1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. This is the third in a series of sermons on
how God makes himself known to us. God makes himself known through natural
revelation and special revelation. Natural revelation is evident in both the
natural order and our human conscience. But it’s inadequate to serve God’s love
and forgiveness. That comes only through two special revelations—his Son,
Jesus, and the Holy Scriptures. Today we look at Hebrews 1:1-3, the sermon is
entitled, “What Do You Know About
God—Through Jesus,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
A
young woman named Helen had her pen pal come to visit her from France. She and
Helen had been writing to each other for several years and had become good
friends. Helen was excited about the visit and made plans for showing her pen
pal around Los Angeles. But, the visit was a disaster. The pen pal didn’t like Helen’s
food, didn’t like her house, and didn’t even seem to like Helen. She acted like
she was bored. She had no conception of the size of California and asked Helen’s
family to take her on a day trip to San Francisco. Putting her back on the
plane was a relief to everyone, including Helen. The two never wrote to each
other again. Helen had a stack of letters, but she didn’t really know her pen pal.
3.
Hebrews
begins by remembering the letters God sent his people. God’s mail carriers, the
prophets, heard God speak, had dreams, saw visions while awake, and saw God
work miracles among his people. What they heard and saw, they wrote down and
brought like letters from heaven to the people of God. God spoke in many ways
in the past, but now, the writer of Hebrews says, times have changed. Letters
aren’t enough. God wants to meet his people in person.
4.
Hebrews
1:2 says, “In these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son.” God has quit sending letters and has come to us
personally in his Son. That alters about how God reveals himself to us. If
there had been only letters, the writings of Scripture, then discussion of
revelation would only be talk about a book. We would read the book, think about
who wrote it, and maybe even wonder if it really was a word from God. But, a
book isn’t all we have. We have met the author and hero of the story and all
the attention now belongs to him. The Book—the Bible, introduces us to the Son
of God.
5.
Until
the coming of the Son of God, what God says seems to be a story about many
different people. Some are great, some are despicable, some are bizarre. It’s
like a movie in which the main character hasn’t appeared yet. Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Ruth, David, Elijah come and go. It’s clear they are important, but it’s
also clear that they aren’t the center of the story. It can’t quite be said
that the Bible is about them. But when the Son of God appears in the first four
books of the New Testament, we know, he’s what this story is about. He is the
center. Jesus is the hinge on which all
God’s revelation turns.
6.
Hebrews
1:2 goes on to say that the Son of God is the “heir of all things.” It’s only right that all creation should
center on him, because the Father made him heir to it. And it’s only right that
he should be heir to it, because it was through him that the Father made it. It
was his Son “through whom he made the
universe.” John 1:3 says it also, “Through
him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made.” Remember how God created the world? “And God said,” and whatever he said was.
He created by his Word. Both John and Hebrews tell us that the Word of God is
also the Son of God, a person. God is no longer writing letters. He’s speaking
to us in the same way he spoke when he created. He’s speaking to us by his Son.
7.
The
Son of God is also the Son of Man. Jesus isn’t only God, he is human. He is a
human being who is almighty God in person. When we look at this man, we look at
God. Hebrews 1:3 leaves no doubt about it. “The
Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”
8.
When
I try to think about a human being as the radiance of the glory of God, I’m
almost stumped. I think of radiance as something that belongs to things: the
sun, the moon, an electric light bulb. What could it mean to say that Jesus is
the radiance of God? I can only imagine it in terms of receiving something like
a glow from people I know. On this Father’s Day weekend it makes me think of when
I walk in our door and hear a little voice, yell, “Daddy’s home!” and hear little, feet running, then I feel a glow of
love. What I know of the Son of God tells me that his radiance of the glory of
God may be like that, something like the glow of the love a father has for his
children. I can see Jesus radiating that love.
9.
Jesus
exactly represents God (Heb 1:3). Literally these words mean something like the
stamp of an image on a coin. On our coins are portraits of our national heroes.
The Son of God is a perfect portrait of God because he is God. Pressed into
Jesus is the exact stamp of the being of God. He’s both God and man. If we want
to see God, then here is his picture, stamped into the flesh and blood of
Jesus. That portrait isn’t a dead image. It’s alive. An artist can make a
portrait that is more like a person than a photograph. A photograph grabs one
moment in time and preserves it. But, an artist’s portrait can convey more than
just how that person looks; a good portrait
conveys how that person feels, thinks, and lives. That’s what God’s portrait of
himself in Jesus does. His portrait lives.
In Jesus God reveals his life and his
love.
10.
Jesus
is more than just an historical person of the past. In Jesus there is more than
just the Word that made the world in the past. Jesus is also the One, who to
this very day is “sustaining all things
by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). The Word of God didn’t only create the
world, he holds the world together every moment by his power (Col 1:17).
11.
That
means the Word of God is among us now, supporting us and sustaining us. The
Word of God in the Son of God is here and now. God has spoken, and he is
speaking, and he always will be speaking—speaking the Word that is his Son. Hebrews
1:3 ends, “After he had provided
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again to eternal life. That is
the Good News. He saved us. His redemptive work is complete. And now Jesus
continues to live, seated at the right hand of the Father.
12.
So
then, what does God have to say about our lives? Let’s take some examples.
Suppose you’re married. What does God have to say about marriage? Jesus, who
comes to us in the Scriptures, is God’s Word on marriage, on your marriage. Jesus
went to a wedding. He even helped the reception along when the wine ran out. He
likes marriage. He blessed it. And he still does. Because his word on marriage
is a blessing.
13.
What
if marriage hasn’t turned out so well for you? What if you’re divorced? What if
you’re struggling now? Jesus is still God’s Word for you. He spent an entire
morning talking with a woman who had been married five times. A regular Elizabeth Taylor. Jesus still does
that. I’ve seen it. The grace of Jesus is sufficient for a new start in the
lives of those who have been divorced and want to start over with their lives.
14.
What
about success? What does God say will make us successful? Jesus is God’s Word
on success. And Jesus said that if we want to be successful, we need to be
servants. If we want to be first—be last. If we want to live, then die. Jesus
was a success in his dying. By giving up his life, he became God’s Word on true
success. He calls us to follow his example.
15.
It
doesn’t matter what we want to ask about, Jesus is God’s Word on it: money,
children, being single (he was, you know), politics, health. What God has to
say on the subject, he said in Jesus. The revelation of God in Jesus is for
today. In Jesus God has got a word for anything you and I face. Jesus is God’s
Word for everyone.
16.
Jesus
is God’s Word on life and death. He’s the Word on how to live and he’s the Word
on how to die. Jesus died caring for those who loved him and loving even those
who hated him. He is what God has to say about leaving this world. I have
watched many parishioners over the years as a Pastor say goodbye to their families
before they died. They told them they loved them, that Jesus loved them, and that
through Jesus they would see them in heaven. That’s the way to die. It’s the
way to die, because it’s how Jesus died. Jesus is God’s Word on dying.
17.
But
God’s Word isn’t just about dying. Jesus is also about living. It’s about a
victory over death that we can see because God has revealed his Word to us.
Jesus rose victorious out of the grave and that is God’s Word. The end is not
the end. As a Pastor I have stood by lots of graves and over every single one
of them I said, “Thanks be to God who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” That’s the Word. The
Word of God is his risen, living Son, Jesus, who raises the dead. Jesus is
God’s Word for us today and every day.
Amen. Now may the peace that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.
Amen.
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