The Better Messenger

As always, it is a honor to be here today presenting the Word of God.

Today, we are continuing to step through the book of Hebrews as we look at the idea of better. Before we get into our text today, I’d like to touch back on something that we mentioned last week. I suggested that humans have a natural disposition for finding “better” because eternity has been written our hearts. Being made in the image of God, we know that there is something bigger and better than us beyond what we can see.

Understanding the imago dei, humans being made in the image of God, helps us understand God’s plan for His creature. We don’t have the time be exhaustive on this subject today, but in short, because humans are made in the image of God part of that means we have been endowed with intellect, emotions, a will, like our Maker has. Because we are made in the image of God we also possess creativity, [we are an] inventing, fabricating, synthesizing, music making, and artwork creating [people]. (GotQuestions)

Humans are both imaginative and have eternity written on our hearts. That is why people are so great at coming up with fantasy worlds. We can think of examples such as CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Movies of Superheroes with fantastical powers dominate the box office every summer. People flock to these movies because they are an exploration of life beyond the everyday realities they live in. They push us to use our God given imaginations.

In principle, using our imaginations is a great thing. We must even realize that the Bible does not condemn a person reading, writing, or watching a tale of fiction. Scripture even uses story to illustrate truth quite often.

But we must be weary of allowing imaginative fantasies dictate objective reality. The innate sense of better leads us to imagine, which is a great and fun thing, but we must not let the fantasies of a fallen mind supplant the realities of God’s revealed truth.

The Bible says,

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

At the end of the day, everything we do, including the kinds of content we consume, should be pointing us back towards the goodness, truthfulness, pureness, loveliness, excellence revealed to us by God and explained in His Word.

Here is what I am getting at: Everything in our lives, the things we do, the things we consume, even the things we dream about, the fantastical stories we read and write, are only beneficial to us when they flow from, and compliment the truth of God’s Word.

Now, I am sure at this point, all of you are thinking, where is he going with this? I promise this is coming to a point. Stay with me here. We must not think that any and all uses of fiction and entertainment in and of themselves are the devil. That would be adding the Scripture just as the pharisees did to form the extra commandments of men. At the same time, we must use discernment, dwell on things that are congruent to God’s Word, and guard ourselves from false teachings that seek to influence our beliefs through the content we consume.

Too often, we allow secular, imaginative, or extrabiblical ideology to influence what we think about the way God works and the truth that He has revealed. While this happens in all facets of theology, today, in Hebrews 1, our attention is brought towards angels.

You see, we have a problem in common with that of the original recipients of this letter. We misunderstand angels.

Angels can be found all throughout our pop culture, however it is imperative that we gain our understanding of the heavenly hosts from Scripture and not from our yearly viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life. We need to understand that when our loved ones pass, they don’t then become angels. Angels aren’t running around fixing baseball games to promote a godless faith in humanity. They aren’t precious moments figurines.

But they are absolutely real. They are truly fascinating creatures. It is no wonder that there is confusion in this topic. One theologian described

Christian Theology, 3rd ed. Outline

the topic of angels as the “most remarkable and difficult of all.”

This causes some people, pastors, and churches to skip over the discussion of the topic. However, when the church neglects to speak on something, the lost world will have no problem filling in the gaps, which is part of the reason why there is so much confusion on the topic to begin with.

Allow me to give you a brief survey of what Scripture shows us about the angels.

We are not told exactly when God created the angels, but we are told that they were there when God created the world. (Job 38:4-7)

We will see in our text today that they are spiritual beings, but we also know that they can appear in human form (Hebrews 13:2).

They are intelligent creatures with emotions (Luke 15:10)

They do not marry one another in heaven (Matthew 22:28-30)

The number of angels is beyond what we could comprehend. Could be in the trillions (Dan 7:10)

The unfallen angels reside in heaven (Mark 13:32)

A great number of angels fell with Lucifer, Satan, and stand in rebellion to God (Isaiah 14:12; Revelation 12).

