Hebrews 1:1-14 Episode 1 - The Supremacy of Jesus Christ

In demonstrating the superiority of Jesus Christ over all things, the author of Hebrews begins the letter by proving that Jesus is the exalted Son of God, and is far higher than the great angels, or any other created thing, for Jesus created all things.

       

- PODCAST TRANSCRIPT -

Joel

Hi, welcome to the Two Journeys Podcast. I'm your host, Joel Harford, and I'm here with Pastor Andy Davis. This is the Bible Study Question Series and we're starting the book of Hebrews. This is episode 1 and it will be, Lord willing, 42 episodes going through the book of Hebrews verse by verse. Andy, I love the book of Hebrews, I know you love the book of Hebrews. As our first episode, could you give us a brief overview of the book and then also just a brief overview of chapter 1 which we're going to look at today?

Andy

Yeah, I would say this about the book of Hebrews: it's been one of the most surprising books that I've ever memorized in terms of my own excitement and eagerness. I memorized the New Testament in order of just interest, I had no set agenda of a series of books that I was following. And so, I memorized Hebrews rather late showing I wasn't that interested in it. I guess I'd never really studied it, I didn't realize just how magnificent and glorious a vision of Christ it gives us and how indispensable it is in helping to explain the Old Covenant, the animal sacrificial system, the Levitical priesthood and how those things have been fulfilled in Christ.

I think, without the book of Hebrews, I don't think we'd have as clear an understanding of the fact that these things are obsolete. That they had a very clear purpose, that that purpose was glorious but it's been fulfilled now in Christ. So, there's so many things I learned but especially it just gives us a clear vision, by faith, into the glories of Christ and so I'm excited to walk through it. I would say, the book, just understanding what it's about, I would lay it out this way. It's a warning epistle. It's warning Jewish professors of faith in Christ, so, people who were from a Jewish background who had made a profession of faith in Christ, warning them to not turn away from Christ. They were under intense pressure, I think, from their Jewish neighbors, from their synagogues, from Jewish authorities. We know very plainly from John chapter 9 and the account of Jesus healing the man born blind that, even at that point, while Jesus was still alive, they had decided that, if anyone claimed that Jesus was the Christ, they'd be put out of the synagogue. And so, the Jewish persecution of the early church is clear and established in the New Testament. So, here's the other side of it. These are Jewish professors of faith in Christ who are under pressure from their unbelieving Jewish family members and authority figures and neighbors and customers, people they interacted with, under pressure from them to turn away from Christ and go back to Old Covenant Judaism.

And the author is warning them most severely not to do this, but he also gives them positive inducements to see the glories of Christ and the New Covenant. So, I would say it lays out in a threefold pattern that builds on itself. First, that Christ is a superior mediator and a superior mediator has, secondly, brought us a superior covenant, the New Covenant, superior to the old one. And it results in a superior life, the life of faith, which is unfolded for us so beautifully in Hebrews 11. So, that's the way that we're going to look at this whole book and it's going to be magnificent.

Joel

Wonderful. Well, for the sake of our audience, I'm going to read Hebrews 1:1-14 and then we'll talk about it,

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. 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, having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 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’? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God's angels worship him.’ Of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.’ But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.’ And, ‘You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens of the work of your hands; they will perish but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 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.’ 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’? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"

So, Andy, the first question I have to ask you is: what is the writer of Hebrews seeking to prove in chapter one?

Andy

He's trying to prove the supremacy of Christ, superiority of Christ, in every respect; the first three verses, just who he is in his person. But then, from verses 4 through 14, the superiority of Christ to angels. And I think on that second one, it's important just because human beings throughout history, Christians even, have been tempted to worship angels. They're superior to us, they're more glorious than us and they're more powerful than us and so people have been tempted to worship angels and it's discussed in other places also in the New Testament, the worship of angels.

But more than that, just in terms of the purposes of this book, the author is going to make it very plain that the New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant. And we learn in the New Testament especially that the Old Covenant was mediated to us by angels through Moses. And so, there's that sense that the Old Covenant was only mediated by angels, the New Covenant was mediated by the Son. So, that's how this chapter is laying out. Jesus is portrayed as infinitely superior to all things, but specifically to angels.

Joel

And what does this passage teach us also about Christ and His role in the universe?

Andy

Yeah, it's incredible. Right from the beginning, we are told that the Son, it was through the Son that God the Father created all things and by the Son that he continues to sustain all things. So, apart from the Son, nothing would exist.

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"It was through the Son that God the Father created all things and by the Son that he continues to sustain all things. So, apart from the Son, nothing would exist"

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Joel

Going from verse one, “Long ago, many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.”(Paraphrase of Hebrews 1:1) Why do you think the author of Hebrews starts with the prophets? Why does he start in this way?

