- Okay, Hebrews, The Glorious Jesus. This is lesson number two, entitled Jesus: Greater than the Angels, Part 1, and we'll be in chapter one if you want to follow
along in your Bibles. Chapter one, beginning in verse four. So, the book of Hebrews,
as I mentioned last time, written to a particular
group of Jewish Christians who, because of persecution,
were being tempted to abandon Christianity
and return to Judaism, and in the letter to the Hebrews,
the author appeals to them to remain faithful to
Christ by showing them Christ's superiority to
their former Jewish religion, and he does this by comparing Jesus to various elements of
the Jewish religion. He compares Jesus to the prophets, he compares Jesus to the angels, to Moses, to the priesthood, so on and so forth. So, in our last lesson,
we studied how Jesus was superior to the prophets because, there we go, because He was
superior to the prophets because He was preeminent in history. Remember, last time I said to
you Jesus was at the beginning 'cause the world was created through Him, and Jesus is also at the end, because when He returns,
the new heavens and earth will be created, so He's at
the beginning and at the end, but the prophets, where are they? Well, they're in the middle, so He's preeminent. He's above. He's superior to the prophets. He's superior in His nature. He has a divine nature. The prophets, of course,
only had a human nature. He was superior in position, meaning a position of authority. He's at the right hand of God, so He has authority that
the prophets never had. They had the authority in the sense that they spoke from God and
they spoke God's words, but they were never at the
right hand of God as Jesus was, so that's kind of what
we went over last time, how Jesus is superior to the prophets. In our lesson tonight,
we're going to see another form of comparison of Jesus, and this time, it'll be a comparison of Jesus to the angels, but before we kind of
examine the comparison that he does here in Hebrews, we need a little background information about the angels themselves and what Jews thought about
angels, because this won't make a whole lot of sense to you otherwise. Now, both the Hebrew and
the Greek words for angel mean messenger or messenger from God. The word angel in the
Bible refers to an order or spiritual or supernatural
beings, not divine. They're not divine beings. Created by God, who act as
God's messengers to men, and the agents who carry
out God's will among men, so here's some just lot of
facts about them very quickly. They're spirit beings
and they appear as men in Genesis 18:2. They never appear as women,
in the Bible, that is. They never appear as babies, yet we see all kinds of
caricatures, angels as women, you know, or babies, but in the Bible, they're never pictured that way. They were created by God,
Psalm 148, one to five, Colossians 1:16 talks about that. They're not human, and so
have no sensual desire, no desire to marry, so
to speak, to reproduce. They're sometimes
described as having wings. Isaiah chapter six talks
about that, Daniel 9:21. They have intelligence and free will, you know, which is one of the reasons why they were in rebellion. They used their free will, but they used it, obviously,
to rebel against God, Second Peter, chapter two. They were present and they rejoiced at the creation of the world,
Job 38, versus four to seven, which suggests that they were created and they rebelled before
the creation of the world. This is not something that
happened after creation. It happened before the creation. Interestingly, there are no
personal descriptions of angels, only descriptions of their
order and their function. In other words, you won't go
to a passage where it says, well, Angel A said to Angel B, and they had a long conversation, or, well, Michael the
archangel, he's like this. He's a certain type of person, you know? There's nothing like that in the Bible. The Bible only talks about
what angels do, for example, so another list here. They have heavenly powers, or they're referred to as
heavenly powers in Psalm 29. The holy ones, Psalm 89. As watchers, Daniel four. As a council or archangel, Psalm 89. Also referred to as a
congregation or a host, Psalm 82. Spirits, Hebrews one. Powers, principalities, and
dominions, Colossians 1:16, and in 1:16, powers, principalities, and dominions are referred to in the positive sense, and then, in Ephesians,
chapter six, verse 12, powers, principalities, and dominions, this time these terms are
used in a negative sense to describe the angels, okay? Archangels, I mentioned already,
First Thessalonians four. An interesting one is the Angel of God or the Angel of the Lord in Genesis 22. This is a special type for Christ. Remember, we talked about types. We spoke about that in another series. Types are like previews. You see previews of things
in the Old Testament that preview, like the
sacrificial system was a preview, a type, pointing to the
sacrifice of Christ. Well, the Angel of the
Lord, the Angel of God, a preview, a type, of Christ. Christ coming in a certain form. Some believe that the
Angel of the Lord is Jesus coming in the form of an angel. He came in the form of an
angel in the Old Testament. He comes in the form of a
man in the New Testament. We also see that angels serve
God in a variety of ways, as messengers, to Abraham, for example, in Genesis 19, to Mary, Luke one. As destroyers, angel of death,
the Passover, Exodus 12. As ministers, they ministered
