The Son is Superior to Angels
Notes
Transcript
introduction
Jesus Christ is the better priest, and the better mediator, and that He is the final priest and the final sacrifice at the same time.
And the Holy Spirit teaches us here that Jesus Christ is superior to angels; to angels. Now, man is a wonderful and an amazing creation, certainly higher than the plants and the animals, whether simple animals or complex animals; higher than any other material creation in this world. But above man there is yet another created group even higher than man, and that created group are the angels.
Hebrews 2:9 indicates to us that angels are higher than humans, for it says that when Jesus became a man, He was a made a little lower than the angels.
But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.
So, angels have a place that is higher than men, in terms of special creation. Obviously, after the fall of the angels, they were no longer subject to sin. They are holy, they are powerful, they are wise. They do not suffer with the infirmities that men suffer with so they are specially created spirit beings, made by God before men were ever created; they were in the heavens, in fact, watching, when God was doing the creating, when He was making the world, and they were made higher than men - at least, higher than fallen men.
Angels are spirit beings, and Jesus said that a spirit does not have flesh and bones. Consequently, angels do not have flesh and bones like humans. They do have some sort of a body.
In 1 Cor. 15, the bible says there are bodies that are terrestrial and there are bodies that are celestial; there are bodies on earth and bodies of the heavens.
They do have a form and they are capable of appearing in human form. In Heb. 13:2, it talks about how we should treat strangers. They spoke at Christ’s resurrection in Matt. 28:3-4.
Matthew 28:2–4 (CSB)
There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.
Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
This isn’t just a new testament thing, humans wrestled with angels in the old testament.
They cannot procreate. They are not man and wife having little angels. Only men and women have little angels, until they grow up. There were no angels added to the original batch.
Matthew 22:28–30 (CSB)
In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.” Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.
They were all made at once, they don’t procreate which means the number of angels has not changed. A great number of them have fallen, but they still exist as they were created also. They are not subject to death. Nowhere does scripture indicate they die. They do not increase or decrease.
They are a direct creation of God and stand in immediate personal relationship with Him.
There are 108 references to angels in the OT and 165 in the NT. The OT saints were aware of them. They render intelligent worship and service to God; that’s why they were created.
They are intelligent. They are also emotional. The Bible talks about them rejoicing when a sinner is saved. They speak. They also have incredible speed sometimes being described as having as many as 6 wings.
Jude 6 tells us that they have special living conditions. They live in heaven, or the third heaven, where God is. When we think about being in the universe, I think angels are the beings throughout all the universe.
and the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.
They are countless ages older than men and they are innumerable. A numberless amount of them fell with Satan, but there are still numberless angels left. This is described in Daniel 7:10. This is mentioned again in Revelation.
Daniel 7:10 (CSB)
A river of fire was flowing, coming out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.
They are more powerful than man. This is why we have to call on divine power to deal with the fallen ones. What does Ephesians 6:12 say?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
They are organized and divided into ranks. Some are cherubim and some are seraphim. Some have names like Lucifer, Gabriel and Michael. Michael is the head of the armies of heaven and Gabriel is called the mighty one. They are spectators at all redemptive events.
They minister to God and they do his bidding. They ministered to Christ after his temptation.
They also aid the church by answering prayer, delivering from danger, encouraging Christians, and protecting children. They minister to the unsaved also, by announcing judgment and afflicting it - judgment angels.
That is the biblical look at angels. The Jewish people had a different opinion about angels at the time this book was written. Many of their views began to wander from the biblical view of angels due to Talmudic writings and rabbinical feelings and ideas. So when the author of Hebrews writes, he does so with the backdrop of the biblical view of angels but also with the Jewish view of the angels as well.
They believed that angels were very important and they were the highest beings next to God. They believed they were the mediators between man and God.
They believed that angels were created and that they did not eat or drink or have little angels. They believed that they were God’s senate and nothing was done without consulting the angels first. They were his council. They believed that when God said, “Let us make man”, he was speaking to the angels. Some jews believed that some objected to the creation of man but were annihilated for that objection.
They named the angels, giving them the names Raphael, Uriel, Thanuel, Gabriel and Michael- in case you didn’t know, El is a name of God.
They also believed that there were 200 angels who were in charge of moving the stars and keeping things in course. There was a super angel who controlled the never ending succession of days, months and years. The calendar angel. There were angels that controlled the elements.
There were so many angels, one rabbi said “every blade of grass has it’s angel.”
Now we have a biblical backdrop and a Jewish backdrop for angels. One last thing though is that we need to know the backdrop of Hebrews and why angels were addressed specifically. The Jews believed the OT was brought to them by angels. This, above everything else, exalted the angels in the mind of the Jews. They were the mediators between man and God; they kept things running between man and God, all the time, so they had a lofty view of angels.
This was seen in Acts 7:51-52.
“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
and again in Galatians 3:19.
Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.
Some of them believed in angels so much that they worshipped them. This developed into heresy known as Gnosticism. This involved worshipping angels and reducing Jesus to an angel.
Paul addresses this in Col. 2:18.
Let no one condemn you by delighting in ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm. Such people are inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind.
This is the backdrop to Hebrews 1:4-14.
What did He say (or not say) about Angels?