Andy

Well, again, we need to keep in mind the primary audience here are Jewish people, they really are. It is written to all Christians but just like the apostle Paul says in Romans 1, “To the Jew first and then to the Gentile.”(Paraphrase of Romans 1:16) And so, that's what this book of Hebrews is as well, it was written to Jewish professors of faith in Christ. And so, he is harkening back to the foundation of the Jewish religion, which is the word of God, what we would call the Old Testament, which was given to the Jewish people through prophets. So, he is talking about how God, throughout all the Jewish generations, from Moses on, spoke to the people through the prophets. And we would actually have to say, before Moses, Abraham was called a prophet when he was told to pray for, I think it was Abimelech or one of these pagan kings whose household was struck with sickness, “He is a prophet and he will pray for you.” So, they were prophetic and God spoke to them but we tend to especially think about writing prophets who wrote down the scriptures. And so, in the past, in the Jewish history, the Jewish heritage is based on the scriptures and God spoke at many times and in various ways. So, a lot of different ways and that's really true. If you look at the history of the prophets, they were, how shall I put it, interesting people leading interesting lives. They did some strange things. Go ahead. What were you going to say?

Joel

Yeah, dreams, visions. I love the acting out, the laying the siege works with the bricks in Ezekiel.

Andy

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Ezekiel had a hard job laying on one side of his body for some long time and laying on the other side. And then there was Isaiah, and we won't go into that but read about it in Isaiah 20, and what he wore or, shall I say, didn't wear and then he had to prophesy about it. So, there's all kinds of interesting moments for these prophets. Elijah was an other-worldly figure being fed by ravens and speaking very, very powerfully to the people of God. They were interesting men and God spoke to them and through them in many various ways and at many times.

And so, that's how he begins, he says he's harkening back to the Jewish heritage of scripture. So, that's the way it was in the Old Covenant era. “But now,” he says, “He has spoken to us,” what I would've to say is God's final Word and his final Word is Jesus Christ.

Joel

Yeah, that final Word that goes perfectly with Jesus as the parable of the tenants of the vineyard and he sends servant, servant, servant and then the final one is son.

Andy

Yeah, yeah, and Jesus wasn't the final one chronologically because they were apostles and prophets after Jesus. But to some degree, they all testified backward to Jesus just like the Old Testament prophets testified forward to Jesus. He is the pinnacle of the revelation of God. All prophets, as it says in the book of Revelation, “The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.”(Paraphrase of Revelation 19:10)

Joel

And he says this phrase, “But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”(Hebrews 1:2) Other authors use this to speak of the last days, what does this teach us about the time that they were living in and about the time we're living in now?

Andy

Effectively, we're in the same era now. It's been 2,000 years but, just like them, we are in the last days, he says, “In these last days.”(Hebrews 1:2) And so, the author to Hebrews was speaking of his own times, his own generation saying these are the last days. John in First John says this is the last hour even. So, the idea here is that we're in the final phase of redemptive history. I think the next phase is the second coming of Christ and, beyond that, the end of the world and the bringing of eternity. So, we're in the last days and have been for 2,000 years.

Joel

Yeah. Now, we learn some incredible things about Jesus, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”(Hebrews 1:3) What does this mean? Obviously, we know that Jesus is God in the flesh, the hypostatic union, God uniting with man but what is the radiance of the glory of God?

Andy

Yeah. It's a powerful image, isn't it, and I tend to think of it in terms of the sun, S-U-N, that rises in the morning and sets in the evening and brings light to the world. And you think about that, it's 93 million miles away, but we would know nothing of its existence if it were not for what we call, like children, sunbeams, and the sunbeams travel through the 93 million miles of the emptiness of space and communicate the S-U-N, the sun, out in outer space to us. So, we stand in the light of the sun, the bright sunlight and we know that the S-U-N, the sun, exists.

And so, in that way, Jesus is like a sunbeam from the Father, he is the shining radiance of the Father's glory. And so, that's the only way we really can understand this interchange that happened in John 14 when, “Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’” And he answered Philip most mysteriously saying, "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been with you all this time? Anyone who has seen me has the Father."(John 14:8-9) Now, he's not there claiming to be the Father, he's claiming to show people the Father, he is the radiance of God's glory. And so, when you see Jesus, you see the nature of God.

Now, God's glory, that's an interesting expression, we talk about it a lot, but I think of it this way, the radiant display of the attributes of God. It's got to do with light because sometimes it speaks of the glory of God shining around, that kind of thing, the Shekinah glory sometimes people talk about it. And it's a radiant display, but of what? Of what kind of God he is, his power, his wisdom, his love, his long-suffering, various attributes. Well, you can see all that in the life of Jesus and especially in the death of Jesus. So, he is the radiance of God's glory, he brings God's glory to us so we can see his glory by looking at Jesus.

