Jesus and His Angels - Part One
Sermon Transcript
Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter one. We started the book of Hebrews last week. We are gonna continue the book and for our reading this morning, I'm gonna just read chapter one of Hebrews, the entire chapter. Uh, if you're able, please stand
and hear this for what it is, the words of the living God. Hebrews chapter one. God, after he spoke long ago to the Fathers, in many portions, I'm sorry, God, after he spoke long ago, to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also made the world.
And he, the son, is the radiance of his glory. The exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they for to which of the angels did he ever say, thou art my son today I have begotten you and again, I will be a father to him and he.
Shall be a son to me. And when he, again, brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels, winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the son, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. And the scepter, 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, 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. They will all become old like a garment and like a mantle.
You will roll them up like a garment. They will also be changed, but you are the same and your years will not come to an end. 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?
May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the correct understanding of his word. Please be seated.
Number one on your outline and in your bulletin you'll have a, uh, sermon outline. You'll also have something folded in half that we'll look at later. Those are just some things that I put in there, but on your sermon outline, number one, uh, is just angels. We're gonna talk a little bit about angels this morning.
Angels are popular in our culture. In fact, there are people that are very fanatic about angels. And there's a lot of misinformation out there about angels. So I did a little research, and from 1904, so the beginning of the last century, 1904, to the present, there have been no less than 150 movies made about angels.
Okay? Uh, not all accurate, some very dark, but our culture is consumed with angels. So I have a question. Has anyone here heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters? If you have, raise your hand. I'm just curious. You have K-pop demon hunters? I had not heard about them until this week. K-Pop. Demon Hunters is Netflix. Most watch movie of all time.
Of all time. Think I remember. I'm old enough. We got Netflix CDs in the mail. Okay, now you just stream it. But of all time, according to Netflix, it was released only in June, so about five months ago, and it has already been watched 236 million times as of September, 393 million streaming hours worldwide.
It has exceeded 3 billion in global streams that that's actually worldwide. The other one was in America, 3 billion Global Streams and remarkably, it's the first soundtrack in history in the history of music. It is the first soundtrack to have four songs simultaneously on Billboard's Top 100 List, and it is about angels, demon hunters.
What do we know about Angels? So I thought I would start this morning with a pop quiz. You don't have to answer out loud, I just want you to think about it and I will answer each of these questions. But let me ask you the, the three questions. Number one, do angels have wings? Do angels have wings? Number two.
How do you understand the term angel? And what I mean by that is Angel at the top of the hierarchy and other spiritual beings underneath, or are angels underneath something else at the top of the hierarchy. And then last but not least, and this is the only trick question, last but not least, when were angels created.
When were angels created. So let me answer the questions for you and hopefully we'll see all these today. Do angels have wings? No. Angels do not have wings, angels, and there are specific words in the Bible translated angel malach in the Hebrew, an in the Greek and angels are never described as having wings.
In fact, anytime an angel is described, it's simply described as looking human. How do you understand the term angel? And the first question's connected to this one, you see angels are not at the top of the hierarchy. You see when God speaks of his, his. Army, I guess. He uses terms like heavenly host spiritual beings, and an angel is simply one kind of spiritual being, one kind of being within the heavenly host.
There are other types of beings. There are cherubs, cherubim, seraphim. There are watchers, there are angels. There are even guardian angels. And my last question that I asked then, when were angels created, and this was the trick question, 'cause theologians don't agree. Okay? We do agree on a general answer.
We do agree, and I don't know of anyone that disagrees on this that believes in scripture, but we do agree that angels were created before day seven. Other than that, we don't know. Some theologians think they were created on day one. Others think they were created on day four, but all we know for sure is that angels were created before day seven.
What did the Jews of Jesus Day, what did the Jews of the writer of Hebrews Day believe about angels? And that's a hard one to answer because there were different Jewish sex, and you're probably familiar with at least two of the sex because we read about them in the Bible, the Pharisees in the Sadducees, and they didn't believe the same things about scripture.
But there was also a third sect. And you may have heard of them. They were called the Essence. They are the ones that were tied to Kuran. You've heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in this place named Kuran. And the essence gathered there. They were the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
And uh, the essence had some odd views of angels. And we don't know, but we do know that. Something was going on in the church that the author of Hebrews was writing to, and they were on the verge of worshiping angels. And so the writer of Hebrews takes two chapters to discuss the superiority of Christ.
