The book of Hebrews appears to be a sermon, unlike the rest of the epistles, which are letters. Timed out, it would take about 45 minutes, which is not an unheard of length for a sermon.
The book opens with a euphonous, alliterative opening, with a parallelism that highlights the new thing God has done and the new way he has spoken. Long ago, he spoke in bits and pieces across time to the prophets. But there was a time, not long before this was written, when God spoke all at once, through the incarnate Son of God.
Those many ways were amazing – everything from pillars of fire to poetry to apocalyptic visions to laws and regulations to thunderous voices to whispers in the dead of night. But they were not complete.
We also know that God also speaks through creation. The heavens declare His glory and the world around us His might. His power and divine nature is made clear by creation – but again, the message is not complete.
His message was not made complete until the coming of Christ. When He came, all of history and human existence changed. The breadth and depth of God’s love and the majesty of His plan for the salvation of the world were made clear through the very life of His Son – and His death and resurrection.
Jesus revealed the nature of God in a way that could not be accomplished in any other way. The truth has been revealed “in Son.” It is personal and close, unlike anything else. This is why we celebrate the incarnation with the vigor that we do at Christmastime.
The book of Hebrews focuses on this notion of God speaking throughout the book. Through the prophets, through Christ, God has spoken. But are we listening? This is the question the preacher of Hebrews raises over and over of his listeners. We should also consider the same.
It is easy, especially at this season to hear without listening – after all, we have heard all these stories before, we have heard these sermons before (maybe from more highly skilled preachers). But the question is not whether we have heard it, but whether we have done anything about it.
If it was important for the Christians of the 1st Century to listen, how much more important is it for us to do so, in this age of information overload?
And once we have listened to what God has said through Christ, we must answer the same question that Jesus himself asked of His disciples at Caesarea Philippi. “Who do you say that I am?”
If we answer that question the way that we should, then there becomes a new stage of God’s message. Christ’s life in us becomes the message of God manifested in us, both personally and as the corporate body of Christ.
– Sermon notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, December 1, 2019