God's Final Word

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Pat Damiani

Thornydale Family Church

Greater Than • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago • Presented 3 years ago • 30:19

Hebrews 1:1–14

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As God's final revelation to us, Jesus is far superior to the angels because He is 100% God.

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NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Have you ever thought about giving up on being a Christian? Or have you at least considered whether being a disciple of Jesus is really worth it or whether it might be a whole lot easier to just go along with our culture? After all, it is getting harder and harder to hold fast to Biblical truth in the midst of a culture that considers some of those principles to be outdated at best and bigoted hate speech at worst.

Tension

If you’ve struggled with some of those kinds of questions, you are certainly not alone. In fact, in the early church, there was an entire book of the Bible that was written to some Christians who were struggling with those same questions. And that book is just as relevant to us today as when it was written nearly 2,000 years ago.

Truth

This morning we embark on our study of that book, the book of Hebrews. In some ways this is one of the most difficult books in the New Testament for us to understand. But the reward of tackling it is that we will get one of the most complete and extraordinary pictures of Jesus that we can find anywhere in the Bible.

We’re going to approach our study much like we did when we studied the book of Romans. So rather than work our way through the book in one long sermon series, we’re going to break it into some smaller bite-sized chunks. For the next seven weeks we’ll cover up through the middle of chapter 5 and then the plan is we’ll pick up there some time next year.

Although there has been much speculation about its author, the fact is that even in the early church, no one was really sure who wrote this book. So we’re not going to waste our time speculating about that since I really don’t think we’re going to figure out what people who are much smarter and more educated than all of us combined have been unable to determine.

But from the book itself we can get a pretty good idea about the audience to whom it was written and its purpose. Apparently there were some Jewish Christians who had originally made a commitment to follow Jesus, but as they suffered persecution and trials over time, they had been tempted to return to their old Jewish religion. In many ways that had been much easier. Jews, unlike the disciples of Jesus, were generally tolerated by the Roman government and not subject to the same kind of persecution that the Christians were facing. And frankly it had been a lot easier to just go through the motions of their Jewish religion than it was to try to follow the revolutionary teachings of Jesus in their day-to-day lives. Sound familiar?

So the author of Hebrews, whoever that was, writes this letter to encourage them to remain faithful to Jesus and to not turn back to their familiar Jewish religion.

The main theme of Hebrews:

It is worth sticking with Jesus because He is greater than anything or anyone else

Without a doubt, the key word in the book is the Greek word

kreitton

That word is found 13 times in the book. In the ESV version we’re using, it is translated “superior” twice and “better” the other 11 times. It describes something that is “more useful” or “more powerful” or “higher in rank”. And we are certainly going to see that Jesus is all those things. And my goal is that as we study this book, we will come to understand that more fully, not just in our heads, but in our hearts. And I am praying that that understanding will provide us with all we need to remain faithful to Jesus, especially during those times when we have doubts or begin to question whether following Jesus is worth it.

So with that background in mind, will you go ahead and follow along as I read the first chapter:

Hebrews 1:1–14 ESV

1 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. 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. 9 You 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; 11 they 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?

Most of the sermons I’ve looked at on this chapter break it down into two or three distinct sections, with two or three sermons. But there is actually an underlying concept that ties the entire chapter together, a concept that provides us with the main idea we’ll develop today:

Jesus is “greater than” because He is not just a messenger, He is God’s final message.

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much of a tie between the prophets that are mentioned in verse 1 and the angels, which are addressed beginning in verse 4. But what they have in common is that they are both God’s messengers.

That’s obvious when it comes to the prophets. We are told in verse 1 that in that past God had spoken to His people through the prophets. But what about angels? The Greek word aggelos, which is usually translated “angel” in the New Testament, literally mans a “messenger” or “one who is sent”. And while we do see angels perform other duties in the Bible, their primary role is that of being a messenger. So both the prophets and the angels are God’s messengers.

In verse 1, the author sums up how God spoke to His people before Jesus:

Long ago, at many time and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets...

In the past, God had spoken to His people many times in many ways:

He spoke directly to some - like He did with Adam and Eve and Moses

He spoke to some in dreams, like with Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar

He even spoke through Balaam’s donkey

But His primary way of speaking had been through His prophets, who took God’s words and revealed them to the people and usually created a written record that eventually became what we call the Old Testament

But as God revealed Himself in those various ways, He never fully revealed to anyone His ultimate plan to provide a way to be reconciled to Him through faith in His Son, Jesus. This is what Paul often refers to as a “mystery” like he does in Ephesians 3:

Ephesians 3:4–5 ESV

4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

This was not a mystery in the sense we often use it today, like a book or movies where we are trying to figure out who committed the crime. But until Jesus came on the scene, no man could fully understand God’s plan to reconcile man to Himself.

