I wonder, have you ever been in a situation where someone has come and has said that they want to have a word with you? So you say, fine, that's good, and you arrange a time, and you meet with this person, and the conversation begins, and it continues, and it goes on, and all the time you're thinking, now, why did they want to see me? What was it that they wanted to discuss with me? Because I'm not getting where this conversation's going. Have you ever been in a situation like that? I know I have. I've had people come to me as a pastor and they wanted to discuss something with me and they seem to cover every other subject before, five minutes before they have to go, they get to the point of why they wanted to meet me. Well, the writer to the Hebrews has no problem with that kind of issue. He is not evasive in the least. He comes straight to the point. And the point that he comes to is this. Jesus Christ is God's ultimate messenger. And here's how he says it. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. Now, He'll go on and say a few more things about His Son, and we will consider a few more things about His Son in the next couple of weeks. But the point really of today's message, and if you want to switch off now, you'll have heard the main point, is this. Jesus Christ is God's ultimate messenger. Now, in these opening words, as the writer to the Hebrews begins to make this point, There is one unifying thought that ties together a list of contrasts that he presents as he demonstrates that Jesus Christ is God's ultimate messenger. And the unifying thought is this, God has spoken. God has spoken. the creator of the heavens and the earth, the one who made us and against whom we have rebelled and gone our own way, he has spoken. He's spoken to this world, a world that turned its back on him. He sent a message. How did he send the message? Well, let us put, Firstly, consider when God spoke, when he gave the message. And this is the first of three contrasts that I want us to consider this morning as we think about Jesus Christ as God's ultimate messenger. The first contrast, when God spoke. He spoke, firstly, long ago. Now remember, it's a writer writing during the first century A.D. who is saying this. He's not speaking long ago from a 21st century position. It's even longer ago for us. Long ago, when long ago? Well, he spoke long ago by the prophets. by those men who were the spokespeople for God. So he's speaking about long ago in terms of certainly centuries from the time at which he would have been writing in probably the 60s AD. Long ago, God spoke. But God has also spoken, he says, in these last days. What are the last days of which he speaks? The Greek word that he uses here is the same word as we get the theological term eschatology from. And it essentially covers the period between the first and the second advents of Christ. Between him coming, born of a virgin, born under the law, in humble circumstances there in Bethlehem. and his second coming, when he will come with a trumpet blast, surrounded by angels in all his royal splendour. Between those two great advents of the second person of the Trinity are the last days. We live in the last days. This writer lived in the last days. We still live in the last days. And he has spoken, God has spoken in these last days. Now the time in which God spoke makes a difference in our understanding of the message that is given to the people. The fact that long ago was before the first advent of Christ, And these last days are after the first advent of Christ makes a difference to the message. The fact that long ago was before the fulfillment of so much of what was promised in scripture, and these last days are after their fulfillment. makes a big difference to the way that we understand the message of God for mankind. Long ago, the message was incomplete. Long ago, the message anticipated events of earth-shaking moments. In these last days, we have a completeness to the message of God. In these last days, we have a fulfillment of what was anticipated long ago. What came before pointed to that which Christ would do when he came. Long ago, God spoke. In these last days, God has spoken. And Christ is the prophet who speaks. Christ is the one who, not long ago, speaks. Not prior to the fulfillment of the promises, speaks. not in anticipation with an incomplete message. But Christ speaks as the prophet of fulfilment. Christ speaks as the one who is the culmination of all this prophecy. You remember on that road to Emmaus, he spoke to his disciples before they recognized who he was, and he opened up to them the Scriptures. And he showed them how throughout the Scriptures, they pointed to him. They pointed to the Christ. They pointed to how he would fulfill all those prophecies. But earlier in his ministry, in Luke's Gospel chapter four and verse 21, after he's opened the Scriptures in his hometown of Nazareth, in the synagogue there, he begins by saying to them, today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. You see, Jesus Christ, who spoke in the last days, spoke not only the message of God verbally, but he spoke it in his life. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the message of God. All that went before him pointed to him. All that came after him point back to him. It's all focused on him, the one who came in the last days and fulfilled the message of God and presented the message of God in new and living colours. with a radiance and a glory that before was hidden in types and shadows and symbolism. God spoke long ago, and God has spoken in these last days. The second contrast that is presented is one of how God spoke. Long ago, God spoke at many times and in many ways. He spoke by the prophets, plural. He spoke over the period of hundreds of years in different places by different means. He spoke to Adam in the cool of the day. He spoke to Moses and the people of Israel from Mount Sinai. He spoke to Samuel in an audible voice. He spoke to Daniel in dreams and visions. He used Isaiah and Haggai to speak to the people visually. God spoke at many times, in many ways, through many people. But God has, in these last days, spoken to us by his Son. We're lacking something here of a contrast. We've got many prophets on the one hand and the one sun on the other. We have many times and many ways on the one hand and nothing on the other. But the point that is being made here is that there is only one sun. and therefore there is only one way and one place and one time at which God speaks in him, through him, to his people. You see, this emphasises the finality of the message of God. What before was incomplete and anticipatory is now complete and fulfilled. That which was fragmentary, little bits and pieces of the whole message, given at different times in different places, it was progressive. Revelation built on revelation as decade gave way to decade and century to century and millennia to millennia as the revelation of God built and expanded and became more detailed, it progressed. Think of the children of Israel leaving Egypt, what did they have? the stories of their fathers passed down from generation to generation. But Moses was the first to put pen to paper, as it were, and to record for posterity the stories of God's dealing since the beginning of time to those current events. What did David have? David, who dream of a temple more glorious than the palace he had been able to build for himself, a place of dwelling for the living God. What did David have? Well, he had the Pentateuch, he had the books of Moses, he had some of the history, Joshua, Judges, Samuel may have had him his manuscripts to read, but he didn't have any of