Joel

I have a question. If we go to Revelation, the end of the Bible, when the final restoration happens and they say, “They shall see his face.”(Revelation 22:4) Based on your understanding of scripture, will we see Christ's face or we, in some mysterious way, see the Father or is it just going to be the same thing where Jesus shows us the Father?

Andy

I just don't know. I read that and, like you, I scratch my head and say, "Boy, we have something to look forward to, don't we?" but we are in some sense going to see the face of God and so it's an amazing thing. But now, in this age, we know that Jesus came into the world to show us the Father. As it says in John 1 that, “He came into the world and we beheld His glory, glory is of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth.”(Paraphrase of John 1:14) So, we beheld his glory, we saw in him the perfections of his heavenly Father. So, that's how I understand the radiance of God's glory.

And then it also says, “The exact imprint of his nature.”(Hebrews 1:3) That's a second phrase, very weighty theologically. And I think the Hebrew, sorry, the Greek word here is character which has to do with the imprint of a signet ring on wax, something like that. So, we don't tend to do this anymore, we don't tend to seal our letters with candle wax and with a signet ring but they did that all the time then. And so, basically, the imprint was the exact representation of what the ring had and so, again, same idea, when you see Jesus, you see the exact representation of the Father.

Joel

Now, verse 3 is just packed and what does it also tell us about Jesus' mission and coming into the world?

Andy

Sure. I do want to say one thing and we already touched on this but I can't say enough about it. Through Jesus, God made the world, it says that very plainly in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him [Jesus] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”(John 1:1-3) So, the author of Hebrews says the same thing when he says it was through God, through Jesus, sorry, that he created the world, he says that in verse 2 but then it says that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power.

So, Jesus is active right now or God the Father and God the Son together are active in sustaining the physical universe around us, this is foundational to the doctrine of providence. The idea that, apart from God, nothing exists, in him we live and move and have our being. And so, we would cease to exist if Jesus didn't uphold us, moment by moment, by the word of his power. Now, this is very vital for us to understand but it's also troubling. I think about it like a drive-by shooting and a bullet is fired in anger in the night and it kills some infant in a crib and it's very, very difficult for us to understand how a sovereign God could allow something like that to happen. But the alternative is very troubling as well. The idea that there's a universe or physical things in the universe that have nothing to do with God and they just have their own existence apart from him. Well, that is not true. There is nothing physical in this universe, nothing at all, that Jesus does not uphold or sustain, moment-by-moment, by the word of his power.

Joel

Yeah, that's just a powerful doctrine with very tangible applications to know that, every moment we're being upheld by the Son of God. So, for believers, that gives us incredible security but, for those outside of Christ, they should be terrified.

Andy

Absolutely.

Joel

And should bring repentance.

Andy

It also helps us to understand God's sovereign power over Satan and demons. He upholds their existence too and He can pull the plug on their existence anytime, He can speak them out of existence. So, it helps us to understand how much he's controlling them and he is sovereign over them. But now let me get to the question you did ask, what do we learn here about Jesus's mission? He was sustaining the universe before he was incarnate but he took on a human body, he became human through the virgin Mary to achieve a mission. And this verse says that he had made purification for sins and, “After he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”(Paraphrase of Hebrews 1:3) Now, we believe he started at the right hand of the Majesty on high and he laid off that position of glory, the trappings of glory, he took off those garments, so to speak, of radiant glory and power and became a helpless infant, laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths, born of the virgin Mary but why? Why was he human? Well, this verse says that he came to make purification for sins. So, this is a very important idea throughout the book of Hebrews. And we learn, we'll learn later in this book, that the blood of bulls and goats could never have done it, there actually was no provision for the purification for sins. Apart from Jesus, there is no purification for sins but, in Jesus, there is and that's incredible good news for all of us that, in Jesus, we have full purification for all of our sins. So, it's a once for all too, we're going to learn that as well later in this book. Once for all, he made purification for sins and, after he did that, then he took again his place at the right hand of Almighty God, the Majesty on high.

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"Apart from Jesus, there is no purification for sins but, in Jesus, there is and that's incredible good news for all of us that, in Jesus, we have full purification for all of our sins."

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Joel

So, Jesus now at the right hand of God, that now takes us to, bridges us to the next section where he's superior to the angels, “Having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”(Hebrews 1:4) And so, why is the fact that Jesus is superior to the angels, why is that important to this author? I think most of us know that intuitively but why would that have been special for this audience and why does he say that?

