Our Great God and Savior
0 Amens
Our Great God and Savior
Hebrews 1:5-14
June 24, 2007
Series 3 Sermon 3
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I
have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me
a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let
all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels
winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the
scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9You have loved
righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “You, Lord, laid the
foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your
hands; 11they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a
garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be
changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” 13 And
to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering
spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Introduction
Many movies have tried to portray the Lord Jesus Christ. Actors have worked hard at trying to accurately recreate the personality and the persona of the most significant person in all of human history. Like you I have seen movies that present the Lord as grave or melancholy or even joyously happy. The actor and the writers tend to decide the direction that they will go.
The writer of Hebrews is doing the same thing in his epistle. He is presenting a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ to the reader that he wants them to completely understand and comprehend. The reason he is writing this epistle is to encourage these Christians to stay the course that they have now begun and in spite of the great opposition that they face to keep looking to Christ and moving forward avoiding falling away.
Falling away can easily happen when you have a wrong view of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you asked people, even believers, to describe the Lord Jesus I am sure that you would get several different answers. Some have an idea of Jesus that is mere sentimentality. He is an all loving forgiving man who pleads with people to accept Him as their Savior. Others would view Jesus of Nazareth in blasphemous ways. While others would see him as a nonconformist or even as a rebel.
But as believers we must have an accurate view of the Savior. We must, as far as our finite minds are able, to see Him for who He is and to bow before the revelation of the Savior.
Let’s do a little word association this morning. By the way, this is all the psychology you will ever get out of me. When I say the name Jesus what do you think of? What image pops into your mind? Is it one of a man who is bearded with long flowing blondish brown hair, blue eyes, and fair European skin? Is it the Lord on the cross, maybe in the shadows just being able to see the outline of his facial features?
All kinds of images could be described this morning if I were to ask you to tell me. But I am really not that interested in your present mental image of the Lord. What I am interested in is providing you a biblically accurate understanding of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will not describe to you this morning what the Lord looks like simply because we do not have much of a description in the Bible. But I do want to open your eyes to what the writer of Hebrews is showing to the readers of his epistle.
One of my favorite occurrences in the life of Christ
happened after the resurrection. There
were two disciples that were on the road to Emmaus when the risen Lord joined
them on their journey. He asked them why
they looked so downtrodden. They were
surprised he asked them this question since everyone in
Two weeks ago when we started this series we saw that the Lord Jesus was superior to the Old Testament prophets. Last week we saw that because of the work of the atonement the Lord Jesus is superior to the angels. This week the writer of Hebrews takes us into the Old Testament messianic passages to further prove that the Lord Jesus Christ is far superior to prophet, priest, and angels.
PNP
This morning from our text, I want you to see four attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, proven by the Old Testament, which distinguishes Christ from the angels.
1.The first attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His sonship.
2. The second attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His kingship.
3. The third attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His eternality.
4. The fourth attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His sovereignty.
To misunderstand the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is to misunderstand the Gospel. If you believe in a Jesus other than the Lord revealed in Scripture then you are in grave danger. It is of the utmost importance that we at Grace Fellowship understand to the best of our ability the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Mormons believe in Jesus but not the Jesus revealed in Scripture. The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe in Jesus but not the Jesus of Hebrews 1. I would say many who call themselves Christians in our day believe in a Jesus that is found elsewhere but not in Scripture.
There was a reason that God told the Israelites in the Law that they were not to make an image of God to worship. The reason is the minute that an image is made it is the fruit of a sinful imagination and not what in reality God is. So then you can call your image Yahweh but it will be a god of your own making. How many people are violating the Law of God by having an image of the Lord Jesus Christ which they are personally comfortable with and not the image that the Bible teaches? I would say countless thousands of Christians are like this.
That is why we hear often, “I could never believe in a God who would….” You fill in the blank.
RPNP
So look with me at these four attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ, proven by the Old Testament, which distinguishes Christ from the angels.