But some of the things that the essence believed about angels is they believed that though they appeared human, they added a bunch of superhuman things that to the angels that you don't read about in the Bible. And remember, angels are one group. The other thing is, although the Bible talks about this, the essence really focused in on, uh, the military aspect of the angels.
They were very militaristic. Okay, and last but not least, and this is the odd one, is they believe that Michael, the Ark angel, was going to rule the new heavens and the new Earth. Because remember, in their theology, Jesus was didn't factor in. And so when God reconstituted things and when the new heavens and the new Earth that Isaiah was talking about came to being Michael, the archangel would be ruler.
So with that in mind, it kind of makes sense that Paul was dealing with some oddities in the Hebrew church. Now, grab the handout in your bulletin. And it's folded in half. You can unfold it. And I want you to look at it. It says, angels or spiritual beings. And I don't wanna spend a lot of time here, but I think it's important that we have a little bit of understanding before we go to the text.
So angels and spiritual beings. And I'm gonna give you a general definition of angels. Maybe not the greatest, but it works. Uh, it came from, uh, Gruden's systematic theology. Angels are created. They're spiritual beings with moral judgment and high intelligence, but without physical bodies. Okay? Now, angels, like I said, they're not at the top of the food chain.
They're a subcategory. So when we talk about spiritual beings, the Bible uses terms, and you can see it on this handout here. I'm not gonna go into death, but the Bible uses terms like spiritual beings, holy ones, and then. I noticed this morning that I left out the Heavenly Host. That's another very common term that scripture uses of spiritual beings that God has created.
But there are different kinds of spiritual beings. There are angels, and they seem to be the most popular, the ones that are talked about the most. But there are also cherubim and seraphim, and cherubim and seraphim are the ones with wings. They're the only ones in scripture described as having wings, but they also have hundreds of eyes and four heads, and they seem to be able to take different forms.
They're described differently in Ezekiel. And then when you get to, uh, the book of Revelation, they're described a little bit differently there. So they, they seem to be able to change form in order to communicate. And I thought I would have some fun this week with ai because I personally don't like ai.
Okay. Uh, but I, I use it for one thing. And if you look at your, your kids' handouts, I use it for the pictures I have it create pictures for, for the handouts. And so I went on two different ais this week. I went on chat, GPT and Microsoft copilot, and I told them, read Ezekiel chapter one and draw me a picture of an angel.
And my computer almost blew up. They just couldn't do it. In fact, if you look at the kid's handout, this was. Uh, if, if you got a child next to you, this was one of the angels or one of the figures that they drew, and there was another one that they drew, but it looked a little disturbing, so I didn't wanna put it on the handout, but it had all these wheels and eyes and just all these weird things.
Um, but Cher of him and Seraphim were the ones with Wings. Ark Angels is another one that fascinates a lot of people. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church will teach you that there are seven archangels and they will name all seven. Problem is the Bible only mentions one. Archangel. Now it implies there are others, but the only archangel mentioned in the Bible is Michael.
Now, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Michael. And growing up I always thought I was something special 'cause my name was Michael, so obviously my parents saw something in me and then I got married and find out, found out I'm not special. No. But anyway, Michael is the only named Archangel, and we assume based on some other passages that Gabriel is likely an archangel, but archangels, literally they're ruling angels.
That's what the word means, ruling angels. So they, they seem to have some clout. Um, I'm not gonna go over the rest of the list. I'll simply say this scholars. Most scholars that I know of, most people who study and the technical term is angel ology. And most people who study it would agree that there are guardian angels.
Where we don't agree and where scripture is not clear is do we each have a personal guardian angel assigned to us? Scripture doesn't teach it. It doesn't necessarily deny it, but that's just a, an idea of angels and spiritual beings. And that kind of prepares us for Hebrews chapter one. So number two on your outline, the superiority of Christ Over Angels.
The superiority of Christ Over Angels. Now what we have in Hebrews chapter one is the author is going to make a sustained, logical biblical argument, and his claim is Jesus is superior to the angels, and he's gonna do it with three couplets. He's gonna join together. Two different Old Testament passages three times to make his point, and then he's gonna end with a crescendo.