Andy

Yeah, I think probably because humans are tempted to worship angels and, frankly, I believe all false religions have been mediated through fallen angels that we know as demons. I really think that all of the false religions in the world have had demonic god and goddess impersonators behind them, that's what they do. But also the true religion, the Old Covenant religion, was mediated by angels and we learn this from Stephen's speech in Acts 7 and from other places as well. So, the idea here is that Jesus is a superior mediator bringing a superior covenant, that's where he is going to go with all this. But he's going to start just with essential or what we call ontological superiority. Jesus is just superior to all created beings. Just as the angels are superior to us, he is infinitely superior to them so the author is going to give us this idea of Jesus being superior to angels. Now, I think what he does here is he has this picture, Jesus seated the right hand of God. So, we have to have in our minds a picture of a throne set in heaven and you get that in Revelation 4 where John is invited to go through a doorway into the heavenly realms and there's this glorious throne and someone seated on it, that's the Almighty God. But we also have the same image in Daniel 7 which is talking about all of these wicked dominating world empires represented by beasts that come up out of the sea, one after the other. And then there's this little horn that's boasting representing, I think, ultimately, the antichrist and, just in the middle of all that drama, Daniel sees a vision of a throne in Daniel 7:9 with the Ancient of Days seated on it, that's Almighty God, God the Father. And it says there that angels are ministering to him, “Thousands upon thousands attended to him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened.”(Daniel 7:10) That's 100 million angels encircling the throne ready to do his every bidding; Jesus is superior to all of them. He's the right hand of God, He is God and they all bow before Him. We'll get to that in a moment but, honestly, he is infinitely superior to all the angels. And so, here's the idea. Remember the whole epistle is a warning: don't turn your back on Jesus. Part of the way the author's going to do that is to show us by these words, by the scripture how infinitely great Jesus is. You can't turn your back on Jesus, he's Almighty God at the right hand of God the Father. All the angels, who are vastly superior to you and me, are bowing down before him and worshiping him, how could you turn your back on him? So, that's where we're going with all this.

Joel

Yeah, so, what about this, do you want to say anything about the word, “name”?

Andy

Sure.

Joel

He has inherited this name.

Andy

Well, the name is Son, S-O-N, that's the name he inherited that they don't have. Now, in other places, there are some verses that seem to call the angels the sons of God, et cetera, but this is not sons, plural, of God of which we are sons and daughters of the living God, but he is the only begotten Son. That is the teaching here, also in John chapter 1, the “monogenes”, the only-begotten, he is the only one to whom the Father ever said, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you."(Hebrews 1:5) And so, the name here that's superior to theirs, they get the name angel, which is messenger, or later in Hebrews 1:14, servant, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation?” Jesus gets the name Son of God and that's infinitely superior to any name they bear.

Joel

So, you mentioned that “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”(Hebrews 1:5) That's the first passage that the author of Hebrews quotes. So, can you talk about how he's going to make his argument through the scriptures?

Andy

Yeah, the author's going to be using Old Testament scriptures again and again and, in this way, he gives us an interpretive key to reading passages in the Old Testament. Psalms, prophetic passages in Isaiah. In a moment, we're going to get an inter-Trinitarian conversation between the Father and the Son and that's right from one of the Psalms. Now, the Psalm had an immediate human application in David or David's son Solomon, and we can get to all that and we'll talk about it, but, beyond that, the Holy Spirit is speaking to us through the scriptures of the Father and the Son and how they talk to each other or how the Father talks to the Son. So, it's a very powerful thing. He uses these Old Testament scriptures in ways that I think the Old Covenant Jews would not have seen, they wouldn't have fully understood but they were there, the verses were there. So, he reaches for this scripture, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” And so, this is from Psalm 2:7, a messianic psalm and so he's reaching for that and he's saying this is a key text giving us insight into the nature of the Father-Son relationship.

Joel

I think we also see that in the second half of that verse, the, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.”(Hebrews 1:5) That's the Lord telling David immediately about his son Solomon but it's ultimately about His future descendant the Christ, right?

Andy

Yes, yeah. It's complicated. David had a literal son by his wife Bathsheba, Solomon, and he would be his heir and so there is that immediate fulfillment but the ultimate son of David is Jesus. And so, there's that immediate fulfillment and then that eternal and final fulfillment in Jesus. Let's go back to the word today though, this is a very difficult concept and I'm not sure that I fully understand it. Some speak of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father and I believe in that. The Father has always had this relationship of begetting the Son, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, this kind of thing, and yet there's this decisive word today.

Some people link it to the resurrection of Jesus where he was vindicated so clearly as the Son of God. As Romans 1 said he was, “Declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead."(Romans 1:4) and that's about what Paul and Barnabas do with it in Acts 13. They quote this exact passage, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”(Psalm 2:7) and link it to the resurrection. So, it's deep and complicated, I can't unravel it all. Jesus was forever Son, but he wasn't forever human. So, there was a time, a decisive moment, a today when he became human, born of the virgin. And so, there's this decisive moment, both at his conception and then we could say in his vindication, at his resurrection, where he's clearly human but also the Son of God.

