The Supremacy of Christ
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2 The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
5 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?
6 Again, when he brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
And let all God’s angels worship him.
7 And about the angels he says:
He makes his angels winds,
and his servants a fiery flame,
8 but to the Son:
Your throne, O God,
is forever and ever,
and the scepter of your kingdom
is a scepter of justice.
9 You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness;
this is why God, your God,
has anointed you
with the oil of joy
beyond your companions.
10 And:
In the beginning, Lord,
you established the earth,
and the heavens are the works of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain.
They will all wear out like clothing;
12 you will roll them up like a cloak,
and they will be changed like clothing.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.
13 Now to which of the angels has he ever said:
Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve those who are going to inherit salvation?
Introduction
Introduction
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching What Do We Mean?
In 1952 pupils in a New York public school were invited by their teacher to mention things associated with Christmas. The children responded spontaneously: “Santa Claus,” “Reindeer,” “Christmas trees,” “presents.” Then a pensive little girl said, “The birthday of Jesus.”
“Oh, no,” the teacher replied quickly, “that’s not what we mean.”
I’m sure that the sentiment of the teacher is how much people treat Christmas this year, too. Online sales are up, the shops are busier. Presents given and received. Food and drink consumed and yet…
A son is born. Yet He is eternal, He is uncreated, yet He came and took on the form of man. Yet He is God, His is the Kingdom, yet He was born in a barn. Yet we are His creation and all the universe, He lives forever, yet His creation put Him to death though He can never die.
Who can understand the mysteries of God?
Today we are looking at the supremacy of Christ by looking especially at the verses in Hebrews 1. I am hoping that we will look more closely at the Book of Hebrews in the New Year. Here the writer of Hebrews is asking the question: Who is greater: Angels or Jesus? Robbie Williams in his catchy pop song says that “he is loving angels instead” missing indeed the creator.
But what do angels do? Another time we’ll come to what they are. Very briefly, angels have at least four roles:
They continually worship and praise God
They communicate God’s message to people
They minister to believers
They will be God’s agents in the final judgement and Jesus’ second advent
Who is greater, then, angels or Jesus? Well, the writer of Hebrews tells us in unmistakable tones:
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.
Yet, as we find, Jesus was not created but is from forever to forever. The confusion was Jesus as Man and as God and those who received this letter were more concentrated upon Jesus as a Man thinking this made Him lower than the angels but they had not understood that He was fully God and fully man.
To make the argument the writer quotes seven times from the Old Testament and we are going to look at each in turn as to why Jesus is superior to the angels and everything else...
The first two Old Testament readings reveal that Jesus has a superior name:
The first two Old Testament readings reveal that Jesus has a superior name:
1 Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand,
and the rulers conspire together
against the Lord and his Anointed One:
3 “Let’s tear off their chains
and throw their ropes off of us.”
4 The one enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord ridicules them.
5 Then he speaks to them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath:
6 “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”
7 I will declare the Lord’s decree.
He said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.
8 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance
and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You will break them with an iron scepter;
you will shatter them like pottery.”
10 So now, kings, be wise;
receive instruction, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with reverential awe
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Pay homage to the Son or he will be angry
and you will perish in your rebellion,
for his anger may ignite at any moment.
All who take refuge in him are happy.
And we read the fulfilment in:
11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
None other has the name of the Son. He already existed and is eternal. Without beginning, without end. But into this world He came as a babe, still intact as God, revealing His nature to the world as One who is Father and Son, as One who loves the world so much that the Son was sent begotten, not made.
The second reading comes from:
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.
Preaching the Word: Hebrews Vol 1&2—An Anchor for the Soul A Superior Name
Jesus is superior to the angels because he always was God’s Son and because two Old Testament sonship prophecies were marvelously fulfilled by him at his incarnation and resurrection and exaltation. His name is “Son,” while all that can be said of angels is that they are messengers
The whole ministry of the Christ is included in the promises from His birth to His death to His resurrection to His everlasting Kingdom on the Throne of David we saw in the reading we heard at the beginning:
7 The dominion will be vast,
and its prosperity will never end.
He will reign on the throne of David
and over his kingdom,
to establish and sustain it
with justice and righteousness from now on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.
Not only that, He is the firstborn which is a title given to Jesus. What does this mean? He preceded all others in time or space. He had all the rights and privileges that accompany being firstborn. It does not mean that He was created. It is used in other places such as
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
It just means that Jesus has a name that is superior to any other name for He was before anything else was.
The third of the seven quotes reveals Jesus has a superior honour
The third of the seven quotes reveals Jesus has a superior honour
43 Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him, for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.
Who does worship belong to? We should not and cannot worship humans or angels. As I have already said some were trying to put angels above Jesus yet it is these same angels who worship Him – you do not worship things that are less but those things that are greater and worship belongs to only one, in the Jewish mind, and rightly so, worship belongs to God. And we find that Jesus is worshipped by angels at His birth on earth:
13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
14 Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to people he favors!
And it is these same angels with multitudes of others who worship and will worship:
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. 12 They said with a loud voice,
Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing!
13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say,
Blessing and honor and glory and power
be to the one seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb, forever and ever!
Jesus has a Superior Status
Jesus has a Superior Status
according to the fourth and fifth of the seven quotes. The first of these is found in verse 6 and is quoted from:
4 Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire.