What did He say (or not say) about Angels?
Hebrews 1:4–5 (CSB)
So he became superior to the angels, just as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did he 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?
The writer proves the superiority of Christ by using 7 OT passages to verify it.
(address the septuagint-Septuagint was the Old Testament written, translated into Greek. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. By the time of Christ, there was such a tremendous number of Greek speaking Jews, that 70 men had gotten together and translated the old Hebrew into Greek, and that is the Septuagint. It is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. And evidently, the writer of Hebrews was a Greek culture individual, because when he quotes the Old Testament, he invariably quotes it from the Septuagint, or the Greek translation. And consequently, it varies slightly from the Hebrew translation. Not in truth or in fact, simply in translation.)
Read the 4th verse and then lead into the 5th...
We need to know that alot of cults and religious organizations at this point denied the deity of Christ. Some would point to the 4th verse and say he was made, thus not God. They confuse the greek word for become with the word made. Jesus always was, but he became better than the angels at his exaltation. This means that at one time he was lower than the angels. This was while he was man, but after the resurrection and ascension, he became better and back to where he was before he became a man.
This again is seen in Hebrews 2:9.
But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.
I will declare the Lord’s decree.
He said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals.
He has a better title.
He has a better title.
Hebrews 1:5 (CSB)
For to which of the angels did he 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?
lord (title)
His title was better. Verses 4-5 say this.
So when it is talking about the name he inherited, what was the name? Son. What angel did God say he would be the father of? The answer is no angel.
Remember, angels are servants, ministers, and messengers. Christ is the son, they are the servants. There is an obvious difference between the two.
Christ has been given, as Paul said, a name above what? Every name.
To show the difference between the son and the servant, the author quotes Psalm 2:7. He quotes their own text.
I will declare the Lord’s decree.
He said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
Then he quotes 2 Sam. 7:14.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals.
This was the prophecy that David would have a greater son.
In both of these OT verses, it talks of a son to come. Again, no doubt, angels are excellent creatures, of all God’s creatures, they are the most excellent. But if Christ has a more excellent name than the most excellent, He must have the most excellent name.
His worship makes Him better.
His worship makes Him better.
worship
Again, when he brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
And let all God’s angels worship him.
He is greater because of His worship.
Even though Christ humbled himself and made himself lower than the angels for a time, angels are to worship him.
If they are to worship him, then he must be what? Greater than them. And if this is true, his covenant is greater than the old covenant; Christianity is greater than Judaism.
In verse 6 says again, I’ll get back to this in a minute. But angels worshipping him comes from Psalm 97:7.
All who serve carved images,
those who boast in worthless idols, will be put to shame.
All the gods must worship him.
Again, this comes from the OT; the scriptures of the Jews. They shouldn’t be surprised by this.
Angels have always worshipped him throughout all time prior to his incarnation. They worshipped him as God, but now they worship him as son. It is an absolute sin and violation of God’s law to worship anyone but who? God. If God is saying all the angels worship him, then he must be God!
When we read the words firstborn, this isn’t referring to time. The word used in the greek is Prototokos. This isn’t a time word, it’s a position word. This means he is the chief of everything; the Sovereign.
The reason it is connected to firstborn is because the first son was usually the heir to everything. He became the chief of the estate.
There were two brothers in the OT; one named Jacob and the other Esau. Who was the oldest? Esau. Who was the Prototokos? Jacob. Genesis tells us about the character of the Prototokos.
Genesis 49:3
Reuben, you are my firstborn,
my strength and the firstfruits of my virility,
excelling in prominence, excelling in power.
This is the definition of the word. In Colossians it says...
Col 1:18
He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
This says he is the firstborn of the dead. Had anyone been resurrected before Jesus?
But this means he is the Prototokos of the dead. The chief one of the dead who has ever been raised. This is why firstborn can’t mean time but position.
Going back to the again in verse 6 that I told you to remember. What do you think that again means? “Again, when he brings his prototokos into the world...”. When is the again? I think it’s the second coming of christ. He already came once, but now this says again.
And then, let all the angels worship him. I don’t think the angels have the whole picture to give him full worship. They don’t understand everything now. Look at 1 Peter 1:11.
They inquired into what time or what circumstances the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified in advance to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
The prophets were searching about the sufferings and about the messiah trying to figure out what would happen. But then in 1 Peter 1:12. Christ eventually came, the answer to the old testament prophets’ questions. The gospel took place and the spirit preached, but what does it say about the angels?
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. These things have now been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.
They desire to catch a glimpse. They don’t understand it all yet. Maybe there are some angels who are in the presence of the throne who know what’s going to happen, but the vast do not. They haven’t been able to discern everything.
Back to the again, now they have the picture and their worship is complete.
The angels around the throne worship God now. There are angels who worship the son, but if we are reading this right, they are still looking into the things they don’t fully understand yet. But when Jesus returns how will they react?
Go to Revelation 5:5-11. (not on powerpoint)
This is where Christ begins his move to come again and to take the earth. He goes to the throne.
At the second coming, he is revealed in full glory as the son, prototokos. The angels will see it all then, he is king of kings and lord of lords.
He is greater than angels because God commands angels to worship him. If God, according to the OT, commanded the angels to worship his son, then his son must be God.