Joel

Yeah, that is a complicated one. That's helpful.

Andy

Deep. It's very deep.

Joel

Yeah, yeah, what about some of these other passages where, “Let all God's angels worship him.”(Hebrews 1:6) and I looked up these references and it was very confusing to me. I didn't understand how they were talking about the Son of God but I believe that the author of Hebrews knows scripture way better than I do. What do you think about some of these verses?

Andy

Well, I'm going to just take them the way they're laid on the page here in the New Testament. It's true, when you go back and find them in maybe Deuteronomy 32 or some other places, it's like, "Huh?", it's a head scratcher. But I think we just have to believe that the New Testament authors just handle scripture accurately. Sometimes I think their citations of the Old Testament are similar to ambulances and firefighters and police with their sirens on and they don't need to stop at the red light. And the rest of us, we just need to stop at the red light because we're not apostles and we're not filled with the Holy Spirit, we're not able to pick up a phrase from Deuteronomy and apply it to Jesus. But, on the other hand, it does give us a Christ-centered view of the Old Testament which is very helpful.

So, we got this idea when God brings his firstborn into the world. So, again, there's that decisive moment when Jesus became human. So, that's a big moment, “Today I've begotten you.”(Hebrews 1:5) But we know what happened, the shepherds were outside of Bethlehem and, “An angel of the Lord came and the glory of the Lord shone around”(paraphrase of Luke 2:9) and the angel gave those shepherds the good news, “Today, there is in the city of David, a Savior born for you. He is Christ the Lord.”(Paraphrase of Luke 2:11) He is God who's also the Messiah. And then, “Suddenly, a great company of the angels were in it with him and the heavenly host and they were praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest.’”(Paraphrase of Luke 2:13-14) So, they're all worshiping God and they're worshiping Jesus.

So, this is what it says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”(Hebrews 1:6) I don't know who's really saying that but it could be God Himself. God the Father is saying, "Okay, angels, it's time to worship," and they were ready to do it because they knew who this baby was. But again, it shows the superiority of Christ to angels. They're worshiping him he's not worshiping them. So, it just shows the emptiness of the worship of angels. Jesus never worshiped angels, he sent them on missions, he gave them commands and they served him. But in this passage, clearly, the issue is worship and the only one that can be worshiped is God. The Bible is fiercely monotheistic and the only one that ever deserves worship is God but we worship a Triune God. And so, the Son deserves worship by angels and they do. They worshiped him when he was born and they worship him now up in heaven.

Joel

Now, what else can we learn about the author of Hebrews, his understanding of inspiration? Because he says things like, "Did God say," or, later in chapter four, we're going to get, "Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says," or I think in chapter 3 and attributing things that human biblical authors write, he's attributing to the Holy Spirit saying, "Did God say."

Andy

Right, or to God Himself.

Joel

So, what do we learn about inspiration there?

Andy

Yeah. Well, I think, simply put, I think it was Augustine that said it this way, "What scripture says, God says." God speaks to us in the scriptures through the Holy Spirit so sometimes we could say the Spirit says or sometimes we could say God says but he does it through a Psalm or a passage in Deuteronomy or something in Isaiah, he's speaking to us. And so, the scripture is living and active as we're going to see in chapter four.

So, here, he's quoting a Psalm and then, in Hebrews 1:7, “Of the angels, he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, he makes his ministers flames of fire.’ But of the Son he says…" again, we're talking about God. So, he's using a psalm there, “Your throne, O God…” Psalm 45:6, but what he's saying is, “I, God the Father is saying this about Jesus.” That's pretty powerful.

Joel

That is very powerful. Let's hit verse 7 real quick-

Andy

Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Joel

... and then we're going to really get excited to talk about verse 8.

Andy

Yeah.

Joel

So, what do we learn about angels from verse 7?

Andy

Yeah, verse 7 and, again, verse 14, which I've already cited, tell us angelology. And so, here's the thing about systematic theology. Systematic theology is a study of theology, doctrine, topically, topically. And so, we want to learn everything that the Bible says about every topic but some topics are more important than others. Also, as an expository preacher, in other words, I'm going to take a text and just work through it, I'm going to try to make the main point of the passage the main point of my sermon and I'm going to try to make the main subordinate points, the main subordinate points of my sermon. Very rarely are angels ever the focus of a passage. So, if that's the case, we would never learn anything about them if we just stuck to the text and just went verse by verse and stuck to the text.

But though they are hardly ever the main point, they show up again and again. It's good for us to have a solid doctrine of angels. So, what are they? They are created beings, they're spiritual, they're not physical although they can apparently take on physical bodies enough to appear physical but here they're called winds and flames of fire. So, it's speaking of their essentially spiritual nature, so they're spiritual beings and they move quickly. You think about how a flame darts and dances and so they're very quick, so are demons. They're not omnipresent but they can move quickly.