And the crescendo was the passage we read at the beginning of the sermon, Psalm one 10. And some scholars, and I tend to agree, some scholars have said that Psalm one 10 can actually function as an outline for the book of Hebrews because what is spoken of in Psalm one 10 is explained in the book of Hebrews.
But our first couplet is found in, uh, Hebrews chapter one, verse five, and let me give you the main idea and then we'll back up and look at it. But the main idea that I believe the author is trying to make by referring to the Old Testament text is that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, the prophesied, anointed one, the seed of David, the son of David, and the true Davidic king.
And because he's Messiah, because he's the seed of David, because he's king, he is superior to the angels. And the author of Hebrews makes his point by citing Psalm chapter two and two. Samuel chapter seven. So chapter one, verse five, and I'm gonna do a lot of jumping around in scripture today. You don't have to follow me because if you do, you're gonna be turning a lot of pages.
Just jot it down on your notes because I am going to encourage you to read all of the Old Testament passages in their context that the author cites. So chapter one, verse five, for to which of the angels did he speaking of the father for? To which of the angels did the father ever say, you are my son today, I've begotten you, and again, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
And the first quotation is Psalm chapter two, verse seven. The second quotation is Second Samuel chapter seven, verse 14. And I wanna stop for a minute and I wanna say something about how the biblical authors quote scripture. And this is important, and I wish I had to come up with all of this by myself, but I didn't.
Whenever you see a scriptural quotation in, in, in the Bible, think of it as a hyperlink. And I know you all know what a hyperlink is. You go online, you're reading an article, and there are certain things in blue and there are underlined, and if you click on it, it takes you to another article or to a fuller explanation.
And that's what these passages are. And it's a really good understanding because. When the author cites a passage, he's citing the context of that passage and specifically the Psalms. When the author cites a passage from the Psalms, he's referencing the entire Psalm, and if you're gonna understand the quotation, you have to understand the entire Psalm.
And we, let's face it, in the church, we don't read our Old Testament as often as we ought to. In fact, I'm gonna share a story with you and it is the stupidest thing I've ever said in my entire life. And Stacey and I we're only a couple of years married, and I walked out one morning and she's reading the Old Testament, and I say to my wife, like the young, brash, arrogant, dumb young man that I was, why are you reading the Old Testament?
You should be reading the New Testament. Sometimes I wish God would've struck me down right then. You cannot understand the New Testament apart from the Old Testament. You have to study the Old Testament. If you don't understand the Psalms, you'll never understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying here.
So let's think about Psalm chapter two. You don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna give you a little bit of a summary of Psalm chapter two. But Psalm chapter two is a royal Psalm. The other thing that we need to understand about Psalm chapter two and we've, I've preached on it 'cause I've actually preached on Psalm one and two before, but Psalm one and two lay out.
They're basically an outline of the entire book of Psalms. So whatever is talked about in Psalm chapter one and two is repeated over and over and over and over again in the Book of Psalms. So they're very important Psalms and Psalm chapter two is a royal Psalm. In fact, it's a coronation psalm. And again, we don't have time to read every Psalm, so I'm just gonna give you some highlights of it.
But in Psalm chapter two, verse two, the son is described as Yahweh's anointed, and that word translated anointed in the original is Messiah. So in Psalm chapter two, we read that Yahweh's son is the Messiah. So it's talking about this promised Messiah that is talked about throughout the Old Testament.
And in and in verse seven of Psalm chapter two, the Messiah speaks. He says, I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh and this word for decree, it means settled. I'm gonna tell you what Yahweh has settled. This is what Yahweh's gonna do and nothing's gonna change it. He said to me, you are my son today. I have begotten you.
Now, here's where we need to remember. That the Old Testament is full of shadows and types. So this psalm would likely have been read every time a new Hebrew king came to the throne. And when the Hebrew king came to the throne, it would've been read. You are my son today, I've begotten you. What it means is, in a sense, God is adopting the Hebrew king.
The Hebrew king is God's representative on Earth, and he's on literally actually God's throne, and he's ruling on behalf of God. But when we continue to read the Psalm, when we continue to read so many other passages in the Old Testament, the Hebrew king never lives up to the prophecy of the Psalm and the New Testament.
