Sermon Tone Analysis

"*IT’S JESUS*"

(A Message from Hebrews)

 

Westgate Chapel 8~/17~/03                                     Hebrews 1:1-3

 

PROPOSITION:  God is speaking to our hearts in His Son as His *prophetic voice*, His *own Son*, the *heir* of all things, His *creative agent*, His *personified glory*, His *perfect revelation*, His *cosmic sustainer*, and His *unique sacrifice*...it’s Jesus.

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i. introduction

!! -     RESEARCHERS tell us that you and I receive approximately 2,000 persuasion messages per day that our brains have to process.

!! -     EVERYBODY wants to communicate with us;

!!! ~*     The politicians want you to know how much better they will do, with the problems of our society, than their opponent.

!!! ~*     The tobacco industry wants you to know that smoking will not harm your health.

!!! ~*     The automobile industry wants to convince you that you need two doors, stick shift, a sunroof, a V6 and a pinstripe......if you are going to be anybody.

!!! ~*     Your boss wants you to understand that he wants the report on his desk ten days before the next Directors meeting.

!!! ~*     Your wife wants you to talk to her.....but she won't tell you what she wants you to say.

!!! ~*     Your children just want the keys to the car.

!!! ~*     Your creditors want you to know that one and a half percent will be added monthly to your balance if you do not pay what you owe......in thirty days.

!! -     SO, swirling around the recesses of your mind, during the waking hours of your day, are over two thousand persuasion messages.

!! -     NO wonder we have difficulty hearing what God is saying to us.

!! -     THERE were a lot of voices to listen to for the New Testament Christians also.

!!! ~*     The Roman empire....demanding that they worship Caesar and support the state.

!!! ~*     Greek voices…arguing for the supremacy of human reasoning.

!!! ~*     The call of their Jewish friends and family members.....to follow the rituals and practices of the Old Testament if they wanted to be saved.

!!! ~*     The screams of angry mobs, as the homes and possessions of Christians were looted and burned.

!!! ~*     The sounds of prison doors slammed shut behind them....or the roar of the lions in the coliseums of the world.

!! -     BUT just like us, those first century Christians needed to hear what God was saying most of all.

!! -     LISTEN to what God said to them through the epistle to the Hebrews.

!! -     LISTEN to the voice of God!

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! ii.

god spoke

!! -     HEBREWS 1:1,

!!!       "*In the past God spoke*......" (Hebrews 1:1)

!! -     DOWN through the ages of time.......from the very beginning of time itself......God has always communicated with humankind.

!! -     HE has never hidden Himself from His creation.

!!! ~*     In the cool of the evening, He came to the garden of Eden and walked and talked with Adam and Eve and revealed Himself to them.

!!! ~*     He talked with His servant Enoch from time to time until one day the conversation got so intense....Enoch had no more use for mother earth....and he just walked off into the very presence of God and was never heard from or seen again.

!!! ~*     He talked with Abraham....and called him out of the Chaldees to follow Him.

!!! ~*     He talked with Jacob, even wrestled with him at the Jabbok River.

!!! ~*     He talked with Moses from the burning bush, and on top of Mount Sinai.

!!! ~*     He talked to Joshua in the form of the Commander in Chief of the army of the Lord of Hosts.

!!! ~*     He talked to Ezekiel in a vision of a wheel within a wheel.

!!! ~*     He told Jeremiah that before he was formed in his mother’s womb…God knew him and set him apart for ministry.

!! -     WE serve a God who speaks and does not hide Himself from us.

!! -     VERSE 1 goes on to say that in the past God spoke....

!!!       “* ......to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways*

!! -     AND all these men did their best to tell us what they saw and what God had said to them.

!! -     BUT they didn’t always understand all they heard, nor did they always arrive at the right conclusions about what they heard.

!! -     GOD was speaking to and through them, but it was like there was always a communication gap.

!! -     THERE was no way for us to fully comprehend the plan of God.....it was too majestic, too grand, too beautiful to understand, simply conveyed in human language.

!! -     THE prophets were ridiculed......and many of God's messengers were even killed for speaking the words of God.

!! -     ULTIMATELY God’s voice through the prophets was rejected.

!! -     SO God stopped speaking through the prophets.

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iii.

god speaking

!! -     AND in verse 2 of Hebrews 1, the writer says;

!!!       "......*but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son*...."

!! -     WE are in the last days.

!! -     WE can be confident of that because on the Day of Pentecost, when He was explaining what had just happened, in Acts 2:15, Peter says,

!!!       “*…this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:* (17) *‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people*.’”

!! -     IN the last days God has…

!!!       “…*spoken to us by his Son*”

!! -     NO longer is the message hard to understand, couched in symbolic prophetic language.

!! -     NO more difficulty in knowing what God means.

!! -     THE communication gap is forever closed between God and Man.

!! -     GOD has spoken His ultimate word......His complete communication.....and His Word to us is *JESUS*!

!! -     FORGET the angels, says Hebrews 1...worship JESUS.

!! -     FORGET Moses and the feast days, and the priests and sacrifices, says the Book of Hebrews...look to JESUS.

!! -     THAT is what God is saying then and now.

!! -     THEN in Hebrews 1:2 and 3 the writer tells us why Jesus is the main thing.

!!  

!! 1.   *JESUS is now God's prophetic voice*

!! -     JESUS is now God’s prophetic voice.

!!!       “…*in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son*..”

!! -     WITHOUT Jesus, the message of the prophets is incomplete.

!! -     PUT Jesus into Isaiah and the Old Testament book makes sense...and Ezekiel and Zechariah and all the rest of the Old Testament.

!! -     NOW God's communication to us is final...complete, perfect.

Nothing needs to be added.

Nothing should be added.

!! -     THE voice of God has been heard!

!! -     GOD has spoken one final word...and

He is Jesus!

!!! ~*     Moses was the first prophet to be given God's name as the "I AM".........*Jesus was the I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end*.

!!! ~*     Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord.......*Jesus was the glory of God*.

!!! ~*     Isaiah told us that God was holy, righteous, merciful......*Jesus came without sin and healed the sick, mended the wounded, and made broken lives whole again*.

!!! ~*     Jeremiah described the power of God......*Jesus said "Lazarus, come forth!" and the grave could no longer contain his remains*.

!! -     JESUS is the prophetic voice of God.....still speaking today.

!! -     GET to know Him.

Follow after Him.

Worship Him.

Become enthralled with Him.

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!! 2.   *JESUS is God's Son*

!! -     VERSE  2 tells us that God has spoken to us.....

!!!       ".....*by his Son*...."

!! -     THIS is  the Son of God!

!! -     THIS is no ordinary man, or just a good teacher.

!! -     DO not let your faith be shaken by the competing voices of our pluralistic society!

!! -     ON the day that John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan,

!!!       “… *the heaven was opened* (22) *and the Holy Spirit descended on him* [Jesus]* in bodily form like a dove.

And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased*.’”

!! -     IN Colossians 2:9, Paul describes the same truth in this way,

!!!       “*For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form*, (10) *and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority*.”

!! -     THERE is no salvation without Him.

!! -     THERE is no forgiveness of sin without Him.

!! -     THERE is no future without Him.