And so, they are servants as well. He makes his angels his messengers, angels means messengers, winds like spirits and his ministers or servants a flame of fire. And then, again, in verse 14 He says they're ministering spirits. So, they're servant spirits, that's what angels are.

Joel

Okay, so verse 8, I just love this passage, it says, “But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.’"(Hebrews 1:8-9)

Andy

Wow. 

Joel

Okay. Lofty, kingly-

Andy

Yes, hallelujah.

Joel

Language...

Andy

It's like we want to sing the hallelujah chorus right here.

Joel

…from the Old Testament. So, I guess, what is this teaching about Jesus, about His throne, about His rule and reign?

Andy

Yeah. If you read Psalm 45 in its real context, it's talking about a Davidic king but we know that none of their thrones lasted forever and ever. They were never meant to, they were just types and shadows. This is ultimately, must be talking about Jesus. His throne will last forever and ever. But I love right away the introduction to Psalm 45 here in Hebrews 1, which is, “But of the Son he says…” and the he is God. So, what's so interesting about that? Well, look what he, God, says. God the Father says about the Son, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.”(Hebrews 1:8) That's amazing. God the Father calls his own Son God. There's so many verses that prove the deity of Christ but here's yet another indication of it. God the Father says of his own Son, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.”

Joel

Yeah. Speaking of proving the deity of Christ, this is a verse I really like to show a Jehovah's Witness when I'm sharing Christ and we're dialoguing because they usually know about John 1:1, they know about some other ones-

Andy

But what about this one, right?

Joel

But, this one, they look at that and they say, "I haven't read that one before," and it always provokes a good conversation because, yeah, the Father God is calling Jesus God.

Andy

Yeah. And honestly, it's what Jesus prayed for in John 17 when he says, "And now, Father, give me the glory I had with you before the creation of the world."(Paraphrase of John 17:5) That's the glory of being evidently, clearly God. A divine glory, “Give it back to me.” It's the very thing that he laid down, it is his, he laid it down temporarily, he did not appear to be majestic. And so, it says in Isaiah 53:2, “He had no appearance or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance,” all right, because he laid it by but in John 17 He says, "Now give me that glory back that I had with you."

And what is that glory he had with God the Father? The glory of being evidently, obviously God. So, God the Father says to God the Son, inter-Trinitarian conversation, this is the mystery of the trinity. Persons, I guess that's what the theologians tell us we're allowed to say, persons of the Trinity. The first person is God the Father, the second person is God the Son, the third person is God the Spirit, They are able to have relationships with one another. A relationship between the Father and the Son, They can talk together. And so, the Father talks to the Son in the words of the scripture, “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.”(Hebrews 1:8) Now, that's an amazing statement, no throne lasts forever and ever. The rise and fall of the world is evident. The book of Daniel is filled with it, of a statue with a head of gold and chest and arms of silver and belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet partly iron and partly clay, a picture of the rise and fall of different empires, one after the other. And that's what always goes on, empires rise and then they fall. The sun never set on the British Empire, well, that was the 19th century and the sun will set on the American domination of the world, military and economic. And whatever nation follows the United States, if the Lord doesn't return, the sun will set on that empire as well but Jesus' throne lasts forever and ever. His kingdom only gets more glorious; it only gets bigger in every generation because He never loses anyone. And so, it always becomes bigger and bigger and more and more glorious. "Your throne," says God the Father, "Will last forever and ever." And notice that God's not threatened by it, He was never threatened by Satan's rebellion but Satan said, "I will make myself like the most high, I'll set my throne above the kingdom of heaven," this kind of thing. Well, that's a rival throne, this is no rival throne. This is in Revelation 5:6, the “Lamb looking as if it had been slain standing in the center of the throne.” There is one throne with the trinity on it. I don't know how to picture that but, there, Jesus is standing in the center of the throne. That would be unmitigated gall if he didn't have the right to be there. So, his throne will last forever and ever and he says, “The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom”(Hebrews 1:8) or righteousness. Scepter is a symbol of authority that a king holds in his hand.

Joel

It's going to be a good kingdom. It's going to be…

Andy

Oh, righteous kingdom.

Joel

This is no totalitarian regime…

Andy

No.

Joel

This is a righteous, good kingdom.

Andy

Yeah. The symbol of Jesus's kingdom is righteousness and so he says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness."(Hebrews 1:9) That's the essential nature of Jesus. What you love and what you hate define you as a person and Jesus loves righteousness with every fiber of his being and he hates wickedness with every fiber of his being. And on that basis, God the Father, having searched his Son, he searches him and knows his son and says, "You are pure through and through and, on the basis of that, I will anoint you." That's the word for being a messiah, the Christ. “I will anoint you with the oil of gladness [or joy], beyond [he says] your companion is beyond every human being.”(Paraphrase of Hebrews 1:9) He is the greatest human being ever; he is human. He says, "I'm going to lift you up above all your fellow humans and I'm going to make you the Son of Man. I'm going to make you the radiant human to rule over all other humans because I know you and you love righteousness and hate wickedness."

