SIMPLY JESUS
Jesus King of Angels
Hebrews 1:4-14
INTRODUCTION
-On December 2 there was a cross country race featuring runners from around the world.
-The clear leader through the entire race was a Kenyan runner named Abel Mutai.
-Just as he approached the finish line something strange happened. He stopped.
-He was confused about where the finished line was, and stopped just before he got there.
-A few moments later the second place runner; a Spanish runner Iván Anaya came up behind him.
-He had the opportunity to run past Mutai and steal the victory.
-But he did something shocking; he also stopped!
-He knew that Abel Mutai was the better runner, and had run a better race, and so he pushed him up to the real finish line and helped him to win.
-Iván Anaya could have tried to take first place, but he knew he was the second place runner.
-He knew that first place rightfully belong to someone else.
-That’s a perfect illustration for our passage today about Jesus and the angels.
-Angels are impressive and powerful creatures, but they will always be second to Jesus. Because Jesus is…better.
-The book of Hebrews uses the word “better” 11 times to describe the superiority of Jesus Christ.
-And that’s what the book of Hebrews is all about…Jesus is better, than anything, anyone, any priest, prophet or king. He’s better.
-Last week we saw that In the OT God made promises, and in the NT God fulfilled those promises through Jesus.
-We looked at seven characteristics about Jesus, if you missed it you can listen to it online.
-Vs 4 tells us the main idea of our passage right away.
4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.
-You might think it’s obvious that Jesus is greater than the angels.
-But throughout the history of God’s people there have been problems with angel worship.
-The OT Kings Ahab and Manasseh led the people of Israel to worship angels.
-In the NT books of Galatians and Colossians there were warnings about angel worship which had begun to infiltrate the church.
-Even the apostle John bowed down to an angel in his revelation vision but the angel said, “No! Don’t worship me! (Rev 19:10)
-And throughout history there have been false teachers who have suggested that Jesus himself was an angel.
-But vs 4 says the name God gave Jesus is greater than the angels names. And the name he’s given Jesus is “Son”.
-There are people who are obsessed with angels.
-They have angel necklaces, angel figurines, and bumper stickers that say “angel on board”.
-People who don’t even know Jesus…declare their trust in angels.
-They say, “I have an angel was watching over me.”
-But angels aren’t private security contractors!
-They work at Christ’s commands, for Christ’s people, and to serve Christ’s purposes.
-They cannot save you, they cannot help you, they don’t work for you outside of the will of Jesus.
-They work for Jesus, because is greater than the angels.
verse 5: explains it for us.
5 For 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.”
-Here the author of Hebrews starts quoting various Psalms to make various points about Jesus. He starts by saying…
-ANGELS ARE NOT GOD’S SONS. God has never called them that.
-So, if they aren’t his sons, who are they? What are they?
-Do they really play harps? Do they really sit on clouds?
-There are some fascinating accounts of angels in the Bible.
-There was a demon in Daniel called the “prince of Persia” who was preventing a messenger angel from getting to Daniel.
-And God sent the archangel to battle that demon prince. (Dan 10)
-When God called Zec, Joseph and Mary he sent the angel Gabriel.
-When the angel Lucifer led his rebellion, it was the angel Michael who led God’s forces and threw Lucifer(satan) out of heaven.
-An angel fed Elijah after his showdown on Mt. Carmel.
-It was an angel that gave a pep talk to Gideon when he was afraid
-It was an angel who orchestrated a prison break for Peter.
-And it was angels who were present at the resurrection of Jesus.
-Angels are impressive heavenly beings but angels are not God’s sons. They are angels.
-Now in contrast verse 5 says…
-JESUS IS GOD’S ONLY SON. This is a quote Ps 2:7
-No angel could ever be called God’s son. Only Jesus is God’s son.
-Have you ever worked with the boss’ son? I have.
-When I was in high school I worked at T.C.B.Y. That’s where I met my wife. The boss’ son liked to boss us around.
-He could give free stuff to his friends. He could take phone calls on the clock. He could extra breaks and did.
-But we’d have never gotten away with that.
-No matter how good of an employee you are, no matter how good of a job you do, you’ll never get treated the same as the boss’ son. Why? Because you’re not the Son.
-And the angels of heaven are not God’s sons.
-Only Jesus can be called God’s Son. Last we looked at seven things which identify Jesus as God the Father in the flesh.
-Jesus is God but here he is called God’s Son. Why is that?
a. He’s not called the son because he was created.
-He has always existed, he had no origin, he is eternal.
-Verses 1-4 make that clear.
b. But he did go through the process of being born here on earth…coming into human form.
-His life didn’t begin at conception like ours did.
-But he clearly was born by the power of the Holy Spirit and people are always associated with who they came from.
-Because Jesus was born of God, he is called the son of God.
b. My suspicion is that the title “God’s Son” is for the benefit of those who he came to.
-The Jews understood the term son differently than we do.
-For them a firstborn son was viewed as an extension of his father
-That’s why they were so furious with Jesus when he called himself the Son of God.” That was a death sentence.
-They knew claiming to be the Son of God was the equivalent of claiming to be God.
-And that’s why they repeatedly tried to kill him.
