Jesus Christ - God's Full And Final Word.

Intro:

1. “This letter opens in a majestic manner…For centuries God spoke in the sphere in the sphere of the sphere of the prophets, but in the last of these days, He changed His mode of communication, unveiling His truth in His Son.

No longer was the message to be continued with His Son the message had an end was complete. Christ being the End was the last word God chose to reveal about Himself. With the Advent of Christ, the need for prophets, as it existed in the days of the Old Testament ceased.”

2. There is a real danger today of being drawn away from Christ by such groups as the Catholics, the Cults, and the Charismatic, because they all claim to still be receiving new revelation from God. They still seek to live by their supposed prophets, dreams, and visions.

3. Jesus Christ is God’s Full and Final revelation.

Hebrews 1:1-2 (NKJV)

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,

2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

I. First, we have God’s Former Message. 1

A. For starters we have the Message.

1. The Message was Fragmentary.

Various times – from “many” and “parts” thus God spoke through many parts.

“The word points to the Fragmentary character of former revelations. The revelation of God was essentially progressive.” [Linguistic Key to the Greek N.T.]

No one prophet at any one time received all the pieces (I Pet. 1:10-12). It is sort of like receiving just one or two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without having seen the picture on the box.

B. Next, the Method by which this message came.

1. The Method involved great variety.

different ways – made up of “many” and “Manners” so God spoke in many different ways – directly as with Abraham; through a burning bush as with Moses; by way of visions like to Isaiah; or dreams to Daniel; etc.

spoke in times past to the prophets – “spoke” is an aorist tense and a participle thus, “God, having spoken, spoke.” The “in times past” means that He spoke this way in the past but not any more.

C. The Messengers.

by the prophets – made up of pro, “on behalf of” and phemi, “to say or affirm.” The prophets spoke on God’s behalf; they were literally God’s mouthpiece.

Therefore God’s former message was Fragmentary, the method used for delivering it was with Variety and Temporary. All of this comes from God and is about Jesus Christ (Lu.24:27/ Jn. 5:39,46/ Ac.26:22-23; 28:23).

In Russia there is a place called the “Hall of Beauty.” In this room there are more than 850 portraits of young woman painted by Count Rotari for the Empress Catherine the Second.

It is said that when he had finished, all of the portraits of these various women resembled Catherine the Second in some way. Either by gesture, pose, facial characteristic, jewel, flower, dress, or occupation.

That’s the way the Old Testament prophets worked; each one gave us another facet of Christ.

II. Finally, we have God’s Final Message. 2a

A. The Message – it is full and final.

Spoken in these last days – “spoken” is an aorist tense, which depicts completed action. God has spoken fully and finally in Christ. The message is recorded and final (Jude 3/

Rev. 22:18-19). The “in these last days” means “the outer-most, the extreme, the last in time or place.” [Wuest]

Messiah has come and spoken and that message is full and final. We do not need more prophets to add to it; there is no more to be said it’s complete.

“The phrase “the last days” was very familiar to the Jews of that day and had a distinctive meaning. Whenever a Jew saw or heard these words he immediately had messianic thoughts, because the scriptural promise was that in the last days the Messiah would come (Jer. 33:14-16); Mic. 5:1-4; Zech. 9:9,16).

The writer is saying in effect, “In these promised last days Messiah has come and has spoken the final revelation of God.” Unfortunately Messiah’s own people rejected Him and His revelation, and so the fulfillment of all the promises of the last days has yet to be fully revealed.” [John MacArthur]

B. The Method.

1. The Living Word. (Jn. 1:1)

by His Son – God is not speaking through modern day prophets who have come with new revelation but has spoken to us to His son.

2. The Written Word. (Heb. 4:12)

God has spoken to us by His Son – but it also says that God is STILL speaking to us by His Son (Heb. 12:25). How? By way of God’s Spirit illuminating the written word