Heb No.2 Superior to the Angels 1v4-14

And now when we move into the verses from the fourth through to the fourteenth of this opening chapter, references also made to the superiority of Jesus in another dimension, and that is in respect to the angels. Look at the fourth verse, and there you find the assertion that Jesus has been made much better than the angels, being made so much better than the angels. A.W. Pink points out that that's the text, and the rest that follows is the sermon.

In other words, there's the seed thought for the next ten verses. Jesus is made so much better than the angels, and the proof that underlines that statement, that makes it an acceptable one, follows from the fourth verse and onwards. We find at the beginning of the fourth verse that our Lord Jesus Christ has been made so much better than the angels that He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Jesus, you remember, was given that name, which is above every name. The apostle Paul has to say in Ephesians and chapter one and verse 19 and 20 that the Lord God has raised Jesus Christ far above all principalities and powers I'll have to read it to you from the NIV version, because strangely enough Ephesians chapter one has been torn out of the pulpit version of the Bible here. So let me read that reference.

Jesus has a name which is above every name, and the apostle Paul makes reference to this in Ephesians chapter one and as I say verse 19. His incomparably great power for us who believe, that power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. That is very reminiscent, isn't it, of the passage in Philippians 2 where we read of the Lord Jesus being given that superlative name, every knee shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Well, this is what's happened to Jesus. He's got a name that's supreme. It's better than any other name.

He has inherited, He has by inheritance obtained this superior name, and so the apostle then goes on to, or the writer of this epistle goes on to put up a question concerning the angels, and he contrasts the angels with the Lord Jesus. They don't have the same name as He has got, and neither have they had the same honor, the same privileges, neither do they control the same power that the Lord Jesus Christ controls. Indeed, in the 14th verse, the last verse of the chapter, the writer has to say of the angels, and he's quite complimentary in his assessment of them, but he has to say, are they not all ministering spirits? They are servants of God sent forth to minister, to help for them who shall be heirs of salvation, but they are inferior to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's not only superior to the prophets, He's superior to the angels. But why? Why was the writer of this epistle concerned to establish the fact that Jesus is greater than the angels? After all, it must be important to our author, because he spends so many verses on it, and he'll come back to it and hint once more in retrospect on his argument later on. Well, maybe the reason is this, that in the Old Testament, a great emphasis is placed upon the ministry of angels, and fascination with angels became quite a hobby for Jewish teachers, particularly around the time of our Lord's ministry.

In fact, one rabbi went so far as to say that every blade of grass had its own angel, which is rather an interesting statement. They were almost preoccupied preoccupied with the subject which has been given the name angelology. The idea, you see, was this, and it's logical if you think it through, and it's not removed from certain heresy which is to be found in the twentieth century so-called church.

God is a transcendent God. He's a holy God. God is everything that we are not.

To come into the presence of God, therefore, would cause us in our own right to be somewhat fearful. So, the probability is that God will use these angelic messengers to whom so many references are found in the Old Testament as intermediaries, and you'll approach God by approaching the angels, and ultimately, because of their ministry, your thoughts, your prayers might be disclosed to the eternal God. Now this got so developed in Jewish thought that there were people who began to worship the angels.

In Colossians, when Paul writes that letter, he makes reference to these folks because they were coming along and they were disturbing the Christian church, and they were saying, you don't approach God through Jesus, you approach God through the angels. Paul has to correct this, and possibly these Hebrew Christians are also being persuaded by some heretical teachers that the whole business of angels needs to be taken into their thinking when they approach the Lord. Don't you know who these creatures are? They are intermediaries, and the writer to the Hebrews will not brook that for a moment.

He will say no, and he might have quoted the language of the apostle Paul. There's only one intermediary, there's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, and angels are inferior to Jesus. Another reason why he's taken up with the thought of angels is, and I hinted at this a few moments ago, there's rather a lot of reference to the angels and angelic ministry in the Old Testament.

I'll just give you one or two instances, and heaven knows there are an awful number, and heaven should know more than anyone because that's where the angels, generally speaking, are domiciled. Here's Lot, and he's in Sodom and Gomorrah. How does he escape? By the ministry of angels.

This incidentally is not in your notes, so don't try and follow it. I'm throwing this in as an extra with no additional charge this evening. Hagar, when she's in difficulty, it's an angel that ministers to her.

