God’s Final and Complete Word

Please note: This transcript is provided as close to verbatim record of the sermon.

Sermon Manuscript: God Is Not Silent — His Final Word Is Jesus (Hebrews 1:1–4)

Good morning everyone. Thank you, thank you for praying for me. Also, I think I couldn’t ask for a better start, right—an introduction this morning as we meditated on the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually most of the points that I’m going to cover we already have covered just now, so just treat it as a recap.

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you so much for this time that we can spend in Your presence remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, He is worthy of our attention. He is worthy of our dwelling and meditating on. We pray you help our hearts to be ready and soft to receive your word. Pray all this in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.

 

Introduction: Do You Want to Hear God Speak?

Now when we pray, we know that God hears us. The Bible tells us in Psalm 116:2 that he wants to hear us—he inclines his ear towards us. But the question that I have for all of us today is: Do you want to hear God speak?

I hope your answer is yes. But even so, have you ever said before in a moment of desperation, “Oh God, please speak to me. I don’t know what to do. If only I could hear your voice. If only you would talk to me and not be so silent.”

Well, I have said those words many times, and often I find that the silence that follows immediately deafening. Perhaps this is what you feel too.

But I have found that I am wrong. I have come to realize that I’m feeling that way because of my impatience and my demanding spirit for God to give me an answer that I want to hear. Thankfully, God isn’t like them and God isn’t like us. In reality, given some time, I found that the Lord has been patient with me and gracious in his responses to me.

So, as I was preparing for today’s sharing, I realized that the four verses today teach very clearly and plainly what I have learned through experience. And this perhaps is one of the key takeaways that we can get from the passage today: God is not silent. God communicates. He is a person to be listened to and enjoyed and understood and obeyed. He speaks so that we might know him and love him and live in joyful obedience to him.

Even more than that, these four verses tell me that God has spoken decisively, finally, and sufficiently through His Son Jesus Christ. So this is my hope for today’s sharing: that whichever part of the valley of the shadow of death that you may be journeying through, as you trudge wearily like the audience of Hebrews, that you will be encouraged to recognize that God has spoken, and Jesus is His answer—that His rod and staff will comfort you. There is no fuller revelation that is coming.

This section that we are going to consider today will establish the main point for the entire book: that every comparison, warning, and exaltation that follows depends on the claim that God’s final word has already been spoken in the Son. There is no one better. God has already given the very best.

So let’s see it for ourselves. Please turn your Bibles to Hebrews 1:1–4. You can see on the screen too if you can.

So at a glance, Hebrews 1:1–4 is a powerful commendation of the person and work of Jesus.

I’ve structured the sermon into two parts:

1. God uses contrast to show Jesus as His definitive Word.
2. God uses Jesus’ identity and work to show He is the final and sufficient Word.

 

Part 1 — Jesus as God’s Definitive Word (The Better Prophet)

(Hebrews 1:1–2)

For this first section, I like to think of verses 1 and 2 as showing Jesus as the better Prophet. But how does one do that? Simple: He has to be the final one, after which there is no more.

So we see how God employs contrast here:

• Two phases: “Long ago” and “in these last days”
• Two audiences: “our fathers” and “us”
• Two modes: “by the prophets” and “by His Son”

Let’s dive deeper.

 

1) God Spoke Lavishly in the Past

“Long ago… at many times… in many ways”

This is where I get the assurance that God is not withdrawn and uncommunicative.

This verse stresses the lavish variety of God’s communication. “Many times” and “many ways” is actually a great comfort and encouragement to us, because we know some of these ways are hard to understand. If God had spoken only at one time or in one way—and we didn’t get it—how frustrating that would be. We might feel at a great disadvantage. But God did not do that.

For example:

• If you have difficulty grasping His Word in Leviticus, you might hear Him clearly in Proverbs.
• Maybe you didn’t see the point clearly in Obadiah, but you might still be deeply moved by the message of Malachi.

The point is this: God has provided many possibilities in the Old Testament where we can hear Him.

 

2) God Spoke to “Our Fathers”

“God spoke to our fathers…”

“To our fathers” simply means God spoke to our spiritual forefathers, the prior generation. The fathers represented the Old Testament people—the “cloud of witnesses” from Hebrews 12.

What this shows is that God has been consistent in His desire to communicate with people. It doesn’t matter at which point of history you are in—God has spoken, and as we will see later, He is continuing to speak.

