[0:00] So we'll be in Hebrews chapter 1, starting in verse 3, reading verse 3 and 4 to get in context, and then going to the end of the chapter, which is verse 14. If you are physically able and desire to do so, would you join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God together, found in the book of Hebrews, starting in verse 3.
[0:19] Now, if you remember, we are picking it up kind of mid-sentence, if you will, because the author of Hebrews, we don't know who it is. There's a lot of speculation, and some of it is educated speculation, but it's still speculation, still the same.
[0:33] We don't know who the author is, but we do know that verses 1, 2, 3, and 4 are just one big run-on sentence in the original language. He was carried away. Whoever it is is writing this. So we're picking up mid-sentence, but we won't go back and read it all.
[0:45] Starting in verse 3, speaking of Christ, of course, it says, And He is the radiance of His glory, the exact representation of His nature, and opposed all things by the word of His power.
[0:56] When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
[1:08] 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. And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, And let all the angels of God worship Him.
[1:21] And of the angels, He says, Who 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, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
[1:33] And you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.
[1:48] They will perish, but you remain. And they will all become old like a garment. And like a mantle, you will roll them up like a garment. They will also be changed, but you are the same.
[1:59] And your years will not come to an end. But to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
[2:17] Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for this day. God, I am so thankful and grateful that we have the opportunity together to lift your name on high.
[2:29] Lord, we have the opportunity to read your word. We pray now, Lord, as we have read it publicly, we have listened to it. Lord, that now by the power and presence of your spirit, you would speak to our hearts and minds.
[2:41] Lord, help us to see the things which we have not seen before. Lord, help us to stand amazed at you and your work and your glory and your splendor. We ask it all in Jesus' name.
[2:53] Amen. You may be seated. If you remember last week when we opened up the book of Hebrews, we kind of put the general heading of the book of Hebrews, A Hope Resting on Better Things.
[3:07] A Hope Resting on Better Things. Because all people long to live with hope. They want to hope in something or they have hope resting on something, either their situation or their financial circumstances or their job or maybe the economy they live in or the society they're a part of.
[3:27] Hope is something that man longs for because man needs hope to push forward. But what we find in the book of Hebrews is it is a hope resting on better things. Last week, we introduced that to being a hope resting on a better Savior.
[3:41] And Jesus was lifted up in the first four verses there that Jesus is the better Savior. Better than any Savior the world has ever looked to. Better than any Savior the world has ever sought.
[3:51] Better than any self-professed Messiah or self-professed Savior that has ever arisen out of mankind. Jesus is far and above better. And we continue that theme on looking at Christ in the book of Hebrews.
[4:04] And we'll see here that not only is Jesus a better Savior, Jesus is better than the angels. We see this morning that Jesus is better than the angels. Now, to us, it doesn't seem to have as much power and really as much place as it would to the original audience here.
[4:22] You may have a somewhat similar exalted view of angels or you may have a really kind of a belittled view of angels. But angels really have a big place in the nation of the Hebrew people.
[4:34] If you remember, the reason it is titled Hebrews is because that was the intended audience. It was written to the Jewish people. It was written to Jewish people with Jewish thought in mind and it was coming at them from a very Jewish standpoint, okay, or the Hebrew standpoint.
[4:48] There is a large number of, especially in the text we have before us this morning, of quotations from the Old Testament. But the quotations are not taken from the Hebrew Old Testament.
[4:58] They are taken from the Septuagint, which would have been the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, which shows us that the author is according to the Hebrew people who are scattered throughout the Roman Empire or throughout the world, if you were.
[5:10] It's called the Diaspora. Because by the time Christ was born, and even after the death of Christ, a minority of the Hebrew people actually lived within the confines of the Promised Land.
[5:23] What we have so much emphasis put upon in the Old Testament of getting the Jewish nation to the Promised Land, by the time Christ is born, the majority of the Jewish nation lives outside of the land of Israel.
[5:36] Many of them live scattered abroad. Some of them down in Egypt. Some of them throughout the whole hemisphere there, throughout the world as they knew it, the Roman Empire, and some even scattered as far as Spain.
