of hundreds of people who are claiming to say God's word, but it's not God's word. Well let's read 1st Kings 22 from verse 13. And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, “Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favourable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favourably.” But Michaiah said, “As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak.” Now, let's just quickly establish what we see in verse 13. This is a false prophet, on a hundreds of people scale. Where hundreds of people are masquerading as prophets claiming to speak the Word of God. But what's the real purpose and drive to these so-called prophets. That they say things that are favourable, not with regards to honouring to God, but favourable to this pagan idolatrous king. That is not prophecy; and if anyone is trying to say and do things to suit their own ends or means, keep God entirely out of that. That is not authoritative. In response, with this prophet Micaiah effectively being coerced and forced to do the same thing, everybody around him is saying, this is what you need to say. And prison and worse is what awaits him if he dares to do anything else. Here in verse 14, he gives us a way of understanding how prophecy works, where he says, As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak. So effectively he is saying, I am a mouthpiece of God's word. That's it. So when we're seeing instances of true biblical prophecy, which, as we've noted, consistently involve warnings, even warnings of what is to come, it is God's Word which is spoken. A hundred percent, this is the Word of the Lord, not, well, most of it can be from God and any bits that don't sound in line with what we think God would say, just discard that and try to get the meat of what was said. That is not God speaking. It's not even an interpretation of what God has said. It is false and it is an outright abomination of God and his word. And here what we have is Micaiah boldly proclaiming this is what prophecy means, and in 2 Peter 1:21, it says, 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. So what this means is that when a prophet was speaking the Word of God, God was supernaturally working through them, despite the fact that they were sinful people, God worked supernaturally through them, that it was God's Word in an unadulterated way that was being proclaimed. King David also writes in 2 Samuel 23:2, the Spirit of the Lord speaks by me. His word is on my tongue. So again, when we come back to our verse in Hebrews 1, verse 1, long ago at many times and in many ways, many times throughout the history of the Old Testament, in many ways, many different ways in which God communicated, it is God who spoke to our fathers by the prophets. Prophets who were speaking forth by divine revelation, the very word of the living God. So authoritative was that word that even in Exodus 7:1 it says, and the Lord said to Moses, see I have made you like God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. In what way could Moses, a man, be like God, or more literally God to Pharaoh? It's not because Moses is God, but by the authoritative words that he was speaking. It was God's Word. This is what we mean when we say God speaks.
Here, in the time of the Old Testament, God spoke at many times and in many ways and it was absolutely authoritative for all who heard. It is absolutely authoritative for us today. And this is where we come to the Holy Scriptures that are before us with thanksgiving and praise. Because how we know God is speaking to us here in this very moment is because we have this authority before our eyes. This authority is God's revealed word in the Holy Scriptures and what is revealed at the very beginning of Hebrews is that we worship a God who speaks and in the time of the Old Testament, yes, He spoke and this is how He spoke. And praise be to God for that. Anything, absolutely anything that veers from the pages of Scripture that has, God has spoken, the question that has to be asked straight away, is what you are saying now authoritative? And if someone says well this is the authority because God has said it, why is it not in the pages of Scripture? Do we need to add to the Word of God, that would be heresy. And if we need to check it with the authority of God's Word, then it is God's Word that will speak in the situation. And this is what we have to understand with great clarity and precision so that we do not veer off into all manners of error as happened in the Old Testament. There are clear examples like the prophet Micaiah who spoke the Word of God, but alongside him hundreds of so-called prophets that said what they liked to suit a wicked king and there are sadly hundreds of so-called Christians today who are supposedly speaking the Word of God which suit their own ends their own means their own so-called ministries. And this is in no way to the glory of our God. Now as we deal with the significance of this argument, what this is revealing to us that God spoke at many times and in many ways, it's revealing to us instruction and direction for how we are to then live today. Because the argument is then built in verse two. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His son.
Now this, brothers and sisters, is what sets apart the Bible from any other book in existence. This is why there is only one book, including all the theology books, including our confession, There is only one book that I would ever say is a must read, that you absolutely must read this book, and that is the Bible. And the reason why the Bible can be set apart, let's say from other so-called holy books, is because of what this reveals in verse two and following. What argument this builds towards in verse two and following. Because if it was simply a case of, well we have a God who has spoken and he's revealing how we are to live, well that would be great, that is very helpful. It's helping us to understand who God is. It's helping us to understand his moral character and his law. But we've already identified the key problem. We cannot keep any of that. And if all we have is the revelation of a great and glorious God, we also have the realisation of a weak, desperate, fallen and wretched people. And so it is a joy beyond comprehension that this God who spoke in many times and in many ways has now spoken to us by His Son Jesus Christ. This is our hope brothers and sisters and we need to identify and unpack the significance of this, because all of what we see taking place in the Old Testament is building towards and pointing forward to the coming of the Son these last days that we're going to dealing with next week and we need this with such desperation as we sit here this evening because what is being spoken here in the Word of God is otherwise a message of condemnation, a message of our damnation, but praise be to God that God has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus Christ.
And it is Jesus Christ in whom we place our absolute hope. It is the foundation by which we can live our lives because this God who spoke is the God that we disobeyed, the God that we've rebelled against, the God that we reject in our hearts, in our law-breaking state, and it is this very God who has graciously made the way of salvation for sinners like us by the sending of his Son, by the sacrifice of his Son, by his death and resurrection. It is the gospel that is laced through the book of Hebrews. It is the supremacy, the very fact that Jesus is better that we need to get into view again and again because we're not in a depleted state as we study the book of Hebrews. We're in a state of glory because of the glory of Jesus Christ. And this is our hope, brothers and sisters, that this God who speaks is the God we worship, the God of the Bible, that we come to glorify here this day.
In 1 Peter 1:10-11, concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. This is what we're gazing at this evening. Do we realise this time in history what an awesome privilege it is to know that God has spoken and he has revealed his purpose and plan of salvation through Christ? Are we in any way thinking, well, we need God to say more things. What is revealed to us is complete and it is perfect and it is glorious to behold. And Jesus Christ is who we behold. And so everything that took place before the New Testament, the many times, the many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. It leads up to what we find in verse two. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. And next week we'll begin to unpack the supremacy of Jesus Christ.