The Bible reveals many eye opening and even wondrous truths about angels. I can see where the inspiration for myths and stories about these creatures come from. But while these heavenly hosts undoubtedly amaze us, we must also remember one central truth. THEY ARE NOT GOD.

And that is what the Spirit was getting across in our section of Hebrews today. The Hebrew people had elevated the angels above where they should be.

Open your Bibles to Hebrews 1. The theme of this series is that Jesus is better beyond all measure. He is better than any comparison. He is better than we could ever hope to imagine. By the time this letter was written in the first century AD, many of the jewish people had begun to lift up the position of angels to a level that was almost polytheistic. Instead of seeing the glory of the triune God when He said, said let US make man in OUR image, many hebrews were deceived into believing the US was God AND the angels. They believed that a group of 200 angels controlled the movement of the stars, that there was a calendar angel who controlled the continuation of day after day. Some would be other the seas, the land, the water. It was akin to the pantheon of Greek gods with an individual entity being over each aspect of life. These misguided jewish believed that the angels mediated the Old Covenant.

So the Holy Spirit uses the truth of Jesus and the Word of God to set the record straight on the position of angels.

Hear me out, the angels are an amazing part of God’s creation. But when we stare at the beauty of a Sunset, we don’t then worship the Sunset but the Creator from whom the sunset was given. In the same way, we can look at the angels with wonder and aw, but not in worship of them, but rather in worship of the One who created them.

Jesus is better than the Angels. In our text today we are given six reasons why Jesus is better than the angels:

Hebrews 1:3–4 (ESV)

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The first reason Jesus is better than the angels is what He has done and He alone.

1. Who Did It

Last week we spent time walking through the excellencies of Jesus. These are reasons why we should be praising Him. We saw that He is the Heir, the hand of creation, the radiance, the perfect administer of the entire universe. The second part of verse three here in Hebrews 1, draws our attention to the mighty work He has accomplished.

In just 5 quick words, the Spirit has communicated the most impactful action ever taken in this world. “After making purification for sins.”

This is a big deal. This is THE deal. Jesus Christ, has made purification for sins! This shows us two important truths. 1. Sin needs to be purified. 2. Jesus provides the purification. This is laid out so simply but we must not look past it. Sin has plagued humanity ever since the Fall in the garden of Eden. Man has been dealing with sin through our broken relationships with one another, through our continued trek down the road of depravity, when we are all honest with ourselves we know that we so often fall short of perfection. We so often hurt others. We so often put our desires ahead of everything else no matter the cost. Our sin has a cost. Our sin has severed a relationship with the Holy, Perfect God. A price must be paid to have our sin purified. That price was paid by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Christ made purification for sins! When Christ died on the cross He wasn’t just modeling what it means to sacrifice for those you love. He was quite literally taking the wrath of God owed for the sins of all those who would ever believe in Him.

He then sat down at the right hand of the Father. His sitting represents a few wonderful things. It is a sign of honor for the greatness of what He accomplished. It shows authority, that He truly is the Heir, the Ruler. It shows His work is done. “It is finished” He proclaimed on the cross. He can sit now. And lastly He sits there interceding for all those who believe in Him! He is vouching for them, showing His blood has paid the price for our sin.

Because of what He has done, we can see that He is much superior to the angels. No angel did that. It was the incarnate Savior. Now, a quick reading of verse 4 may suggest that Jesus was not better than the angels in His eternal state prior to the incarnation. But that is not what is being taught here. It is saying during the incarnation, when Jesus, the Son of God, stepped into our world, He was lower than the angels. But through His faithful life, sacrifice, and resurrection He has made purification for sins and been exalted once more!

No angel has done what Christ has done! And His name is Higher than theirs! Look at verse 5

Hebrews 1:5 ESV

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”?

2. Who Is the Son

Here we see the divine trinitarian relationship between God the Father and God the Son. It is completely different and better than that of God and the angels. Jesus is the Son of God. The angels are God’s created servants. This is a distinction that cannot be overlooked. We will see more of the role of the angels as we walk through the rest of the text, but it is much BETTER to be a Son than a servant. The Hebrews of that day would have understand this to mean that Jesus is co-equal with God!