1.The first attribute of the Lord Jesus which
distinguishes Him from the angels is His sonship.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
I would like for you to keep in mind that in the first chapter of Hebrews we are dealing with a question about the comparison of the angels to the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can be positive about the question and its exact wording but we know that it is there. So now the writer turns to the Old Testament Scriptures to show the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ over the angels and he does so first in Christ’s relationship to God.
We know that there are many who have decided that Jesus of Nazareth was merely a prophet or a philosopher or a good teacher but there was nothing divine about Him. As a matter of fact most heresies begin centered on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you will recall as we read aloud the Nicene Creed it said
that the Lord was begotten not made, was fully human and fully divine. He is very God of very God the creed
states. The reason for the creed was
because there was an attack in the early church on the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ and periodically today these attacks will again rear their ugly heads. The most notable misunderstanding of the
person of Christ comes from the Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe that Jesus was
Michael the
But Hebrews 1:5 is the death knell for that thinking. Look at the question that the writer asks the reader in verse 5.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I
have begotten you”?
The writer uses a rhetorical question to get the attention of his readers. The obvious answer is none or He has not. God has not made this statement to any of the angels. In the Old Testament there is references to what many believe are angels and they are called “sons (plural or collectively) of God.” But there is something special about this particular reference to Son.
Illustration
In acts 13 Paul and Barnabas are on the first missionary
journey. We get a glimpse here of the
message that Paul would deliver in the synagogues. They went to the city of
Except Paul gives some explanation of the begetting part. Listen to Acts 13:32-33.
And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33 that
God has fulfilled this promise
to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second
Psalm, 'YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE
BEGOTTEN YOU.'
Paul links this coronation Psalm to the resurrection of Christ. To Paul, and it should be to us also, the resurrection is the hinge pin for our faith. If Christ is not raised we are men to be most pitied. But if He is raised then all that He spoke and the whole of Scripture is vindicated and we are victorious even in dire circumstances.
What was said of the Son was never said of the angels. That is the point. Christ is superior to the angels. There are several occasions where God the Father made it plain that Jesus of Nazareth was His divine Son. At His baptism the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” On the Mount of Transfiguration after Peter made the offer to build three tabernacles, one for Moses one for Elijah and one for the Lord Jesus, the Father said, “This is my Son. Hear Him.”
This was what Satan wanted the Lord Jesus to prove when he tempted Christ in the wilderness. “If you are the Son of God, make these stones into bread.” At the Lord’s trial leading to his crucifixion this was the main question. Listen to Matthew 25:63-65.
And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus
said* to him, "You have said it yourself;
nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE
SON OF MAN SITTING AT
THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS
OF HEAVEN."
65 Then the high priest tore his robes
and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses?
Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy;
The first rhetorical question “5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?” can only be answered like this. No angels received this word only Jesus of Nazareth received it in the fullest sense.
But there is a second question. Look at the rest of verse 5. again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? This was originally spoken of Solomon the son of David but the writer of Hebrews shows us that its ultimate fulfillment is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again the answer to the question is, “God has not spoken these things to angels but to His divine Son.”
Then I want you to notice the final proof regarding the Sonship of Christ that proves His superiority to the angels. Look at verse 6.
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Now at first reading of the English text you may think that this worship is merely suggestive. But I assure you it is not. It is commanded. The verb, worship, is an imperative. The angels were commanded to worship the Son. And they did so at His birth with songs and great glory so much that it frightened the shepherds in the fields.
Plus, because of this verse we must understand that Christ in His Sonship is equal to God. Only God is to be worshipped. Satan tried to be worshiped by Christ in the temptation. Satan said, “I will give you all the Kingdoms of the world if you will fall down and worship me.” On several occasions in the ministry of the Lord Jesus He received worship. When Thomas discovered that Jesus indeed had been resurrected he fell down and worshiped and exclaimed, “My Lord and my God.”
We are forbidden by Scripture to participate in the worship of angels but in Scripture we are commanded to worship the Son of God. Philippians 2 says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
So what does the Bible say about angels? Look at verse 7.
7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers
a flame of fire.”