-Jesus is capital “S” Son of God, and that distinguishes him from any other being or person, in heaven or on earth.
-He is the only one who can rightfully be called “the” Son of God.
6 And when he brought his supreme Son into the world, God said,
“Let all of God’s angels worship him.”
-ANGELS ARE WORSHIPPERS.
-There’s an amazing glimpse of this angelic worship in Rev 5
-Jesus enters the throneroom of heaven and this is what John saw
Rev 5:11 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. And 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.”
-Angels are worshippers.
-Angels were never people, and people will never be angels.
-But we do share one thing in common.
-JESUS IS THE ONE WE WORSHIP.
-This is really important for us to understand.
-Sometimes when we hear the word worship we think of bowing down, or singing songs, or even coming to church.
-But those are just forms of worship. Worship is about what’s on our hearts. Worship is what we care about.
-The Bible constantly warns us against worshipping anything other than God, that’s called idolatry.
-And in that regard angels have an advantage over us.
-Angels don’t have the love of money (and things) on their hearts.
-Angels aren’t consumed with politics, government, & legistlation.
-Angels aren’t tempted to turn family into an idol.
-Angels aren’t tempted like our teenagers to worship girlfriends, or beauty, or popularity, or sports.
-Angels don’t worship alcohol, sex, or violence, or nature.
-There is only one who is worthy of worship…and the angels know him personally. They see him at the office each day. He is Jesus.
-And our challenge, as followers of Jesus, is to guard our hearts against the worship of those lesser things.
-There is nothing that deserves our attention more.
-There is nothing that should occupy our thoughts more.
-There is nothing we should want more than to know and serve Jesus Christ. He is the one we worship.
-We put Jesus at the forefront of our lives.
-Before we open our mouths we should be asking,” What would Jesus say?
-Before we decide what to think we should be asking, “what does Jesus think?”
-Before we decide what to do we should ask “WWJD?”
-When we plan our days, we should be thinking, how will I include the words of Jesus (Bible) into my schedule today?
-What time am I going to carve out for Jesus in prayer?
-How is my life going to honor Jesus today?
-Because he is the one we worship.
7 Regarding the angels, he says, “He sends his angels like the winds, his servants like flames of fire.”
-ANGELS ARE SERVANTS.
-I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I do want to point out that angels are not like us.
-Angels are on a different level than Jesus, but also on a different level than us.
-While angels are not called sons, we are called sons and daughters of God of through Jesus Christ.
-Angels have a different status than us, and if you peek down to verse 14 it actually says that angels work on our behalf.
-Angels are servants, they are directed by God, and much of their work involves us.
-And as the author contemplates who Jesus Christ he borrows words from Psalms 45 and 102.
-Angels are servants but…
vs8 But to the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
-See that…the Son is called God. He’s said to have en eternal throne. What’s he getting at? He is saying that…
-JESUS IS KING.
-But not like any other king!
-Years ago there was a beer commercial set in a tavern with a young guy playing the blues on a Gibson Les Paul guitar.
-And this old man comes over and says, “that’s pretty good, mind if I try?” And the young guy says, “you play?”
-And the old guys takes it and rips off a couple of amazing riffs.
-The young guy says, “What’s your name?”
-And the old man says, “it’s on your guitar.”
-See there are people who play guitar, and then are people that play guitar.
-The author of Hebrews is saying, there are kings, and then there is King Jesus. Listen to how he describes the King of kings:
You rule with a scepter of justice. 9 You 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.”
10 He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands. 11 They will perish, but you remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. 12 You will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But you are always the same; you will live forever.”
13 And 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.” 14 Therefore, angels are only servants—spirits sent to care for people who will inherit salvation.
verse 13-14:
-ANGELS ARE IN A PLACE OF SERVICE/MINISTRY.
-Their job is to serve Jesus, and the people of Jesus.
-They aren’t sons, they are servants.
-They don’t receive worship, they worship Jesus.
-They were never people, they serve people.
-And they aren’t gods, they worship Jesus…who is God.
-JESUS IS IN THE PLACE OF HONOR.
-Jesus is number 1. He’s in first place. And that’s the only place that he accepts.
-Not because he is insecure. He is not hungry for our attention.
-He is God. He is Supreme over all creation.
-This one truth about Jesus is so important, that we believe it’s a deal breaker.
-If you don’t Christ as God then you don’t know Christ.
-The Christian based cults all teach that Jesus is less than God.
-They have been deceived into making Jesus into some lesser god, some lesser being.
-But if Jesus is not God, he has no power to help us.
-But if Jesus is not God, he can’t save us.
-If Jesus is not God, we might as well go on home.
-But if Jesus is God, then we have a decision to make.
-Some of us are like that runner Ivan Anaya.
-We know that Christ is first place. And we have moved him into the first place position in our hearts and lives.
-But many people, maybe even people here this morning, have passed Jesus by.
-They are content to have a second place Jesus.
-They want to be number one; they want to be lord of their lives.
-Here’s the irony of that…when you put yourself in first place, you’ve lost the race.
-When you take first place, you’ve put your trust in a false god called, “self.” And that god is ultimately powerless to save.
-Jesus must be number 1