The writer of Hebrews, the gospel writers, the New Testament, used this psalm of the resurrection, the ascension, and the enthronement of Jesus. And Jesus does and can fulfill all the words of this psalm. And then in verse 10 of Psalm two. And this is important because the book of Hebrews has warnings sprinkled throughout.
The people in the book of Hebrews are warned over and over again. Don't walk away from the faith. And we find warnings in Psalm chapter two, verse 10. Now, therefore, oh, kings show discernment. Take warning. Oh, judges of the Earth. And verse 12 of Psalm chapter two. If you're taking notes, this is the one you wanna write down.
Here's the clincher. The father says, do homage to the son, and literally in the Hebrew, the words are Kiss the Son, and literally what that means in the Old Testament context and how it's used elsewhere. One example would be Hosea chapter 13. God, the Father is telling the nations to worship the Hebrew king.
Now that should blow your mind unless you understand that the Hebrew king was a type and a shadow, and the Hebrew king pointed to the true son of God, the true son of David one who would be the God man. And so the writer of Hebrews is making this clear to his, his readers. Jesus is the true son of David.
Jesus is on the throne, and therefore, angels and all men, women, children, and everyone ought to worship Jesus, kiss the son or experience his wrath. That's the message of the writer of Hebrews, and then he turns to Second Samuel, chapter seven. And hopefully you remember this, but in second. Second Samuel chapter seven, that's the Davidic Covenant.
In fact, some of your Bibles will have that as a heading. And just remember in your Bibles, most of those headings are not actually in the Bible. They're just ways of helping us read them. But second Samuel, chapter seven is the Davidic Covenant. God enters into covenant with David. David had just moved the ark and he brought the ark to Jerusalem.
It's in intent. And David goes to Nathan, the prophet, and he says, I wanna build a house for God. And Nathan says, go for it. And Nathan walks outside and he encounters God. And God tells Nathan, I don't want David building my house. David's a man of war. I don't want him building my house. His son will build my house.
But instead, here's what I want you to tell David. I'm gonna build a house for you. I'm gonna build your house. And we pick it up in two Samuel seven verse 13. Uh, I'll, I'll start in verse 12, when your days are complete, talking to David. When you die, when your days are complete and you lay down with your fathers, I will raise up a seed.
After you, I will raise up a son. I will raise up a descendant who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build for me a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now again. We have to read our Old Testaments correctly. They're shadows and types.
Clearly. This is talking about Solomon. 'cause Solomon is going to be born, he's going to build the temple. But again, as we keep reading, Solomon doesn't live up to the prophecy. And we know because we read the Old Testament through the eyes of the new, that there's something more going on here. And ultimately we're talking about the true son and the true Messiah.
Verse 14, I will be a father to him. He will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity. I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. Again, he's a type. Jesus never sinned, but he was corrected for our sins. He received beatings with rods. He received the strokes of men before he was crucified.
My loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul. When I removed. From whom I removed from before you. Here's the clincher. Verse 16. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. Solomon's dead. He's in the ground. Jesus still reigns.
Jesus is the forever king. Jesus is the forever Messiah. It. If you're thinking about worshiping something and it's not Jesus, you're gonna worship something less than because nothing and no one is greater than Jesus. He is the anointed Messiah. He's the seed of David. He is seeded on the throne of God, the throne of David right now, and he rules and he reigns this world.
Why would you wanna worship something less than that? The second couplet begins in verses six and seven.
And in verse six, we read this when he again, brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let the angels of God worship him. And there's a lot wrapped up in this term Firstborn. Firstborn was a position of prominence. Firstborn was something special. Firstborn would've reminded the readers of Israel, because Israel in the Old Testament is described as God's firstborn.
But Israel was a type, Israel was a type of the real firstborn. And the author of Hebrews is trying to convince his readers, Jesus is the real firstborn. Jesus is who every firstborn pointed to. But more than that, it would've reminded the readers of Pharaoh. So again, there's another hidden warning.
Remember what happened to Pharaoh's firstborn sons son and all the Egyptian firstborn sons? And it happened because they didn't honor the lamb. Because they didn't acknowledge the lamb. We learn elsewhere in the Bible. Jesus is that lamb. So the fact that Jesus is called the firstborn would've reminded the readers of all kinds of things.