to Jesus in the desert, Matthew four, and in the garden, Luke 22. They are worshipers, constantly
praising God, Psalm 103. They are guardians of
God's people, Daniel 12:1, and of children, Matthew 18. We're not sure, you know
how exactly that works. Simply, we're told that that's
what they do in some way. Now, the Jews, they were
familiar with the existence and the appearance of
these supernatural beings throughout their history. The reason I gave you all
this detail about angels, the Jews knew this history. They were familiar with what
I've been talking about here concerning angels. The prophets spoke God's word
and they did mighty miracles by God's power, but angels
were the superhuman beings who were at God's throne and
had appeared to various Jews throughout their history, so for the Jews, angels represented one of
their closest experiences of divinity, okay? That's why I gave you
all that information. If you were a Jew living
in the first century, angels were probably the
beings that represented supernatural or divine power. Angels were it, okay? So, in the first century,
many Christians were confused as to how they should relate to Jesus. Is He only a man or is He only God? Some, especially Jewish Christians, may have been tempted to see Jesus as part of the angelic creation. After all, they were often
sent by God as messengers and they did mighty deeds, so you know, you couldn't
fault them for thinking, well, maybe Jesus like was an angel, like a very special angel, okay? That idea would easily
creep into the early church because of the long history
the Jews had with angels, so the author of Hebrews
firmly establishes the identity of Jesus as
being greater than angels. He also shows how Old Testament passages are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and how these passages
point to Jesus' superiority over the angels, okay? So all this preamble I've given you is to set up the reason
why the Hebrew writer goes to the trouble of demonstrating how Jesus is greater than the angels, because for a first century Jew, it was easy to think that
Jesus might just be an angel. Okay, so let's go to verse four. It says, "having become as
much better than the angels, "as He has inherited a more
excellent name than they." Hebrews one, verse four. So, remember last week, we did
Hebrews one, one, two, three, so now we're at Hebrews one, verse four, so the writer begins in verse four by making a summary statement
concerning Jesus and angels. First, he says He's
much better than angels. He's not an angel. He's much better than angels. Secondly, He has inherited a
better name than they have. Now, as a man, Jesus was
lower than the angels because He was confined to time and space. With His death and resurrection
and ascension, however, He inherits a better name. Not name, my name is
Jesus, my name is Peter, my name is Mark, not that name. Name as in position. You have a better name means
you have a better position. He inherits a better position
than the angels have. He inherits because the
position was rightfully His. He created everything, so He
deserves a better position. After all, the angels were
created through Jesus, so He naturally has a
higher position than them. It's a better position because it's at the right hand of
power, not the angelic position. What is the angelic position? Well, it's the position of service. They serve. Jesus is at the position of power. He commands. So, the author supports
his claim with scripture about the character in
position of the Messiah in relationship to angels. This position was determined
long before by God, and it was spoken of by the prophets. In other words, the
Hebrew writer is saying I'm not making this stuff up. I'm not just making up the idea that Jesus is higher than the angels. The prophets said that,
when the Messiah would come, his position would be such, okay? So, he proves this point by
referring to seven specific Old Testament passages that demonstrate the superiority of the Messiah
in comparison to the angels, and here we go. Number one, Hebrews 1:5a, "For to which of the
angels did He ever say, "'You are my son. "Today, I have begotten you'?" That's from Psalm two, verse seven. So, here he refers to the
enthronement of the king from David's line. On ascending the throne, the idea is that the
king becomes God's son. Now, the scripture ultimately
referred to the Messiah who would come from David's
line, but would rule forever. Some of that information in
Second Samuel, 7:14 to 16. So, the point is that God
calls the angels as a group. He calls them, as a group, sons of God. You know, in Job 1:6, the sons of God presented
themselves before God. The sons of God, plural, okay? But no one angel was ever
referred to as the Son of God like the Messiah was called. You see his point. The idea of begotten is not birthing, like a woman births a child. The idea of begotten is enthronement. Set Him at the right hand of authority, so the author starts by showing
that Jesus, the Messiah, is greater that then angels
because the prophets said that he would be called the Son of God, not a son of God, not sons of God like the angels were called. He is greater because
He is the Son of God, so argument number one. Number two, he's greater than the angels, so he quotes and says, "And again, "'I will be a father to him
and he shall be a son to me'?" Second Samuel, so the passage
comes from Second Samuel seven and refers to the promise
that God made to David through Nathan the prophet that God would provide
