Long Ago, at Many Times and in Many Ways

Christ Restoration Church Sermons

Hebrews 1:1-14
January 19, 2025
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“It is significant that God does not present us with salvation in the form of an abstract truth, or a precise definition or a catchy slogan, but as story. . . Story is an invitation to participate, first through our imagination and then, if we will, by faith, with our total lives in response to God.”

“When we submit our lives to what we read in scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories, but our stories in God’s. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves. ”

~ Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), pastor, scholar and author

“The most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise… I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is the appointed consummation.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer and Christian apologist

“The deity of Christ is the key doctrine of the scriptures. Reject it, and the Bible becomes a jumble of words without any unifying theme. Accept it, and the Bible becomes an intelligible and ordered revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ.”

~ J. Oswald Sanders (1902-1992), New Zealand author, speaker and missions director

“The gospel is not just the illustration (even the best illustration) of an idea. It is the story of actions by which the human situation is irreversibly changed.”

~ Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), British theologian & missionary

Sermon Passage

Hebrews 1:1-14 (ESV)

¹ Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
⁵ For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father”?
Or again,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”?
⁶ And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
⁷ In speaking of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels spirits,
and his servants flames of fire.”
⁸ But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter
of your kingdom.
⁹ You have loved righteousness
and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God,
has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
¹⁰ He also says,
“In the beginning, Lord,
you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
¹¹ They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
¹² You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”
¹³ To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”?
¹⁴ Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?