the prophecies. He didn't have Isaiah 53. You see, what they had was so limited. What they had was fragmentary. What they had progressed, certainly, but over long periods of time. And furthermore, what they had was simply representative. What they had was symbolic. What they had were pictures, illustrations, types. What they had was shadow. And you know, a shadow doesn't give you detail. A shadow gives you the outline, doesn't it? Of the thing that the brightness of the light is causing to be cast, that shadow. But you don't see the detail. You see a silhouette. You don't see the features. God spoke in many times and in many ways through many people, but in these last days he has spoken through his Son, who is the fullness of the revelation. He is the fullness of the message. No longer fragmented, but brought together and tidied up and packaged for us in his own person. No longer progressive, final. Now we know God's intention. Now we know God's will, now we know God's purpose, now we know God's plan of salvation, now we know it in its detail, not the outline, not the silhouette. We can see the features of it. We can see the details of it. We can marvel at the greatness of our God and the glory of our God and the love and compassion and mercy of our God as we see it in Christ Jesus. It's not representative. It's real. Jesus Christ is the ultimate messenger of God because Jesus Christ is the message of God. Christ speaks the Word as the incarnate Word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word came to us and dwelt among us, and we have beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Christ speaks the Word as the Word. Christ presents the message, who is the message, And Christ declares God as the Son of God. No longer messengers coming, no longer servants coming, but God himself coming into this world to reveal the fullness of the compassion and mercy of God for all who will hear, but we'll all hear. And that is the great question, isn't it? God's ultimate messenger has come, but are people listening to him? Reminds me of that parable that Jesus gave in Matthew's gospel in chapter 21. Here another parable Jesus said. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants, and beat one, killed another, stoned another, And again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying, they will respect my son. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance. And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to these tenants? They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons. That is Jesus. And that is the message of the Gospel, despised by some, embraced by others. God has spoken in these last days by his Son. The third contrast, to whom did God speak. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. Now, two things to emphasize here. The first is, in times past, he spoke to our fathers. The message was to them. The message was to a people living before the coming of Christ. The expectations of response to that message were within the context of the message given. The time, the place, the circumstances, the messengers. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. And God expected certain things of the people who heard the prophets. And he expected them to respond in certain ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. He has spoken to us who live in the last days. He has spoken to us who've come after the incarnation of the messenger. He comes to us who live after the fulfilment of the prophecies of old, after the finality of the revelation of God. He speaks to us who live, yes, today in the 21st century, and God expects certain things of us. And it's important that we understand this because if we read the Scriptures as though we lived prior to the incarnation, prior to the cross, and if we were to respond to the Scriptures as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as Moses, as David, As Daniel, my friends, we will fail, because we will still be hoping for something, not realizing that it has come, as sadly thousands and thousands of God-fearing people in the world do today, because they've missed the point. The ultimate messenger has come and has spoken to us, and he is the message. And we need to respond to Him, not to Moses, though Moses has much to teach us. Not to Isaiah, though his prophecy is glorious. But we must respond to Christ as people who live post-incarnation, post-Calvary. You see the difference? They all live seen the fulfilment of their hope, not receiving the promise as we will see in weeks to come. But we do, we have it all, and therefore there is a responsibility upon us to respond far more clearly than Abraham. and Moses and David and the others who lived long ago. All Scripture is profitable. All Scripture is useful to us. But there can be no doubt at all that some Scripture is better. The message of the new is clearer than the old covenant. The message that came through Christ is clearer than the message that came through the prophets. And we have a far greater responsibility because of the clarity of the message presented to us today. Later revelation we saw built upon and developed earlier revelation. But as I've already said, Christ turns those shadows in reality. He brings them to their culmination. And living this side of those great events and that great person, we have enormous responsibility before God. And this, my friends, is the point that the writer of Hebrews is trying to make. Here were a people who had embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, but for various reasons, among them intense persecution that they had undergone, they attempted to go back to the types and the shadows. They're tempted to live as though they were still living long ago, in the times and the ways of the prophets. And the writer to the Hebrews is saying, why go back? Why return to that which is inferior? What would you want to do going back to types and shadows when the reality can be yours? Why seek for anything when you have the ultimate messenger and the message of God so clearly? And this is the challenge to us today. We need to listen to Christ. We need to understand the message of Christ as it's given to us in the Scriptures. We need to take this message seriously. We need to exert ourselves to understand it and to apply it to our lives. For we have a great privilege. We have the message of God in its fullness, in its completion. And we err if we take that privilege lightly. And we walk dangerously if we deal with the message of God flippantly, lightheartedly. And we do the messenger of God a great disservice if we do not respond appropriately, for he is the message as well as being the messenger. Peter, in those words that I read from his second letter, emphasises this theme, that what we have received are not fables and not myths, but they are the message of God in the person of Jesus Christ. And on the basis of Christ, the messenger and the message, Peter exhorts these people, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure. If you practice these qualities, qualities that flow out of a response to the message of Christ, you will never fall. But in contrast to that, those who do not add these qualities to their lives, those who do not exert themselves to make their calling and election sure. Those who do not put on Christ will be cast out forever. God's ultimate messenger has come to us. Have you heard his voice? Have you obeyed his call? Are you showing forth his character in your life? Well, as we explore this book of Hebrews in the weeks to come, I trust that we will grow in our zeal to hear the message and to imitate the messenger to the glory of our God and Saviour.