Yes Virginia, He is God
Hebrews 1:4-14
Intro. An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom, or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom. "Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. One of his colleagues whispers, "Say something." The dean sighs and says, "I should have taken the money."
. Our scripture this morning talks a lot about angels. As I read through it this week, I said to myself and God, Lord what do you want me to deliver out of these passages?
. That’s one of the greatest things about preaching through a book. It forces the preacher to dive deeper into the scripture to really see what God is saying and why.
.As I read and studied I realized that what God is saying here to us is that Jesus is superior to all created beings. Even the angels.
. I thought; don’t we all know that. In my preparation I found that no, some religions of today don’t know that or don’t accept that Jesus is God and that He is superior to everything and everyone.
. The Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses teach that Jesus is an Angel and not God.
. That was the same problem that the writer of Hebrews was trying to address.
. You see, The Jewish people had almost elevated the angels to the same stature as God.
. John McArthur writes, “many believed that angels acted as God’s senate or council and that He did nothing without consulting them.”
. They really had no concept of the trinity and many believed that in genesis 1:26 where God says let US make man in our image refers to making man like angels.
. There was a long history of the Jewish people almost deifying angels.
. To the Jew, angels were of great importance and were exalted above everything except God.
. In order to get them to fully understand who Jesus was, the writer had to make them understand who Jesus was.
. He was above the angels.
. Jesus was God.
. Our scripture today drives home the fact of the deity of Jesus.
. September 21, 1897. Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun. This is what she wrote:
. "DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
. The editor responded to Virginia with a long list of why there is a Santa Clause and penned this now famous quote.
. “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa clause.”
. The writer of Hebrews was saying to the Jews and to us that Yes, Virginia and Jewish nation and Gentiles , Jesus is God.
. Lets read our scripture.
.4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.
5For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:“You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.”God also said, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.”
6And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said, “Let all of God’s angels worship him.”
7Regarding the angels, he says, “He sends his angels like the winds, his servants like flames of fire.”
8But to the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice.
9You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”
10He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands.
11They will perish, but you remain forever.
They will wear out like old clothing.
12You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same; you will live forever.”
13And God never said to any of the angels,
“Sit in the place of honor at my right hand
until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”
14Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.
. In these 14 verses we see the deity of Jesus proven through his Divine Names, His Divine Works, His Divine Worth and His Divine attributes.
.Divine Names: in these verses we see the divine names of Jesus.
. In verse 5 we see Jesus called Son: 5For God never said to any angel what he said to Jesus:“You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.”God also said, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.”
. In verse 9 we see Jesus called God: 9You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”
. In verse 10 we see Him called Lord: 10He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands.
. Names and titles were important to the Jewish people. Much like they are to us today.
. A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M, and I pick up things. What am I?” When the grades were all in the teacher was astounded to find that almost fifty percent had written in, mother.
. The title or name of mother carried with it certain characteristics.
. The same is true for these divine names.
. When the Jewish people heard the name Son of God, they automatically thought of the long awaited Messiah.
. Wikipedia defines Lord as: a deity who has authority, control, or power over others; a master, chief, or ruler.
. Calling Jesus Lord is describing His authority over everything, even the angels.
. He is called God by God establishing Him as an equal to who the Jewish people knew to be the creator God.
. Jesus is recognized as God through His Divine Names.
. Next we see that Jesus is God through His Divine Works
. In verse 10 we see Jesus the creator:
10He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands.
. Back to our statement in Genesis 1:26 about creation where the Jewish people thought that the US was angels.
. The writer of Hebrews says no, Jesus was there and He laid the foundations of the world.
. There was a group of scientists who got together one day and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God that they were done with Him.
The scientist walked up to God and said, “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you. We’re to the point we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so we just don’t need you anymore.”
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very well, how about this, let’s say we have a ‘man-making’ contest.” To which the scientist replied, “OK, great!”
God added, “Now, we’re going to do this just like I did in the old days with Adam.” The scientist said, “Sure, no problem” and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God just looked at him and said, “No…you get and make your own dirt.”
. One of Jesus’ divine works was creation.
. He laid the foundations of the world the writer of Hebrews states.
. In verse 8 we see Jesus the great ruler and governor:
8But to the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever. You rule with a scepter of justice.
. As that ruler of justice Jesus will purge the world of sin.
. Jesus was and is God because of his divine works.
. Next we see who Jesus is by His Divine Worth.
. Look at verse 6 again:
. 6And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said, “Let all of God’s angels worship him.”
. We read throughout the Old Testament that angels were created by God and they served and worshiped only Him.
. When we see God telling the angels to worship Jesus, we see that Jesus is worth the worship of the angels.
. Not only is Jesus worthy of the angels worship, he is worthy of our worship.
. We have already seen that Jesus is God. Since He is God, He is to be worshipped.
. Early in his career, Matt Redman, the popular Christian musician in Britain, was singing with his church’s praise band when his pastor confronted them.
They were proud of their musical performance, he said, but they were neglecting true worship.
Insulted by the charge, the members of the band left the church—all, that is, except Redman.
Shortly afterward, he wrote his hit song "The Heart of Worship," which included these words: "I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, Jesus."
. We played that song for the offertory just a few minutes ago.
. These passages cry out the truth in that song. It’s all about Jesus. He is the one who is worthy of our worship.
. In the Revelation of John we see recorded the scene from the throne room in chapter 5 verse 11&12.
.11, Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders.
12And they sang in a mighty chorus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.”
. Then in verse 14 we see the ultimate worship:
. And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.
. The angels and all of heaven worshiped in song and then the twenty four elders, the representatives of the new and the old covenant with mankind fell down and worshiped Jesus.
. The writer of Hebrews proclaims that Jesus is the one to be worshiped because of His Divine Worth
.Lastly we see who Jesus is through His Divine Attributes.
. Look at verse 10 again.
. 10He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands.
. We talked about his creating but this verse also shows His omnipotence. His power. Jesus is all powerful.
. Do you want to know how? BECAUSE HE IS GOD, and God is all powerful.
. Look at the last part of verse 12.
. But you are always the same; you will live forever.”
. In these few words we see the unchanging and the eternal God.
. Jesus is always the same.
. Jesus will live forever.
. You know that’s what I want to close with this morning.
. Jesus came into this world and lived a sinless life.
. He did this so that He could be the perfect sacrifice that God required for forgiveness of sin.
. He gave His life as that sacrifice for our sins.
. When the religious authorities had killed and buried him they thought, well now this rabble rouser is gone.
. Three days later He arose from the tomb giving us victory over death. He is the eternal God.
. That is an attribute of Jesus that can give us as Christian’s assurance of an eternity with Him.
. Through His attribute of being eternal, we too are eternal.
. Can you this morning say that you are going to spend an eternity with Jesus?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources:
The Holy Bible, NLT
The MacARTHUR New Testamant commentary, Hebrews
