2. Jesus Exalted, Hebrews 1:5-14

[Music] let's open up our Bibles to Hebrews chapter one thanks so much John and it's just a wonderful story with what the Lord is doing and I gotta say I am very very excited about what God has done this last year at the Bible College and what I know he's going to do in the future years and you know I think it's an important thing for us to raise up a good healthy scholarship fund for the Bible College it'll be a great thing all right let's pray and we'll get into the word this morning father thank you thank you that you're here thank you that you provide thank you that you're such a glorious God and we pray now that is we give attention to your word that you would speak to us not just as we give attention to the ink on the page that we think that's important the Lord we also want to have an open ear to hear what your spirit would say to us in and through your word please speak to us this morning as we listen to you in Jesus name Amen we've really just started our study through this amazing letter to the Hebrew Christians of the first century and what God has to speak to us through it so let's take a look at it now beginning at verse five we're gonna continue on with a theme that we saw earlier last week about the superiority of Jesus last time the Rite of the Hebrews just barely introduced this theme now he's gonna really dig into it starting just at verse five he says for to which of the Angels did he ever say you are my son today I have begotten you and again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son you see the author of this great letter to the Hebrews his real passion is to demonstrate that Jesus is greater now in his most pointed focus in Chapter one he's trying to show that Jesus is greater than any kind of angelic being and the first reason he brings out here quoting passages from the Old Testament here specifically he quotes Psalm chapter two verse seven we're here he's quoting the idea that Jesus is superior the Angels because he is the son of God now this might not be a big deal in your mind as I said last week I'm expecting that you probably didn't get out of the car and walk into this building this morning thinking I hope the pastor proves to me that Jesus is greater than the Angels that's probably a settled issue in most of your minds but actually in these days of 1st century Judaism it was actually a fairly big topic and one of the reasons why is because in some way or another that we don't exactly understand but we know it exists there in some way the law of Moses came to this earth through the delivery system of angels again I'm not gonna get into it that's one of the reasons why we allow you to text in questions then maybe we'll answer it later on in the video studio but again just leave it at this that angels had a role in the delivery of the law of Moses and because the ancient Jews and the modern Jews as well they prized the law of Moses so much they tended to really exalt the idea that it came by angelic revelation angels angels angels they weren't denying divine revelation but they were really fixed on the fact that God used angels as intermediaries well here the right of the Hebrews trying to say okay great wonderful that God used angels to do that but don't you ever forget that far greater than any angel is Jesus Christ himself because the angels were never given this amazing title the son of God now again we're going to talk a lot about angels and angelic beings through this message but I do just want you to consider this this basic principle if you accept in your mind that angels are a lesser thing than Jesus Christ the Son of God and that Jesus is greater and angels are lesser isn't it fascinating that sometimes a lesser thing can become bigger in our mind than Jesus himself isn't that strange it is I mean there's a lot of things in your mind right now that you would probably say intellectually yes I understand that that is lesser than Jesus I understand that my career that my goals that my aspiration since I understand that this in my life or that my life are on and on I mean I could make a list but you get the idea you get the idea that there are many things in our life that we know in our minds are lesser than Jesus yet somehow we allow those things to eclipse the place of Jesus in our life you know the whole eye thing is when there's a solar eclipse I hope I have this right because I'm really bad at science but isn't a solar eclipse when the moon goes in front of the Sun please help me out is that a solar eclipse that's not okay good that's a solar eclipse now we all know that the moon is much smaller than the Sun that the moon is a lesser body but isn't it funny that if it gets in just the wrong place it'll block out the Sun it isn't that way in our life that sometimes these lesser things eclipse the place of Jesus and they block him out well for these first century Jews in some way or another the idea and the exaltation of angels was blocking out their appreciation of who Jesus was and the writer Hebrews wants to sweep all of that away and now in the rest of chapter one again and again by citing proofs from the Old Testament he's going to show Jesus is greater put angels in their proper place can I put it to you this way put the moon in its orbit and let the Sun have its glorious strength that's exactly what you try to do and I would say the same thing to you and to myself about all these different areas in our life does career have an interest in importance in your life yes does entertainment and pleasure have an interest and importance in your life yes and I could go down a list family goals on and on it but you get the idea all of those things have their rightful orbit let them have their rightful orbit but never to eclipse the Sun that's exactly what we're looking at with Jesus there's one other thing that I want you to notice here it says here in verse 5 for to which of the Angels did he say did he say now wait a minute I thought that King David wrote Psalm 2 do you see what the Rite of the Hebrews is doing