So as he writes this book, the author of Hebrews is going to consistently take the Old Testament Scriptures, which would have been very familiar to his audience, and use them to prove that Jesus had been greater than all from the very beginning and that, viewed in the proper light, those Scriptures pointed ahead to Him all along.

I’m going to come back to the first part of verse 2 and look at that in more detail in a moment, but I want us to see the overall structure of this chapter first.

Then from the end of verse 2 through verse 3, the author includes a sevenfold description of Jesus that proves that the way God spoke through Him was far superior than the way He spoke in the Old Testament times.

Then beginning in verse 4, the author shifts to describing why Jesus is also greater than the angels. I’ve always wondered why the author focused on angels so early in his letter. My first inclination was to think that angel worship must have been prevalent among the Jews. But other than a small group of people known as the Essenes who lived in a community near the Dead Sea and who included angel worship in their brand of reformed Judaism, there is just no evidence that kind of practice was widespread.

After further consideration and study, it seems more likely that the author focuses on angels is because the Jewish Christians to whom he was writing would have viewed them as the most powerful beings that God has created. So by proving that Jesus was greater than even the angels, he could reinforce his point that sticking with Jesus was definitely worth it in spite of the difficulties they faced.

The chapter then ends with seven citations of Old Testament Scriptures that the author is going to use to prove that Jesus is greater than the angels.

So in the opening words of his letter the writer of Hebrews makes the case that Jesus is greater than both human messengers - the prophets, and heavenly messengers - the angels.

My prayer for you this morning is that you would be encouraged by this truth and that despite any trials and difficulties you might be facing in your life right now, you would also be convinced beyond a doubt that it is worth sticking with Jesus. And, if you haven’t yet put your faith in Jesus, my prayer is that knowing that Jesus is greater than the angels you would make that decision today.

We won’t have time this morning to cover every single verse in detail, but I do want to go back and take a closer look at verse 2, since I believe it is the backbone of this entire chapter.

In verse 2, the author contrasts the revelation of the Old Testament days with something that is far better:

…but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...

Let’s talk for a moment about the phrase “last days”. It is helpful to think of God’s timeline in terms of three “acts”:

Creation

Israel

Jesus

So that means that the “last days” is a period of time that began with the incarnation of Jesus and which will end with His second coming when He establishes a permanent physical kingdom. And during that time period, God has spoken to us by His Son - Jesus. The literal translation of that last phrase is actually:

…he has spoken to us by His Son =

he has spoken to us in Son

The first thing to note here is the verb “has spoken”. It is an aorist tense verb, which means that it is something that occurred at one point in the past that is no longer occurring. But, you might say, “Didn’t the apostles write and speak after Jesus returned to the Father?” Yes, they did. But they did that as witnesses, not as prophets. They didn’t create any new revelation. They just wrote and spoke about what Jesus had already revealed.

I can’t possibly overstate the importance of this. What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that Jesus is God’s final message. So that means we aren’t going to find any further revelation of God using the means that He used in the Old Testament times because in Jesus, we have everything God wants us to know about Himself. I am reminded here of how Jesus responded to Philip when Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father:

John 14:9–11 ESV

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

But the writer of Hebrews doesn’t just say that Jesus is God’s final message because He says so. He goes on to provide a sevenfold description of Jesus that reveals...

WHY JESUS IS UNIQUELY QUALIFIED TO BE GOD’S FINAL MESSAGE

Without getting bogged down in the detail, that sevenfold description of Jesus shows us the two primary reasons that only Jesus is qualified to be God’s final message:

He is a completely different kind of message:

The prophets had spoken and written the word of God. Jesus is the Word of God.

The prophets were merely God’s servants. Jesus is His heir.

The prophets communicated what the Creator wanted. Jesus is the Creator.

The prophets only communicated what they heard from God. Jesus is God. He shares in God’s nature and God’s glory. I’m going to develop this idea more fully in a moment.

In summary, the prophets were merely messengers, Jesus is the message.

He offers a completely different kind of salvation

The prophets gave instructions about what man must do to be right to God. Jesus’ message was about what He had done to make that possible. He didn’t say “go and do”. He sat down and said, “It is done”.