John 5:18 ESV

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Understanding the Jesus is the Son of God is understanding that Jesus is God! This is a position beyond that of the Angels. Those who reject the divinity of Jesus are in direct opposition to Jesus’ own claims and the truth revealed in Scripture. Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead. He is better than the angels in His name and who He is.

Look, then, at verse 6 of Hebrews 1.

Hebrews 1:6 ESV

And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Here we see a third reason for Jesus’ superiority to the angels:

3. Who Worships Whom

In America, we have a problem with hero worship. We fawn over celebrities like the world revolves around them. Entire television networks are devoted to giving the inside scoop and behind the scenes of the juicy celebrity goss. I do not believe it is wrong to enjoy to work of others, but there are lines that can be crossed when we really begin to start worshipping celebrities. Alas, its engrained in our culture. We even have a television show called AMERICAN IDOL in which the winner is to be crowned the next singing sensation of our country. However, the main point of today’s message is not to rebuke celebrity culture, although I would suggest that all of us consider the pedestals we are putting celebrities on.

I bring up celebrity culture because it is something we understand and often get caught up in. From that point of understanding, allow me to describe a scene. My grandmother used to love going to sing karaoke at the Hardee’s on Friday nights. Every now and then I would join her. Now my favorite Karaoke song is, “It’s a great day to be alive” by Travis Tritt. Can you imagine, if Mr. Tritt just happened to be going to the Hardee’s on Winchester Road that Friday evening. He walks in the door to get him a thickburger. As he’s walking in, he hears his song and then sees me singing it. Can you imagine if Travis Tritt then ran to the front of the stage area and just started BALLING IN PRAISE. *WAAHHHHHH* *YOU ARE AMAZING*! Can you imagine that happening?

Of course not. He might smile, he might tip his cap, but he is the one who has garnered fans in his career.

When it comes to Jesus and the angels, He is the superstar. He is the one who receives the praise. Getting that flipped around would be ridiculous. And unlike Travis Tritt, Jesus Christ absolutely is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. He gets it from the angels. He is God and Psalm 66 says that all the earth worships Him. All God’s angels bow to the Son.

If you want some direct application of this verse, do what the angels did. Worship Him! Understand that Jesus is greater. Understand that He is worthy of being the ultimate object of your affections and attention. Sing praise unto His name. Worship Him.

The Hebrews needed to understand Jesus is greater than the Angels for they worship Him!

Let’s keep moving:

Hebrews 1:7–9 ESV

Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the 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 gladness beyond your companions.”

4. Who’s Nature is Higher

In verse 7 we are given two truths about the nature of angels. First, we see that they were created being. They are reliant upon something greater, something better for their existence and power. And secondly, we see that they are “HIS”. It says “His angels winds, His ministers” The angels belong to God. They are dependent beings under the possession of God.

But contrast that with what is said in verse 8. Verse 8 may be the most important verse in all of Christology, that is studying and understanding who Christ is. Verse 8 proves to us why we must not think of Jesus as some mere man. In verse 8, God the Father says of the Son, “Your throne, O GOD,”

Here we have a direct confirmation of shared divinity between the Father and the Son. And if we want to get trinitarian here, remember who we are referring to as the author of this letter and really all of Scripture, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is proclaimed to be the God on the throne.

Jesus is the one on the throne. He is the eternal King. He is perfectly just in His rulings. We see that He loves righteousness, he hates wickedness. Christ has been anointed beyond His companions. That does not mean that the angels are equal to Him as we would think of our companions, but it used here to show that Jesus is better than these creatures whom God uses as His messengers. Christ was a messenger as well, but in a much greater way. He is divine to His very core, God the Son, He is the anointed one, translated the Christ, who would save God’s people.

That is far and beyond anything the angels could ever hope to be.

Let’s see more of His superiority.

Hebrews 1:10–12 ESV

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 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.”

5. Who is Eternal

The next reason we are given for Jesus’ superiority is His eternality. Along those lines, we are also told of the Immutability of Jesus. We have already discussed recently that the eternal Jesus was the hand of creation. That is mentioned in verse 10 once more, but the overarching theme of this section of verses is the eternal existence of Jesus. We see He was there at the beginning. He created wonderful things. All of them will wear out like a garment.

