Untitled Sermon (3)

Hebrews 1:4-14

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 begotten you”?

Or again,

“I will be to him a father,

and he shall be to me a son”?

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”

7 Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,

and his ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

9  You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you

with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,

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  like a robe you will roll them up,

like a garment they will be changed.

But you are the same,

and your years will have no end.”

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Pray

I think my earliest thought about the English monarchy was from the 1973 Disney version of Robin Hood with that great soundtrack by Roger Miller. I was actually whistling one of the songs earlier this week. If you don’t know the story King Richard is off fighting in the crusades and Prince John is in charge and taxing all of the citizens to the poor house. Robin Hood steals from the Prince and give it back to the citizens and foils the plans of Prince John until King Richard returns.

The thing that always got me about that movie was when the King returned, everyone bowed down to him as if he was a god-like figure. He was different. He was higher than they were. He would make all things right and he did.

King Richard was never a peasant. He was born into royalty, much like the English crown today. They do not know what it is like to be a part of the rabble. That specific line of people were put there by God to rule. They are worthy to be honored just due to their position.

For those of you that disagree, I would point you to Romans 13:1-2

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

There is a supremacy of Christ that we must take into consideration when we think of Him. We, like the movie Talladega Nights, tend to see Jesus in the way that we like to best imagine Him. In that movie, the character liked to pray to the baby Jesus in His golden fleece diaper. We think that is funny, but we often do not view Jesus with the reverence that we ought.

Some of us like to see Jesus as easy going hippy that spoke of nothing but love and peace and sharing in community. Some of us only want to see the Jesus that turns over the tables and challenges corrupt power. Others just want to see Him as a man, like you and me.

The danger of this thinking is that we think too low of the sovereign King of the universe. If we go back and reread verse 3 of chapter 1 of Hebrews we see something extraordinary.

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.

Jesus is different. Though he was fully man, that is not all He is. Though He did preach of love, he also preached of wrath. Though He taught that his yoke was easy and His burden was light, he also said that you must pick up your cross daily and die to yourself.

If we think of Him as anything less than the King of Glory, then we are missing the boat. He is king by his very birthright that was granted Him by the Father. He was forever with the Father in eternity past. They have always been in relationship with one another. When we see language like in verse 4, “having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited”, we are not saying that he was created and then he earned it. The Scripture is saying that, as we will see, Jesus came to the earth as a child and grew as a child does and for a time he was lower than the angels in his earthly stature. We will explore this more in the coming weeks, but that does not speak of his eternality but of his time on earth where He came to be with us to live out this human experience so that He could be the great sympathetic high priest.

Jesus is and was always. He has always existed. His role has always been one with the Father. He is superior even to the angels by His very Sonship. The author of Hebrews makes this case for us.

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?

This text is taken from Psalm 2. Suffice it to say that the writer of the New Testament, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, knows what the Old Testament means better than we do. We are going to see this throughout this chapter. The author is going to continue to tell you what these OT passages mean in light of Jesus. It is good to go back and read those Scriptures in context. When you do that you see a bigger picture of who Jesus is. Here is the context, we are going to start at verse 1.

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Now listen, a skeptic could say that this was written by King David about King David because he too was anointed by God, but our friend who wrote Hebrews is telling us that this IS about David, but it is also about Jesus, the Messiah. We will see this as we continue reading.

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

God never said this about David that he was begotten of God. This word begotten in Greek is monogenes. The word actually means “one of a kind” or “one and only” or “the only one of its class” or “special relationship”. This must only be about the coming Messiah that would come from the line of David. As we read the next verses in Psalm 2, they are about the one whom God has begotten.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

This is a kingdom that David could never be the head over. All of the nations of the earth had not been conquered under David. This is a kingdom that could only be reigned over by God himself.

There is no man or angel that was promised such an inheritance or such a power to deliver wrath or blessing if anyone took refuge in them.

The author of Hebrews continues

Or again,

“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?

This text comes from Psalm 89:27,27. When we look at the context of this passage in Psalm 89, at first glance it looks to only be about King David, but as you read it you will find that it couldn’t just speak of David as his earthly kingdom did not last. We can only look at David as a type and shadow of what is to come with the better David, Jesus. At the end of that section in Psalm 89: 36-37

His offspring shall endure forever,

his throne as long as the sun before me.

Like the moon it shall be established forever,

a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

Those who follow and serve Christ will last forever. Christ’ throne is eternal and will last as long as there is a sun and moon in the sky. This promise is not given to men or angels.

When we look at Jesus as King and we read this next verse in Hebrews, we see His worthiness to be praised and honored.

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”

If you have been following along, you might have the question, “Why is there so much talk about Jesus being better than angels?” Angel worship was a big thing in the early church. In Colossians, Paul warns against worshipping angels in Colossians 2:18, saying that it will disqualify you for ministry. In Revelation 22:8-9, John almost falls into this trap.

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that!

This is, evidently, a big problem. When the writer of Hebrews gives us this reference from Deuteronomy that says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” He is saying, “Why would you worship something that worships someone else?” If someone has all power and glory, why would you worship a lesser thing. In the early church, angel worship was just another way of worshipping idols.

