Here is the second study in my new series on Hebrews.
Hebrews 1:1-2 Communication, Contrast, Continuity
As we begin to listen to the sermon that is Hebrews, we find that in the first four verses our preacher tells us what is going to be the subject of his sermon. Although these verses are certainly part of the first section of the book that runs through to verse 18, a section that I call Christ’s superior person, they are also in a sense a standalone introduction to the sermon, and it is amazing how much important truth our preacher packs into these few verses.
Let’s look at just the first two verses. “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.”
In just two expressions, “long ago” and “in these last days”, this inspired preacher encompasses the whole of divine revelation throughout the whole of human history from creation onwards.
The opening words of this sermon are about how God has at many times and in many ways been speaking to the world and especially speaking to his people. This is a sermon about a continuous sermon that has been going on from the very beginning of time from God’s self-revelation to Adam in Eden as recorded for us by the prophet Moses, through audible communication with men like Abraham and Moses, through countless dreams and visions, and through all the prophets that he sent to his people and to the nations of the world. But now, at the end of these past days God has spoken in a new and altogether more wonderful way by his son.
Let’s think about all of this under three headings each beginning with the letter C.
First, Communication.
It would be so easy to skip over something here, but it’s vitally important that we don’t. Our God is a God who speaks! God is a God who graciously communicates with us and without that communication we would now know him as we do. Francis Schaeffer, wrote, “You see, if there were a God, a silent God, we wouldn’t know him. We have no ability to seek him out. We have no ability to come to terms with him. The only way we can know God is because he speaks to us. And this is grace and mercy.”
In the past days God spoke and in these last days God has spoken says our preacher. We are perhaps so familiar with that truth that it doesn’t hit us between the eyes as it should – God spoke and he still speaks to us. Astonishing!
In the past days, God spoke –
• through a bush that burned but was not burnt up
• through wind and fire
• through prophets
• through the sacred writings
• through a donkey
• through tablets of stone
But in these last days, God has spoken through his son, and that will take us into our next few studies – who is this son?
God has spoken and is speaking. The question is, are we listening?
Second, a Contrast is being made here. There is a contrast between how God spoke in the past and how God has spoken now. So, there are if you like, the past days and these last days. In the past God’s communications – and make no mistake, they were God’s communications and so we certainly must not devalue them in any way – were
- periodic – because there were times when God was silent
- passing – the speakers and revelations came and went
- partial – getting more and more clear as the years went by, but nonetheless there was no complete and final revelation of God
- preparatory – they pointed to the future, paving the way for something greater, fuller, more glorious
By contrast, at the end of these past days, in these last days, God has spoken
- not periodically and passing, but permanently in the person of Christ whose words, he himself testified, will never pass away
- not partially but fully and completely telling us all he has got to tell us
- not preparatory but in fulfilment, in that everything that was pointed to and hinted at and pictured by the Old Testament revelations of God were all about and were fulfilled in the person of Christ.
Remember how Jesus took those dejected disciples on the first Easter morning through a glorious overview of the Old Testament Scriptures, showing them how they spoke about him?
Also, by way of contrast, in these past days God spoke through a series and variety of human mouthpieces but in these last days he has spoken personally, by his own son.
Finally, by way of contrast, whereas in these past days God spoke to our fathers, in these last days, at the end of these past days, he has spoken, says the preacher “to us”.
Third, there is continuity. Now it’s really important to stress, this because if we overemphasize the contrast we might fall into the trap that sadly so many have fallen into where we belittle and minimize the relevance and importance of the Old Testament revelation of God and its teachings. There are some preachers around today who tell us that we can live without the Old Testament; we can ignore it.
They even tell us that the God of the Old Testament is a different God from the one we encounter in the New Testament. Now of course all of that is wrong, indeed blasphemous, and this opening verse of Hebrews actually validates and authenticates what we have in the Old Testament, because it stresses that he may have spoken in different ways and to different people, but it is still God who is speaking in the Old Testament.
It is exactly the same God who speaks in the New Testament as spoke in the old and the truth is that if you really want to consider Christ you have to know your Old Testament which promises his coming. You cannot understand Christ and the gospel of Jesus Christ if you don’t understand the Old Testament.
There’s a striking verse in Paul’s last recorded letter in our Bibles. It’s in 2 Timothy 3:15, where he speaks to his young protégé and reminds him of the privilege he had experienced of being brought up by his mother and grandmother and was “acquainted with the sacred writings” by which of course Paul is referring to the Old Testament Jewish scriptures, the past days. But, says Paul, those sacred writings of the Old Testament, “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Again and again in his ministry Paul is at pains to stress that the message he preaches, the faith he advocates, is not a new one he’s invented. It is the same faith believed in and embraced by Abraham and all the other spiritual forefathers. Interestingly, when Paul is on trial before King Agrippa, as recorded for us in Acts 26:22-23, Paul said “I stand here testifying both to small and great saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass that the Christ must suffer and that by being the first to rise from the dead he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
Let’s state this loud and clear, and affirm it unashamedly, that the gospel we believe and teach and preach is the biblical gospel of both the Old Testament and of the New Testament vouched for by both the prophets of God and the apostles of Christ. It has been doubly authenticated and we must continue in it. The biblical theology that we need to always have in mind is very, very simple; it’s all about promise and fulfillment.
There’s the two keys. if you understand those two words you really have a very important and substantial grasp of biblical theology – promise and fulfillment. The Old Testament is promise, the New Testament is fulfilment. The prophets promise, Christ fulfils. The law is promise, the gospel is fulfillment. These things happen says Matthew in order that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Promise and fulfilment.
0 Comments