Christ Superior
0 Amens
Hebrews 1:3b-4
June 17, 2007
Series 3 Sermon 2
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
Introduction
The Lord Jesus Christ is the most unique figure in all of human history. There is no doubt that the very hands of time swing upon His birth, life, death, and resurrection. If you want to start controversy then bring up the name Jesus in conversation. People are not offended by the name Buddha. They are not offended by the name Mohammed. They are not offended at the name
After all, in our pluralistic society, many believe that there are many ways to God. So they can not handle the exclusive claims of the Lord Jesus Christ and His followers. In many ways, this idea of pluralism is simply a denial of not only the exclusivity of Christ, but also a denial of the morbid permeation of sin on humanity. If people can reduce sin down to mere psychological malfunction or environmental influence then they can disregard their need for a savior. But if sin is real and the punishment for sin is death then Christ is the only answer for this problem plaguing all humanity.
But people, naturally want to put the Lord Jesus on the same level with other great religious leaders. The Muslims will often claim the Lord Jesus as one of the prophets. Many people will say that the Lord Jesus was a great philosopher. I have personally heard one man say that he has no problem with Jesus the Philosopher but Jesus should never be treated as a religious figure. He is too divisive. There are others who will say that Jesus was a good teacher. We hear that in Scripture.
In what was one of the most important passages about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ we find this question asked. The Lord takes Peter James and John up on the mountain and asks the question, “Who do men say that I am?” Peter answers, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah or one of the prophets.” Then the Lord gets personal. “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” The Lord responds by telling Peter that this is not fleshly discerned but the truth about Him was only given by the Father. So everyone does not get this revelation about Jesus of Nazareth. When He walked the earth there were those who understood He is the Lord and those who just considered Him a prophet, a philosopher, or a teacher. Of course some thought He had a demon.
It is one thing for a group of lost people to get together and try to discern the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in mere fleshly minded ways. It is altogether different for people who would call Jesus of Nazareth Lord to question His person. But this is what is happening in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The person of Christ has been called into question. “Is Christ superior to the Prophets of the Old Testament? Is Christ superior to the angels? Is Christ superior to Moses?” Or is He just in a long line of great Hebrew prophets?
But there is great confusion in our own day before we come down too hard on the recipients of this letter. There are those who would say that Jesus is one of many ways to God. I heard a Methodist Bishop say that Jesus is the way for Christians but there are other ways for people of different faiths. Joel Osteen could not decide whether or not Jesus was the only way when asked that question on the Larry King Show. He said that Jesus was the only way for him but was not sure about other religious people. In an interview done by Robert Schuller, he and Billy Graham agreed that there was “a wideness” to God’s mercy insinuating that people can be saved apart from Christ.
What will be shown over and over as we move through this epistle is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only cure for the terminal disease of separation from God caused by sin. Since the fall in the Garden of Eden man has been sacrificing animals as propitiation for sin. Even after the flood in Noah’s day when the earth was cleansed of sinful humanity by the deluge, there still remained eight sinners and Noah made a sacrifice to God on behalf of himself and his family. The Law was instituted and the sacrificial system was begun with specific written instructions. This is the system that most of the people that the writer of Hebrews was writing to lived under their whole lives. The Old Covenant that they had been instructed in had to now be set aside for the New Covenant.
Last week we saw that the writer affirmed the truth of the Old Testament. Look back at verse 1.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
The positive affirmation that God has indeed spoken and what He spoke to the fathers through the prophets was truth. It was God’s word. It was binding on all humanity and God expected them to obey. But then in their day the final word had been spoken and it did not come from the lips of an obedient prophet but now had come through the only begotten Son of God. Look at verse 2.
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son
In the Word of the Son of God lies the New Covenant. I said this last week but it bears repeating, the writer of Hebrews is not saying that Old Testament Judaism is a false religion, what he is saying is that it is a fulfilled or completed religion that is no longer needed because the old has been done away with and the new and better had come.
By way of reminder I want you to keep in mind those five proofs that God speaking through His son is the full and final revelation of God to man and that these five proofs prove Christ’s superiority to the Old Testament prophets.
First Christ is the heir of all things. Second, it was through Him that the world was created. Third, instead of seeing the glory of God as some of the prophets did, he is the revealed glory of God. Fourth, He is God among us and finally by the Word of His power he upholds and sustains the universe.
Today, the writer of Hebrews wants to show us, using the language of completion, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the final revelation of God to man. The language of completion is found in verse 2, “in these last days,” and in verse 3, “He sat down.” The writer will systematically show us through this epistle the supreme superiority of the Son of God over everything else. He will teach us that to go back or move ahead in any way is a dangerous and useless proposition.