[5:49] We don't know exactly where these residents are living, but we probably can at least determine from studying it that it is written to all those living outside of Israel, those living in the Diaspora.
[6:02] And it was a letter that would be circulated among them or maybe copied and sent to various parts of the world. And he is speaking with that background in mind. He is speaking, and it is always important for us to interpret the text in its proper context, especially the portion of text we have before us this morning.
[6:20] Because our tendency to come at it in a very Western mindset helps us to kind of come at it with veiled faces, and we don't see it as it really is.
[6:31] While many of us have a somewhat view of angels, and we speak of our guardian angels, and we speak of all the angels around us and angels among us, we do not live with the view of angels that the Hebrew people lived with.
[6:46] We do not live with the exalted view that they would have held on to or even seem to continue to hold on to. So we want to read it as it is. The question that was asked me, and I hope to answer this morning, is found in verse 4 where it says, Having become as much better than the angels.
[7:07] And here was the question. How can Jesus become anything? Now we're going to get deep this morning. It's okay. We're going to put on our big boy and big girl pants, and we're going to pull them up, and we're going to get into some theology.
[7:24] And it's okay. We're going to get some meat. Hebrews also tells us that we need to chew on the meat of the word, not just the milk of the word. Because the question is, How can Jesus, who is God, become anything?
[7:39] How can he reach to a different level? Because if he is God eternity past, and if he is God in eternity future, because he is God, he is Emmanuel, God with us, how can it be said that he became better than the angels?
[7:56] Because hasn't he always been better than the angels? And to that, you ought to say, Yes, Jesus has always been better than the angels.
[8:07] But we are approaching that from a Western mindset. Let's look at it from, hopefully, the context which it is written. The Hebrew people were anticipating a Messiah that would rise up from among them.
[8:22] And that is a very legitimate anticipation. When you read the Old Testament, it is very clear to see that God says he will rise up a Messiah, a warrior, someone who would lead his people from among them.
[8:36] As a matter of fact, he says in the book of Deuteronomy, that one like unto Moses would come up from within the nation and would lead them. Now, their anticipation or their hope was that he would be a warrior king Messiah, that he would come and he would completely remove all of their foes.
[8:55] He would completely remove all of their enemies. He would set up his throne because there was the promise that the throne of David would live forever. Now, keep in mind, when this book was written, and even during the whole time of Christ, there was no one from the lineage of David sitting on the throne because there was no throne over the nation of Israel other than Pilate and Herod and those who were reigning from within the Roman Empire.
[9:19] So there was no, there was this hope that the seed of David would set up on the throne. Now, the seed of David speaks to a man, right? Someone from within the nation, someone who was like them.
[9:32] When we go read the book of Esther in the Old Testament, we see that the Redeemer has to be a kinsman Redeemer. Now, kinsman Redeemer means that it is a close relative, someone like unto you, someone with the same bloodline, someone who was near to you, someone who looked like you, someone who was descendant from the same people you were descendant from.
[9:52] So the Jewish people were anticipating and looking for a Messiah to rise up out of their own nation. And friend, that was a legitimate hope.
[10:03] As a matter of fact, the Jewish people today are still looking for that same Messiah. They are looking for the descendant of David to come to life and rise up out of the Jewish nation and take hold of the throne of David and reign over them in an eternal reign.
[10:25] This was something they were looking for. When you read the book of Hebrews, we are met with the humanity of Christ. As a matter of fact, in Hebrews chapter 4, it speaks of when he was in the flesh, he was tempted like unto all of us.
[10:42] We go over to another chapter and it says that he learned or he was perfected in obedience. Now, how can Jesus be perfected in anything? Because he is fully God.
[10:53] If the Gospel of John and the writings of John seem to magnify, and they do, the deity or the divinity of Christ, because when you open up the Gospel of John, you're still with me, right?
[11:07] John is a Gospel with no genealogy. Because in the Gospel of John, Jesus is God. And God has no genealogy.
[11:18] Matthew has the genealogy traced through Joseph because Matthew is written to Jews and Jews paid attention to the husbands, right? The dads. Luke has his genealogy running to Mary because he is the son of Adam, the son of God.