And then we read a citation from Psalm. It's either Psalm 97 or Deuteronomy 32. And if you're interested on the technical side of why scholars can't decide, see me later, but I'm gonna save you from that lecture. Okay, but this quotation comes from either Psalm 97 or Psalm 32. Let all the angels of God worship him.
Worship the son, worship the Messiah. But here's the interesting thing. When you read Psalm 32, which is the PS song of Moses, and when you, I'm sorry, that's Deuteronomy 32, and when you read Psalm 97, they have the same message. And here's the message of the Psalm, and here's what would've come to mind to his first readers.
The message of both Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 97 is God is sovereign. God sovereignly reigns over all and he judges in righteousness. In both texts, the people are warned against idolatry, and that's what the Hebrews were thinking of going back to because as soon as Jesus went to the cross died, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven.
Remember, the temple's still standing. But because Jesus shed his blood, every subsequent sacrifice in the temple was an idol, adulterous, idolatrous sacrifice because it was a denial of Jesus Christ. And so there's a warning of idolatry in both texts, Yahweh's judgment is talked about, and he judges his people because of sin.
Yahweh is exalted above the gods. And we've talked about, you know, this idea of Gods, and we talked about in the past that in the Old Testament there are many passages that speak of these gods as real things, as real beings. And, and we talked about the fact that they were demons, that the nations were worshiping.
And so he warns them and he says, Yahweh should be exalted above the gods. And then both Psalms end with something along the lines of RB texts of being glad in Yahweh, trusting in Yahweh. Are the Hebrews going to trust in Yahweh? Are the Hebrews going to acknowledge that the Messiah is the true seed, the true son of David that he reigns?
And none of these things are commanded of the angels other than to worship the son? Verse seven. And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels, winds, and his ministers a flame of fire. And the idea here is, and just just to be quick and simple, the idea is angels are ministers, angels are servants. In fact, scripture tells us, and the Hebrews would've been aware of this because of the preaching, scripture tells us that someday we will actually judge angels.
And keep this in mind. Most of the time when angels are actually described in scripture, they're described in human form, but there are other times when they're not described, but they appear and people fall down as dead men fall down and attempt to worship the angel, and the angel stops 'em and says, don't worship me.
I'm just a creature like you. So angels are magnificent,
but they're servants. And they're sent to serve us, and they're sent to assist us. And this passage who makes his angels, winds, and his ministers flames of fire, he's citing Psalm 1 0 4. So what's the context of Psalm 1 0 4? Well, Psalm 1 0 4 is a Psalm of praise. It's a psalm that teaches that God is the great creator and sustainer things that have already been spoken of about Jesus.
In the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one, verse three, God already says, I created all things through the sun. And this is a psalm that teaches the same thing, and yet in the midst of the Psalm, it makes clear angels are servants. And then at the very last verse of the Psalm, again, we find a warning.
Verse 35, let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh. Oh my soul. Bless. Praise Yahweh. Angels are commanded to worship God. Angels are described as servants. The son is described as a king, and the son is described again in verses eight and nine. This is the third couplet and verse eight and nine.
Bring together Psalm 45 and Psalm 1 0 2, and here's the main point. The son is the eternal king and the eschatological hope of his people. The son is the eternal king. The son is the eschatological, the end time hope of his people, not Michael, not another angel, but the son. And it's taught in the Psalms, verse eight, but of the but of the son.
He says, and this is really important in the grammars, very specific. And remember the original context, he's actually talking to the human king of Israel. In fact, Psalm uh. Psalm 45 is actually a wedding psalm, and you should go back and read it. It's really interesting. It's a wedding song and it, it talks about the wedding day of the king, and it describes the king as beautiful and it, and it tells the people they need to submit to the king and, and all these things, but, but God is talking to the human king and listen to the language and you'll see right away that the human king never lived up to this.
So again, shadow and type. But of the son, he says, your throne, oh God. And grammatically, that's an address. God is calling the King of Israel God,
but of the Son. He says, your throne, oh God is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. Now a couple of things. No human king reigned forever and ever, and you go back and you read your Old Testament. No human king was righteous either. They were all woefully sinful. But they were types and shadows and pictures of the true king coming.
And so God addresses the king as God you have. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, another address, therefore God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions. Now again, we need to remember the Israelite King was a picture of God on Earth. The Israelite king was God's representative on Earth.