The early church was attacked in many ways. They were attacked by those who would try to destroy it through persecution. But they were also attacked by false teachers. That is why they were so guarded. These false teachers would introduce destructive heresies into congregations causing rifts and strife and leading many astray. They would come in and say something like this, “Oh it is wonderful that you are Christians now but there is more. You need to do this or keep that law.” Some would lead the believers into outright gross sin while others would try to lead them back to the Law of Moses and Old Testament Judaism.
By the way, not much has changed. There are still those who would do similar things. The prosperity teachers will do this. Cults will do this. They will all try to lead believers astray.
So all of us are in need of having our faith in Christ shored up. It is important that we understand the Law and how it relates to Christ. It is important that we understand the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and His exclusivity.
In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus tells His disciples that He is the way, the truth, the life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. That statement is tightly packed with a lot of information. The Lord Jesus did not come to show us a way to the Father, He came to show us that He is the only way to the Father. He did not come to teach us the truth, He came to show the world that He is the truth. When Pilate asked the Lord, “What is truth?” truth was in front of him personified. It is not just the words that the Lord spoke that were truth He is the truth and the source of all truth. Then the Lord tells His disciples that He is the life. Not that He is merely offering life but it is He that possesses life and it is only through Him that life is available. And then the final blow to pluralism came in His last statement. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Not through the Law of Moses, not through outstanding moral living, not through keeping daily sacrifices. And the Lord could make this claim because of his superiority to all else simply because of His personhood and today we will see in our text because of His work.
PNP
Today from our text I want you to see two aspects of the work of Christ that proves His superiority to the angels.
1. His sacrificial work proves His superiority to angels.
2. His finished work proves His superiority to angels.
Purpose
My purpose this morning in our examining this text is to show you the two major arguments the writer of Hebrews used to prove the superiority of Christ over the angels and to shore up your faith in Christ as the only way of salvation in spite of the pluralistic leanings of our world.
In verse 3 and verse 4 we have a misplaced verse marker. Understand that these verse numbers were not in the original text. They were placed there by a well meaning individual who wanted to make the Bible a little easier to follow along with. However, they sometimes interrupt the flow of the context of the verse and that is what we have in our passage today. Verse 4 should begin at the After in verse 3. It should read this way.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.RPNP
So this morning, look with me at these two aspects of the work of Christ that prove His superiority to the angels.
1. His sacrificial work proves His superiority.
Look at the last part of verse 3 with me.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
What we first must understand is that in Old Testament Judaism angels played a very important role. It was believed that it was through angels that the Law was given to Moses. Listen to Galatians 3:19.
19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
The Old Testament is filled with references of the Lord dealing with people through what is translated the angel of the Lord. The Old Testament is filled with times where the Lord communicated to people via angelic messengers. The angels are servants of the Lord. Even in the days of the Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry there were angels who ministered to Him. When He was tempted by Satan, according to Matthew 4:11, angels came and ministered to Him. It was angels who announced the birth of the Lord and also His resurrection.
So what we can gather from this is that angels played a very important role both in the Old Testament revelation as well as the New Testament. They were so prominent that Paul warns the Colossians in Colossians 2:18 not to get involved in the worship of angels. In our own day angels or what people think of as the image of angels are very popular. You can read bumper stickers that say, “Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly.” There are stores that specialize in pictures and trinkets that are angels.
But the Christian is taught to view angels from the proper perspective. Look at verse 4 with me.
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
If you notice the wording in verse 4, it is very awkward. It is not how we would normally talk. The reason for this is the way the writer of Hebrews has worded this verse. The writer did this to show in mere human words what can’t be orally expressed and that is the majesty, greatness, and utter superiority of God the Son to the angels and anything else.
This passage speaks to the Lord’s glorification after the resurrection. He has become as much superior to the angels. The writer then in verses 6 through the end of the chapter lists those reasons. But the focus for today is in the last part of verse 4 and the remaining part of verse 3. Notice again verse 4.
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
In Christ’s humiliation, His taking on of human flesh and walking this earth, there was a time when He was by rank lower than the angels in His humanity. But even in the lowness of that state He was spiritually superior to them and they ministered to Him in times of need. But now, in light of the crucifixion and resurrection Christ is put forth as far superior to the angels who mediated the giving of the Old Covenant. The name he has inherited, Son of God, is far more excellent than the greatest name among the angels.
Paul sheds some light on this passage in Philippians 2:5-11.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped , 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So in the work of atonement, as the one who had humbled Himself, He was made far superior to the prophets of the Old Testament and to the angels who ministered before the Lord.