Then the writer puts this together for us in verse 14. Look at the verse.
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Christ is the Son of God while the angels are dispatched to serve the ones whom Christ died for. Those who will inherit salvation do so not because of angels but because of Christ.
For these reasons, Christ is superior in His sonship and
2. The second attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His kingship.
Notice verse 8.
8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the
scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
Verse 8 is very plain in spelling out the superiority of Christ. He is the King. As a matter of fact He is the King of Kings according to the book of Revelation. There are some peculiar aspects of this king that can not be said of an earthly king. Notice that the throne belongs to none other than God. Look at verse 8 again.
“Your throne, O God
Now notice the endurance of this throne. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
No earthly king can make this claim. It is one thing for a person to claim an eternal throne it is altogether different in achieving it. Think about the famous kings of history.
Pharaoh was dethroned. Nebuchadnezzar passed away. All of the Roman Caesars are no more. Mussolini is dead. Hitler is gone. All of them, one by one pass off the scene of history and a new king takes their place. But not this king. This King is forever and ever and there is a reason for this. Look at verse 8 again.
8 But of the Son he says, “Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the
scepter of your kingdom.
This King is a righteous king. None of the other kings of
But there is more here. Notice the end of verse 8. the scepter of your kingdom
We would be doing an injustice to ourselves if we did not look at what the Lord said about His kingdom. The Lord has ultimate control over His kingdom.
Luke 22:29-30 says.
29 and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I
grant you 30 that you may eat and drink
at My table in My kingdom,
and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Matthew 25:31-34 says, 31 "But
when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He
will sit on His glorious throne. 32 "All the nations will
be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and
He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 "Then the King will say to those
on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.
But I think the most informative passage of Scripture about
the
33 Therefore Pilate entered
again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You
the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are
you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" 35 Pilate
answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests
delivered You to me; what have You done?" 36 Jesus
answered, "My kingdom is not of
this world. If My kingdom were of
this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I
would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore
Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You
say correctly that I am a king.
For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify
to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate
said* to Him, "What is truth?"
Christ’s kingdom is ruled in righteousness, it will last forever and ever, and it is not of this world which makes Him far superior to any other king.
In Christ we have a greater Kingdom than anything we could imagine or oversee. We have a perfect Kingdom. Look at verse 9.
9You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
Empires and nations fall.
History moves new powers into play.
Old powers shrink in their effectiveness and authority. As Christians and Americans we must
understand that our real country, our true nation is not of this world. Our Kingdom is Christ’s kingdom and whether
So far we have seen that Christ is superior in His sonship and in His Kingship. Now I want you to see that:
3. The third attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His eternality.
Notice verses 10-12.
10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Verse 8 actually hinted at this concept of the eternality of Christ saying that His kingdom would last forever. But it is one thing to understand that someone will continue to live on forever after they are born. After all most Christians believe that we will live forever as believers in Heaven with God and that unbelievers will live forever separated from God in Hell. But verses 10, 11, and 12 show us that the writer is not talking about this at all.
Christ was co-existent with the Father for all eternity. He is very God of very God and has always been. Only in His incarnation, His taking on of human flesh was He born.
What God has revealed to us in Scripture is that He is eternal and the proof of that is His involvement in creation. Notice verse 10.
10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
This is the testimony of David in Psalm 24 that we read this morning.
1 The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For
He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
If you will recall in verse 2 of Hebrews 1 God has now spoken
through His Son who has become heir of all things and through whom He made the
creation. Here is the point. Jesus Christ, God the Son, did not have His
beginning in a stable in
Now notice that He will outlast the creation. Look at verses 11 and 12.
11they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a
garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be
changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Did you catch that comparison in the verses? To the Son of God the creation is merely like an article of clothing that we frail humans control rather easily. He will roll up the creation like a robe. It will be changed like a soiled garment. In this process He will never perish and He will remain the same and have no end. That is totally unlike us.