 

3) God Spoke “By the Prophets”

“God spoke… by the prophets”

This tells us that God’s typical way of communicating with His people was by inspiring humans as His mouthpiece.

It was not God’s usual way to write His Word in the sky or shout it from the mountains for all to hear. He can do that—and He did in some cases: making the sun stand still, raining fire from heaven, giving dreams and interpretations.

But His usual way was to call a prophet, and then inspire the prophet to speak and write to the people what God wanted said. So God uses human instruments to speak.

Now keep this in mind.

 

God Speaks Progressively

The next point I want to make about prophets is that when you think about how God spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament, you can appreciate how God speaks progressively.

The transition from the Old to the New Testament is not a transition from error to truth. It is progressive: it goes from incompleteness to completeness.

The historical books, the poetry books, the Law, the prophecies—they all work together to accumulate and build up until we have the full revelation of the Old Testament, which is actually just the preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

So let me show you.

You see Jesus as early as Genesis 3:15, where He is the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head. You see Him later as the One who will take the scepter in Genesis 49. You see how Moses leads God’s people out of Egypt. You see Him as the One who will fulfill the promises of God to David—as David’s greater Son.

You see Him in all the sacrifices—from the first killing of the animals for their skins in Eden, to the Levitical offerings—where the picture of the coming Messiah giving His life for sinners is shown.

So God did speak—and He didn’t speak briefly or vaguely. It was crystal clear in its intent: to lay out the nature of God, the nature of man, the problem of sin, and the promise of redemption, and to present the coming Redeemer.

All this is there.

But there is more.

 

Verse 2 — God’s Greater, Definitive Speech

(Hebrews 1:2)

Verse 2 gives us the second set of three contrasts.

If God was ready and eager to communicate Himself in the Old Testament, how much more is He ready to communicate in the sending of His Son?

What the writer wants us to see is that this latest communication from God is greater and better than all those times and ways in the days of old.

It is His definitive Word—spoken with authority that we can trust.

So let’s look at the three contrasts in verse 2.

 

1) “By His Son” — Not By Prophets Anymore

Here we see that God doesn’t use prophets anymore, but by His Son.

And this is the main contrast. The other two serve to highlight this: Jesus is better.

Why?

Because no prophet ever grasps the whole truth. Only Jesus is the whole truth.

We have 12 minor prophets, five major prophets—a total of 17 prophets—but none of them had the whole thing. They were given bits and pieces and fragments of God’s revelation.

But when Jesus came, He was the full revelation of God.

Let me show you the difference again:

• To Noah, it was revealed Messiah would come out of one of his sons.
• Same revelation to Abraham, to Jacob, to David.
• To Micah, it was revealed the town.
• To Daniel, it was revealed the time.
• To Malachi, the forerunner was revealed.

Everybody got their bits and pieces. Each only knew in part—until Christ came.

The point is: Jesus revealed God by being God.

No longer in diverse manners, no longer in diverse ways, no longer in fragments stretched out over 1,500 years. Now God speaks in one Person, in one time in history. He is the full revelation of God.

When He spoke, God spoke. When He acted, God acted.

He said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

So in Christ, the revelation of God is complete. The many partial revelations are over. The shadows are replaced by the substance. Christ comes as the fullness of God.

That’s why 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen.” Everything resolves in Him.

 

2) “To Us” — God’s Word in Jesus Is God’s Word to You

Next is “to us.”

If God has spoken in the person of His Son, then who Jesus is, what He said, and what He accomplished by dying and rising from the dead—that is God’s Word to us.

This is what we should hear, and why we need to listen far more earnestly than we do.

So have you heard the Word of God in the person of Jesus?

Every time I begin to complain that God is silent and I need Him to speak to me, at that moment I should stop and ask: “Have I heard His Word?”

God has already decided to speak directly to us and not through any intermediary. So the question remains: Do we want to listen?

 

3) “In These Last Days” — No Third Phase Is Coming

“In these last days.”

This Word of God in His Son is so decisive that there will be no third phase of God speaking in history. That is what it means when it says “in these last days.”

The last days began with the coming of the Son into the world. We have been living in the last days since the days of Christ. This is the last days of history as we know it, before the full and final establishment of the kingdom of God.

