HEBREWS 1:1-14 - Christ And His Rivals

Introduction

So tomorrow is the start of the spring semester at Penn State. One of the conversations that I regularly have with students in the spring semester (especially for students who want to start in January) is the issues that they have with scheduling courses. Students who begin in January can’t always jump right into the sequence of courses with students who began in August, because there are certain prerequisite courses that they missed because they weren’t enrolled in the Fall. You can’t jump straight into Anatomy and Physiology II if you haven’t started with A&P I—you’d be completely lost in the second course if you weren’t grounded in the first one!

The Book of Hebrews is like that—you will be completely lost in this book if you haven’t studied the prerequisite (the Old Testament!) If you have a Bible that sets Old Testament quotes in a different font or layout, you can flip through Hebrews and see that every single chapter is anchored down to an Old Testament text—in the thirteen chapters of this book there are about forty specific quotations from the Old Testament, and far more allusions and indirect references.

In fact, the structure of the book bears some remarkable parallels with the end of the Book of Deuteronomy—particularly chapters 31 and 32. Both begin with a prologue, followed by an historical background, some general stipulations followed by some specific stipulations, witnesses called, and then specific blessings and cursings. As I hope you will come to see throughout the course of this series, it is appropriate to look at the Book of Hebrews as a New Testament version of the Book of Deuteronomy—both books were written to the people of God to encourage, exhort and warn them as they stood on the brink of their conquest—Israel on the border of Canaan, and the Church on the brink of going into all nations with the Gospel.

An example of this is found in one of the most familiar verses in Hebrews—Hebrews 13:5 (usually the last portion of the verse is quoted):

Hebrews 13:5 (LSB)

“I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”

If we have not taken our prerequisite course in the Old Testament, we will miss the fact that the author is quoting here from the passage we read a few minutes ago in our worship--Deuteronomy 31:

Deuteronomy 31:5–6 (LSB)

“And Yahweh will give them over before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or be in dread of them, for Yahweh your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

The same promise is echoed to Joshua on the eastern bank of the Jordan River:

Joshua 1:3–5 (LSB)

“Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. “From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

We love to quote Hebrews 13:5 as a warm, fuzzy verse that we can cuddle up with on a rainy day—but the original context of that verse was more like the invasion of Normandy in World War II: Go and invade and conquer the Land I am giving you; I will never leave you nor forsake you in this fight!

Like the Israelites standing on the border of Canaan, the recipients of the book of Hebrews were standing at the edge of the Old Covenant order—Jerusalem and the Temple were about to be wiped off the face of the earth. And in the same way, we stand at the beginning of a new year, and we are looking out over a world that is being shaken to its very core. Our spiritual forebearers lost heart when they saw the giants that inhabited the land they were commanded to win, and they died in the wilderness because of their unbelief. In the same way, we have been commanded by God to move forward into a culture full of giants and opposition to our Lord. How do we avoid the failure of the Israelites and stand firm in faith?

The writer of Hebrews opens this New Testament Deuteronomy by giving his readers a glimpse of their Commander, the One Who has promised never to leave them, the One Who has all authority and power and omnipotent reign to conquer the world:

Hebrews 1:1–3 (LSB)

God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

The remainder of the first chapter of Hebrews is taken up with demonstrating and supporting these introductory verses—there are seven Old Testament passages that he cites here, and five of them relate to Christ’s supremacy over the nations and His present reign over all the kingdoms of the earth.

One of the reasons that the church has reacted with such cowardice and capitulation to the demands of the unbelieving world around us is because (like the Samaritans), we “don’t know who we are worshipping”. We have a tiny Christ, a gentle Jesus meek and mild Who cuddles lambs on His lap and wants you to know how special you are.

But the Christ revealed here in Hebrews is a far cry from the effeminate, limp-wristed Jesus that looks like He just stepped out of a Clairol commercial. This is the Christ revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures; a Savior that has torn the jaws of Death apart and Who smashes empires to pieces like pottery with the iron rod of His rule. This is what the Book of Hebrews shows you this morning, Christian:

COURAGE for the CONQUEST comes from CONFIDENCE in your COMMANDER

Look at the way the author of Hebrews portrays Jesus Christ in these three verses:

He is the heir of all things

He is the Creator of all worlds

He is the exact representation of the nature of God

He upholds all things by His powerful word

He has accomplished the cleansing for our sins

He sits at the right hand of all of God’s majestic power

These are weighty claims; but the author doesn’t merely make unsupported assertions; he goes to the Scriptures for every one of them.

And the first truth he demonstrates—the first reason for confidence in your commander, Christian, is that

I. Christ reigns as the RESURRECTED one (Hebrews 1:5a)

The first part of verse 5 says

Hebrews 1:5 (LSB)

For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”?