John tells us as we continue that Revelation 22 verse that we are not supposed to worship angels because they are

.. fellow servants with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

They are messengers and servants of God. As the Hebrews passage continues in verse 7, the writer goes into further Scripture to support this claim.

7 Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,

and his ministers a flame of fire.”

If you read the full context of that verse in Psalm 104, the psalmist is saying how great God is.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, you are very great!

You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

2  covering yourself with light as with a garment,

stretching out the heavens like a tent.

3  He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;

he makes the clouds his chariot;

he rides on the wings of the wind;

4  he makes his messengers winds,

his ministers a flaming fire.

This distinction is so crucial to our understanding of who Jesus is. He is not a servant of the king, he is the King. He is the one whom the angels serve. He is the object of our and their worship.

The author of Hebrews goes on to further the point.

8 But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,

the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

9  You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you

with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

This is a quotation from David, the earthly king of Israel, knowing his place in the grand scheme of things that a Messiah would come that would be greater than he, that he would bow down to. This King would love righteousness and hate wickedness on a holy level and would exact justice in a way that would not be paralleled.

That King David also wrote this next Psalm quoted by the Hebrews author.

10 And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,

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  like a robe you will roll them up,

like a garment they will be changed.

But you are the same,

and your years will have no end.”

There is a humility that we all should have, whatever position that we have, whatever wealth we have, whatever physical vigor that we have, we should stand in awe of the all powerful king that made us and everything that we see.

We don’t quite understand it as someone would 150 years ago. When you would approach an earthly king, you had to exhibit some sort of reverence or they could kill you. I know the ladies have been studying Esther. When Mordecai told Esther what was happening to the Jews, why was she nervous to approach the king? If she did it without being invited, what would happen? She could be killed. The only thing we can relate to in that regard today is approaching a leader to get on their good side and not offend them so that they will listen to our plight and we can get what we want, but in the past there was serious danger in approaching a king the wrong way.

Today we have this cavalier approach to Jesus because we don’t think about his power as we should. We should approach Him, yes, as a friend, as a brother, but He is also our God and He deserves respect. He is the same God as is in the Old Testament. That wrath is still a part of His nature. He does discipline and He does demand respect.

Growing up, as a boy, you get bigger, you start working out, you get a little scrappy and it is very normal for a young man to see how big his britches are with his father, so I remember taking some playful shots with my dad and trying to wrestle him. While my dad is loving a kind, he also has strength and wrath. He is quicker than he seems and my friends and I all found that out the hard way. In my horsing around with my dad, I never won and he told me one day that no matter how big I got, he would always be able to take me.

We can’t forget all of the attributes of our God. He is all things and we must honor Him.

The monogenes, only begotton, one of a kind title of Jesus is further demonstrated in verse 13 of Hebrews 1.

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,

“Sit at my right hand

until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

There is a seat of honor that Jesus gets. It is his rightful place at the Father’s right hand. In kingdoms in the part of the world where the Hebrews would have lived, to sit at the right hand of a king was to have the place of honor, authority and special favor. This person would be the one that carries out the Monarch’s will. We see this in the person of Jesus. He is the Word of God. All things were created through Him and by Him and for Him. When Jesus had his earthly ministry, he said in John 6:38,

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus is special in His relationship in the God head of the trinity. He has a role to play, doing the will of the Father, namely being the sacrifice in which people can approach a Holy God. The Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son to draw us near to the Father, when we put on Christ, exchanging our life for His, when we approach the throne, the Father sees not our sin, but His perfect Son which then makes us accepted before the Lord.

The angels help and are God’s messengers. Our friend, writing Hebrews says of the angels in verse 14.

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

I want to speak briefly about angels and their roles.

They aid in the transmission of God’s word. We will see next week about the giving of the Law to Moses through angels.

They execute judgment from God. Sometimes they are used as executioners from God and other times they administer plagues.

Angels exist to serve their God and to worship Him.

They wage spiritual battles against forces of darkness that try and thwart the plans of God.

They deliver messages like to Mary to tell her that she will have a child and His name is to be called Jesus.

We could spend weeks breaking down all of the roles of the angels and go through all of the Scripture passages that talk about their roles, but their main role is to serve those who have inherited salvation.

This difference between is the largest one between Jesus and angels and I really believe that this is the point that the writer of Hebrews is trying to drive home.

When I was a child, I had a nanny. Her name was MeMe. She was a sweet woman from Pennsylvania. She loved me and cared for me for a few years before I went to school. She should probably be credited as to why I am not left handed. Every time I used my left hand to eat or color, she would spank my hand and put the crayon or utensil in my right hand. She is also probably the reason why I love and sing country music. She would not let me watch anything but Country Music Television. She cooked and cleaned for the family. She served us for not much money at all. As much as I loved her and appreciated her, she was not my mother. She was a helper to my mother. There is a big distinction between those roles. She could never be my mother because my mother gave me life and MeMe didn’t have that power.

The angels serve those who have inherited salvation, they are not the ones that give that salvation. Jesus is much better than the angels because He is the author and perfecter of our faith and salvation. He deserves all the praise and worship and we are thankful for His creation, including the angels who are there to help us and we get to worship the Son WITH them for all eternity. Amen.