he's telling you and I something very important that I'm gonna touch on again at the end of our message he's telling us that God spoke through King David that when King David wrote this Psalm it was actually God speaking in him and through him and this gets to a very important thing that I don't I I don't think I could talk about enough how important it is for us to have this concept early in mind that this book gives to us the Word of God no look I know that there's a lot of details about our whole understanding of inspiration in Revelation I could talk about the autographs I could talk about manuscript transmission I could talk about theories of inspiration on and on and that's a truthful thing again if you want to text in those questions that's fine with me but let me just give it to you at the point of video this book brings to us the Word of God when I think about that I think about how how amazingly absurd that is to the modern mind do you understand how crazy people think it is but here I am speaking to a book that's anywhere from let's just say 4,000 years old to 2,000 years old and I'm speaking about to a bunch of people who you seem to be listening seemly attentive if you're not you're faking it really good here you are you're listening and people would look at this and they on say how crazy is this how but I'll tell you why it's because these are not the words of any man though God used men to write the words of the Bible he worked in them and threw them in the that this brings to us the Word of God now whether or not you believe that okay great that's a debatable thing and I'd love to discuss it with you what I want to establish without any controversy the writer to the Hebrews believed it he believed with all of his heart that when David wrote God spoke in Psalm 2 so God spoke and what did God say look at it there and right there in verse 5 you are my son it's very simple why is Jesus higher than the Angels because God never called any of the Angels his son not in this unique way now it is sort of interesting that it is using a very generic sense angelic beings are called sons of God in a generic sense but in an end of it will sense where God looks at it being said you are my Sun God never said that to any angel but he says it to the Messiah he says it to Jesus himself that's one aspect and by the way the idea is repeated again in second Samuel Chapter seven excuse me a second yeah second Samuel Chapter seven where it says I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son so he quotes the same idea the sonship of Jesus once from Psalms once from second Samuel as far as the writer to the Hebrews is concerned it's proven because it's demonstrated from the scriptures but he's not done giving scriptural proofs those two quotes from Psalm 2 and from second Samuel 7 those are just two of seven quotations that he's going to give him the of this first chapter let's look at the next two in verses 6 and 7 he writes this but when he again brings the firstborn into the world he says let all the angels of God worship Him and of the Angels he says who makes his angels spirits and his ministers flames of fire now once you noticed things first of all he calls Jesus there in verse 6 not quoting an Old Testament passage though he could at least conceptually but first 6 he calls Jesus the firstborn I don't want anybody be confused about this it doesn't mean that Jesus was first born in the sense of first created we know from other passages scriptures including this one right here that we're gonna look at Jesus is the create or he is not created yet nevertheless the title firstborn is applied to him as it often is in the Bible as sort of a picture of being the one who is preeminent in those ancient societies continuing on to the present day the firstborn son had a status of tremendous prominence tremendous headship over the whole siblings so firstborn was a title of exaltation and now he looks at Jesus and he says you are the firstborn then he continues on now quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 32 he says let all the angels of God worship Him again that's quoting Tirana me chapter 32 and it shows that Jesus again now is superior to the Angels why because he is the object of angelic worship Jesus is not part of the Angels worshipping God the Father no no Jesus is one of those who receives angelic worship you see Jesus receives worship from the Angels by the way weren't we just singing about that and the beautiful time of worship that we have we're quoting those lines from Revelation where it pictures is angelic worship around the throne of God where they say holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come these are the words with which they worship Jesus they worship God the Father they worship the holy spirit day and night without end Jesus is part of those who receive this unending worship this worship of Yahweh the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and God receives that from angels Jesus receives it it shows he's greater than they now may I just give just a quick aside here quick though important if the angels are motivated to worship Jesus if the Angels have a passion to worship who he is I say to you that you and I as the redeemed of the Lord we have an even greater reason to praise Jesus if it is appropriate for the angels to worship Him it is even more appropriate for those for whom Jesus died because as wonderful and amazing as angels are we never read anywhere that Jesus died for them we never read anywhere that Jesus shed his own blood for them we never read anything about the sacrificial love that Jesus extended to us by rescuing us from our sin and our shame by what he did on the cross we never read about any of that in regard to angels but we read about a new guard to us Jesus Christ did more for his redeemed people than he ever did for angels and that's why it's appropriate that they worship Him with even a greater energy a greater passion a greater strength and I say this is a little bit of encouragement because I know that