Over Christmas we noted that modern-day Arians (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses) who deny the deity of Christ will point to verses like this, “today I have begotten You” to “prove” their claim that “there once was a time when the Son was not”—that He is a created being, on the level of Michael the archangel.

But when we are careful to observe the Old Testament context of this quotation (from Psalm 2:7) and the way that it is quoted elsewhere in the New Testament, we find that the author of Hebrews is not referring to Jesus’ being brought into existence in some way; he is referring to the resurrection of Jesus.

This comes into focus when we understand how the other New Testament authors quoted Psalm 2. (Psalm 2 is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament). The Apostle Paul quotes the same verse from Psalm 2 when he declares that Christ’s resurrection is the fulfillment of God’s promises:

Acts 13:33 (LSB)

that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’

What the author of Hebrews is saying here in our text is not that Jesus is a created being who was “begotten” at a particular point in time, before which He did not exist. What he is saying about Christ here is that

He is the FIRSTBORN from among the DEAD (cp. Col. 1:18)

As Paul is exalting Christ in the opening of Colossians, he confesses that

Colossians 1:18 (LSB)

...He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Coming back to our text in Hebrews 1:5, (and answering our Arian friends along the way), the author of Hebrews says God never raised an angel from the dead! Confidence in your Commander, Christian, is rooted in His being the first one out of the tomb!

Death has no power over you, Christian! Your Commander is the firstborn from among the dead, and that means

He will show you the WAY out of the GRAVE (Romans 8:29)

There is a phrase tucked into the great Golden Chain of Salvation in Romans 8 that jumps off the page at you when you understand that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of the dead—the first Man to be resurrected. Romans 8:29 says

Romans 8:29 (LSB)

Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;

Being “conformed to the image of the Son” means that you will be brought out of the grave just as He was! Your King and Commander Jesus Christ was brought forth in resurrection—and in this way you will someday be His brother or sister in resurrection! As we sing at Easter, “Made like Him, like Him we rise!”

What greater assurance can you have as you face the conquest of an unbelieving world, Christian? That nothing they can do to you can harm you—the worst they can do to you is kill you—which will only usher you into immediate and eternal joy in the presence of Christ!

Courage in the conquest you are called to Christian, begins with the confidence in your Commander who reigns as the Resurrected One. And as we go through our text, we come to another Old Testament quotation; one that shows us

II. Christ reigns as the RIGHTFUL heir (Hebrews 1:5b-7)

Look again at verse 5

Hebrews 1:5 (LSB)

For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”?

This second quotation comes from 2 Samuel 7, where God is making His covenant with King David that he would have an heir to sit on his throne forever:

2 Samuel 7:12–14 (LSB)

“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up one of your seed after you, who will come forth from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me...

Jesus Christ is the heir of

The THRONE of His father DAVID

Jesus is the only One Who can fulfill this covenant with David, because He is the only King that will never die! Throughout the Old Testament, king after king rose to the throne of David, reigned for a time (either righteously or wickedly), and then died and “slept with his fathers”. But because Jesus Christ reigns as the Resurrected One, He has now taken up the reign of His father David. He reigns now as a result of His resurrection, not just someday in the future in His Second Coming.

The next quotation in verse 6 of our text comes from Psalm 97—it is a creation psalm, extolling the power of YHWH in the created order:

Psalm 97:3–7 (LSB)

Fire goes before Him And burns up His adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory. Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, Who boast of idols; Worship Him, all you gods!

Not only has Jesus Christ inherited the throne of His father David, He has also inherited

The DOMINION of our father ADAM (vv. 6-7)

The writer of Hebrews quotes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (here and throughout most of the book), which renders “worship Him, all you gods” as “let all the angels of God worship Him”. The psalmist says that all the gods of the earth (and all the angels of heaven) are to worship Him for His mighty supremacy over all creation. Worship Him for His authority over the earth and the coastlines and the lightning and thunder and mountains melting like wax and the heavens that declare His righteousness!

In Jesus Christ, we have fulfilled what God had intended in the Garden of Eden—the created order being ruled by a human image-bearer of God! Adam was created to be a human representative of God, subduing and ruling over all creation, starting from the Garden of Eden and making the whole world into the Planet of Eden.

But Adam fell into sin and rebellion and abdicated his role as vice-regent of YHWH on earth. Instead of ruling and subduing and taking dominion, Adam instead plunged the created order into misery and death.