[11:33] And the lineage goes through Mary. Mark didn't record a genealogy because Mark was writing to the Gentiles or the Greeks. And Mark's account was very, very short and he recorded no genealogy.
[11:43] Genealogy. John recorded no genealogy because Jesus is God. In Matthew, he is the king of kings. In Mark, he is the son of God. He is like one of the Greek gods, but better.
[11:55] In Luke, he is the son of man. And in John, he is God. By the way, those are good things to write down. If you ever want to read your scripture in proper context, you will see how they are magnifying them.
[12:06] John magnifies the deity of Christ. He is God. Now, the book of Hebrews magnifies the humanity of Christ. He is man. Now, this is where it gets deep.
[12:19] Jesus is fully God. But he is also fully man. And these are deep waters, but they are essential.
[12:33] Because while that was God on the cross, his body, his blood, paying our price, it was also a man whose body was broken.
[12:44] A man whose blood was shed. Why? Because the only one who could ever pay for the sins of man was a man.
[12:57] And it had to be a perfect man. It had to be a sinless man. And what Hebrews is doing for us is showing us how Jesus is the sinless man who is the long-anticipated, waited-for Messiah.
[13:17] He is the one who is, as it will say later on, the forerunner or the pathfinder, the one who sets the course for every other man. This is why it says at the end of the book of Hebrews, you have not resisted until the point of bloodshed yet.
[13:29] You haven't made it as far as he has made it. He is going before us as the forerunner. He is the perfect man. And he begins to show how Jesus, in his humanity, became higher than the angels because he took on the form.
[13:47] He laid aside his glory. He laid aside his glory and took on humanity. And as a man, this is the only way I can answer this, okay? When Jesus laid aside his glory, when Emmanuel laid aside his glory and took on our humanity, we call him Emmanuel, God with us.
[14:07] He was a baby in the womb of a virgin named Mary. He was laid in a cradle. He learned obedience. He grew in wisdom and favor and stature with men and with God.
[14:18] He listened to his mother and his father. He listened to them in obedience. He walked in perfect compliance with everything they were asking him to do. He laid aside what was rightfully his, that is his eternal glory.
[14:32] And he took on what was ours, that is our humanity. When while in his flesh, he lived perfectly. Which shows us that his death on the cross was not his.
[14:45] It was ours. He took our place. And what we read through the book of Hebrews is that that man, Jesus, the man, because when he was carried away into the clouds, they didn't see a spirit descending in the clouds, right?
[15:03] Remember when the apostles were gathered there and he was carried away in the clouds and the angel says in the same way he went, he will come back. They saw what? Jesus in the flesh. He said, touch me, handle me.
[15:15] Have you got anything to eat? What about some fish? Let's eat some fish. Look at the scars in my hands. Look at the hole in my side. Look at the places in my feet. He took that humanity, that body, and went up into glory and has now exalted, has been exalted as a man above the angels.
[15:38] He has taken humanity and joined it with deity and that is an amazing feat. He is better than the angels. Now the Hebrew people, and I know this is a long introduction, but you need to have this in mind before we really get into it.
[15:52] The Hebrew people had a high view of angels and the reason they had a high view of angels is because angels play an important role throughout their history. When we read the Old Testament, we are told in the Old Testament that the angels are manifested in many different ways.
[16:10] We see the angels as the angel of the Lord, the mighty warriors. We see them going into Sodom and Gomorrah, right? We see them as valiant warriors who go in and create battle. They took Lot and his wife and his children, even though his wife looked back, one of the scariest verses in all of the New Testament is a very short verse.
[16:27] It says, remember Lot's wife. That one scares me to death because all Lot's wife did was look back. She was turned to a pillar of salt, right? But who led them out of Sodom?
[16:37] It was the angels, right? Who carried them away. So we can't do anything until you get there. We see the angels, it says that they were there with God giving the Ten Commandments. They are present with him in the giving of the law.
[16:50] We read that a number of times in the Old Testament. We see the angels really manifest in the book of Daniel and much of our view of angels comes from the book of Daniel because the book of Daniel chapter 10 and 9, 10 and 11 speaks of the angel coming to ministering to Daniel and giving him the interpretation of the dreams and the angel tells him that he was opposed by the prince of Persia.