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"What you love and what you hate define you as a person and Jesus loves righteousness with every fiber of his being and he hates wickedness with every fiber of his being."

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Joel

That's beautiful, I absolutely love it. Now, on verses 10, 11 and 12, we've already touched on a little bit on Christ's rule and creation, do you want to say anything more about that? He says…

Andy

Absolutely.

Joel

... “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hand.”(Hebrews 1:10) but then he also talks about the end of the age. “They will perish but you remain.”(Hebrews 1:11)

Andy

Yeah. Well, let's start right away in verse 10 with the little word “and” so we're going to link it back to the introduction in verse 8 of the previous, Psalm 45. This one here is Psalm 102:25-27 but, here, in verse 8, he introduces it of the Son, he says, so that's God, we're going to say the same thing here. And God says, what does he say, “You, Lord,” so he calls him Lord. And so, that's just the word for God that people use, that the Jews use, they called him Lord, the sovereign Lord. And so, God the Father does not hesitate to call him Lord. And he says, "You, Lord, laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning."(Hebrews 1:10) so, God the Father's saying this. Now, he knows very well that he also laid them- that the Father laid them through the Son. But he's saying, apart from the Son, he didn't lay any foundations. So, this earth that cannot be moved, the psalmist tells us that, “you've laid that foundation, it cannot be moved, it's solid.” God, Jesus, sorry, God the Son laid the foundation in the beginning. Not only that, but the heavens are the work of your hands. That brings us to Psalm 8 that, “When I consider the heavens the work of your fingers,”(Psalm 8:3) I think of the fingers of God. And so, that speaks of artisanship, craftsmanship, skill, like the fingers of a painter or a sculptor or a pianist, somebody who's doing a delicate, perfect, skillful work. Well, God the Son in this passage crafted the heavens, that includes all the stars. “The heavens are the work of your hands,”(Hebrews 1:10) speaking of Jesus. So, that just speaks of the detailed work that Jesus had in crafting the universe. Again, let's go back to our main point. Oh, Jewish professors of faith in Christ, don't turn your back on Jesus. You need to realize who he is, he laid the foundations of the earth and he crafted the stars. How can you turn your back on Jesus? That's what he's getting at here.

Joel

Yeah. I love here too how he talks about the wearing out a garment, like a robe, would roll them up. We see the majestic mountains, and I don't know what you think, when I think of them, I think of beauty but I also think of permanence. These things have been around a long time and it seems like they're going to be around a lot longer. And it's hard to think about the unseen. Faith is the assurance of things, hopefully, the conviction of things not seen and so, by faith, we see the invisible spiritual world. But this verse is telling us that the invisible throne is more permanent than the visible mountains.

Andy

Absolutely.

Joel

And that's incredible to me.

 Andy

It is incredible and it preceded it and it'll be here afterwards. So, here again, the greatness of Jesus. Keep that in mind, that's the theme, the superiority of Christ, the majesty of Christ. He is superior to the heavens and the earth. First of all, he made them and, second of all, he'll be there when they're gone. So, all of them are going to go away and that's vital to the argument of the book. The third part especially, the superior life that flows from it, life of faith, part of that is realizing everything around us is temporary. All of our money is temporary, our physical situations are temporary. These Hebrews were being pressed and persecuted, they were losing their possessions and the author's going to say, "It's okay, you have better and lasting possessions in the next world."

So, you have to remember that everything around us is temporary, it's all going to perish, it's all going to burn in the fire at the end of the world. So, Jesus is permanent, he's greater than the heavens and the earth because he made them and he'll be there after they're gone but, not only that, he will be the one to remove them. It's not like an accident, it's like, "Oh, they're gone, but I'm still here." No, he actually is going to roll them up like a garment; he's going to change them like a robe. It's like, "All right, we're done with that. We're going to bring in a new heaven and a new earth," so that's awesome.