There's the angel that helps the Israelites to make their way through Sinai. When one of the prophet's servants is scared because of the Syrian hosts encamped around Samaria, the prophet says, Open his eyes, Lord. And his eyes are opened, and he sees the hosts of the Lord, the angels of God, on the summits of the surrounding hills, ready at God's express command to come to the aid of his people.

We read in the book of Psalms, and the 68th and the 17th verse, the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. We read also in the Acts of the Apostles that the word of the law was given to Moses by angels.

Acts chapter 7 and verse 53. Acts 7, 53. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.

References to the Hebrew people. They received the law by the disposition of angels. I'm not too sure what is meant by the disposition of angels, but an idea incorporated into this sentence is that when the law was given to Moses, it was given through the intermediary of angels.

And if that's a thought that strikes you as being rather novel, because you consider that Moses received the law just of himself, directly from God, there's reference to angelic hosts in Deuteronomy chapter 3, chapter 33 and verse 2. Moses said, the Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them. He shined forth from Mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of saints, ten thousand holy ones, ten thousand angels from his right hand went out a fiery law for them. All right, let's stack all the evidence together and make a conclusion.

What is the possibility? Well, through reading the Old Testament scriptures carelessly and giving heed to what the rabbis were saying, or some of them, in Jesus's day, you might as an early Christian have come to the conclusion that besides the intermediary ministry of Jesus, there was that of the angels. So the writer of the Hebrew epistle pens this particular piece of argument to disassociate himself from that notion and to prove conclusively to those who received the epistle that Jesus is so superior to the angels that if they don't diminish into absolute insignificance, at least their ministry will be seen as very much a secondary one. So all that by way of introduction, none of which I meant to say.

One or two other things that perhaps need to be brought to your attention. Oh, let me just go back on that a moment because I made reference to people in the 20th century who have a similar sort of notion. What I mean by that is an intermediary between God and man besides Jesus.

Now I think those of you who've been with me here for the past ten years would agree that it's not my practice to demolish other branches of the Christian church. It's not very often that I make reference to a denomination by name. But our Catholic friends are very, very much guilty of this.

Bless their hearts, we're not criticizing the individual Catholic, but I am criticizing Catholic theology. This whole idea of the veneration of Mary, what is that? But another evidence of this heresy in the New Testament times that besides Jesus, there's someone else who can get his ear and therefore enable your thoughts to be communicated to the Almighty God. What about our Catholic friends and the way that they teach concerning the ministries of the saints? If you read the same newspaper as I read, it used to be the Times until they doubled the price and I had to slip down to the Telegraph, you'll find in the personal column occasionally, thanks to St. Jude or thanks to St. Margaret or thanks to any number of saints.

What is the person thanking the saint for? Blessings received. Because you see the saint, this special Christian who's now in the glory with God, who lived an outstanding life, has an ear to God and you can pray, not directly to the Lord, but to the Lord via St. Jude or via St. Benedict or you pick your saint and that's how you proceed. It's a similar idea.

You see the point, don't you? It's an intermediary. I was with some ladies, young ladies from the Moon Church, so-called. I don't really think that it can substantiate, it can really substantiate a claim to be called a church, the unification organization.

And what in effect are they saying about Sung Myung Moon? I can never pronounce that Korean name very well. What are they saying about the founder? Well, that he's someone else who takes the place of Jesus and you pray to him. I was talking to one of these girls who spent an evening with us at home on Tuesday and I said, she's a French girl, I said, tell me dear, when you pray, how do you pray? And she says, I pray to the Heavenly Father.

I said, who do you mean by the Heavenly Father? And it came out, she prays in the name of Sung Myung Moon. And when that Korean comes into any of the unification centers in London, elsewhere in this country or in New York where he lives, the people will bow their heads because in their presence is an intermediary, if not God himself. I predict he's going to pronounce that he is God by 1982.

You can prove whether I'm right as 1982 approaches. However, again, more information thrown out, which wasn't intended to be thrown out, but to show you that this particular tendency over against which the writer of the Hebrew epistle is arguing is present with us today. And we need to realize more and more that Jesus Christ and him alone is supreme.

He is the only one who speaks of God. He is the only one who can direct us to God. The message that he brought and the messenger, which he is, who he is, coalesce, converge because Jesus and he alone is God made manifest in the flesh and therefore superior to any other revelation and the only intermediary between man and God.

Well, says the writer to this epistle, of this epistle, unto which of the angels, verse five, unto which of the angels saith he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? Here's a question. It's a typical Hebraic way of teaching this. You ask a question and then before anyone has a chance to answer it, you supply the answer yourself.