For example, when we call the last days of a war “the days after the decisive battle has been fought,” everybody already knows who will win—it is only a matter of time.

Similarly, with His death and resurrection, the decisive battle with sin and death and hell has been fought and won. It is only a matter of time.

These are the last days for all the peoples of the earth.

 

Summary of Part 1

So from these two sets of contrasts, we see clearly why Jesus is so much better than the prophets:

Because He is the definitive Word of God—decisive, authoritative, and final.

We get all the comfort we need from the promises He has made.

 

Illustration — A Parent and a Child

The best illustration I have is a parent and a child. Everyone can relate—even if you’re not a parent, you have been a child and have had parent figures.

Very often when we see our kids cry or feel sad, how do we respond? We respond with promises of a better future. Of course we don’t say it like that, but we might promise ice cream from the shop, a nice present at Christmas, or an outing to a favorite theme park.

Even as adults, we respond to promises: promises of a good bonus if we work hard, of happy companionship when we marry, and of heaven when we believe in Christ.

Recall the last time such promises were met—didn’t it fill you with joy? Whether it was for you, or for you to witness the joy of others having their promises fulfilled, at the basic level we have been created to respond to hope.

And Jesus is the best and surest hope there is.

Transition into Part 2 — Jesus’ Identity and Finished Work

(Hebrews 1:2–4)

This transitions nicely into the next section, where we’ll talk more about Jesus’ identity and His completed work as our great High Priest and reigning King of kings. It’s hard to split these roles into neat sections because that’s not how the Bible does it. In fact, all three identities feature throughout Hebrews, and you just need to recognize them as you read.

So there are eight things to note here. If you can spot all of them, that would be great—but first, we’ll consider the first pair:

The Son has been appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He created the world.

 

1) The Son: Heir of All Things

He can make good on everything He promises

Now why does the author add this? Because he wants us to know that Jesus, the Son of God, can make good in the end on all that He has promised.

Simply put: since Jesus is the heir of all things, that means in the end He will inherit all things. Everything will belong to Him.

So what does it mean to listen to Someone who, in the end, will have under His control and ownership all things?

It means: whatever He promises, He can deliver.

• If He says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” then He can make good on that promise—because He will own the earth and have it under His control.
• If He says, “Nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,” He will make good on that promise—because He owns all creation and has it under His control.
• If He says, “There will no longer be death or mourning or crying or pain anymore,” He will make good on that promise—because He will own life and death and rule unhindered over all that causes pain and crying.

When you listen to the Son of God, it is different from listening to a prophet. God will make good on the word of the prophets, but the Son will make good on His own word. He is in charge.

And in a fallen world where fallen men are all trying to take charge of whatever little bits of kingdom they have left, how reassuring it is to know that everything will be made perfect in Christ eventually. Sin and death will be no more. There is no more victory for the grave.

 

2) The Son: Creator of the World

Why “heir” first, then “creator”?

Now you might ask: in verse two, when we talk about the Creator of all things—when we see that through Him God created the world—why is the Son described first as the heir of all things and second as the One through whom God made the world? Why not say He was Creator first and then later He was the heir?

Well, perhaps the way the story ends is more important than the way the story begins. So the writer puts it like that.

And when the writer puts it this way, he is saying two things:

1. Before Jesus came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth, He already existed.
2. The Son already owned the universe by virtue of creating it with the Father.

That’s why verse three says He upholds all things by the word of His power. He created all, and He upholds all.

So then how is He “appointed heir of all things”?

The answer is basically this: creation is now in rebellion against Him. But through His faithful obedience and death and resurrection, these enemies will one day be subdued, and all creation will bow down and acknowledge that they are ruled by Jesus Christ.

So in other words, Christ took His seat as the active ruling heir of all things by virtue of His death and resurrection. Not only does He have the right to be the heir of all things because He made all things, but also because He defeated His enemies and purchased a lost people from sin and death through His death.

This gives us the double reason why we need to pay attention to the Son of God who is the heir of all things.

 

Pivot to the Key Phrase

“Two down, six to go…”

Okay—two down, six to go.