And here in our text the writer of Hebrews is showing us in this quotation from Psalm 97 that Jesus succeeded where Adam failed! A human image-bearer of God now reigns over all creation! And the next quotation in Hebrews 1:7 from Psalm 104 demonstrates Christ’s utter and complete dominion over all the power of the natural world:

Psalm 104:1–4 (LSB)

Bless Yahweh, O my soul! O Yahweh my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, Wrapping Yourself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out the heavens like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He sets up the clouds to be His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind; He makes His angels the winds, His ministers flaming fire.

See once again how far superior Christ is to angels—the writer of Hebrews quotes the psalmist’s words about YHWH Himself and applies them to Christ! He is "the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature” (Heb. 1:3), and the hurricanes that batter the shorelines are His angels; the wildfires that devour the forests are His ministers! When a tornado rips through a Missouri town, when a forest fire blazes through a California resort, these are messengers from the throne of the almighty I AM, Jesus Christ!

Christian—your courage is rooted in the confidence you have in your Commander. Jesus Christ reigns as the resurrected one, He is the rightful heir of David’s throne and Adam’s dominion, and in verses 8-9 of our text we see that

III. Christ reigns in unquenchable GLADNESS (Hebrews 1:8-9)

Verses 8-9 are a quotation from Psalm 45, the psalm that we have been learning to sing over the past couple of weeks. Some psalms praise Him as a conqueror in the midst of battle, others praise Him as a gentle shepherd who tenderly leads His people. Psalm 45 is a song that depicts YHWH in the serenity and perfection of His reign; it is filled with descriptions of the peace and joy and regal majesty of a King at peace and at rest in His splendor:

Psalm 45:6–7 (LSB)

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your companions.

The inspired author of Hebrews applies this psalm of the tranquility and perfection of YHWH’s reign to Jesus Christ to show His people that

He is not hindered by WICKEDNESS (Ps. 45:6-7)

When Israel stood at the entrance to the Promised Land they quailed at the sight of the giants of the land and their well-defended fortress cities. And so the author of the New Testament Deuteronomy makes sure to fortify the New Covenant people with a vision of the unhindered power of their Commander. Jesus Christ is utterly untouched by the wickedness and darkness of the land we are called to conquer. He is not fretting over what He is going to do, the brightness of His reign is not at all dimmed by the fact that the nations are currently raging against Him—and so neither should His people!

Christian—the author of Hebrews quotes from a psalm of the serenity and delight of Christ in His untroubled reign in order that you may take up your Gospel conquest of this dark and troubled world knowing that

He is a happy WARRIOR

Hebrews 1:9 (LSB)

“YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.”

The reign of Christ has been anointed (Gk christos, Heb mesiach) with the oil of gladness (joyfulness, mirth). This sounds strange to modern sentiments that have been trained on slogans like “Love is love” and “Hate has no home here”. How can “hate” be compatible with “the oil of gladness??”

This is another reminder from the Scriptures that words like “love” and “hate” are transitive verbs—it matters what you love; it matters what you hate. God the Father has anointed God the Son’s reign with gladness because They both hate the same thing—lawlessness—and they both love the same thing—righteousness.

And you, Christian, are anointed with gladness and joy from your King when you love what He loves and hate what He hates. There is no room in these verses for the dour and sullen Christian that glares at the world around him with fear and apprehension. There is no call for the subjects of this King to take up the Gospel-conquest of the nations with anger or harsh attacks or heated arguments or thin-skinned knee-jerk reactions. Your King is a happy warrior, Whose reign is not troubled in the slightest by the wickedness and darkness arrayed against it. So take up His Word as your sword and go singing for joy into the field of battle as you follow your happy Warrior-King!

Courage for the conquest ahead of you, Christian, comes from confidence in your commander—the writer of Hebrews piles up Scripture upon Scripture to show you the character and power and authority and joy of your King—He reigns as the resurrected One, He reigns as the rightful heir of the throne of David and the dominion of Adam—and He reigns in unquenchable gladness because

IV. Christ reigns as OMNIPOTENT SOVEREIGN (Hebrews 1:10-14)

The next passage the writer of Hebrews quotes is one that we considered briefly on Christmas Eve Sunday during our Sunday School hour. Turn with me to Psalm 102, verses 25-28 (page 502 in the pew Bibles). This is a passage that glorifies YHWH as the eternal Creator God in contrast with the transient, fading nature of His enemies:

Psalm 102:25–28 (LSB)

“Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. “Even they will perish, but You will remain; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. “But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end. “The children of Your slaves will dwell securely, And their seed will be established before You.”

Contrary to our Arian friends who want to deny the full deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity, the writer of Hebrews specifically identifies Jesus as YHWH!

This again is what it means in Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus Christ

Hebrews 1:3 (LSB)

...is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power...