And so Yahweh addressed him as God, not because he was God, but because of what he pictured. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, this is actually true of the son. This is actually true of the one you are thinking about abandoning. And the, the point today, and I'll, I'll, I'll wrap it up at the end of the sermon, but the point today is what do you believe about Jesus?
I told you, uh, at the beginning of, of, of the service that I was, I have been, and I am highly convicted this week because I can't tell you how many times I treat God as if he was just a buddy. And I question what God is doing in this world and like the psalmist. Uh, there are times I get angry at God, but the, but the worst part of it is even when I pray sometimes I'm so casual and when we come to church, we come so casual.
It is as if we don't realize that we are in the very presence of God Almighty. We are in the very presence of the one that the author is describing here, and we ought to come gripped with fear and joy and Thanksgiving that he doesn't consume us. And so we worship him and we praise him, and we thank him and we live our lies for him.
This is what the Psalm should be doing to you today. Your stomach should be in a knot. Because this is the God we serve. Do you treat him like a king? Do you treat him like the eternal sovereign God who literally keeps us alive? If he forgot about you for a second, you'd be gone. He sustains your life.
He's numbered your days. He's gifted you with children and good things and food and clothing. Do you worship him as God? Are you afraid of him? Because that's the theme throughout the Bible. Fear God, if you believe in God, fear him. And yes, there's another side to that coin, but we camp out on the other side and we forget about the real fear.
We forget about who we worship. We forget about who we talk to in such mundane language. And I'm not saying you have to pray in King James English. But God is not your buddy.
Jesus is described as the one who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, and therefore God, your God has anointed you. You see this points to something else. It points to the eternal son of God, the eternal to king. And then in verse 10. In verses 10 through 12, Psalm 1 0 2 is cited You, Lord, in the beginning, you laid the foundation of the earth in the heavens of the works of your hands.
Jesus is creator and sustainer. We've already read that in verses two and three. Jesus is the creator and he sustains all things simply by his word.
The creation will perish, but you. You remain. They will become old like a garment and like a mantle. You will roll them up like a garment. They will also be changed, but you are the same. And your ear, your ears will not come to an end. Jesus is the eternal creator and him is deliverance in hope and restoration, and the author is pleading with his readers, don't leave Jesus.
Don't turn your back on Jesus. And so again, we need to ask ourselves, am I following Jesus? Am I following the Jesus of this text, the king of kings, the eternal God, one with indescribable power, one with indescribable love and compassion and mercy, because he took mice sin to the cross. I would be consumed if it were not for him.
Is that what you take away from this passage? And it's interesting because if you go back, and I'm not gonna take the time to do it, but if you go back and you read Psalm 1 0 2, 1 of the things that the author complains about is persecution. The author is being persecuted by his enemies. One of the things that the Hebrews were complaining about was persecution.
In Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 and 32, the writer says, you've endured great conflict and suffering. Partly by being made a public spectacle and through reproaches and tribulations, and this word for reproach is the same word that's used in Psalm 1 0 2. Yeah, I know. You're being persecuted for your faith.
And sometimes, and I'll be honest with you, especially in terms of current events, I've heard many Americans talk about how we're being persecuted. We are not being persecuted, Christians are being martyred all over the world. And yes, I believe that Charlie Kirk's murder was a martyrdom, but it's rare in this country.
We're all gonna go home to nice houses, change into a second pair of clothes, probably eat a really good lunch or dinner. We are not being persecuted. These people were, they lost their homes, they lost their possessions, they lost their status in the community, and they're thinking about leaving Christ, and the author is pleading with them, don't leave Christ.
He's superior to Angels. Verse 13, and here comes the crescendo. And he C sends with Psalm one 10. And if you didn't catch it, that's a made up word. I made it up this morning. CRE sends, it is the verb of crescendo. It does not exist. I Googled it, I checked it, but I want you to start using it 'cause that's how new words are created.
But the author CRE sends with Psalm one 10 and we read Psalm one 10 at the beginning in the whole context of Psalm one 10 is Jesus is the eternal king and Jesus is the eternal priest. Jesus is the only priest that can actually deal with your sins. And so his priesthood, his high priesthood is forever, and he is the king forever.