[17:13] Which seems to tell us that some angels are assigned to particular geographical lands. And that is seen as being a wicked angel that is over the area of Persia which by the way would have been the Middle East today.
[17:28] Okay? Still there. Said he was opposed and he had to fight this battle. Angels are seen throughout scripture as being very important. Zechariah when he's in the temple has the angels speak to him. Mary has the angels speak.
[17:39] All the angels are seen in the book of Revelation. Angels are seen as great. And the Hebrew people had a great respect for angels.
[17:50] They lifted them up to a position just below God which is where they reside by the way. And they had a tendency to tend to worship these angels or long to hear a word from them.
[18:04] And what the author of Hebrews is telling us is that the man Jesus is greater than the angels. The Messiah that has come is greater than the angels.
[18:17] I want you to see and it won't take me as long to get through them as it did the introduction because the introduction is essential for the understanding of the rest. I want you to see four ways according to the text Jesus is greater than the angels.
[18:31] Number one he is greater because he has a name that has been given to him. He is greater because of the name that has been given to him. He says that he has become much higher than the angels.
[18:43] He has inherited a name more excellent than they. Why? Verse 5 says for to which of the angels did he, that is God, did he ever say you are my son today I have begotten you.
[18:56] Now for any of you that know your Bibles you probably are scratching your head and saying wait a minute doesn't the Bible have this reference to angels being the sons of God and I would say you're absolutely right because it says in the book of Genesis that there was a time when the sons of God looked among the daughters of women and they came down and tried to unite or they did unite with the daughters of women that was right before the days of Noah and then we will also go to the book of Job and you'll see where the sons of God came in and out before him and both of those references I believe are speaking directly to angels but no angel did God ever say you are my son today I have begotten you look at what it says it says in verse 5 continuing for to which of the angels did he ever say you are my son today I have begotten you and again and I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me what name has Jesus the man Jesus been given he is the very son of God he is God's son he's not just another man he's not just another great Messiah he is the only begotten son of God
[20:13] God calls him his son and that is so much better than any name an angel can have we only know a couple of the names of the angels Gabriel is in a great position Gabriel seems to be a very powerful angel Michael is described as that archangel that is one of the greater levels but even the name Michael the archangel is not greater than you are my son today I have begotten you I will be a father to you and you will be a son to me the man Jesus Christ alone stands with a greater name than any angel because he has been given the name the very son of God and may we never ever forget the fact that Jesus has inherited that name God has called him that that when that baby was formed in the womb of Mary remember what the angel said he will be called the son of God this is an Old Testament quotation you can cross reference it and you probably will read it and it will read a little bit different because remember it is in the
[21:18] Septuagint or the Greek version of that but what God is saying throughout the Old Testament the one who will deliver you will be my son this is no angel friend we're not looking for an angel to come rescue us we don't need a guardian angel I don't know or not I haven't always quite been this cultured or this clean when Carrie and I got married now 20 plus years ago after about a year of marriage she decided she would buy me a pair of shorts she decided she would buy me a pair of tennis shoes that I needed to quit wearing my cowboy boots all the time all I had was about three different pairs of cowboy boots and all I ever wore was wranglers and you know I had the belt buckle I had it all you know I wore cowboy hats and that was just me I was just who I was and that was I don't even know if we officially did I hesitate to say this because my in-laws are present so I'm always kind of careful to say things that they don't know about but you know after 22 years maybe it's okay I'm pretty sure the first time I ever rode in a vehicle with Carrie
[22:19] I looked above her visor now of course keep in mind I wear a cowboy hat and mine was not the George Strait edition I wore the Ty Murray cowboy hats okay that's just what I wore so I had Ty Murray cowboy hat on and she had this little angel pin above her on her visor now one thing about Carrie and I we share birthstones we're both August babies I'm August 6 she's August 11 makes it real good for a husband to remember that right so we share birthstones and this little angel I'm sure was given to her by her parents or somebody in her family had her birthstone on it was her guardian angel that was on her visor where I promptly removed that from her visor and put it in my hat it is still in that hat which is in our closet which evidently my head has grown or the hat has shrunk it doesn't fit as much anymore but because that was my guardian angel on my hat really I wasn't looking for a guardian angel I just wanted a little something that belonged to her to be with me all the time but we always tend to reference our guardian angels or our people who watch over us and while angels have their position let us never forget that the man Jesus is greater than them because he alone is the son he has been given that name that no angel can ever hope for number two we see that he is greater than the angels because of the worship that he will receive because of the worship he will receive and I use that wording intentionally because look at what it says here in verse 6 and when he again brings the firstborn into the world this is a very intentional wording here we know that when Jesus came in his first coming one of the great texts that I find in the book of Luke is that the angels announce his coming but it says the angels of the
[23:56] Lord stood before the shepherds and told them that the Lord had been born so it's almost the way I look at this is Jesus sent his messengers! ahead of him to tell of his coming right?