for some of you and I'm not thinking of specifics but just in general there are some among us worship I don't know how to put it exact you're just not that into it you just kind of think you know I'm not accustomed to going into a room and singing songs with people that I don't really know or I don't know all of them you think it's I never do that anywhere else you know it's just it's just kind of not my thing well I can appreciate that maybe I can even empathize a little bit with you let me say it may not be your thing but it's God's thing we we worship Him not even necessarily because we like to although I hope that you like to if you don't yet I hope you'll be brought to that place where you really do like to but the bottom line is we do it not because we like to but because it pleases him it honors him he wants you to do it and we have a great responsibility because of all that Jesus has done for us but that's not it look at it all in the next phrase not just from Deuteronomy chapter 32 but now he quotes Psalm 104 where he says who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire this demonstrates that Jesus the Messiah is lord over the Angels did you notice those phrase is there in Psalm 104 for he says who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire in other words they work for him the angels belong to Jesus Jesus doesn't belong to the Angels so you see again it shows his superiority so now we've had four passages of scripture quoted to us - from Psalms one from Deuteronomy one from second Samuel let's get into the next proof starting here at verse 8 where he argues that Jesus is superior to the Angels because God the Father himself calls him God notice this starting out verse eight he says but to the son he says your throne O God is for ever and ever a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions and you O Lord in the beginning laid the foundations on the earth and heavens are the work of your hands they will perish but you remain and they will all grow old like a garment like a cloak you will fold them up and they will be changed but you are the same and your years will not fail I think it's beautiful it's as if the Rite of the Hebrews says yes God talks and deals with the angels but to the son notice that phrase in verse 8 but to the son he says he speaks in a completely different way to the son then he ever went to the Angels and God the Father says this would you please look at these words in verse 8 to me they're thrilling he says this your throne O God I'm just in awe of this I don't know how many of you have an interest in theological research or debate or contrary you should every one of you that I look at this morning you're a theologian you are you have ideas and concepts and thoughts and developments about God I'm not saying you're all good theologians but you're all theologians can I say this even an atheist is a theologian he's just a bad theologian but I'm looking at a roomful of theologians and one of the things I want you to think about when you think about who Jesus is and I want it to be primary in your mind is that he is God he's God this should exalt the picture of Jesus in our minds sometimes it's easy to lose touch with that and sometimes the way that the world wants to embrace Jesus they want to embrace him as being anything but God they love that Jesus who spoke about peace and Jesus spoke about peace they loved the Jesus who spoke about justice and Jesus spoke about justice they loved that Jesus who spoke about sacrifice and he spoke about sacrifice and I could go on and on you get the idea but don't ever forget he's God and His Word is true and we need to recognize him and submit to him and honor him as God and it's the most mind-blowing thing in the world that the second person of the Trinity exalted forever in the ivory palaces of heaven at one time in human history added humanity to his deity and came down and walked among us says let's just blow your mind he said well I don't know he looked like a man he wasn't a phantom I didn't put my hand through him and it disappeared what was he then I don't know but he's God and how you know he's God I could go on and on about that can I just give you one pretty convincing evidence in my look at our verse again Hebrews 1:8 quoting from Psalm 45 verses 6 & 7 here he looks at Jesus and he looks at God the Father in heaven any quotes God the Father in heaven speaking to the Sun and what does he say he says your throne O God well if the first person of the Trinity calls the second person the Trinity God that's good enough for me doesn't it pretty much settle it okay great if the father says he's God then that finishes it and then he goes on looking it's very powerful here in verse 9 he says therefore God your God has anointed you by the way this is just one of those mind-bending passages it's not my intention this morning to go on a detailed description of the Trinity in my mind the Trinity this truth that there is one God in three persons by the way I want to emphasize that one God in three persons we are not try theists worshiping three gods we worship one God Yahweh the Covenant God of Israel but there are three persons the Father the Son and the Spirit connected with that one God and I don't know exactly how those connections work I can't explain it to you in detail but I know that there's one God in three persons and when you look at verse 9 just let your mind get stretched just a little bit here therefore God in other words Jesus the Son you are God therefore God your God speaking back about the Father has anointed you an anointing is something always richly associated with the Holy Spirit here you have another example of how the idea of the Trinity the Father Son and the Holy Spirit is woven throughout the fabric of the New Testament you can hardly go 10 or 20 verses without seeing some reference to the Trinity in there somewhere so you refers to the Sun God refers to the father and and anointed has reference to the work of the Holy Spirit but now look at verse 10 where he quotes