A typical Hebraic way of teaching, a very good one as well. He's not expecting an answer. He realizes that nobody can answer this.

Unto which of the angels did God say this, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? Well, he never said it to any of the angels. There was only one person that this was said to, the carpenter from Nazareth, the child that was born in Bethlehem, the man who died on the cross, the one who was brought back from the dead. You see what the writer of the Hebrew epistle is now doing, is marshalling seven particular pieces of argument which he's gathering from the Old Testament to buttress his comment that Jesus is supreme, that Jesus is unique.

To which of the angels did he say this, thou art my son? Well, that term, my son, was only applied by the Father to one person. When Mary was informed that she was to be the one who would bring the Christ child into the world, she's informed in the words of Luke's gospel that she will bring into being, she will give birth to the Son of the Most High. When Jesus is immersed in the murky waters of the Jordan by the Baptist, a voice is heard from heaven, this is my Son, my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

The Mount of Transfiguration, halfway through Jesus' ministry, that same voice is heard, this is my Son, the Beloved, hear Him. And when you move over into Romans chapter 1 verse 2 or 3, speaking of the resurrection, the apostle inspired by the Spirit says that the Lord Jesus Christ was designated the Son of God with great power. There's only one being who can fit in here.

Thou art my Son. Who is being referred to? The Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is God's Son.

This day have I begotten thee. What's the reference to this day? To what is it making mention? Well, it seems to me from the context of what follows, the reference is to the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Not just the twenty-four hour literal day, but all that that inaugurated when Jesus was raised in the power of an endless life.

It became obvious to all that He was more than just mortal man. He was the Son of God. He was begotten of the Father, and He is raised on that great day.

He ascends ultimately into heaven. He is glorified. He is exalted, says the writer through the Philippians, above all exaltation.

And that proverbial expression, this day, it applies to all the glorious things that have happened to the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else was ever raised from the dead. No angel.

No angel was ever glorified like Jesus. No angel was ever given the name that is above every name, only Jesus Christ. And so reference is here made to the Lord Jesus and the fact that He is alone the Son of the living God.

You are my Son. This day have I begotten you. And of course the reference is from the Old Testament, the Messianic Psalm or one of the Messianic Psalms, the second one.

And the writer is saying that Jesus fulfills what is predicted there. No angel. But let's move on because not only are we told to think about the title that Jesus has given uniquely, but about the paternity of Jesus.

This follows quite logically from the previous argument. Look at the latter part of the fifth verse. And again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

Now if you were to look back in 2 Samuel, you would discover in the reference that I gave you, the reference that I corrected, the seventh chapter and the fourteenth verse, an allusion to David. And not specifically to David, but to David's offspring, Solomon. God promised some tremendous things that would happen through David's seed, Solomon.

Now there isn't time for me to go into that historical chapter. You can look it through yourself. But it becomes obvious, even at a casual glance, that some of the prophetic things that are there delineated, that are there set down, were not and could not conceivably be fulfilled by Solomon himself.

God's eye was upon Solomon in a very special way. But Solomon was not a sinless person. Solomon did not have eternity within his breast.

The promise, the prediction, transcended Solomon, David's son, and was fulfilled in David's greatest son, even the Lord Jesus. And those of you who know the Old Testament Scriptures are aware that references made on several occasions to the fact that from David's seed, or from the branch of Jesse, Jesse being the father of David, would come forth a deliverer, someone who was quite unique, someone who the writer to the Hebrew epistle says can only be described as God's own son, the one over which God alone is father. And when Jesus was born in his public ministry, and after his crucifixion and therefore resurrection, he makes reference to the father, doesn't he? And he's always very careful when he refers to the father, although he will acknowledge that God is the father of his disciples and the father of all believers, in a very special way, he's the father of Jesus.

And so he says to the women who come into the garden on the morning of his resurrection, don't touch me, for I ascend unto my father and your father, unto my God and your God. God is the father of all who trust the Lord Jesus as Savior, but in a very special, in a unique sense, he's the father of Jesus Christ. And none of the angels could ever refer to the father as Jesus can, and no one could take the son of God in the special, restrictive way that Jesus can bear it.

So the uniqueness of Jesus is seen in the title that he has gained, in the paternity which he claims, but also the writer of this epistle tells us that Jesus is unique inasmuch as he accepts and rightly so worship. Look at the sixth verse, and again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he said, and let all the angels of God worship him. Now let's just stop for a moment and just ask ourselves, to what specific reference is this applied? And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, is the Greek there really to be translated? And when he again brings his first begotten into the world, all the angels will worship him.

