The Final Word: The Supremacy of God’s Son

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

~Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983), imprisoned for hiding Jews from the Nazis

“Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity.”

~Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), writer of “O Little Town of Bethlehem”

“He, who first spoke through patriarchs and prophets, afterwards spoke in his own person…saying, therefore, ‘Now, in my own person, I speak of him of whom I spoke through the prophets.’ The world could not hear him in his thundering, but may it hear him, at least, in his crying.”

~St Jerome (c.342-420), theologian and Bible translator

“The majesty of the Father is expressly imaged in the greatness of the power of the Son, that the one may be believed to be as great as the other…. So, the apostle delivered to us the continuity and eternity of that existence which the Only Begotten has of the Father, calling the Son ‘the brightness of God’s glory.’”

~Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-c.394), theologian and bishop

“Therefore, he is true God, existing consubstantially with the true Father…. For he is the ‘very stamp’ of the Father’s ‘being,’ and ‘light’ from ‘light,’ and the ‘power’ and true ‘image’ of the Father’s substance.”

~Athanasius (c.296-373), theologian and church leader from Alexandria, Egypt

“‘You are no saint,’ says the devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink or swim, I go to Him; other hope, I have none.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

~Traditional African American spiritual, first published in 1927

SERMON PASSAGE

Hebrews 1:1-4 (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.