for his sons' efforts at building a temple in Jerusalem. So the point here is that the Messiah, who would be David's
descendant through Solomon, would be like earthly kings. He'd be a son, but unlike earthly kings, He would rule from heaven, and so he repeats the point that no angel was ever promised a
thing like that by God, but the Messiah was, and
Jesus is the Messiah. Right, in Psalm 89, verse 27, it says, "I also shall make Him my firstborn, "the highest of the kings of the earth." So now the writer isn't arguing
that Jesus is the Messiah. I mean, his readers already believe this. He's arguing that Jesus, as the Messiah, is greater than the angels
according to scripture, according to the Old Testament. Just to make sure that even in our class, we remember what I'm doing here. We don't get lost in all the details. He's giving seven different
reasons why and how Jesus is greater than the angels, and he's supporting all of these reasons with Old Testament scripture, which is the only scripture
they had at that time. So, number three, Hebrews one, verse six, he says, "And when He again brings "the firstborn into the world, He says, 'and let all the
angels of God worship Him'." Boy, if I was making this argument about Jesus greater than the angels, all I'd need is that
one passage right there. Now, this is a difficult verse, because it could mean when Jesus
returns again to the world, as in His second coming,
the angels will worship Him. The idea of the firstborn
denotes priority and superiority over all those who are born. Not the first one created, Jesus wasn't the first one created. Firstborn means among those who
are born, He is the greatest as far as position is concerned. The quote here is from Psalm 97:7, and in an exhortation that
everything and everyone and every spiritual being
must worship divinity. So, the author raises
the question to say that when Jesus was revealed
as the divine Son of God, even the angels should worship Him as the scripture says
they should of divinity. In other words, if there is divinity and we ought to worship divinity, well, then, Jesus is divinity, then everyone, including the angels, should be worshiping Him as well. Jesus is not only greater, but also deserving of
worship of the angels, so the again is usually
seen as a literary device to introduce a new idea, and it should be actually
at the beginning. Again, and when He brings. It's just where you put that word there, but it doesn't lose its essential meaning, and it's fairly clear. When He brings the
firstborn into the world, that's Jesus, He says, "And let all the angels
of God worship Him," okay? Number four, Hebrews 1:7, "And of the angels He says, "'who makes his angels winds "and his ministers a flame of fire.'" This Psalm 104, verse four, the Old Testament idea that God used His angels as His servants. They were winds or they
were flames, if you wish. Ezekiel talks about angels as flames. So the point here is that
angels have no authority, and at their highest, they're servants. They're supernatural servants, but nevertheless, still servants. In the next verses, he
compares the authority of Jesus to that of the angels
who are only servants, so we go to number five,
Hebrews 1:8 and nine. It says, "But of the Son, He says, "'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, "and the righteous scepter is
the scepter of His kingdom. "You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness; "therefore, God, your God,
has anointed you with the oil "of gladness above your companions.'" Taken from Psalm 45, verse six and seven. Here, the author describes
the regal splendor of the position of the king. As Messiah, Jesus rules
as the king in heaven. Unlike earthly kings, however,
Jesus rules eternally. He rules with authority, you know, when it says the scepter of His kingdom? That means authority. He rules with justice, meaning, you know, here it mentions He's righteous. He hates lawlessness. He rules with joy. It says anointed with the oil of gladness, so how does He rule? Not like an earthly ruler,
not like a tyrant, okay? Not like our modern, weak,
human, sinful rulers. He rules eternally with
authority and justice and in a joyful manner, and then it says above thy
companions, refers to the angels. He rules above them, so the angels in the Old
Testament literature, they stood before the throne of God, so now the author pictures
Jesus sitting on that throne, and the angels worshiping Him. Number six, remember,
seven arguments he makes from the Old Testament, chapter one, verse 10 to 12, it says, "And, 'You,
Lord, in the beginning "laid the foundations of the earth "and the heavens are
the works of your hands. "They will perish, but you remain, "and they all will become
old like a garment, "and like a mantel, you will roll them up, "and like a garment, they
will also be changed, "but you are the same, "and your years will not come to an end.'" Psalm 102 is the passage he quotes here. Here in this passage, he reviews the Old Testament description of the Son as the creator,
all powerful, eternal, preeminent, first and last. The point here is that the
angels are not creators. They have no creative power. They are created beings
and they are, therefore, inferior to the Son. Now, in the previous verses,
the author showed Jesus on the throne of the kingdom in heaven. Here, he demonstrates
that His rule extends over the physical creation as well, so He's ruler of all. Ruler of heaven, ruler of earth, and then, number seven,