Psalm 102 here's another quotation from the Old Testament he says you Lord in the beginning again notice this now he's gonna follow with a bunch of phrases quoting from Psalm 102 that describe how great the son is notice here first of all verse 10 you Lord in the beginning you laid the foundation of the world not only is he God but he's creator you laid the foundation of the world you built at all you've been blown away just as a brilliant design of this who laid that foundation jesus himself you should worship him as God secondly in verse 11 he says they will perish but you remain this shows that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity is self-existent in other words all of creation could pass away but Jesus remains he is unchanged next notice in verse 12 it says like a cloak you will fold them up and they will be changed in other words Jesus is sovereign he can fold the whole thing up at any time he chooses he has this ownership this authorship over all creation and now look at the last phrase there in verse 12 it says you are the same and this shows that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity is can I use the theological word that I like it's he's immutable I love that word I don't know why I like that word so much immutable simply means unchanging a mutation is a change usually in a negative sense immutable means unchanging in cheese Christ is the same yesterday today and forever he's immutable he's unchanging I remember not long ago it was when our dear sister Fran Thayer was in her last few days or the last few weeks actually in passing from this world to the next and I don't know why but at that moment the last few times I saw her at her bedside I was so impressed with the fact of how changing we are I mean you see that right in a person's last days when oftentimes there's a fairly rapid decline isn't there in the last few weeks and your heart just is stirred with how changing we are we change and honestly especially you know as we get older it's not necessarily chaining changing from you know bad to better often times it changes we're experiencing as we get older it goes from from well you know and I tell you when I saw Fran I was so overwhelmingly comforted by this truth that Jesus is unchanging Lord I'm changing and not always for the better by any means I'm changing I'm weak I'm frail but I'm so happy that I can hold fast to an unchanging Jesus someone whose immutable someone who never changes well this is who our Savior is and again therefore so high exalted above the angels right let's take a look at our last two verses here verses 13 and 14 where he's gonna quote one more Psalm here Psalm 110 verse 1 where he says but to which of the Angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation now notice this now for the seventh time in this chapter the writer of the Hebrews quotes the Hebrew Scriptures to demonstrate that Jesus the Messiah is far superior to any angelic being and he quotes Psalm 110 to show again that God the Father said to Jesus the Messiah that he never said to the Sun therefore look at it there in verse 13 where he says sit at my right hand in other words when Jesus is enthroned sitting at the right hand of God the Father it means that he is a peace he is at rest he rules he reigns in heaven and none of those angels are doing that I'll talk about this later on in Hebrews because it's a great theme that's repeated but let me just put it to succinctly the Angels never rest in heaven the angels are busy all the time worshipping God and serving him Jesus his work is perfect and finished therefore he sits there for he reigns therefore he's sovereign those angels they're working all the time not Jesus he sits down at the right hand that's why he says there verse 13 but to which of the Angels has he ever said sit at my right hand those angels aren't permitted to relax before God but Jesus is not a subject he is a sovereign the angels by contrast look at their in verse 14 the angels are ministering spirits and notices angels are not governing spirits they're not ruling spirits they are ministering servants spirits in other words they are servants they're workers and they keep working while the Sun takes a posture of rest because he is the Sun now you know it really blows my mind and look at it there at the end of verse 14 he says they are sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation okay angels are working all the time and they are sent forth to minister for those who are on behalf of those who will inherit salvation see medica idea who those people are I hope it's you I hope you're part of that number I'm hope hope you're part of those who have put your trust in Jesus Christ and because of that you are accounted as part of his family and angels are not only there to serve Jesus but Jesus is so filled with love so filled with this wonderful compassionate care for his people that you know what he says he says I'm gonna share my servants with you they work for me but I'll loan them out to you all the time isn't it beautiful I don't know how but I wouldn't be surprised if there's not many people in this room angels have served you this morning and you had no idea about it you just didn't know he sent forth angels to serve to minister on your behalf you as someone who will inherit salvation and why does Jesus do this because he loves to share his servants all right I look at my time I look at my notes I feel like I want to wrap up now with four things to think about now I don't want to get this gonna take a little time so nobody get you know okay great he's two minutes we know it's I still got a little more to go so there's a proverb that says Hope deferred makes the heart sick and sometimes when people think that the preachers almost done anything well so I'm just I'm preparing you for that all right okay just four things number one though God used man to write the Bible it is the word of God and I understand I understand how in the culture at large that makes me a dinosaur to think that to believe that and I understand