In other words, does it apply to his second coming? Or does it apply to his first coming? And what's happening is really the Hebrew writer is saying, here's another quotation, again I'm quoting from the Old Testament, when he brings in the first begotten into the world, let all the angels of God worship him. I say that because it's not clear in the original. And when there's a possibility of two interpretations, and being rather greedy, I go for both.

And I don't think it really matters whether you interpret this in terms of when Jesus comes back again or his first coming into the world. Because when Jesus first came into the world, did not the angels of heaven worship? On the slopes of Bethlehem, of the fields around Bethlehem, as the shepherds were informed that Jesus had been born in a manger in David's city, they saw the angels peering over the balustrades of heaven singing the Gloria, did they not? The angels acknowledging who Jesus was. But if you think that the word again there refers to God again bringing his first begotten into the world, that is to the second advent, then you've no need to get alarmed.

Because we read in Scripture that when Jesus comes again, he'll come in the power of God's glory. And that term, the glory of God, often refers to the thought of the angelic beings that surround the throne of God coming with the Savior. So you can take it both ways.

And it adds up to the same thing. The angels associated with Jesus in his first advent, the angels associated with Jesus in his second advent. But the point really, having gone into that long digression, the point that is being emphasized by our writer is this, that the angels worship Jesus.

The inferior worships the superior. And you know full well, do you not, that when our Lord was on earth, he never dismissed anyone who engaged in the act of worshiping him. And the Pharisees and Sadducees were right when they concluded that if a man accepted worship and he wasn't God, the act was blasphemy.

And they didn't think Jesus was God. And therefore, they were very annoyed when he received worship. They realized that he was making a claim, being more than a mortal man.

And of course, that is what he was, more than mortal, on a par with God. As the angels worship the living God, so the angels worship Jesus, the Son of God. And that term, the Son of God, when it's used in the Hebrew epistle, really, as I think I told you last week, could be, could have the connotation, one with God.

For that is what Jesus is. He's one with God, the revelation, supreme revelation of the Lord God. He's the first begotten.

He is the one who is before the creation of the world, the one through whom the worlds came into existence, outside of creation in one sense. First begotten in the sense that the first begotten child, the first begotten boy in a family had all the honors of the firstborn. So, Jesus has these, and none of the angels.

But move on to the thought of Jesus' status. Look at the seventh verse. Our writer says, "...who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

But unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." You say, what on earth does that mean? Well, I could spend a long time just trying to deal with what is conveyed by verse seven, but there isn't the time to go into it fully. So, take this as a summary. You will discover, if you read Psalm 104 and verse 4, from which this quotation is taken, that reference is made to angels as the servants of the Lord.

The word spirits there could well be translated winds, and therefore you've got reference to two elements, two basic elements in the world, the wind and fire. Now, the wind doesn't blow always. The fires don't burn always.

They're efficient in what they do, but they are intermittent, and they are dependent on other natural forces. And it seems to me that what the writer is doing in the seventh and eighth verse is drawing a contrast between the dependence of the angels and the independence of the Son. He is saying that the angels are finite, but the Son is infinite.

The angels are intermittent, so to speak, in their ministries, but the ministry of the Son goes on forever. I argue that you can come to no other conclusion but that the writer is making such a contrast because of the word but in the eighth verse. Hear what the angels are like.

They're like winds. They're like fire. They are powerful, but their power is dependent on something else.

They're efficient, but their efficiency is intermittent. But over against that, there's the Son and His authority, named here in terms of His throne. It lasts forever and ever.

Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. How wonderful that our Lord Jesus Christ is not created, is not contingent, is not dependent on another, but is God the Son co-equal and co-eternal with the Father.

More could be said about the scepter of righteousness and the scepter of His kingdom, but time would not allow me to make comment on every phrase in these verses. Then, if you go on to the ninth verse, Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.

Again, a reference from the Old Testament, and you'll find that in the 45th Psalm and the sixth verse, still linking in, really, with what has been said previously about the Son and about the angels, drawing out the contrast between the authority of Jesus, which is absolute, and the authority of the angels, which is inferior to that of the Lord Jesus Christ. That reference is rather a lovely one, to the Lord God anointing the Savior with the oil of gladness above His fellows. That must have been a wonderful occasion when Jesus Christ, now still having His humanity, a sinless humanity, returns to the glory.