Joel

Let's do one last verse. Well, there are two more verses but we've already hit verse 14. What about verse 13? It's another quote, he says, "To which of the angels has he ever said," here's the quote, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? (Hebrews 1:13)

Andy

Well, that's powerful. Basically, the idea here, and this is something that has frequently brought me to tears, it's a powerful idea and it has to do with who's saying this to whom. This is Psalm 110, messianic psalm, but it's God the Father saying this to God the Son, as we've been saying. And first of all, let's just set the angel aside, no angel ever heard these words. "Oh, angels sit at my right hand, I'm going to make all your enemies a footstool for my feet." He doesn't talk like that to angels. So, Jesus is greater than the angels because he hears these kinds of things said to him. But what's going on? I picture it this way that, when Jesus was dying, just about dead, and he looked around and saw a very scarce, tiny assembling of people who loved him and were standing loyally at the foot of his cross as he was dying, you had his mother, some of his mother's women friends and one disciple, John, and that's it. And it says in Isaiah 49, “It seems I've labored to no purpose; I've spent my strength in vain and for nothing,”(paraphrase of Isaiah 49:4) it seemed as though nothing had come of all of his labors. But then he said these words, "Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit."(Luke 23:46) And you could also say to some degree, “Father, into your hands, I commit my ministry, my work. I have done everything you commanded me to do even to the point of death on a cross. I poured out my life blood, I had my clothing confiscated and gambled in fulfillment of prophecy, I have given everything I have. Now, I've done everything you told me to do. It seems like it's amounted to nothing, I'm going to hand it to you, would you please do something with this?” And this is the Father's response. "Sit at my right hand and watch what I'll do with this. I will make all of your enemies a footstool for your feet, I'm going to either transform your enemies" ... Praise God for that because we were, at one time, enemies.

Joel

We're saved.

Andy

Praise God.

Joel

We're sons now, yeah.

Andy

We were, at one point, hostile and disobedient, deceived and enslaved, Titus says. Ephesians 2:3 says, that, “We were, by nature, objects of wrath.” Romans 5:10 says, “When we were still God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.” Well, there are other enemies that will never be reconciled, they will never believe, they will never submit and God the Father is guaranteeing the Son's victory over them. “Sit at my right hand and I will make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”(Hebrews 1:13)

So, in one sense, we are at his feet worshiping. In another sense, his enemies, the wicked, the reprobate are at his feet cringing and condemned but, either way, he's going to deal with all of Christ's enemies. So, this is the way I would put it: we can't measure the zeal the Father has to do something with what Jesus did. You can't measure it, it's hotter than the sun- his loyalty to his Son and the Spirit is sent out to do it. He sends forth the Holy Spirit of God to ensure that, in every generation, the elect are converted and come worshiping and the enemies are crushed and delivered to condemnation. Every generation, the Spirit does the work of the Father when he says, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”(Hebrews 1:13)

Now, one other thing to say is all of Christ's enemies, all of them are going to be defeated and we're told in 1 Corinthians 15:26, “The last enemy to be defeated will be death.” And so, when death finally is defeated at the resurrection, all of Christ's enemies will have been gathered into one place, the lake of fire, all of them, because death will be thrown in the lake of fire and Satan will be in the lake of fire and all the demons and all the wicked will be in the lake of fire. All of his enemies condemned and all of his former enemies who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit into, not just friends, but sons and daughters of the living God will be around the throne at his feet worshiping him. That's the end of all of this.

Joel

I can't wait and I am excited to see it play out in redemptive history. It's wonderful. 

Andy

It is. I guess we have one more verse, verse 14.

Joel

We do, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”(Hebrews 1:14)

Andy

Yeah. I think, as far as I know, I don't remember but I think the angels disappear from the book of Hebrews at this point and they're fine with that. I may be wrong, maybe another angel verse, I'm not sure, but-

Joel

It says the message delivered by angels. We're going to talk about the danger of drifting next week.

Andy

All right, yeah, there's angels.

Joel

Yeah, yeah, but then they're done, yeah.

Andy

But they're certainly not the focus; they're not the center of anything. But we should know this about them, angels are here to serve us. They're here to guarantee, working with the Holy Spirit, our safe passage through this wicked world into heaven. And it's hard to even imagine all the ways they protect us, all the ways they stand like a wall around us and protect us from demons, the different things they do to bring us the Word in some way. I don't know how angels bring the Word but they're messengers, their home base is to bring us messages.

And so, maybe the Holy Spirit, in some way, uses them, I don't really know or maybe that's just the Old Covenant and they don't do that anymore. But I know this, they still serve us and they minister to us and protect us and strengthen us in some way. Angels strengthened Jesus when he was tempted in the desert and they strengthened him in Gethsemane so they can bring strength. You see this actually, an angel strengthened Daniel when he was on the ground breathless at the angel's glory, absolutely breathless. And the angel touched him and said, "Peace! Be strong now; be strong.”(Daniel 10:19) and then strength entered into me," Daniel said, and he stood up.

And so, angels can bring us physical strength and emotional strength. So, angels are ministering spirits and they're sent to serve us who will inherit salvation. And so, we just should be thankful for the ministry of angels on our behalf.

Joel

Amen. Well, this was episode one of “Bible Study Questions in Hebrews.” Next week, we'll do episode 2, which is “The Danger of Drifting.” We'll go through Hebrews 2:1-4. This is the Two Journeys Podcast, thank you for listening and God bless you all.