too that even in the church at large even among those who at least call themselves Christians among many of those that makes me a weirdo but I Justin but would you be a dinosaur and a weirdo right along with me would you believe it would you take would you say yes Lord I believe this is your word it's not just the words of David it's not just the words of Isaiah it's not just the words of Jeremiah it's not just the words of Paul this is your word to me that's number one secondly I think that angels need to be properly understood you see angels are spirit beings who made for a special purpose take on human appearance we know that their spirit beings because what he said in verse 14 that they are ministering spirits yet it does seem that definitely there are certain times in certain occasions on which angels take a human appearance that's why later on in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 13 verse 2 he says entertain strangers because for by so doing some of entertains angels unaware well I can imagine that among us this morning there's probably some pretty cool angel stories or what you thought our angel stories we don't really know sometimes for sure do we but yet sometimes it's some places God allows them or Commission's them to take on human form normally angels are invisible and they can only be seen by special revelation when Balaam was determined to go serve Baylock the king of Moab an angel was sent to block his way and Balaam couldn't see him but the donkey could see him and later on in the case and when Elisha the servant of the Lord was being sought by one of the kings of an opponent of Israel they were surrounded by angelic armies that Elijah could see but his servant couldn't see until God opened his eyes normally angels are invisible now I want to freak anybody out but I don't have any doubt whatsoever that angels are present right now at our gathering because the Bible seems to tell us that the angels take special interest when the people of God gather together they want to know whether or not things are being done according to a biblical order in a way that honors and glorifies God again I don't maintenance make you feel weird anything but I it's true we are under angelic observation right here right now after all angels were present at creation and they were created before humanity and a pain angels seem to have been created all at the same time sometime before the creation of the world they were all created and it doesn't seem that angels reproduce themselves so we can say that there is and that there has been a settled number of angels we don't know how many they are but the Bible uses big words to describe how many the hosts of heaven such as them being as many as the stars in the skies so I don't know how many angels there are but there's a lot and it seems to be a fixed number it also seems that angels have or at least have a will and a moral character some angels are described as holy and certain fallen angels are described as lying and sinning we also know from the scriptures that there's different classes of angels some are called cherubim some are called Seraphim some are called living creatures so one is called an arc angel again especially when it comes to fallen angels there seemed to be categories or ranks such as Thrones and dominions and principalities and powers and authorities we don't know exactly how all these ranks and organizations work we just know that they're organized it's not a haphazard mob but what angels do well they do continually praise and glorify God number one secondly they have at least sometimes some role in bringing God's Word to man thirdly sometimes they are agents of God's judgment sometimes when God has judgment to exercise he uses angels to do it for thirdly they are special servants of God in other words they serve God and His people and then finally fifthly they observe the conduct of the church now the bible does tell us that there is one prominent fallen angel sometimes called Lucifer we more commonly known as Satan or the devil there is a fallen angel that's seemingly from what we know from the Scriptures especially from Revelation chapter 12 he led one third of the Angels in opposition to God and they joined with him in his rebellion so it would seem that these fallen angels are actually what we would know as demons or unclean spirits and these are our adversaries in the spiritual world now I could go on and on about that but let me just say this if Jesus is exalted above the Angels is he not also exalted above every fallen angel I don't want a single person to walk out of this room fearing the demonic oh I don't want you to rush towards to play with it or toy with it no no but I want you understand Jesus is greater than every angel we're their faithful or fallen the devils got nothing on Jesus he is greater he is exalted so Jesus is greater he's exalted he's supreme over all and with that confidence we can rest in him amen all right father we thank you we thank you that Jesus Christ is greater than the Angels we thank you for the double inheritance that we have in you Lord that Jesus is heir of all things and we also inherit salvation the God we thank you that as we are connected to Jesus who is greater than all the Angels Lord we have a peace we have a security we have a routing and a confidence in a power in you thank you Jesus and lord I just pray I pray now for any of those who have not yet become part of those who will inherit salvation Lord move upon their hearts and call them to make decision for you we love you Lord we praise you we thank you for your presence here and that you are greater not only than the Angels but everything else we worship you and we give you praise in Jesus name [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

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Keywords: guzik, david guzik, enduring word, hebrews 1, jesus, jesus exalted, higher than angels, book of hebrews

Id: _vcxKbk-cDg

Length: 34min 58sec (2098 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2019