chapter 1:13 and 14 says, "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'? "Are they not all ministering spirits "sent out to render service
for the sake of those "who will inherit salvation?" So this quote from Psalm 1:10. The author closes his argument concerning Jesus and the angels
with an emphatic statement. He says, "To what angel did God ever say," just in case the first six passages have not convinced you yet, one more passage, and he says, "To what angel did He ever say," and then he goes on and on. The image here that's
described in this passage, the picture is of the
oriental ancient custom of a victor putting his foot on the neck of a defeated enemy. They'd bring the king who was defeated, and they'd bring him forward
and he'd be kneeling down and he'd put his, you know,
face down to the ground, and the victor, the
winning king, you know, would put his foot on his neck to show his superiority, okay? The writer, however, says only to His son, the Messiah, Jesus, does God offer the position of authority on the throne, and this position Jesus takes, as all of His enemies
will finally bow to Him at the end of time. Doesn't Paul say pretty much
the same thing in Philippians? Every knee shall bow. Every tongue will confess. That's an interesting passage, you know? It doesn't say all the believers, all the believers' knees will bend and all the believers' tongue will. It says every knee will bow. That includes everybody, the nonbelievers, the scoffers, the
mockers, the disobedient, you know, and the believers. Everybody. Everybody will bend the
knee and confess the name. The only difference is the believers have been doing this their entire lives. The nonbelievers, the
mockers, the scoffers, they will be doing it. It's funny, it'll be
the last thing they do before they go into eternal punishment. Kind of a scary thought,
when you think about it. He finishes the passage
and says, you know, that's the position of Jesus. Even His enemies will be, you
know, bowing down before Him, but he says, but angels, well,
they are servants of the Son towards the saints on earth, so you get a final picture
of contrast between the Son, who has accomplished
salvation and has returned to heaven to rule, and angels,
who minister to the saved on behalf of the Son, so the author uses Old
Testament scriptures to demonstrate that, as the Messiah, Jesus is greater than the greatest of the supernatural creatures
that they have ever known, and those are angels. So, let's do a quick, I'm going to do the same
thing, but you know, put it on a different graphic, okay? So, He's greater because He's
the Son of divine origin, and they are created beings. He's greater because He is the fulfillment of God's plan according to promise, and they, they have no such promise. He's greater because, as a divine being, He is deserving of worship, and they, the angels, they offer worship. As a matter of fact, whenever an angel appears to a human being, many
times you see the human being kneel down or want to worship the angel, and the angels don't permit it. They won't permit anyone to worship them. Number four, He is greater because He has authority to command, and they, they only have the free will to obey or to disobey. They can obey or disobey, but they have no authority
to give commands. Number five, He is greater
because He sits as king, and they are merely servants of the king. Number six, He is greater
because He created the world. They, on the other hand,
are the created beings. And seven, He is greater
because He saved men from sin, and they only minister to
men who are saved, okay? There is the whole argument in a nutshell, so in this section, the author
establishes from scripture Jesus' higher position than angels. Now, in the second part of this section, he's going to describe the significance of the work that Jesus
did when, for a time, He accepted to be in a lower
position than the angels. Do you see his dilemma, the problem he has here, the writer? He has to convince his readers that Jesus is higher than the angels, and yet his readers have only seen Jesus as a human being, lower than the angels, so he begins by giving
them this spiritual vision of who Jesus really is,
these seven arguments, okay? In the next section, which
I'm going to do next week, he's going to explain
Jesus' role here on earth and how, even while He was a
little lower than the angels, He had a task to complete, but he has to do this
first to fix in their minds who Jesus really is so
that they'll be able to see in context what He's
doing when, for a time, he did accept to take a position that was lower than the angels, okay? We got that? Alright, so let's do some
practical applications just of what we've done tonight, you know, just practical lessons, okay? Lesson number one, it's
not how big your church is, it's how big your God is. You know, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, they deny the Bible's
description of Jesus. Mormons teach, basically,
that Jesus is one of many sons who eventually became God. He was a preexisting
spirit who became God, but you know what? Eventually they teach but all of us can reach the same thing. Jehovah Witnesses teach that
Jesus began His existence, well, as Michael, the archangel. Basically, believe Him to be
an angel, a superior angel. And with these teachings they
have built enormous followings with thousands of churches
all over the world. Look at our church. Look at our humble congregation, and compare it to the huge Mormon temples that are filled with people, and sometimes, you know,