Now rather than go sequentially, can I offer a different framing for verses 3 and 4? I think the key phrase is near the end of verse 3, where it describes the work of our Lord Jesus as the great High Priest:

“After making purification for sins…”

Consider that phrase for a few minutes. I want to break it into three parts:

• He — the person of Jesus
• For sins — the problem He had to deal with
• Making purification — the solution

 

“He” — The Living Person of Jesus

Let’s start with “He.” This is Jesus, the Person who is alive. He laid down His life for us. He came down from the cross and rose up again. He is alive today. He is at His Father’s right hand. He is here in this room by His Spirit listening to me. He’s as close to you as the person next to you.

So the question is: do you know Him? Do you have a relationship with Him? And if not, why not?

If I were to bring someone you admire, or someone important, to have dinner with you, wouldn’t you want to get to know that person?

Similarly, God shows how important Jesus is by revealing His different identities.

Verse 3 gives compelling reasons that if we want to know the glory of God the Father, we should read the Gospels and behold the Person of Jesus, because:

• He is the radiance of the glory of God — God’s glory can be seen through Him.
• He is the exact imprint of His nature — like Jesus says in John 14:9, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
  Men have always wanted to see God and have tried reaching out to God in many ways through many religions. But here we see God reaching down to us through His Son Jesus. He is truly God in human flesh.
• He upholds the universe by the word of His power — meaning this Person is infinitely powerful. He is holding the solar system, the Milky Way, all galaxies into being, as well as the molecules and the wood and brick of this building. He is holding our flesh, our hair, our skin, our lungs, tissue, fingernails in being right now. Basically, if Jesus were to stop sustaining us, you would cease to be. That’s how dependent we are on this Person.
• He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty — the sitting down is enthronement. He is the King of the universe. He reigns over all governments. He reigns over the devil. He reigns over heart attacks, cancer, disease. He reigns right now in this hall this very morning.
• He is greater than the angels — it might sound like an anticlimax, but the rest of the chapter is devoted to this: the utter superiority of this Person over all other heavenly beings, save God the Father. I’ll leave that to next week’s speaker.

 

Before the “Eighth,” We Face the Problem: Sin

Now before we go to the last, the eighth one, I want to talk about sin.

Sin is a reality. When you read Romans, you come to terms with the fact that sin is not just a little isolated thing we do here and there. It is a power. It has a grip on every one of us. It is an awful thing, and we are all infected by it.

So what is it?

All sin flows from a lack of trust in God. If we had perfect trust in the wisdom and love and power of God, we would not go against Him so freely and so often as we do. We see that in children; we see it in ourselves.

Sin is a desire to do things our way instead of God’s way—like a child exasperating his parent by doing the exact thing he’s told not to. It’s not because he hates the parent, but because he loves himself more and doesn’t trust that his parent knows better and loves him more.

That’s where disobedience comes from.

And just like how it pains and angers us as parents when kids disobey, God similarly is angry at sin because He is righteous and just. The anger He feels against sin is what brought His Son to suffering and death.

The cross, as we consider it, is the expression of two things, not one: a just anger, and an incredible mercy towards sinners.

We are sinners, and God is angry at sin—which is why we need the solution.

 

“Making Purification” — The Gospel and the Finished Work

Now we finally see: “After making purification…” We see the gospel in this word.

When we read “after making purification for sins,” it refers to salvation as purification—because we are saved by Jesus making us righteous, like refining and purifying gold or oil.

Jesus dying on the cross and taking God’s anger and punishment for sin is basically taking our place. It was supposed to be us on the cross to receive the just penalty of our sins. But Jesus purified us and made us righteous by dying for us, paying our penalty and giving us His righteousness.

And I want you to see something in the word “after.” The main thing is that from the perspective of the writer—and from Christ having taken His seat at the right hand of God—the work of purifying our sins is totally finished.

It is not “He will make,” but He has made—and He sat down. It is one work, and it is over. The sitting down is an honor and a tribute to the finishedness of that work.

Next: the purification was made once for all. That means the blood of Jesus spilled 2,000 years ago was for all your sins and all my sins. It will never be repeated.

Any future sin you commit was already purified 2,000 years ago. And that is why the gospel is awesome. Our sanctification was purchased fully in the offering of Christ—one offering, once for all, for all sin. It is finished.

 

Invitation

(First and Foremost Application)

So right now I have to invite you: if you have not trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, do so. This is the foremost application of today’s message.

We have such an amazing Savior who did such an amazing work of rescuing us from eternal damnation.