Now why is this important? After all, most of you realized before you walked in here this morning that the Lord Jesus is greater than the angels. The reason this is so important is because there were those groups in the early church and there are those groups now who will say that although Jesus was wonderful, He is not God and He is merely an angel. When the Jehovah’s Witness knocks on your door and tells you that they believe that Jesus was Michael the Archangel you can be armed to show them that not only was Jesus not Michael the Archangel He is far superior to any angel that has ever been created because of these two aspects of His atonement that we are about to see.
I know it has been a while before I mentioned what our first point was so let me mention it again before I explain it.
Christ’s sacrificial work proves His superiority to the Old Testament prophets and to the angels.
Look at the last part of verse 3 with me.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Notice again the first phrase, “after making purifications for sins.”
Here we have the first mention of the priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep in mind as we move through this epistle that there will be many Old Testament allusions. An understanding of the Levitical sacrificial system will be assumed by the writer.
By a simple reading of the text in English there seems to be just a little difference in what Christ did and what a priest in the Old Covenant would do. But there is much more. The priest would make purification of sins by the sacrifice of an animal. But there is far more here than meets the eye. If you have a KJV of the Bible your translation reads, when he had by himself purged our sins. At some point, and I don’t know when, a scribe inserted the phrase by himself in that text and thus it was translated that way in the AV. This scribe was a well meaning scribe because it does insinuate what the verse actually teaches. But he did not need to do that. Here is why.
Remember in the first part of verse 3 we were told that not only was Christ the creator of the universe He is also the one who sustains it. And as great as that miraculous act is it pales in comparison to the last part of verse 3. Notice the words making purification in the text. If you have a KJV it reads purged our sins. The NASB says “had made purification.” The Greek is very precise here. The verb “poi-a-samenos” is an aorist middle participle. The middle voice in Greek means that the one doing the action is acting upon himself or in his or her own interest. So when the Son of God made purification for sins he did so by acting upon Himself in His own interest by using Himself as the sacrifice. In His priestly role He places Himself as the sin offering and is slaughtered like a lamb. Jesus said this in John 10 when He described Himself as the Good Shepherd.
16 "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. 17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."Here the Lord is not making a sacrifice for sin, he is sacrificing Himself for sin.
This is why the Lord is far superior to a prophet, an angel, or a priest. There was not a priest ever that could have accomplished this. On the Day of Atonement the priest had to first offer a sacrifice for his own sins before he could offer the sacrifice for the sins of the people. The Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God, spotless, sinless, and perfect, who was put forth as the propitiation for sin.
I told you this verb, making purification was also in the aorist tense. That is the tense of completion. Not only did He make Himself the sacrifice it was done so in a once for all act. It is completed. It is full atonement and that will be shown in the next point.
That is why we sing:
Man of Sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Christ is superior because He Himself was the propitiation for sins. Second I want you to see that:
2. His finished work proves His superiority.
Look at the very last phrase in verse 3.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
Notice that the Lord sat down. In the original language of the New Testament this word sat down insinuates taking your rightful position. This was a solemn and formal act. Here the Lord has taken His rightful place as the superior one to the prophets and to the angels. No one sits at the right hand of God except the Son of God. Everyone else worships and bows down or stands in His presence. Sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high meant equality with God. After all it would take God to purify His people from their sins. It would take the One who had been offended by sin to be the offense in order to take the punishment on behalf of His people.
The Levitical priests could not sit down in the Holy of Holies. They stood and worshipped. Their work was never completed. They died and a new priest came in to do the sacrifices. It was an ongoing sacrifice.
Look this is why the Roman Catholics are wrong about their view of the Lord Supper as an ongoing sacrifice. Its not, the Lord’s Supper is us remembering a completed act not sacrificing the Lord over and over.
Conclusion
We have seen that Christ is superior to prophets, priests and angels because He Himself was the sacrifice for sins and once that sacrifice was completed He sat down signifying His rank and His finished work.
For anyone to put the Lord Jesus Christ on par with any of the religious leaders of all time is utter blasphemy. He is far superior to the prophets, to the priests, to the angels, to Mohammed, or any other leader of any false religion.
This is why Christ is the only hope of salvation. This is why the Apostle Peter proclaimed that there was no other name under heaven given by which men could be saved. That is why when so called Christian leaders of our day talk about a wideness to God’s mercy and they are not sure whether or not Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation they need to be labeled the heretics that they are. That is why we proclaim to the lost and to the followers of false religion that Christ is their only hope and they must turn to Him in repentance and faith or they will perish.
That is why we must stay the course in our faith and not veer from the path of following hard after Christ. God help us to do that.
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