[24:08] they were his angels and they proclaimed his appearing and they were there and they were proclaiming these names and all this his glory and they were rejoicing glory to God in the highest and goodwill on earth to men with whom he is well pleased and they were rejoicing there's a multitude of angels announcing this but the reference here to the book of Hebrews is not to that coming because what it says and when he again brings the firstborn into the world the original language says and when he in the future will bring him again into the world that is his second coming we went through the book of revelations last year we're not too far removed from that but look at what will happen on his second coming and we saw this in the book of revelations he will say and let all the angels of God worship him when Jesus comes again the command will ring in heaven let all the angels worship him if you remember we go through the book of revelations they are proclaiming his greatness as they are saying holy holy holy and worthy is the lamb that was slain we see over and over again this command that God is saying all the angels will worship him now it goes without saying but the one being worshipped is always greater than those doing the worshipping but we need to also understand this that this is the man
[25:27] Jesus because when he comes back he comes back in flesh right we will see him he will be glorified he will be exalted but he will be in the flesh he is not a spirit hovering over a horse he is a man riding a horse with the word of God coming forth out of his mouth he will be clothed in the white robes he will come as a man and the proclamation that rings throughout heaven is let the angels all the angels worship him now that should call attention to us because the angels are created beings with one intended purpose that is to serve and to worship God and God alone as a matter of fact any angel that decides to worship something other than God God cast it out and we call them fallen angels right this is what happened to Satan and this is what happened to the third of the host of heaven they were the fallen angels because they said well Satan's better than God and God said well that's enough of that get away from me so he tells them to go away angels do not worship man do worship the man Jesus Christ because he is better than the angels this is important stay with me he is better than the angels because they worship him number three not only because of the worship that he will receive number three because of the unchangeable position he holds because of the unchangeable position he holds verse seven says and of the angels he says that is
[26:50] God that's what the he there is right and of the angels he said who makes his angels wind and his ministers a flame of fire now we kind of scratch our head there but what we see here is the changeable nature of angels now I know this is confusing stuff but we need to talk about we are talking about spiritual forces right it says here that sometimes God says they are a wind because even Jesus said the spirit blows where we know not just angels a wind or he makes them a flaming fire angels have the ability to change their nature based upon the command that God gave them now do you think that Balaam's donkey actually talked I really believe Balaam's donkey talked but I believe the reason Balaam's donkey talked is because an angel got in there and made that donkey talk I believe the burning bush talked!
[27:49] over and over all these things we read in scripture but what we see is I think that rooster crowed on cue when Peter denied Jesus that third time and that rooster crowed I think that rooster crowed on cue now I don't know if the angel went and kicked it or if it plucked a feather or if it opened its mouth but I think it crowed on cue two because they are spiritual in nature they are either a wind or a flaming fire but now let's look at the character of the man Jesus Christ but of the son he says but of the son he says that is the man Jesus he says in verse 8 your throne oh God now wait a minute God is calling the man Jesus God you need to know that some people have tried to redefine and re correct and tried to rework the wording here but there's really no way around it because
[28:52] God calls him God God the father calls the son God because he is fully God and fully man right because he says the father says your throne oh God is forever and ever and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom and you have loved righteousness and says that you will remain forever what we see is that Jesus is seated on the throne the man Jesus has inherited a throne of authority and he is not leaving that throne the man Jesus who went and sat down at the right hand of the father that was recognized by the apostles is the same one sitting beside the right hand of the father on his throne that would be recognized today Jesus is the same yesterday today and tomorrow and when he took his humanity into glory that humanity has not changed those scars are still there he looks the same his eyes will be a flaming fire his hair sure will be white but we understand these are just pictures of his divinity they are not pictures of his humanity!
