God has spoken, are you listening?
The Lord God Almighty is the God who speaks. We might say God is the God of “revelation.” God reveals things to people, his creatures. And in ages past, in the ages of the prophets God used many ways of speaking to people. In fact, the very first action the Bible records God as doing is speaking:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”(Genesis 1:1-3)
When God created everything he created by way of words. He spoke and light came into being. After God created the first man and woman, he spoke to them. God spoke to them words of blessing, words of love, words of provision, words of peace, words of protection, and words of warning.
God would continue to speak to people. God condescended, He reached down and used words to communicate about himself. God used words that people can understand in order to reveal himself.
God spoke to the prophets. He spoke through messages, through prophesies, through covenants, through miracles, through signs and wonders.
But then in the last days God spoke in a way no one expected. God spoke in a way no one in their wildest dreams could have imagined. God spoke to us, the Scripture tells us, through His Son.
Who is this Son? In the next chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews we are told this “Son” of God is Jesus (2:9). This opening passage of Hebrews tells us 7 things about Jesus the Son. Jesus is…
1. The One “whom He appointed heir of all things,” (vs. 2) and who (vs. 4) "has inherited a more excellent name than [the angels,]”
At the start (vs.2) and at the end (vs.4) of this introduction we are told why the term “Son” is used. Why is Jesus called the “Son of God?” This term is so offensive to so many people. “As if God could have a son!” some people exclaim with disgust. Understand that it is equally repulsive and heretical for Christians to think that God would take for himself a wife and have a child. This is NOT what the Bible teaches and this is NOT what Christians believe! But this passage tells us why the term “Son” is used to describe Jesus and what it means. It has to do with inheritance. Consider Psalm 2:7-8
7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me, 'Thou art My Son, Today I have begotten Thee.
8 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.
These words of the prophet-king, David, tell us that the terms “Son” and “begotten” are not referring to physical procreation – but about inheriting an inheritance. Who is it that inherits a father’s household? It is the first-born son. This is a title given to the one who stands to inherit what belongs to the father. Likewise, Hebrews 1:2,4 tell us that Jesus is called the Son of God not because God got married. No! But because God has appointed Jesus the heir of all things; everything that was created will be given to Jesus. He is like the first born son in a family who receives all the possessions that belong to the father.
Why does Jesus get everything? Well, the next clause tells us. It is because Jesus is…
2.
The One “through whom also [God] made the world. (vs. 2)
Do you remember how God made the world? He spoke. This is why the Scriptures also call Jesus “the Word of God – who was with God and was God.” God created all things through his spoken word. So, Jesus, the Word of God, is the means by which everything was created that was created. So Jesus is also…
3.
The One who “is the radiance of His glory (vs. 3)
And…
4. The One who is “the exact representation of His nature,” (vs. 3)
God, of course, is eternal. He is far above us and far far beyond our comprehension. No one can understand all of who God is. And yet, God chooses to tell us something about himself. He desires that we know something about him. That is why he speaks, and reveals. But words are inadequate to express who God is. Human words cannot embody all that God is. So, God sent his Word, His Son, to us and spoke to us as a person, Jesus. John Calvin reminds us…
When, [y]ou hear that the Son is the brightness of the Father's glory, think …that the glory of the Father is invisible until it shines forth in Christ, and that he is called the impress of his substance, because the majesty of the Father is hidden until it shows itself impressed as it were on [Jesus’] image.”[i]
Jesus as the Word of God is the very thought of God expressed outwardly. The Word of God is the veiled hidden glory of God coming out of hiding in the person of Jesus. Jesus, the Word of God is the private mysterious nature of God going public…overflowing out where we can see, hear, touch, and comprehend something about God. And all that can be known about God’s radiant glory and his marvelous nature, his loving-kindness, his mercy, his grace, and his beautiful Character was revealed to us in the person of Jesus.
What this means is that when Mary and Joseph looked upon the face of the baby Jesus they beheld with their own eyes all that humans can possibly know in this lifetime about the brilliance and nature of God. Can you imagine the meditations of Mary’s heart as she held in her own arms the exact likeness of…
5.
The One who “upholds all things by the word of His power.”(vs. 3)
Jesus, the Son, upholds the universe by his very word and there was that word embodied in the form of a little baby – upheld by Mary’s arms. The mystery of the incarnation is great! Who can fathom this amazing divine irony? Innumerable tons and tons of paper and ink have been devoured by poets and scholars trying to wrap their hearts and minds around the mystery of how the very Word of God could take on human flesh. Poet, John Milton wrote in the 1600’s:
This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heav’n’s eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.
That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty
Wherewith he wont at Heav’n’s high council-table,
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity,
He laid aside, and here with us to be,
Forsook the courts of everlasting day,
And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay.[ii]
Why? Why was the Word of God made flesh? Why did the Son lay aside the glories of heaven and “here with us to be”? Milton makes mention of the purpose of Jesus’ coming when he says “That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father - work us a perpetual peace” That “deadly forfeit” is talking about our sins. The Son stands to inherit all of creation. But since the time of Adam’s sin what is our inheritance? When God created Adam and Eve and spoke to them words of blessing, provision, protection, and peace – they did not heed those words but sinned against God in the Garden. From that day forward all men and women stood only to inherit an eternity of alienation from God, war with God (for God wars against sin), and war with each other. This is why Jesus came. He came because of the Love of God. He came to bring us peace with God. This is why 750 years before his birth the prophet Isaiah called Jesus, the “Prince of Peace”. Jesus came to purify us of our sins and give us a way to have peace with God. This is what our passage finally tells us about Jesus, the Son. Jesus is…
6. The One who “made purification of sins” (vs. 3)
Jesus didn’t stay a little baby. Jesus grew up. Jesus preached and called people to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. And Jesus took the inheritance of death that we deserved, namely the punishment of hell, upon himself. He died once for all on the cross so we would not have to die forever apart from God.
And after he had accomplished all he was sent to do for us on the cross Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave and as our passage tells us Jesus is…
7. The One who “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (vs. 3)
As much as we all love the pictures and songs of Christmas time about Jesus as a little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes we must never forget that today, right now, as we sing, as we gather, as we give, as we open presents, as we feast, as we care for the poor, right this very moment Jesus in all his glory is sitting at the right hand of the Majesty of the Father in Heaven upholding the universe and he has promised to come again to judge the world. (2:9) We must never forget to remember that Jesus, though for a time was “made lower than the angels”… is now “crowned with glory and honor,” (Hebrews 2:9) and given the Name above all names. Jesus therefore, is worthy of our worship, worthy of our honor, and worthy of our praise.
My friends, God has spoken to us through Jesus his Son. God created the world through Jesus. God has revealed himself through the person of Jesus. God has made a way to have forgiveness of sins and peace with him again through Jesus. God has glorified Jesus and called upon us to give him glory. God has spoken, are you listening?
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