There He received the accolade of God the Father. There He became again the center of the adoration and the praise of the angelic hosts. His coronation takes place, His exaltation.

He's anointed with the oil of gladness, and the Lord Jesus then pours the oil of His Spirit upon the community in the upper room, who are waiting for His empowering before they set out on their evangelistic ministry. So then these eighth and ninth verses, contrasting with the seventh verse, they show us something of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus. And then we rush on to the tenth and eleventh verses, where the quotation is from Psalm 102.

And it's rather interesting that sometimes these references from the Old Testament really apply in their context to God the Father. But the writer of the Hebrew epistle doesn't blush to apply them to the Lord Jesus. He finds no contradiction in so doing, because as it is implicit within his argument, the Lord Jesus Christ for him is none other than part of the Godhead.

The Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning, says verse 10, has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. This is a statement that you get repeated in different language. In Colossians, where we're told that the Lord Jesus Christ was the means whereby the world came into existence.

Hebrews, previously in the third verse of this first chapter, talks about the Lord Jesus upholding all things by the word of his power. John's Gospel, chapter one and verse three is it, says that without Jesus was nothing made that was made. He is the one who is behind the whole of the universe, the whole phenomenon of creation, but not the angels.

They could perish, but you remain. They shall wax old as doth the garment, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall always be the same.

So you see the contrast, six or so quotations from the Old Testament which I've alluded to already this evening, and they're all brought together to pinpoint this, that none of those references was to the angels at all. They were all to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the final thing our writer has to say, final at any rate for us this evening, is what happened to Jesus when he returned to heaven.

Verse 13, but to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until until I make thine enemies thy footstool. A quotation plucked from Psalm 110. Well, the most exalted of angels are not allowed to sit at God's right hand.

They can go into his presence. They can minister before the Lord, but they can't sit down. That in Old Testament language was the position of privilege.

It was given only to the firstborn. It was given only to the oldest son of the King, but Jesus Christ, he is the Son of Almighty God. He has all power and authority invested in him.

And when he returns to the glory, having achieved the purpose of the triune God in sending him into this world, he sits down at the right hand of the majesty on high, as we discovered in the third verse of this same chapter, waiting. Waiting for what? Waiting until all the foes of Jesus Christ submit and acknowledge his lordship. Waiting until the day of grace has run its course, when the trumpet at Gabriel's lip shall sound, and to quote one of our old-fashioned hymns, time shall be no more.

Waiting for that signal when the glorious Son of God shall return visibly to this universe, when every intelligent being on this earth, when every intelligent agent who ever lived, when those under the earth and those above the earth, to use the metaphorical language of scripture, shall look and perceive and recognize who he is and confess to their shame or to the for their eternal salvation, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is in session at the right hand of the Lord God at this moment. He's praying for his own and he's waiting until that moment dawns when he shall return to this world.

And until that time, what are the angels doing? Well, our writer, having argued for the supremacy of Jesus, in no way belittles the angels, but he makes the astonishing assertion that these are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. In one sense, they cooperate with redeemed humanity in the propagation of the gospel. Billy Graham, when everybody else was writing books on demons some two years ago, went to the other end and rebalanced the weights by writing a book on angels and the ministry of angels helping the church of Jesus Christ in the propagation of the gospel.

They can't proclaim it, but they can work for the advantage and for the security of men who've confessed Jesus as Savior. And the Lord seemed to intimate something about the function of angels when he makes reference to little children, you remember? And he said that every little child has his own angel, and we sometimes refer to our guardian angel. Well, I don't claim to understand it all, but what I do declare from Scripture is this, that there are a noble army of invisible beings who are cooperating with and helping, perhaps in ways which we do not comprehend ourselves, those who confess the lordship of Jesus and are endeavoring to win men and women for Jesus Christ in this world today, as there are forces of darkness, as there are demons, as there are devils who execute the work of Satan on this globe.

So alongside those who are saved, there are legions of angels assisting in ways which may be beyond our ken and helping us in the propagation of the gospel, glorious creatures who minister before the throne of God, brilliant beings made by the Lord, but they're inferior to Jesus, and Jesus has been made so much better than the angels, though on earth, as I shall show you, as we're going through the second chapter in a couple of weeks' time, he became a little lower voluntarily, just for a while. As our writer says in the seventh verse of the second chapter, but now in the glory, he has regained his position of authority, his supremacy, and the angels acknowledge it. They are not mediators between man and God.

There's only one in that office, the man, Christ Jesus. Amen.