And the author of Hebrews has already begun his book by saying, in these last days, God spoke to us. In our son, Jesus is the last prophet. He's the true prophet. He's the last word of God. He's prophet, priest, and king. And that is the message of chapter one. And in verse 13, the author 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.
And the psalm begins the same way in verse three, the same thing is said. And he is the radiance of his glory in the exact representation of his nature. And Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power. And when he made purification for sins, and we talked about that last week, he, if your faith is in Jesus, your sin has been dealt with.
How do we know that? 'cause he's seated than the high priest in Israel. Never sat down because he had more work to do, more ceremonies, more sacrifices. But Jesus was the final sacrifice. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. The angels are still servants. The angels are still working. Verse 14, are they not all ministering or are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation.
Angels serve God by ministering to us. That's amazing. Angels serve God by ministering to us. So how do you wrap this up?
Well, Hebrews chapter one lays out a comparison. It's methodical, it's logical, it's scripturally grounded. And let me summarize that comparison. Let me summarize who Jesus is, and as I summarize, please, I beg of you, is this the Jesus you believe in? And I'm not saying you're not a believer, but I'm saying, do we need to correct our beliefs?
Because I know I do after having studied this all week. I know that I have to wrap my head around the fact that Jesus, as I said earlier, he's not just a friend. He's not just a pal. He's not just a buddy. He's way more than that. And I need to start acknowledging that in my daily prayer life, in my daily walk, according to Hebrews chapter one, Jesus is God's final word as I just said a moment ago.
He is the final and the true prophet. He is creator and sustainer, and that alone should blow your minds. Yes. Not only did God create, but it's important to understand. The Bible teaches he sustains. It's not like a windup clock and God can walk away. God has to actively on a daily moment by millisecond moment, sustain life and reality.
He's high priest who has taken your sin to the cross, and that's a subject that the, the writer is going to expand upon over and over and over and make so clear. That he has paid the price for your sin. He's the promised son and seed of David, the Davidic King, the Messiah. God's anointed. He is to be worshiped by angels beings that would make us all drop to the ground in fear.
They're to worship the God man, Jesus. He is an, he has an eternal throne in priesthood. He does not change. Whatever you read about Jesus, he doesn't change. We can have confidence in him. We can pray to him confidently because he doesn't change. He's not gonna lie to us. He's not gonna trick us. That's not a human attribute.
It's a divine attribute because Jesus is God and his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. I beg of you, I, I pray of you. I exhort you. Do not be an enemy of Christ. If you don't know Christ, meet him today. Talk to somebody sitting next to you. Talk to me after the sermon. Do you worship this Christ?
Do you worship this God man? Do you worship the king of kings and the Lord of Lords? On the other side of that comparison are angels, and angels are commanded to worship the son, to kiss the son. Angels are winds and messengers and ministers. They're servants of God. And someday we will reign over angels.
They are finite and created. They are finite and created. And while they are guardians of God's throne, seraphim and cherubim, they are throne guardians. That's their job. While they are guardians of God's throne, they do not sit upon it. They're not to be prayed to. They don't intercede for you. Only Jesus does, and they serve King Jesus by ministering to us.
They serve king Jesus by ministering to us those who will inherit salvation. Do you know this? Jesus, is this the Jesus you believe in?
We need to ask, and this is a question that I send you out with. This is a question that I hope you will meditate upon all week. Whom do I serve? Do I serve this Jesus? Do I believe these things about this Jesus? Do I recognize how glorious and how great and how far he outmatch me? Do I worship this? Jesus, whom do you serve?
Let's pray. Father in heaven, spirit of God, speak to our hearts right now. Help us to go home this week. Help us to use the discussion questions as we think through this passage. Help us to go home this week. Help us to read Hebrews chapter one. Help us to read every Psalm that cited. So that we understand the context, we understand that the author is saying so much more than maybe appears on the page, but more than anything else, father, even those of us that are your people, may we see you rightly.
When we fall on our knees later to pray, may it be a real falling to the knees. May it be a real acknowledgement of who you are. You are far superior to angels and you are far superior to us, and that will never end. And the fact that you humbled yourself enough to become a man and go to the cross ought to blow our minds.
Father, help us to understand these things more and more and more so that we would serve you rightly and humbly and with fear for we ask this in Christ's name, and all of God's people said. Amen.