Let me tell you, I understand that metaphor. Some of you know that I have been trying to lose some weight again here recently. The reason for that, is I don’t want to buy new clothes! But if I keep stretching everything out I’m going to have to!

Everything in this world is going to pass away. It is interesting that the Spirit mentions that even the heavens will pass away. This is the dwelling place of the angels. We see that Jesus not only created such a place but that He too will outlast it!

Revelation 21:1 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

When this earth has served its purposes for God’s Will He will bring His divine judgment. The creation will be changed but not the Creator! We’re told in verse 12 that Jesus, God, will stay the same. His years will have no end.

One commenter said, “Men come and go. Worlds come and go. Stars come and go. Angels were subject to decay, as their fall proves. But Christ never changes, is never subject to change, is never subject to alteration. He is eternally the same. He is therefore superior to angels.” (MacArthur).

Let’s look at the last description of Jesus’ Superiority to the angels”

Hebrews 1:13–14 ESV

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

6. Who Is The Conqueror

The Spirit uses rhetorical language to show that the angels are not the one who will be the conqueror. To which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?” The answer to that question is simply none of them! That isn’t the role that the angels have. That is the role of Jesus Christ. The angels serve a purpose. They are sent out on behalf of God to serve. And here our attention is drawn to the fact that angels are to serve those of us who inherit salvation! All those who call on the name of the Lord are saved! The angels are used by God to accomplish His will in saving the only beings made in His image.

How they go about this service, we are not told. That means we don’t need to be told. The angels are creature who serve God in the ways that He requires them to serve. That is really all we need to know.

But as we are concluding, you may be thinking, Brad, this is a lot of cool information, but I’ve never really thought much about angels. I’m definitely not tempted to worship them like the original Hebrew audience. Why does all of this matter?

All of this should be drawing our attention towards three things:

Christ is fully God. Many people will try to tell you He was just a good teacher. A nice man. A role model. The testimony of Scripture leaves no room for ambiguity on this matter. In Christ we see the hypostatic union. Fully God, Fully man. We must reject false teaching. Christ is too worthy of our adoration to stand for others detracting from His divine nature.

We should realize that we everywhere we look, we are being taught something. In this fallen world we live in, what we are taught is very often lies and distractions from God’s truth. Church, don’t let the world shape your theology. Let your theology shape the way you view the world. That means our ideas about angels should be drawn from the revealed truth in Scripture, not Disney movies. In fact I wouldn’t trust Disney for much of any kind of information recently. For our theology to shape our world view, we have to be in the Word! We have to think about things theologically. Please understand that theology isn’t just for pastors and seminary students. What you believe shapes everything that you do. I recently heard someone say that your beliefs shouldn’t impact how you work on a job, especially in a government job, as a judge. My thought was, if what you believe doesn’t shape the way you make decisions, the way you process judgments and right and wrong, then what is your faith really in? Jesus saved us on that cross to make us into new creatures whose eyes are set on heavenly things. How can that not permeate through everything we do! Start to process this world theologically.

Finally, seeing this supremacy of Christ should allow us to see just how much better beyond all measure He is than all things including us. Our response to this truth should be humbled submission and joyful praise. The eternal Son of God died on the cross to pay the debt of sin for all those who would ever believe in Him. He says come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. What a grace it is that the Mighty Jesus we read about today would come to seek and save lost souls like us. There is nothing better in this world than understanding that Christ is the best. And that the Best paid my debt of sin. I know that Christ is still saving today. People are still being convicted of their sin, their need of a Savior. I know that the Spirit is still drawing people to repentance. Jesus says to profess Him publically. Would you do that today? If you’ve already publically professed salvation through baptism, would you be bold enough to talk with someone about your Savior? If you’ve never made a real public profession, would you do so by coming down front during this next hymn of response? Christ is worthy of our praise and our profession. May we be unashamed of the gospel today!

Let’s pray.