Next the author transitions from writing about how Jesus is greater than the prophets to explaining why He is greater than the angels. Unfortunately, many of us have developed our concept of what angels are like from television shows and movies. I suppose the low point was probably when John Travolta was cast as a chain-smoking, drinking, womanizing angel in the movie Michael. But frankly some of the other media that typically portray angels as people who have died and now become angels are possibly even more harmful because that seems a lot more plausible, even though it is just as unbiblical. In the Bible, angels are powerful and majestic and instill fear in those who have an encounter with them. In terms of created creatures, I could make a good case that they are the very best.

But beginning in verse 5, the author uses seven passages from the Old Testament to prove that Jesus is far greater than even the angels. But he uses these passages in a rather unique way. None of the passages he cites would have been intended by the original authors to apply to Jesus, nor would have the people who read them considered that there was any connection to the Messiah. But the author of Hebrews is going to use them to show that viewed through the right lens, the Old Testament actually does point ahead to Jesus.

We’re going to explore this some more in the Bible Roundtable after this gathering, but for now I only have time to cover one example. In verse 5, the author cites 2 Samuel 7:14:

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

The author of Hebrews is clearly applying this to Jesus and making the claim that God the Father has proclaimed that He is Jesus’ father and Jesus is His son.

But if you go back to 2 Samuel 7, it is clear that these words which were spoken to David through the prophet Nathan, were referring to Solomon, David’s son.

We are going to see this kind of correspondence between the Old Testament writings and the New Testament fulfillment throughout Hebrews. When that happens the author is not imposing some new idea that the original text was not meant to convey, but rather merely bringing out the truth that was already there. So we find that Jesus is present throughout the Old Testament even though the original writers and readers could not have possibly seen that. So Jesus has really been the final message all along. He was never God’s Plan B. He had always been Plan A.

The third, and most important reason that Jesus is uniquely qualified to be God’s final message is one I mentioned a bit earlier:

He is God

Each of the seven characteristics in the description of Jesus in verses 2-3 are things that are only true of God. Probably the clearest confirmation that Jesus is God is seen in this phrase:

…the exact imprint of his nature...

The phrase “exact imprint” is just one word in Greek. It was used to describe the mark made by an engraving tool such as the image that was stamped on a coin. Here it is used to convey the idea that Jesus, in His flesh revealed the nature of God because He is fully God. And therefore, as we see in the first part of that verse, He also shines with the glory of God.

And, as I’ve already suggested, beginning in verse 5, there are seven Old Testament references that also prove that Jesus is superior to the angels because He is God. In particular, we see several references that reveal that Jesus is God’s Son. We also see that the angels worship Jesus, which also confirms the idea that He is God.

Jesus is “greater than” because He is not just a messenger, He is God’s final message.

Application/Action/Inspiration

So what does that mean for my life in practical terms? There are so many implications that this truth has for us, but let me share just two of the most important:

IMPLICATIONS FOR MY LIFE

God loves me more than I will ever know

Sometimes people will claim that the God of the Old Testament is not the same as the God of the New Testament. They claim that the God of the Old Testament is a cruel tyrant who takes joy in meting out punishment against those who would rebel against Him. But as we’ve seen clearly this morning, God loves us all so much that from the very beginning of time His plan was to send Jesus to this earth to die on a cross to make it possible for us to have a relationship with Him. As Paul writes in Romans:

Romans 8:32 ESV

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

A God who is willing to do that loves us more than we will ever know. And knowing that should be all the motivation we need to hang on to Jesus, even when that is not easy or we have doubts.

The answer is always Jesus

One Sunday morning, a pastor of a small church was invited into the children’s Sunday school class to share a lesson. When all of the children were seated and quiet, for sake of an illustration, the pastor began describing a squirrel. He started out by saying, “I am going to describe something and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is.” The children nodded eagerly.

The pastor continued, “This thing lives in trees (pause)… and it eats nuts (pause)… and it has a long bushy tail (pause).” No hands went up. The pastor was shocked. He continued but to no avail; there were no hands. Finally, one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The pastor breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. The boy said, “Well, it sounds an awful lot like a squirrel to me… but I know the answer must be Jesus!”

I know how cliche it is to say that the answer is always Jesus. But as we’ve seen this morning that is undoubtedly true. Jesus is greater than the prophets and the angels. But He is also greater than any religion, any self-help book or program, any government, any politician, any pastor or elder or church leader. Sometimes it is really tempting to hold on to some of those other things because it seems that they will make us happy or satisfy our desires. But in the end, they all fall short of what they promise. Jesus will never disappoint us if we remain faithful to Him.

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