Jesus Christ reigns as omnipotent sovereign--

He CREATED and SUSTAINS the world (vv. 10-12; cp. Psalm 102:25-27)

Jesus Christ is the One Who laid the foundations of the earth six thousand years ago in Creation; He is the One Who stretched out the heavens and filled it with innumerable galaxies; He is the One Who will someday roll those same heavens up like a worn-out pair of faded and torn blue jeans. The galaxies will someday “wear out”—but your Sovereign King will never fade! All of the other sons of David that sat on his throne lived, reigned, failed and died—but your King, Christian, died first! Then He won his victory in His resurrection, and now He reigns forever! His years will never come to an end, He will be the same forever and ever—

He will RULE and SUBDUE all opposition (vv. 13-14)

The last passage that the writer quotes in this chapter comes from Psalm 110—this is one of the writer of Hebrews’ “go-to” psalms for teaching about the supremacy of Christ. It is a psalm written by King David about the supremacy of his Son that would come after him:

Psalm 110:1–3 (LSB)

Yahweh says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” Yahweh will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Have dominion in the midst of Your enemies.” Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power; In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn, The dew of Your youthfulness will be Yours.

By quoting the first verse of this psalm in our text, the author of Hebrews is showing his readers that the King that is calling them to the conquest of the nations that cannot fail! Even though we are surrounded by voices that yell in protest “We don’t want this Man to reign over us!”, the answer from Heaven is, “Too bad!” His dominion isn’t crippled by His enemies, He has been given “dominion in the midst of His enemies!” He is not waiting until His enemies are subdued before He takes up His reign—He is reigning while the nations rage against Him!

Christian, don’t quail in fear or give up in despair because the world around you is in full-fledged fight mode against the dominion of King Jesus—their opposition and rage is not a sign that there is something wrong with His reign; this is a feature of His reign! He is reigning now until all of those voices are silenced, until all of His enemies have been subdued under His feet.

There are no state legislatures that are able to keep Him off the primary ballot, there are no cancel-mongers who can take away His power, there are no other so-called gods or lords (angelic or demonic or human) that can do anything but submit to His reign in the end. He has won; He has been given His Kingdom, and He is the Sovereign Ruler of Heaven and Earth and all that fill them.

Your calling, then, is not to go out and try to convince everyone to let Jesus reign, or to get enough people together to agree to allow Him to rule. He rules now—your role is to go out and declare that He is King. Every week you are summoned to the presence of His Royal Majesty, King Jesus, to render Him the worship and honor and praise and glory He is due, to confess your sins before Him and rejoice in the cleansing for your sins that He has accomplished through His blood that He shed on the Cross. You hear Him speak to you through His Word so that you may be conformed more and more into His own character and likeness and fight an ever more effective battle against the sin that still wars within you. He feeds you with the bread and cup by which you proclaim His death for sinners and seals His covenant to save them, and then He sends you out as His royal delegate, consecrated and authorized to offer His terms of peace to a hostile and lawless world.

There is no threat of death that can stop you, for your King has already died and has shown the way out of the grave. There is no wickedness or lawlessness or blasphemy or slander or ridicule that can quench your joy, for in Him you have been anointed with the oil of gladness in His love of righteousness and hatred of lawlessness. There is no power in heaven or on earth that can thwart His decrees, for He made them both and will someday roll them up like a scroll to make way for a new heaven and earth. See the power and authority and majesty of your King and commander and take courage for the conquest He calls you to!

And if you are here this morning and you are still holding out against this King, can you see from God’s Word here that you have no hope of resisting Him? He is the Resurrected One: He holds the power of life and death over you, and there is nowhere you can go—the heavens and earth and all that fill them are His; the very winds and fire are His servants to declare to you His authority. He reigns over you whether you will have Him or not; He holds the authority of life or death over you whether you will admit it or not. His hatred of your lawlessness is perilous, and you know that if He were to number them one by one you would never stand a chance. He has all authority and every right to consume you utterly for your rebellion against His reign—but He has brought you here today to hear His terms for surrender.

Confess your guilt before Him—you can’t hide it or deny it or cover it up before Him because He is the One Who sees and knows and holds all things, even the innermost thoughts of your heart. Plead with Him for the cleansing for your sins—there is no way you can accomplish that cleansing on your own; none of your own attempts at goodness or atonement can do what He accomplished by His death on the Cross. Own Him as your Sovereign, lay at His feet everything that you are, everything that you want to be—all your plans and dreams and goals and aspirations must all belong to Him. He has graciously extended His invitation to you by His Word and on His behalf by the testimony of His people gathered here with you; He will hear you, He will save you. So come—and welcome!—to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

1 Timothy 1:17 (LSB)

Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________