that can be discouraging. Their advertising is slick. Their zeal to spread their
doctrines is powerful. I mean, boy, the men,
they take two years off to go and knock doors, but don't be fooled by the
size of church buildings or wealth or influence in the world. Their God is no God. Their Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus that the
Hebrew writer describes, He is the one who's the Lord. He's the one who is the savior, so let's not judge the
value of a person's religion by size or by noise. You know the first question I ask somebody if we're about to study and
I'm not sure where they're at, they just say they'd like to, you know, yeah, I've read the Bible,
and yeah, I do believe in God, and yeah, Jesus and all that, so you know, you're
thinking where do you start? Teaching about the church? Teach him about baptism? You know, where do you start? I always start at the same spot. I start by saying who is Jesus? Let's start there. Who is Jesus to you? Well, I don't know, maybe he's a prophet. You know what I'm saying? 'Cause when I finally figure out who they think Jesus is, that tells me where
they're at spiritually. So if they say, well,
Jesus, He's the Son of God, He's a divine being, He's the Savior, He's resurrected, He died for my sins. Okay. Alright, let's move on. You know, are you saved? Well, you know, I don't know. I think so. Okay, next question, when were you saved, and how did that happen? You see what I'm saying? But I always begin with who is Jesus? And I think, you know, all
of us should begin there when we're talking about religion, because if He's not
the Lord of the angels, well, he's not our lord, because the Bible says He's
the Lord of the angels. It doesn't matter if a guy's got a $20 million church building. If he gets up and teaches
that Jesus is an angel, it doesn't matter. He's got the wrong teaching. Lesson number two, Jesus is always more, not less. From the very beginning, there
has always been an attempt to lessen who Jesus is. You know, in Mark 6:3, didn't
the people in His village say, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" You know, the people in His hometown, hearing of His miracles,
listening to His teachings, they remarked that He was,
well, He's just one of us, country boy, son of a carpenter. Making Him less, attempting
to make Him less. The people said, "Do we not say rightly "that you are a Samaritan
and have a demon?" John 8:48. The leaders accused Him of
being less than a good Jew, and even demon possessed, to explain His power to do miracles, always trying to make Him less. The people the Hebrew
writer was addressing were tempted to see Jesus as part of the angelic beings that they had known, making Him less than who He was. Various religions of the past and present have referred to Jesus
as one of their own gods, the Hindus, for example, or
a great prophet, the Muslims. They don't disrespect Jesus. The Muslims don't disrespect Jesus. Oh, He's a great prophet, but in saying He's a great prophet, they make Him less than who He really is. He's the Son of God. The Hindus say, well, yeah,
yeah, He's one of the gods, one of the many gods, you know? Well, yeah, they make
Him less by making Him not the only God, but making
Him one of the many gods. And modern philosophers
view Him as a moral teacher, a moral leader, a good
man, an innocent man, one of the most striking characters in the history of mankind, you know? All of this stuff, but
He's not the Son of God. See, they make Him less. Always making Him less, but any description of
Jesus that brings Him down, even if it's down
politely and respectfully, from His exalted position is inaccurate. You know, John says, John the writer, he says, "For many deceivers
have gone out into the world. "Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ "as coming in the flesh, "this is the deceiver and the antichrist." Second John seven. Who's the antichrist? The Hollywood version of antichrist, a guy with horns and
whose head twists around and he's red and is that the antichrist? Some sort of Halloween character? John says the antichrist
is the well dressed, very intelligent preacher, speaker, who begins to
describe all the ways and means and reasons
that Jesus is an angel or Jesus is simply a prophet. If he's talking about Jesus
and teaching about Him, and teaches anything other than the fact that Jesus is the divine Son of God, John says that's the antichrist. John warns that the main
deception will always be to deny the divine slash human nature of Jesus. Either they bring Him
down as not being divine or make Him only human or make Him only divine and not human. It's always playing
around with that equation. The apostles taught that Jesus was God, nothing less than this, John 20:28. So, any teaching or suggestion
that is different than this, it's not Biblical. John even says that
teaching of this nature is part of the power of the antichrist in the world then and today, so the lesson, of course,
and there are only two. I always give three, but there's only two. Jesus is always more than
what we think of or imagine, never less, never less. Let's remember that. Okay, so that's the
basic beginning argument that the Hebrew writer makes about Jesus being greater than the angels. Next time, we're going to do
the second part of his argument and keep charging through the
book of Hebrews, a great book. Very, very satisfying book, because it exalts our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. I think that's very important. Alright, thank you very much.
