[I would have liked to have done better at describing the many and various ways God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament. I'm afraid the numbers come from a hasty Google rather than great research. Corrections welcome!]
Turn back to Hebrews 1 p1201
I expect we’ve all received many Christmas messages this
Christmas.
Lots of Christmas cards.
Perhaps those Christmas letters about how 6 year old Tarquin
received a distinction in his grade 8 oboe exam and 8 year old Gemmia is
representing England in the Gymkhana.
Maybe we’ve received Christmas texts and emails and phone
calls and so on.
And they’re very nice, aren’t they?
Thank you very much to everyone who sent me a Christmas
card.
I do appreciate it.
I’m afraid I’m very bad at sending Christmas cards so I’m
sorry about that.
Christmas messages are great.
But imagine you had a loved one living in Australia you
hardly ever get to see.
Perhaps your mother, or you son, or your sister.
It would be nice to get a Christmas card from them.
But how much better if they came to visit you in person.
That’s what our reading says God has done.
V1 – “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through
the prophets at many times and in various ways”
God sent lots of messages through messengers.
The writer looks back on the whole history of the Old
Testament and thinks of the many prophets who spoke God’s Word at many times
and in various ways.
We’ll have read some of their words at our carol
services.
There were Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Hosea, Zechariah
and many others.
There are 17 of the 39 books in the Old Testament which
we call the Prophets.
Estimates differ as to the number of prophets in the Old
Testament.
Some people say that 48 prophets have their messages
recorded in the Old Testament.
Another list names 73 Old Testament prophets.
Abraham is the first person to be called a prophet in the
Bible.
He was probably born around 2000 BC.
The last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, ministered
around 433 BC.
That’s about 1500
years of prophecy – equivalent to the time from the Anglo-Saxons to today.
Some prophets saw visions and others had dreams.
Some met with God.
Or heard his voice.
Some met with angels.
Some acted out their messages.
Some brought messages of judgement.
Some of hope.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the
prophets at many times and in various ways”
And that was great.
“but (v2) in these last days [God] has spoken to us by
his Son”
Now God has done something very different – something
unique and supremely special.
He has sent not simply another messenger but his Son.
And there’s all the difference in the world between
sending a message and sending your Son.
We might say Jesus was the last and greatest prophet.
But he was far more than a prophet.
Jesus is, v2, God’s Son, God the Son.
Jesus is the last word on God.
He’s the final, definitive revelation.
As John put it in his gospel, Jesus is the Word made
flesh.
He sums up God.
He perfectly expresses him.
The writer to the Hebrews is telling us why we need to
pay attention to the baby in the manger – because of who he is and what he’s
done.
The Baby is the manger is the Son of God – God the Son
(v2).
In the words of the carol he is “God of God, Very God,
Begotten, not created”.
As Jesus is born in Bethlehem, they can’t find him a room
for the night, but he is (v2) the heir of all things.
The entire universe belongs to this baby.
Bethlehem and all Judea and the whole world are his by
right.
He has left the palaces of heaven for a feeding trough.
Though he is a helpless infant, he is the one (v2) through
whom God made the universe.
He is the creator in a cradle.
The maker in a manger.
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory” (v3)
Again, in the words of the carol, he is “light of light”.
He is God shinning forth, the splendour and brightness of
God made known.
The invisible God made visible.
Again, in John’s words, from our Gospel reading, he is
the light shinning in the darkness, the true light that gives light to every
man.
John can say “we have seen his glory, the glory of the
One and Only, who came from the father full of grace and truth”.
He is “the exact representation of his [God’s] being”
(v3)
Jesus can say, “I and the Father are One.”
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
If we want to know God, we need only look at Jesus.
Even as he is nursed at his mother’s breast and depends
on his parents for everything, he is (v3) the one who sustains all things by
his powerful word.
As the carol says:
“Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies”
He who built the starry skies”
And listen to what this baby would do – the second half
of v3.
He would provide purification for sins (v3).
Yes, he would live a wonderful life full of grace and
truth.
His teaching would be timeless and his miracles unique.
But that was to be his great work:
He came to provide purification for sins so that sinners
like me and you might be put right with a holy God.
The name “Jesus” means “Saviour” and Joseph was told to
give Jesus that name because Jesus would save people from their sins.
This baby was born to die.
On the cross, Jesus bore the penalty for sin for all
those who would put their trust in him.
He died so that we might be made clean and forgiven,
taking the punishment that we deserved so that we might go free.
V3 - After he had provided purification for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (v3).
After tomorrow’s Christmas morning services I’m very much
looking forward to sitting down.
I might put my feet up for quite some time.
I may even have a drink.
And that’s the sense of v3.
Jesus returns to heaven, kicks off his shoes and puts his
feet up.
The contrast, later in the letter to the Hebrews, is with
the priests who constantly stand in the temple ministering, day after day,
making sacrifices for sin – which can never really take away sins (10:11f).
But Jesus offered himself as the one perfect sacrifice
for sin for all time and them he sat down at the right hand of God, because his
work was done.
He had provided purification for sins.
That was what he came to do.
And his mission was accomplished.
His saving work was finished on the first Good Friday.
Jesus sat down – not in his favourite arm chair, but (v3)
“at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven”.
The babe of Bethlehem is enthroned as the king of the
Universe.
He was born in obscurity, but now he sits in the position
of highest honour.
And v8 – about the Son, God says:
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
And righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom.”
Jesus is enthroned as king.
He will sit as judge of all people.
The writer to the Hebrews wants us to take the baby of
Bethlehem with the upmost seriousness because of who he is and what he’s done.
2v1: “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to
what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
For if the message spoken by angels was binding… how
shall we escape if we escape such a great salvation?”
He tells us, 3v2, to fix our thoughts on Jesus.
4v14: “Therefore, sine we have a great high priest who
has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the
faith we possess.”
Since this is who Jesus is and what he’s done, let’s
stick with him.
Jesus is supreme and therefore Jesus is sufficient.
He is the one we need.
He perfectly reveals God to us – let’s listen to him and
look to him.
He has put us right with God – let’s trust in Him and in
Him alone.
May God enable us to do so this Christmas time and
always. Amen.
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