[30:08] This is John trying to show the representation of his glory! I believe that he is unchangeable not like the angels who will change and be used for different things what Jesus has accomplished is final it is done his unchangeable position he is not leaving the throne you need to understand that when Jesus inherited the throne he does not leave that throne it is his!
[30:32] forever your throne oh God is forever! ever!! Fourth and finally we see that Jesus is greater than the angels because of the deeds he has accomplished because of the deeds he has accomplished hopefully what we are seeing here today is not really only an expounding or opening up of scripture but really an exalting of the Savior because Jesus in the flesh has inherited that throne but what has that man that man who hung on that cross that man whose body was bruised and beaten for me that man whose blood was shed for me that man whose side was speared for me that man who agonized and took upon himself the forsaking of the father for me what has he done now we know the angels can do mighty things angels have a great place in history I think
[31:33] I think we will be amazed someday when we stand in glory and we see all that the angels have done I say over and over again my angels must be pretty strong either God has given me a multitude or he's given me a strong one I don't know but I have put them in a predicament more than once and he has really upheld me by the power of his ministering spirits which we'll see right now but what is it that the man Jesus has done look at what it says verse 10 and you Lord speaking here to Jesus and you Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth he laid!
[32:12] foundation of the! He is creator this is what he has done he who laid the foundation of the earth created the heavens hung on the cross on earth for you and me they will perish but you remain and they will all become old like a garment by the way friend let's just say here okay scientists are telling us that there's black holes out there the ozone has got a hole in it that the heavens seem to be deteriorating that the sun one day will burn out that everything seems to be falling apart that everything is coming to an end and when you hear that you need to go I'm glad you finally caught up with scripture because the Bible says they will become old they will wear out we don't know when we don't even need to try to figure out when there's no doubt in my mind that the heavens are going to wear out someday and it's not because science has told me so it's because scripture says so they will become old like a garment and like a mantle you will roll them up but that's okay because he who created it once is going to create it again and that the same and your years will not come to an end but to which of the angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until
[33:42] I make your enemies a footstool for your feet friend he has accomplished it all now where do angels fit into this I have certain passages underlined in scripture that helps me understand some of the work of the angels!
[34:06] going to roll it up someday he is going to recreate it again right now he is the great creator and the sustainer of all things what are the angels doing are they not all ministering spirits to who sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation let's just put that in context I know Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior I can save beyond a shadow I am set free there will be a day of salvation when I am made complete and here's the good news the reason I got there is because there's some angels sent to minister to me on the way they are ministering spirits sent out to render service to those who will inherit salvation am I thankful for them yes do I worship them no in case we ever wondered did the Revelation again when
[35:08] John saw the angel what did he do fell down and worship the angel said don't worship me worship him the second time at the end of the book of Revelation John sees the angel he falls down and worship the angel says don't worship me worship him friend angels are great but Jesus is greater the man Jesus Christ alone stands worthy of our worship we are thankful for the ministering work of the messengers God has put upon the face of the earth but may our worship and our admiration and our adoration be directed to one and only one and that is the man Jesus Christ because he is greater than the angels and we need to hold on to this because next week we will see since he is greater shouldn't we listen to him let's pray Lord thank you so much for this day thank you Lord Jesus for giving us the opportunity to come and to look at your word and to be reminded of who you are
[36:13] Lord we do give you all of our love all of our hope all of our anticipation may it be found in you oh Lord Lord thank you in Jesus name Amen so Thank you.
[37:33] Thank you.
[38:03] Thank you.
[38:33] Thank you.
[39:03] Thank you.
[39:33] Thank you.