Hebrews 2:3 says, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

So don’t ignore it. Pray now—ask Jesus to come into your life and be King. And feel free to come talk to me or anyone seated next to you after this. Don’t delay.

 

Applications for Believers

(Two Responses to God’s Final Word)

For those of us who belong to Jesus: what then is the application of today’s passage? How does this affect me?

I want to share two.

1) Hear God Speak by Hearing His Son

Let’s go back to our starting question: Do you want to hear God speak?

This passage makes it abundantly clear that the Word of God spoken by His Son is the decisive Word. It will not be followed in this age by any greater Word or replacement Word. It is final and sufficient.

The person of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, and the work of Jesus is better—that’s the main point for the entire book.

So when I complain that I don’t hear the Word of God, what am I actually saying? Am I really saying I have exhausted the final decisive Word of God revealed so fully in the New Testament? Have I really exhausted it—or have I treated it lightly? Skimmed it like a news headline, dipped in like a taste tester, and then decided I wanted something else?

That is what I fear I’m guilty of more times than I wish to admit. Many times I turn to the phone instead of the heavenly throne shown in this book.

But Hebrews 1:1–4 reminds us we can trust Him at our very lowest.

Perhaps when I feel like I have failed in my duty to love my wife or my children well, I find myself sinking to the floor. Despondent thoughts swirl: Why is it so hard? Am I not trying hard enough? What more is required of me?

In times like this, it is a quiet recollection of God’s promises—that we can cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us; that He loves us and will not allow us to suffer beyond what we can bear. But those promises only hold weight if I trust the Person who has made them: Jesus.

So God is calling us to hear His final decisive Word—to meditate on it, study it, memorize it, linger over it, and soak in it until it saturates us to the center of our being.

That is the first application: receive and submit to God’s final Word in the Son, recognizing no fuller revelation is coming.

2) Experience Jesus in the Life of the Church

Second application—more devotional: while this passage reminds us there’s no fuller revelation after Jesus, it doesn’t mean it’s over and we only have the Bible.

Reading the Bible is good, but it is not the only way God speaks about His Son Jesus. Jesus is everywhere. He is Creator and Sustainer of all.

And in the church, He should be seen in every one of us who believes. God still uses us to speak about Jesus.

So experience Him fully—not just through reading the Word, but living it out in community.

Liners shared last week how he was touched when he witnessed the running of the Christian race with endurance in the lives of fellow brothers in church. I encourage you to lean in and do the same. Because Jesus in you, as God’s final and sufficient Word, enables you to show Him to others.

It’s like when I see my wife going to talk to someone new, I think about how she has encouraged me to do the same—and how by obeying and stepping out, God helped me make good friends like the Fongs. That was me stepping out of my comfort zone as an introvert.

And when I see my kids reach out to comfort my wife when she is sad, it’s another example of Jesus being shown to me—so that I can love my wife well.

There are many other examples. So open your eyes to see Jesus being shown—and to show Him—so that others will be encouraged to do the same.

There is no other name in the whole universe worthy of our attention.

 

Closing Song and Prayer

To end, I would like all of us to sing a song. This song is pretty new—can I invite the pianist to come up? If you want to follow along, you can scan the QR code, or the lyrics will be on the screen. It’s titled “No Other Name.” It’s not the one many of us may have heard before; it’s by another group in Australia. I really like it because it reminds us of Jesus.

Can I invite all of you to rise, and I will play it.

(Song)

Let’s close with a word of prayer.

Dear God, we praise You for speaking over centuries through the prophets, and ultimately taking all their words pointing forward and bringing fulfillment through Your Word to us in Your Son Jesus. We praise Him as the appointed heir of all things, as the One through whom the world was created. We praise Him as the radiance of the glory of God in flesh, the exact imprint of Your nature.

Dear Lord Jesus, we praise You too. You are God. You are divine. You uphold the universe by the word of Your power. And we praise You that though You have all power, all authority on this earth, You made purification for our sins. You paid the price for my sin, and for those listening who have trusted in You—for the sins of the world and all who will trust in You.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins, making it possible for us to be forgiven. And after You rose from the grave and ascended to heaven, we praise You for being seated now at the right hand of the Majesty on high. All glory be to Your name. You have become so much more superior to the angels as the name You have inherited is more excellent than theirs.

There is no name more excellent than You, Lord Jesus. And we praise You, and we pray all this in Your name. Amen.