The Apostle Paul says that we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. Why? We are corrupt like the creation that the Lord will change. We will put off mortality and put on immortality. But the Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We have seen so far three attributes of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels. These attributes are His Sonship, His kingship, and His eternality. Finally I want you to see that:
4. The fourth
attribute of the Lord Jesus which distinguishes Him from the angels is His
sovereignty.
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right
hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
Here is that final question about the angels. Verse 13 begins with that question, “And to
which of the angels has he ever said?”
The answer of course is to none of them.
Only to the Son. Here we have the
Lord sitting at the right hand of the Father waiting patiently as the
He is in sovereign control over all that is happening in our world that we are aware of and even things we are not privy to.
This would have provided great encouragement to the original readers of this letter. They were suffering persecution and loss and in their minds it must have seemed like the enemy was making far more advances than Christ. It would have seemed to them that although they had believed on Jesus Christ this just wasn’t working out the way they thought it should. But now they have been given great encouragement and also a brief glimpse into the eternal perspective of God as He works all things out according to the counsel of His will and authority.
Here is where the rubber meets the road for us. As we walk through this life and encounter trials and difficulties we need to have these truths of the attributes of Christ firmly planted in our hearts and minds so that we can endure on the days that cause us the most grief. We can hold on because of who has a hold on us and that is the Lord Jesus Christ who is far superior to angels, to priests, and to prophets.
We can trust Him because He is the Son of God, He is the reigning, everlasting King, He is eternal, and He is sovereign.
The apostles were so sure of these truths that they could
stand before those who would desire to kill them for the message of the cross
they were preaching and boldly proclaim Christ to them. In Acts 4 Peter was used by God to heal a lame
man. The city of
7 When
they had placed them in the center, they began
to inquire, "By what power, or in what name, have you done
this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the
Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if
we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has
been made well, 10 let it be known to all of
you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you
in good health. 11 "He is the STONE WHICH
WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone.
12 "And there is salvation in no one
else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by
which we must be
saved."
This type of bold proclamation takes a sort of spiritual intestinal fortitude that only comes from a conviction of the deity and majesty and superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What we must have in our day is fathers, mothers, pastors, elders, deacons, husbands, wives, and young people with the bold conviction that we must hold onto Christ as the only hope for ourselves and for sinful men. We must have those who will boldly proclaim the truth in the face of a world in direct disobedience and opposition to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Parents, that is why you need to be praying not that your children will have brilliant careers or that your daughters will marry successful men but that God almighty would call, commission, and send them into a lost world with the glorious saving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that they would have the spiritual moxy to boldly proclaim this message.
When we get our minds and our hearts around the glorious truth of the superiority of Christ we will not be offended by the Lord and His ways. The offense of Christ was evident throughout His earthly ministry. In John 6 the Lord Jesus gives a very difficult statement. Listen as I read starting in verse 53.
53 So Jesus said to them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 "He
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up
on the last day. 55 "For My flesh is true
food, and My blood is true drink. 56 "He
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 "As
the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me,
he also will live because of Me. 58 "This is the bread
which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats
this bread will live forever."
59 These
things He said in the synagogue as He taught in
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when
they heard this said,
"This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" (They
were offended at the statement)61 But Jesus, conscious that
His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to
stumble? 62 "What then if you see the Son of Man
ascending to where He was before? 63 "It
is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have
spoken to you are spirit and are life. 64 "But
there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray
Him. 65 And He was saying,
"For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it
has been granted him from the Father."
66 As a result of this many
of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. 67 So
Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" 68 Simon
Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words
of eternal life.
69 "We have believed and have come
to know that You are the Holy One of God."
Let me ask you this morning, is your heart and mind filled with the right image of Christ so that you can hold on in the evil day? Are you so sure of the superiority of Christ that you can endure sufferings and temptations and remain firmly rooted in Christ knowing that He is your only hope? Have you looked to Christ in repentance and faith casting yourself upon Him as your only hope?
We must have the spiritual gumption that Peter had and hold on to the only One that is mighty to save, our superior Lord, Jesus the Christ. May the Lord help us to do so.
Let’s pray.
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