Angels are simply messengers – and what are they messengers of? Jesus is the message. His superiority over the angels is established and established. It was angels who announced the birth of Jesus, who pointed the way to Him.
But the fifth quotation establishes once and for all that Christ is God. Not that we have not already seen this from the fact that angels worship Him but right here in verse 8 and 9 is a quotation from
6 Your throne, God, is forever and ever;
the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy
more than your companions.
Verse 8 in Hebrews 1 makes it perfectly clear that this is addressed to Jesus: And to the Son he says: Your throne, O God. The word ‘God’ here is the word Yahweh. God with a capital G. It is irrefutable.
Of course there are many other verses which establish that Jesus is God such as:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
28 Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!”
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Not only does this quotation deal with the fact that He is God but also establishes the Trinity. It is addressed to Your throne, O God, and then goes on to say, God, your God has anointed you. Here we see Jesus in the first address: O God. Then we have the Father God, your God. And who is left but the Spirit by whom Jesus is anointed.
The angels are but servants but Jesus is the eternally enthroned, authorised, sceptred, anointed sovereign.
This brings us to the next way Jesus has supremacy:
Jesus has a Superior Existence
Jesus has a Superior Existence
The sixth quotation is from
25 Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
26 They will perish, but You will endure;
Yes, they will all grow old like a garment;
Like a cloak You will change them,
And they will be changed.
27 But You are the same,
And Your years will have no end.
This is evidence that Jesus is the One who is the everlasting creator. He is eternal and uncreated, unchanging. I love the great messianic Psalm that is:
For the choir director: on the Gittith. A psalm of David.
1 Lord, our Lord,
how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
You have covered the heavens with your majesty.
2 From the mouths of infants and nursing babies,
you have established a stronghold
on account of your adversaries
in order to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I observe your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you set in place,
4 what is a human being that you remember him,
a son of man that you look after him?
5 You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all the sheep and oxen,
as well as the animals in the wild,
8 the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea
that pass through the currents of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
Who is this about? None other than our Lord and Christ, Jesus the Lord who came to visit man and raised us to the heights of His throne. How much more superior than angels is Jesus. He created the angels, they worship Him, they give Jesus the honour due to Him and they spread the message of Him. And Jesus will outlast all the material universe and He Himself is immortal and He is the famous quote from
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The last proof of Jesus supremacy is that:
Jesus has a superior vocation
Jesus has a superior vocation
The last of the seven quotations from the Old Testament found in verse 13 and is a quote from:
1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
The divine honour that belongs to Jesus will soon find His inheritance being given to Him at the end of days.
The angels are His servants sent to minister to those who are His inheritance and those who will share in reigning with Him. And there are incredible stories of what angels have done in protection God’s people and in some of the most basic of affairs.
A friend told me the story of when he was in a hill car park when his car slipped over the edge. He was able to get out of the car but all his worldly possessions were in it as he was homeless. The problem was that the car was stuck. He asked God for help and no sooner had he done so that a tow truck drove up to the car park, which was not lit and down a track. The man got out of the truck without a word, hitched up a chain to my friend’s car and pulled it out. Unhitched the chain, got back in the vehicle and drove off leaving my mate standing there trying to comprehend what had happened. In fact as the stranger was about to drive off my mate asked him whether he was an angel to which he received a smile but no answer.
The fact is angels serve: Jesus rules. None of the angels will rule. It is their privilege to serve Jesus and us. Wow! And they are sent by Him to help us. Jesus’ role or vocation is to rule over the Kingdom:
9 For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
11 and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Even His enemies will have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and Supreme over all.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It is firmly established that despite the fact that Jesus was born as a baby on that infamous night in the worst of circumstances in a backwater that was known as the Bethlehem – He is in fact God almighty, the eternal One, Wonderful, Counsellor, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace and His Kingdom and Government will know no end. At the same time He is fully man, one who understands us, one who mediates for us:
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus,
He forever intercedes for us.
Jesus is supreme over all. It is revealed in the fact that
Preaching the Word: Hebrews Vol 1&2—An Anchor for the Soul A Superior Vocation
he has a superior name—he is Son; a superior honor—all the angels worship him; a superior vocation—he is Sovereign King; a superior existence—he is eternal and unchangeable; a superior status—he rules the universe.
Today we come to worship Him who lives forever, who reigns on high, who has welcomed us into His family to share in His inheritance – the One who is Sovereign. What a privilege to meditate on Him. Christmas is a time for us to concentrate on Him, to remember the gift given to us.
1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Loving Christ
On Christmas Day some years ago, a little boy was seen going in and out of his church several times. When asked, “What gift did you ask of the Christ child?” he replied, “I didn’t ask for anything. I was just in there loving Him for a little while.”
Let us, like this boy and like the angels who worship Him give Him the honour due to His name. Let us recognise that He is above us just as He is above the angels. Let Jesus be Lord of our lives this Christmas time.
Benediction
Benediction
12 They said with a loud voice,
Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing!
13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say,
Blessing and honor and glory and power
be to the one seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb, forever and ever!
Bibliography
Bibliography
Hughes, R. K. (1993). Hebrews: an anchor for the soul. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
Jones, G. C. (1986). 1000 illustrations for preaching and teaching. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 13:45 16 December 2018.